…Dating Illyan? Dependent on later conditions of course…
@CJW — O_o; that one might be a bit too tall of an order…lol
@WayWalkerLeigh @CJW I like the dating Illyan idea too, although odds are she isn’t into 14 year olds 
, so yeah, it may need to wait til you’re a little older. It would be fun however if after saving her from execution she asks how she can ever repay you, and you could ask for a kiss, or possibly even that she be your date to a formal dinner/dance. B-)
@P_Tigras --yr romantic side is showing again, lol.
It’s certainly *possible* and i will consider it for one of the possible endings, but my goal for them is extremely branching…so we’ll see.
@WayWalkerLeigh Sssshhhhh!!! You’re not supposed to talk about that, remember? 
Well tall gals need love too, and right now Illyan is all alone in the world. So I’ll take that tall order. B-) Actually, I’m not sure how tall she is, I just remember that she’s a “smart” & “pretty” Lu’shun, and oh, that Sem used to have a major crush on her. She’s clearly brilliant however, and a highly interesting character.
None of the potential female love interests have been developed quite as well as Sem. Illyan probably comes closest, even though she isn’t intended to be one, followed by Genoa, who isn’t intended to be one either unfortunately, and Kess next. I like Kess well enough, and she’s certainly personable and very pretty, but I personally tend to prefer girls who are a little more brainy.
I’m hard-pressed to say much at all about the gender-mutable Ay’cura/Ay’cure, aside from the fact that she’s an “attractive” friend of Jun’s who is plugged into all the gossip. We also caught her eyeing our character “speculatively” if we attended the orientation, and Jun appears to have an unrequited crush on her, so going after her could result in problems with Jun, which depending on one’s perspective could be either great fun, or a betrayal of a friend. Unfortunately for any potential relationship, unless I’ve specifically chosen to go Red, I tend to lean more heavily to the latter pole.
@P_Tigras sorry, you started it lol
Illyan is with out question brilliant, and all Lu’shun tend to be pretty as part of the glamor they do as a race. (kinda like Clan you don’t see a lot of fugly ones XD) She isn’t tall by the average standards of the Continent, but i can say she is around the same height as Semryu–who as Clan, tends to be shorter than the Continental average, but some of the human picks the main have will be on-par or actually taller amid the males. (yet another detail i must make note of for the dating…*scribbles away*) Is it sad i know all this?? lol 
Definitely some things to consider there. My *hope* with the dating games is to allow the main character to get to know some of the secondary characters a bit more personally through the actual dating schemes. Each of them (even semryu) has some deeper aspects to them that the main hasn’t come into contact with as of yet–which i think is part of the fun of dating, and make for some more realistic interactions. And sadly, lets face it, not all of us had our ‘perfect match’ just hanging around our high school, and i honestly cant expect to create a set of six datable characters that will satisfy the entire reader-base lol. Though Spirit knows, i’m insane enough to try… XD
@WayWalkerLeigh All the best authors put a great deal of thought into their worlds, much of it never getting to see the light of day in their novels unfortunately. While there are best-selling authors who haven’t put that kind of thought in, their series tend to collapse under the weight of inconsistencies the deeper in they get. And besides, you still aren’t anywhere near Tolkien in terms of a penchant for obsessing over details. He created entire languages with their very own alphabets for his world. Now that’s impressively obsessive. You’re just mildly obsessive in comparison. 
“Six datable characters”? Hmmm… I can guess three (Sem, Kess, Ay’cura/Ay’cure), and you’ve said that you’re adding Umbrave to the list. So who are the other two? Inquiring minds would like to know. :>
Oh and I totally recognize that you can’t expect to create a set of characters that will satisfy every single reader, but since you so considerately created this suggestions thread, I felt it appropriate to gently lobby the game’s wonderfully conscientious author on behalf of smart and/or older girls. 
And besides, why should the gals in the story get to be the only ones who can date older? (protagonist/Sem & Genoa)
@P_Tigras - remember what i said about WW: University being ‘toned down’? I have 12 partial languages based on four alphabets & four additional Antecedents they root from–and there is also a distinct dialect difference between those who were properly taught the scholar’s tongue, Tar’cil and those that weren’t-- which has to do with whether or not they pronounce the ( ’ ) in words properly or not. :"> I *wanted* to toy with the melting pot of language issues that can arise in Tar’citadel…but thought the better of it after seeing just how much my brain could melt in allowing the main character to start picking languages and then making certain there are *opportunities* to use them. Gotta draw the line somewhere.
(Hell, i even know how the trade currents cut across the Continent and how the rain shadow at the base of Aralim makes for a nasty little sandstorm/tornado ally b/c of this. XD )
You forgot Jun, and there’s one newbie on the way–though that one is a same-gender option.
LOL–mostly b/c i have that odd author thing going on where my characters tend to decide their own fates…and Genoa already decided to go WAY older, and no other older girls have stepped forward. O_o; But as far as smart, let’s just say don’t underestimate either Kess or Ay’cura/Ay’cure. Intelligence has many forms–and interests.
(and btw, totally agree with you–smart is sexy. hell, look at Sem! ;D )
@WayWalkerLeigh I stand corrected, you are just as impressively obsessive as Tolkien.
So hmm…which of these characters are open to which types of relationships? I believe I can safely assume that Jun and the newbie are strictly same gender options while Ay’cur(e/a) is strictly opposite gender. That leaves two fixed male characters Sem & Umbrave who could be potentially bi, and one fixed female character Kess, who could also potentially be bi.
Sem is clearly the most compelling character in the game at this point. Pity there isn’t a female version of him. I’m looking forward to the other characters being able to shine just as brightly as you develop them further.
I agree with the Sem remark, I guess Genoa would be his opposite but I don’t believe she possesses anywhere near as much charm, in fact she kind of put me off joining the newspaper club… I still did though. Hmm.
@P_Tigras told ya.
To answer the question–in theory, ‘everyone’ is bi, simply b/c it’s easier on my brain. XD What will determine the main’s ability to woo will be entirely based upon how they interact with said characters.
@CJW and @P_Tigras – Sem is one of those ‘perfect characters’ that comes along every now and again for a writer and inserts himself into the hearts of just about every reader. I think what makes him easily the best is simply b/c the Clan race as a whole were/are a huge portion of my novel base–well them and the tazu. What i mean is he’s complete character b/c he has a complete culture backing him up in my mind–i’m hoping to bring more of that into the rest of the bunch, but sadly, the CoG medium is a little difficult to do that with. (the final word count on the first half was over 120k words w/o coding–and i cant imagine the sequel shall be any less thick. In the end, i’m writing essentially several novellas all in one, while charging only 1.99–much as i love the concepts this way of writing affords, i simply can’t go as in depth as i would like and be fiscally responsible.)
THAT being said…Jun, at least, is slotted to get considerably more interesting. Promise.
So hmmm…that’s 4 potential romances for gay males, 3 for gay and straight females, and only 2 for straight males. In addition, gay males and straight gals get highly interesting Sem as one of their choices, while both gay males and gay females will get a “considerably more interesting” Jun as a choice too. Why do I suddenly feel like a member of a disadvantaged group? :-S
@waywalkerleigh I hope so, I came on just for that reason, because at the start jun seems so intriguing, with the “if I get angry then *he* wins” thing, so jun seems to have a tall tale about him.
Edit I need a reminder on how to work with the special thing like this… But I can’t seem to make it stop…
@P_Tigras — i know, i know i had to fall short somewhere, DX I promise Kess shall be awesome, okay? Or at least decent. And *maybe* i’ll take a look at Genoa again if i do another sequel after this next.
@Thatdudeoutthere – yes, i promise that will be developed–almost first thing out of the gate in the sequel. (IF you are friends with Jun…if not…well you’ll just have to wait to see the fun unfold…) It had originally been meant for this first part, but with the over 120k word mark fast approaching, i can to cut down and split story line into two semesters instead of one–or charge nearly $5 for the game, which would have made no one very happy. XD
@Thatdudeoutthere < i> can be stopped with < /i>, with no spaces between the < and > of course.
This is an example of both italics and bold in the same sentence.
I’m really curious about when to expect the sequel. I know the story only just came to out but I’m dying to know what happens next.
@WayWalkerLeigh There wasn’t much in the way of interaction with Kess in the 1st semester if you were in the dueling club, just a few short blurbs in classical Lit class. I kind of felt like I had to join one of the other two clubs if I wanted to interact with her more. I think that’s one of the things I had against her character, since dueling was my preferred club, and it seemed incompatible with getting to know her better.
More chances to join the Red.
I like Sem.
Beside what is already suggested, can I possibly request a friendship tracker? Nothing like “your relationship with Sem is +40” but perhaps a text based description on how the two of you appear to get on? Like “Best friends” / “Sworn enemies” / “Friendly rival!”
I ask as much as the story as I played it doesn’t seem to have enough text there to show every bit of the relationship between characters (and I wouldn’t expect it, it would be a nightmare to write) so for example when I steadfastily resist Sem at every opportunity and side with Jun, although I’m getting small acknowledgements, if I suddenly had a change of heart and supported Sem at the last minute or whatever, the page seems to assume I’ve been supporting him from the start in some places then reverts to another page based on the choices later. Not sure if I’m being clear, I guess, it’s a minor thing anyway!
More choices, more fun, more classes And more dragons (I survived it once! By playing a gimpy magic-heavy build… I suppose healers will always die? =( ) and to end on a high note, I’m already sold on the story and world you’ve created so I going to just wait for the next one and if your quality continues there’ll be no complaints here. 
@P_Tigras – You’ll have the chance, promise.
@CoGAwesomeness – i probably wont have an out and out ‘hey come join the cult’ moment, but there will be plenty of times to be wicked.
@RVallant – everyone loves Sem. As far as your suggestion–it was attempted, but i found it was a bit hokey to track it–there are 4 different relationship variations for Jun and only two for Semryu. I try to make the changes as smooth as possible (and i honestly think i do it better than in a lot of other titles) but as u said it’s a lot of work. When we go into he sequel, the basic shift you’re going to see is a much more black-and-white reaction from both Jun and Sem–you are either with them or against them, friends or enemies. (we saw evidence of this with Jun’s little speech at the end of the first game) Not only does this make things easier on me and more consistent for the reader, but it also allows for a certain sense of realism based on the high volume of emotions which will be coming into play.
Definitely more choices and classes, fun and…i’ll think about the dragons.