Help Requested: Character Relationships
Greetings! 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!
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