The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - An affair of the heart (WIP) (Ch 6.1: 31 jan 2025)

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Ah no how do i put this is maybe add a gender check that will trigger that response if the MC is a man and Lestrade is gay?

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Hey, no, I get it :sweat_smile: there are no easy answers in life

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Hmm so what I am saying is, with my proposed idea, if the MC is a man then Lestrade automatically is gay if Lestrade is a man.

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I’ll just pm you

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@Doriana-Gray have you seen my pm?

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Extra clarification: the proposed idea (that is still just an idea) is to allow the MC to romance all ROs no matter the MCs sexual preference in one playtrough. Only that the ROs sexuality is semi-set to an appropriate sexuality based on the MCs gender choice.

So: the ROs are not gender locked. The ROs gender would be determined by the MCs preference and the ROs sexuality would adapt to the MCs gender. Does that make sense?

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Yes, that would be more accomodating since this is a romance heavy story.

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I’m gonna reiterate what I said a while ago about my extreme dislike for RO genders being determined by sexuality. Being a lesbian very much does not mean I want everyone around me to be a woman—I would love to have a wholly platonic relationship with an opposite-sex Watson, just to name one example.

Playing as a bisexual MC just to diversify the ROs sometimes works for me, but A. that often leaves me at the mercy of whatever a given author considers the “default” genders for the ROs, and B. I’d rather not “fake it” if gender and sexuality are topics that are going to actually be considered and explored through the narrative (which it sounds like they are in this case).

All this to say that while separating MC sexuality and RO gender is a bit more work, it’s far and away my preferred method. If there’s any part of you that is still considering this, I would really strongly advocate for it.

That aside, the idea of changing RO sexuality based on the combination of genders involved is…interesting. I’m not exactly sure how I feel about it, to be honest.

Like, the idea of Lestrade struggling with being gay in a world where they’re expected to be straight sounds like an interesting and compelling storyline…that I guess just doesn’t happen if the MC is the opposite sex? If the MC is the same sex, Lestrade couldn’t possibly be happy in an opposite-sex romance, but if the MC is the opposite sex, that’s just not a problem and Lestrade is straight after all? That feels a little weird to me.

I guess I’m not necessarily opposed to the idea if the alternative is for them all to just be pansexual all the time, though. It is an interesting compromise to the usual dichotomy of “making everyone pan but removing all nuance of sexuality in the process” vs. “giving everyone canon sexualities but restricting player choice in the process” that a lot of authors struggle with.

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So a compromise here is would be gender selected the characters and only trigger the romance if they’re a compatible match and decide from there if we want to begin a romance or to response platonically? I’m not really familiar with coding. @CorvusWitchcraft

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There are a few ways you could do it.

The simplest way is to just leave the RO genders in the player’s hands and not even bother to ask them their sexuality—you just have the option to romance anybody and can choose not to pick anyone of the gender(s) you’re not interested in. But it also means you don’t get to add any flavor text, nuance, or narrative weight to the possibility of the MC being non-straight in a majority-straight world. This generally works best with stories where there’s not meaningful distinction between different genders or sexualities, for obvious reasons.

The way you propose is also a way to do it: prompt the player for their sexuality and, depending on the ROs’ genders (as determined by the player), create boolean variables for whether or not the MC and an RO are “compatible”, hiding or graying out any romantic options if they’re not. This is a little more complicated to code, but not by much TBH. There might be some complications depending on whether or not the author wants the ROs to be able to develop feelings for an MC of an incompatible orientation.

There are also more complicated ways to do it if you really want a lot of nuance, e.g. in Guenevere where you can initially think you’re one sexuality but find yourself attracted to someone that doesn’t fit your preconceptions, but if coding complexity is a concern for Doriana-Gray, that’s probably not the way to go here.

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Then it wouldn’t be best to just lock on to a specific RO or not midway? While still picking their gender. But the option of not picking one is that it is heavy on romance as what implied with the title. I best leave this to you to decide @Doriana-Gray on what’s best. This is getting way too complicated for me to process and understand.

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Yes—I know that is a problem. The only realistic solution to that I see is that I add a manual option to change ROs genders, and allow the players to always avoid romantic options, but that the romance flag is still available.

That is the only option of that sort that I am writing from the very start of the game (It’s available in the character creator). I did that to allow a wholly “friend” character where romance could not enter ever. And even there it’s been a lot of rewrites and changes, which made me quite sure that I couldn’t realistically do that for all the ROs.

If the ROs gender then is possible to change manually, would it help the problem for you?

I really do get the problem—but I am not sure I am up for the task sadly :cry:

That same storyline then focuses on something else—this was one of the reasons I wanted to ask people. It’s a choice between more unique gay content but also having a possible uncomfortable situation of erasing that plot line when that same character is no longer gay. I too have trouble finding the correct path to choose here.

Yes exactly—I am trying to solve that, but of course, there are some problems with this solution also.

And thank you so much for your excellent post :hearts:

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Personally I prefer to romance whoever I want however I want but if you want to give specific sexuality’s to specific people I won’t be mad about it.

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I am not afraid of the coding complexity—more of the writing complexity tbh. Not sure how I feel about the MC being able to change their sexuality in-game. It’s a very interesting thought though :thinking:

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You can still do that—in the idea I am proposing—only the ROs sexuality changes depending on the MC’s choices and preferences :blush: (but always in a way that makes them compatible)

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Oooohhhhh ok cool.:grin:

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Characters with set sexualities are my favourite as they feel more real. Also, obviously it’s your choice, but bisexual people very much can and do enter into relationships with non-binary people.

Also, it would be nice if we could select the individual genders of the ROs - say, if I wanted to play a semi-canon version of Holmes, being able to make Watson and Lestrade male and Adler female.

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Yes—that is what I thought too, but I am now writing pan to not cause confusion as to what it would mean for the game :blush:

That is currently what happens if one chooses they are not interested in only women or men—except Watson is a separate choice :slight_smile: (I might change this tho in the future, I am still thinking on how to do that choice. Will probably be a mechanical choice.)

I can agree with this—or I at least think it can add more unique content, which I am very much interested in. And that was why I proposed this idea that does that to a degree—tho there are some drawbacks.

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It sounds to me like your inclination if you did this would be toward the first option I put forth (not including a choice to determine the MC’s sexuality at all and just letting the player headcanon it), which I’d honestly be fine with.

Mm, right, and that’s something that attracted me to the WIP in the first place. Maybe I misunderstood, but it sounded to me like in your new proposal, even Watson would change gender/sexuality depending on the MC’s preferences, which I wouldn’t be a fan of. Is that not the case?

If you decide you’re up for it and comfortable making that change, definitely.

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I think you are right—that would solve a lot of the problems. And then if the text is ever implies attraction towards an RO that the player does not like in that way, for example because a romance option was vague or there is a miss click, then at least the game has not promised to deliver an experience that they did not get. I like it, thanks! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

No, so Watson is a special case—with them I am going the extra mile and trying to scrub the content from both the MC’s romantic interest towards Watson and especially Watson’s romantic interest in MC. (Tho they can still be very very close). And Watson’s gender is also still a manual setting. I’m thinking they are probably pan if the player chooses friendship path—tho I might change my mind and make them gay.

Watson would only follow the “plan” if they are romanceable.

Great! :+1: the only thing with that choice is that they will get flirted on by Adler, even if they are incompatible, think they find someone outside their sexuality attractive, and they can start a romance with someone they are not sexually compatible with—but tbh that can sort of happen in life I guess :sweat_smile:

Then the only problem remaining is, for example, Lestrade’s gay content disappearing if the player chooses an opposite sex Lestrade. I’m sure there are people who would absolutely hate that, but I am now leaning towards that the player experience of then getting unique (and probably gay) content is still a better thing. Thoughts?

And, again, thank you :sparkling_heart:

*sorry everyone if I don’t respond anymore tonight—it’s late where I am. If there are any more comments later I will get to them tomorrow. Thanks everyone for the feedback <3

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