Course of Temptation Dev Diary #71

Hello friends! The weekend is nearly upon us, and it is time for another dev diary.

I've gotten some preliminary work done on Greek houses — some of the underlying code and data, and defining them as locations that you can walk around and do stuff in. In many ways, they need to replicate the functions of the residence hall, though actually living in one will be... let's call it a medium term goal.

Realistically, many campuses want freshmen to stay in the dorms for their first year, and it makes some sense to adhere to that in a simulationist way. But also realistically, many people who play this game don't play one character for a whole year, so I'm reluctant to outright gate off too much content until later years, since it means a lot of people won't see it. I'll have to give it some thought, and perhaps survey the community a bit.

I've also started on the March update this week. I'd like to deliver more of the monthly update up front in early access, rather than delivering a bunch of the new content and features in the week between early access and public release like I tended to do in the leadup to 0.6. I think you will like this better too, and for this month that just means starting on it a bit earlier. So that's what I've been doing!

A major goal for this update is to refresh and add to the basic event sets. The events you get while walking around, going to class, going on hangouts, and so on are some of the most frequently seen, and the majority of those events were written pre-release or in early updates. So I think it's time to add some fresh content to those.

A related goal, helped along by the new dialogue system, is to add a bit more nuance to romantic relationships.

Prior to the relationships update, NPC behavior was largely driven by the "desired relationship" algorithm. This algorithm looked at an NPC's inclinations and attitudes and basically determined whether their goal was to befriend you, hate you, date you, or fuck you. In this implementation, NPCs who were forward and confident were more likely to want a friends-with-benefits situation, while NPCs who were more kind or shy were more likely to want a romantic relationship. This assumption — that if you were on a date, you were with a less forward NPC — informed a lot of the writing around hangouts and other interactions at the time.

Since the relationships update, while the desired relationship is still a large factor, the system has also become more nuanced. It's now entirely possible to get a forward, even crude NPC into a romantic relationship with you. So, it's time to update some dialogue and events to reflect this, so that an NPC's behavior doesn't appear to abruptly change the moment you get into a romantic relationship with them. I know this is a particular bugbear for some (Hi Dunan!).

In addition to accounting for this, I'd like to account for the reality that not every partner is perfect. Getting your bully to agree to date you should not immediately lead to the ideal relationship. They should still be a little pushy and not always consider your feelings. In this fantasy world of ours, "I can fix him/her/them" will remain true, but it'll take a little more work than before. Depending on their inclinations, it'll require a higher Romance attitude before their "bad partner" tendencies fade away.

I'll be doing more of this to finish out the week, hitting several areas of the game. For the next week, I also want to do a little headliner feature for the March update. I have a few ideas, some kind of a mini-job or activity... like making videos for passive income, or a one-on-one cam chat site for fun. I'll think about it over the weekend, and feel free to offer your own suggestions as well!

After the March update is out, I'll have a solid chunk of time to sink into the Greek house update, where I expect I'll get well into defining the storyline structure and writing some specific events. But I'll tell you about that as it happens.

That's all I have for now. I very much appreciate your support as always, and I hope you have a good weekend!