Female NPCs (Patreon)

Hello everyone!

I'm currently working on some of the changes to allow Female Npcs. It'll be a fairly big change, especially as just adding them to the code won't be very interesting for players until there are scenes they can actually appear in.

As a reminder, the current update is the friendship one, which means that female NPCs are being written to appear in the game as friends of the player. This won't include lesbian sex – the massive amount of content needed to add lesbians means that it'll be a full major update of its own.

My intention is that most of the existing scenes will not be rewritten to support npcs of either sex – there's simply far too much content that relies on the npc being male. With the lesbian update a few might get that treatment, but for the most part there'll be alternative versions for key scenes.

With lesbians (i.e. not yet), there'll be a lesbian version of the club/date/home/makeout/sex/next-morning path, probably with fewer sex scenes than for men: most likely the final version will have 2-3 lesbian sex scenes.

For the friendship update I'll be adding female npc content that doesn't involve actually having sex with them. The key scenes I'll be working on for now will basically fall into three categories:

First, scenes that let you meet female NPCs.

Second, a variant of the befriending scene for them.

Third, one or more scenes where you actually do things with your female friends. Some of these will probably allow friends of either sex, others just women.

To start with, I'll likely begin with one from category three and have placeholders for the other two as I think that's more interesting than being able to meet & befriend a woman who then never appears again for the rest of the game.

As for Ivy, I eventually plan for the game to start with her as a friend. However, this means increasing the player's maximum friend count by one, which means reworking the friends screen to support 4 columns. Due to my hatred of UI work, that's likely to be one of the last changes I tackle before 0.4.

An important question with female NPCs is how their personalities should be handled. I want them to have the same core 5 personalities as male NPCs, but I'm thinking of replacing male traits like charming, sleazy and crude with a character type trait, which every female NPC would have exactly one of. These will serve as npc equivalents of certain traits that the player can have.

I've come up with a shortlist of these traits, but it's difficult to know how many will be reasonable to add to the game. I don't want to take things too far, add loads, and find that the time needed to write scenes that support them all means it's impossible to write a decent amount of female content.

Until I actually write those scenes, including the full lesbian sex scenes, I won't really know if putting in a new character type is a simple addition or a major task.

Because of this, I've decided to start with a limited selection of exactly 3 in the game. This will remain the case until after the lesbian update, by which time it'll be obvious how much work will be involved to add new ones. At that point I'll aim to put in more, and the final number will depend on how big a task it is to add each one.

This leads to the next question – which three should be added? It might be a long time before the lesbian update is complete, especially if it doesn't win the next vote, so these might end up being the only ones for a year or more. Moreover, if they prove difficult to add then the final number might be quite limited so these are the only ones that are guaranteed to be added.

I've decided that the best way to decide is by vote. I'll list my ideas below. The vote itself will start in a few days time, just to give people a chance to have their say about this post. As usual, I'll send out a PM to everyone who's eligible to vote in this one with details on how to do so.

As always with plans like these, things might change once I start writing. The descriptions are just my early ideas and should not be viewed as set-in-stone guarantees of how a character trait will end up in the final version.

Innocent

Sweet, innocent, naïve and perhaps rather shy. These npcs will tend not to have the 'jerk' personality, but they could be genuinely good people or rather selfish at heart. They'll be more likely to be younger, although the age range for female NPCs will initially be smaller than male ones – that's another thing I might extend later.

The innocent won't encourage the player to do sexual things, but there might be opportunities to teach her about love and lust, or to protect her from the desires of horny men. Her naivete could sometimes put the both of you in awkward situations.

Angry

Quick to anger, judgemental, and vicious towards those who she takes a dislike to. She could shield the player from over-eager men, or perhaps her negativity might drive away a potential romantic interest. If she and the player aren't close, then her cutting tone might make her an unpleasant rival or even a bully. Often these npcs will have a bad personality, but it might turn out that their negative ways are just a front to cover up an underlying insecurity.

Sophisticated

Worldly and full of class, she likes the finer things in life and comes across as being poised and confident. She sees nothing wrong in her or her friends indulging their desires and might encourage the player to enjoy something – or someone – that interests her. Always in control of herself, she naturally tends to dominate her relationships and won't easily let a friend or a man lead her around.

Chilled

Cheerful, relaxed and unfussed by life, she encourages her friends to take things easy. She likes to just see where life takes her, but her lack of planning can lead to difficulties – often financial, but sometimes otherwise. She has a playful streak and likes to take pleasure in little moments.

Romantic

Her dream in life is to meet the perfect man and have the perfect love. Of course she wants the same for her friends.

If she thinks a man might be 'the one' then she'll be blind to his faults. On the other hand, if she hasn't taken a shine to someone then they have no chance with her – only prince charmings need apply, she isn't one for casual hookups based on a fleeting attraction.

Ambitious

All that matters in her life is getting ahead in her career. Bossy and outwardly cold, her professional exterior might hide a warm and caring heart... or one as cold as ice. She'll "encourage" her friends to take life seriously and work hard to be successful, and because she's so sure she knows best she won't be very tolerant of them not taking her advice. A natural stresspot, if things start going badly her facade of control can easily crack.

Party-girl

All that matters is having fun! The party girl likes to drink, dance and flirt. A whirlwind of energy, she'll push you to have the craziest nights. Prone to giddy emotional highs, she can also fall into crashing lows. Watch out for a party-girl with a bad personality– even her closest friends could end up in a difficult situation if she thinks it'll be good for a laugh.

Prim & proper

Is she uptight? Old-fashioned? Religious? Whatever it is, miss prim-and-proper is very concerned about being decent and respectable. She won't approve of drinking, wild parties, or casual hookups. Instead, she might try to find her friends a respectable partner and of course that's what she wants for herself. The player might get a chance to help her achieve her dream.... or to encourage her to do things that'll leave her shamefaced the next day.