Sprint 004 day 4

Hey guys!  I had a slightly disappointing day today, due to lots of distractions, but I did get some good work done on the storyboard anyway.

Falloutbabe noted that, unlike the current scene (which has only one ending), there are now more than 20 ways the new scene can end.  Different decisions you make can lead you to different endings, of course, but – excitingly – so can random factors like skill rolls and initiative rolls.

Last week, bsnick asked for more details on how initiative rolls work.  Nick said he was trying to look past the D&D definition, but in fact initiative systems in RPGs were my model for this!  (I have a vague idea that the sex scenes in Female Agent are like the combat scenes in most RPGs.) 

So: Initiative is a d10 roll, modified by various character traits (e.g. the new Dominant kink provides a bonus, the new Submissive kink provides a penalty).  The winner gets to decide how the next part of the scene goes forward. 

For example, the storyboard I'm working on starts on Max's hotel room balcony in Dubai.  Max has the Candaulist NPC Kink (meaning he finds Exhibitionist agents especially sexy), so he won't volunteer to take the action inside the hotel room, but if the agent wins the initiative, she can suggest they go to the bed.

On the way to the bed, there's another initiative roll.  If Max wins, he has a choice: sit on the bed with the agent and make out with her, or be a daring badass and shove her onto the bed?  If the agent wins, she has a similar but different choice: push Max onto the bed?  Pull Max into the bed?  Or wait to see what he does?

All of these decisions and dice rolls can change the flavour of the scene.  From a writer's perspective, Max shoving the agent onto the bed is going to develop differently from the agent pulling Max into the bed.  And all of this might not have happened if Max had kept the initiative out on the balcony; that scene – sex on a balcony under a starry Dubai night sky – would feel totally different from a scene that ends on the silk sheets of Max's massive luxury hotel room bed.

The initiative system is subtle, but it is making the design feel more natural and dynamic.  I'm very excited about it.

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TLDR the new sex scenes are going to be way better than the old sex scenes.

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The storyboard is nearly done.  I'll work on it more on the next dev day, which is tomorrow.  I am anticipating a highly productive day since every person who could possibly have asked me to do something did so today, so they will surely all leave me alone tomorrow.  I'll let you know how that works out tomorrow night.  :-)