Sex System Design

I mentioned in a previous dev log that the sex system of Lab Rats 2 was due for an overhaul and to look out for a post detailed exactly what that overhaul would include. Well, this is that post! One of the main features of v0.23 is going to be an updated sex system, and the changes are going to influence other aspects of the game.

The first step in fixing anything is identifying what's broken. For me, there are two major problems that stick out. First, the system fails to support pleasurable one-sided sex acts like blowjobs, handjobs, or fingering. If the "arousal" stat represents how close to orgasming you are, both of those should result in lopsided arousal gain. Second, only a girls orgasms are "good" by the rules of the game. In a game about corrupting others to pleasure you, the actual mechanics reward you for denying your character pleasure and giving it to others instead. There are some other minor issues, such as the current requirement to stop pleasuring a girl after you orgasm, that I hope to address as well.

My changes to the sex system tackle both of these problems with two major changes. First, to allow for one sided sex acts an "energy" stat will be introduced, replacing what is currently "stamina". Stamina was a small number (2 to 8) and limited how many times you could start having sex with a girl, but did nothing once the interaction had started. Energy will be a larger number (100 to 200), both the main character and girls will have it, and each round of sex will cost both parties energy depending on what position is picked. One sided positions will cost one person dramatically more than the other. Energy will come back a little bit each time chunk, and most of it will return at the end of the day. Resting, either at the office or at home, will restore more energy than working.

The introduction of energy will make room for sex acts like fingering, where the main character expends a lot of energy to give a girl a lot of arousal, but doesn't make blowjobs, hand jobs, etc. any more attractive for progressing the game. To fix that the way a girls stats are affected by sex, her orgasms, and your orgasms, will be changed in a few ways. First, girls will no longer receive a sluttiness boost just from having sex. Instead, those changes will only occur when one of you orgasms. If she orgasms from a position she thinks is slutty she will receive a moderate boost to sluttiness. If you orgasm from a position she thinks is slutty she will receive a moderate boost to obedience. Second, the main character climaxing will no longer be the end of an encounter with a girl. Instead, after you cum you will be limited to non-penetrative acts for a few rounds and take a large energy hit. Girls will no longer continue to climax after being brought to 100% arousal, instead they will drop down to some fraction of max arousal, making chain orgasms easier without being automatic in any position. In theory, you may be able to go multiple rounds with the same girl, all in one encounter. Changes to love will all be from dates and other interactions, sex may figure into those but it will not be the primary cause.

The introduction of energy specifically will have some knock on effects to the game. A time-limited resource will let me take some actions that previously advanced time and change them to an energy cost. Most of the chat actions will be making this change. They originally needed to be time gated to prevent the player from repeating them back-to-back or from feeling obligated to visit every single character and chat with them. These interactions can now use the same resource as sex, making energy the key resource used any time you are trying to change a girls stats. The recharge rate of energy will also give me some space to design upgrades and improvements to the office or your home that increase how much energy you recover.

These are the broad strokes of the overhaul the sex system is going to receive. I am currently working on the details, figuring out the proper relationship between energy spent, arousal gained, and stats changed. You can expect a future math filled post talking about that relationship!