Has anyone played non-cheating routes? Or at least routes without Fred? I'm stuck at the free-roam and can't progress further. Also some quests I think are bugged.
1) Marcel. I met him for the first time and let him draw Lily with her breast exposed and never heard from him again. I think at one point Lily said something like "I wonder if he sold my picture". I went to his house and couldn't interact with it. Now I unlocked free-roam and still can't access further content. It seems weird.
2) Pool guy. I did the leaflet job, Lily agreed to come in, he gave her cocktails and then she left (no option for sunscreen lotion), saying she could probably have fun with him. After that, I could come in to swim in his pool but he never appeared since then but the walkthrough says there's further interaction with him. Bug?
3) Brianna Webcam session? At one point Nick met a girl, then there was her friend who didn't show her face and apparently named Brianna. How exactly do they meet? Or was Brianna that girl that he was talking to on the bench? I'm confused. And how do you access that webcam session? Is it only on the cheating path?
4) Nicole. After getting the job at Castor, Nicole said that she wants to party. I went to her house, and Lily either says "It's too early, she didn't come home yet" or "Maybe tomorrow..." if I have 25 Stamina left. But this tomorrow never comes.
Also, is it possible to have Steve shave Lily in the non-cheating route?
I know you're supposed to be cheating in this game but then why make an option to not cheat if you can't even progress in this game on this path? Also, this path seems very boring. Does this path even have unique scenes? Nick is either working or distant or even out, drinking. Hell, for the most of the game he's not even at home. It seems like the game only punishes you if you try your best to remain loyal. I wish Lily could realize that she could do better and dump his sorry ass and find someone better. Even nerdy Mike appreciates Lily more. I find this game to be very similar to Eleanor from LOP but at least there you have bonuses if you're trying to be a loving wife.
And I don't really mind the cheating, I just want the corruption to occur naturally. From exhibitionism and flirting to "soft" cheating (kissing, touching) and only then move on to the strong sexual cheating (oral and then full sex). I have no problem with "accidents" due to Lily acting naive, like the one scene with the glory hole. It was funny, she sucked another guy by accident and didn't act like a whore. Also, I'm okay with reluctant scenes, where Lily thinks she doesn't really have a choice (like in the Castor mission where she is surprise-fucked by her "target" in order to get the information). But in all other scenes where you have the option to cheat, Lily acts like a dumb slut. To blow a guy in the bar in order to unlock the cheating path, Lily has to miss on purpose in order to sabotage herself and Nikky into forfeits and for a first cheating opportunity it seems rather out of character for Lily. Is there a way to have a gradual progression in this game without quests bugging out if you win at Darts in the bar? Or do you have to jump straight into cheating after that first hypnotherapy session and start acting like a whore in order to have a second session with Dr. Mark and access every scene in the game?
BTW, where is all that money that Lily is supposed to get from work? She receives 10k from the boss but it's never added to your inventory. Is 10k for story purposes and not for spending?
Also, is there a way to display your current Dirty whore / Loving wife score? Not seeing how many points you have is frustrating and hard. Lily just refuses everything no matter how hard you try to farm dirty points.
Yeah I think you are right about many of the issues you write about above.
The thing is that if you avoid Fred altogether or even try to do the "Loving wife" path (being faithful to Nick), you will discover issues... Some of it is because your Whore score is not high enough so some scenes simply do not enable because of that, but some issues also occur because that particular route may not have been tested enough (bugs). I can see that avoiding Fred will lead to discovering those issues/bugs. We need to forward these to P and P.
#1 above is probably in that category... maybe bug - post a save...
#2 the pool progression is dependent on a few things: you have to have complete a castor missions including the TV station in v1.2, all previous pool scenes (also the one enabled with by handing out leaflets), continue to visit the pool on Saturdays and Sundays, Whore score has to be high enough - do not know how high
#3 the Brianna is the girl in the park that is on roller blades (coming in at the end of the park scene) not the one he is sitting down with on the bench. He meets Briana on-line later on day 14. For the Briana path to happen, Nick needs to stay home in scene 8 (day 14) BUT I also think that Brian is only enabled IF Lily gives him the opportunity to do the Briana webcam session and scenes 9-11. BUT if Lily choose not to have sex with Fred scene 9-11 then Nick never gets to do the webcam session with Briana and then the Briana track never gets started... So in effect Lily has to cheat with Fred scene 9-11 or Brian will not happen.
#4 dot no know why... maybe bug - post a save...
YES it is a cheating game and most people play it that way. So, the non-cheating path is not very well tested... so yeah...
Also if she never cheats you miss like 95% of the content...
The money thing: $10K for the Castor job and other stuff like when she gets paid for paintings never ends up on her account - I guess we all know that, but we choose to ignore it because the money does no matter at this stage - at all. It's simply a bug but have no effect on game progression, so...
Lastly the important scores are hidden but you can see them in the save files - use a save file editor (I posted a link to the right save file editor a few pages back - search for it). there is no way to display them in the game. by design.
So, one day when i have time i will also try to play the more non cheating route and see what happens - it is not very well tested.
I recommend for now to try go the cheating route (in the guide) and do minimal cheating with Fred (some are show stoppers so you have to do them but not all) etc - read the guide. Some light "cheating" is necessary to progress the game - it's just the way it is...