Reaha Backer Poll

[JohanLitvisk]

That certainly sounds less deplorable. But are we gonna account for Cured Reaha, who is probably happy than addicted Reaha?

 

[Fenoxo]

Sounds like Cured Reaha is a solved problem and doesn't need to be Treated.

 

[JohanLitvisk]

Alright, sounds good. Now we can all go back to writing and jacking/jilling off to our respective fetishes...right?

 

[Fenoxo]

You're all assuming Savin is going to do my idea when he's already developed his to a large degree. #LaidBackBossIsWorstBoss.

 

[Timeagain]

No offense Misty, but you might want to calm down the moral crusading a bit. At the end of a day, its still a porn game, designed to get people off

 

[JohanLitvisk]

At this point we said this shit to death. Just wait like ~2-3 years (unprofessional guesstament) and you'll get a satisfying solution to the issues of the treatment and NT as a whole. Seriously, this it's just porn, deep universe and characters aside. The more this goes on the more chance of a college dissertation on morality. No one wants that. Just grumble along with the rest of us anti-treatment folks and refuse to acknowledge the existence of NT and the treatment. Seriously, before we start going into full shaming of people who like NT and the treatment like we do with people who like Kiro. This a serious problem when these topics come up

You're all assuming Savin is going to do my idea when he's already developed his to a large degree. #LaidBackBossIsWorstBoss.

Wishful thinking is wishful thinking, not matter how ridiculous and pointless it is.

 

[balitz Method]

That makes it worse! They'll admit to forcibly brainwashing their sons and daughters with fucking smiles! They see nothing wrong with it! The Treatment makes them see nothing wrong with that!

And that's the spirit of the place: that it's an integral part of who they are and how they raise their kids, not something shady government spooks are administering in the dead of night. Doing it this way just doesn't sound like them. They want you, and their citizens, to want it and find a place in their society. What goal does forcing someone who's not even staying even serve on their end? Whatever anyone's opinion on the place is they only lay down those rules on those who are or are going to live there and enforcing it at gunpoint rather than with a folksy heart-to-heart and some legal talk just doesn't sound like a snug fit unless you're simply willing to believe the worst about them no matter what even if it doesn't make a whole lot of sense or it wouldn't be a good direction.

 

[Nonesuch]

Think @balitz Method nailed it as well tbh. I've already expressed my dislike of persistent fail states that are significant in terms of impact, and though I feel like I've been picking on him a lot recently I have to say this sounds like another one Savin's designing here. From a larger point of view, some players are going to want Reaha in hyper-libido'd muscle futa mode because that's their fetish. They should be allowed to consciously work towards that goal, instead of forcing them along a path of "Oh God, you've completely fucked up and ruined your slave's life!"


I also agree that both him and Misty are mistaking the type of dystopia NT is. It's Brave New World, not a Nazi sterilisation facility, I find it impossible to imagine they force anything. If you overcome the deeply ingrained cultural mores of the place and desperately don't want to take it, that's fine! You just can't stay here, pardner. Where everyone you've ever known lives. Hitch a ride on the next freighter out and make us proud in space or whatever! We'll always be back down here, in the Garden of Eden, when- sorry, if you change your mind.

 

[Nonesuch]

We're not debating whether or not force-Treating happens. That is established as happening without a shadow of a doubt, and has been for a long time. They force the Treatment on people that don't want it. They don't let them leave. They don't let them opt out. So how are you going to force something like the Treatment on someone that doesn't want it? You're gonna hold them down and inject them with it, then the Treatment does the rest. How else are you going to do it without using force? It's right there in the term itself! Force-Treatment!


This is why I'm saying that the singular element of forced Treatment for NT citizens is what the issue is. If that single detail wasn't there, the place would be fine. It would be quite cheery and positive, actually. It'd be a place I wouldn't mind going in the game, and it would probably be the happiest and brightest spot in the whole game.

Right, so this seems like it might be a semantics issue more than anything. To be a citizen of New Texas, you have to take the Treatment. If you don't, then you have to leave. If we can just get Fen to confirm this line of logic rather than they hold struggling teenagers down and stick needles into them - which from my reading of his comments in this thread he seems very amenable to - this whole issue would be resolved for you, yes?

 

[balitz Method]

My discord pitch on how I'd do Treated Reaha:

For whatever small legitimacy it may add I've worked as a publishing editor before and that's also more or less what I'd suggest to him. She's not just been trying to treat herself, she's also been running away from that fear and any satisfying conclusion to her arc needs to involve her making a decision for once in her life and living with the consequences. Up till this point she's allowed herself to be swept along by the whims and schemes of other people without sorting out what she really thinks of her home.


Going so dark not only with New Texas but her character arc too doesn't lead to nearly as many good options as bringing it to an "okay, do you want this or not?" moment. If Reaha only learns to stand up for herself after getting Treated it's also going to feel like the Treatment itself pushed her into that and the ultimate resolution can't be much else other than "and so she never truly discovered what she wanted."


It could be worthwhile to find out if a Treated route is something he's really geared up for or something he feels is being foisted on him. All of us creative types can be horribly moody when that happens and it'll show in the work.

 

[JohanLitvisk]

Holy fucking shit. It's a done deal. New Texas isn't going to change anytime soon no matter how much moral crusading (and subtle kinkshaming, imo) us anti-treatment people do. Just ignore the existent of the place and everyone is good. This isn't some great moral dilemma that could effect people with no barrier between reality and fiction. It's a fucking bovine themed brute/bimbo planet in a fucking porn game. Jesus Christ people.


Reaha is just as fucking irresponsible (and rightfully fearful) but can't escape her cultural norms. Just accept that this is how shit probably going to go down unless Fen pulls the rug from under Savin

 

[balitz Method]

But that is already clearly established in-game as not being how it works. New Texas would be absolutely fine if that's how it worked! Maybe not absolutely fine, there's still some questionable stuff to be explored from the social/peer pressure angle, but it's an actual set of moral grays, not the nonsensical bottom-line we have now.

Just from reading her current content I got the impression that she'd panicked and, without any money, stowed away on a freighter and from there bounced around here and there getting into crippling debt - more of a teenage runaway story than escaping the Gulag.

 

[Nonesuch]

But at this point it's not really possible to change. That single change would undo pretty much all of Reaha's... everything.

It's been a while since I read her from front to back - and of course the whole thing's up to Savin, unless he's willing to accept a small rewrite from me - but I really don't think it would. She says she had to flee NT because otherwise the Treatment would have been forced on her, but this can easily be played as her over-dramatising what really happened. She's ashamed of how she wound up, of course she's going to play up what she was running from! When you meet them her family could probably chidingly correct her on the matter and totally embarrass her. Her arc of facing up to her fear/obsession with the Treatment remains entirely intact.

 

[Primename]

Welp, looks like I'm going to be locked out of this content because I don't want to be a creepizoid monster idiot person, so there goes the dream of Amazon Space Buds, I guess.

 

[Nik_van_Rijn]

But at this point it's not really possible to change. That single change would undo pretty much all of Reaha's... everything.

Actually, most of Reaha's character can be preserved through such change. If she were to be retconned into leaving NT legally after refusing to get Treated, she'd have still been reeling from the fact that, in her mind, her family was ready to ostracize her, without any money or knowledge on how to operate outside of NT, riddled with second-thoughts and not really free from some aspects of the mindset that got drilled into her.


So the trajectory of the rest of her journey would remain unchanged. Army-Debt-Whoring will still be logical outcomes.

 

[JohanLitvisk]

To be fair, this is a whole Steele held the idiot ball thing rather than you personally fucking up. I doubt we'll get a easy resolution that makes everyone happy.

 

[Gardeford]

Would anyone that currently likes NT really be suddenly turned off if they learned young men and women could leave without being Treated if that's what they chose?

Not I. if anything i'd like it more.

 

[Alabaster Chimes]

And thats

Would anyone that currently likes NT really be suddenly turned off if they learned young men and women could leave without being Treated if that's what they chose?

how we fix NT in general folks. Make it optional. Take it or leave it. Suck it up or walk out. (and lots of other one liners...)

 

[Noob Salad]

Make it optional. Take it or leave it. Suck it up or walk out.

Neat idea. You should PM Fenoxo about it.

 

[Nik_van_Rijn]

Neat idea. You should PM Fenoxo about it.

So the kninkshaming kink is old news at this point and your newest fetish is seeing people getting repeatedly hit with a banhammer?

 

[Alabaster Chimes]

Neat idea. You should PM Fenoxo about it.

I meant it to have a tone of sarcasm like it has never been said before. My bad noob  :$

 

[Nik_van_Rijn]

@IVIysteriousPerson obvious shitpost was supposed to be obvious...


Nothing Fenoxo has ever done before points out to him being a forum tyrant. I mean, you still got no warning points, right?

 

[Wsan]

I'm of the opinion that NT doesn't need to change but also that secret police are ridiculous. Frankly, the thread should have ended with balitz Method's post.

 

[Altair Hayes]

While I'm not one for locking threads, this thread is going nowhere. IMO toss it in the bin.

 

[Fenoxo]

(and subtle kinkshaming

About as subtle as my appreciation for horsecocked herms!


As for Treatment distribution, not sure it's codified anywhere in game. It's been a while since I bothered to put much thought into it, but it's either 18th birthday or high school graduation, one of the two. Probably graduation after further though as otherwise 18 years of education wouldn't work very well with all the fucking. Get your diploma and a Treatment prick! Males probably universally look forward to it. Females are probably more split, with a lot more general nervousness and unsurety, but still caving to social norms and taking it. Reaha's case would probably be a pretty rare case since her reactions seem to be based entirely on our world's social norms and not New Texas's. While it is mandatory, I'd wager most people in Reaha's situation just skip off planet.


I never intended we'd be sitting here coming up with the absolute worst case scenario for how the Treatment could impact a person when we made it. There was an idea for a runaway you could rescue or Treat, and while the latter is obviously the "asshole" route, they'd both have outcomes where the NPC approved of what you did. Reaha basically dialed that up 200%.


I guess I'm not opposed to the idea of giving an option to turn it down. Maybe 1-2% might take it, realize how out of place they are and skip planet or wind up changing their mind. I doubt anyone who didn't take it would remain on planet for more than a month or two, considering Treated lovers would find them to be bad in bed, and they'd get Treated like a tourist or a social outcast the rest of the time. Might fuck up Reaha's arc, though.

For what it's worth, and this is my own fault because of my mental instability and inability to not become emotionally compromised when faced with things I find disturbing, learning about the intricacies of NT has affected me negatively in my real life. And it's also affected what I'm willing to contribute to the game in a negative fashion.

This disturbs me in real life. If fucked up shit happening in a fantastical setting bothers you, it might be best to step away from it entirely - or seek therapy, because the real world is full of shit that makes New Texas look like a walk in the park. Also, you know that this is the successor to CoC, right? The game where you could forcibly turn a chaste monk into a slavering tentacle monster? The game where you could play an amoral rapist who fucked over everyone who dared to look at him the wrong way?

 

[Fenoxo]

I'm of the opinion that NT doesn't need to change but also that secret police are ridiculous. Frankly, the thread should have ended with balitz Method's post.

Eh, aside from the anti-NT circlejerk, there has been some good discussion going on.

 

[Coalsack]

The only thinks that saddens me is the lack of an opportunity for a herm Reaha for those of us whose seek her cured path.

 

[Fenoxo]

Needs third path - "Throbb dose". Just give her one dose, and it's just as good as being on aphrodisiacs! Who needs patches?

 

[JohanLitvisk]

I mean, there's not much we can do but wave our internet pitchforks at Fen, but the point is that a resolution for the issues of the treatment is far off and far flung. The Moostapo angle is kinda ridiculous whether or not NT has a large hate following (which it doesn't, let's be real). I honestly think it should have been given the axe. But then again, this shit's already been heavily developed at this moment in time so I don't know if anything can be done at this point.


Yeah. throbb or horse cock synth sheath would probably solve any issues with Cured Reaha not receiving dick worship from Steele.

 

[Coalsack]

I'd stick with the Synth Sheath. Thobb and overdrived libido is a no-no, at least on my book. (Even if I despise horsecocks from the bottom of my heart, I won't survive with too many pure females on my crew)