HughMungous wrote: These are just my random thoughts. But I think the fantasy appeal of LwT1 was 2-fold: 1) doing something taboo and 2) working towards a goal.
I think you're onto something here. I did miss that sense of progression in LwT2, but I also didn't miss the monotonous grinding, where every day I had to brush my teeth, take a shower and do a bunch of other things. I think the goal of the next game would be to add the progression back in but keep out the monotony.
I could see the system used in LwT2 being expanded upon to accommodate this. Basically in this system the day is divided into 3 chunks, morning afternoon and evening. When you pick an event to do it triggers the transition to the next chunk of the day. What you could do is dividing your selections into actions and events. Events are the large things that you do (like go to town or go to the beach) that trigger transitions to the next part of the day. Actions would be smaller things (usually conversing with people) that would not trigger that transition. You would get so many action points to spend per time of day (For completing certain objectives in game you may get more action points to spend as part of the progression).
For example, in LWT2 in the morning when you go on horseback to the beach the day could start with the normal household view instead of transitioning into a cut-scene right away. When you go to the pool the cut-scene triggers when Richard talks about going to the beach. Somewhere on the screen is an event list, and instead of automatically triggering a cut-scene to go to the beach, you have the option to click on it to manually trigger the transition. The reason you have to trigger the transition manually is because you also have the option to talk to people at the table before you go. We can say you have 10 "action points" for each scene. These points refresh when you progress to the next scene. So now some people may have the option to be talked to at the table. So now say I can talk to Tracy who is sitting at the patio table. Each dialogue choice costs an action point. When I run out of action points I can't make progress in conversations with anyone until my pool of Action Points refreshes at the transition to the next scene (a generic "talking to person" screen appears if I try talking with someone when I don't have action points, and if I run out of action points when I talk with someone then an end conversation dialogue shows up "it was nice talking to you" or something like that). So perhaps in my conversation with Tracy, she suggests that we just sneak of somewhere on our own and not go to the beach. Then a second event "Spend the Morning with Tracy" pops up on your event list. Now you can click on either "Go to the Beach" or "Spend the Morning with Tracy". We'll click on "Go to the Beach" and we transition from the house to the beach with the horseback riding scene and all your action points refresh. When we get to the beach you get a static shot of people standing around and you can talk to various people to make things happen. You can talk to Lisa and through dialogue choices trigger the "go mountain climbing scene", or speak with Antoinette to trigger the "Richard groping Tracy scene" and so on and so forth. In LwT1 the transitions would be more mundane. It would be things like spending the morning working on your work assignment or cleaning the house. You'd still have the option to chat with Lisa in between transitions and wouldn't be limited to just three actions a day.
Instead of having a meter to determine relationship status, progression with relationships could be determined by completing "dialogue trees". So each girl has a set of branching dialogue selections that you must navigate through and pick the right selections before your action points run out. You keep getting the same dialogue selections when you speak to a girl until you find the correct path (or one of the correct paths) through the branching dialogue choices. When you complete "Level 1 Dialogue Tree", then "Level 2 Dialogue Tree" becomes available for that specific girl, with spicier dialogue choices and more possibilities. That Level 2 Dialogue Tree could also be less forgiving, causing you to be very careful with your action point usage in able to complete it. Events that happen in the world can fill in gaps in the tree that may allow it to be finished to limit progression until a certain time in the game, or to allow different paths through the tree. So if there are multiple paths, making a certain selection could put you on a different seduction path (with a different ending and the possibility of a different sex scene) than others would. So sex scenes would be determined by being in a certain location at a certain point in the game at a certain "Dialouge Tree Level" with a certain girl.
In regards to progression, instead of grinding statistics I'd like to see a system where you could basically upgrade your player, much like in games like Mass Effect 2 and 3 or Deus Ex's Praxis Point system. So for completing certain tasks in game you could obtain points. You could then go to an upgrade screen to spend those points. Let's say I get a point and I go to the upgrade screen. I look at the Charisma upgrade. It has three levels. Level one only costs 1 point so I pick that one. At level one charisma I now have the "Smooth Recovery" ability, which allows me to reverse the effect of a bad dialogue choice, refunding me the Action Point I spent and allowing me to pick again. I can only use this once but it refreshes when my Action Points refresh. At Level 2 Charisma which costs 2 points I can buy an upgrade that allows me to have a display to see what the effect of my dialogue choices are having on the girl (I'm thinking something like the CASSIE social enhancer in Deus Ex Human Revolution and Deus Ex Mankind Divided). At Level 3 Charisma which costs 3 points, I can pick dialogue choices that result in positive choices that would otherwise be negative. So if there is something vulgar in the dialogue selection that the girl normally would find offensive, if I pick that selection it comes off as a joke and still allows me to progress the conversation, where she laughs instead of becoming offended (possibly offering a shortcut through the dialogue tree which can save on using some action points). There could also be an Athletic upgrade, where at Level 1 you could be a gym rat and make impressive strength checks (that you can make in front of a girl to impress her, and then have a "Oh, You're So Strong" dialogue option be added in her dialogue tree that could circumvent a lengthier conversation chain), at Level 2 you could be all around more athletic which would also include coordination and ability to do new athletic feats with no experience (such as being able to ride the horse with no problem to the beach), and Level 3 could have you train in Mixed Martial Arts so you can win almost any fight you get into (such as in the park with Lisa in the first game). I'd also like to see wealth be made into a statistic instead of just be about earning money. This takes into account your personal credit and not just cash you have on hand. So Level 1 Wealth allows you to buy little items at the store with no problem, Level 2 allows you to buy the expensive dress or jewelry, and Level 3 allows you to but anything and also assumes that you are always well dressed in expensive clothing and possessions. What this system represents is that you do things "off camera" to build your statistics. You're going to the gym on your spare time, or you spend more time at work to get a promotion, and things like that. This way you don't physically have to click on the work out button at the gym for 10 days in a row to build your fitness statistic. When you pick the upgrade the assumption is that you have been doing these things on your spare time. That way you can focus on the interaction with the story but still have a sense of progression. You can then gain upgrade points by playing the game. Points can be rewards for exploring your environment, completing tasks for work or the home, and finding new things or by progressing the story instead of having to do monotonous tasks every day to build your skills.
Before anyone asks I am not advocating revamping LwT2 or LwT1 using this system. That would be an incredibly unrealistic expectation. I just used the examples from the game to illustrate how this may work. My goal is to show how to reintroduce the sense of progression into LwT2's style of game play (which I consider to be an improvement and has great potential if it keeps being developed) for future games.