Version 0.1.9: Economy

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TL;DR Resources are getting overhauled to become non-stockpileable, except for mana which can do a lot more now. Subscribe on Patreon/Subscribestar to try it out.

What is the Problem with the Economy?

The current higher tier resource system isn't interesting. Let's take Factorio as an example. In Factorio it is interesting to make tier 2 circuits out of tier 1 circuits and some copper and plastic because it poses a logistical challenge. Ero Hunters doesn't have logistics, so the only challenge is having enough inflow. Additionally, the current system isn't scalable over five tiers as it's very hard to care about a large amount of monstergirls. You also don't care to train and optimize them because you can just build more buildings.

In fact, for the current system to work, it would need to be structured like an idle game. However, that would come into conflict with needing to assign monstergirls to your buildings. Especially if you want to equip them, it will be a slow and fiddly process which doesn't work with the idle game concept. And since overproduction of base resources is always the correct course of action in factory games, you'd have to spam a lot of buildings with a lot of catch and forget enemies.

Instead the economy should play to the strengths of the game.

What is the Strength of Ero Hunters?

Instead, the interesting part is capturing monstergirls, dressing them up, and squeezing every last bit of productivity out of them. Additionally, there's the discovery part that comes with encountering new monstergirls and seeing what resources they bring to the table.

What is the Solution then?

The Resources themselves will change. There is no more tier system, instead resources are mostly directly linked to monstergirls. The clearest example is wool, which can now only be gained from Ramgirls.

Resources also can no longer be stockpiled. They are just made available to any crafting stations. So if you have a Wolfkin Ranch that creates 5 fur, you can only craft items using up to 5 fur. No matter how long you wait, you'll never be able to craft a 10 fur item unless you "improve" your Wolfkin.

Only the most productive building will count. So a 4 fur and a 5 fur building will only result in 5 fur. The result is that crafting is a lot easier to handle, you either can craft something or you can't. Additionally, to get double the production you don't just build a second building, but you have to engage with the game's systems.

Mana works differently and is an instant resource. Of course, there are still actions that are instant, such as building buildings or researching technologies. Those actions will use mana, which is the only stockpileable resource. You can also buy gear/consumables directly with mana. This should speed up the early game (especially if you don't know what to craft in the beginning), but late game you'll want to automate it. It's the equivalent to hand-crafting in most automation games.

Mana only comes from dungeons and combat. So it's a resource you need to actively get and can't automate. It also gives a use-case for dungeons and curios inside of them.

Other Planned Changes:

This isn't everything though. The research system is still a bit of a nuisance. There is too much to research and the tree isn't all that interesting. You just gather favor (now mana) for a while and then click everything. And it also isn't clear what gear you unlock exactly.

As a replacement, I'm thinking of a blueprint system. As a dungeon/combat reward you can get the choice out of several blueprints. These allow to build/craft/upgrade something. But since you can make a conscious choice (or pick nothing and get mana, or spend mana to reroll your selection) it should feel more dynamic.

It then also allows me to make the deity choice impact the chance of certain blueprints popping up. But most importantly, it doesn't require me to rework the entire research tree whenever I add new stuff.

Changelog:

Economy Rework:

Resource tiers are gone, each resource now has its own icon.
Dungeons now purely reward mana.
The mana recipe is now more powerful but has been changed to give a perk "mana drained" which prevent re-extraction.
Buildings only cost mana (since they're made instantly).
The max roster cap has been removed, housing now increases exponentially in price instead.
Crafting recipes can no longer use mana (since they aren't instant), this includes recipe inputs.
Removed stone-concrete-reinforced_wood-living_latex-steel-activated_mana.
Added aphrodisiac-compulsion_crystal-fur.
Leather requires Ratkin, Wool requires Ramgirls, and there is no more distinction between forest types for Wood.
The Iron Mine has been split into a Simple Mine (only requiring hills) and an Iron Mine (also requiring Iron Ore).
Aphrodisiac can be gathered from pools or from Bunnies.
Wolfgirls make fur in the Wolfgirl Ranch.
Bats make compulsion crystals, these can also be mined from manacyte deposits.
Roads now cost mana (since they are made instantaneously).
Shrines no longer give favor but offer a unique blessing training instead.
Techs now cost mana instead of favor (since the added step of converting it didn't add anything to the game).
Trade (an instant action) directly rewards mana.
Resource production buildings grant a "supply" of a resource which is always available and can be reserved by crafting buildings.
Items can now be bought instantaneously using mana.

Minor:

Conditional tooltips (such as for the Bloodline perks) are now a lot clearer.
The UI has been reshuffled so buildings and resources can be looked at at the same time.
Bloodline breeding has been simplified a bit.
Moved around the starting techs to account for the lesser importance of wood.
Ports are now only used for teleportation, their building panel only shows the teleportation panel, other building panels no longer show the teleportation panel.
Buildings without Recipes/Workers/Upgrades no longer show the buttons for Recipes/Workers/Upgrades.
GoodTooltips are a lot more detailed now.
Improved the CombatCapturePanel a bit and allow instantly releasing girls for mana.
Added mana tracker to dungeons UI, removed gear inventory from it.
You now get a detailed breakdown of the building productivity in the building info.
I forgot that enemies didn't give experience if you're too high levelled and thought it was bugged, so now they give at least 10% of their normal experience.
Auto craft buildings will now recheck their queue if they get stuck on an item they can't craft.
Added small sprites for the bats.

Items:

Pet Collar: Additional compliance for pets.
Leather Collar: Alternative for iron collar, but costs leather.
Leashed Collar: A leash that immediately attaches a leather collar when thrown at an enemy.
Pink Collar: Grants some compliance and replaces mumble by masochism.

Bugfixes:

Added tier indicators to Bloodline perks.
Make grovel and strip require confusion tokens.
Right click building cancel was broken after opening the Tech Tree.
Fixed involuntary movement after claiming some (but not all) tutorials.
Gear Inventory Blocks didn't turm green when an item is bound to the girl.
The main menu would tell Patreon supporters about hotfixes to the public version instead of about hotfixes to their version.
Sado/Maso training could repeat endlessly.
Captured Monstergirls kept their original weapon (and facial expressions).
A dungeon tooltip still talked about dungeon experience awards.
You duplicate captured enemies by saving repeatedly in dungeons.
Clicking on the small recipe panel in the building info overview panel didn't move to the recipe panel.
Changing the workers didn't update the overworld building nodes.
Releasing a girl didn't update any building panels she was part in.
You couldn't give girls names with Q since it would close the panel.
Turn based tokens didn't get removed at the end of combat.
Scripts increasing move damage didn't work on 0 damage moves.
Bat's strip could strip the weapon of the enemy.