proxxie
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Help Requested: Character Relationships
🕑 Added 2024-03-21 04:05:50 +0000 UTCGreetings! I’m at the point in 10.4’s development where I need to make sure the relationship plugin has all the info it needs, and this post is an attempt to make sure I haven’t missed anything. What follows is a long list of events that could potentially affect your relationships with various characters in either a positive or negative way. Be warned, this list is very spoiler heavy! If you can think of anything I might have missed, please let me know in the comments, the discord, or via a direct message. Since I’m trying to crowd-source info, I’m making this post public (so non-supporters can comment, etc.)
The Relationship Plugin
I’ve posted about this before, but just a quick recap: TPE is very character-driven, which makes your relationships with characters an important part of the game experience. You make choices throughout the game that ought to affect these relationships, and having characters respond to you in different ways depending on your relationship with them would make the game feel more meaningful and immersive. It would also be useful for me to be able to gate certain events based on your relationship with a character.
Data about relationship-affecting events are scattered in all kinds of different places - and in a few cases aren’t currently recorded at all. This makes it very difficult to work with in any kind of systematic way, so I wrote a plugin to help manage this data. This plugin can calculate “scores” along different relationship “axes” - friend, romance, attraction - and also makes it easy to query if specific events happened or not.
The code seems to work well, but what the plugin needs in order to be useful in development is a list of events that affect these relationships. And that’s what I’m trying to get help with in this post.
What I’m Looking For
I’m trying to identify events and choices that could affect - in either a positive or negative way - your relationship with a character in one or more of the following ways:
How much they like you or see you as a friend
How much they’re attracted to you
How much they see you as an actual/potential romantic partner
I may also add a submissive/dominant axis, so please let me know if you can think of any of those sorts of events.
Things That Might Affect Relationships
Ana
Choices You Make
Sticking up for Ana in the intro when Emily teases her
Hugging Ana after she rescues you from the monster in Virtuon’s game world
Hugging Ana warmly after rescuing her from Tal
Backing her up when she’s arguing with the soldiers in Darin’s Mill
Talking with her in camp outside the Flame Spirit cave
What Alex compliments Ana on when s/he’s at the party drunk hitting on her
Dealing with the kids situation with her on Cory’s quest
Doing Ana’s quest (with the noobs)
The corn dog shack date(-ish) scene - especially choosing “this is like a date!”
Choosing her for your first dance partner at the nightclub
Dancing with her at the nightclub
Talking with her at the nightclub
Story Events (No Choices)
Rescuing her from Tal
Helping Ana with her tanking after the failed Dark Pits run
Completing The Dark Pits
Defeating Dranax
H-Scene Events
Perving on her in the first two tent scenes
Ana allowing Alex to get inspected when they first enter Ogremarsh (?)
Choosing submissive or not routes for the Lake Confrontation and Sharing Room scenes
Doing the Inn scene (your first time together)
Whether Ana was your first ever (as either guy or girl; determined in the Inn scene)
Doing the AVA Threesome scene (when she finds out you’ve been messing with Val)
Doing the Sami’s Playthings scene (when she finds out you’ve been messing with Sami)
Doing the Val’s Revenge scene (maybe she gets jealous?)
Doing the Double AnaTendre scene
Emily
Choosing to let Emily bully you in the intro
Dancing with Emily
Choosing Emily as your first dance partner at the nightclub
Talking with her at the nightclub
Attempting to rescue her when she sneaks into the palace
Defeating Dranax
Val
Choices You Make
Whether you complete the glowfrog quest
Talking with her at the guild hall
Completing Cory’s quest (you get her to help at the end)
Completing Val’s quest (very different outcomes)
Getting Val to help make Ana’s dress (?)
Dancing with Val
Choosing her as your first dance partner at the nightclub
Telling Val you’re enjoying your first dance with her
Telling Val you like her during your first dance
Speaking with her about The Oracle after the second trip
Story Events (No Choices)
Completing The Dark Pits (and getting her dresses!)
Defeating Dranax
H-Scenes
Completing the Val Progression scene
Doing the AVA Threesome scene
Doing the Val’s Revenge scene
Sami
Completing Val’s glowfrog quest (she gives Sami one)
How much you hit on her (or allowed her to hit on you) while drunk at the party
Doing the Succubus H-scene (maybe different if you choose male or female variant?)
Getting the True End in Val’s quest
Talking to her during Val’s quest (?)
Dancing with her at the nightclub
Chatting with her at the nightclub
Doing the Sami’s Playthings scene
Shiri
Helping her and Jovi with the imp quest
Talking with her at the guild hall
Helping Ana with her tanking
Completing The Dark Pits
Going with her to visit the Oracle (both times)
Getting her to help make Ana’s dress (?)
Dancing with her at the nightclub
Choosing her as your first dance partner in the nightclub
Talking with her at the nightclub
Doing the Futa Magic H-scene
Ren
Helping him catch glowfrogs for Val
Talking to him in the guild hall
Completing The Dark Pits
Completing Ren’s quest (to get Fang)
Dancing with him in the nightclub
Choosing him as your first dance partner at the nightclub
The advice you give him in the nightclub conversations about Val
Talking with him in the nightclub
Cory
Helping him catch glowfrogs for Val
Talking to him in the guild hall
Completing The Dark Pits
Completing Cory’s quest (the orphanage)
Dancing with him in the nightclub
Choosing him as your first dance partner at the nightclub
Talking with him in the nightclub
Jovi
Helping him and Shiri with the imp quest
Talking to him in the guild hall
Completing The Dark Pits
Completing Jovi’s quest (at his parents' house)
Dancing with him in the nightclub
Choosing him as your first dance partner at the nightclub
Talking with him in the nightclub
Chichi
Rescuing him (obviously)
Whether or not you play with him at the party
Whether you play with him in Kobold Town
Whether you play with him other times (using the collar)
Conclusion
I already know there will be some issues with a few choices not being properly recorded (and in some cases overwritten) and I’m thinking on how to properly deal with that. But the release is now at the point where I need to wire what I’ve written into the mechanics of the game, and to do that requires getting this list in order. And the point of this post is to ask all of you if I missed anything in the list above. Any help you can provide would be appreciated! Thank you for your support!
Comments
Proxxie
Definitely. The way the plugin works is that each character has their own list of events that affect them, each of which can be weighted separately. So the same event can affect different characters differently (or not at all.)
MuteButtonHero
I could also see a single event having the opposite effect on different NPCs, even when it's not choosing between them. For example, when MC does something clueless Ana might see that as a negative because she doesn't want to be someone clueless, while Emily sees it as a positive because she wants someone easy to manipulate and outsmart. I think of it as personality traits. Ana wants someone mindful and brave, Emily wants someone easy to deal with, Val wants someone obedient, Sami wants someone adventurous (or innocent maybe), Shiri wants someone kind, etc. You may have different ideas of what they would like but you get the idea. So for a lot of stuff it could depend on what personality trait an action shows. So standing up to some demand of Val's would show fortitude and might impress Ana while it put off Val and Emily.
