I keep expecting a big exposition with a start, climax and end but it never happened.
I see.
The way I'm structuring things is, the "major development points" for each plotline should happen when there's a level up event - something that pushes that story to the "next step", where everything changes someway and new events become available to replace the old ones. Of course, we haven't had that yet, so idk if this is the missing piece of the puzzle.
I believe it's inherently different to how kinetic novels go. Sandbox settings
are populated by "fodder" because the player can do them however they want, so they can't be super impactful yet - only when coalescing into an event (in here, they're the ones with red exclamation marks in the map).
So, these storylines are meant to always be:
Event introducing it (Start) -> "Fodder" (Sandbox) -> Level Up Event (Conclusion/Next Start)
We have that in the Office when Nick learns about his blood, then interacting with the girls, but no level up event yet. Or the coffee shop, which follows the same idea, and so will the next storylines in the future.
Why couldn't this have been presented as a whole story arc, unsegmented and free of interruption?
So, you may be wondering why I haven't included these "level up" endings for the current storylines present in the game, even though all the content for their first level (in particular, Chloe and Karla) are present.
My idea was to have the level up events be followed, immediately, by the next set of sandbox scenes for the next level already. But of course, that would be a massive chunk of content, which means the level up can only be implemented when the update is meant to house the next level events already. Which ends up looking like this:
I've been debating myself on following through with this idea. Maybe, leaving out the endings of a level for a separate future update isn't very good for the pacing, so I'll probably change it so the update content matches the story arc for that level and includes the level-up event, even if it means we won't immediately have the next level scenes available after seeing that event.
BUT - there's another catch, of course. As I said before, these level up events are pivotal moments in the plot, and sometimes, they require other stories to move forward before they can make sense.
For instance - the Office lvl up event should increase the lust levels for Chloe, Karla and Michelle at once. But, Michelle's LVL1 story isn't fully complete yet, since we still have more developments from her in the Night Club, which isn't available at the moment. That means we can only get to this event once the Night Club is implemented, and Michelle's development is synced with what Chloe and Karla have already gone through.
I'm glad to hear feedback on this particular issue, though, since I never had another input over this specific thing before. I believe there are improvements to be made in order to smooth out the arcs in the future, so that we have these full cycles completed instead of chopping them up in a weird way.
being able to do stuff at the counter before officially being employed.
Hmm... Dunno what you're talking about. The intended behavior is for the coffee shop to be closed until you visit it at a time where the intro event is available, which will then open it up for you to work there (since, by the time you finish the intro, you're already basically employed there). If we're talking about missing that little Alice event where she says she's ready to work with you, that scene is just flavor really. Since it's an automatic event at the room where and when you click to go to work, in theory, you can't work there until you go through it first. Unless, of course, I missed something that shifted that line of events.
I missed a whole scene in the evening segment with the mother?
Oh yeah, I guess that one is on me.
That event is basically split in two halves, where the second half is only available after getting a certain amount of love with Tina (dunno if 50 or 100). If you don't meet the criteria, it'll default to the "first half ending" where you just walk away, where if you meet the criteria, you get to choose between that previous ending (leaving) or going further with the new half you didn't see yet. Maybe it could be fixed by forcing the player to go through the first version of the scene regardless of the love requirement, but I don't remember how severe that disconnect was.