Lab Rats has a Serum Problem
There's a problem with how the different levels of Serum are handled in the game right now, and it's time to tackle them and fix them up for v0.4.
Right now, the only serum worth using is red. It gives the largest temporary boost, and because events only happen once getting the largest boost means the most influence over time. So the optimal strategy is to wait a bunch of weeks until you have the cash to make a lot of red serum, then use only those for the rest of the game.
In v0.4 I want to change that, and make all three levels of serum useful throughout the game. The inclusion of a Resistance stat and ability to replay scenes now gives me the ability to vary exactly what each serum does, to provide an interesting trade.
Here's how the system will work in v0.4. The blue serum remains unchanged, and is considered the "default" one in terms of effect. Red and Purple serum are both now roughly as difficult to obtain the recipe to. Red serum gives a temporary boost to influence for a scene (although less than it currently gives in v0.3.1), but also carries with it an increased Resistance penalty. Purple serum carries a influence penalty, but reduces the Resistance a girl gains after a repeated scene.
That means an ideal run through Lab Rats will require all three levels of serum at different levels of resistance. At first, the red will result in the largest influence gain. After that, blue will be a good middle ground while Resistance gain is low. Finally, if you still need more influence out of a Major scene purple will keep Resistance increase to a minimum, at the cost of less influence.
That's the plan at least. We'll have to see how it works out when v0.4 comes out.
Comments (12)
Yeah I would say red should be stronger IE twice as strong as blue and purple would be even stronger than red.
Make Red stronger OR longer ie Blue takes one step smuttier for basic event, Purple can take you 2 steps for basic, or 1 step for extra content, Red can take you 3 steps for basic or 1 step for extra-extra content. Resistance based on steps taken. - Also, would like to se time done differently, I always appreciate time management in games, but I am a bit of a micro-manager.
Make Red stronger OR longer, ie
Make Red stronger OR longer, ie
is there a way where you could "lock a girl up"? What I mean by that is, could you beef up a girls resistance so much that you couldn't influence her anymore? Hope not. Keep up the great work.
Currently Resistance caps at 100, which corresponds to a 100% decrease in Influence gain. It would be possible to get a girl up that high a few times, burn all the Resistance Reduction available from minor scenes, then raise their Resistance up to 100 again. That seems like a pretty extreme case of not understanding how the gameplay works though, and in all cases Resistance drops at a rate of 1 per day, so some amount of forward progress would still be possible.
Finally been waiting since I discovered this for this kind of update, great work if I didn't just start an insane savings plan for the next few months to hit new personal goal I would chip in, but cash is so tight I canceled netflix to hit my deadline.
You could also create specific events for each thing, such as blue can be used in water, while red used in food. This can allow you to restrict red until resistance/lust of certain characters is at a right time to unlock the advanced drug. Depending on where you want to go with it, chemicals can create specific fetish situations as well that could be it's own drug if people don't want to see those scenes.
I think the only way to make it worthwhile without complicating the gameplay too much is by making each serum good only for specific scenes, and thus forcing the player to use purple or red serums to advance in the game... Otherwise I can just use blue serums like Moon said. On that note, (and I know that the game is not done yet, and it will probably change, I just feel like I should point it out) It might be cool to add more opportunities to use the serums in general. After using a serum once in a specific event (like the movie watching, or the drinks for the lab) I couldn't use a serum again in the same event, so more events might be useful for that. Also I hope that adding characters comments for when they are slowly degrading in their moral ladder, like having "Mom" throw a comment about how the fact that she is selling herself for the son's money and say stuff along the lines of "I hope you don't think any less of me." or "Please keep this a secret between us." when they are chatting on different occasions and the such.
I partially agree with moon man though they would have to be given at the same time.
personally i think the blue should be increased a little bit making it just a little stronger. Also with purple and red ingredients I think the price should be dropped a little or you get a bit more money during the week either or.
Sounds good, I really like that the only occur once thing is being changed.