About This File
Required Rent is a household-economy overhaul for X-Change Life.
I've always been annoyed that X-Change Life doesn't have enough ways to pressure the player, or enough reasons to make hard decisions. A lot of that comes from money being too easy to come by, and no real drain on it as the game goes on.
This mod tries to fix that by putting a required weekly rent on the household. It does not fully replace the base-game rent system. It hijacks it: you have to cover the new bill first, and the old household bonuses only come back if you pay extra on top.
There are a fair few features and consequences in this version, and a balancing act around how your stepdad sees you as you fall behind — and whether you dodge the longer debts, or steer into them.
This version uses base-game art and systems, but it adds new scenes, situations, and outcomes that should give some replay value if you're bored of the usual offerings.
Difficulty
Three tiers, picked in Mod Options on a new game (and until the first Saturday collection, when it locks):
- Easy — the original $150 curve. Caps around $750–$1000.
- Standard — starts at $300. Caps around $1500–$2000. This is the one I'd recommend.
- Brutal — starts at $450. Caps around $2500–$4000. This one can trap you in a death spiral.
This is a first pass. There's more planned, and some features may not play out correctly 100% of the time. I've tested it a lot on my end, but I wouldn't be surprised if some weird combination of flags, pills, and household state breaks it. The writing is very placeholder. I wanted a working foundation before I went deep on prose.
Requires X-Change Life 0.25.5+.
How rent works
Rent is a real weekly cash bill, due every Sunday. The morning planner HUD shows base rent, overdue, and how much is still due this Sunday.
- Money you send with the household 💸 during the week counts toward that bill.
- Sunday takes whatever cash you still have on you toward what's left.
- If you cover it, you're paid up. If he has to take the last of your pocket cash to finish the job, that still counts as collected.
- If you still come up short, the leftover is doubled and becomes overdue. Next week's base rent still comes due on top of that.
- Pay extra over the required amount and the vanilla household bonuses come back for the overage. Fridge breakfast stocking is the exception — that still works like the base game.
- If you're overdue, chore pay goes to the missed amount first. You keep whatever is left.
- Base rent can hike over time based on how your stepdad sees you.
Miss enough Sundays and the house starts taking other things.
New scenes and how to reach them
The rent talk
First-week Tuesday or Wednesday morning, your stepdad knocks and explains the house rules. After that, the planner HUD is live.
Clothes confiscation (Salvation Armani)
Miss a Sunday while you still have sellable outfits in the closet, and he is not on the household-deal track. Sunday morning he comes for the cheapest sellable clothes first. Proceeds pay down overdue. His tone follows the relationship. You can plead, offer to work it off, or (if you're a girl and the relationship allows it) try to pay another way. A successful blowjob uses the vanilla minigame and covers the overdue. Fail it and he sells the clothes anyway, and respect takes a hit.
Computer confiscation
Same Sunday-miss path, but the closet can't cover it (or there's nothing left to sell) and you still own the home computer. He takes the machine toward the bill. Radio Shack still sells the same one, the same way as the first time.
Home-office SECRET-ary work
Unlocked from a confiscation or date pitch if you ask to help more / work it off. After that, Work for stepdad is a morning activity. Yellow SECRET-ary pill, short secretary loop in his home office, Greg as the only interrupt. Starting that morning holds the sale; walking away after the pitch does not. Tickets spend on overdue, this week's due, organizing, intellect XP, or poor cash. A weak held-sale morning costs a lot of respect and friendship. Desk gropes can start from attraction, dominance, and low respect even before household sex. If sex lines up, he can pull you out of the morning; the evening is vanilla secretary-body Greg sex, and he forgives overdue at $25 per satisfaction. That home-office reputation does not carry over to DynaPill.
Paid "date" (Dale or Bruce)
Miss a Sunday while Greg is not sex-eligible (and not close), and either the closet can't cover the overdue or Bruce is already in play with a high bill / low respect. Sunday morning he pitches it. Evening is forced while he takes Alexia to a movie. Dale (from work) pays up to twice the starting rent, at least $500. Bruce, if known and still male, clears the difficulty's Bruce floor or the full overdue, whichever is larger. The client only pays if satisfaction is at least 8. You get one "not tonight" delay per playthrough if you aren't People Pleaser-locked.
Date-fail warning
If the client isn't satisfied, the next morning Greg warns you to cover the overdue before Sunday or he will send someone. He will not name it.
Bruce collection
Fail that warning, still be overdue the next Sunday, and have Bruce known and male (and Greg still not on the deal track). Family leaves. Living-room Insta-Strip scene, forked from the bar. Resist checks are much harder than vanilla. The overdue is covered either way. After this, Bruce owns the rent.
Bruce owns the house
After collection, about half of evenings he can call the way a Resistance deal would — except there is no refusal. Arrival uses the vanilla family greetings. If you're already female he uses whatever pill you're on. He only forces a new pill if you're male (Compliant or Breeder on owned nights), or the Insta-Strip overlay during the original collection.
Greg's household deals
Miss a Sunday while he is sex-eligible, or close (high attraction, low respect), or you already have a deal on the books. Clothes and the computer become what happens if you refuse the deal, not the default. He never HUD-claims the rent the way Bruce does.
A dominant, low-respect Greg can keep this structure even if you pay the number. Setting no more sex kills the sexual deals and the money track reverts to clothes / dates / Bruce. There is a cash buyout if you want out.
Deal mornings (after a deal is on)
Drawer Basic if you're still a guy, gropes, morning oral, requested outfits / breakfast, Friday club lock, and grounding if you blow off the domestic rules.
- One overdue wipe — once per playthrough. Generic bedroom sex, the whole missed pile goes away.
- Touch deal — he may touch you whenever; female at home in the morning; $50 Basic in the drawer. Weekly credit toward rent.
- Oral deal — mornings upstairs, more of the week covered.
- Sex deal — weekly sex, no other men, Friday club at the Pickle, more credit.
- Domestic package — outfits he picks, breakfast he asks for, chores, Friday club, female every day. He covers the week's rent. Failures get punished (including an over-the-knee scene if you ignore the outfit).
Please provide feedback, ideas, and bug reports in the Discord. Thank you for checking this mod out.
Edited by ThisWillSelfDestruct