Improving the sex scenes

Hey guys!  While our illustrator lovely Victoria is busy doing art work, I’m taking the opportunity to make improvements to future episodes.

– Warning, long post about design changes ahead –

One of the main things I want to make better is the game’s sex scenes.  A few people have pointed out that the build-up to the sex scenes is usually really hot, but the sex itself underwhelms.  Like in my real life 😭 (Just kidding, I’m brilliant at it.)

I think the main problems are that the heroine (called “Kate” internally, for convenience) is too passive, the scenes feel too scripted, and the NPC partners feel interchangeable.

Using an upcoming sex scene as a base, I tried redesigning it to fix these problems and make it hotter.  I started by adding in periodic initiative checks – like in tabletop RPG combat! – where each partner gets the opportunity to make a choice and nudge the scene in a new direction.

This created a branching structure where, at different points, Kate can either be bold and audacious and sexily drive the scene forward, or the NPC can take control.  

Both are sexy for different reasons, and it’s not quite as simple as just being “dominant” or “submissive”.  For instance, a BJ is a BJ, but it has a different vibe if (a) Kate sexily crawls down the bed to do it, or (b) the NPC pushes her head down because now he wants her to suck his cock. It's the vibe and the context that make it sexy, not so much the physical act itself.

Having these different options doesn’t require a lot more writing; in fact, in some ways it makes the writing easier.  The complicated part is organising the scene so all the options fit together:

Figure 1.  Simple choices get complex faster than you realise 🤪

I added in tracking for each partner’s Arousal meter (maxing it out causes orgasm).  Partners make Sexpertise skill checks to increase each other’s Arousal.  This is actually something I’ve tried to achieve in earlier sex scenes, but I could never make it feel right because of a design flaw.

The flaw
Here’s how I designed it originally.  Both partners make Sexpertise checks, leading to four possible outcomes:

The first problem is this caused a lot of writing. Each sex interaction needs four variations (and two of them each require a further four interactions, two of those requiring a further four interactions, etc).

It also created a very predictable (and unrealistic) rhythm and structure that you can probably recognise – sex begins, 50% of the time Kate orgasms straight away, and the male partner usually comes straight away after.  (This structure is one of the reasons the partners all feel interchangeable.)

The redesign 
🤔 I realised that, generally, sex scenes actually end with the male orgasm – Kate’s are kind of irrelevant?  (Not to her, but you know what I mean.)  By splitting apart the Sexpertise checks and doing them in a linear order, we create much more interesting and varied results:

In this example, Kate might end up being fucked in one, two or three positions.  Thorson might make her come once, twice, or not at all.  The scene could either be a quickie or a marathon, based on dice rolls and the level of Arousal each character started with.  It’s become much more dynamic and has broken out of the scripted, stilted structure imposed by the original design flaw.

It only gets more exciting when you consider (a) throwing in some initiative checks and (b) incorporating the new RPG stats into the scene.  Sexpertise checks are buffed (or debuffed) by each partner’s Arousal and Beauty scores.

This creates exciting potential dynamics for sex scenes, e.g. Arousal mismatches (Kate highly turned on but unsatisfied from a previous encounter, going into the next encounter with a hair trigger); Beauty mismatches (unattractive male NPCs finding it easy to come with Kate, hard to make her come); Arousal pre-buffs (Kate or other bargirls increasing client Arousal with stripping, flirting, girl/girl shows); individual NPC preferences (things that arouse one client not arousing another – clients of type Degrader prefer a different kind of dirty talk than clients of type Fantasist), etc.

Testing it out 
I’m very excited about this improvement, which I think will solve one of Female Agent’s big problems and make all the sex scenes hotter.  While V works on the next episode, I plan to make the scene design in Figure 1 above into a test scene in the game engine, and push it out as a beta.

Let’s time how long it takes and see if you guys think it’s an improvement – hopefully, your feedback could make it even better.

Okay, I’m gonna start now! Time me! 🦀❤️‍🔥