And indeed while I'm criticizing what appears to be the uniform ethnic choice of males, on the other hand the writing seems to avoid the silly raceplay stuff, so my hats off for that. I didn't know mc had any appearance described, I must have missed it - some of his images show him as a white guy, some show a black guy (tho these may have been bugged brian images in wrong place).
Still, my skepticism remains, especially the more I look at code - surely things like w.pref.bk or w.pref.sq aren't what I'm imagining?
Sorry, I misspoke, the MC himself is white, his best friend is black.
Yes, those preferences probably mean what you think. First, they are preferences. Everyone has them. If a girl is more attractive to blondes than redheads, why would that be an issue? Obviously, when a preference is a physical trait, it is only a preference relating to physical attraction. Physical attraction is not the only thing that people are attracted to. Second, one of the two doesn't have anything to do with race, so I'm not sure why you brought it up in a convo about race.
Also, the way this code is written, preferences are built up based on your actions. So if you are seeing a value greater than 0 for a racial preference, then you have played the game in a way to build that statistic.
1) After picking route choice open or cuck (id prefer swing but not in game yet), the next progression is wife telling you about a random hookup. This was odd enough as a first step, since you'd expect them to take steps together at least on cuck path, but if mc enjoys it and asks her to tell more, clearly he's embracing this change in their relationship dynamic.
2) The Brian stuff only occurs after you go through what, 8+ screens of encouraging your wife to strip more in front of him? I'd say it's pretty clear what the mc's preferences are at this point.
1. Agree to disagree. 25 year olds generally tend to default to dating apps, especially for random hookups. In the convos, the husband never presents the idea as something she needs his permission to do. Her being told, we should fuck other people, would be followed by, ok, cool, I'm gonna find someone to fuck then. Enter dating app. And to me, being into hearing the details can be a transitional step before just jumping right into watching it happen.
2. Are you unaware that maybe a man would want to show off how sexy his wife is, but not necessarily want her to fuck someone else? Do you think all models, strippers, etc., are either single or prostitutes? Obviously not. The "fashion show" stripping has two possible outcomes: one w/ the wife and the husband, the other w/ the wife and Brian. But even if he is interested in this possibility it doesn't nenecessarily follow that he is 100% ready for it to happen, for him to be involved, etc.
The idea you put forth in your spoiler; of mc not having a cuck fetish yet him allowing his wife to fuck around really only makes sense to me in an ntr context. Meaning quite simply, why on earth would anyone have their wife fucking around if they didn't desire that themselves? This idea of "coming around to a sharing fetish" whilst starting from a cheating/less enthusiastic framework is a purely NTR fan concept, and you see it in a ton of games describing themselves as 'ntrs' games but more accurately appealing to NTR crowds. Completely at home on an NTR path, but out of place on a cuck/hotwife path. I would consider forking these paths at some point during the strip night, like [MC showing an insecure reaction to his wife showing off --->ntr path] vs [MC cheering and encouraging her ---> cuck path].
Or, have this all occuring later in the game compared to other events. I was quite suprised nothing came of the boss storyline, intuitively this felt like an organic stepping stone after having the initial WTalk_Relat1. E.g., boss invites you out to club, starts flirting with your wife, wife pulls you aside and says she wants to go further with him, etc. Instead, out of left field we have the wife telling you about some rando she fucked.
Long story short, I think the paths would be great if they happened as they were described in InstructionsStart. Right now, it's a blend of unfaithful and pseudo-open-relationship; technically he gives his consent but it sure feels under duress.
Yes, this is literally the very first release of a work in progress. There is a lot more storytelling that hasn't happened yet. I kinda feel like you're saying "the ending of this story doesn't make any sense at all based on the first chapter." I am sorry if I am misunderstanding the intent of what you're saying, but that's how it's coming across. Furthermore, I'm seeing a lot of discussions of the tropes present in other games, even while you talk about how my game doesn't really have any of those tropes. I assume that you're not familiar with my other game. The only reason that I started making games was to avoid some of the shitty tropes that are all over games made by lazier people. I won't say that I have been perfectly successful in all cases, but I'd prefer to just discuss what's in my game(s) as opposed to things in other games. (Unless we're talking about those other games in other parts of the forum ---- which we are both apt to do as well lol.)
"Nothing came of the boss storyline" YET. (You probably didn't see at least one wifepov scene that will come in.) You are literally describing the way that storyline will be progressing. But the game is not finished. Nothing came of Shaun yet either. Or Beth. Or any of the characters that haven't been introduced yet. I explained in another post (I thought it was my response to you) why I started with Brian from a coding perspective, that he is not intended to be the very first event in the long-term development of the game, that this is not a linear game and that a lot of the development will be to create more breadth. A lot of what I think you are saying are specifically incomplete parts that will be finished.
For example, one weakness right now that I am working on improving in future releases is specifically the difference between the wife's pov scenes and telling the story w/ no pov. Part of the issue is how to have her still making decisions that have stats effects off-camera (which is mostly there but needs a little bit of tweaking in the next update to reflect a couple of last minute revisions). The other issue is with how to have enough impact tied to these off-camera moments to build the feeling of mystery, excitement, etc. I'm still working on that & it should get better as the story develops and I have more opportunities to incorporate these types of impact into the narrative.
Long story short: Take a breath and let it happen.
Unrelated - I think some player's critiques on a hint system or walkthrough could be remedied simply by adding a few more stats to the StoryCaption display. Perhaps the current path selected, or the h.pref.cuk/h.pref.opn/h.pref.swg values so players know they're actually making progress. I understand the motivation in keeping w.luv and w.rsp hidden, but with no attributes shown the player can feel lost like they're not making progress.
I don't like crowded design. The wife's stats are there if playing with her pov, but not otherwise. The game is not a purely stats-based progression, so stats alone are meaningless for story progression. They do have more meaning when it comes to things like sex scenes, etc. The Love/Respect/Satisfaction/Happiness stats, together w/ Arousal, are a good status check on the relationship at a meta level. Beyond that, most events are tied to previous events and reactions to those events, combined w/ stats. If I put too many stats over on the side, it could create the perception that the stats are themselves more important than they actually are.