do you like stat raising/scheduler system in dating sims?

Games with gameplay beside the story: raising your skills, map systems, life simulations, etc

do you like stat raising/scheduler system in dating sims?

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jack1974
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Re: do you like stat raising/scheduler system in dating sims?

Post by jack1974 »

Haha no I said "infamous" but not because people don't like them. I mean, some do, because it "forces" you a choice, but as I said there's no other way beside harem ending :mrgreen:
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Franka
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Re: do you like stat raising/scheduler system in dating sims?

Post by Franka »

jack1974 wrote:What people think about the choices system?
I am thinking for future games to get rid of the "right choice that rewards relationship points". I mean, I know it's commonly used in games, and I have used it a lot too (and for more games I will still use this system).
Yes please. Doesn't everybody just reload and pick the good choice anyway? Give us different kinds of endings instead of fail/succeed, or do like you did with PSCD where most choices were flavor and it was obvious when you chose to end the relationship.
Amberbaum
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Re: do you like stat raising/scheduler system in dating sims?

Post by Amberbaum »

Getting rid of the right choice might lead to a bigger choice system - how your relationship will evolve is up to you, but it also requires much more branching. Hm, the first thing that comes in my mind is the approval system of Dragon Age II where you can romance or rivalmance people depending of their approval of rivalry. Thought I never liked the rivalmance since I found this concept too unrealistic. It might work in fiction but not in real life.

So..uhm, I support the idea of getting rid of the right answers, but only if there is only "one" right answer available. If there are multiple right answers and some wrong answers then I'm really happy with that, because that will still give us some flexibility for our MC. After all you and your LI have to be compatible in some ways too build up a relationship. And this mostly contains having similar values and moral beliefs. For example I really like Carth Onasi's romance in Star Wars: Knight of the old Republic (I don't like SW:KotoR. It was too much of a let down and I hated the generic star wars Jedi/Sith, Black/White garbage). Now this doesn't mean that I particular like Carth (I liked him well enough but just wasn't interested in him beyond friendship) as a LI but I enjoyed the hm...structure and the writing of his romance. At some point he apologises for being too closed off and guarded. And the game allows you to say "Yeah, you acted like an ass(hole)". Then he laughs and says: "That's right. I guess I was a real pain in the ass, haha."

I liked that. But what I liked more was that near the end, if you decided to go to the dark side and become some evil all consuming Sith Lord, he will say "No....I can't. I just can't..." and leaves you ( I think? ). I know that some like this evil/good lust and love tension in some relationships (A paladin and a evil queen ?....yeah suuuure.), but for me this is one of the corner stones of the holy Trinity of shit. I loathe this garbage so much, just like like I hate the "heal him with your love" trope in so many otome games.

Now I know that this is fiction and some games are more made for escapism than others, so this specific relationship dynamic gets often a pass for that.
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jack1974
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Re: do you like stat raising/scheduler system in dating sims?

Post by jack1974 »

Yes, well in Amber even if you are in dark side, it's not like Amber becomes a mass-murderer :) it's not extreme as the Kotor example. But yes if I do that in a game, each character should still retain his / her own morals, so someone "good" wouldn't accept a main character that is evil. However I wasn't talking about such extreme situations, at least in the immediate games :)

For Love Bites, we changed that system since writing was in early stages, and I think it was a VERY GOOD idea. Now each character will have two different ending variants. Sadly won't be possible to do two different CGs (one for each ending) since the artist has very little time (was already a miracle to get her to work on a full game!). But I'm sure that players now will want to replay the game to see how it changes based on the choices :)
Amberbaum
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Re: do you like stat raising/scheduler system in dating sims?

Post by Amberbaum »

jack1974 wrote:Yes, well in Amber even if you are in dark side, it's not like Amber becomes a mass-murderer :) it's not extreme as the Kotor example. But yes if I do that in a game, each character should still retain his / her own morals, so someone "good" wouldn't accept a main character that is evil. However I wasn't talking about such extreme situations, at least in the immediate games :)
Don't worry, It was an example on why I think it is important to be in tune with your partner and vice versa -even to a certain degree in fiction :)

But, yeah.... I'm all on board the "get rid of only one right answer". I'm more comfortable to have multiple right answer and multiple wrong answers.
Katicflis
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Re: do you like stat raising/scheduler system in dating sims?

Post by Katicflis »

Love the idea of variant endings where your decisions impact how the relationship develops(as opposed to the success/failure of the relationship)!

Also, choices that give you different storypaths is nice. For example, going out to dinner with a date or staying at home with a date. Say going out on a date leads to the couple getting mugged, whereas staying home leads to a sex scene. One path leads to good drama, the other path leads to some steamy fun. Both are worth reading and encourage another playthrough.
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jack1974
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Re: do you like stat raising/scheduler system in dating sims?

Post by jack1974 »

Yes though your second example takes a lot more time (obviously). Doing branching stories is harder than it seems, especially if the past choices also have an impact in future ones. I did that with Bionic Heart a while ago but I still remember it was a big pain :)
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BobTheMob
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Re: do you like stat raising/scheduler system in dating sims?

Post by BobTheMob »

jack1974 wrote:I did that with Bionic Heart a while ago but I still remember it was a big pain :)
That reminds me...after having first played that I posted a Q here about if more "noir-style" games would be available in the future--are any of the upcoming planned games such? :)

(Sorry for getting off-topic; I just felt this a good point to ask such.)
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jack1974
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Re: do you like stat raising/scheduler system in dating sims?

Post by jack1974 »

Yes there will be more games like that in future :)
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