I'm fine with bosses having nothing, although Nara being one is... unexpected. I figured she was a pre-dungeon... thing. Kind of like the slime you fight before the forest dungeon. Just a pre-dungeon enemy to make sure you're up to snuff.
To be fair the term boss is pretty vague in this game.
I'm too lazy to test it cause it's such a rarity, but if you lock Kunoichi into make-out and charm her after she hits you with a sleep move, then don't take an insomnia potion, you'll go through 5+ turns where she poses provocatively and you'll sleep. It's hilarious because there is no damage on both sides, and the Kunoichi won't try to break the stance even after the charm falls off.
I can confirm what the above person says. It's a thing with every enemy that has a sleep attack.
Basically your character falls asleep while holding the enemy in a stance.
While your character is sleeping the enemy tries to get out of the stance by struggling.
Because of the lvl//stat/build/charm it's basically impossible to ever escape the stance.
Imagine a scene where Sofia tries to escape kissing with you while you are sleeping for 5-10 turns (think about it, it's hilarious), basically nothing happens and it's a lot of skipping for the player to finally wake up.(this is how I cheesed Sofia because I was bored one time)
To fix this, turn sleep into a condition where you are more helpless.
Oh, well there's a few ways I can go about fixing that.
Giving them moves in said stance, own version of distract, allow them to ignore charm if you're asleep. there's options. Probably work on that more in v19 with the forest dungeon and combat stuff I want to mess around with.
This is exactly why distract is so good, and maybe a bit too good.
It might be, but I'm not going to nerf it until getting out of stances is a bit more reasonable. So same as above for when it'l happen.
As for power ups, I'm not a game designer but I would like to share my thoughts.
Power ups right now just "feel" wrong.
The most fun power ups are the offensive ones, so lets focus on that, and because playing defence is boring. You're here to fuck some monster girls and make them cum their brains out.
Imagine you using a power up and you feel great thinking "it's go time".
Then the enemy hits you with a sleep/restrain/stance leading to your power up being a waste because you have to struggle/use consumable/distract. Or the enemy struggles out of your stance, meaning you will have to use a turn of your power up to get back into the stance, sometimes failing.
I don't know how to fix this problem, perhaps introduce some fights that encourage the use of power ups via predictability?, but the only thing I can say is that power ups aren't satisfying to use and can be too easily punished by most monsters leading to a wasted turn and frustration.
That makes sense, basically the game punishes you to much for trying to use it currently. Kinda what I figured when it was brought up.
Also! The wording of power ups (and other skills in general) are extremely vague. You power up and increase your damage! But by how much? 20%? 50%? 100%? Do power ups stack? I honestly have no idea how good they are because I never use them. Maybe if the tooltip said 100% I'd be more impressed and use it more?
Skills in general could really use a good dose of clarity for damage they deal or how much of a buff you get. Probably going to try to work that into the v19 sofia/forest dungeon update as well.
Regarding power-ups:
You could do it as Monster Girl Quest has done it, during (negative) stances/struggles they do not lose a turn of their duration each turn.
That's not a bad idea, I'll write that down for future reference so I don't forget to properly think on it when implementing changes.
Regarding fetish moves:
Instead of barring players who do not have the required fetish threshold from content I prefer the following approach:
Fetish 0-2: Easy willpower check (or another check), option to succumb
Fetish 3-5: Very hard willpower check (or another check), option to succumb
Fetish 6+: Auto Lose
That way, you do not bypass content.
I'd say closer to this If i did something like that, though many cases where these checks come up can have alterations or variations. And adding in such checks can be a bit annoying, but will probably be worth the effort.
Many cases can be subjective depending on the opponent.
0-2 - ignore or embrace temptation
3-4 resist check option or embrace option
5-6 hard resist check option or embrace option and occasionally auto fail/lose
7-9 very hard check option, or embrace it option, and can be auto fail/lose
10 auto fail.
But at the same time I also kind of like the idea of people intentionally getting fetishes to get access to additional content, fits well with some of the thematic elements of the game. Like temptation.
Regarding mechanic of fetishes:
Instead of more damage (or in addition) for each fetish level you have a 10% risk to lose an additional spirit on orgasm.
That could separate the fetishes from sensitivity more.
Additional spirit loss is something I have played around with before, and is technically in the game if you go absurdly above your max arousal when you orgasm. So that's not to say it won't happen ever. Some combat effects could have triggers like this where the monster girl makes you cum an excessive amount due to a fetish.
I still like fetishes dealing extra damage, and the temptation elements. But the extra spirit loss could be excessive, and not always readable.
If spirit was counted in a more nebulous way, eg 100 instead of 1, it'd be a lot easier to draw on instead of potentially instantly destroying someone with this kind of random effect.
It actually used to be a larger number at one point, but people found it to be a bit hard to tell how close to 'death' they actually were.
But to be fair currently spirit is actually a pretty broken stat to sink points into right now. So who knows! Though, enemies who energy drain and heal from your orgasms can go to town on you if that's all you get.
Regarding balance:
Against many girls Anal Penetration is too good. They just stand there while you go to town with them.
Really? I thought i fixed it so they use there normal sex moves during anal? Did I miss anyone?
Though there are some who just flail and try to get out of the stance like Kyra.
Buffs all have the same issues.
They are not strong enough to warrant wasting a turn on.
They are based on getting x out of x turns, but restriction/need to heal etc will reduce their effectiveness dramatically and sometimes even render them entirely useless.
Without in-built mechanics like cooldowns etc, it's hard to say how you would even balance them if you buff them, since it would be easy to make them overpowered too.
Overtuning power up moves could also be an issue if I'm not careful, hopefully I can find a happy balance.
