The New and Improved Encounter System - Hex Devlog #1

Hex's sexual encounter system will be similar to Succubus Stories but with some major improvements. To make it easier to discuss, I will be comparing it to the encounter system in Succubus Stories and assume readers are familiar enough with this system to use it as a point of comparison. Let's first start with some stuff that isn't changing.

First, when you start an encounter, you will be locked into a type of sex, for example, a blowjob or vaginal sex. I did consider making it possible to transition between these types of encounters, but I ultimately felt that was too complex to code and for too little benefit.

Second, when you choose an action, a random bit of text will play describing your action, then the partner's action, then the crowd's action (assuming there is a crowd). If one or both parties orgasm, that will then also be described. This is very similar to how it works in Succubus Stories with randomly selected scene components being pulled from a playlist and used to describe each action for each party to keep things feeling somewhat fresh. The only difference is that this content is presented in more of a visual novel format compared to the massive text dumps of the previous game. Accordingly each description is shorter and punchier, but the idea is very similar.

Finally, you will unlock moves based on character progression, as with Succubus Stories, though perks have largely been removed/simplified. You will gain experience with each type of sex by simply engaging in encounters of that type, and that will unlock new moves for that encounter, as well as for other encounters occasionally.

This is where the similarities largely end. The actual mechanics of encounters in particular are quite different.

First, moves now come in different types (the names of these types are not final):

• Teasing (shown in pink): These moves have little effect on either character's pleasure, but instead add a stack of "teasing" on the partner, which appears as a small heart under the partner's pleasure meter. This effect serves as a multiplier on the next non-teasing action, and you can stack it up to three times. Using a non-teasing move removes one stack of teasing. If your partner orgasms, all teasing stacks will be cleared. If a teasing move causes an orgasm, your partner will have a special "ruined" orgasm, which the player will mock them lightly for.
• Service (shown in purple): These movies provide a decent amount of partner pleasure with low player pleasure, but receive a bonus that increases based on how high the player's current pleasure is.
• Selfish (shown in red): These moves provide a large amounts of player pleasure and barely any partner pleasure. These moves receive a bonus to the pleasure granted to the player based on how low the player's current pleasure is, so are good for "catching up."
• Normal (shown in black): Normal moves provide both characters a moderate to large amount of pleasure, but gain no other special bonuses.

There are also five sexual "styles" the player can have, and the player earns points toward these different styles based on their performance and behavior in a given encounter. These names are also non-final.

• Dominant: This style is associated with teasing and ruined orgasms.
• Slutty: This style is associated with teasing in order to maximize partner pleasure (meaning you tease the partner but avoid ruined orgasms).
• Submissive: This style is associated with maximizing partner pleasure and using service moves.
• Romantic: This style involves using normal moves and focusing on both parties getting lots of pleasure and a similar number of orgasms.
• Selfish: This style is focused on maximizing the player character's pleasure and using selfish moves.

The player character can advance each style individually, and gains bonus effects for doing so, and also gains a special, more powerful effect based on whatever their highest style is.

Style largely replaces and expands the performance rating system from Succubus Stories. It also combines some elements from the perk system of that game with this, allowing players to unlock special abilities and some new moves. I also plan to make this alter the kinds of things the player says during sex to reflect the kind of lover they are, but this is something I will probably do later.

Speaking of new moves, as mentioned above, many moves will be gained from linearly leveling up your skill in each type of sex. Instead of perks and traits, players will gain improved pleasure rates and new moves by simply leveling up their skill by having the related type of sex. Want to unlock blowjob moves or improve pleasure rates for those moves? Then simply give more BJs. There will be some crossover where skills in one type of sex unlock moves in another type, however.

Finally, Hex will be more focused and have fewer moves than Succubus Stories. Currently every encounter type is planned to have no more than 6 moves, with most having 5. Rather than expand the player's repertoire with new moves, I instead plan to add more encounter types for things as the game goes on. For example, instead of a gloryhole or tongue bath activity, it will be a special, limited encounter type unlocked by finding the appropriate place or completing the appropriate quest. There will still be activities and events, as well, since everything being done as encounters would be boring.

Perks and traits will probably not be in the game, though there will be a corruption element in which a character will get progressively sluttier as the game goes and this will effect scenes and CGs (though not for the player character herself, who will start out fairly slutty as you may have come to expect from me).

Some other changes:

Here's a list of some other changes that are too small or simple to require a write-up, but still worth mentioning.

• Skipping encounters has been removed in favor of a new system whereby once a partner cums at least one time, you can simply stop the encounter at any time after that. If you choose to keep going, the partner will eventually run out of energy and end up fully satisfied. You won't need to grind as many encounters for money and materials as in Succubus Stories. The penalties for stopping without fully satisfying your partner are that you receive less sex and style experience, and that you gain less MP from the encounter than you otherwise would.
• CGs are handled quite differently; instead of totally random CGs, each set of CGs has a few variants for things like starting up, orgasms, and (sometimes) certain moves. I plan to have 3-5 (or even more, maybe) of these sets for each encounter type eventually, but for now we're starting with one for each.
• Partners will be very different compared to Succubus Stories. For one, I'm trying to make them feel less random but also more different from each other. Partners now have stats such as "resistance" which reduces pleasure received , and "skill" which makes the partner deal more pleasure "damage" to the player across the board. So hopefully partners will feel different from each other without feeling totally random. One major change here is just making both the player and partner have less of an effect on themselves (outside "selfish" actions by the player) to help make things feel more consistent.
• Meila, the body's former spirit, will change her attitude over time as she becomes more comfortable with sex. Her reactions during encounters, including both what she says and does during scenes as well as her appearance in the actual CGs, will change as she gets more "corrupt."

Encounter Demo? Maybe?

So the last thing to mention it that I might create a playable encounter demo sometime in the next few weeks for patrons to try out, just to get a sense for the game and the changes here. I don't want to release too many little piecemeal one-system demos, but I do feel like it could be fun to show off, and good to get some feedback since it's so early it'll be easy to implement some drastic changes if there are some good ideas out there.

On the other hand, I'm also working on a vertical slice pre-alpha demo of the game that will show off sex encounters, combat, the basic gameplay loop, and even a tiny bit of story, so it may be smarter and more efficient to just wait for that. You guys can let me know what you think.