Hey guys, we’re not going to be releasing a patch this week, so I thought it would be a good time to touch base on where we’re at and let you know how things are cooking in the titty-kitchen.
First off, the return of the away team! Adjatha’s ISP has stopped yanking him around after spending 11 days banished to the no internet zone, and he’s already shared several lovely sketches with the devteam (and the public discord!) Jacques00 has also returned from vacation, though other commitments have kept him from fully dialing back into TiTS mode in a major way yet. Nonetheless, he’s already chipped into the bug pile with me and provided valuable feedback while I’ve been burrowed deep into TiTS’s guts, chewing on the wires – more on that later. Gedan is still tangled up in API-land. Some of the assumptions about the ease of conversion may have been overblown, and she’s having to work harder to square up the similar-yet-different Patreon data that we have access to. I’ll share more as soon as I have more to share.
My own personal progress this week has been… different than I expected. The original plan was to sort out Syri’s tentacle feeding scene (thanks for the NPC voting in the poll btw!) However I got quickly sidetracked adding an option to remove the tentacles for last Friday’s patch and trying to catch up on bug reports. Jacques00 and lowercase donkey had done a lot to keep the bug pile down to a reasonable minimum, but a substantial amount of reports had started to accumulate that required attention while Jacques00 was away. I waded in as best I could, and in true Fen fashion I wound up burrowing into a new rabbit hole that consumed me for the last couple days: racial transformation perks.
Those who have followed my games since the original CoC know that these have been a thorn in my side for a long time. At first, I wanted to reward transformations with new kinds of thematic attacks when appropriate – goring for minotaurs, constricting for nagas, and stinging for bee-folk, as examples. However, that wound up escalating with community submitted transformations like Kitsune that came with ever more abilities (3 spells), and resulted in players feeling like they needed to be deep in certain transformation paths to feel like they had the strength in combat to really win when they needed to. I desperately wanted to avoid this in TiTS.
One of the early decisions I made early on in TiTS was to avoid associating significant combat bonuses with specific transformations. I did want to allow appropriate perks for cosmetic options, sexual options, and convenience options. For example the equine TF having a “Mane” perk for hair (before hairStyles were even introduced), or perks like ‘Nuki Nuts that altered the function of sexual anatomy in interesting ways. Those kinds of perks wouldn’t compromise combat balance or make anyone feel like they had to transform a certain way, but would allow players who did transform in certain ways to have the game react and enhance the experience thematically for them. I also wanted to encourage irreversible perks that altered the lust portion of combat with their own sets of boons and penalties, like the Treatment. I don’t have any issues with how those have turned out, and in fact, I’d be jazzed to see more permanent character corruption opportunities find their way into the game.
But right now I’m not talking about the corruptive lust combat perks. I’m focusing on species-based power creep and inconsistent perk removal conditions.
As time went on, more and more transformations got added, many with their own perks, often with variable methods of removal (if there was a removal method at all) that made some transformations outright more desirable – or at least desirable for picking up a perk you would keep even if you transformed into something else. Some of these were my own fault, particularly the pheromone-related perk boosts that have built up over time. Others came from long time community authors, carved into transformations like cerespirin to outright add a pair of new abilities (though I did keep those nerfed fairly hard… I’d like to revisit those two perks later, as I still have not conceived of the best course with them yet.)
All this is to say that after tangling in some bug fixing, I decided to take a look at transformation-applied perks and give them a comprehensive going-over:
First off, let’s talk musk & pheromone perks. For a long while now, they’ve provided such a massive boost to tease effectiveness that they basically felt almost mandatory if you wanted to excel at that style of fighting, yet they were often only available from a limited selection of species-based transformations like Laquines, Wolves, or Lions. Given those perks are clearly meant to tie into having the body and genetics of those species, I’ve added restrictions that will cause them to disappear should you transform into a wildly different biology. That means “Alpha Scent” will go away if you aren’t very wolfy anymore, and “Musky Pheromones” will go away if you lose your fur or penis.
But do not fret!
The weight these perks placed on the balance scales is being reduced to make them feel less like “must haves” and more like a nice little bonus. Enemy lust defense is being decreased to increase the lust damage potential of all player characters, hopefully resulting in a similar damage ceiling with a higher damage floor that penalizes players less for not playing chimera-perk-collector. I may have even been a little too aggressive with the enemy nerf, so let me know if the enemies get a little too weak between the knees once next week’s patch hits.
Additionally, many other racial perks with obvious ties to alien genetics and body shape would stay no matter what you turned into. This is being corrected. Perks like “flexibility” will require you to maintain at least a sliver of cat-like DNA (or some battiness, if you got it from the bat transformations.) “Amazon Scent” will go away if your tone drops too low (below 50%). “Hollow Bones” won’t persist if you lose your avian anatomy and get too THICC for them to properly support you.
It’s not all bad though – “Black Latex” will be getting a bigger bonus to escaping grapples, since it’s one of those “permanent corruption-style transformation” and gives you an effective 10 point minimum lust penalty, and the gabilani cybernetics perk should actually be obtainable before you have implants now – and function properly to increase your maximum intelligence by a few points while you have implants. I know this one kind of violates my own “cosmetic racial perks shouldn’t give significant combat boosts” stance, buuuut… it’s basically the passive perk I wanted to give the Tech Specialist class before Savin argued against it, not wanting to feel bullied by his class into adopting the chrome. So for now… I’m gonna let it slide.
There is one more thing I want to take a crack at: adding small attribute bonuses and tweaks for different major body changes – things too small to be build-defining or necessary, but thematic little “nice to haves” that make transformations feel like they have a little more substance. For example, I’ve come up with some variant stat tweaks that tie in to the current range of skin types in a way that shouldn’t make any of them feel necessary but should provoke a sort of “oh, that’s a nice little appropriate change.” Part of the challenge of coming up with these was settling on attributes that felt natural and simple without getting over-complicated and trying to reflect every possible advantage and disadvantage. Let me know what you think about them:
- Regular Skin / Latex Skin / Goo Skin / Gel Skin / Plant Skin:
- 2 evasion
- Body Fur:
- 1 defense
- +2.5% resistance to freezing & electric damage.
- Body Scales / Body Chitin:
- 2 defense
- -2.5% resistance to cold damage. (vulnerability)
- Barkskin:
- 2 defense
- -2.5% resistance to fire damage. (vulnerability)
- Body Feathers:
- 1 evasion
- 1 defense
I have some other ideas kicking around too, but I’m only going to pursue them if I can ensure that I do it in a way that makes sense for the various options without tipping the scales too hard in any one direction. Things like clawed feet maybe increasing maximum reflexes by 1, or taurs having bonuses to avoid being tripped. I just have to make sure everybody has equally radical traits if I’m going to do it!
Anyway, that’s my ramble. I know some people might not enjoy some of the racial perks being able to be lost, but there is still some hope on that front. One of the folks on discord has come up with an idea to have Dr. Lasseu have an option to help lock in a racial perk in a more permanent way, and if it’s executed well enough, I’m not averse to bringing that into the game. It would actually be a nice bit of kit to add to his utility while reinforcing the heavy biomodification themes of the game itself.
See you next week,
Fen
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Well, let’s see how this turns out.
I’ve always loved stacking as many race perks as possible, so this would definitely change things a bit.
Maxing pheromones has almost always been my go-to.
And yeah it did beat a lot of enemies in 1-2 hits but was fun haha
Yes, it was kind of a fun in a “gotta catch ’em all” pokemon way, but it was really inconsistent about which you could keep and which would fade, so I’m trying to make things a bit more consistent.
And if we end up with a medical proceedure to lock in a perk forever, that’s just bonus depth of gameplay and reinforcement of the sci-fi transhumanist setting!
i am 100% down with the ability to lock in perks to not lose them. hell i would like it for specific cosmetic features
I gotta say I always like the idea of having Racial Perks. Especially in CoC 2 where it makes sense to have a natural ability because of the race that you currently are. For example, if you give your character’s Wing’s at the start of the game, they can’t use Flight in combat despite the fact that enemys can. (also your flying allies)
I know from a balance perspective it can be hard, but I feel like at this point there’s so much Variety in early CoC 2 I feel like it wouldn’t hurt to bring some into the fold. If anything it’s kind of silly from a gameplay perspective for some abilities to not be racial. Like if your a character who has Horn’s but can’t use some kind of Charge skill, or you have a long Tail but can’t Tail-whack.
My main character in game who I play often was someone I turned into a Dragon. And there Is a Dragon Breath Attack in the game…but it’s locked at level 10 and can only be gotten through complicated means. Just really gives you that “Feels wrong” sense from a Roleplay perspective.
IMO, having 1 more slot for a dedicated Racial power (or maybe 2, 1 passive and 1 active) would be a cool addition. As for TiT’s, yeah, all of this sounds like it would be a cool addition as well. I especially like the idea of certain body parts giving passives.
CoC2’s card-based ability system and party battling system lends itself better to that by migrating a significant part of combat power away from the player character and into the 2-3 other characters, so there’s less pressure to lock in the absolute most advantageous moves for your build via a certain TF (though that still exists, I’m sure).
A more free-form game like CoC1, which doesn’t have a class or a locked build tree, works better with that sort of thing, and TiTS is a little long in the tooth to try and cram something like that in (and also not overly penalize those who want to play plain humans!)
I have to say this news severely dampens my enthusiasm for playing the game until the new system is implemented and I know what is possible/what needs to be changed in my routing.
I do appreciate the heads up.
Evasion vs Defense
Evasion is essentially infinite Defense (though it does cap while Defense doesn’t).
Defense only applies to HP. Evasion also works with active Shields.
Yes though in early game, when damage is lower, a couple points of defense is actually a much bigger damage mitigation out of say, a 5-10 damage attack than a 2% dodge chance, so there’s ebbs and flows that will never match up 100%.
I have been wanting to advocate for this ever since I discovered this game years ago but didn’t want to cause a fuss. I think this is a bold step and while it may not be attractive to some, for what it’s worth, I am greatly looking forward to this. I was never really invested in the combat of this game, but I adored the roleplay and the story, and I think this will enrich the immersion immensely and make the changes our characters undergo feel even more impactful, and in a good way. I was always sorta keeping tabs on the development of this game, but I must say, this has reinvigorated my interest. Thank you so very much!
You’re removing the ability to have all those perks now if Steele’s doesn’t have some arbitrary racial score needed for them because some two-braincell fuckwit complained about it 10 bug reports ago.
Way to fucking go. You’ve taken something that gave players more accessibility and freedom, made it more restrictive for absolutely no good reason, and somehow managed to make the game less fun in the process.
If Fenoxo is talking about nerfing the lust difficulty of enemies then the one complaining did not properly prepare and having some perks that tip the scales to your favor is fine since Steele is supposely genetically engineered. The game is fine as is lust perk wise as getting a lust damage build is a bit of a risk in my experience as you have to work to counteract the negatives of getting it made. The game is fine as is, changing it because of someone who will not learn how to play punishes everyone, including you and your team. TiTs is perfectly fine as it currently is, changing it for a vocal individual via bug report will harm it.
Did you not read how he’s toying with the idea to make it so Dr. Lasseu can lock those perks in if the player wants? If anything, this will make the gameplay more in depth without removing anything, it’ll actually add more to the game.
Honestly, if you can learn to communicate your ideas without being needlessly antagonistic, you’ll find other parties will be more likely to give them serious consideration.
I wouldn’t consider feeling underpowered in lust combat without being forced to chain through 3-4 specific TFs as “more accessible” though.
I hope your day goes better and you’re able to move forward without carrying so much anger in your heart.
I didn’t respond to convince you of anything. I’m just telling you how it is.
Speed reader, must have looked over the Dr. Lasseu locking perks in though a procedure idea. In that case rendering certain lust perks as mentioned locked unto your species unless you are willing to give Lasseu a lot of money for locking in a perk does make sense.
Something was pointed out in more recent comments about the implementation and timing now in TiTs life. That these would be complex to implement given the stage of development over the years and that doing so would introduce a whole bunch of bugs, and that better development tools would be needed to touch upon where all these variables are, where new variables would be placed, and linking everything together.
I can see extreme issues and bugs developing as much of the code base would have to be touched and that would be months of work. Given that TiTs is kinda in the late to end of development in many regards, a code overhaul would wreck havoc.
Not meaning to rain on your parade but are you willing to put everything on hold to do want you are thinking of? Sounds like a scenario of a nice idea suddenly being thought of but its too late in the development cycle to put into practice.
I really enjoy what you and the development team you assembled put together making TiTs over the years, and I worry that the stress of doing an overhaul would severely impact you and the team negatively. I believe that many of the players of TiTs who over the years seen how taking on minor code overhauls and fixes seem to have affected your health at times, and do not want to see you have a “what have I done” moment that hurts you.
I’m always happy to endorse more features for Lessau. Out of the racial perks, I think the only one I would particularly miss being able to keep is Flexibility, simply because it unlocks the autofellatio sex scene without being comically hung.
Honestly I waffled hard on that one, but it really does seem like something cats get to lord over the rest of us.
I think just 1-2 cat parts should be enough to hold onto it though.
Makes me consider asking to add Flexibility to the yinglet transformation. I probably should have done that in the first version, but I wasn’t thinking in terms like that.
Flexibility had been easy to get, and hold onto.
But given how yinglets can contort themselves, Flexibility would make sense for them.
Best just wait and see what shakes out though…
Those scrungly little guys do seem a good fit for it.
Given that flexibility and range of movement can be trained irl, I’d argue it would make sense for cats and similarly flexible races to gain the perk as a static inherent bonus but allow it to be gained or maintained outside those races by other means like regular visits to our yoga instructors.
Cats can still lord over everyone else that they don’t have to work for it.
Also, I love the idea of being able to lock in perks, or even cosmetic features. The amount of time I have sank into rolling the dice with TF items to get the right change only to have it overwritten by the next TF. (Becoming a shiny smooth latex gryvain with cow horns is not the easiest thing to achieve.) It also plays into how Steele’s physiology reacts differently to TF items than most people because of the nanobots. One of the Docs could patch in instructions to ignore certain areas, even having different costs and factors for which doc you go to. Lessau being reliable but a little more pricey while you could try Badger for cheaper and roll the dice on if she takes advantage of you giving her open access to your genetics.
No kidding on being hard to get your character right. One of my go-tos is kitsune (full 9 tails, all of which have genitals because obviously), frostwyrm wings and eyes, overdose cat tongue (and maybe legs? I always have digitigrade legs and some of the animal feet are plantigrade for some reason) and various tweaks that may or may not involve tfs that do more than just change the color of certain body parts or give the right appearance perks. Even when I’m finally far enough in the game to have all the tfs needed it can still take half an hour or more save-loading to get everything just right…and then something with a mandatory tf comes along and screws it all up immediately (I reload obviously, but it’s still rude)
Everything you’re working on Fen sounds good to me. It will add more depth for players to have reasons for wanting to choose certain body parts and transformations. And if Dr. Lasseu is able to lock in perks, even if it’s only a set number of them for instance, then players shouldn’t actually lose anything gameplay wise. I can’t wait to see how all the new tweaks end up working out!
I hope this isn’t to strict, I feel that chimera builds are kinda the whole point of this game. I usually go for perks because of their effect on sex scenes not in combat. Focusing on the combat portion of character building instead of the customization of sexual options feels amiss in a porn game. My enthusiasm for the game would drop quite a lot if it got very restrictive on builds.
The intent here is for the game to feel less like you need to pick up certain TFs for combat, not more – while also making sure minor sexual perks are more tied to the identity that granted them.
We’ll see how they play out in practice. This whole thing should be more than proof that I’m open to tweaking things that I don’t think are working well enough.
So you’re making it so now that certain skin types will be better than others for combats, since some will feel like they will need to use those for combat?
Maybe a negative effect for stacking too many racial effects/perks would be a nice compromise.
For example: having musk and pheromones gives you 15 taint min and then adding myr venom makes it 30 then adding nuki-nuts makes it 50 each score just compounds it more adjust numbers how yous see fit.
Admittedly this isn’t a subject I’m super passionate about like others but I do like the small bonuses mentioned at the end.
Could a potential balance fix be something along the lines of racial transformation perks effecting those of the same/similar race being effected more/stronger? Using the “Alpha Scent” example this would hit npcs and in turn players if they are both within Laquines, Wolves, or Lions racial scores then they would a reptilian species?
” Perks like “flexibility” will require you to maintain at least a sliver of cat-like DNA”
Flexibility I only even pick up early game because it allows easier access to auto-fellatio. that’d stink
i collect musks even when not a tease build. there was something hot about our PC having a irresistible aroma.
If this has to be done, please create a cheat option that lets things remain as they are for perks. cause i really like perk hunting, you know?
“there was something hot about our PC having a irresistible aroma. ”
I agree, and one of the things I noticed while doing this is how we could use a pussy-centric one!
Also wait give flexibility to galotian too while you’re at it!
I’ve got no bones, I should be able to reach my own pelvis
I’m not sure about the feline flexibility perk, but I’m definitely gonna make sure goos are tagged as being able to autofellate right now.
Racial perks is good concept, but it’s bad choice. Why? first, ruining concept of freedom to build character by getting or stacking perks, some sort is fine but I see this as bad decision I mean I always play by stacking whole perks mostly. if you wanted special exclusive perk for race just because wanted new to combat things, and changing the freedom for stacking perks, well RIP for the game. Second, rather than exclusive perks total reworks not allowing stacking anymore you should add a new counting like “tainted” like “gen complexity” it will use to remember every single change of DNA for the character for example first born half dragon, second Amazon, the DNA still keep the base of dragon but just the body change to Amazon yet also perks are considered “mixing” you can still put your idea of “scale skin added 2 def or else” just like that. “Gen Complexity” will get you bonus for stack or combine but also give you but nerf for example on drag you get genetic resistance to fire Amazon give you strength you nerf them by having less stamina Regen to keep the complexity of gens, or else you can add new immersive stats like hunger and thirst, why them? those to will act to optimal condition for doing things while hunger or thirst you only get your 30% of your stats like str, dex etc and maybe at 0 you will be die, but before that body will try eat them self for nutrition (this also help you add other exclusive race stat or perks like bear need hibernate). Also “Complexity” worst nerf maybe you can add nerf for character need to consume huge amount of food and water to keep the genetics work properly for example normal complexity total eat 2x each day (you can add food based nutrition, more nutrition more expensive or eating products from self like fruit blossom while being flower, you can add new perks like sun nutrition), and on max complexity you need to eat 6x-10x nutrition needed or else, or you can add another stats like “sleep necessary” for example human will need at least 4 to 8 sleep, and tired debuff not only exist when your working out. Complexity most buff will be the ability to take whole perks in any race to be one character. Well this just my suggestion, but just don’t restrict now version ability to stack perks.
Cerespirin is my favourite transformative in the game and I usually acquire the Flower Power perk for narrative (aka kink) reasons even though it’s a terrible choice; you get a special ability with an effect so weak as to not be worth using, in exchange for a big minimum lust penalty. I feel it would work better as a pheromone increase instead of a special ability. It would fit thematically, and would give a rare pheromone option for characters who don’t want to have a dick or be treated.
I would really like it if alongside this rework, Fen did something about that perk. Just got rid of it entirely in exchange for a small passive buff to lust attacks, say.
Yeah I haven’t touched them yet because I haven’t settled on how I’d like to address them yet. They are very much on my radar.
I do think this makes for a better game, but I also enjoyed playing nightmare chimera engineer to stack as many effects as possible, so I will be sad to see that go.
Greetings! Racial perks same as bodyparts perks sounds really amazing. So, besides character’s stats could be something more, like elf could have some higher int affinity, sword/archery skill or such, dragon cann’t be so agile as for example elf or such, but could have other advantages. It is great for both, combat and non combat activities. So, pheromones, body coverings and other stuffs is really a good start for all this things!
Corruption-based perks, yes! A bummer to lose some, but nice that Black Latex is getting love. I would also vote for tentacle-wings getting additional use(so much potential, but then not really around much(unlike CoC post-combat options)??
Also.. per ‘corruption-based’ content, and I can’t be the only one to have hoped-for this in a patch(looking at Jasvalla here, nonesuch)- Building Ardia’s Harem. (So many potential patches/included NPCs!) You can currently ‘get’ cum from Ardia, and have in your inventory. So perhaps as a lust/combat-end, similar to ‘use-Throbb’, you can ‘use’-cum(similar to Jo-Jo or Emily in CoC) on a defeated target, as a way to corrupt/addict the target, slowly adding others to Ardia’s Harem after several exposures. (Recruits could be current Crew options, and/or other NPCs like Jasvalla, Luca, etc).
Adding new bodyparts that warrant scenes on their own is a big ask, and honestly no single author can adequately support all of them.
As the inventor of the cunttail modification all the way back on Mhenga, I try to add support to them for most projects that I touch when possible. Beyond that, I like to give support for centuars when it’s possible.
Nonesuch has been the main tentacle purveyor for a while and tends to support the tentacle cock & wing scenarios better than anyone else.
Submitting new scenes for existing NPCs to use body parts and configurations that they currently do not is a great way to help fill out the game.
Seems like some interesting changes.
Even so, i hope there’ll be an option to change between these reworked version and how they were (if possible of course).
I enjoy being a “chimera” and just having a bunch of perks, most of the time they were just for eye candy, nothing that broke the combat or whatever, like mentioned in the post.
Anyway, let’s wait and see when the patch drops.
IMHO, it seems to be a bit late in the lifecycle of the game to be making changes like this. I suspect they are going to touch a lot of the code, and introduce a lot of bugs, for relatively little gain at this point – unless you plan on continuing to develop the game for several more years.
And IF you are planning on several more years, I’d suggest spending your developer time on fixing your tooling to speed development: tools to edit text with the ability to switch in different parameters to check parser substitution, tools to make creating a combatant simpler, etc.
Anytime you take an old, large codebase and start making significant changes in the assumptions about the operation, you are asking for the whole Jenga pile to collapse.
Much like Tyranids or the insects of Starship Troopers, the bugs never stop!
While I really like the concept in paper, I think there is one major problem in it’s implementation: The disastrous balancing in the game, especially late-game and the lack of challenge.
Almost all abilities and perks in the game give you a net-positive trade-off, even if the game and narrative says otherwise. Racial perks would just add more modifiers that would make combat less interesting.
There needs to be a total rework of the combat system, in my opinion, if you want to add these perks, but I don’t know how you can do this change this late in development.
Decreasing enemy Lust Defense would also make Lust Weapons even more overpowered.
Increasing the weight of the non-pheromone parts of teases to make up for the pheromone damage loss would achieve the same result without making Lust Weapons even more powerful.
Are they really that overpowered late game? I hadn’t heard that sentiment in a while, and in fact I remembered hearing one of the new weapons with lust damage was underpowered from some folks.
Guess I’ll need to give them more of a try next playthrough.
Yes, they are. It gets more noticeable as levels increase.
Not only because players get skills as they level up that make weapons better (things like Rapid Fire, for example), but also because the line goes up faster for melee / ranged damage than for enemy Lust Defense.
They are also unaffected by many things that hinder teases, most notably the tease damage cap or the damage reduction from being underleveled.
this seems to be only racial perks and numbers, BUT.. i would love to see more -peace of mind- and -omega fever- interactions. although the latter is pretty complete combat wise, Sydian and milodan males arent the only ones with throbbing cocks who need special attention! and as for the former, its description in the codex implies a vunerability of being coaxed into peaceful surrenders.. i would love to see these two expanded! and i would hate to deepen your rabbit hole!
I love this so much. Need more scenes of completing Anal addiction
*Losing Alpha Musk cause not wolfie*
I could live with that.
*Losing Flexibility cause not kitty/batty*
Nooo! Mah perk!
lol In the real though, for those of us who don’t err to the cat or bat side, is it possible to temporarily gain them by continuing yoga with Paige? Like, it’s a perk you have to upkeep or it’s gone? That, or Lessau is about to become the riches Chimera known to man.
I’d be 100% amenable to putting this as some kind of yoga unlock. I think it might of even worked that way in CoC1?
Long time lurker here. Been enjoying these games since the original CoC. Haven’t played in a while but just wanted to say every time I come back to the blog that it’s cool to see how far things have come. Glad there’s still so much active development and new content.
This seems like a good time to ask, how do you actually get Dzaan transformations? I noticed it in the list of races that Steele can be considered, but I can’t actually find a transformative to become a Dzaan. Is it something that’s not actually in-game?
Afaik the only way to become a dzaan is through save editing.
Harru can sell Twilit after finishing her research. I THINK it’s post Dhaal finale.
i finally have my steele exactly as i want them to the point of making document to remake them if i make a new character so i would be a little sad if the changes messed with it but not enough to stop playing
would Frost Wyrm TF be able to give a boost to Psychic powers as I feel like that is the weakest classes. or I just haven’t learned how to best use it
Kineticist feels far and away like the most powerful and flexible class to me. It’s all about finding combinations of your abilities and making good use of your powers to mitigate incoming attacks and recover your energy and HP as needed.
This seems like a lot of work on a foundational system for being so late in development. Personally I’m on the side of the perk collectors as it fits nicely with the transhuman themes and Steele’s adapting nanobots. It kind of makes sense to me that going down routes leaves the pc with advantages even if they morph away from it.
Oh boo. I’ve got all the non-Treatment perks. I spent a very fun but also very long time carefully transforming myself to get all the perks. I even wrote a short guide on the forum about how to get all the perks and what order you should do it in for maximum efficiency. All that down the drain.
Ah well. What about Frostwyrms, my final form of choice? They are a powerful species, but have no perks. Also they have scales, but they’re far from vulnerable to cold. And are kineticists going to be rewarded for transforming to a naturally psionic species?
Going to throw crap at the Wall here.
Ausar: A perk that has to deal with scent, increases vulnerability to pheromones but increases melee, and ranged accuracy to a lesser extent when blinded. increase pheromone based lust damage when blinded.
Kaithrit: Applies a small bonus to certain tease attacks based on preferences and femineity/masculinity score, enhancing or reducing some attacks. Not something that can be straight out applied to every fight and even hinder in the wrong circumstances. Cats are also known for climbing, you could based it around that also.
Lizan/lizard/reptile: Increased melee dodge chance due to sensing body heat when blinded. increased dodge chance when blinded against heat/cold ranged attacks. OR increased move speed/reflexes after sex/combat. Reptiles take awhile to warm up.
Saurmorion: Cold reduces lust, heat increases it. increased defense and vulnerability to electricity due to metal scales.
Deer: Antler size/growth increases pheromones but also ramps up libido, and libido gains alongside rut proc chance.
Horse: Fatigue related, but also slows healing. OR maybe a bonus to any tfs related to dick size/growth so long as they have a horsecock? Literally hung as a horse….
Could also give a claws perk to some races that have ones that are sharp. Allowing unarmed PCs to switch damage types without changing base damage.
To be honest, while I kind of get where you’re coming from with this, this feels like a move that will cut off a decent chunk of the playerbase. What I’d do in this situation is split this into a sort of difficulty option you can select at game start.
Like one option is keep the racial perks you want. Another is allowing Dr. Lesseau to make specific Racial Perks permanent. And another is just ‘You want x or y racial perk? Actually be that race.’
This is just my take on the matter. I’m not one of the lead designers behind this game. I’m just a guy playing it on his browser for free.
I do like creating overpowered characters, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve broken Oblivion over my knee, but I can understand a game dev’s pov in that they don’t want x or y mechanic to be blatantly overpowered, otherwise it ruins the game.
Personally I would make the racial perk acquisition based on highest racial scores in fractions. Racial scores are different for each race, and different parts have different racial points if I remember correctly. So I would break that into fractions versing each other in a ratio/comparison. Let’s say you have 1/3s of a Kaithrits available points vs 3/4s an Ausars available points. You would get any perk related to being an Ausar, and not Kaithrit. if the scores are equal you get the perk of the race you were first. Unless you don’t have a specific body part (Nuki nuts/cumcascade), then it would default to the other until you get the required parts for the higher score.
To make things easier for tfing. I would introduce the ability to make targeted tfs for single body parts. Incredibly expensive, you need multiple samples of the item. Hell you could throw some corporate nonsense in there about copyrights to make it more expensive if you don’t go to the company that made it, (but you don’t need samples. It would be a high percentage increase. For non-manufactured tfs (zil), it would cause corruption and be more expensive. Illegal labs could also increase corruption gains but reduce cost.
If you want a racial perk made permanent… I would suggest only one for balancing, and maybe a permanent corruption increase. But you would have to be that race at that time. Maybe an option for more from an illegal lab/mad scientist? But I would make the penalties increasingly drastic to the point where it starts making combat unviable if you get more that three.
I think you would avoid most of the crap from the original CoC that way.
Correction, more that two made permanent plus the one you naturally have from your current race.
one thing that has always bugged me, which now sounds like it may be even worse now, is the frostwyrm transformation being vulnerable to cold. its a dragon from an ice planet so shouldnt it be adapted to the cold or at least somewhat resistant
I’m looking right now and not seeing cold vulnerability associated with that transformation?
What I think I’m going to do is give the transformation the “Icy Veins” perk that already exists for another TF.
That should make them immune to Uveto’s weather, which is very in character for the transformation not a combat buff.
I’m also tempted to give the perk a 5% freezing resistance debuff and 5% fire damage vulnerability… but that gets into a little bit too much of a combat tweak for my tastes… and there’s a lot more fire damage than freezing damage, so it would feel like a nerf to folks playing the class.
Good news, I just finished adding the “Icy Veins” perk to frostwyrm transformation. You’ll be able to pick it up next patch~
Gonna be honest, instead of racial perks/bonuses I’d lock the perks onto specific body part tags. A cat isn’t flexible because “it cat”. It’s because it has a weird spine (so add a tag like “elastic” or, if you wanna be more on-the-nose, “feline” to the tail and lock the trait onto that). Then just go off that. Slitted eyes? +night vision -ranged acc. Ungulate/frog eyes? +night vision -melee acc. Tail? +trip resist (small) +fatigue gain (small). taur? +trip resist (large) +fatigue gain (large). Nuki nuts? create a “tanuki” tag for balls that is mutually exclusive with “internal”. And on and on. You can just think of/look up the pros and cons of any body part of w/e you want and translate it into game stats, or make it up for the more fantastical creatures, then assign a tag that locks that bonus/perk to it.
That way, when you’re coding you don’t have to hard-lock perks when you update Lessau. You just need to have the game go “ok, this is the tag the perk is attached to. Let’s just super glue that tag on so it can’t ever get overridden”. You can essentially make it so the player can change their tail however they like cosmetically, but the bones in it are locked into feline ones to maintain flexibility.
Should’ve specified tail (short) and put a “tail (long and/or prehensile)” after with a medium on both traits.
Some thoughts that occurred after all this thinking on these and reading you all’s feedbacks:
2:42 PM]Fenoxo: All this thinking about racial TFs and perks and combat balance really does make me want to try something a little different if I ever make another CoC1-style freeform game again.
Like having all the TFs have a bunch of things to them, either damage type resists, specific bonuses to attacks, or new abilities, but have harder optional combats everywhere that basically REQUIRE you to shift to specific countering forms to deal with them.
Then make transformations advance the corruption progression so that it’s basically impossible to advance through the game without advancing the corruption meter and trying out different forms.
[2:43 PM]Fenoxo: Like going naga to shutdown CC the hyper-evasive mouseboss to the ground, or minotaur to exploit Isabella’s pheromone vulnerabilities, hellhound to tank a dragon’s fire breath, etc
[2:44 PM]Fenoxo: And gaining access to new TFs becomes like gearing up
To be honest, I don’t like this. I always like to stack perks not only for gameplay but also roleplaying. Pheromone musk, alpha scent, red myr venom. Hopefully Dr. Lessau option will be implemented.
Love your comment/update at the fun of treating TFs like gearing up. Very fun to think of finding a hard boss, and intentionally using evolution of ones transformations to go back a second time for actual victory, or to better tackle a very strong repeating threat that has to be faced more than once, or that keeps also getting stronger.