Ruffiana
08-10-2005, 08:19 PM
I have an alt that I’ve been playing where I intentionally try to keep my charm as low as possible. Violet’s been a great sport about this and generally rebuts any attempts at flirting. I’d gone through each option just to see what the fail message was. However, I made the mistake of clicking on Marry Violet at the start of a new day and was shocked to find that I had lost all of my turns. :shock:
My big issue is that there’s no separation between Marriage and the other flirting, so it's very easy to assume that each option does essentially the same thing, especially after having tried all the others Instead, the highest actual ‘flirt’ is the going upstairs option and marriage is a very different option. Your charm has to be a certain level in order to succeed, but there’s no real indication of what that magic number might be other than a vague one from your friend (Violet/Seth).
In fact, the flirting starts off very mild and escalates with each option, requiring higher levels of charm to succeed. The reward for success (gain a charm point) remains the same while the chance for failure (more charm is required to succeed) and punishment for failure (lose a charm point) escalates.
So, my suggestions to improve this event are this:
1) Separate marriage from the other flirt options. I would think this would be very easy to do, and just a simple header of Flirting (wink, flutter, hankey, etc) and Propose (Marry them) would make it immediately obvious that marriage is different than flirting and might be more serious with different consequences from failure.
2) Make each stage of flirting progressively unlock the next stage. First you’ve got to wink and when you’ve done that successfully, you can flutter your eyelashes, and then drop your hanky, etc. It’s quite possible to build your charm up to the highest level, strut into the inn, and marry them immediately…which I feel is a bit unrealistic. Better to have to at least woo them a bit over a week (gifts can automatically bump you up to the next stage of woo’ing).
3) Flirting should be less hit or miss. Each flirt should be a chance to succeed, fail, or just have a neutral outcome. As it is, the first 3 flirts either succeed or have a neutral outcome (which isn’t so bad) and then others are succeed/fail. This is bad as there’s no direct indication of your chances. If you don’t have enough charm to succeed, you’ll always fail and always be punished for trying. I think it would be much better to have a failed flirt have a % chance of a punishment, weighted against your charm level. If you’re charm’s pretty close to the requirement, you should be less likely to lose charm for failing. Likewise if you’re charm is way too low for what you’re attempting, you should have a greater chance of losing a lot of charm.
4) Add one more level of feedback from your friend that indicates when you’ve exceeded the amount of charm you need to successfully propose. “Violet’s been asking me if I think you’re going to propose soon.” “Seth’s been trying to work up the nerve to propose to you.”
5) Add a confirmation stage after you click on the option to propose. Since this is such a radical change to your character (whether they succeed or fail) you should make it very clear that Marriage is a serious event. Give players one last chance to back out before they commit to it. If a player has to go through a confirmation step to do something, they’re much less likely to feel outrage if something bad happens (Well, that was my own fault) and it heightens the excitement you feel when you succeed (YAY! I took a risk and it paid off)
6) Don’t even present the option to propose marriage unless you’re at least somewhat close to meeting their requirements. If you’re nowhere near charming (charm isn’t at least half of the required level) enough to marry them, then clicking on the marriage link should give you a message that tells you “You know that Seth/Violet wouldn’t possibly marry you…yet.”
7) Consider another punishment for a refused proposal. No event in the game (other than death) should cause you to lose all your turns for the day. Being robbed of all your forest fights for exploring a link is really a bad precedent to set anywhere in the game and it’s one the player doesn’t forget…which makes them much less likely to explore other things in the game when they appear. Here are a few suggestions for alternate negative outcomes.
a. You immediately lose half your turns and then start each new day in Very Low Spirits for the next 3-5 days as you mope about. You’d end up losing more turns total overall, but it wouldn’t cause an immediate end to your game day.
b. You’re so upset by the rejection that you can’t stand to even go back into the inn for a few days. No drinks, no potions, no room, no killing people in their sleep.
c. You simply lose a lot of charm.
That’s my ideas, take them as you will. :D
My big issue is that there’s no separation between Marriage and the other flirting, so it's very easy to assume that each option does essentially the same thing, especially after having tried all the others Instead, the highest actual ‘flirt’ is the going upstairs option and marriage is a very different option. Your charm has to be a certain level in order to succeed, but there’s no real indication of what that magic number might be other than a vague one from your friend (Violet/Seth).
In fact, the flirting starts off very mild and escalates with each option, requiring higher levels of charm to succeed. The reward for success (gain a charm point) remains the same while the chance for failure (more charm is required to succeed) and punishment for failure (lose a charm point) escalates.
So, my suggestions to improve this event are this:
1) Separate marriage from the other flirt options. I would think this would be very easy to do, and just a simple header of Flirting (wink, flutter, hankey, etc) and Propose (Marry them) would make it immediately obvious that marriage is different than flirting and might be more serious with different consequences from failure.
2) Make each stage of flirting progressively unlock the next stage. First you’ve got to wink and when you’ve done that successfully, you can flutter your eyelashes, and then drop your hanky, etc. It’s quite possible to build your charm up to the highest level, strut into the inn, and marry them immediately…which I feel is a bit unrealistic. Better to have to at least woo them a bit over a week (gifts can automatically bump you up to the next stage of woo’ing).
3) Flirting should be less hit or miss. Each flirt should be a chance to succeed, fail, or just have a neutral outcome. As it is, the first 3 flirts either succeed or have a neutral outcome (which isn’t so bad) and then others are succeed/fail. This is bad as there’s no direct indication of your chances. If you don’t have enough charm to succeed, you’ll always fail and always be punished for trying. I think it would be much better to have a failed flirt have a % chance of a punishment, weighted against your charm level. If you’re charm’s pretty close to the requirement, you should be less likely to lose charm for failing. Likewise if you’re charm is way too low for what you’re attempting, you should have a greater chance of losing a lot of charm.
4) Add one more level of feedback from your friend that indicates when you’ve exceeded the amount of charm you need to successfully propose. “Violet’s been asking me if I think you’re going to propose soon.” “Seth’s been trying to work up the nerve to propose to you.”
5) Add a confirmation stage after you click on the option to propose. Since this is such a radical change to your character (whether they succeed or fail) you should make it very clear that Marriage is a serious event. Give players one last chance to back out before they commit to it. If a player has to go through a confirmation step to do something, they’re much less likely to feel outrage if something bad happens (Well, that was my own fault) and it heightens the excitement you feel when you succeed (YAY! I took a risk and it paid off)
6) Don’t even present the option to propose marriage unless you’re at least somewhat close to meeting their requirements. If you’re nowhere near charming (charm isn’t at least half of the required level) enough to marry them, then clicking on the marriage link should give you a message that tells you “You know that Seth/Violet wouldn’t possibly marry you…yet.”
7) Consider another punishment for a refused proposal. No event in the game (other than death) should cause you to lose all your turns for the day. Being robbed of all your forest fights for exploring a link is really a bad precedent to set anywhere in the game and it’s one the player doesn’t forget…which makes them much less likely to explore other things in the game when they appear. Here are a few suggestions for alternate negative outcomes.
a. You immediately lose half your turns and then start each new day in Very Low Spirits for the next 3-5 days as you mope about. You’d end up losing more turns total overall, but it wouldn’t cause an immediate end to your game day.
b. You’re so upset by the rejection that you can’t stand to even go back into the inn for a few days. No drinks, no potions, no room, no killing people in their sleep.
c. You simply lose a lot of charm.
That’s my ideas, take them as you will. :D