by TuathEicse » 19 Aug 2015, 18:05
I was turning over the concept of a new CTI format and teaseviewers in general and I had some ideas.
CTI as a system has been evolving as people make cards, with new concepts being introduced through sets or supplements and adopted on a wide scale. Any good new format will take these ideas and bake them in while affording card makers new tools to play with. I've seen a lot of people lament that a lot of 'low-hanging fruit' is gone with the variables available in the original system. Honestly, that may be a big part of why the old community died. There just wasn't much else to do with Classic CTI cards without making players memorize a lot of complicated shit.
So far you've been talking about streamlining and improving the experience for players, and that's good. Getting rid of cards that negate later cards is great. Preventing the system from drawing irrelevant cards is great. But you have an excellent opportunity to use things like card probabilities to enhance the core mechanics.
Adding choices to cards is obvious, and it's already been suggested, but I'll throw in my own hat as well. Letting cards have buttons to choose one option or the other is going to give you an enormous amount of new possibilities.
One thing has come up repeatedly, and crafters were obviously playing with this to add mechanical complexity: In-game currencies. Trick or Treat used a positive currency and a negative currency. Stamina uses tokens. Bar Scenario plays with using drinks as a currency. Punishments, which you're explicitly incorporating, are a non-currency resource but they come from a very similar line of thinking.
I suggest adding currencies that cards can access. Nice and Rough points (blue and red), which would be commonly used. Then Favors and Penalties (gold and black), which would be less common.
Nice and Rough points would feed into an overall Mood - Nice points move Mistress toward the Nice end of the spectrum, Rough points move her toward the Rough end of the spectrum. This is an idea that a lot of cards play with, usually by implying that the Mistress switches moods with each Nice or Rough Mistress cards. Tracking a Mood would give you more granularity, and it would give each tease a very organic sort of ebb and flow. This would also give a real sense of personality - implying that there's an actual simulated character controlling events.
A Rougher Mood should increase the probability of drawing Rough cards (Rough Mistress and Humiliation), and increase the probability of moving the stroke rate out of the 'comfortable range'. Restraint cards (Chastity Belt and Bondage) could be made more severe by a Rough Mood.
A Nicer Mood should have the opposite effect. Higher probability of Nice cards (Nice Mistress), higher probability to move the stroke rate towards the 'comfortable range', less severe Restraint cards.
Favors would really only be for crafters to use, although they would allow crossover between different set mechanics. Trick or Treat and Stamina are sets that would use favors now. Trick or Treat would offer choices with each card, one option granting a favor and one option removing a favor or granting a penalty. Things like CtC cards could then check the number of favors or check (Favors - Penalties). The Stamina set shows that there should also probably be an option to grant long-term favors/penalties to an account rather than just within the tease.
Penalties are mostly the same, something for crafters to use. However, I would suggest also using them for failed instructions/edges/etc. Give the player a button to manually add a penalty. Punishments should each have a penalty cost. At the end of the tease, draw Punishments until all the penalties have been spent.
Given this system, I would suggest the following card types:
NICE: Replaces Nice Mistress. More common with Nice Mood, less common with Rough Mood. Some Nice cards require the player to do something or lose Nice points.
ROUGH: Replaces Rough Mistress and Humiliation. More common with Rough Mood, less common with Nice Mood. Some Rough cards allow the player to do something and remove Rough points.
RESTRAINT: Replaces Bondage, Chastity Belt, and Key. More severe with Rough Mood, less severe with Nice Mood.
MOOD: Grants Nice/Rough Mood points. May have other effects. Some Mood cards allow the player to choose between a gentle option that grants Rough points or a harsh option that grants Nice points.
CHANCE: Replaces Chance to Cum. Affected by Mood and possibly Favors/Penalties.
PUNISHMENT: Replaces the current ad-hoc Punishment cards, which are mostly Rough Mistress or Humiliation. Each has a Penalty cost. Punishment cards are drawn after the tease until all Penalties are spent.
SPECIAL: There will probably still need to be a Special category for cards that change the rules or simply don't fit the existing paradigm.
I would also suggest the following additions to the UI:
Stroke tab: Always active. Contains stroke rate, method, and position. Rate works like it always has. Method and position are just strings that cards can add. When a card adds a method or position, it overrides the existing method or position.
Chance to Cum tab: Pops up if a card prompts it. Contains a slide counter and conditions. The slide counter starts at some number given by the card and counts down each slide until 0, when the tab disappears again. 'Conditions' is just a text area that can be provided by the card. If a card adds a new Chance while one is active, the new Chance overrides the old Chance. The player should be able to manually close Chance tabs.
Chastity tab: Pops up if a card prompts it. Just like the Chance to Cum tab, contains a slide counter and conditions. Overriden by new Chastity tabs. The player should be able to manually close Chastity tabs, and some Restraint cards should end Chastity or offer the option to end Chastity.
Sorry if this comes across as just a gigantic wishlist, but I'm really excited to see what you're doing here. Custom Tease Instructor has always fascinated me from a game-design standpoint, and I wanted to help contribute to the next phase of development.
I was turning over the concept of a new CTI format and teaseviewers in general and I had some ideas.
CTI as a system has been evolving as people make cards, with new concepts being introduced through sets or supplements and adopted on a wide scale. Any good new format will take these ideas and bake them in while affording card makers new tools to play with. I've seen a lot of people lament that a lot of 'low-hanging fruit' is gone with the variables available in the original system. Honestly, that may be a big part of why the old community died. There just wasn't much else to do with Classic CTI cards without making players memorize a lot of complicated shit.
So far you've been talking about streamlining and improving the experience for players, and that's good. Getting rid of cards that negate later cards is great. Preventing the system from drawing irrelevant cards is great. But you have an excellent opportunity to use things like card probabilities to enhance the core mechanics.
Adding choices to cards is obvious, and it's already been suggested, but I'll throw in my own hat as well. Letting cards have buttons to choose one option or the other is going to give you an enormous amount of new possibilities.
One thing has come up repeatedly, and crafters were obviously playing with this to add mechanical complexity: In-game currencies. Trick or Treat used a positive currency and a negative currency. Stamina uses tokens. Bar Scenario plays with using drinks as a currency. Punishments, which you're explicitly incorporating, are a non-currency resource but they come from a very similar line of thinking.
I suggest adding currencies that cards can access. Nice and Rough points (blue and red), which would be commonly used. Then Favors and Penalties (gold and black), which would be less common.
Nice and Rough points would feed into an overall Mood - Nice points move Mistress toward the Nice end of the spectrum, Rough points move her toward the Rough end of the spectrum. This is an idea that a lot of cards play with, usually by implying that the Mistress switches moods with each Nice or Rough Mistress cards. Tracking a Mood would give you more granularity, and it would give each tease a very organic sort of ebb and flow. This would also give a real sense of personality - implying that there's an actual simulated character controlling events.
A Rougher Mood should increase the probability of drawing Rough cards (Rough Mistress and Humiliation), and increase the probability of moving the stroke rate out of the 'comfortable range'. Restraint cards (Chastity Belt and Bondage) could be made more severe by a Rough Mood.
A Nicer Mood should have the opposite effect. Higher probability of Nice cards (Nice Mistress), higher probability to move the stroke rate towards the 'comfortable range', less severe Restraint cards.
Favors would really only be for crafters to use, although they would allow crossover between different set mechanics. Trick or Treat and Stamina are sets that would use favors now. Trick or Treat would offer choices with each card, one option granting a favor and one option removing a favor or granting a penalty. Things like CtC cards could then check the number of favors or check (Favors - Penalties). The Stamina set shows that there should also probably be an option to grant long-term favors/penalties to an account rather than just within the tease.
Penalties are mostly the same, something for crafters to use. However, I would suggest also using them for failed instructions/edges/etc. Give the player a button to manually add a penalty. Punishments should each have a penalty cost. At the end of the tease, draw Punishments until all the penalties have been spent.
Given this system, I would suggest the following card types:
NICE: Replaces Nice Mistress. More common with Nice Mood, less common with Rough Mood. Some Nice cards require the player to do something or lose Nice points.
ROUGH: Replaces Rough Mistress and Humiliation. More common with Rough Mood, less common with Nice Mood. Some Rough cards allow the player to do something and remove Rough points.
RESTRAINT: Replaces Bondage, Chastity Belt, and Key. More severe with Rough Mood, less severe with Nice Mood.
MOOD: Grants Nice/Rough Mood points. May have other effects. Some Mood cards allow the player to choose between a gentle option that grants Rough points or a harsh option that grants Nice points.
CHANCE: Replaces Chance to Cum. Affected by Mood and possibly Favors/Penalties.
PUNISHMENT: Replaces the current ad-hoc Punishment cards, which are mostly Rough Mistress or Humiliation. Each has a Penalty cost. Punishment cards are drawn after the tease until all Penalties are spent.
SPECIAL: There will probably still need to be a Special category for cards that change the rules or simply don't fit the existing paradigm.
I would also suggest the following additions to the UI:
Stroke tab: Always active. Contains stroke rate, method, and position. Rate works like it always has. Method and position are just strings that cards can add. When a card adds a method or position, it overrides the existing method or position.
Chance to Cum tab: Pops up if a card prompts it. Contains a slide counter and conditions. The slide counter starts at some number given by the card and counts down each slide until 0, when the tab disappears again. 'Conditions' is just a text area that can be provided by the card. If a card adds a new Chance while one is active, the new Chance overrides the old Chance. The player should be able to manually close Chance tabs.
Chastity tab: Pops up if a card prompts it. Just like the Chance to Cum tab, contains a slide counter and conditions. Overriden by new Chastity tabs. The player should be able to manually close Chastity tabs, and some Restraint cards should end Chastity or offer the option to end Chastity.
Sorry if this comes across as just a gigantic wishlist, but I'm really excited to see what you're doing here. Custom Tease Instructor has always fascinated me from a game-design standpoint, and I wanted to help contribute to the next phase of development.