TL;DR - Does avoiding optional themes--those a player can turn on or off--negatively affects gameplay?
Haven't tried this game in a while. Since the topic about avoiding certain scenes came up again recently in the thread, I had a question about it. Did any of the writers of the game--Arioch, Dark Master, or T51--ever go back to change the gameplay effects of viewing or avoiding the scenes? I read once upon a time that they might. The last version I've played, this still wasn't the case; thus, "optional" scenes weren't *really* "optional" but more-like semi-optional since they still carried gameplay effects. (This seems a bit confusing, I admit, but I'll explain further later in the post; I promise.)
I read once upon a time that NTR**, M/M, Futa, and the like were all optional. Some players have an issue with one or more of these themes. For example (minor spoiler), the BJ from the Skordred, the Dwarf, on Rowan during the modeling scene came as a bit of a surprise. I've read posts from a number of different players that they felt this came out of left-field. Yes, in retrospect it seemed to head that way BUT we were also expecting something like the netorare** choice where it explicitly states that one could turn off such a theme. Hence, the surprise.
**NTR in the broadest sense as I know it's a touchy subject. Thanks.
EW asked in the game's Patreon Community section, quoted directly: Are there going to be options to disable certain pairings (for example, if you don't want to see M/M content) similar to how there currnetly is an option to remove NTR?
There were two responses to this question by other players named Scorvus and Ernie which are quoted below, respectively:
"Nothing is forced on you and NTR is either enabled or disabled very early on."
"True, but M/M content is one of the most common things to have some who are absolutely against watching it. I think having a "disable M/M" would probably be among the better options. More so than NTR tbh."
Frankly, I agree with Ernie as M/M is not my jam; at all. Lol. Sorry, that's just not how I roll. :coldsweat:
So other than the NTR theme, there's no way to deactivate scenes (as far as I'm aware) other than just to avoid certain choices in-game. Technically, this makes it *optional* but not in a way most players see it, I think. I believe flipping a switch in settings or somewhere seem more akin to what people think of options. Plus, there's additional problems the way it's handled. Heck, even with the NTR deactivation presented in the game, this isn't fail-proof and a player can *still* encounter it.
Now let's go back to the first bit. Doing these things in-game and having them appear there DOES affect your game. For example (minor spoiler), telling Draith, the Dark Elf Beastmaster, to man the hell up and choosing ANY non-M/M or bromance option WILL have a *negative* affect on your game. The numbers are crunched in the background but Jezera will like you less and the player is "punished" in avoiding the scene by losing favor from his demonic patron. It happens elsewhere in the game as well whenever Rowan chooses not to engage in dick-dueling. I've never really noticed since I've always chose to avoid these types of scenes, but I did note that the detrimental effects in a script I've seen of the game.
Hence, I was wondering if the writers actually "fixed" this for the game yet (and not punish the player unduly for his or her preferences). For example, in "Katie's Corruption" by 3Diddly, the "optional" themes are -truly- optional. A player can enable or disable them and view scenes with them or not and it *will not* affect any of the stats in the game.
I apologize for the wall of text, but I did put a TL;DR line up above. *Smiles* Besides, I wanted to be clear in what I was asking. Thanks and have a brownie point if you read the post. Cheers!
