Combat changes in v0.13

The combat system introduced in v0.12 was, overall, fairly well-received. However, there were a number of specific criticisms and areas for improvement identified by players. You can see me break down the reactions based on the feedback form in this post.

While combat isn't a huge part of the game overall, I do want to take some time to make it as good as it can be for its scope in this game. I don't want to spend dozens of hours on it, but I also think the overall feeling on the combat system is that it's worth improving.

Regeneration

Probably the most important change is that all healing options the player uses now have a chance to cause a new status effect called regeneration, which is what you probably think it is. The regeneration status causes Priscilla to continue healing a small amount of HP for a few rounds after she is initially healed. After the status is gained, it has a chance to end every round, and that chance increased for every round it doesn't end. It will, on average, last 1-3 rounds, and heal 10-20 HP per round.

Different healing effects have a different chance to proc this status. Stronger healing effects have a very high chance, for example amrita has an 85% base chance of causing regeneration. Weaker healing effects have a lower chance, for example, cum scooped off of the player's body has only a 20% base chance. This additional healing should allow players to do a little more than just chuck potions the entire time.

Potions at the Market

After completing a request, players will be able to buy potions from the marketplace. A selection of potions will be available, including two potions that can only be purchased and not crafted, which are actual healing and magic potions. This should help alleviate some of the grind for combat potions, and it should also give players some other stuff to spend money on. Note that not all the potions offered are combat-related, so this will have implications for other game systems, too.

New Traits for Combat

I've added a number of new traits intended exclusively to improve combat performance. I went back and forth on whether I wanted to add these because on one hand, combat is a small part of the game, but on the other, it is a good opportunity for progression, and the combat system totally lacks any progression other than just completing the tasks you need to complete. Adding traits basically means I have to add more combat opportunities to justify players purchasing these. But, I think optional combat-oriented requests or tasks is probably something I should add anyway. As long as they're optional, I don't think it's a big deal.

Anyway, there are two lines of traits, one for improving the "kick" action, and another for improving healing in general. An additional trait becomes available after getting "Self Defense 2" and "Heal Slut 2," called "Protecc" (I know it's an old meme, please don't cringe). 

The self defense traits improve the damage the kick does and the chance it will inflict the stun status. It also adds a small chance for the kick to "crit" and score higher than normal (but not crazy) damage. If you aren't familiar, the "stun" status reduces enemy defense by a lot, and can set Priscilla up to deal a lot of damage. The base kick has a 40% chance to cause stun, that chance goes up to 80% after all traits are purchased, which is quite a boost.

The heal slut set of traits improves healing in a few ways. First, it grants a flat (but randomized) bonus to all healing done by the player. It also increases the chance for all healing potions to proc the regeneration status, and this chance can (and will for a few potions) reach 100%. Finally, like with the kicking traits, this trait set adds (and improves) a chance to "critically heal" which is a small chance when using any potion to heal more than normal. The overall healing output for all these traits together is quite a major increase; if you find combat annoying and to involve too much healing, this trait set will help if the other changes to combat aren't enough for you.

The last trait, "Protecc" is a bit special. It provides a chance for the player character to deflect any attack on Priscilla. The base chance starts at 1% but increases as Priscilla's HP is reduced, reaching a maximum of 50%. Deflected attacks deal no damage and trigger no status effects, similar to attacks that miss. I considered adding this as a normal mechanic and making traits that improve it, but I ultimately went with this because it feels like a more powerful ability this way.

Combat Cheats

Patrons will now have a new "super kick" option that deals an absurd amount of damage, letting you one-shot any enemy to essentially skip combat if you don't like it. This is a cheat, so you'll need to turn cheats on in the settings menu to use the super kick. I considered just letting patrons more or less turn combat off via a setting, but this seems more fun to me and it was easier to program it this way.

Lust Indicators

I have not actually implemented this yet, so I'm not going to promise it will be in v0.13, but I do intend to add an indicator to show enemy lust levels. Lust is a scaling effect; the higher it is the more dramatic the effects, but there are two major break points. I will probably just create some sort of indicator somewhere that shows something like a heart that gets redder as lust goes up, then note clearly when it's maxed out completely. I would prefer not to use a bar because I think that might be too much information to track, but that may end up being simpler, so we'll see.

Like I said, this isn't in the game yet, so this is all theoretical right now.

Visual Design

No changes are coming to the overall visual design or to the clipart enemies in v0.13. I do intend to make some changes at some point, but not right now.

Overall Difficulty and Balance Adjustments

Enemies have been balanced a bit. In general, most enemies are about the same, but a few weaker enemies had attacks that could occasionally hit absurdly hard, so I nerfed some of these attacks a bit. Since enemies share attack abilities, this also indirectly nerfs some boss/elite enemy attacks too, but not to the same extent since their stats are higher. 

I also increased defense for most bosses across the board to make the fights last just a little longer. I'm thinking each fight should take one or two more rounds at most, so it's not a huge difference. Some of the boss enemies felt a little fragile to me, but I don't want these fights to stretch on and on either. With some of the attacks nerfed anyway, most bosses are slightly less deadly, so I don't think the slightly longer fights will represent a huge difference in the amount of potions you have to use or in the chance you'll end up losing any given fight.

As always, balance is a process, so I will continue to tweak things as we go along. I think combat in general errs on the side of being easy, and I intend to keep things that way.