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Community Update #132

Posted 2024-03-08 23:20:54
I've made this point multiple times, so I'm just gonna put it here for all to see

To me (as a user participating in the matchmaker event for the first time), the idea of player-sexual NPCs was awesome to me, I was like, "Wow, now I can get all the decors!" But now, it honestly seems pointless to make the NPCs have a sexuality and just kinda drop it down multiple fleets of stairs in a matter of seconds.

I've started to change my view on the idea of all unlockable NPCs, my main argument about this event is that it doesn't all have to be about love and affection, and this is essentially where I'm on Kaz's side, and for their forum.

Won't say I'm totally for the forum and will repeat it here, but rather making my own suggestion:

Have all the wolves unlockable, but the dating feature on some wolves are locked because you don't match their dating criteria, however, the wolves with the dating locked have a friendship meter instead, and when they reach full friendship, they give you a gift to help with your dates! Or perhaps if you reach negative friendship, maybe there's a chance that on a date that the NPC your dating will get a -3 affection penalty due to the negative friendship NPC told them a rumor or something about you. And you cannot get the decors for the friendship-built wolves, but maybe an alternative, like "Baheti's Necklace" (since she wears a necklace in her transparent jelly decor.) "Friendship outings" instead of dates for the friendship-only wolves, they work similar to dates, but you choose just the biome and no gift.

Point is, don't make the NPCs locked, but also don't make it easy game to get all the decors, mix it up a little, get wild! Sure, it may require more coding and development, but I feel that it would add a little spice to the event.

(I'm like half asleep rn so I'm sorry if it doesn't make sense )

kat | i am back
#123021

Posted 2024-03-08 23:23:43
I would love for the gender picked at the beginning to actually have meaning, but you've unfortunately made it so that the experience in the event will not get close to being the same for those of us who pick non-binary

32 NPCs in total.
23 for Females, with 7 Exclusive
23 for Males. with 6 Exclusive
18 for Non-binary, with 1 Exclusive

You added 7 New NPCs, which could have fixed this, but instead we got; 4 that like all gender options, 1 exclusive for male & 2 exclusives for females. 0 exclusive for Non-binary! The one that already only has 1 exclusive. Both Female & Male already had 5 exclusive each, and you gave them more?!

The poll is really missing an option that should go: "Give the NPCs' gender and sexuality preferences as they were designed, once Female, Male, & Non-binary all have an equal number of dateables to find"

Heru
#965

Posted 2024-03-08 23:52:09 (edited)
Tbh I don't see the whole 'erasing queer people' argument as a queer (albeit aroace) person myself... none of the characters seem to have any previous lore that involves them being in relationships in any way. Sure if there was say, a character who we'd seen in previous events who had a storyline involving coming out as queer, figuring out their identity and so on I could definetely see being weirded out by them being playersexual but they're all just NPCs with minimal personality

All the characters being pan makes as much sense as all of them being polyamorous and fine with their partner (?) dating dozens of other wolves. If we care about fair representation that won't really work right?

My lead's gender can't really be categorized as male/female/nonbinary, they are aroace and extremely romance repulsed, ideally I wish we could have an option to befriend all the wolves (even those who you'd be 'attracted' to) if possible but if not I don't think it's an issue at all even if a bit unrealistic. My previous lead was pan but monogamous, already in a relationship and would not have wanted to date any NPC at all. (Didn't participate that year, but still)

Queerness is such a complicated topic and there's really no way to make an event that perfectly handles it and has dating be extremely realistic while also making the event fun/not making the team have 10× more work to do and making the event very complicated to play

[🌈] Aspen !!
#50586

Posted 2024-03-09 01:36:12 (edited)
I'm just going to comment what I did during the event, that makes it easier for me.

"I wish the NPCs kept specific sexualities instead of being into everyone at once though. Normally I like games having NPCs date anyone, but when they had specific interests from the start here, it feels really weird to have those differences erased after the fact. It's acknowledging diversity in romance just to say 'syke!' later, and throw every NPC into a melting pot. You can't celebrate those differences anymore if they no longer exist.

A big aspect of their characters were thrown away after already being developed and I'm not too sure why people are happy about that, outside of 'I want to collect everything in a single year.' To each their own, I just don't agree."

I'd like to add onto the last part: Willa and Oaken take the biggest hit from this. Their entire aspiration is that they want a pack of their own bloodline. That's, like, their one defining characteristics - that they're family-oriented. Kind of defeats the purpose of how their dialogue is written if Oaken can date males and Willa can date females, no?

I'd have liked a compromise, but seems like the poll is deciding. I hope the players who only went through the event this one time know that being 'locked' out of certain NPCs isn't permanent, the gender option resets each year.

If all NPCs are going to be 'playersexual,' the option to choose your gender at the beginning of the event and all NPCs' male/female/nonbinary preferences should be removed. I don't see the point if they're all going to be attracted to you regardless, y'know? Telling Eranthis that info no longer changes anything and the preference traits are just useless fluff.

Plus, there's an issue with having all NPCs available that almost no one has mentioned: The LB you can gain from having all of them is absurd. I don't think it was intended for us to be able to buy a marking app every day near the end of the event, without including explore or matchmaking LB. So I won't be surprised if they nerf the NPCs in that regard.

Whirligig (Hiatus)
#11137

Posted 2024-03-09 01:38:45
WOOOOOO NEWS
Monttie
#35934

Posted 2024-03-09 01:39:49
True, I think they should remove the gender preferences in the NPC's bios and maybe remove telling Eranthis about gender, or change "gender" to "pronouns" and just have that change what the NPCs refer to you as

[🌈] Aspen !!
#50586

Posted 2024-03-09 01:43:22
Thats a lovely new stud

Luna
#127552

Posted 2024-03-09 01:58:46
i really dont want them to have their preferences removed, theres queer coded characters (as initially said, e.g. violet) and as a lesbian its just. the idea is uncomfortable to me if that makes sense? violets are quite literally regarded as a "lesbian flower" often. im pretty sure that was very intentional.

a few of these characters are also based off real people who worked on the game iirc, the one of i know at least is queer (ludovic). so theyre not just empty npcs with no thought behind them. they DO have meaning. whether or not you support removing or keeping playersexual i hope that harmful aspect can be seen.

on the topic, i really want to see aro/ace support because there is none, since im both allo and ace (ace-spec lesbian) both allo and aroace perspectives matter to me. which is why i think queerplatonic dating is kinda an obvious solution. i dont want people who like some npcs to miss out on them, but i also want people to feel comfortable with the romance in the event.

sorry if i come off a lil strong, im a passionate gay lol.

[Slow] ☘️ Kaziah (Kaz)
#16535

Posted 2024-03-09 02:15:22
I meant to remove them only if they function the same way they did this year. As the way it currently is, that info is useless. And not just useless, it's disregarded.

Like dating Cian. 'Cian only likes boys! Oh, you're not a boy? Eh, don't worry about it, he'll overlook it. ;)'

I'd rather they just don't have listed preferences than that.

Whirligig (Hiatus)
#11137

Posted 2024-03-09 02:22:26 (edited)
I really hope the NPCs get their preferences back too. It gives them personality, makes them feel more "real". I know this game is already unrealistic, but a little realism is nice here and there. It's not like when I go out to town everyone will just drop on their knees for me either. Also if you end up missing decors this way, you can just buy/trade them from other players.

Even with playersexual, you're going to have to, anyway. Next year we're getting even more NPCs, and there's just not enough days in the month to unlock them all eventually. I already couldn't unlock them all myself this year because I started a little late, but those who could play from the start couldn't get the decors from the very last ones unless they altered their leads to their preferences (if I understood my friends correctly).

Even if you could, you can't anymore in the future when/if we get more NPCs. There's just too many to unlock and max out in just one February. So you won't get all your decors anyway. Get one of the new NPCs on the last day of the month? Have fun with the tease.

Example: I was pretty excited about Ludovic this year. Only unlocked him on one of the last days of the month. Had no chance of maxing his hearts out. I had to buy his decor from another player anyway. As we get more NPCs in the future, this is going to happen to more and more of us.

Pich
#314