Ren'Py The Null Hypothesis [v0.7b] [Ron Chon]

[RoadWulf]

Laura still seems bugged for me. I have run through every single thing in the sex menu (that she'll do, there are some she'll just flat out say no to.) I have her up to the Large butt plug. Her love and trust are maxed. We're past the I Love You conversation. Multiple dates, multiple times studying/training past what's needed, all quests done, sexy time every day.

And still no sex. Just anal.

And to make matters worse, I just saw a conversation where Jean asks "How it was" and Laura responds with "Very satisfactory", clearly indicating that sex should have occurred but didn't.

 

[Crichton1]

Laura still seems bugged for me. I have run through every single thing in the sex menu (that she'll do, there are some she'll just flat out say no to.) I have her up to the Large butt plug. Her love and trust are maxed. We're past the I Love You conversation. Multiple dates, multiple times studying/training past what's needed, all quests done, sexy time every day.

And still no sex. Just anal.

And to make matters worse, I just saw a conversation where Jean asks "How it was" and Laura responds with "Very satisfactory", clearly indicating that sex should have occurred but didn't.

It's barred by becoming bf/gf and some events. Try sleeping alone, she'll probably have an event about setting up a date before her first time. Then you just have to go on the date, she'll have sex with you at the end and unlock it for the future.


"It" doesn't always mean you had vaginal sex. You had sexy times, she was satisfied, congrats.

 

[Armstrong]

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.

And that is good. Game don't need this excessive grind just for it to be there. I had plenty of it in 0.2b and I stopped playing after that waiting for improvements and bug fixes. 0.5b is big improvement in this regard and I enjoy it so much.
If people want that type of grind devs should just add hard mode, so everything can only give +1 stat and they can have "fun" with that.

 

[freddygonzo]

If people want that type of grind devs should just add hard mode, so everything can only give +1 stat and they can have "fun" with that.

I'd go nuts as well with too many grinds. The money grinding by minigames in some other games has been enough torture so far.
I test the point gain during my current second session how well it plays until the end of summer without any grind and gifts. Let's see how many stat and friendship points are still needed for quests. Finishing season 1 already showed a vast headstart for season 2, as long as you don't pick every dialogue choice in dummy ass style.
I'm only afraid that there is no activity motivation left after the end of chapter 1 besides enjoying the very well in-depth character stories for chapter 2 next year maybe; ignoring some of the crazy achievement goals ofc left. Let's see what the future brings for this great game.

 

[jvbatman]

Taking showers is still random taking and not taking stamina. There doesn't seem to be any way to tell if it will or not. From previous posts I thought the devs said it wasn't supposed to take stamina? Real weird that Null is randomly taking 4 hour showers.

 

[freddygonzo]

Taking showers is still random taking and not taking stamina. There doesn't seem to be any way to tell if it will or not. From previous posts I thought the devs said it wasn't supposed to take stamina? Real weird that Null is randomly taking 4 hour showers.

I hadn't really paid attention to the stamina bar so far, but I've tested this now after reading in the files about it.

if time_index not in [0, 3] or Player.History.check("showered", tracker = "recent") > 1:
$ clock -= 1

time_index = 0 is morning, 3 is night.

I've tested it in the game: in the morning and at night, you get one free shower action. That's what also Kurt suggested during one his tutorials.
During the other times of the day, there is always a stamina reduction when showering.
More stamina = more actions per time of the day.

PS: you even get more XP by more stamina...
I guess increasing all stamina abilities first is the way to go if someone aims to grab as fast as possible all abilities, besides enjoying the endurance and higher love point rewards for hookup events.
That's why it is no good idea to fool around too long in the first Fall season, as you can only pick the first stamina ability during Winter. The daily stipend also increases per season next to the job pay by Charles.

 

[RoadWulf]

It's barred by becoming bf/gf and some events. Try sleeping alone, she'll probably have an event about setting up a date before her first time. Then you just have to go on the date, she'll have sex with you at the end and unlock it for the future.


"It" doesn't always mean you had vaginal sex. You had sexy times, she was satisfied, congrats.

Well I've slept alone a few times and found her in the bed in the morning, but nothing has happened except that. She never brings it up, and has come up to me several times about dates but it's never that conversation. Love is Max, Trust is Max, had the Boyfriend/Girlfriend conversation, had the I love you conversation.

Edit: It finally happened.

 

[swiver]

Most of the larger gifts appear in their rooms as well.

hadn't noticed the gifts! thanks for heads up

IS there a way to reduce the characters mood once you maxed love and trust?

like reduse love/trust? just be mean, asking for stuff they'd rejected during sex, and choose the bad stuff in dialogues?

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.

I'd go nuts as well with too many grinds. The money grinding by minigames in some other games has been enough torture so far.
I test the point gain during my current second session how well it plays until the end of summer without any grind and gifts. Let's see how many stat and friendship points are still needed for quests. Finishing season 1 already showed a vast headstart for season 2, as long as you don't pick every dialogue choice in dummy ass style.
I'm only afraid that there is no activity motivation left after the end of chapter 1 besides enjoying the very well in-depth character stories for chapter 2 next year maybe; ignoring some of the crazy achievement goals ofc left. Let's see what the future brings for this great game.

nope, that does sound too quick, esp. since as a couple players and dev-team have been explaining, most of us were overgrinding trying to get stuff prematurely. A solution would have been one of those common enough "this is the end of new content/development for this season/stage" or whatever notice or what we thought was the extent of the changes: removing the caps of trust.

I acutally understood the caps as analogous to level-progression in mainstream videogames, and would have been fine with some way of simply knowing that I cannot grind my way to anything now and should progrss the story..

 

[RoadWulf]

Can you not get past Level 6? I swear I've been earning XP constantly but can never hit 7.

 

[freddygonzo]

I acutally understood the caps as analogous to level-progression in mainstream videogames, and would have been fine with some way of simply knowing that I cannot grind my way to anything now and should progrss the story..

I hadn't grinded much during my first session with 0.5a either. I wasted points at beginning due to the limits but that was later made up by giving out all gifts.
During Summer, you reached the 850 barrier with anyone sooner or later anyway, so there is not much to discover or accomplish left. That is my main concern for the future.

One possible solution to prevent unnecessary grinds for inexperienced beginners is to let the Dating quests only become availabe from Winter on. Still not sure how much else was changed for 0.5b, but if the "Love" quest is following Dating, then it should rather only become available in Spring later.
This would go very well together with story events between the seasons, in particular for the inexperienced Laura who needs more time to comprehend all the relationship stuff.
That could relax the side quest tension that seems to force people too much in finishing them at all cost asap. Some players possibly don't know that the side quests can actually be taken over to the next season.
Well, if players are looking for the quick bang then there is surely more grind necessary although that's not really the focus of this game but rather the Rogue-like game.

I'm currently at the end of Winter finishing the 1/3 date for everyone. Still want to wait for the very last optional quest to show up for Jean, so maybe I'm going to finish more dates meanwhile waiting without load-cheats to spawn events. Then I will proceed on to Spring to continue there.
Winter is pretty quickly done in handful days compared to season Fall with almost two weeks. Let's see how much gain was done after the second season finale compared to the first season.
I can also only judge at the end of summer well enough if no-limits without grinds and gifts work fine enough or not. Let's see...

 

[ezpot008]

I just finished playing this version of the game, overall i think its a great game, the art is really good, the plot is well done to the point of including iconic scenes of the series or comics, even the choice of the soundtracks are amazing (im someone who aprecciate hearing background music on games i play instead of playing silent games), the system of quest-sidequest and how to conquer the girls are really well done and really entertaining for me, hell you can even customize your charcter appeareance and background and the npcs react to it, a game with the potential of becoming amazing or epic if it does no get abandoned or prematurely finished on the long run (something i sadly saw happen more often than not in this site).
I know the game is in its early stages of developement and the team is showing real promise so good work team.

So far i only had good things to say about the game so i have to go for some bad thing atleast for me, take this as only my humble opinion and take no offence so here i go :

The unique complain i have about the game so far is the quirk system, and for me its partially good and partially bad, i mean i like some of the quirks on some girls and i hate some of the quirks on the others, i know you can discourage the ones you dont like, but thats it, i mean i have the girls trying to force their quirks on me like Jean trying to force me being the little brother or Laura trying to protect me, but come on thats forced realism, i agree that girls can have their quirks and all that but that leave me wondering where are my quirks? im a character in a game why cant i have my own quirks and try to force them on the girls like theyre trying to force them on me? i mean i could want be the big brother of Jean or wanted to be the protector that Laura needed in his life, althoug the plot is allowing me to adquire new powers plot wise like regeneration from Laura im unable to slighty alter their quirks or impose my own ones on them and that just make me a little sad... this is what i call forced realism, i mean if a try to do something that the girls dont want they simply say no to me and even get angry the finest example is in sexual acts they dont want to perform, if you insist the relationship deteriorates, but i have them trying multiple times to impose things i dont like to me and they get away with it scot-free, i could accept some kind of give and take mechanic like i concede some girl dominate me if they let me be the protector i wanted to be for them or the big brother i wanted to be, but as the game is now the maximum you can do is discourage that behaviour.

Well leaving the good things and bad things about the game aside, thx for the game and continue the good work, i just hope to see new girls sooner than later.

 

[Thwip!]

Has the development team ever considered publishing a web comic? Maybe as a benefit for your Patreon subscribers?

I absolutely LOVE the art style of this game. And its clear that you have a great respect for the characters and lore. I wouldn't mind seeing these characters in a comic-style adventure -- even if its only a couple of issues a year.

If you want to avoid the messiness of giving Null a canonized appearance, you could make a "Year-zero" story that shows us what these characters were like before Null came to the Institute: Jean being hyper neurotic, Rogue being lonely and isolated, Laura only being a background character because she never interacted with anybody outside of the Danger Room. You could even treat us with characters that haven't been officially introduced (like Storm, Logan, Colossus) or tease us with characters that are yet to make an appearance (like Kitty, etc.).

 

[wei270]

are quirks for each character fixed, or can you change them during course of the game

 

[Maddeninggg]

Has the development team ever considered publishing a web comic? Maybe as a benefit for your Patreon subscribers?

I absolutely LOVE the art style of this game. And its clear that you have a great respect for the characters and lore. I wouldn't mind seeing these characters in a comic-style adventure -- even if its only a couple of issues a year.

If you want to avoid the messiness of giving Null a canonized appearance, you could make a "Year-zero" story that shows us what these characters were like before Null came to the Institute: Jean being hyper neurotic, Rogue being lonely and isolated, Laura only being a background character because she never interacted with anybody outside of the Danger Room. You could even treat us with characters that haven't been officially introduced (like Storm, Logan, Colossus) or tease us with characters that are yet to make an appearance (like Kitty, etc.).

We actually have considered a special comic based on the game but it would take a substantial amount of time away from the game's development. Maybe one day when we have a higher budget. Although, we do have plans to give more context about the girls prior to Null's arrival soon TM.

 

[Maddeninggg]

are quirks for each character fixed, or can you change them during course of the game

You can encourage or discourage the quirks, but you won't be changing them. The characters will develop and change somewhat as chapters go on, but Laura won't suddenly become submissive in chapter 3 for example.

 

[swiver]

I just finished playing this version of the game, overall i think its a great game, the art is really good, the plot is well done to the point of including iconic scenes of the series or comics, even the choice of the soundtracks are amazing (im someone who aprecciate hearing background music on games i play instead of playing silent games), the system of quest-sidequest and how to conquer the girls are really well done and really entertaining for me, hell you can even customize your charcter appeareance and background and the npcs react to it, a game with the potential of becoming amazing or epic if it does no get abandoned or prematurely finished on the long run (something i sadly saw happen more often than not in this site).
I know the game is in its early stages of developement and the team is showing real promise so good work team.

So far i only had good things to say about the game so i have to go for some bad thing atleast for me, take this as only my humble opinion and take no offence so here i go :

The unique complain i have about the game so far is the quirk system, and for me its partially good and partially bad, i mean i like some of the quirks on some girls and i hate some of the quirks on the others, i know you can discourage the ones you dont like, but thats it, i mean i have the girls trying to force their quirks on me like Jean trying to force me being the little brother or Laura trying to protect me, but come on thats forced realism, i agree that girls can have their quirks and all that but that leave me wondering where are my quirks? im a character in a game why cant i have my own quirks and try to force them on the girls like theyre trying to force them on me? i mean i could want be the big brother of Jean or wanted to be the protector that Laura needed in his life, althoug the plot is allowing me to adquire new powers plot wise like regeneration from Laura im unable to slighty alter their quirks or impose my own ones on them and that just make me a little sad... this is what i call forced realism, i mean if a try to do something that the girls dont want they simply say no to me and even get angry the finest example is in sexual acts they dont want to perform, if you insist the relationship deteriorates, but i have them trying multiple times to impose things i dont like to me and they get away with it scot-free, i could accept some kind of give and take mechanic like i concede some girl dominate me if they let me be the protector i wanted to be for them or the big brother i wanted to be, but as the game is now the maximum you can do is discourage that behaviour.

Well leaving the good things and bad things about the game aside, thx for the game and continue the good work, i just hope to see new girls sooner than later.

I mean your selection of their quirks and the stuff you do during sex is you selecting your preference, does it have to be declared as yours? as to the number of options being essentially just 6, all games will have a limited list...

at some point they might make things more complex, limit the availability or acceptability depending on previous choices, and maybe develop more niche stuff... imagine the brutal shit a regenrative gf can accommodate! my inner de Sade is hopping and hoping, hoping and hopping.

 

[ezpot008]

I mean your selection of their "quirks" and the stuff you do during sex is you selecting your preference, does it have to be declared as yours? as to the number of options being essentially just 6, all games will have a limited list...

at some point they might make things more complex, limit the availability or acceptability depending on previous choices, and maybe develop more niche stuff... imagine the brutal shit a regenrative gf can accommodate! my inner de Sade is hopping and hoping, hoping and hopping.

Well what i was trying to convey is that in your character profile you dont have "quirks" basically the mc is an empty canvas even if you as the person playing the mc have quirks like dominance or submisivenes or whatever well the mc simply dont have any and is forced to unilatery accept or decline the quirks of the girls cause they have them and your character not, painting the canvas that is your character, it would be awesome to select from a list at character creation and be able to force them on the girls on a added extra empty slot in their profile the same as they try to force them on you, or simply a mechanic of the type give and take to trade quirks like i accept this quirk of yours if you accept this quirk of mine, for example, i would gladly accept being dominated and die by snu snu from Laura in exchange of the second of his quirk being me the one who is protective of her instead of her being protective of me, or i would accept the domination of Jean in exchange of being treated as the big brother instead of the little brother, instead of shutting off completely the quirks that i dont like from them as it is now, that would be true realism-true forced realism instead of convenient forced realism that is used at the moment in my honest opinion.

But well as i said in my previous post that is just my opinion so take no offence on it, i know theres probably ppl out there that like every quirk on every girl and accept them all as they are.

 

[drifter139]

it would be cool to see Kurt give Null the comic introducing him as the newest X-Men

 

[swiver]

Well what i was trying to convey is that in your character profile you dont have "quirks" basically the mc is an empty canvas even if you as the person playing the mc have quirks like dominance or submisivenes or whatever well the mc simply dont have any and is forced to unilatery accept or decline the quirks of the girls cause they have them and your character not, painting the canvas that is your character, it would be awesome to select from a list at character creation and be able to force them on the girls on a added extra empty slot in their profile the same as they try to force them on you, or simply a mechanic of the type give and take to trade quirks like i accept this quirk of yours if you accept this quirk of mine, for example, i would gladly accept being dominated and die by snu snu from Laura in exchange of the second of his quirk being me the one who is protective of her instead of her being protective of me, or i would accept the domination of Jean in exchange of being treated as the big brother instead of the little brother, instead of shutting off completely the quirks that i dont like from them as it is now, that would be true realism-true forced realism instead of convenient forced realism that is used at the moment in my honest opinion.

But well as i said in my previous post that is just my opinion so take no offence on it, i know theres probably ppl out there that like every quirk on every girl and accept them all as they are.

I thought each of the girls' respective two quirks were individually optional, they not?

 

[freddygonzo]

Quirks:
Until end of Summer, there are this many opportunities to encourage/discourage quirks:
13x Rogue.History.update("submissiveness_encouraged")
8x Rogue.History.update("masochism_encouraged")
8x Laura.History.update("dominance_encouraged")
6x Laura.History.update("protectiveness_encouraged")
9x Jean.History.update("dominance_encouraged")
8x Jean.History.update("siblings_encouraged")

Whenever you encourage a quirk (thumb-up) at least two times more than discouraging it, the quirk will be added to the girl's database. Enc-Disc >= 2 = Quirk added.
There are definitely checks if a quirk has been encouraged or discouraged before, what will change dialogue accordingly although without significant story impact so far.
The girls will keep offering the mentioned numbers of opportunities to either encourage their behavior or not.
At least until end of Winter, there is no real disadvantage in discouraging the girls' quirks. Sometimes you get even a little more points as reward when denying, or often no points at all no matter whatever you choose to do in these special decisions.
If someone doesn't like these, discourage them, but there is no real way to completely shut their special behavior off for the rest of the story so far. These are pesky quirks after all that can be hardly get rid off.
We'll have to see what new girls in the future will offer.
I personally like the quirks a lot and love being the lil bro and feel safe in the arms of a wild strong-girl. And if you got a bad day, there is always Rogue eagerly anticipating her good slappin.

About player quirks:
Having non-pink/brown skin color or inhuman ears has sometimes dialogue support, besides visuals during the hookup actions.

The dialogue choices give a little freedom being more arse or not, but it's true that being ass - typically the last dialogue option - usually leads to stat point reductions what no one really wants.
Blame it to the goody girls maybe that they similarly react to harsh words and can't be impressed like an evildoer.

Next, there are also Determined (full moon)/Reluctant (crescent moon)/Bitter (star) dialogue options.
I'd say these can also be seen as roleplayed quirk. There aren't many occasions yet where the girls react to these archetype line choices. In the end, the typical determined hero is still prefered although Laura once favors the Bitter guy. There is no real penalty to roleplay here whatever, except on one occasion Rogue vs a bitter comment.
As Charles says: "I would like to emphasize: this is not the be-all, end-all of who you are as a person."

I advise, roleplay as you see how it works for your character best. There are so many point reward occasions in the game, that you can easily live with being an arsy hero. You will see different reactions from the girls and maybe sometimes even make them angry to rush off.
Enjoy the bad consequences by making up to them by gifts later.
The game has a lot to offer with the still few but complex non-player characters and their reactions. It mustn't always be the perfect way.