Rinalivi

Newbie
Jun 27, 2022
18
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What's interesting here is not the sheer difference in armor and the associations it can make for Selene, but the fact that most players (judging by the context of posts about it) consider rape to be the basis of Survivor's trauma. Why else would she be worried about the hunters' not-so-much resemblance to soldiers, for example?

Well, when I work with this Origin, I divide her trauma into 4 components, in descending order:

1. The murder of her mother, younger brother, and sister.
2. Separation from her twin sister Sylvana and the unknown of her fate.
3. Gang rape by soldiers.
4. The unknown fate of her father and, in general, the loss of her home and everything that was dear and familiar to her.

As you can see, rape is only in 3rd place. The fate of her sister Sylvana worries her more, otherwise, Selene would not have gone to the “lion's den”, across the Republic to its capital, in search of her. Getting lost along the way and ending up where the game begins.

Thus, the main traumatic experience is the killing of most of her family. This is like a hole in her soul, unhealable. But at the same time, it's a foregone fact, and dwelling on it is not allowed by the personality I've prescribed for her. If it were otherwise, Selene would most likely be crammed into some hole, staying in a paralyzing depression. And you can't write a story with such a character... There needs a character who can act.

Then there's the desire to find her sister, which is her main driving motive. And that's why she joins the troupe. Sargon promises to help. In time.

The rape is also part of the trauma. But not the dominant one. Survivor has a number of lines that make her more suspicious and distrustful to people. But not always, not with everyone, and not all the time. As for her being open or closed to sexual encounters, that's entirely on the player's side. The game allows you to avoid all sex scenes without exception. It doesn't break the story.

Finally, her father's fate is also of concern to her. Some of the dialog in this Origin shows this. While Selene has some clarity about Sylvana's fate, she knows nothing at all about her father's fate. But at the same time, thinking about it all the time is pretty pointless for her. Therefore, the motive to find her sister becomes dominant and determines her actions.

That's a very fair point, I completely ignored the fact that she was on a journey to the capital of the republic when she got lost. Which is a huge step for someone who went through what she went through, therefore the simple "resemblance" of a soldier from the republic wouldn't have that big of an impact on her like i initially believed it would have.
 

Defiant Explorer

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Game Developer
Sep 2, 2017
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That's a very fair point, I completely ignored the fact that she was on a journey to the capital of the republic when she got lost. Which is a huge step for someone who went through what she went through, therefore the simple "resemblance" of a soldier from the republic wouldn't have that big of an impact on her like i initially believed it would have.
All in all, something tells me Selene Survivor will feel uncomfortable the next time she sees a soldier or guard in standardized Republic iron armor. But of course, she must meet them first. And the story just hasn't gotten to that point.
 

CarlH

Newbie
Jul 4, 2021
60
76
To be fair, the symptoms i'm thinking of are also quite subtle and easy to overlook.
Well, now I'm bound to go back and look, ain't I? Any hints - hot flashes, tender breasts, mood swings?

Based on the conversation with Murella as she is suffering from period cramps, our Selene is pretty much ovulating sometime in the early days of the adventure (provided she has a regular and average cycle). So a pregnancy wouldn't be out of the question by now.
 
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ffive

Conversation Conqueror
Jun 19, 2022
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Well, now I'm bound to go back and look, ain't I? Any hints - hot flashes, tender breasts, mood swings?
I don't remember/looked if there's more, but the one i spotted (in the script) was Selene throwing up which she chalked up to poor food quality she's scavenged while stuck on the little island, after jumper attack. Note, this won't happen for all pregnant Selenes, just the ones who had it happen early enough for effects to start to kick in. So she might be pregnant even if you don't get that little bit.
 

Defiant Explorer

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Sep 2, 2017
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Well, now I'm bound to go back and look, ain't I? Any hints - hot flashes, tender breasts, mood swings?
ffive is correct.

There are only two tiny manifestations. In the first one, the game only checks if variable pregnancy = true. This isn't very realistic because Selene could have had sex 10 minutes before and who knows? But the "signal" itself could very well come off as a trivial physical activity expression, so it's a minor thing. In the second case, the game not only checks the pregnancy variable but also the time factor (at least 10 game days, if I remember correctly). But there the manifestation is more prominent. Although, strictly speaking, the time is still too short, so this too can be considered not very realistic as well.

In general and overall, Selene will most likely realize whether or not she's pregnant at the beginning of Chapter 3, after the time skip of 1 or 2 in-game months between chapters. And of course, other factors could play a role, like one remedy that makes a pregnant Selene today not pregnant tomorrow, and she did not even notice it, because the pregnancy was at the very beginning. That's the territory of randomness, not guarantees. To completely rule it out, don't take various poisonous things.
 

Defiant Explorer

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Sep 2, 2017
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Hey, Kendra011. Aside from everything else in your review, I want to specifically mention that I never “positioned” my game as porn. Not in the features, not in the disclaimer, and not even in a whole scattering of comments here and there, where I repeatedly wrote that this is not a porn game.

An 18+ game? Definitely. But a porn game, i.e. one where everything is driven solely by the need to insert sex scenes? Nope, never.

And it's also not erotica, because all the possible sex scenes are way too detailed for erotica standards, which is essentially the same as porn, just more... restrained in its descriptions. My game doesn't fit into the conventional genre boxes, and that's one of the biggest challenges I have to work with.
 

DarthSion98

Member
May 31, 2020
444
520
Hey, Kendra011. Aside from everything else in your review, I want to specifically mention that I never “positioned” my game as porn. Not in the features, not in the disclaimer, and not even in a whole scattering of comments here and there, where I repeatedly wrote that this is not a porn game.

An 18+ game? Definitely. But a porn game, i.e. one where everything is driven solely by the need to insert sex scenes? Nope, never.

And it's also not erotica, because all the possible sex scenes are way too detailed for erotica standards, which is essentially the same as porn, just more... restrained in its descriptions. My game doesn't fit into the conventional genre boxes, and that's one of the biggest challenges I have to work with.
TL;DR Inner Empire is a well written RPG that happens to include a bunch of adult content because that's what people did back then.
 

Defiant Explorer

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Sep 2, 2017
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TL;DR Inner Empire is a well written RPG that happens to include a bunch of adult content because that's what people did back then.
I would say that this is a case where the protagonist's sexuality, her willingness or unwillingness to weaponize it, directly affects the story. Even though in the first (current) chapters, it may look like a kind of fanservice that could have been done without, I think somewhere around chapters 4-5 - it will become more evident what I just wrote about and why I go this way and not another.

One more aspect of adding highly detailed sex scenes was my long-standing internal protest against the peculiarities of modern culture. Where many people won't bat an eye at any kind of violence, even ultra-violence, but if you dare to add detailed sex scenes, these very people bring all hell on you, “Oh, no! That's disgusting! Dirty porn! That's not right! Blah blah blah!”
 

XVGuil

Member
Aug 6, 2019
248
161
I presume the area where the story takes place isn't very mountainous because the protagonist doesn't seem to believe that snow exists?
or it could be in a tropical or equator? Many mountainous regions in Indonesia never see snow, only hails that break your roof at most, and this doesn't happen at every mountainous region either..
 

ffive

Conversation Conqueror
Jun 19, 2022
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or it could be in a tropical or equator? Many mountainous regions in Indonesia never see snow, only hails that break your roof at most, and this doesn't happen at every mountainous region either..
The area game takes place isn't near equator (which is quite literally too hot to live in, if it wasn't for some specific plants) but the planet is quite hotter place than Earth in general, being iirc in a system with two suns.
 

XVGuil

Member
Aug 6, 2019
248
161
The area game takes place isn't near equator (which is quite literally too hot to live in, if it wasn't for some specific plants) but the planet is quite hotter place than Earth in general, being iirc in a system with two suns.
I mean, if people could live in Hell, we could live on Earth with 2 suns.
 
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Defiant Explorer

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I presume the area where the story takes place isn't very mountainous because the protagonist doesn't seem to believe that snow exists?
The area game takes place isn't near equator (which is quite literally too hot to live in, if it wasn't for some specific plants) but the planet is quite hotter place than Earth in general, being iirc in a system with two suns.
I mean, if people could live in Hell, we could live on Earth with 2 suns.
A little north of the equator. The black and white map shows a speck of the White Sand Desert. The equator is even further south, where the so-called Endless Forests (which are not forests, but it's a long story).

Some facts:

  • Seasonality is weakly expressed, there are only Dry and Wet seasons (half a year each). The temperature in the Dry season is somewhere around +30/+45 °C. So when the game goes on to describe that Selene is hot, she really is hot.
  • In the Wet season, the temperature is somewhere around +20/+25 °C. On particularly cold days it can even be +15°C.

Curiosities from this:

  • In the Valatean Republic, they don't wear underwear (in the sense we know it). It's not just the prevalence of spacious types of clothing like togas and tunics, but also the banal temperature. Way too hot.
  • Because of the location of the Sky Ring around the planet's equator, from this vantage point (Republic territory), it's kind of at a slight angle to the south. A perfect natural compass. Well, when the sky isn't covered in clouds. Like rainy days of the Wet season. It's hard to get lost in this world as long as you can see the sky.
  • Most people in the Republic have never seen snow. Although there are small caps of snow in the central mountains of the country. The mountains in Ranala (to the north) are somewhat more snow covered. So the phenomenon is known, but like many things that someone has never seen, is not taken for granted. And some people don't believe at them at all.
 

Kalenz123

Active Member
Dec 13, 2018
602
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Some facts:

  • Seasonality is weakly expressed, there are only Dry and Wet seasons (half a year each). The temperature in the Dry season is somewhere around +30/+45 °C. So when the game goes on to describe that Selene is hot, she really is hot.
  • In the Wet season, the temperature is somewhere around +20/+25 °C. On particularly cold days it can even be +15°C.
With such hot seasons all the characters should have way darker skin tones.
 

ffive

Conversation Conqueror
Jun 19, 2022
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With such hot seasons all the characters should have way darker skin tones.
They're already darker than what passes for average in most games. The skin tones are similar to people in North Africa. The Yardanari, who have re-settled from farther south are darker, and then there's people in the Black Phalanx who are darker still.
 
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