I couldn't resist to wait for the next major update 0.6 anymore, so I started my second session with 5b now.
They cut away the many relationship i-iii quests, so it's crazy how fast you get to the dating one already in the first season without a single grind by only waiting for objective event encounters to pop up.
I only just reached winter now, but the amount of points you already got by only attending class, study and danger room and other quest-related objectives is indeed enough.
I still don't know if the friendship stat is still relevant for quests and poly, as the current date quests only mention the old poly stat requirement.
I see no problem by texting all the girls over to a location like the classroom in a few seconds. Should the friendship stats don't matter anymore that much for poly, then yeah, gatherings aren't necessary anymore. Laura becomes Friend(s) to Rogue automatically after the single Friendship quest anyway. Not sure yet how it goes on.
I was surprised there was never really any complain about them coming over, so trust 300 (400 for Jean) for shirk_responsibilities isn't necessary anymore either. While the girls seem to like showering all the time in their rooms when I wanted to visit them, they could still be invited for studying during the same time phase in my own room.
The girls' stats with optimal dialogue choices are at start of winter about:
Rogue: 307/325
Laura: 215/303
Jean: 305/257
I spent 13 days in Fall. I flirted with the girls a little here and there and texted good morning/night/howareyou sometimes for the fun of it, but nothing excessive. No single pool visit.
I only tested hookup once before the fall finale where Laura still lacked 200 love and couldn't climax at all for at least a handful points.
Hookup unlocks with 175/175, but without touching the clothed crotch (200/200), it's not possible to get any climax at all for a single love point in the end as reward.
Rogue could get 21 love instead of 19 points for Jean thanks to her lower spank-req of 250/250 compared to Laura with 300/400 and Jean 300/300.
Rogue is really reluctant to plenty hookup actions early without going through the first date and love quests, as it seems. She even declined the laying-back stance, while the other girls with lower stats didn't mind at all.
I gave no gifts yet, as indeed going through all these objectives alone is truely enough for reaching useful point goals in particular for the quest objectives.
Storywise, season Fall is rather meant to develop friendship first, especially for Laura during the season finale. Being already able to start dating feels too early, especially hooking up with them anyway.
I still highly recommend to do these date quests with all girls later during winter at same time, so especially the overly sensitive Rogue with her "too early for poly" attitude won't mind the other girls' dates meanwhile.
Maybe best to start with Laura first then Jean followed by Rogue for date 1/3, so Rogue won't enter the love quest phase too quickly, repeating the same for date 2/3 and finally 3/3 to fulfill the date quest objective. Let's see how quickly the poly requirements fill meanwhile.
For beginners: you don't need to finish these sidequests in the first season, so take your time and make use of all these many quest objective encounters to earn love/trust stats.
Only Laura's Friendship sidequest is tied to her main season quest of Fall, so you have to finish at least this one. Her follow-up Dating quest can still be otained later in winter.
The season finales make a little use of stats here, friendship there, but only for some minor dialogue changes, so no big deal in missing out.
For the devs, I suggest to ditch this attend-class +20% bonus to make the progress a little slower with stats and XP.
It's still confusing enough if Kurt starts to explain the level/ability system during the first season before you can't even select any ability yet.
After removing all these stat limits for good, I think the game can do well enough without the extra +20% bonus as it covers the love/trust AND the XP point gain too much.
Considering that the currently highest hookup action req of 850/850 (anal), there is no real need to already reach that goal during the first chapter. The game is storywise still somewhat short with only one chapter without the last season finale yet, so let's better do without any extra bonus.
