I don't think LifePath needs to be isolated off in any way. I kinda said before - Yeah, there are a ton of variables put in play by it, but they only matter so long as events reference them and how they're referenced.
For example, the game isn't necessarily giving you a different outcome to every event because you were born into an [upper-class family] that [became destitute] before you [went to oxford] and [got a first] and [you fucked a professor for that grade] before [doing a mission in Syria] and [you have 200xp in horse riding]. One event may give you a variation because you [went to oxford]. Another might give you a variation because you [grew up poor] but with a minor additional variation because you [became destitute] instead of being born into poverty. Another may give you an entirely different outcome because your client is the [professor you fucked for a grade]. Etc.
This is nowhere near as unmanageable as people think, and unless the way it's coded is absolutely monstrous, these checks can still all be put in, with a tag to come back and finish them (which at least is there on the main TWINE editors - once games get past a certain size they do become unwieldy and people do use other tools but Ctrl+F in notepad is still a thing). In the meantime, the vanilla text can just be left in there, to be changed later. Or just comment out the if-section, idk. There's a bunch of ways of doing this depending on what's going on.
The only thing is that Crush would have to say "Yeah, we're progressing with Bangkok, but not everyone's character will get unique events. I have focused on builds which include [specific character traits/events] here while everyone else currently is treated as [a default option here] or doesn't trigger anything unique." (Unless he is abandoning all the wide character options, which... I mean, I guess he might, but I'm hoping isn't the case, considering all the work that went into them so far)
It's true that you can simply ignore the variables, or just use some of them if you feel like it, but I feel like Crush wouldn't want that (and people might be angry that their completely crucial choice to play bass in their teen years isn't reflected when whoring out /s)
But the problem comes mostly from a design perspective, since you have 2 choices:
- You write a scene,
mostly set in stone, and
mostly just one path. As you write it, you decide on alternate paths, and just check in your "library" to see if you can use any of the already preset variables. This is like knowing you want to build a certain desk, and you use certain tools in your toolbox. You don't need to use all of them.
- You want to write a scene, and need to consider every variation according to all the previous variables.
All in this context doesn't necessarily mean
every single choice (that is beyond unmanageable), but
all that could affect the scene somehow (if she gets asked about her hobbies, that's a lot of variations). This is like having to build a desk, but having to make it work for every person of every age, height, size, and that it fits in every possible room.
Option 1 builds a desk that fits some people, and will likely do so in a timely and efficient manner. Option 2 might manage to build a desk eventually, that fits everyone very well. If you're lucky.
