Nothing is Forever
Q&A There are some polarizing kinks in the skill tree of your game, do you plan to fully execute them?
Short answer: yes, all skills in the skill tree will be used before the end of the game. There isn’t any kind of “false advertising”.
Longer answer: Okay, this is a complicated question with several layers.
In “Nothing is Forever” you gain points through every choice you make in-game. With these points, you can get some kinky skills that range from vanilla to hardcore, and from maledom to femdom.
While all skills will be used in-game, the 3rd level skills will only be used at later stages of the game. This is important for game mechanical reasons (players need to gather enough points to afford the skills), and for story reasons (the characters must explore their kinks starting with the vanilla ones).
This also means that there will be way more scenes requiring vanilla and intermediate skills, than scenes requiring hardcore skills.
Another layer of this question is what do the skills really mean. I had to pick 1 word to represent a kink and 1 sentence to explain it in the “Descriptions”. This, of course, is very limiting. To make things worse, some of these names have certain connotations associated with them from other adult games. The thing to keep in mind is that all the scenes will be portrayed in a more realistic manner than they usually are in this medium. Expect to see these kinky scenes play out in a similar way as they would happen in real life, as opposed to as you have seen them in some more unrealistic game.
For example, don’t expect some kind of “trainer game scene” behind the “Own her” skill, but rather a kind of "total power exchange" dynamic. Or, don't expect the “Free use” skill to mean there will be lewd scenes in the middle of the city just because you’re in a "free use" relationship.
Also, it is important to not forget that, with all of these kinks, anything that happens, only happens if the submissive partner consents to it.
What if I don’t like a certain kink?
Everything will be optional and all lewd scenes locked behind the "kinky skills". A lewd scene containing a kink you don't like will never happen in the story as long as you don't get the required skill and don't make the choices that lead to that scene.
But, besides that, a particular lewd scene may also have several choices that the player can take to make it more vanilla or hardcore. In practice, this won’t be very different than what you can see in other adult games: do you know how you can usually choose between several sex positions (missionary, doggy, cowgirl, etc)? In this game you’ll be able to choose if certain kinks are present in a given scene, or if it plays in a more vanilla fashion. I try my best to not show anyone a kink they don’t want to see, but also to make the choices obvious so that you don’t miss the content you actually want.
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Question:
If you pick one route with a character that focuses on a fetish or kink. Does the game focus on that kink for all future interactions with that character? For example, here's a hypothetical, if Olivia had an option for bondage and another one for cuckqueen. If you pick one is the other one off the table for life? Does the game assume you never want that other one? Like I don't mind being a sub but I'm not into feet stuff. So it seems like I'm locked out of Deb interactions for turning down feet even after letting her dom the MC once before.
The way I see it, Lea has exhibition as a focus. Okay, I'm okay with that. But then there's silver tongue skills that seem to lead to depravity. I'm literally scared of what that will mean down the line. LoL I'll deal with it, mind you, but still. I'm worried. Even if these scenes are done based on realistic interactions and psychiatric research, it's hard to figure out what Misogyny and ownership would mean in a realistic setting. And yet in her hints, Emma doesn't have anything else I can tap into instead those two. I feel like I'm locked out of something once I pick something else.
"If you pick one is the other one off the table for life? Does the game assume you never want that other one?"
It depends. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The trouble is, some future scenes only make sense if the previous one happened. So, with each kink choice the player may be directed to a given path. Although, I also try to not make this a hard rule so that rejecting a kink you don't like doesn't necessarily exclude you from a girl's path.
This can be tricky sometimes because if a scene (for example Deb's feet scene on chapter 3) is rejected, now I have to write the following scene in chapter 4 differently to take into account whether the scene on chapter 3 happened or not. As you can imagine this can get very complicated quickly.
That being said, I agree that rejecting Deb's feet scene on chapter 3 shouldn't lock you out of her path. That was an oversight on my side, sorry about that. I'll rewrite some scenes a bit differently to allow her lewd scene on chapter 4 to still happen, even if reject her lewd scene on chapter 3. The next patch I make will have this fix. thanks for pointing it out.
As for Emma's kinks, yes each girl has her own kinks and some might be less vanilla than others. I'm aware that, the less vanilla the girls are, the less some players might like them. But I'm okay with that. The goal is that each girl feels like a different person with their own needs and kinks. As long as each player finds at least one girl they like, it's okay if they don't like them all.
Well... I guess since I already passed the scene in ch4 with Deb I will just have to deal with it on another play thru one day. It's fine. I guess it's time to stop playing around and focus anyway. Emma is never gonna happen for me. I'll just be friends with her. And focus all my attention on Lea. No need to be greedy anyway since this was never a harem game. I kinda was hoping for a 3some with Jen and Lea tho. Or Jen and Bri. But if all I can be with is Lea in the end. I'm satisfied. So no harm no foul.
Thanks for hearing me out. I'm sure tons of people will gravitate to Emma or Deb as they are, anyway. Especially if they kept it professional with Jen or don't like Bri or Kim.
Approximately how many skills can we get/max by end game? Between splitting trees and being interested in a singular skill group/quadrant, I can see a desire for wanting to replay, but how many times? Like for instance, if I said my end goal was to have Submissive, Ass Play, and Romance, then also get Loyal in the other tree, Or apply Humiliation from cunning tree to sensitive tree, can that work or is there a way to work? Just how many skills in a particular playthrough can we work through and see overlap with the different quadrants?
EDIT: never mind, see you answered a similar question below, I should've read more. On a side note, since things are limited to your choices you might want to answer a certain way, is it possible to have a "New Game+" (obviously when game is done/overish story wise), where the player can distribute the skill points from the start and the game plays out with those, regardless of choices made throughout the game?
I want to be as less intrusive as possible with these game mechanics. By this I mean that you, as a player, know better than me how you want to enjoy the game. So, I’ve already included a few options in-game that do more or less what you ask for (I’ll explain them here for anyone unaware).
In the sklls menu, there’s that options button. In there you can:
Use a cheat to get all skills and bypass that system. That way, only your choices matter to get the scenes you want and you’ll never get blocked by lacking a skill.
Turn ON “relax mode”: this means you’ll get double the points per action. With this option, by the end of the game, you’ll have more than enough points to get all skills (I think this should have the same effect as your proposed new game +: you’re basically playing 2 games in a run)
Turn ON “blind mode”: you’ll not know how many points you have or what kind of points each choice gives. I had reports of some players “automatically” picking some answer just because the points it gives. If you want to truly roleplay, think about your choices, and not be influenced by the point system, you can turn this option ON.
The modes can be toggle ON and OFF at any time and be used in any combination. If you start a new game, you have the opportunity to turn them ON from the very beginning (this was introduced in the 0.3 update).
With these options, you can customize your playthrough to maximize content seen, or for roleplay, etc, to get the most enjoyment out of it.
That sounds awesome, I want to play one playthrough for sure that is purely based on how the game plays out with me just making my decisions and going to the end (most likely going to be maxed sensitivity tree with points to spare), but then have another game where I can see what happens when I am not limited by skills (have them all maxed)
I am super impressed with your game and think its pretty amazing!
Will you ever open subscribstar? I am FIRMLY against patreon, I refuse to support them given many things they have done, but I'd definitely support your hobby/passion on a subscribstar account instead (or at least, I will donate on here to you since, again, I really hate patreon)
There are little things I’m doing to incentivize all players to gather at least some points from all trees.
For example, a dominant girl might like a player that has the Teasing skill (from the manly tree) because she gets turned on by a bratty sub and needs him to “fight” and “tease” her before she “puts him in his place”. If that players always answers “Yes” to her and never teases her she will get bored…
In the same way, a submissive girl might still want the “bad boy” to have some sensitive skills like “Romance”. Yes, she wants to submit to the stereotypic “manly guy”, but she still wants him to show some affection for her. If he never shows his sensitive side, she’ll lose interest…
The point is… it’d be a boring game if a player could just always automatically pick the “sensitive” or “manly” answers, for example. I want players to think a little bit and be able to choose answers from all trees.
As for the opening a subscribstar, I don’t have any plans of doing that at the moment. It’s already a lot of work to take care of my itch and patreon pages, I don’t want to bother with one more. I think these two avenues are enough for anyone interested in helping funding this game’s development. You, for example, already supported me with a reasonable amount. Just enjoy the new updates knowing that you already did your part!
That's what I did. Cheat mode let me go ahead and select what I love and can stomach. But I only made this choice after missing the first scene with Emma. I felt bad seeing her walk away mad. But I also could not figure out a healthy way to have sex with her that wasn't hate-banging. Now that I'm passed that scene. I saw in a side save file that with Jen "manhandle" skill doesn't mean being cruel. Just being more insistent. I'm okay with that. I thought manhandle mean hurting the lady and being rough with her regardless of what she wants or begging to stop. I see now that would be more of the painplay or bull catagory. Not my style. But maybe there's ways around that while still romancing the more sub women who want that. Ultimately if I think I'm gonna be "just friends" with most of the cast. And date Lea in one save and Jen in another... Unless things get dark with them...
Just a quick note: there isn't or will ever be anything forceful in this game. All sex scenes are fully consensual. Even if both people, like in that scene with Emma, are having sex while angry with each other.
I get that. I do. But it's kinda disturbing for me. I couldn't bring myself to do it. And when the MC meets with her later and they agree that if they acted on anything felt between them in the heat of that argument, "anything that came from it wouldn't have been healthy." They say that if you don't hate-banging before you don't see Emma for a while, that big argument. And if I'm being honest, I agree.
I can't speak for anyone else but sex is something you do , IMO that you share a pleasurable moment with someone you like or love as you explore each other's bodies. I want to be friends with Emma and date her as equals. Not trash a room enraged yet also full of lust. I feel like we loose something as people if you're mad at or hate the one you have sex with. I don't know much, I'm just saying I'm waiting for Emma and the MC to have a sexual encounter where no one is dominant or submissive. It's just mutual love. I have never had sex (yet). But I def wouldn't want my first or ANY time to be with someone I hate. Which is why I can't like Kim. And I have mixed feelings about Deb. If she's using people to get herself off but, doesn't even always allow them to cum, how is that love making? You're reduced to a tool. An item. No more important than a dildo. If it's like that does Deb care if you look sexy to her or not? Wouldn't it be easier to use a person she wasn't attracted to as a tool to get off with? Does their looks or feeling matter if all they're there for is to worship her? I just don't get it.
The more I play this game the more I question what I would even do in the MC's place. That's why Lea, Jen and Bri seem the best choice. I feel little to no guilt romancing them because they enjoy it and the MC enjoys it. And no one gets insulted or used as a tool or made to submit to feed someone's ego. Or at least not much. I firmly believe now that the reason I missed so many chances to have sex in the past was because I didn't live on the edge. Girls I dated in highschool wanted to bang before their parents got home or while kids they were babysitting were outside. Or even without condums. So those rare moments I could have had sex I turned down because I want to have sex but not have the thrill of it being doing something wrong and risking getting caught or pregnant. Which made people write me off as boring or childish. Because apparently where I live people are more like Emma or Deb or Kim or Jaime in this game. Willing to do what it takes to get off. And romance may just be a happy side effects after that.
I would like it if you displayed the "current point cap" of each kink, meaning at what number adding points/unlocking kinks doesn't enable one to access more content (that is currently available in-game). Unlocking a kink that has no content yet feels bad.
Personally I love "Max all" option, because I want to check out all of the kinks and while I like playing a character, I don't like redoing content too much.
Yeah, that's a classic problem of "in development" games. I do say in the "skills help" section to not buy any skill before you need it to help prevent situations like that.
But, perhaps I'll also add another section there showing which skills are currently usable in the most recent version of the game. I wouldn't know how to make that info visible in the main screen when it is already quite crowded.
Another issue that might be important to address somehow is to let the players know (or at least have some hints) which skills they will need with a girl so they can work towards those without needing a walkthrough (which I'm trying to avoid at all costs - the game should provide most of the info/hints you need to get the desirable outcome the player seeks). I'm evaluating some ideas at the moment. The next update might already have a system to help with this problem.
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions.
Do you plan to make possible to acquire at least 1 hardcore skill in each skillset in the same playthrough? Or to reach a hardcore skill in opposing sets will need more than one playthrough?
This is a bit difficult to predict because it depends on how long the story will be and how many choices there are per chapter. Altogether, that needs, somehow, to turn in a good balance by the end of the game. But the idea is to be forgiving and not to force anyone to have to replay the game several times because he can't get some skills. I think that’s not particularly fun gameplay.
The ideal outcome would be that a player can end the game with a total of 6 hardcore skills from opposing branches (for example, 4 cunning and 2 honorable, or 3 from each, etc). It might be that I end up missing that mark by +/- 1 hardcore skill (I hope it isn’t worse than that).
There will also be opportunities to “move points around” in a way that a player might still be able to end with 12 hardcore skills in total, but get all of them from 3 branches and none from the 1 branch that he isn’t interested in at all.
Of course this is assuming the player takes a measured approach. If he, for example, always picks the honorable choices, he will get all the honorable skills, none of the cunning ones, and ends up swimming on honorable points without anything to do with them…