The Princess Pilot or the Possessive Officer? (Dev rant: Mortis Invicta) 

I just finished refining my game design after discussing it with a few people, some former patrons, some current patrons, and all the heretic players who helped playtest and give feedback. Thank you guys, you are awesome!!

Dating Simulation
In Mortis Invicta, you're free to pursue anyone among the ship's crew. But for the next update, I want to finish Mydea's and Octavia's stories first so their contrasting personalities can really stand out. As for the Navigator, she'll be in the update after that.
As you already know, each character has their own orientation and preferences. This time, I want to share in more detail how I'll implement that in the game, along with a few new additions.

The Pilot likes to be pampered like a princess, while the Officer wants to be ordered around like a "slave." I'm sure those of you who played the demo already got that feeling. The Pilot is a bit rude and tends to do whatever she wants, while the Officer is strict about following regulations. She's an impulsive good girl who says "Yes, Sir" and wants to please her dominant.So, with that in mind, let's say you want to get closer to the Pilot and unlock lewd scenes with her. Don't get annoyed and start picking harsh dialogue options just because she's rude to you. She'll lose interest fast.

Mydea the Princess Pilot & Octavia the Faithful Servant
The same goes for the Officer. If you're too gentle with her or speak too politely, it won't get you anywhere. She'll think you're not assertive enough. And you won't be sharing a bed with her anytime soon. Hahaha...
Anyway, that's not all. I want to give the Pilot a non-monogamous mindset. So she doesn't want a relationship with just you. If you make her upset or don't visit her for a few days, she might start having sexy video calls with some unknown guy on Terra.

You'll get clues about the values she believes in if you spend enough time with her.

Meanwhile, the Officer is the loyal and patient type, but she's extremely possessive when it comes to you getting close to other women. So she'll give you plenty of freedom to do whatever is job-related. BUT, if your relationship with the Pilot gets too serious, she'll start getting suspicious and might lose interest in you. So, which one are you going to choose?

I deliberately want to keep these two characters simple and highly contrasting for Case File 1. If everything goes smoothly and the story turns out well, then in future Case Files, I want to create characters with much more complicated personalities and values.

Dialog Options & Story Branching

You can expect the story in this update to be linear for now. Once the linear version is finished, I'll start adding alternative story paths.

The flow will be roughly like this:

1. I'll present a story premise involving the character you chose when you go to visit them.

2. The player chooses a response that can:

• Increase relationship

• Decrease relationship

• Trigger a risky action

Each response option will give different points. Some will be very successful, some only moderately successful, and some may even give penalties if they fail.

1. If you earn enough positive points, you'll be able to proceed to the next scene. Over time, you'll eventually unlock romantic and lewd scenes.

2. If your points are high enough, you'll get the best ending scene. If they're really bad, you'll still get an ending scene... it just won't be a very exciting one.

So, good luck!

Risky Actions
I want to add an element of surprise to make things a bit more fun. So there will be actions with big rewards that don't always succeed. It depends on your current relationship value + LUCK! It's kind of like real life. You never really know what kind of mood your partner is in. So even if your relationship with her is already really good, and you finally work up the courage to hold her hand, she might still reject you because she happens to have a stomachache that day. Haha... I'm using this system to simulate those kinds of situations that just happen sometimes. Maybe you're just unlucky. So, it's a bit closer to reality.

The system works roughly like this. Some romantic actions have their own Difficulty values. The bolder or more intimate the action you choose, the higher its Difficulty.

When you choose a risky action, the game will run a hidden test in the background to determine whether it succeeds.

Here's how the calculation works:

Chance = Relationship - Difficulty

Example:

Relationship: 65

Action: Holding Hands (Difficulty 5) 

So:

65 - 5 = 60% Chance

This means you have a 60% chance of successfully performing that action.

After that, the game will roll a random number from 1 to 100.

If the result is ≤ 60, the action succeeds.

If the result is > 60, the action fails.

So the higher the relationship value you've built up through conversations or offering help, the higher your chance of success. BUT even if your relationship is high, nothing is ever 100% guaranteed. Sometimes the timing is perfect and everything goes smoothly. Other times you're just unlucky. On the other hand, if you decide to try something bold earlier than expected, there's still a chance it might work. A small chance, sure, but who knows? Maybe you'll get lucky.

Alright, that's all for now...

Coming Next: 

1. I'll post another update in the next few days about Inquisitor Trainer 1 once another artwork is finished. The plan is still to release a new build this month. I want to stay on schedule because the goal is to have the whole game finished by the end of the year. See you guys! 

2. I'll share more about the main story progress of Mortis Invicta after I update Inquisitor Trainer 1. I'll give you more spoilers about what happens when a creature from the Warp appears before you. I'm going to make its manifestation exciting. Exciting, but still lewd...

Disclaimer : I'll probably keep tweaking things here and there depending on how the story develops. Besides, I also have plans to create a lot more sexy servants who are even more loyal to the Inquisitor. So stay tuned, everyone!