Rogue-Like 10/15 status update (Patreon)

So what's going on guys? Remember a couple weeks back when I was talking about the relationship mechanics? That's still been taking up a lot of my time. I also sent a lot of Kitty clothing sketches out for polish, and have been working on her alternate hair styles, the wet look, stuff like that.

But on the coding side, I've been working on relationships. The thing I was talking about last time was what Rogue would do (or eventually Kitty), if she found you screwing around behind her back, what if she broke up with you?  Then I realized I should also consider what if you want to break up with her? Other girls might be hesitant to date you if they know you're with Rogue, if you want all of them at once, it might take some juggling to get the balance right. This has led to some very complex dialog trees.

So right now, I'm still working through the process of building up the options. I now have a proactive option to start dating her (rather than waiting for her to ask), and also an option to start dating her again after breaking up. Don't get too comfortable abusing these options, because there are time gates involved, and diminishing returns. This might be an easy way to piss her off, but each time is a bit more hassle to recover from.

The bit I'm right in the middle of is the "breaking up" sequence, which is a series of small dialogs that flow ever closer to a full break-up, but with opportunities to turn it around if you change your mind (although with some stat hits, she does not take it likely). 

When I build these scenarios, I do them in a mostly chronological order. I start with dialog and logical flow. I write in starting points for the discussion, and then think what questions a player might want to ask to continue the conversation. Then I figure out the best way of having Rogue react to those choices, and move to the next thing. Occasionally it loops back around, or skips a step entirely. I work through in order how each choice would lead to each next option, all the way through the dialog.

Once I've done that, once the basic story has been established, the next step is to add in stats, and also stat-checks if I haven't already. This determines the penalties for a bad answer and benefits of a wisely timed one. It's not easy to come out ahead on a break-up conversation, but you can at least mitigate the damage, and there are actually ways to gain a little ground. After that's done, I throw in the "acting," deciding which expressions to throw in with each line of dialog. Overall, what could be a very simple system, instead is a rather massive one, offering plenty of different options depending on the choice you make, the choices you've made in the past, how each of her stats are relative to the others, that sort of thing. Those last two steps are what I'm working through now, and then I move on to the proactive "what if I also hook up with Kitty?" discussion. Once these are finished, I can begin making the mirrored version of them for Kitty's dialogs. I hope these will be fun to mess with once they come out.