This is a design document for a potential mod for Star Knightess Aura, that would be focused on adding more interactivity and depth to Luciela's gameplay in the mental world. If the mod is ever made (big “if”) then it will not be until after the game has finished development, so that the content and balance of the vanilla game is known.
The goals of the mod are to add more ways for Luciela to make choices that affect events in Roya and affect the amount of corruption gained. Hopefully Aura's actions in Roya should affect what are Luciela's optimal moves, in such a way that it becomes possible to have expressions of skill while playing as Luciela, in the same way that a player might for example express skill while playing as Aura by finding a way to kill a boss earlier than expected. The mod would also aim to achieve a balance (primarily by changing the mental world, but if necessary also making small changes in Roya) where if both Luciela and Aura are played fairly optimally the chapter progression in the mental world and in Roya would be similar. This means that Luciela should reach the main chamber at about the same time that Aura reaches the Festival of Greed, that Luciela should reach the third chamber of Aura's mental world at about the same time Aura reaches Chapter 3 in Roya and that whether or not Luciela is able to fully corrupt Aura before Aura defeats Richard should be uncertain.
Possible changes:
- Making mental changes that do not advance the corruption plotline but do hinder Aura, such as curiosities, focuses, corruption per day, etc., cost a new resource, rather than corruption. At present these options either result in as much corruption (directly or indirectly) as they cost, in which case they will always be chosen, or they do not, in which case they never will be. Creating a separate resource for them makes Luciela consider them as trade offs against each other instead of as trade offs against using corruption to advance the corruption plotline.
- Some new possibilities for using these points:
- Designating a fetish and/or sensitivity as targeted, making actions involving it create extra corruption. This could both create extra corruption, if there is an option that Aura would be wanting to take despite the extra corruption, or it could be made to keep Aura from using an option she otherwise would
- Borrowing corruption by being able to pay a point for some corruption and then being able to pay the same amount of corruption later to get the point back. This would make it possible to rush for key mental changes that come with debuffs slightly earlier, if you have the point(s) available.
- Decrease max willpower. Currently there are far more abilities for Aura to increase max willpower than there are times it will likely be decreased. Luciela being able to force a pink action or two if she makes good choices would be fun, but currently Aura will almost always be able to avoid this by taking an emerald tea, and the opportunities for Luciela to do this seem rare enough that the cost of this tea is fairly trivial. This interaction should probably have an additional cost of decreasing max corruption, to avoid Luciela being able to decrease Aura's “normal” willpower too much.
- Increase the effect of fetish/sensitivity on effective willpower