Unfortunately I have to agree. The pregnancy mechanics were brought to functional and not further.
I had planned for pregnancy to be like a sidegrade. Lock off some content but unlock others. But as the game progresses it seems that it would just end up more of a hindrance than anything. While right now there is not pregnancy specific content, even when I do add it, it would probably still be lacking compared to normal content. So yes it is something I will need to address, even if it might seem a bit unrealistic like working the bar while pregnant (Although is that really unrealistic considering the lore?).
There are a few pregnant events, but they are so few it might as well be none. But absolutely in future there will be a fair amount of them. Haven and some specific events will still be locked for story reasons, but the sandbox and city events will be designed with pregnant characters in mind. Considering how much time you might end up spending while pregnant, it shouldn't harm your ability to have fun in the game. But yes right now, as pointed out, it just locks off all the current content.
Once the haven endings are done, I will be heavily focusing on the more general content the game has to offer. So we can expect to see this issue start to fix it's self soon.
Feedback: ask yourself "why is pregnancy in my game?"
I mean, there's a lot of fetishes around the concept, but it's very hard to suggest improvements unless we know why you decided to add the feature; what you want to accomplish with it. Don't just have it for no good reason.
And you should probably not have it as a static unavoidable background factor. Games need to offer players choices! For instance is it chiefly "because it realistically would be a factor in the female protagonist's life"? Do you like the sight of pregnant women? Or something else?
First idea: have pregnancy affect this particular MC by making her uninhibited and risk-taking. (Most women will obviously become protective of their unborn child, but this is a game where we want to see things happen)
For some, risk play is incredibly arousing. For this to be a factor, the game needs:
- why isn't the MC on contraceptives? (Any half-assed reason "I'm allergic to the pill" is completely fine. Of course, it would be entirely fine to feature a checkbox "allergic YES/NO" and have that serve as a pregnancy content enabler/disabler, I'm not suggesting you force this fetish on anyone since preg is not the main theme of the game)
- option to bring along condoms (ideally without micromanagement)
- ability to react in various ways when the man refuses to wear a condom ("do you promise to pull out, I don't want to get pregnant"). Basically, there needs to be a focus on how she reacts. Since this can become repetitive it should not happen every time and/or the player should be given the ability to pre-set her responses.
- emphasis on consequences of becoming pregnant anyway (it being a hindrance is not a problem here)
- how are repeat pregnancies handled? (If nothing changes and the MC can just produce baby after baby with zero consequences, the entire idea falls apart)
For some, the physical changes is what triggers them. Draw exaggerated bloatedness of the belly and the breasts! Having these effects progress further with multiple pregnancies is a great idea, though few players will probably want realistic sagginess, they want ever-more extreme effects (larger, always lactating, breasts that embarrass the MC... an ever-higher risk of pregnancies becoming twins, triplets or even bigger bellies). Throughout the MC should remain concerned but steadfast. Too happy and you lose the consequences part; too dejected and the game becomes too grim.
Well, that's just examples.
The important thing is that you implement features that turn YOU on, otherwise you end up writing code that doesn't do it for anyone. So if there's anything re: pregnancy you secretly want to happen, you should probably implement it no matter how extreme. (Add pregnancy ON/OFF and set it to off per default if you're concerned what your player base will think)