Update 42: Sudden Orders

Hi!

This update had a few primary goals:

Address Feedback

Nearly two months ago, I asked you for feedback on where we’re at. We received a thousand surveys, and we’ve been doing our best go to through them, and proceeded to:

1 - Address it as best we can immediately in 42

2 - Write down potential plans and fixes to address issues you may have brought up.

3 - If neither of the above were immediately possible, we at least wrote down trends and concepts such as ‘’this feature is a problem because X’’, to be addressed with future design.

4 - Attempted to improve user confusion with certain areas of the game. A lot of the feedback related to things that were already possible - probably the most common one being the ability to disable edging, which used to be on a slider, but is now a simple toggle in the edging menu.

Update to the latest tools, improve workflows, get our shit together.

Look - full transparency, spending time on things like this usually isn’t super popular among customers. The first 3 years of this game’s development, the development cycle didn’t allow for the time needed. After we changed to a longer cycle, we decided to start by making some huge changes (39, 40, and 41) which had huge risks of breaking in various ways (and they did, and we had to take the time to fix that).

Now that we’ve completed the huge tasks relating to reworking how the core of the game works, we were able to take a step back and take the time to do this.

We updated from Unity 2019LTS to Unity 2022LTS, which has been a great boon both to error-fixing and general usability. We improved most of our workflows and methodology, and are generally far better organized and efficient now. We were also lucky to have external help with this, as upgrading unity 3 LTS versions is no joke.

The better workflow has been a great help after what has been a fairly challenging year in terms of bugs and complex work - After the last 3 versions, we were definitely closer to burnout than we should have been, and now things are sailing far more smoothly.

Elaborate on the work done over the last 3 updates.

The last 2 points may not apply to everyone, but this one will.

While the last 3 updates have been about reworking the core of how tasks function, this one is about improving what we made. We added several systems that should make each task more compelling, more varied, while also acknowledging the feedback that tasks can already get too complex for some - we want to add variety and depth without having her asking too much from you at the same time. It’ll take some tweaking as usual, so give us some feedback on the new flow!

42 Release Patch Notes

42Release2 (New)

Fixed some edge generation issues.
Edge generation now has a time fallback, if it takes too long due to your settings/hardware (over 10s) it will start giving you default instructions, getting stricter and stricter.
Fixed ASMR not playing (again)
Removed a menu button that was no longer necessary.
Task rate balance changes & RNG mitigation.
Fixes for ''Use interaction as reward'' giving too many different tasks in a short amount of time.
Fixed the clear contract button requiring having a save string in the clipboard.
Fixed the clear contract button not clearing some settings.
Rhythm audio delay adjustment now also affects mini-metronome ticks.
Added ''Standing with your ass out'' position.
Fix for urge icons going off-screen on some mobile devices.

42Release3 (New)

Fixed Oops keybind not working right during energy drain.
Fixed the Edge keybind skipping rhythm edging.
Typo fixes.
Fixes for edge as punishment.
Adjustments to the collider to disable the circle menu.
Fixed mini-tasks not properly checking for touchless edging.
Added ''Nipple Stimulators'' toy.
Fixed a bug preventing certain rhythms from not being able to be disabled.
Fixed a bug with session time hard cap that could cause no duration sessions.
Fixed some toggle menu parts appearing when they shouldn't.

Features

Task Improvements

Added Mini-Tasks.
Mini-tasks are short, sudden, and relevant instructions that can be given to you during both timed and edge tasks.
Mini-tasks can come in 3 forms, Metronome, Counted, and Edge.
- Metronome is a short metronome-based instruction segment using a new UI element.
- Counted is a short, low count, timed counted instruction. For example, ‘’stroke 20 times in the next 12 seconds’’.
- Edge is a simple generic edge instruction that can be given at these times. She will only give you this instruction when your arousal is maxed and the task already involves pleasure, meaning that you can be expected to do it relatively quickly.

Dev Note: We can’t wait to see how many NNNs are failed by a mini-metronome after an edge. Good luck in november.

Added Side-Tasks.
Side tasks are simple, no-layer variants of a list of easy to complete interactions such as penis stimulation, clit stimulation, CBT, etc. Anything that doesn’t require set-up, and can generally be completed at the same time as other tasks.
Side-tasks can replace your primary instructions during a task or a mini-task. For example, you might be in the middle of an anal or pain task, and suddenly be told to stroke 20 times in the next 10 seconds.
The rate of these is limited, so that each full task doesn’t become too random and themed segments feel like they’re appropriately focused.

Dev Note: The goals here are to both maintain arousal more consistently throughout non-stimulating tasks, and introduce simple variety into each longer task.

Added Orders
Orders are a new list of short, easy to perform tasks or statuses that can be given to you throughout other tasks. Similar to urges, but more direct, and replacing your current prompt.
The additions include:
Drool, Hold Breath, Kegels, Eye Contact, Bark, Meow, Oink, Beg, Moan, Thank, Apologize, Whimper, Ahegao.

For example, if enabled, you may be in the middle of a stroking task, and suddenly be ordered to hold your breath or bark. This is framed differently from urges, which are generally self-enabled. It will also not require any input on your part, and is assumed to be performed unless disobeyed.

Dev Note: We’re hoping to address both a lot of problems with urges, but also a lot of problems with things like breath-play here. Framing matters, and urges missed the target for some who prefer to *only* be specifically told what to do. It’s also much easier for us to add these, so feel free to suggest ideas!

She will now randomly pause during timed edges to throw you off. This will increase the timer appropriately for balance reasons.

‘’Edge in exactly’’ prompts can now end in pauses or mini-tasks, meaning you can be brought close to the edge, then told to completely stop when you were expecting to keep going. Or told to keep doing the instruction regardless…

Timed tasks now show their timer far less frequently, unless they are short.
Punishment timed tasks now have a chance to be doubled in length, with a displayed timer and no task switches.
All other timed tasks now have a chance to be halved in length, with a displayed timer and no task switches.

Dev Note: The reasoning here is that timers are only especially compelling in two situations - when they’re almost done, or when they scare you. Timers still have a chance to be shown to you when either of those cases would happen, but in general, with the length of tasks, we ideally don’t want sessions to feel like a series of long timers - we want sessions to feel like a series of themed tasks with built-in variety and change.

There are two new types of ''switching categories'', one where the task will change and will alternate between pauses and tasks, and one where the task will be static and alternate between pauses and a single task.

Dev Note: Based on feedback, this is effectively trying to emulate the old RLGL behavior more closely.

Implemented in-task scene switches during timed tasks. This can happen as a replacement for task switches.

Dev Note: This should somewhat improve the situation of getting bored of the same static view during a task. In the future, when we expand on animations, having this in place should mean a much more compelling experience during each longer task.

Positioning improvements

Dev Note: We’re hoping this is the final state of the positioning system now. Ideally once in a while when we’re satisfied with systems, we want to focus on elaborating on their content widely as we have here.

We expanded the list of different positions very significantly, both simple and complex, some requiring furniture and some not.
Positions can now be marked as rewards or punishments. For example, you can set simple and easy positions to reward, while complex and uncomfortable ones can be punishments.
Position-giving no longer requires a scene switch, overall smoothing the flow of the game when they’re enabled.

Urge & Short-Term Statuses Improvements

Dev Note: There was a lot of feedback about urges. Some of it is addressed in the Orders section of Task Improvements, but there were other areas for improvement.

Urges now stay on screen for significantly less time.
Urges giving short term statuses now make icons appear. This includes Hold Breath, Eye Contact, Drool, and Kegels. These icons have multiple functionalities, between timers, the ability to disobey/fail, and for kegels even giving you instructions to flex and relax over a period of time.

Content

Dev Note: Most of these are feedback-driven from the survey!

Added special edging segments to ending teasing.
Split diaper interactions from ABDL
Added bonds for Locktober & No Nut November.
Added variants on edging that do not repeat or ride - This is to provide more noticeable variety and reduce predictability.
Added new denial strings based on differing conditions like chastity.
Added ''Hidden Stakes'' toggle, hiding the stakes of your current session, but giving them to you if failed.
Added ''Volatile'' toggle - this causes your succubus to randomly change moods very frequently.
Added ''One Toy Name Per Session'' toggle.
Added ''No Latex'' toggle.
Added the ''Limited Safe Word'' toggle. This allows you to use the safe word once, and then further uses will instead immediately end the session.
Added ''Beginner CEI'' toggle. This makes CEI much much easier, with very minor instructions.
Added ''Random Strap On'' toggle (randomly will and will not have a strap on)
Added ''Single Application Status'' subtoggle. This allows you to set a status to only be applied once, and never removed (for example, plugs).
Added ''Disable Edging'' due to user confusion with the edging difficulty slider.
Added ''Inverted Buttons toggle.'' This swaps the positioning of negative and positive buttons.
Added ''Simple Ending Edging'' toggle. This makes ending edging into generic prompts.
Added Fisting to fingering interactions
Disabled high count counted tasks. We've pretty consistently seen feedback that these are no longer up to par to today's VS standards, and a better form of them has been implemented through mini-tasks.

Balance

Gooning now significantly increases the chance of worship scenes instead of guaranteeing them.
Reduced the chance she requests a new habit.
Prejac and Gooning are now compatible with Rhythm, Roleplay, and Positioning events.
Increased overall chance for begging to succeed.

Polish & Misc

Removed the text splitter graphical bar due to minitask additions. Heartbeats are now located on the bottom circle button.
Lengthened the duration of arousal popups.
Reworded some strings on the main menu to clarify how favor and devotion works.

Bugfixes

Due to the unity update, we fixed about minor 1800 set-up errors in our code that could have been causing various bugs.
Fixed a bug with Brown/blonde hair request.
Fixed some checks for Independent in the intro.
Added some missing skips for edge ride difficulty 0.
You will no longer get the session event to count edges during roleplay events as they have edges that are difficult to track.
Disabled safeword button during the intro and quickies as it will not work properly during those segments.
Added skip for message to take off chastity device if the status is set to permanent.
Added keybinds to Check In buttons
Fixed a bug with Punishment Commandments
Fixed bugs with toy renaming.
Check in should no longer immediately appear before the ending.
Favorite outfit can no longer be a consequence if there are no outfits favorited.
Layers should now appropriately check for task archetype.