Ok, this is so well thought out and pretty interesting, that maybe you should help Novilon with writing this...whenever he comes back
. Still nicely thought out
I meant to respond to this before but forgot in answering a couple of other questions and then never ended up coming back. So better late than never.
If Novilon ever wanted help I'd be more than happy to give it. I have a ton of ideas for both new scenes or alterations of existing ones, or for how to tweak the progress of certain things to either make it a bit less dark/rapey or more lewd and sexy.
But I definitely get the feeling that scenario creation and writing are the areas that he needs the least help in and that what would actually make a difference would be coding and actual game engineering stuff which I can't help with because I don't know the first thing about working with ren'py.
Also I have a feeling that some of my inclinations might clash with Novilon's in terms of writing too. He's made it clear that he doesn't like the dark stuff (which, to be fair, I don't either) that he's not necessarily comfortable with particularly extreme fetish scenes, and has expressed concern about being able to write acceptable gay/bi content and has considered cutting some of that as a result. But while I'm not necessarily here for gay/bi stuff and not every extreme fetish turns my crank I think that some options should be there for people who want them. I know someone, possibly Novilon, once said that if they make the game to please every fetish then they likely end up pleasing none, but I think a game that's like 70% vanilla (heh) and 30% small alternate or extra scenes that push the boundaries a bit and are there for the people that want them but are avoidable for those that don't.
Like there's 1 watersports (peeing) scene in the game that requires jumping through some hoops to get. I'm not a massive pee fetishist, but I find that scene kind of hot and I imagine that there are others that do too. So I'd probably press to add another scene or two like that with optional choices that go down that road. Turning the "spy on Cream while she's on the toilet" bathroom option, the "special shower" while naked in the bathroom, or even an idea I suggested like being able to strip and have options in the back yard into more chances to involve Cream peeing as she climaxes or do something a bit dirtier. Stuff that's not always my taste and won't ever be a lot of peoples' tastes but exist to give the part of the fanbase that wants kinky options a few things to explore. All that's necessary would be to set concrete boundaries beyond which nothing will cross (like, say, no real rape/abuse, nothing violent to the point of causing harm (like spanking is ok, whipping to the point of involving descriptions of welts and blood would not be), and nothing beyond the grossness level of some squirting/pee (like no vomit or scat or whatever). The problem with this becomes that if this is Novilon's game and he doesn't want to go down that road then I can't and shouldn't clash with him over it. But I would probably always feel a little constrained if I wanted to push the boundaries a bit and he didn't.
Still, it's a conversation to be had if he wants to. And if not I'm happy just to be along for the ride. Maybe one day I try and learn ren'py coding and make a forked version but I wouldn't hold my breath about that.
EDIT: I'm editing this like a week after the fact because after making the post it sort of occurred to me that it could be seen as somewhat arrogant or presumptive or me just projecting that "yeah I could go work on the game if I wanted to" or something like that. Or that I'm being overly critical or negative of Novilon's work and his views on how the game should be handled. And because of that and the worry that it could lead somewhere bad, I wanted to correct/clarify things:
I think Novilon has done a great job of updating the game from where it started. Now I haven't played the FuzzyBunny iterations or other versions that it was forked from. I went right from the DealWithIt AvalonX release to this because I literally only found this forum last year. But just in knowing what he has talked about doing with the game in the last year I appreciate and respect the work he has done in broadening the game, cleaning up some of the mess that Avalon left when he stopped working on it and how transparent he's been about the process and what his hopes are for the future.
He's talked about removing some of the content that he doesn't agree with, like the darker and rapier aspects because they aren't his cup of tea. I respect that. They aren't mine either and I think that a big part of what makes a decision to remove that stuff defensible is that if he's the one working on the game then he shouldn't have to be subject to working on something he isn't comfortable with, particularly when if his discomfort impacts the quality of the work the audience that does like that content would likely be upset/annoyed at it being "substandard". If I were writing/coding for the game I certainly wouldn't want to have to write particularly graphic rape scenes that I wouldn't enjoy and I know that hating writing it would make the quality worse. Similarly I would also worry about writing gay or bi scenes because I'm not sure I could get "into" those scenes enough to give them the detail they would need to be up to par with everything else. That's not to say I think they shouldn't be there or that I'm actively turned off or repulsed by them, just that it's hard to do your best when you aren't invested.
And as for any presumption that I could/should have the opportunity to contribute to the game, that's not my decision and I would never presume it should be. Novilon has every right to tell me to fuck off and not pretend to have insight or interest in what should be put in his version of this game. That if I want to modify the content so badly to have Tails getting cucked by Sonic and Cream and Cream peeing everywhere while she gets off that I should just learn to code the game myself and make my own fork of it (and he'd probably be right. I have started looking for some tutorials so that I can understand the basics of how the game might function and maybe write stuff if I ever get the urge). I fully expect that at the very least the probable and expected reaction would be something like "it's cool that you're interested but I don't need any more writers". My post was not meant as an audition or a press to worm my way into the game at all. Just that I had the idea burning a hole in my brain and needed to get it out. If he asked for help I'd consider giving it a go. If he just wanted ideas, I'm happy to provide them. If he wants me to shut my trap and stop pretending like I'm auditioning for a gig, I respect that too. I'm just here as a fan of the game who's probably overstepping his bounds. Everything else is up to the author.
Yeah - forgot about the laptop.. TBH I don't think I've ever used it
It definitely is less of a "cheat" menu and more of a debug one. Only like half of the options are legit useful for gameplay if you just want to skip right to bunny banging or you need to reverse a mistake or missed opportunity (like missing the window to do an event with a specific time of day) or just don't want to piss around with getting rings or whatever. But I kind of feel like the second page options where you specifically set Cream to be comfortable in her panties/naked or not are really niche and are pretty much only for very specific circumstances that can actually make it harder to do things (like for instance if you set the option so that Cream
isn't comfortable naked you then have to jump through a bunch of extra stat boosting hoops just to get her to the point of getting her panties off. It's not like it sets you right on the threshold and just one nudge lets you re-do a first stripping scene.
Also it's kind of annoying that once-per-day type scenes aren't reset by resetting the day. If you take a shower or ask Cream to take a shower you can't do it again even if you reset the day (except for the option to have shower fun if you can already get her naked)