Cheating options

[khumak]

I'm working on a game where I've been a bit torn on how to handle cheating and wondered what other people thought. My initial idea was for the main character's high school girlfriend to cheat on him before the player takes control and have the game start off dealing with the aftermath of that with the player having the option to "remember" what happened or decide it's too painful to think about, in which case he doesn't have to see it, but it still happened and will be referenced throughout the game later.

That was the only way I could think of initially to start the game off with the main character getting cheated on without a lot of people being mad about it. Now, I'm kind of leaning more towards a no cheating flag that is enabled by default, but that the player can spend a character creation point to disable if he wants. The no cheating flag would mean no character in the game will cheat under any circumstances (including the planned initial HS GF cheat). That means about half of the girls in the game will be unconquerable since they have boyfriends, girlfriends or are married, but it also means all of his own love interests are entirely safe from rivals.

I think the appeal of conquering the girls who would otherwise be off limits give you a strong incentive to try the game without the no cheating flag while still giving people the option for an entirely safe playthrough. I also am planning on having a couple of game+ perks that can be bought to fudge things a bit in the player's favor without violating the no cheating flag. One example is a happy ending perk that makes oral sex not count as cheating if it comes at the end of a massage. The other one is a perk where a woman can sleep with someone of the opposite sex of their partner and it doesn't count as cheating.

Both of those perks only benefit the player so his own love interests would still be safe, but for instance with the happy ending perk he could get a massage from a married woman that ends with her giving him a blowjob with the no cheating flag enabled. With the other flag enabled he could potentially fuck a lesbian (he would still have to find a way to overcome her preference for women) who has a girlfriend or convince a married straight woman to engage in some lesbo action that may or may not include MC (he could touch the other woman in an FFM scene but not the married woman).

What do you guys think? I think handling it with perks like this is a good way to let people really customize the game to their liking. I have a bunch of perks planned that give the player an advantage but most of them won't override the no cheating flag, and the no cheating flag I think is a good trade off between a completely safe playthrough vs extra rewards for allowing more risk.

 

[Meaning Less]

That means about half of the girls in the game will be unconquerable since they have boyfriends, girlfriends or are married, but it also means all of his own love interests are entirely safe from rivals.

I believe you are misunderstanding cheating a bit.
Usually the cheating tag points to the mc having a significant other and cheating on them with someone else, so if the main character has no partner after the intro I don't believe the cheating fetish would be accounted for when fucking married girls after he is single.

Instead what you seem to be talking about is more netori/swinging depending on the level jealousy you create when conquering those girls:
-if their boyfriends/husbands share them with the mc it would be swinging;
-if you steal them it would be netori;
-if someone else steals them from you it would be netorare.

So I just find a bit silly to avoid all forms of adultery from a game since usually what people avoid are just more specific versions of it, many love to steal girls but hate having their girls stolen, and others would love to steal girls but only if their husbands aren't in the same scene with the mc so maybe I would refine the perks a bit more so you can avoid just specific parts of it instead of "half the game" because at that point most people would claim it isn't avoidable anymore.

People are going to complain either way, just be clear enough about what the goal of the game is upon release instead of trying to camouflage it as something else. Most complains actually comes from baiting people into fetishes they dislike, but if you are clear the game is about adultery it shouldn't cause that much fuss.

Aside from that you shouldn't be worrying about complaints anyways, just do your game as you like and people that are interested in it are going to gravitate towards it regardless.

 

[moskyx]

When someone has to distort his original idea (a very simple and common scenario, actually) to this extent just to calm down some still imaginary haters he fears to be too much vocal against his creation, you know this world is doomed. Fuck this 'safety' thing, if you have really envisioned a game where cheating is a plot catalyst and a key part of the gameplay, why would you release a 'safe' version without it? People will complain about not being able to get all those girls that are automatically excluded by the safety block and mods will destroy your game to give them full access anyway.

Seriously, just do what you think is best, but the whole point is really discouraging and worth of some thinking from everybody. If it all comes down to 'maybe some people won't play my game because of some content in it' well, you just can't please everyone, so at least please yourself

 

[anne O'nymous]

When someone has to distort his original idea (a very simple and common scenario, actually) to this extent just to calm down some still imaginary haters he fears to be too much vocal against his creation, you know this world is doomed.

Especially when, like you implied, it will make other imaginary haters be too vocal because of what will not be permit despite the story premise. And in the end it will make a more complex story and game mechanism, what will lead to more risk of bugs and/or confusion regarding the story.

 

[khumak]

I think I'm just going to add some more perks like the happy ending one that can allow people who really want to have their cake and eat it too, to fudge the rules more as they earn more and more perks. So initially a large number of girls will be off limits with the no cheating flag but if you get enough game+ perks you can eventually get them all. If someone disables the no cheating flag there will be more options that are entirely unavailable if it was enabled but there will be some risk involved since your own love interests will need to be protected (or not if you're into that).

 

[Jofur]

To be honest, playing a game knowing that a massive amount of content isn't available always lessens the experience a lot, to the point where I often lose interest and stop playing. As people have said, it's better to just make the game you want to play first and foremost. You can't please everyone.

I'm not sure I understand the whole "perk" thing, but if you are gonna go ahead and have content you can turn on and off, it's better to just make it an option somewhere rather than something you have to unlock through gameplay in some convoluted way.
Also, personally I prefer it if you can turn off optional content at the start(or toggle it in some menu) rather than the game constantly interrupting you asking if you want to see something. Having the game constantly ask you if you want to piss on a character or whatever else turns you off ends up killing a lot of sex-scenes for me.

 

[Meaning Less]

I'm not sure I understand the whole "perk" thing, but if you are gonna go ahead and have content you can turn on and off, it's better to just make it an option somewhere rather than something you have to unlock through gameplay in some convoluted way.
Also, personally I prefer it if you can turn off optional content at the start(or toggle it in some menu) rather than the game constantly interrupting you asking if you want to see something. Having the game constantly ask you if you want to piss on a character or whatever else turns you off ends up killing a lot of sex-scenes for me.

Perk systems do work, several games already use it, usually you unlock more poses/fetishes as you level certain skills and people are free not to level stuff they don't like.

Just the optional content flags at the start of the game I find unnecessary, if avoiding having your girls stolen from you is a big mechanic in the game, wouldn't entirely skipping that make the gameplay meaningless? just make an "easy mode" instead that will make it harder for others to steal your girls unless you accept defeat or something like that and problem will be solved.

Optional content is a nice feature but I feel like only small side stuff should receive this treatment, when the premise of the game is not having girls stolen from you I wouldn't call that avoidable anymore because it might be misleading (unless I'm misunderstading your premise).

 

[khumak]

Perk systems do work, several games already use it, usually you unlock more poses/fetishes as you level certain skills and people are free not to level stuff they don't like.

Just the optional content flags at the start of the game I find unnecessary, if avoiding having your girls stolen from you is a big mechanic in the game, wouldn't entirely skipping that make the gameplay meaningless? just make an "easy mode" instead that will make it harder for others to steal your girls unless you accept defeat or something like that and problem will be solved.

Optional content is a nice feature but I feel like only small side stuff should receive this treatment, when the premise of the game is not having girls stolen from you I wouldn't call that avoidable anymore because it might be misleading (unless I'm misunderstading your premise).

I'm planning to have it set up so that there's a bunch of game+ perks you can earn which unlock more content the more perks you earn. On your first play through, a lot of stuff will be completely impossible. You'll have to enable some of the game+ perks you unlocked in your next play through to make more things possible. Each new perk you unlock gives you more starting points to buy perks in later playthroughs as well. So for instance on your first playthrough you have 0 points to spend on perks unless you pick one that is actually a disadvantage like slob or scrawny and gives you points to spend on something else. If you have all the game+ perks you'd have more like 20 pts to spend on perks instead of 0.

So it kind of has a built in difficulty system in place where the more realistic options get easier the more perks you have enabled and some of the more unlikely options like mother/daughter FFM scenes become available if you have the right perks to pull it off. So tailoring your perks to allow the MC to cheat but not his rivals is just one of the ways you could use the perk system.

 

[Meaning Less]

I'm planning to have it set up so that there's a bunch of game+ perks you can earn which unlock more content the more perks you earn. On your first play through, a lot of stuff will be completely impossible.

As a personal recommendation I also would make it so you can unlock most of the game content in the first playthrough because most people will just play it once (Unless the game is pretty short or is built upon this rewind mechanic).
But again at the end of the day you should just create what you believe is right for your game, because no one but you can see the full picture yet.

 

[Jofur]

Perk systems do work, several games already use it, usually you unlock more poses/fetishes as you level certain skills and people are free not to level stuff they don't like.

A perk system in general is a fun idea don't get me wrong. I just think it's a bad idea that people have to spend points just avoid content they don't want to see. For example imagine if you had to spend perk points in Skyrim to AVOID the crafting minigame instead of just being able to ignore it. I think at that point it's better to just not have the option in the first place. If the game is about cheating, be upfront and make it a game about cheating.

So tailoring your perks to allow the MC to cheat but not his rivals is just one of the ways you could use the perk system.

The issue is for a lot of people like me who don't enjoy NTR stuff, we are never gonna play through the entire game or massively gimp our character just to get the non-NTR version(unless you can cheat the perks). So by all means have them as optional perks if it's easy to do. But I wouldn't waste much effort on it if you are hoping to use it as a way to reach a wider market. Just embrace the cheating gameplay if that's what you are interested in.

 

[khumak]

I probably didn't explain my perk idea as well as I should have. All of the game+ perks will be achieveable during your playthrough and if you earn it during a playthrough you get it for free and you gain it's benefits during that same playthrough. Buying it at the start just means you get the benefits of that perk before it would be possible to earn it for free during a playthough.

Some perks will be pretty easy to get like one you get for banging all of the strippers, which will be possible in the stage right after the intro. Some will be a lot harder to get like one massively reducing the incest penalty, which will normally only be possible to earn near the end of the game. So the incest one is a good example of one that you'll want to buy at the beginning if you want a shot at those mother/daughter threesomes or some naughtier scenes with mom and/or sis before the end.

Many of the early to mid game scenes will have good endings that are possible to achieve without game+ perks but will have wilder, even better endings that are possible with game+ perks you won't have yet unless you started with them. For instance the intro will have some rather unlikely gallery achievements that will only be possible with most of the relevant game+ perks and it won't have been possible to actually earn anything by that point, you have to start with them.

Most of the hottest scenes near the end will be achieveable regardless what perks you start with since you'll probably have earned most if not all of the rest by then.

You won't be able to buy all of perks, but you can earn the rest by the end of the game. You will have to decide which ones you really want at the beginning and which ones you'll just earn through gameplay. You might be a MILF guy and want to get all the perks that make it easier to have your way with them as early as possible. You might want to focus on the sorority girls and get all the relevant perks for them at the start. You might really want to bang all the "taken" girls, in which case you'll want to load up on the cheating related perks.

The no cheating perk idea is really just a way for people to avoid negative consequences related to cheating. Most of the cheating scenes where MC bangs a "taken" girl will have both a safe version that doesn't count and doesn't come with negative consequences and more of a bad idea version where he can still bang her but he gets caught and suffers the consequences.

If you're the type who never plays a game more than once then you probably won't like my game. In my opinion, if I make a game that's only worth 1 playthrough then I've failed anyway. So it's time to go back to the drawing board.