Today I want to talk to you about Story Events. The fact that the game will get a strong simulation approach doesn't mean that there won't be any more standard Choose Your Own Adventure stories. Story Events are stop points in the simulation that take you on one of these short stories.

These may take place on a specific day, be assigned a random date, or not even appear at all, depending of the game's circumstances. After all, a run in which you become the sworn ally of another Candidate for months may as well have its consequences in traditional narration.

On Story Events, most of the time you will have several choices and paths, as well as checks determined by your current skills, dice throws, or your relationships with other characters. This should refresh you any time you want to replay the game.

Here are a couple of screenshots from 2 of the 5 Story Events available in the last development build:

A few entries ago I posted a list of features that I wanted to get ready for the next public release. Most of them are ready, but I still have to take care of the update to the AI and making plenty of changes to the UI. This is the current state:

/// ENGINE AND SIMULATION ///
-Map/Compass system: given specific map data, characters and AI algorithms, the Player and NPC characters are able to navigate it and engage in different activities and events (Done)
-Day Cycle (Done)
-Short section in which Candidates assign time to work for the Temple (Done)
-Character avatars are shown on the relevant story passages (Done)

/// MAP ///
-Map of the Passion Temple (Done)
-Expansions displaying a few inner rooms (Done)

/// STORY AND GAME PACE ///
-Introducing Temple staff (Done)
-Player is taken to Simulation Cycle at the end of the Prologue (Done)

/// RELATIONSHIPS AND SEX ///
-Relations System (Done)
-Socialization System (Done)

-Socialization System - Specific topics (Done)
-Characters may initiate sex through the Socialization System (Done)

-Personal Room Menu, which allows the Player to visualize useful information, such as their relations with other characters (Done)

-Initial relationship values with other Candidates are modified depending on the Player's actions during their introductions (Done)

/// EVENTS ///
-Events Calendar: If certain conditions are met, Story Events in traditional Twine format take place (Done)
-Make a few Story Events (Done)
  - Stretching Help (Done)
  - Humming (Done)
  - Ethics of Power (Done)
  - Staying Hydrated (Done)
  - Friend Back at Home (Done)

/// LIBRARY /// ( All of this has been postponed to v0.2 )
-Write a few scrolls (Postponed)
-Player may search for scrolls in the library (Postponed)
-Player may read already found scrolls in their room (Postponed)

/// SUPPORTER REWARDS ///
-Patreon Reward: Quickstart Menu (Done, may see extra work)
-Patreon Reward: Cheat Menu (Done, may see extra work)

/// REBALANCE ///
-Proper balancing of Training Actions (Done)
-Proper balancing of Temple Jobs (Done)

/// SEX SCENES ///
-New sex actions (Done)
-New sex actions may be learnt at the library (Postponed)
-Candidates immediately learn new sex moves at the end of the Prologue. This will be removed at v0.2, as they will instead learn through specific means.

-Update sex scene AI

/// AI CHARACTERS ACTIONS UI COMPATIBILITY ///
-NPCs are able to initiate social interactions with the Player
-NPCs are able to invite the player to have sex

/// GRAND AI ///
-Characters have drives that influence their behavior (Initiated)
-Characters' AI are able to engage in the Socialization System
-Characters' AI are able to propose sex in the Socialization System
-Characters' AI uses drives and the character's situation to stablish priorities and give hierarchy to actions and strategies

/// UI ///
-Make an UI, in general?

And finally, I also bring the v0.0.8 changelog for the latest development build, which Patreon supporters may already play.

 Changelog from 0.0.7 to 0.0.8

Story Events

Added two new Story Events. There are now 5 Story Events, all of which you'll find from days 3 to 7. One of these contains several different Sex Scenes.

General new features

- It is now possible to bring specific topics up with other characters in the map. You can use this function to invite them to have sex.
- Your proposals may be rejected! Some variables that influence another character accepting to have sex with you are their mood, their relationship with you, or the current time - they will likely reject sex during training period.
- Current available proposals: Sex with shared control, sex with submissive player, sex with dominant player. Mood and relationships may affect the other characters' reactions in different ways. A character that shares a strong rivalry with you will absolutely loathe the idea of letting you take control in bed, but may be open to the idea of you offering control to them, as a way to put you in your place.

Relationships and Mood

- Characters now have a base mood. When a new day starts, their mood is restarted to their base mood. Every few minutes, each character's current mood will slowly gravitate towards their base mood.
- Claw starts the game with a highly angry base mood. Maaterasu starts the game with a highly bored base mood. This makes it much harder to develop relationships with them. In future versions of the game, these base moods may slowly turn neutral as the story advances.
- Social interactions now take 5 in-game minutes, which may be reduced in future builds.

Map

- Map has been slighty expanded to include the other Candidates' rooms, but these are only accessible if you get invited to have sex. Other characters do not yet have the capacity to do this.

Other

- Modified Sex Scene passages: Sex Scenes in which the Player isn't participating are now possible.
- Fuck Face, Ride Face sex actions implemented.
- RandomChoice AI behavior implemented, which will be used to spice up some scripted Sex Scenes.

Other +

- Added actions to rest around the map. - Characters in a map will now passively recover very small amounts of their bars each hour.
- Training during Training Period will now be severely more effective, as it's now stated in the Prologue.
- Training now consumes bar points (such as willpower and energy).
- Attempting to train despite not having the required bar points will have lessened effects.

These changes are part of a gradual plan that will create more interesting gameplay during Training and Socialization period at a later release. Right now, the only real consequence in-game is that you have to distribute your bar points carefully to do everything you want to during the day. Later on, the willpower and energy bars falling too low may actually put a character in danger. This might be used by any Candidate (PC or NPC) to punish the others.

Bug fixes and other issues

- Fixed a few Scene logic inconsistencies.
- Fixed a gap in the Scene code that created a risk of crash when canceling continued actions.
- Characters now choose their first action upon initialization of the map, rather than after the first player's action.
- NPCs would finish their current map action with full effects when entering SIS.
- Characters now immediately choose a new action after leaving SIS.
- Fixed bug that sometimes caused new events for the following day to be unproperly selected.
- Fixed bug that caused the right UI bar to not to properly show up at the start of a Story Event.
- Fixed a bug that caused relationship levels to change in unvalid ways.
- Fixed yet another bug that glitched the right UI bar upon loading the game.
- Nash's avatar should now properly appear during her story event.