Thank you for your detailed reply.
Yes, most like to play as they desire and it's an impossible balance act. The addition of origin perks helps you start off closer to how you would like to play, but I cannot cater for everything people want and so working your own stats is needed. It would be more of a book/movie with the removal of stats because then the story couldn't play out depending on the different types of Sammy.
I could make stat gains easier of course, but I felt the current way gives a decent balance within the story and for progression without feeling too restrictive. You can get to 40-50 fitness before the first weekend is over so I think I have been quite fair compared to many other games.
Gaining stats is easy enough, especially with multiple places around the city to do so. If I do remember correctly, I was able to get to 60 body and 100 mind within a week and few days. But keeping it that high after two weeks without the bonus and with that degradation was quite the challange if someone wishes to also do other things, like missions, talking to NPC's or to scavenge around a bit.
Again an impossible balance act and I have had plenty of complaints to the opposite. That there is no sex in the game.
But to go into more detail, many games have a very linear progression of sex acts while others allow sex right from the start. Both get huge complaints for how they deal with things and because some players want more game while others more porn, there is no best option.
What I have tried to do is allow the player the choice. If you are agreeing to sex acts, then the game assumes you want more sex acts. If you are rejecting them then the game assumes you want a more pure run and acts accordingly (In combination with origin perks). So if Sammy is turning into a "cock hungry whore" it's because you chose her to be or put her in situations where she took control herself.
But of course this is still a porn game, so it will almost always end down that route anyway and is just more a matter of time.
I am not a fan of sex from the start nor the linear progression, especially if it's used for all characters. I think each character should have thier own opinion about it. But if such thing is in line with the character, then I'm fine with it.
It's nice player is having a free choice in this matter. After all it's a porn game, so it's rather obvious players aren't playing the game to keep Sammy away from the lewd actions. But it, sadly, does more bad than good. As player can quite easily go from casual encounter to gangbangs, trains and whoring, It's basically a double reward, as it's a scenes for the player and quite large amount of money to use on whatever they please. And, because there is simply no restriction and no requirements, no meaningful punishment for a player whoring Sammy, beside unlocking such an option, it's basically throwing all the struggle for money out the window as Sammy can simply whore her way out of everything, including the rent.
If someone wished to start whoring Sammy for money that's fine. But having Sammy actually having to struggle for a while first before she would even consider selling her body would be nice way to restrict it, instead of simply allowing players to use such profitable option to earn money just as soon as it is unlocked. And maybe creating a mechanic of "overwhoring" which is going to simply decrease the money people are willing to pay for Sammy the cock-hungry whore, due to her reputation of never refusing a cock or cunt to serve, if player is whoring Sammy too much.
That's also why some people may say there is no sex in the game, because there is simply not enough of scenes to keep them busy. If there is no struggle there can't be a reward. And a sex scene in a porn game is a reward. If all sex scens can be simply watched with but a few simple clicks, it can't be called a struggle, nor gameplay, yet there is a reward for basically nothing.
While some balance here is warranted (as well as more of the game to be developed), there is also the balance between struggle vs fun. I want the player to feel that Sammy is struggling to get the story points across, but I don't want to withdraw fun from the player by forcing them to spend most of the game hours working. I want to give players a believable enough scenario to role play in while keeping the enjoyment.
Well, for some the constant struggle is also fun, but I get it. Still I think the option to whore Sammy is just a bit too much of too good a bit too soon.
Strange pill is something I added for fun and not really "supported" as part of the game. More just a test of how extreme I could get with the perk system. So considering it a cheat is accurate.
Good to know.
Daily degradation is something people complained a lot about. Not sure what version you last played but it ended up getting seriously toned down at some point. Since toning it down though there hasn't been any complains about it so either it worked as intended or people for fed up complaining
Well, not gonna lie, as I don't remember either. With the starting perk allowing for greater gains maintaining stats wasn't that much of a problem, as it allowed me simply to train a bit later and keep it at least at smillar level. Without the starting perk it was simply a fight I wasn't able to win, as the degradation was greater than the gain.
Not every girl, but many, sure. There are lore reasons that explain a lot of this.
But it really all just boils down to this being a porn game. I doubt many players are too interested in helping track down a friends lost family heirloom or helping them find their long lost brother.
Well, Sammy is a Fixer. Fixing not only Institute problems, but also of those around could be a nice way to get some money and maybe a reward in form of sex scene if player wishes to see one. Sure, those might not be the greatest quests, but having few "fetch" quests ain't that bad either. After all, you can't have the good without the bad. And, depending on the writting, finding someone's brother may not be that much of a bad story.
I just find it weird. I would even call it immersion breaking, as it simply not in human nature to share that much. As someone provided example in in this topic. The football boys have thier very own girl to fuck as much as they please and instead they simply give her a quest to make gloryholes. And they don't even mind if she is a whore.
