E6 Dev Update #1

Thank you!!

Your skill point system is good and doesn’t need to change. People asking for more just want more skills faster than your plan allows and people saying what about modders, they were going to mod the game regardless of your system. The love and lust doe need some work, but you’re looking into already so I’ll leave that alone. For having multiple choices for a seen either away works mostly preference. Middle ground is to show a lock or something. The outline of a choice is there but you don’t know what the choice is

I really appreciate what you are doing with the skill system, and would strongly discourage you from making any big changes. I find it rewarding and successful at driving meaningful decision-making and encouraging replay. I think the real challenge is a design issue, because you have to carefully balance implementation of skills with their availability in the story in order to make them impactful. It's hard; I get it. What I believe would solve the underlying design challenge (which happens to be what a lot of these comments are actually poking at) is a method of illustrating game progress on a different axis than unlocked scenes or greyed-out dialogue choices. Something akin to achievements, but which would be a different persistent variable for each character that reveals how much of their content you have seen. It could be as simple as a percentage of the LI's total dialogue options that the player has read, with clues for remaining content (if you want to get fancy with it). This would add to replayability, make it clear when options haven't been discovered, and further justify the skill system. Bonus: it's a completely optional pursuit. Just a thought, but the basic method I'm using to overcome similar design hurdles in my work.

I honestly like the "greyed out convo options that aren’t possible" straight up being invisible. It's always a nice surprise to see new dialogue options pop up on new playthrough depending my skills. If you do add this (as in, make them visible but greyed out if you don't have the necessary skills), please make it optional or something. 😅 Same goes for naming saves, this generally is optional in these games, but I do think I've played game where it always asks, even if I don't want to name a save. I think Being A DIK does it well (it has like a text box in the bottom right corner that is empty and if you want to name your save, you just write the name there and then save, no pop ups or a setting needing to be turned on/off required). But I do think naming saves can be very useful, especially once Elmwood University is longer and has more options to explore.

Speaking as someone who really really loves this game, I would love an option to simply unlock all the skill points outright. While playing, I just feel like I am missing out on content/dialogue/options that the skills unlock. And unlocking them seems to go very slowly. It sort of creates an uncomfortable itch in my brain. AVNs don't really hold the same place or push the same buttons as traditional video games. I play Elmwood and love it because it has great characters/relationships (and hot girls!) For me its a novel with a few game elements, not the other way around. I really want to see all the content - all the different paths and what each path holds - but feeling like I have to play through something over and over and over in order to actually SEE all the content gets overwhelming and then I end up just sort of bailing. Even with all the skills unlocked there are still plenty of choices that you have to make and for a user like me, the pathing choices alone are actually more than enough. So, my suggestion would be to have an option to unlock all the skill points outright. If people want to have a more of a gamified experience, they leave that option turned off. But for users like me who are approaching it more like a novel, we have a way to not have to grind SO so hard in order to get to all the story/content. Elmwood is one of three AVNs I'm happy to pay for right now. I really like them all and check patreon almost daily for updates. One of them has, literally, zero choices. Its a completely linear storyline and I am actually fine with it. I would like more options on what to do in and how to finish the erotic scenes, but other than that, I kinda like just hoping in and going wherever the creator chooses to go with the story. (An added bonus to this approach is the story goes deeper, faster). The 2nd AVN lies somewhere in between that one and Elmwood. And Elmwood, by far, has the most "choose your adventure" elements of the three. Three styles, all different experiences. And all very enjoyable because of what they all DO have in common: Great Characters and Great Relationships (and hot girls! Specifically ONE or TWO girls that are GOATed above the others). Don't get me wrong, I like getting to make choices! I really do! And there are many times when I am singing Elmwood's praises because I have options to do what I want, try out different things, and shape the experience! But it CAN go too far. I'm just throwing my opinion out there so that you know that grind-based skill-trees and ironclad pathing isn't necessarily the key to everyone's heart. And it's def not the core reason for why I followed all the way to patreon and clicked the membership button. (Honestly, you have the Berry Twins to thank for that... mostly! They are TREMENDOUSLY good characters! Heheh!) But really, ALL the LIs are amazing! They really are! You've created amazing characters! And the high scores each of the girls consistently get in the polls reflects that. Gorgeous, interesting, well written characters is the key! And I really want to see all they have to offer! And... I get antsy if their content is gatekept is TOO strictly! There's a point of diminishing returns on gatekeeping. A little is great and absolutely necessary. Too much, though, starts to hurt the experience.

I didn't finish Ep 5 fast enough to respond to the survey, but one idea for the love/lust point rebalance is to add "breakpoints" or point totals that are required to do certain things. Like a certain number of love points to go on a date, or to start a relationship, or a certain number of lust points to engage in some fun. Then, as a player, I could know what I'm working toward. These breakpoints could be standardized, but also could be custom for each girl (for example, Chelsea could have lower lust breakpoints at parties). Again, the idea is to just give the player some visibility in what they're shooting for. Like is 35 a good number of love points? Right now it's hard to tell.

Personally, I would lean against having greyed-out conversation options. Apart from the fact that I agree that seeing unavailable options would be a little frustrating and maybe cause people to think they have selected the "wrong" perks, I also like the surprise of seeing different options appear in my different playthroughs. Also, I think showing any greyed-out conversation options for "Lie Detector" would give the game away for people who haven't even selected that perk! As for save files, I dislike being required to name every single save in other AVNs that have this. Not sure if you could make this optional if you wanted to implement it? Alternatively, I'm not sure if everyone is aware that you can already name each page of saves, which I find handy for creating saves for different routes - maybe there's a way to better call attention to this on the save screens?

In one of my early Tashley focus runs I got a "double egg yolk" in the adivination scenes, how can i get again? i've run multiple variables but nothing! u.u

Regarding skill points, I think that not giving people more just incentives them to mod them in themselves. At the very least a respec option would be nice in case they regret their skill choices; for example they feel investing in the final sex positions skill early was a waste.

The mini games rewards things wasn't entirely true in the last update. If you joined the card game tournament with Violet you got to help her deal with that "M'Lady" guy in the suit, which gives you a love point with her. That's an interaction you can't have if you're skipping mini games.

I think the save naming is important with your emphasis on choices and having different playthroughs to see different scenes and such.

Whatever gets more Taylor. I am good.

Gretchen work! Thank you for the imformation!!🤭🤭