[Accepted] Evening Everly: human, mercenary, feels some way about mods

[Aceinthehole]

I see a lack of tomboys and pure human women in this game. I wish to rectify this situation.

Her premise can be viewed here while I've made a google docs for her content here. I'd love some feedback, especially since given her character concept I'm a bit worried about whether she has a place in the game, especially when it comes to her being too picky sex-wise.

 

[SheeptaurTheSheepKing]

I think this idea is pretty interesting, it has a lot of potential.

I've always thought it was funny, in a meta sense, how you can introduce yourself to a character as a normal human woman and then run into them a week later as a tentacle-winged cat-taur with two massive horse dicks, six breasts, and a shark's head, and yet somehow they still recognize you immediately and don't even comment on your appearance or sex change. I know that's just a limitation of game programming of course, but it would be interesting if Evening served as a character in the game who could talk to the PC about, and let them explore, that aspect of society.

Like, has drunk-modding yourself become the new version of getting a drunk-tattoo? Or, given how quick and easy mods are to apply, do people ever use them on other people without their knowledge? Like some catty rich-bitch tricking a girl she doesn't like into eating Swineapples to humiliate her, or some asshole picking up a drunk girl and dosing her with Gush, telling her it's just perfume, before he fucks her and then running off in the morning before she sobers up and realizes what happened. I could definitely see Evening having hunted a guy like that for a bounty.

 

[Aceinthehole]

First off- great username. I can't believe you killed 12 people.

And second, oh my God, yes, those are all interesting things that I want to explore. I'm not 100% sure how I could naturally introduce discussion of all those things, but I definitely will at least add a talk option that rotates through her telling various stories, each addressing a different aspect. You gave me so many good ideas. I wonder if it's possible for her to remark if you've noticably modded yourself too, like changing species or adding a whole extra set of breasts...

 

[TheShepard256]

I wonder if it's possible for her to remark if you've noticably modded yourself too, like changing species or adding a whole extra set of breasts...

It's possible: some of Synphia's scenes make use of a flag that counts how many dicks she remembers Steele having, and a similar system could be used here.

 

[Aceinthehole]

It's possible: some of Synphia's scenes make use of a flag that counts how many dicks she remembers Steele having, and a similar system could be used here.

Cool, I'll probably keep it simple and just make her comment if Steele does something substantial, like change race entirely.

 

[Paradox01]

Or, given how quick and easy mods are to apply, do people ever use them on other people without their knowledge?

We already have Sera slipping Rainbowtox into your shower (even though it's supposed to be injected, but whatevs).

 

[Aceinthehole]

The description for Rainbowtox also says people have pranked each other by slipping it into drinks. So it and other mods have definitely been and can be abused like that.

 

[Paradox01]

The description for Rainbowtox also says people have pranked each other by slipping it into drinks.

Actually, it just says that assholes have been known to swap it "in place of other treatments". I don't think Rainbowtox would work by ingestion.

Pedantry aside, you're right, there is a precedent for TFs and in-game drugs being misused and abused.

 

[Aceinthehole]

Feel free to comment any ideas you have in the doc, I'd love to see more. Since this is my first time doing this, I'm not sure how working with an editor is supposed to go, but I think I could use one.

 

[SheeptaurTheSheepKing]

First off- great username. I can't believe you killed 12 people.

And second, oh my God, yes, those are all interesting things that I want to explore. I'm not 100% sure how I could naturally introduce discussion of all those things, but I definitely will at least add a talk option that rotates through her telling various stories, each addressing a different aspect. You gave me so many good ideas. I wonder if it's possible for her to remark if you've noticably modded yourself too, like changing species or adding a whole extra set of breasts...

Never underestimate a sheep who can climb walls and spit acid!

I figured Evening would take a special interest in bounties on people who are mod abusers as a way of hoping to find her mother again, she might even have a special scanner or cybernetic eye that lets her read people's DNA at a distance in order to identify wanted people who have changed themselves with mods, and so she would would have lots of stories about the harmful ways people use mods that could springboard into debates about their use in society.

I'm flattered you liked them. If you want more I've got plenty, or if you just want someone to bounce ideas off of or if need an editor, I'd be happy to help too.

 

[Aceinthehole]

I don't know how the order of our posts got mixed up, but yes to all those things. All of them.

 

[SheeptaurTheSheepKing]

Feel free to comment any ideas you have in the doc, I'd love to see more. Since this is my first time doing this, I'm not sure how working with an editor is supposed to go, but I think I could use one.

I just deleted and re-posted my comment because I messed up your quote by trying to comment in-between it's lines.

An editor is just someone who, with your permission, reads through and double checks your finished work, and checks for/fixes any grammar mistakes and/or syntax errors in your submission so Fenoxo, Savin, or Gedan don't have to after you've already submitted it.

 

[Aceinthehole]

Oooooh, I'll take you up on that offer. Obviously I should probably get a good chunk more writing done first, but I'll update here regularly. Thanks!

 

[SheeptaurTheSheepKing]

Oooooh, I'll take you up on that offer. Obviously I should probably get a good chunk more writing done first, but I'll update here regularly. Thanks!

No problem, I'm glad to help.

 

[Aceinthehole]

Okay, I finished everything up until the beginning of her talk options, as a bit of the 'Herself' blurb. (It's woefully unfinished so don't look at it yet plz.) I've also laid out the logic behind all her dialogue options. Still have to do the same with her sex options.

Right now I'm thinking that I can do it by measuring the PC's race score. If you're described as a certain species, but you have a race score that's too high in other categories (eg. a high avian and panda score when you technically qualify as a half-ausar) then it'd be an indication that you've heavily modded yourself, and then she'd probably reject you. That or you're a taur (and possibly naga), in which case she rejects you outright, because sex isn't physically possible without a lot of finagling and/or I don't think I have it in me to write snake/horse sex.

The problem I'm currently seeing is a lot of these categories seem to overlap. Like how canine and lupine are interlinked, a lot of canine features factor into your ausar score, your huskar score isn't technically influenced by your ausar score but huskars are still a subspecies of ausar, etc. It may be too complicated suss out and code. I could always just exclude 'alien hybrids' but that I don't think a lot of characters even qualify for the category so it might end up ineffectual.

 

[Aceinthehole]

Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

 

[arch99]

Okay, I finished everything up until the beginning of her talk options, as a bit of the 'Herself' blurb. (It's woefully unfinished so don't look at it yet plz.) I've also laid out the logic behind all her dialogue options. Still have to do the same with her sex options.

Right now I'm thinking that I can do it by measuring the PC's race score. If you're described as a certain species, but you have a race score that's too high in other categories (eg. a high avian and panda score when you technically qualify as a half-ausar) then it'd be an indication that you've heavily modded yourself, and then she'd probably reject you. That or you're a taur (and possibly naga), in which case she rejects you outright, because sex isn't physically possible without a lot of finagling and/or I don't think I have it in me to write snake/horse sex.

The problem I'm currently seeing is a lot of these categories seem to overlap. Like how canine and lupine are interlinked, a lot of canine features factor into your ausar score, your huskar score isn't technically influenced by your ausar score but huskars are still a subspecies of ausar, etc. It may be too complicated suss out and code. I could always just exclude 'alien hybrids' but that I don't think a lot of characters even qualify for the category so it might end up ineffectual.

Taint seems like a good starting place to exclude, and it's possible the game also stores somewhere the options the player picked at the start of the game? if so, it could test if you have a different race than you started with, that's a pretty easy indicator.

 

[Aceinthehole]

Taint seems like a good starting place to exclude, and it's possible the game also stores somewhere the options the player picked at the start of the game? if so, it could test if you have a different race than you started with, that's a pretty easy indicator.

I thought about that at first, but the problem is I don't think taint has any visible indicator. Evening can't look at a PC and sense how much taint they have. The same thing with starting race, since she wouldn't know. She should be able to track if you change races after meeting her though. I'm hesitant to make this disqualify you from having sex, though, because that sounds way too restrictive. Do many players change their race often?

Shoot, I just realized this means I have to take into account if you've sexed her before but try again while you're transformed into something she'd reject. That'd be an awkward scene to write.

"Steele. James Steele" *cue the Bond theme*

Lol I've definitely seen it used before.

 

[TheShepard256]

Taint seems like a good starting place to exclude, and it's possible the game also stores somewhere the options the player picked at the start of the game? if so, it could test if you have a different race than you started with, that's a pretty easy indicator.

Taint is also not a good indicator of how heavily modded Steele is, because there are quite a lot of TF items that don't cause taint gain. And yes, Steele's original race is tracked, as well as the colours of their skin, eyes, hair, fur and scales (mainly for inheritance purposes), but no other physical characteristics (e.g. height, sex).

Right now I'm thinking that I can do it by measuring the PC's race score. If you're described as a certain species, but you have a race score that's too high in other categories (eg. a high avian and panda score when you technically qualify as a half-ausar) then it'd be an indication that you've heavily modded yourself, and then she'd probably reject you. That or you're a taur (and possibly naga), in which case she rejects you outright, because sex isn't physically possible without a lot of finagling and/or I don't think I have it in me to write snake/horse sex.

The problem I'm currently seeing is a lot of these categories seem to overlap. Like how canine and lupine are interlinked, a lot of canine features factor into your ausar score, your huskar score isn't technically influenced by your ausar score but huskars are still a subspecies of ausar, etc. It may be too complicated suss out and code. I could always just exclude 'alien hybrids' but that I don't think a lot of characters even qualify for the category so it might end up ineffectual.

There are so many racial scores that this seems like an effort in insanity. Then again, some racial scores have little to no overlap with any naturally occurring race (e.g. there are no panda-like races), so having a high score in any of those would automatically require modding. Whatever system you make, you'd also have to update it every time a new racial score is added. There's also the possibility that a naturally-occurring set of traits from ancestors of two or more species could cause one to be considered an alien hybrid instead of a 'proper' race, which would easily cause problems for multi-generational hybrids (though this wouldn't really apply to Steele).

That last one actually got me thinking: if Evening knows who Steele is, she might also know who their father is (and that 'might' can be dropped if she gets Steele to tell her their story). In that case, she knows Steele must naturally be human or half-human (though she wouldn't be able to figure out the other half on her own), so being neither human nor half-human would clue her in to Steele being modded to some degree. Make of that what you will, but it could reduce the amount of work you have to do.

There's also a weird case with laquine score, which will always be 0 if Steele doesn't have equine genitals no matter how much of a laquine they are otherwise, so Steele can technically change race entirely by modding only their genitalia.

 

[Aceinthehole]

Yeah, I was definitely planning on bringing up Victor in conversation, it's too good to pass up.

As for racial scores, I know there's a lot of them, but according to the code every one of them is calculated when determining race anyways, so I feel like I should be able to do something with that. Yeah it'd be insane to individually address every thing one, but if I say, sum up the scores and subtract the human score (assuming she knows Steele is half human), or count the number of scores that are > 0 other than human, it would give some sense of how modded they are. At best they're half human and half something else, so only a few scores would naturally factor into their birth race. I just have to make that threshold number suitably high enough, to make wiggle room for overlapping scores and the fact that I don't want to reject the player unless they are HEAVILY modded.

Mostly I just want to reject the extreme fringe cases, like someone with tentacle wings and cat ears but a dog face and dragon arms and 10 rows of breasts. Maybe if I calculate the race scores of a few hypotheticals like that I can find some kind of pattern.

 

[Aceinthehole]

I've finished the 'Herself' section and started on the 'Mods' dialogue option. Seems that my average speed seems to be one 'section' per day, which isn't too bad if you ask me. I'm a little concerned about length, but it might be too early to be worrying about that right now. I don't want to write fluff that's unenjoyable to read or write just to reach a magic number, and I won't know how long this project will be by the time I exhaust all the organic options that come to mind.

I may try to whip up a race score calculator in excel and just run the numbers on potential characters to see what happens. Worst comes to worst, I'll eliminate this mechanic entirely and have less restrictions on her sex scenes. I'd rather have a bit of gameplay/story segregation than restrict the player's options too much and get this entry rejected.

 

[arch99]

I've finished the 'Herself' section and started on the 'Mods' dialogue option. Seems that my average speed seems to be one 'section' per day, which isn't too bad if you ask me. I'm a little concerned about length, but it might be too early to be worrying about that right now. I don't want to write fluff that's unenjoyable to read or write just to reach a magic number, and I won't know how long this project will be by the time I exhaust all the organic options that come to mind.

I may try to whip up a race score calculator in excel and just run the numbers on potential characters to see what happens. Worst comes to worst, I'll eliminate this mechanic entirely and have less restrictions on her sex scenes. I'd rather have a bit of gameplay/story segregation than restrict the player's options too much and get this entry rejected.

I might recommend having rather than it entirely lock players out just for having race score changes, which seems unreliable and maybe a little weird, she locks you out of sex for high taint (representative of abusing mods and using dangerous mods) and maybe just if your race score is different than last time you saw her says something to you, like "hey, I can tell you've been using some more mods, please tell me you're not abusing them" or along that line. That way she's both not locked out of content for a huge number of players and still maintaining her story beats, that she's wary of excessive modding.

Edit: Also that seems way easier, you just have to track displayed race last time you talked to her

 

[Aceinthehole]

I might recommend having rather than it entirely lock players out just for having race score changes, which seems unreliable and maybe a little weird, she locks you out of sex for high taint (representative of abusing mods and using dangerous mods) and maybe just if your race score is different than last time you saw her says something to you, like "hey, I can tell you've been using some more mods, please tell me you're not abusing them" or along that line. That way she's both not locked out of content for a huge number of players and still maintaining her story beats, that she's wary of excessive modding.

Edit: Also that seems way easier, you just have to track displayed race last time you talked to her

I've already addressed this. Yes, Taint makes thematic sense, but you can't tell what taint levels are by looking at someone. And tracking race is possible, but locking you out of sex for changing races too many times I feel would be even more restrictive, because once you go too far you're locked out permanently, while presently being too modded can be fixed by reversing said mods.

I don't intend to lock out a huge number of players, just those that go to extreme lengths when it comes to modding.

 

[Aceinthehole]

I finished up the 'Mods' section and the first story for the 'Drinking Stories' option. I hope you enjoy reading them. I was aiming for at least three stories in total, but sadly this idea was the only one I have fully fleshed out so far, so I think I'll finish up the rest of her stuff and come back to this. At the very least I have a bare minimum.

Also, I tried to recreate the race score calculations in excel and oh my god. You warned me it would be insane but I didn't listen. I didn't even come close to figuring anything out. I'm starting to think Arch was right all along and I should revisit using Taint instead. It would make metaphorical sense, if not literal. Maybe if it's too high she just sets the player aside and tells them they're not her type. Would that piss players off?

 

[SheeptaurTheSheepKing]

Also, I tried to recreate the race score calculations in excel and oh my god. You warned me it would be insane but I didn't listen. I didn't even come close to figuring anything out. I'm starting to think Arch was right all along and I should revisit using Taint instead. It would make metaphorical sense, if not literal. Maybe if it's too high she just sets the player aside and tells them they're not her type. Would that piss players off?

I'm not certain how the programming works so maybe this is a dumb idea, but would it be easier if Evening made a distinction between "natural" mods that just turn you into a normal member of a different race (Ausar Treats/Laquine Ears/Nuki Cookies), and "unnatural" mods/drug mods that graft animal or artificially created DNA onto your body to turn you into something that doesn't exist anywhere in nature. (Shark Bites/New Ewe/Horse Pill)

You could say that in the T.i.T.S. universe race changing mods are safer and have less potential side effects which is why Evening doesn't mind them, or you could have her rationalize it as "changing your race isn't really modding because the end result is that you're still a normal person, just a normal person of a different race, and even if you only change partway that doesn't make you any different that other naturally born hybrids like Half-Ausars or Half-Kui-tans".

That way the only racial score that matters is if it's from one of the "unnatural" mods or from a drug like Tentatool.

 

[Aceinthehole]

Part of Evening's concern isn't just whether or not it's safe to change yourself, but that changing yourself on the outside can mess with you on the inside. In that vein, changing races falls under that regardless of whether it's from a 'natural' mod or not.

I guess I could say that she minds it less, though it would still make her uncomfortable. For the purposes of gameplay that would mean just using the scores of 'unnatural' races might fit... Shepard mentioned earlier that this would also mean having to update her code every time a new 'race' came out. Anyone happen to know how often the game gets them? If it's not too frequent I wouldn't mind supporting those changes every one in a while.

 

[SheeptaurTheSheepKing]

Part of Evening's concern isn't just whether or not it's safe to change yourself, but that changing yourself on the outside can mess with you on the inside. In that vein, changing races falls under that regardless of whether it's from a 'natural' mod or not.

I guess I could say that she minds it less, though it would still make her uncomfortable. For the purposes of gameplay that would mean just using the scores of 'unnatural' races might fit... Shepard mentioned earlier that this would also mean having to update her code every time a new 'race' came out. Anyone happen to know how often the game gets them? If it's not too frequent I wouldn't mind supporting those changes every one in a while.

Only when a new transformitive for that race comes out, and not every race gets one.

As for the alternative of using Taint, that makes sense since Taint is a measurement of genetic corruption and damage and it causes mental effects like loss of inhibitions and delusions of grandeur, both of which could cause a seriously Tainted person to do something like say, abandon her children.

Although, it's mostly drugs and non-mod transformitives like Zil rations and Naleen Nip that cause Taint, not over the counter mods.

 

[Aceinthehole]

That does make me feel a bit better about using taint as a restriction instead. I couldn't find much to read about Taint on the wiki so I wasn't use what affects it had aside from libido.

Although, it's mostly drugs and non-mod transformitives like Zil rations and Naleen Nip that cause Taint, not over the counter mods.

Ohhhh... I've been using mods as a catch-all term for over and under the counter transformatives... oh god am I gonna have to go back and edit the entire doc now

 

[SheeptaurTheSheepKing]

Ohhhh... I've been using mods as a catch-all term for over and under the counter transformatives... oh god am I gonna have to go back and edit the entire doc now

Actually that would be a job for your editor. *wink wink, nudge nudge*

 

[Aceinthehole]

Actually that would be a job for your editor. *wink wink, nudge nudge*

Thank fuck