Rogue-Like 02/26 (Patreon)

So people were pointing out things like "I asked her to do something, she said no, but then I could just ask her again and again," or even worse, ". . . and I'd get stat raises each time," which is a level of easy grind that isn't really a good idea. Yeah, there are hard caps on how high you can get a stat in most of these cases, but you can still grind out a decent amount of the stat levels you need this way, and if we're ever going to get a decent difficult level going on, we have to fix such cheap exploits, right?

But fixing this isn't effortless, it requires a way for her to remember what has and hasn't happened in some sense. She already does this in some ways, there is a counter for each sex act, so she knows how much she's done each thing, and there are a handful of variables devoted to specific scenes, so that she only runs them once, or a limited number of times, but using these methods would mean adding an individual variable for each specific question (or at least situation), which would mean hundreds of variables to track, clear, etc., huge pain.

So I think the method I've settled on will be simpler. I basically use lists. She remembers a list of things that she has done within the current block of time (ie "evening"), and she remembers a list of things that she's done "today." Some of these are more general, like she remembers if she refused anal, or remembers that she refused to have sex in public, others can be more specific, like a single combination of circumstances. The system is as flexible as I have the time and interest to use it. One of the main advantages is that it's easy to check and easy to clear when it's no longer needed.

So currently, one of the more fleshed out test cases is the basic sex scene. Now, if she refuses to have sex with you in the morning, and then you immediately ask her again, there is a slightly lower chance of success, and she'll mention that you just asked her, which she does not appreciate. Ask her again and she might boot you from the encounter entirely. Ask her later in the day, and your odds are a bit better, but she'll still mention that you asked earlier. This isn't an entirely negative thing either. If she agrees to sex in the morning, she'll reference that later in the day. That doesn't mean you can't change her mind, if you ask her, and she refuses, but then you do something that makes her much happier about it, you can change her mind on the second attempt.

As I work on the system, I'm constantly thinking of new places where I can employ it, so it should be pretty fun once I get it fully implemented, although it really is ballooning out portions of the dialog trees.

Also, I figured out a simple way to make the texting visuals a bit less awkward. I'm still considering a better way to have the word balloons shift to actual texting-looking options in an elegant manner, but this should work for now (and the phone will have other uses later).