Answers with Flora-chan

Flora-chan is a little character I've been fooling around with in my free time. She has tentacles!

This question was posted in a comment on Patreon by BBReady. It's a good question, and one that requires a longer answer, so I thought I'd go ahead and turn it into a blog post!

BBReady Asks: (note: edited for spelling and clarity)

This question is going to seem pretty random. But how much will the pc personality come through directly in the game-play? I don’t know how to phrase that question good so I’ll just like throw a scenario. I don’t know if there will be a scene like this or not in the game, but say that there’s a small scene in game where the PC who has a boyfriend (or doesn’t, but the point I’m trying to make works best when she’s taken) is with a straight male friend in her house or room or whatever and she needs to change tops. 

So she thinks about just changing in front of him because being in just a bra in front of someone isn’t bad anyway. But then she remembers that she’s not wearing a bra. So she has to make the choice whether she’s going to make the friend leave or just go ahead and get her tits out with him still there. Logically speaking, there are several reasons why she could choose one way or another. She could choose to make him leave because she’s faithful to her bf, because she’s just uncomfortable with taking her tits out in front of a guy she isn’t with, because she doesn’t want him to think it’s a hint, or whatever else, or a combination. Or she could choose to just go ahead and change because she’s unfaithful, or because she just wants to tease the friend, or because she’s hardcore into the idea that female tits aren’t really sacred compared to male tits so she doesn’t think anything of it, or because maybe she thinks that it is a big deal but she thinks that they’re close enough friends that she should be okay with it, or whatever else, or a combination. 

So my question is that if this scene were in the game (and i think it should be), when the player gets to make the choice would it just be two options of either ‘change’ or ‘make him leave first’ and then the player just gets to make up in their head why she chose one way or the other, or would the game come with several different options under each umbrella of those two main options that has the reasoning behind them?

 Answer:

So the PC's personality is represented in a few ways in the game. There are the main personality values (willpower, extroversion, openness, libido), the personality stats (perversion, corruption, morality, bimbo, mindbreak), and also the personality traits, some of which are chosen during character creation. To a lesser extent other stats like happiness, loneliness, stress, etc. also have effects on the character. These all have different effects (and planned effects) on the character.

In general, there are three main ways AW uses to handle the player's personality when dealing with scenes. Examples of both can be found throughout the game thus far, particularly the prologue. I'll try to use your example scenario to show how they can be used, but it's worth noting that in the actual game, breasts don't have nearly the same level of taboo as they do today. This means that exposing your breasts in this situation would be far more ambiguous and have a lot less meaning behind it. [See notes on the future below for more info!] I'm going to treat this scenario as if it did have the same significance it would today, to make the explanation (hopefully) more clear. :D

ONE: Limiting or adding choices. In general, I disfavor removing the player's choice for normal types of actions/responses. I prefer to leave a choice open, even if it results in a very negative or inconsequential outcome because of personality. If the player was really aroused and essentially a mega-slut, I wouldn't remove the option for them to send the male out of the room... It would just likely result in the player character saying something seductive instead, resulting in the guy not leaving. "Hey, you might want to step outside for a bit... I don't think I can control myself once I start taking off my clothes..." In this situation, a willpower check would probably also be involved. Adding choices based on personality can be pretty fun, but it's also easy for this to run out of control in terms of the effort required for a scene. Each scene in AW usually has between 2 and 4 times the amount of text that you actually read, because of different possibilities. Because of this, I leave extra options to fairly unique personality conditions, and generally try to work the effect into a modification of a main route instead of creating an entirely new route. 

TWO: Modifying text. This is my preferred method for integrating personality. It allows a route to be flavored in a way that matches the player character, without needing to create a ton of routes. I make use of this method a lot in the male prologue and elsewhere. Changing around a few key sentences or words can have a pretty dramatic effect on the tone of the overall route. In the example scenario, a horny but very moral person might express a certain regret at kicking the man out to change, but would also view it as making a positive or correct choice. A shy person would express relief at the man being gone, while an insecure one would worry over the man's perception of being kicked out. In these examples, the main action is the same, but the way it appears is quite different. Similarly, a girl unconcerned about nudity might simply change without putting much thought into it at all, while the text for an exhibitionist might edge toward the naughty side and include observations of the man looking at her body. A shy girl, or one concerned about propriety might change with the man in the room, but would turn around first, hiding her breasts from view while changing. Again, the effect is mostly the same as far as the route is concerned, but each has a very different feeling.

The downside to this approach is that players rarely notice it happening unless they're watching for it. 

THREE: Mechanical Interaction. In many ways, mechanics interact to change the player's status variables and other mechanics such as skill checks. These tend to represent either the impact on the player of a choice, or the ability of the player to do something. A PC that's very concerned about her boyfriend would likely experience a larger stress gain if changing with him in the room, while an unromantic or amoral character would likely experience little to no stress. A naughty PC might experience more arousal from the same act, while a shamefast character might see their arousal actually decrease. 

Also while I have you here, i have a shorter question as well. I remember you saying one time that both wardrobe malfunctions and flashing will be in the game but what about sharking?

Sharking is certainly possible to add, and I did have an idea for a random event along those lines, but it isn't going to get a lot of unique content from me. Submitting content for random events involving sharking is of course welcome (As with all sorts of other content)! There's just only so much I can write within a limited time frame. It's also possible to submit an entire quest chain involving you adventures tracking down a sharking club and sexing them into submission (or whatever outcomes, this is just an example).

Notes on the Future

The town of Appletree has a pretty obvious liberal bent when it comes to social values, which is pretty typical for places like universities, cities, and tech centers today. It's not that they're completely divorced from reality, but they definitely fall on the "open and accepting" side of the spectrum when it comes to things like sexuality and what kind of clothing is appropriate. In the greater Unified States, there has been an increasing acceptance of breasts in particular and the human body in general. It's a trend that has been around in our world for decades, and I expect it would have continued into 2032 in the AW Universe.

The Free the Nipple movement, campaigns to support public breast feeding, and growing awareness of the health risks posed by bras did a lot to change what is considered acceptable. Adoption of more European censorship standards when it comes to the human body and sexuality have also helped, though by the time "boobies were free" on broadcast television, streaming video services had already normalized nudity and sexuality in a significant way. Even the stubborn MPAA changed their rating standards in regard to sex eventually, and in 2032 PG-13 allows today's version of softcore porn or skinimax flicks, while an R rating allows what amounts to porn that isn't excessively kinky. (Too much kink, and things like bukkake, scat, and gangbangs will usually result in a NC-17 rating.)

In 2032, going braless is considered perfectly normal, as is seeing the outline of nipples under clothing in all but the most formal settings. Nipple tents are appreciated but not scorned, and modern fashion has developed a whole set of techniques to actually emphasize and show off nipples under tops and dresses. Older women--who tend to be more affected by bra-induced sag caused before these changes--do tend to be more likely to wear bras (though they tend toward more support-only styles such as shelf and quarter-cup bras).

Going completely topless is still unusual outside of certain activities. For example: wearing a bikini today is considered perfectly acceptable, but would be considered pretty strange outside of a beach/swimming/summertime situation. Similarly, in Appletree going topless while exercising, swimming, or performing some other outdoor activity would be considered perfectly normal, but you'd probably get reprimanded if you showed up to work that way. While being topless is considered normal or acceptable, this doesn't mean that every woman (or even most) go topless at all, just like how not all women today wear tiny string bikinis at the beach.

Exposing the genitals is still generally frowned upon, and blatantly exposing your genitals is still illegal in most places. There is an increased acceptance of women going commando (sans panties), again tied to health benefits. This means that obscured exposure through sheer fabric or temporary exposure due to a short skirt is much better tolerated, but still not considered "proper" in public. 

In a more general sense, things like public displays of affection are more common and considered acceptable. More sexual affection such as rubbing/groping through clothing, or slipping a hand under a garment, are also considered acceptable in the right sorts of environments (basically if it is a situation where making out/french kissing would be acceptable today). Explicit sexual activity, such as actual sex or oral sex is generally considered inappropriate or even criminal depending on the situation and how blatant it is. 

Openness has increased in a more institutional sense as well. It is increasingly common for restrooms and changing rooms to be unisex, particularly in Appletree which was basically designed around unisex facilities. Female urinals started gaining popularity before being supplanted by unisex urinals in unisex bathrooms. While it's considered normal to have naked men and women together in places like gym locker rooms and showers, the normal social prohibitions against staring at other's privates or engaging in intimate behaviors is still there. Certain groups of women--typically young--use locker rooms as a chance to "size up" the opposite sex, or even to have a competition or bet about who can cause the most erections.

Some more Flora-chan!