computer games forum

This might be me, but I would not consider tying stat improvements to like/dislike of the NPC very much fun. If there is an unsufferable character (Tom) then I want to insult him - or possibly throw him out of the party. Having to think about how to get his "like" bonus because the would fit my tactics/playing style spoils the fun. Or a char I would like to romance, but I need the "dislike" bonus...

DunKalar wrote:- you can add a positive and a negative feature to a good/bad relationship, e.g. some stats rise while others fall or you get different boni/lai on skills. [...] E.g. Rebecca might get better survival skills since she believes she cannot rely on you but on the other hand she gets a malus to social skills because she loses hope in social relationships and prefers to stay on her own.

It might be not that easy: Say my PC has good social skills already, and I want to romance Rebecca. (The PC might need social skills because Rebecca might not always be available.) If romancing Rebecca I have social skills in two chars, but I am lacking the survival skills. What I want to say is: The relative worth of two skills depends on circumstances, and is never exactly the same, thus there will be always a bonus depending on the relationship.

I think the game to use this on is Roger Steel since the mechanics of this kind of relationship is already in play. Just adding a bonus skill at the end doesn't seem like much of a leap and a good idea to me.

Speaking of character relationship, we decided to keep the "relationship bar" as it was in my other games, since as Aleema said to me it became a sort of "signature" of my games and I agree with her:

we're unsure if that will affect skills (probably not) but it could lead to different dialogues thorough the game (a bit like the Joking/Friendly/Forceful thing of Loren, but this time applied to each character) and have an impact in the romances. Currently not thinking that you must have a character Loyal to you to unlock his/her romance. It should probably be a separate thing, picking all the right answers.
Or maybe, it should be either max the loyal or the rival values? When you romance someone I believe you can't be "neutral" with him/her, you need to take a stance and impress him/her a way or another?

Lots of things to think about, but I like how it's going so far

I wonder if I should change the phrase "Loyal" to "Ally" or something else? Maybe just "Friend"? I want it to be clear that being a "rival" doesn't mean that the character is prone to betray you or that it's altogether bad.

"Rival" should mean that the character disagrees with you often (you like aliens, they hate aliens) but they're technically loyal either way. They might scoff or roll their eyes at you rather than salute you, but they would still take a bullet for you. The reason we're taking this duel relationship system instead of the standard +5 Relationship Points, must get to 100% or bad things happen! system is because most of these people you have already established your relationship with and starting over from zero would be unfair and unrealistic. Instead, the player is going to have chances to shape their existing (positive and loyal) relationship with the characters, watching how your relationship holds under stress. So there will definitely be flavor differences between the two types of relationships, which will probably be most evident in the end game and in romances. I think rival romances would be too interesting not to do.

Aleema wrote: I think rival romances would be too interesting not to do.

I wholeheartedly agree
I think indeed maybe loyal/rival is not the best choice of words, but I am not sure what we could use instead... anyway probably will add some explanation/help in the game that will explain that getting 0% loyalty or 100% rival is NOT necessarily a bad thing!

I like this idea

And I wanted to get rid of Tom Shatz by being unfriendly. Seems it is not going to happen.

What....!

jack1974 wrote:

Aleema wrote: I think rival romances would be too interesting not to do.

I wholeheartedly agree
I think indeed maybe loyal/rival is not the best choice of words, but I am not sure what we could use instead... anyway probably will add some explanation/help in the game that will explain that getting 0% loyalty or 100% rival is NOT necessarily a bad thing!

Maybe something along the lines of Amicable/Disagreeable?

Well yes seems good, however I'll leave the choice to native English speaker (like Aleema) since what makes sense for me might not be the best choice