So I just had an interesting thought. One of my biggest beefs with this game is how 'absolute' the point track system is. I won't ever do this, and I wouldn't expect Sven to do it either with his current, and excellent,
overhaul mod (do check that out!), but if someone were to re-tool the game mechanics a bit, they could introduce separate stats for the most significant relationships in the game.
So Mr Wright, Brian, Dad, and other major NPCs would have each have point tracks associated with them, which would reflect Katie's trust/relationship level, blackmail level, and maybe say lewd level or similar such, along with more general stats that would reflect Katie's open-ness to things. Using this approach, players could lean into certain relationships harder than others if they wanted to, rather than the 'one size fits all' points track approach.
This could also be extended to the female characters in the game, say Vera Hannah and Candy, r.e. how much she trusts and/or likes each of them, and hence how willing she is to go along with their suggestions. This would open up some interesting sub-fork options where say she figures out that Vera is just manipulating her, but for some reason Candy might be a potential confidant.
A 'game mechanic-ey' side note here. You wouldn't necessarily want to allow Kate to just 'max out' all of her points with all of the men in the game. The idea here would be that she has a 'point pool' of sorts that gets split between the various relationships. Thinking along the 'there's only so many hours in a day' sort of thing, where spending more time with say Mr. Wright would neglect the other relationships she may be also be dealing with, affecting partner/antagonist mood levels appropriately.
This would certainly complicate things, and might require developing more 'sub-tracks' , but it'd make it possible to have significantly different endings from the handful that we have now. Say inviting Candy home for a Threesome with Dad, or maybe Brian. And where Katie might choose Dad over Mr Wright but still kick Brian to the curb, or if the planets aligned just right coaxes Brian into an open relationship where Brian gets dragged into an orgy situation or something... You get the idea here.
And along these lines, you might have a few nuances in how Katie feels at the game end. On one track she dies a little inside each day, and just 'gives up' on having dignity, while on another track she embraces her carnal side, and is empowered by it. And of course there's the 'Purity' track in there somewhere too, and how she feels about taboos (incest, bestiality, etc.) could further nuance things.
It'd be a significant amount of extra work, but might increase the replayability a bit as players would be a bit more free to try to lean in different directions, and also not be so 'absolute' at certain points, i.e. falling just one point short on some goal because of some seemingly minor decision earlier in the game, which locks out a bunch of things later on. So yeah, a bit more flexibility, and more endgame sub-goals...
There could also be 'counter blackmail' point tracks, where say Katie keeps working on finding a way to get out of under Mr. Wright's thumb, or where she's looking for ways to dig out of the 'being pimped out by that black guy' hole... That goes counter to the 'corruption' thing, but some people might like the 'purity/redemption' route as an option.
Katie's wardrobe comfort levels could also tie in to this, i.e. what she agrees to wear for Mr Wright wouldn't automatically translate to say Brian and Dad, her comfort/blackmail level with each other character would come into play here. On a related note, if she's trying really hard to keep Brian in the wings, some of those outfits that Mr. Wright gave her, well she might wear them for Brian to entice him, as an example. And if she's trying to coax Brian into an 'open relationship' as she becomes more open to threesomes and group sex... well you get the idea here.
A lot of people like seeing 'degraded' Katie, but I'm sure that there's a few people that wouldn't mind more of a 'Sexually Empowered' Katie. Heck, there could even be a 'Bondage Mistress' Katie in her future... It's corruption, but of another sort.
Picturing Mr Wright on his knees getting whipped by Katie while Vera slaps his face with a strapon atm...
It's just a thought I had, and I wanted to scribble it down here before it faded into the 'what was that idea I had again?' fog... It might be an interesting idea for someone looking to do a reboot somewhere down the road, or maybe not!
I have too many things on the backburner already of course!
