Pre Planning - Player Relationships
Mar 20, 2016 0:13:52 GMT -6
Post by King Feraligatr on Mar 20, 2016 0:13:52 GMT -6
Really wanted touch on this later, but in a private chat with someone I was talking about circumstances relating to this. As such, I thought I'd touch on it now. Here's what I posted in the PM relating to this subject:
"The Rewrite wants to downplay romance and the amount of LIs available, at the expense of making it more substantial. Current possible LIs if the hypothetical Rewrite game ever existed include: Liara, Ashley, Kaidan (no choice on all these because ME1), possibly one more human squadmate, at least one Gay Male Shep one, and maybe more. Tali and Garrus are just candidates for best friends at the moment (I can explain my reasoning later). I'd personally gut all player romances if I could, but ME1 doesn't let me. So, hence why I took the stance I did.".
As I said, I don't give a hoot for romance and sex just bores me to tears and does not interest me at all. Still, it's in ME1 and I must put it in the Rewrite as an option (though since the Rewrite will likely be a determinate fanfic.... Still going to write this as if it where a game anyways.). I'd want to to avoid the BW tradition of shoving "romance" down your throat and want to reduce the amount of LIs and the people who have a crush on you in favor of more substantial relationships that are less sex and lovey-dovey filled and more like a glorified close friendship. Someone else would have to write it instead of me and I'd have to review it as I have little interest in dealing with this (fanfic will likely have no Shepard romance whatsoever as I'd be the one writing the entire thing.).
Current possible LIs:
In the interest of making sense, I want to reduce the romantic relationships to only Humans and Asari at the moment, and failing that, levo amino acid races only. It doesn't make any sense that Shep can have sex with a dextro race like a Turian or Quarian (like Garrus and Tali...) and not have have someone go into shock (remember, the levo-dextro harmful incompatibility). Sure, one can be really close friends with dextro races, but since I assume people want to have sex with them if they're in a romantic relationship with them, dextro races are off the table for the moment (give me an extremely good argument for them and I might relent). The only races that Shep can safely have sex with are Humans and the Mary Sue-ish Asari (and I assume that's what you people want). Other levo races would be incompatible for reproduction, but wouldn't cause a harmful reaction in the partner at least, but they're still off the table for now.
Moving onto less creepy relationships, we have the friendship/ally mechanic I want to bring in. Based on you well you treat your teammates, doing actions they like (not strictly tied to Paragon/Renegade, which I want to downplay), how much you talk to them, and more; you can build or destroy relationships with your teammates. This ranges from teeth clenched allies to good friends. If you make a teammate hate you too much, they might leave your squad (only teaming up with during rare parts or if you can make them like you again) and go to help work on other projects in the background. Your relationship with teammates would affect how much benefits you would get from them, how they react to you, maybe combat effectiveness with you, how they treat you in the planned playable after credits, and more. While being good allies with someone would likely be optimal for normal game operations, higher relationships would likely confer more benefits, at the cost of bring harder to maintain. The LI mechanic would be tied into this overall relationship mechanic and it would be possible for your LI to dump you! That's right, you have to work to keep your relationship going (though they might be more forgiving if you aren't with them all the time as there's battles and war going on and you have to fight in them). Losing lover status with someone might have have harsher consequences than losing ally or friend status with them (depends on the person and circumstances).
A rough outline of the relationships with teammates from best to worst (at this moment):
The Best Friend (BF) is planned to be a platonic alternative to people who don't want to romance someone. It's supposed to be almost as indepth and close, just purely platonic. It confers its own benefits and is not mutually exclusive with a romance. You can have a best friend and lover (though the lover or BF may get jealous) or have the lover be the best friend (that having no real effect on the romance). I imagine a BF relationship would be easier to maintain than a romance. Also, the BF relationship is a way to get close to those teammates you like but can't (like Garrus or Tali) or don't want to romance. As said earlier, it's planned for you to only have one BF at a time. The remaining people you are close to have to be a lover (which is also one at a time) or Close Friends. BFs could be exchanged easier than lovers could (no shit).
Also, I'd assume an ME1 "import" to the Rewrite game (don't now how'd I want to do an import. Would we dissect the structure of an ME1 endgame save and allow the game to read that? Or would we give the player a comprehensive list of actions that they did in ME1 and let them select them with no import. Allow both? Dunno.) would also confer increases or decreases in relationships with characters in the initial state of your Rewrite game. Say this is what you did with your teammates by the end of ME1:
Then your initial relationships with your teammates might look like this at the start of the Rewrite:
I'll cover inter teammate relationships at another time. As always, feel free to inquire more about my plans, refute them, poke holes in them, add to them, comment on them, offer you own, and more.
"The Rewrite wants to downplay romance and the amount of LIs available, at the expense of making it more substantial. Current possible LIs if the hypothetical Rewrite game ever existed include: Liara, Ashley, Kaidan (no choice on all these because ME1), possibly one more human squadmate, at least one Gay Male Shep one, and maybe more. Tali and Garrus are just candidates for best friends at the moment (I can explain my reasoning later). I'd personally gut all player romances if I could, but ME1 doesn't let me. So, hence why I took the stance I did.".
As I said, I don't give a hoot for romance and sex just bores me to tears and does not interest me at all. Still, it's in ME1 and I must put it in the Rewrite as an option (though since the Rewrite will likely be a determinate fanfic.... Still going to write this as if it where a game anyways.). I'd want to to avoid the BW tradition of shoving "romance" down your throat and want to reduce the amount of LIs and the people who have a crush on you in favor of more substantial relationships that are less sex and lovey-dovey filled and more like a glorified close friendship. Someone else would have to write it instead of me and I'd have to review it as I have little interest in dealing with this (fanfic will likely have no Shepard romance whatsoever as I'd be the one writing the entire thing.).
Current possible LIs:
- Liara T'Soni
- Ashley Williams
- Kaidan Alenko
- Possibly one more human squadmate
- at least one Gay Male Shep LI
- More if people give me really good arguments for others
In the interest of making sense, I want to reduce the romantic relationships to only Humans and Asari at the moment, and failing that, levo amino acid races only. It doesn't make any sense that Shep can have sex with a dextro race like a Turian or Quarian (like Garrus and Tali...) and not have have someone go into shock (remember, the levo-dextro harmful incompatibility). Sure, one can be really close friends with dextro races, but since I assume people want to have sex with them if they're in a romantic relationship with them, dextro races are off the table for the moment (give me an extremely good argument for them and I might relent). The only races that Shep can safely have sex with are Humans and the Mary Sue-ish Asari (and I assume that's what you people want). Other levo races would be incompatible for reproduction, but wouldn't cause a harmful reaction in the partner at least, but they're still off the table for now.
Moving onto less creepy relationships, we have the friendship/ally mechanic I want to bring in. Based on you well you treat your teammates, doing actions they like (not strictly tied to Paragon/Renegade, which I want to downplay), how much you talk to them, and more; you can build or destroy relationships with your teammates. This ranges from teeth clenched allies to good friends. If you make a teammate hate you too much, they might leave your squad (only teaming up with during rare parts or if you can make them like you again) and go to help work on other projects in the background. Your relationship with teammates would affect how much benefits you would get from them, how they react to you, maybe combat effectiveness with you, how they treat you in the planned playable after credits, and more. While being good allies with someone would likely be optimal for normal game operations, higher relationships would likely confer more benefits, at the cost of bring harder to maintain. The LI mechanic would be tied into this overall relationship mechanic and it would be possible for your LI to dump you! That's right, you have to work to keep your relationship going (though they might be more forgiving if you aren't with them all the time as there's battles and war going on and you have to fight in them). Losing lover status with someone might have have harsher consequences than losing ally or friend status with them (depends on the person and circumstances).
A rough outline of the relationships with teammates from best to worst (at this moment):
- Lover (only one person at a time at the moment. This is the closest and most trusting you can be with someone. Also depends on the character's orientation if you can even reach this status with them.)
- Best Friend (only one for now. This is available for all characters at the moment. This person is your best buddy and can be trusted with almost anything. Can have a BF with an LI or the LI can be the BF. Highest normal relationship with a character.)
- Close Friend (no limit. All characters are available at the moment. You're close with this person and can trust them with your life.)
- Good Friend (no limit. All characters are available at the moment. You know this person well and have high trust for them.)
- Friend (no limit. All characters are available at the moment. You know this person and can trust them.)
- Acquaintance/Associate (no limit. All characters are available at the moment. You know this person enough and can trust them with certain things.)
- Good Ally (no limit. All characters are available at the moment. You're friendly enough with this person and trust them enough that you know that they will work with you with in many areas.)
- Ally (no limit. All characters are available at the moment. You work with this person. That's what you can trust them with.)
- Poor Ally (unknown limit and characters. You're supposed to be working with this person but it's unknown how much you can trust them.)
- Teeth Clenched Ally (unknown limit and characters. All you and this character can agree on is who your enemies are. Maybe. You probably can't trust this character. They only work with you because they have to/know the Mainliners are the bigger threat/other. Lowest normal relationship with a character.)
- Vilified "Ally" (unknown limit and characters. You're an evil villain to this character. They want nothing to do with you at all. They might hate and/or fear you. In the after credits, they might even try to kill you. Lowest possible relationship with a character that is earned by dong something so horrific to a character they can't forgive you, possibly forever.)
The Best Friend (BF) is planned to be a platonic alternative to people who don't want to romance someone. It's supposed to be almost as indepth and close, just purely platonic. It confers its own benefits and is not mutually exclusive with a romance. You can have a best friend and lover (though the lover or BF may get jealous) or have the lover be the best friend (that having no real effect on the romance). I imagine a BF relationship would be easier to maintain than a romance. Also, the BF relationship is a way to get close to those teammates you like but can't (like Garrus or Tali) or don't want to romance. As said earlier, it's planned for you to only have one BF at a time. The remaining people you are close to have to be a lover (which is also one at a time) or Close Friends. BFs could be exchanged easier than lovers could (no shit).
Also, I'd assume an ME1 "import" to the Rewrite game (don't now how'd I want to do an import. Would we dissect the structure of an ME1 endgame save and allow the game to read that? Or would we give the player a comprehensive list of actions that they did in ME1 and let them select them with no import. Allow both? Dunno.) would also confer increases or decreases in relationships with characters in the initial state of your Rewrite game. Say this is what you did with your teammates by the end of ME1:
- You romanced Liara and talked to her to the max.
- You recruited Garrus, talked to him all the way, and did his personal quest with him present.
- You talked to Tali to the max and treated her well. You did her personal quest by giving her the Geth data.
- You saved Kaidan and talked to him to the max.
- Ashley died on Virmire and well, doesn't matter as much anymore
- Wrex does not really factor into this ATM as I don't have plans for him to be a permanent squadmate at this time.
Then your initial relationships with your teammates might look like this at the start of the Rewrite:
- Liara: Lover
- Garrus: Close Friend (his is closer as you have that mentor-apprentice relationship with Garrus in ME1)
- Tali: Good Friend and she's a squadmate at the beginning of the game.
- Kaidan: Good Friend
- Ashley: Dead. You expected anything else?
I'll cover inter teammate relationships at another time. As always, feel free to inquire more about my plans, refute them, poke holes in them, add to them, comment on them, offer you own, and more.
