Hi Steelydan14 - thanks for playing the game!
Feels like I should explain this a bit better - so here goes.
The games that inspired me to create LoA had two story/game mechanics that I really wanted to copy:
1. As the story progresses, the choices become bigger and have much greater impact. Initially, the results of any single choice isn't as important as the cumulative course someone plots over time. It kinda sucked in the games where I made one choice early on and found out that I'd need to backtrack a very long way to experience the rest of the story.
2. Generally those games had a relatively linear 1st season/chapter that set up the different entanglements and interactions with the main LIs and plot characters before the escalating choices got out of hand. Basically the game forced you to interact so that when the training wheels come off on the decisions everyone has been through the "intro" etc.
In Law of Attraction I'm use a few different ways to make sure choices matter, but in a way I can gradually escalate:
- relationship points that show how much or how little a character likes you
- Gentleman & Scoundrel points to show your 'alignment'
- cash to make some decisions exclusive of other choices (not enough money to do them all by design)
- variables that record your major choices throughout the game so future episodes can reference them etc.
Each of the above metrics (and sometimes in combination) will open or close off various plotlines as the game progresses, and by the end of Season 1 it should be starting to be obvious which paths lead in what character 'directions'.
e.g. How you jump into a cab with Tiffy didn't change the story immediately, but later your total score with her will rule you in or out of particular content etc.
tldr: Your choices matter, you just won't see many consequences of those choices yet, and the choices escalate in seriousness as the plot goes on. I mean, the MC hasn't even met one of the main LIs in person yet... it is still very early days.
Hope that helps. If I can figure out a way to rewrite this wall of text in a way that is shorter and clearer, I'll add it to the FAQ.
I'll also have a dev update on E6 in a day or two
