So my memory isn't perfect but I'm pretty sure the save/load bug in this case basically went down like: complete anal scene>softlock at start of next scene>reload save at start of anal scene and try again (might have quit to title first, can't remember for this one)>softlock on next scene again and quit to title>clear anal scene and try to save only to get loaded. From there I played around a bit with seeing if quickloading then going back would work and eventually just closed the game. I don't remember the details of how it was in the past strongly but I'm pretty confident that at least most of the cases happened after loading a save after encountering some kind of softlock. At the very least I don't specifically remember any cases where I got the save/load bug that didn't happen in close proximity to encountering some kind of bug, but I'm not sure if it was the same bug in each case or even if it was a softlock.
Having high relationships be a way of obtaining cards is smart. I was thinking maybe it'd be tied to money at some point, like you could join the local vore gym as a degen or find someone to give lessons otherwise, but I like the relationship idea more.
Having a limit to the number of focus you gain passively from Controlled Panic seems like a good solution. It'll probably still be a pretty strong card but won't be quite as ridiculous, but I can't deny that I'll miss the silly amounts of damage stacking a ton of them and waiting could enable. For burps, though my gut feeling is that the nausea increase will have to be tuned down for sure. Buffing them with grip is interesting. On the one hand, using a bunch of early grip to quickly deprive the prey of oxygen sounds pretty scary, but on the other it also sounds hard to pull off, especially for the AI, so it'll mostly just be another way for the player to exploit grip strats. I'm not too fond of the idea of capping excess nausea, though, mostly because I think the risk of getting hit really hard is interesting. For balance purposes I could see it being useful just to prevent the AI from screwing themselves over too hard, but from a player perspective exploiting a cocky pred shooting accidently shooting themselves in the foot is fun and satisfying.
A "starter" class of preds sounds like a good idea to me, but I'd like there to be at least a modest chance of the neutral preds appearing in early rounds still. Early challenges can be fun as long as they feel possible, and the only preds that I currently think can be feel basically impossible with the starter deck are Sophie and Lavender. It's also more interesting to have to make decisions about whether you feel like you might be able to take down a tougher pred in the first couple rounds or if you want to go for an easier route at the cost of maybe getting something like a 2 prey encounter as the pred that you are certain to lose. And hell, if you get good enough inspirations off the first round you can even have a pretty good shot at taking out a tough foe in the second. That is, of course, from the perspective of an experienced player, and I can still remember getting rekt a few times in my initial forays into endless mode, but that's part of the fun and it's easy to jump back in after an early loss.
And wow, thanks for the discord offer. I'm really just having fun playing around and reporting on issues I encounter, but I'm glad it was of help. I sent a discord friend request, since I'm not a prolific enough discord user to know if there's a way to DM someone without one. For any future feedback would you prefer I post it here or on discord?