I’m pleased to hear Broadsides had a scene along those lines (though I don’t recall encountering it myself–I guess I never met a nice enough girl!). Granted, asking ‘permission’ of a girl’s father to call upon / court her seems an old-fashioned concept to most of us these days–modern society has now pretty much lost that respect of the previous / older generation . . . but let’s not go there.
In Vendetta almost all character interactions are mostly governed by either Persuasion or Intimidation; whichever is most suited to the situation or the person you’re dealing with. Often more than one Choice can succeed, but requiring differing levels of the appropriate stat. Interestingly, the survey has shown that the Character Backgrounds highest in Persuasion (the main relationship skill) are often the least popular overall, so I suspect many will be suffering misfortune with such as Carina’s father, generally speaking.
I personally don’t have any problem with the scene as it’s written. I think that overall, this game clearly isn’t for children. Profanity, violence, it’s all in there. The inclusion of a sex scene doesn’t seem out of step with the overall mature tone.
Just out of curiosity, what are the most/least popular background choices?
To give you a broad outline, though, the scene with Carina’s father is excellent. I certainly hope you keep it, regardless of whatever else happens. Likewise, the new material tends to be strongly written, which serves you as well here as elsewhere in this game.
However, while I in general agree that this game will probably merit a mature rating, I’m not sure about this level of explicitness. To illustrate my viewpoint, I’ll use violence as an example. There are many incidents of mobsters torturing people. I could see that coming up in the game. That said, I wouldn’t a scene where I get to graphically select whether I rip out someone’s finger nails, gouge out their eyes, or crush them in a vise. Likewise, while I guess I don’t mind a romance scene, I don’t know that I really want to decide which parts of her body to kiss, either. I’d tone it down a bit, and scale back the detail.
Found the scenes resolving the business the detective entrusted you to, and I like it. I guess this builds up some sort of relationship with Scanlon, and is gonna be a good breaking point into politics? Is it going to be another choice of faction at the end of chapter 2?
I was a Union Leader. Picked flirt with Carina the first week, and didn’t hit it off. Then picked flirt with Carina the 2nd week, got to the father scene, and the father grudgingly gave permission - but somehow at the end of the 2nd week, though it says Carina and I were clearly an item, her father didn’t give his blessing - as well as an attempt at her at the Hotel, which didn’t happen… Could be a bug?
I’m alright with the ‘sex’ scene, though a bit longer than necessary (with all the choices and all). My problem is with the sap beforehand though, which I feel really isn’t to the character of a typical budding mafia boss at all, whatever the background.
I see the Angel arc has an extra scene relating to whether you allow the romance to grow with her, which is a nice touch and believable. I like it personally. The jarring thing is that you can go on with both the Carina path and the Angel path simultaneously though. Unless there is a an (un)happy ending with the two female meeting, then I feel that’s a bit jarring as well.
Thanks for your thoughts guys. It’s certainly given me much to think about and prompted one or two possible ideas for how best to tackle this issue in future. More on this soon.
@Epicazeroth Nope, no particular background for any of the relationships (so far).
@Luxtizer Full survey results coming real soon, since we’ve almost reached the 50-repondents limit of the freebie surveys.
@zero647 That sounds like a slight bug in the factors carried over to the week end (there are a number of different possible combined outcomes being commented on there, but it sounds like in one particular instance it’s not reporting accurately. Thanks!).
It’s true that if you choose to flirt with Carina I’ve assumed that you know she’s basically a “nice girl”, that you actually want a “nice girl”, and therefore have to act a certain way in her company . . . If you played the “budding mafia boss” with her, she’d be out the door quicker than you can say boo–and never look back. She can come to live with / accept that side of your nature only if the one you present to her is a tender, caring, contrite side of you no one else sees (in her opinion). If you’re not comfortable with playing “a sap” to win her, go for Monique–she likes bad boys.
I guess the moral there is you can’t have your cake and eat it.
As regards Angel, that relationship remains platonic throughout Chapter Two despite the earlier choice to set your own frame of mind on the subject–for now, she is just happy to not be pushed away, nor does she attempt to take it further than that. If she does feel pushed away, undervalued or otherwise excluded from your life at any point, she leaves. She is in fact even more complex than that . . . but I’ve said enough for now.
I do still intend to add some final scenes nearer the end of Chapter Two if you are in another relationship at the time and Angel is still living with you . . . Unfortunately these will have to wait until I’ve sorted out the loading speed problem and manage to break Chapter Two down into several smaller chunks. At present I’m looking at turning it into four separate files (one for each week of that chapter), as there’s still quite a bit more yet to add for extra Background variety and other, rarer scenes you’ll only see on some play-throughs–to balance out the Chapter One choices as the survey shows that Mangano / the truck job is far, far in the lead in terms of overall preference.
You know, I’ve never gotten any other Angel events besides finding her a bringing her home, the one scene where you decide how to act with her, and the scene where you find that she’s gone without a word. Am I doing something wrong? I didn’t see any other options to interact with her. Does stuff only happen if you pick the top option for your reaction to her advances?
Hmm. The answer to that probably reveals a little more about Angel’s motivation than I like to do, but it is a playtest and if there’s a lingering bug in there we need to know . . . If you opt for the “I’m really a nice guy” approach to the Protection racket, she’ll leave. After her experiences, she wants a ferocious rottweiler to protect her against everybody and anybody–but one who is kind to her.
If you still find she’s leaving despite picking the “Not a nice guy” option for the Protection racket (and anything other than the top option in the earlier, “Supper’s ready” scene with her) it’s almost certainly a bug.
@Epicazeroth It just occurred to me that you may be failing for one other reason–not giving Carina a good enough salary at the Poolroom (in which case she won’t flirt with you). With her father incapacitated she needs to earn at least decent money, which is the only reason she was even at the Bathhouse that morning–sheer desperation . . .
That makes sense, considering what you’ve already revealed about her, though I never thought of it. I’ve never once taken that option, so it’s probably not a bug.
Hey @Vendetta i love how you made it so i can save my progress pre chapter so if/when i died i don’t have start over from the begin keep up the good work ! =D>
@xPoisonThornx You’re welcome . . . You can thank Luxtizer for that excellent idea.
@Epicazeroth Hmm. Which scenes have you not encountered that you think you should’ve seen?
MINOR UPDATE ONLINE
Thanks everyone for the feedback, both public and private, on the whole ‘adult theme’ scenes proposal. From the survey results and feedback here there’s clearly more than just a little interest in the subject, but at the same time the general consensus (with perhaps a few exceptions) is that it’s not strictly necessary to the game, just extra entertainment for some.
After much consideration it has been decided that explicit content will not be a part of the normal game. As from the update now online, if you do want such material to be a part of your game experience then at the very start of the game you need to go to the “General Game Information” section followed by “Game Mode”. There you can switch the Mode from the default of “Normal” to “Explicit” before choosing your Difficulty Level and Character Background.
Hereafter the “Normal” game should not contain anything beyond fairly mild sexual references along the lines of the current 2-page ‘Monique’ scene in Week 3, which is more of a “before” and “after” story. If you ever spot anything pushing the boundary, please do let me know: I live to edit!
Hopefully this compromise will meet with everyone’s approval. Thanks again for your help in determining the best course of action for the game and all of its players as a whole.
It’s a good idea, similar to the one in Modern Warfare, as well as others. I always thought that it was good to put in a choice to skip/tone down content some might find offensive (though sometimes the “blocked” content in games makes me think…WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY BLOCKING THIS FOR?)
Oh yeah. When you save Angel (I still can’t figure out why some times I die when I offer my gun, and other times I don’t), it says “Evangelina,” the girl says sharply in reply to your question. "My name is Evangelina, not ‘girl’. What question was that? I might have missed it, but I didn’t see anything. Also, in Chapter 2, I got the first meeting with Chuck for the second time. I’m not sure how. Must be a bug. Anyway, that’s just me nitpicking because I’m just waiting for the next chapter.
@Shintaro As it takes place some time later, it’s a new scene (so should say “Scene End” immediately before that, rather than “Next”, just to smooth the transition a little . . .) I suppose the scene could begin with an opening line of something like “So, what’s your name, girl?” but sometimes I tend to just imply what’s gone before rather than be too specific–if only to make you think about it.
As for whether she shoots you or not, that’s down to Persuasion (how believable you are, in this case) so it sounds like either (if playing different Backgrounds) one of your characters is more persuasive / believable than the other, or (if same Background with two different results on different attempts) he’s a borderline Persuader in that case and something you do earlier in the game–sometimes–is giving you more Persuasion ability . . . Possible changes to your Persuasion stat actually go all the way back to the very beginning–when you first decide how your “traumatic childhood” has affected you.
Possible Chuck Bug: While I’m very reluctant to say “that’s impossible”, this particular situation is at least highly unlikely, just because of the way those main first-meeting encounters work. I’ll look into it though, just to be certain, but it’s perhaps worth bearing in mind that when replaying often it’s easy to confuse one play-through with another . . . Just for the record though, if you don’t meet Chuck in Chapter One, and then don’t meet him near the end of the first week in Chapter Two, you will definitely meet him (finally) at the end of the third week. Whether you meet him in the first or third week of Chapter Two is the random bit, and that’s what might cause this confusion on replays as it will definitely vary.
So, now all we need are three more romance scenes, and for you to get the tech worked out to reduce the load times. (Damn this is going to be a big game, Vendetta!)
As cool as it is, I’m seeing just a bit of feature creep here; so far, there are a total of six romanceables in Chapter 2 alone, and you’ve already mentioned two Fischetti romances in the future. Each of these romance arcs will need separate scenes in future chapters, massively increasing the size of the game.
This is already the most ambitious Choicescript project that I know of, so keep that in mind. I don’t think anyone will object too strongly if you start trimming down a bit.
