Homestuck Dating Sim

[nadiaff]

I've been working on a Homestuck dating sim since sometime last year (with a long hiatus over the summer, fall and winter due to health reasons.) I finally picked it up again recently and I'm looking for people who are interested in helping out.

Right now I'm looking for people to help me with creating the visuals. My plan is to have it look as close as possible to the comic (since the comic is like a text based adventure game to begin with) so I want to recreate the troll room layouts, make new layouts for the school, and assemble properly organized and layered PSD files of the character sprites. I figure if nothing else, the room layouts from the comic and easily manipulable character sprites would be useful for people. If you want to help with editing sprites or have sprite edits you've already done that you'd be willing to let me incorporate into the game, I'd appreciate it.

Once I have the visual side of things under control, I'm going to start working on the script. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to organize roleplaying sessions that might help generate ideas. After that I plan on looking into music and programming. Feel free to contact me if you feel like getting involved in any aspect of that.


These are my notes from over a year ago. They're a little outdated but should give a general idea of the premise:

Initial Ideas:

Game takes place during the Troll’s 9th solar sweep (approximately 18 earth years) at which point the young trolls are enrolled in their last year at the ubiquitously required minimal level of general knowledge and social skills inculcation facility, Alternia Academy. This facility is inexplicably staffed by denizens of Prospit and Derse for reasons that will never, in the course of the game, be explained. For equally obscure reasons, a group of humans from a planet called Earth have transferred into Alternia Academy, even though they only exist within this universe paradoxically.

Much like the modern day Earth child, Troll youth prefer to communicate virtually rather than bothering to talk to one another in person. Thus, while in attendance at the facility, they are likely to forego direct speech and enter into digital dialog instead. The teachers will not speak directly, but their commands will be conveyed through description as they are in Hussie’s comic. (If we break this pattern, we may do it with voice acting.)

Students (in no particular order)
Karkat - carcinoGeneticist
Terezi - gallowsCalibrator
Gamzee - terminallyCapricious
Tavros - adiosToreador
Sollux - twinArmageddons
Aradia - apocalypseArisen
Equius - centaursTesticles
Eridan - caligulasAquarium
Feferi - cuttlefishCuller
Kanaya - grimAuxiliatrix
Vriska - arachnidsGirp
Nepeta -arsenicCatnip

Transfer Students
John Egbert
Dave Strider (Akwete Purrmusk)
Rose Lalonde
Jade Harley
Jake English
Jane Crocker
Roxy Lalonde
Dirk Strider

Teachers (once again, in no particular order)
PM - teaches justice [Tavros, Vriska, Equius, Terezi, Aradia, Nepeta]
WV - teaches civic development (city planning?) [Kanaya, Feferi, Gamzee, Eridan, Vriska, Sollux]
WQ - teaches leadership [Equius, Eridan, Feferi, and Sollux]
idiocentricGossamer: I kind of want to see like.. how to protect your underlings and subserviants and shit from hostile invasions, which can be annother class led by some other class xD
AR - teaches enforcement/combat [Equius, Nepeta, Eridan, Feferi, Gamzee]
SS - teaches espionage/subterfuge [Tavros, Gamzee, Vriska, Aradia, Kanaya]
HB - teaches romance/relationship [Vriska, Kanaya, Tavros, Sollux, Equius, Terezi, Nepeta]
CD - teaches decorative arts [Kanaya, Gamzee, Tavros, Feferi, Aradia, Terezi]
DD - teaches forensics [Terezi, Nepeta, Eridan, Aradia, Feferi, Vriska]
Can we get some of The Felt up in this bitch?

Principal
Doc Scratch

Vice Principal
Clover

Janitor
Jack Noir

In order to make the game well... make-able, I’ve decided to start out simple. At first you’ll only be able to play as one character (Karkat) until I figure out how to make one of these games and how to get the dynamic to work with the crazy quadrants and whatnot. Also, while I’d ultimately like to make it so that he can end up in any quadrant with every single character, in order to make it easier to program at first, I want to start out with only certain characters being able to develop a particular quadrant relationship with him. This base structure can then be expanded upon in later versions of the game.

Karkat’s Quadrants

Flushed Quadrant (matesprits)
-Terezi (duh)
-Gamzee
-Sollux
-Nepeta

Caliginous Quadrant (kismesis)
-Sollux
-Equius
-Vriska
-Terezi

Ashen Quadrant (auspistice)
-Aradia
-Kanaya
-Eridan
-Feferi

Pale Quadrant (moirallegiance)
-Tavros
-Gamzee
-Kanaya
-Sollux

Tentative System Description

So how will this work? Kismesis relationships won’t be able to work out unless there is an auspistice. There should be some sort of variable (volatility maybe?) that makes relationships more unlikely to succeed if one does not have pale quadrants since these act as stabilizing forces. Establishing pale quadrants early on will be more likely to lead to a good ending (I imagine there will be a number of bad endings where you get culled.) Moirallegiance would increase general stability but auspistices would increase stability specifically for caliginious relationships. Stability would manifest itself within the game in terms of responses that the player is allowed to choose from. The choices would then help to determine who one ends up in particular relationships with.

For each category, all characters who have the potential of taking on that particular role have a status bar. The status bar increases for that role the more you do certain actions or say things that encourage that kind of quadrant relationship between you and the other character. However, if you do something that increases the likelihood of one quadrant for a character who has the potential to be in several quadrants, then it also takes away points from the character’s status bar in the other quadrants. There should be a point past which enters into a proper quadrant relationship on the status bar, but it can still be increased to maintain stability in the relationship. Infidelity should be possible, but unlikely to destroy a well established relationship (if discovered and not mediated properly, it would take points away from the status bars of all the people you were cheating on, but if you have enough points with someone, then it probably would not ruin the relationship.) Maybe in later versions, there will also be possible career paths that you can have status bars in that would affect the kind of ending you get.

For further complexity, maybe develop it so you can actually ship other characters?

Also, this should all be visible somehow as an easter egg (like if you press Ctrl+T) but in the form of Nepeta’s shipping wall.


Why not do it like
Once you get them into a quadrant they become unlocked
And you can see the story from their point of veiw


THIS IS FUCKING MIA

Troll Calendar
1 solar sweep = 12 bilunar perigees / 729 days [790]
1 bilunar perigee = 66 days / 11 weeks
1 week = 6 days

How Bilunar Perigees Work
fuck if I know...


Days of the week (there are 6, 5 work days and one day to spend “quality time” with your lusus)
Matrigrubday
Fuschialuneday
Verdimonday
Cephalopoday
Scarlisolday
Lusiday

Are all the trolls the same age? This is a question. (MSPA wiki says probably yes.)

Game takes place over 600 days. That would be 100 weeks.

For nine bilunar perigees out of a solar sweep, it is dusk for enough of the day for there to be school sessions. The other three are too sunny and are therefore considered “vacation” months. These conveniently line-up with the American Earth school calendar (even though, of course, that planet only exists as a paradox).

Let’s see... structure of the game...

Day One - Matrigrubday

Starts out in Karkat’s room. He wakes up. It’s the first day of the last solar sweep of his general knowledge and social skill training. Upon graduation he must enter into specialized training or risk being eradicated for the crime of social uselessness (maybe he just becomes a common soldier?). As he is now approaching adulthood, there is increasing pressure for him to find a suitable matesprit and kismesis if he wants to avoid annihilation by the imperial drones. These are pretty intense times in a young troll’s life cycle.

Upon waking, he has the chance to engage in several conversations on Trollian. Some of these will be initiated by others and some he will initiate. The number he can participate in is limited because eventually, he will be summoned by his loving lusus for feeding prior to going to the academy.

After leaving the house, he may have some choice of which way to go to school and his choices may lead to encounters. People he can run into: Aradia, Tavros. In the version that contains transfer students, he should bump into John Egbert who has a piece of toast in his mouth. He is somehow enraged by this encounter. John, of course, is very friendly.ahahahahahaha

Karkat’s first class of the day is with WV (homeroom teacher equivalent). The other students in the class are: Kanaya, Feferi, Gamzee, Eridan, Vriska, Sollux, and a bunch of other nameless trolls. Class consists of playing out roles as a variety of city officials in WV’s fictional can-based empire (Terezi needs to be in this class).

Second class: PM. This year, the student’s must go on a justice quest. Somehow, this quest involves role-playing a journey into a dark realm where they must drop a ring into a volcano. This class is blue blood central. Tavros, Vriska, Equius, Terezi, Aradia, and Nepeta. In the course of the game, other classmates will be killed/maimed (inadvertently or otherwise) by some of Karkat’s classmates. Oops.

Third Class of the day is with SS. This class is like Spy vs. Spy. Karkat is paired up with Tavros and Gamzee. He faces off against Vriska, Aradia and Kanaya. They must seek to outdo one another at wily games devised by SS. Death and maiming are, once again, unfortunate possibilities. Red and blue team or black and white team???

Final class of the day: WQ. This is an elective. Karkat is in this class with Equius, Eridan, Feferi, and Sollux. First day of class involves filling out a survey and writing an essay on why you should be leader. The survey/essay is to be peer-reviewed and you’ll need to choose who you’re going to peer-up with.


Day Two - Fuschialuneday

First class: PM

Second class: SS

Third class: HB - This class is all about health and reproduction. Classmates: Vriska, Kanaya, Tavros, Sollux, Equius, Terezi, and Nepeta

Final class: DD - Diamond Droogs teaches about forensic science. Classes will involve going on field trips to crime scenes and gathering evidence, then analyzing it to determine who is guilty. Classmates: Terezi, Nepeta, Eridan, Aradia, Feferi, and Vriska

Day Three - Verdimonday

First class: CD - Art and design. No one takes this class seriously except for Kanaya (and sometimes Feferi). Most everyone else just talks through the class, much to Clubs Deuce’s dismay. Consequently, not much actually gets done in the way of art and designing. Gamzee will occasionally do finger-paintings, despite the fact that these are never actually assigned (and he eats the paint). Terezi also draws on the chalkboard a lot (and licks the chalk), but once again, this has little to do with class assignments. Classmates: Kanaya, Gamzee, Tavros, Feferi, Aradia, and Terezi.

Second class: WQ

Third class: DD

Final class: WV

Day Four - Cephalopoday

First class: DD

Second class: HB

Third class: WQ

Final class: SS

Day Five - Scarlisolday

First class: AR - The equivalent of a gym class. Troll youth are subjected to para-military training, complete with working explosives and fire-arms! What fun! Classmates: Equius, Nepeta, Eridan, Feferi, and Gamzee

Second class: WV

Third class: PM

Final class: HB

Day Six - Lusiday

No classes.

[liquidMountain]

Jegus, this looks huge. A dating sim with troll romance could work out pretty well if done right.

[FatesEnd]

Oh gog. Oh gog.
This is like all of my crack pairings come true.

Just, whatever you do, please don't reuse text.
Please.

[betaVoracious]

I would love to help out with writing, or brainstorming ideas!!

[RandomDraconic]

I'd actually really like to help put this together. I'm an adequate programmer, and I'm certain that this could be accomplished with AS3.

That, and writing the actual script/story. I'm a craptastic artist.

[humbleElitist]

err
black and ashen are distinct things.
you have
"Kismesis relationships won’t be able to work out unless there is an auspistice."
that is false.
ashen USUALLY (possibly ALWAYS, don't think its specified) occurs only when the character is already in a black relationship, and in that way avoids black infidelity (that is, the person being in more than one black relationship)

ashen isn't just the third person.
two characters can have ashen feelings for each other, and need a mediator (who they would also feel ashen for, but in a different way), and not have black feelings for each other.
They are similar, but distinct.
While I think that it would be interesting to add quadrants to one of these games, I thing its a little bit creepy to have it with 6 sweep old characters.(~13 earth year)
and also some people might find black to be creepy depending on how its done.

I will not be downloading or working on this, and in fact, will remove this page from by browser history, I just thought I should mention that inaccuracy before its too late.

[nadiaff]

err
black and ashen are distinct things.
you have
"Kismesis relationships won’t be able to work out unless there is an auspistice."
that is false.
ashen USUALLY (possibly ALWAYS, don't think its specified) occurs only when the character is already in a black relationship, and in that way avoids black infidelity (that is, the person being in more than one black relationship)

ashen isn't just the third person.
two characters can have ashen feelings for each other, and need a mediator (who they would also feel ashen for, but in a different way), and not have black feelings for each other.
They are similar, but distinct.
While I think that it would be interesting to add quadrants to one of these games, I thing its a little bit creepy to have it with 6 sweep old characters.(~13 earth year)
and also some people might find black to be creepy depending on how its done.

I will not be downloading or working on this, and in fact, will remove this page from by browser history, I just thought I should mention that inaccuracy before its too late.

Of course, I'll take your advice into consideration, but as you haven't demonstrated the most exceptional reading comprehension skills in your response to begin with (the first sentence of the docs states that the characters in this are 18 ~ 19 earth years or nine solar sweeps), it makes it a little difficult to take your interpretation of the role of the auspistice seriously. I'm honestly having difficulty understanding what you're trying to argue to begin with, despite reading it over several times. An example might help to clarify.

I've heard a lot of competing interpretations of the ashen quadrant. I think it's understandable that it would be a point of contention given how ambiguously worded the explanation of it is in the comic itself. If anyone would like to present an argument based on the examples in the comic where the ashen quadrant has come up (Eridan talking to Terezi in [S] Karkat: Wake Up, various scenes involving Kanaya), I would very much like to discuss it in relation to the game. But I'd prefer to do so in the context of a conversation where the participants actually read what the other person has said and respond in a coherent manner.

[nadiaff]

Re: Homestuck Dating Sim

Oh gog. Oh gog.
This is like all of my crack pairings come true.

Just, whatever you do, please don't reuse text.
Please.

Reuse text? From the actual comic, you mean? Yeah, no plans to do that. The script will be original.

[nadiaff]

Status Update!

I've created layered PSD files for all of the characters except Feferi (someone else is working on that) with the different poses and expressions of the characters. I'll try and make some kind of sprite sheet out of it at some point. Maybe add it onto a master sprite sheet that I found.

I've started working on making the character's respiteblocks from the comic. Tavros and Terezi's rooms are pretty much done and I'm working on Eridan's now. Just gonna throw up a couple pictures of them:

show spoiler

hide spoiler

Here's Tav's room without anything in it:



And here it is full of stuff:


Terezi's room with stuff in it:

I think the rooms might need to be changed in some way to reflect the fact that they are 9 sweeps and not 6, but I'm not too sure what the apparent difference between the rooms of people in that age range are (I only really have mine to go by). So I don't know, it's something to think about. For right now, I just want to have some kind of base to work off of.

[Irockz]

Oh, and Ms Paint should be the Art teacher.

[nadiaff]

Oh, and Ms Paint should be the Art teacher.

Hahaha, I don't think she'd even been introduced when I first wrote the docs, but yes. This is good.

[Axsisel]

Will it have some kind of combat? I know combat is not usual in these games, but it would be cool if someone also tried to fill cuadrants with the troll you want.

[betaVoracious]

I was thinking about it a bit, and I came up with something that might be good to consider. o: And then I wrote a book, pretty much.

Is it definitely set that it needs to be a dating sim, where you level up various stats in order to talk to and be with other characters, purchase things, level up, etc? Or would it be better to make it more like a visual novel that has dating sim elements? Think Katawa Shoujo, or Hakuoki something something demon blade on the PSP. Both have basic set plotlines that they go along, but you have several routes that you can go down with each character, depending on their romance level.

More ideas about that kind of game path, if it were to be made in a more visual-novel type of setting:

show spoiler

hide spoiler

You typically start with your first chapter of the game, which is akin to an intro chapter, and where you meet all the characters and their potential relationship status. When meeting a character for the first time, they tend to have some kind of little shimmer thing that slaps you in the face and yells, "HEY FUCKASS, YOU CAN BONE THIS CHICK," or what have you. In the case of the various quadrants, we could have a symbol for the specific quadrant(s) show up on the screen briefly. After that, the character can be entered into a status thing, or their relationship meter can be hidden.

To level up various characters' "romance meters," you answer questions. Certain answers can trigger a certain increase or decrease in a type of relationship. Let's say you're talking to Vriska, (who you have the ability to be in either a moirail or kismesis quadrant with for the sake of this demonstration,) and she mentions something about FLARPing and how she can't think of any more good campaign ideas. Your potential answers might be something like the following:

1. "FUCK YOUR STUPID FLARPING GAMES. AREN'T THOSE FOR SISSIES AND GRUBS ANYWAY?"
2. "WHY DON'T YOU GET TAVROS TO PLAY WITH YOU? ISN'T HE YOUR FLUSHCRUSH?"
3. "WHY DO YOU THINK I WOULD CARE ABOUT YOUR FLARP GAMES?"

In this situation with Vriska, 1 would get you a raise in kismesitude, 2 would get a raise in moirailship, and 3 wouldn't raise anything. At the same time, though, it could affect other characters. If you answer 2, that would be something that would bother Tavros if he knew about it, so you get a decrease in his moirail stat. That way, things are pretty dynamic. If you want to be a kismesis (or anything, really) with a certain character, you need to insult the ones that would get in your way to lower their bars. As such, you'd also have to watch yourself if you plan on being in paletown with Vriska and in love with Tavros - he wouldn't appreciate you throwing him under the rocketchair like that, now would he?

After meeting and getting to know all the various characters, you move on to chapter two, and really start the story. I think if we went with a visual novel thing, we'd have two choices: either do all the romantic quadrants at once, or do them chapter-by-chapter. It would probably be easiest to do it chapter-by-chapter, starting with chapter two as the kismesis chapter, chapter three as the auspitice chapter, chapter four as the moirail chapter, and chapter five as the penultimate matesprit chapter. Then, if there needs to be a sixth chapter, that can be the big wrap-up including all four of your ships, or whatever is planned story-wise. Maybe those four help you defeat a boss, a la final battles in Persona 3 using your social links? Anyway. More on that at the end.

So you have the option of who you want to get it on with, metaphorically speaking. If you do not raise any of your potential relationships high enough in the kismesis quadrant before chapter two begins, you don't get the added storyline of having a kismesis, and simply go through the chapter FOREVVER ALONE and only seeing the base storyline. Chapter three is similar - you either find an auspitice and raise that level before chapter three starts, or you don't get the quadrant. If you didn't get a kismesis, then you must become someone else's auspitice. Otherwise, no quadrant story for you, just main storyline. Same goes with finding a moirail, and matesprit. It would go in the order kismesis -> auspitice -> moirail -> matesprit, since that's probably the order in which it is easiest to begin a relationship in troll society. It's easier to see someone biting another's head off in hate before they'd be making out with them in flushed adoration. As such, the meters for kismesitude would raise the quickest, while matespritship would raise the slowest, since you have more time to work on that one.

If you fuck up your relationship in the middle of the storyline or something and get that bad end, then it just counts the quadrant as not filled and you stick to basic storyline, then move on. Maybe if it happens early enough in the game, there can be make-up (make-out???) opportunities or something.

For the final chapter, the climax of the story hits, and you must have a certain number of quadrants filled in order to 'win' and get the good ending(s).
If you wanted to spilt up number of endings, you could do it as such:

• NO quadrants filled = worst ending
• ONE quadrant filled = bad ending
• ONLY auspitice and moirail = neutral ending OR bad ending
• ONLY kismesis and matesprit OR three quadrants = okay OR good ending
• ALL quadrants = true ending.

I mentioned the 'boss battle' thing at the end, with using quadrants as social links like in Persona 3. If you haven't played that, I can explain it in yet ANOTHER spoiler tag.

show spoiler

hide spoiler

In Persona 3 - with as few spoilers as I can manage - this is what happens: you go to fight the main boss and have to kick his ass in an actual battle. That's not the part I'm referring to, though. After you win that battle, there's a little cutscene where everything goes back, and in the typical ~~~super anime gogogo!~~~ style, your main character has to deal the final blow. However, you do so with the help of your social links - relationships you've worked on and leveled up throughout the game. The more social links you have, the better. (though I think in the actual battle, it does not matter at all, but we are being metaphorical up in here) With the help of your ~friends and loved ones~, you defeat the boss and win. Hooray! So this could be the same sort of thing. If you have no quadrants, you can't do anything because no one likes you and you're lame. But if you have all the quadrants, your "battle" is extra easy, and you win because you have the ~~~POWER OF LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP~~~. ... Which sounds awful and completely shoujo-manga-esque, but it can be written to be awesome and not cheesy, I'm sure.

Anyway, that's all I had for that side of things! I'm very familiar with visual novel-style stories (because I am a huge nerd and never leave my house wait why can't i do strikethrough on here like i can on tumblr well shit) and I am more than happy to help a ton with that side. As for actual dating-sim style, I can't say I've had much experience with those. I personally hate having to level up a bunch of different stats just to be able to talk to certain people or trigger certain events; I'd rather just worry about the relationships and the stories, to be honest. :B But that is my opinion! Were you to definitely go that route, I can help with storylines, but not so much with game-planning.

Another idea I had was about the Ctrl+T shipping wall idea. Just use that one blank shipping meme chart! I'm not sure if it's possible, but you could try to program something to let you click through various symbols in each box, so you can basically make your own shipping chart that way.

yeah whooo long posts are exciting and also terrifying. Also I misspelled auspistice through the whole thing, but I am too tired to fix it. xD

EDIT
Another thing. I think including the kids into the potential relationships would be interesting. It'd provide a good plot device on one hand - having a bit where Karkat and, let's say, John form a bond and must cross multicultural barriers would be interesting to write - and on the other hand, it would also allow for more choices - so this way, there are more characters to pick and less crossing-over of who can be part of what quadrant. Not to mention the fact that it would also cater to the fans; there are a bunch of Karkat/John shippers out there, in both the flushed and caliginous quadrants.

ANOTHER EDIT sdfhglasj
It's about how auspistice quadrants could work.
Maybe instead of finding someone to be an auspistice for you and another character, it would be easiest to become an auspistice for a different character pair.

[vampsonic]

Oh god.. Well this'll be very interesting...and complicated. I wish you luck and look forward to playing.

[obolisk0430]

As far as the ashen quadrent goes, check this page. Watch the picture. It clearly shows two black relationships BEFORE they being spererate from an ashen relationship. You can tell this because Kanay comes up and does her auspistise thing AFTER there is a kismesis.

[betaVoracious]

As far as the ashen quadrent goes, check this page. Watch the picture. It clearly shows two black relationships BEFORE they being spererate from an ashen relationship. You can tell this because Kanay comes up and does her auspistise thing AFTER there is a kismesis.

Yeah, this is sort of true. Plus the explanation from Karkat about quadrant vacilliation helps quite a bit, as well. Basically, the auspistice is there to prevent infidelity, quadrant flipping, and (for lack of a better term) angst between the two kismesii / an outside partner. If troll A and B are kismesii, and B and C are getting dangerously close to having a caliginous enough relationship that they will turn into full-on kismesii, troll D steps in to keep the peace between the two. In the case of Vriska / Tavros, Vriska and Eridan were once kismesii. When Vriska and Tavros got closer to becoming caliginous, Kanaya stepped in to mediate between the two. That should have saved Eridan / Vriska's kismesitude. (Were it not for the fact that Eridan was being a huge twat at that point.)

[obolisk0430]

I believe it was also said somewhere that the ashen quadrents also prevent too many fully black relationships that result in the death of one or both of the trolls taking part of it.

[Anthiena]

This sounds like a really good idea, for a number of reasons. A few things to consider for planning.

Each character, for each ship should have a character arc. Given how many characters there are, this is quite the amount of writing.

(For example
[name]!no quad
[name]!flush
[name]!kismesis
[name]pale
[name]!auspistice or [name]&&[name]!auspistice

Now consider that you have to come up with a somewhat unique take for each road... and then consider the amount of characters. I would suggest going by priority as well for example:

1. Overarching score/story (The general story arc, from beginning to ends.)
2. Personal status and plot items (Are you going to classes? Are you fighting a lot? Your statistics? Scalemates, eight balls, Spade/Jack's knife, WQ's ring, et cetera)
3. Immediate party relationship (Your friend/enemy/facilitator/RP buddy)
4. Third party party relationship (friend/enemy of a friend/enemy)
5. Incidental persons (teachers, out of focus people (like Serenity),
6. Random chance (Perhaps events that have XX% likelihood of happening that can affect relationships?)
7. Items unrelated to plot. (Bugs, piles of X, skulls, cakes)

For some paths, there should be something prerequisite or a likelyhood of certain events-for example, you would be pretty hardput to have Terezi for black, Vriska for red and Tavros for pale! Plenty of shenanigans to be had there!

If you do do a multi-selection, there should be characters that are either starting out higher in some regards than others. Like Kanaya starting out with more Moirail rep and slightly less than that in Red Rep with Vriska, while Terezi would have higher red and black with both Karkat and Vriska than others might.

Some may also have special challenges-like Equius having some information "glitched" or unviewable or Nepeta has to overcome her seeming inability for blackrom. Some, like those two, may even start with either a quadrant filled (pale for them) or breaking up one. (Like Vriska abandoning Eridan or Fef breaking off moiraillegence with Eridan).

...sanity needs to be a stat, especially with folks from Kanaya up, perhaps replaced with certain things for some?

Possibilities:
Feferi: Lasspluck
Tavros: Self-esteem
Karkat: Rage
Aradia: Apathy

[Vyro P. Dragon III]

Personally, I'm finding myself wondering as to why you decided to put the kids in this if you cannot enter relationships with them and they're in exactly 0% of classes. At least give them SOME kind of purpose.

[AndIMustMask]

ANOTHER EDIT sdfhglasj
It's about how auspistice quadrants could work.
Maybe instead of finding someone to be an auspistice for you and another character, it would be easiest to become an auspistice for a different character pair.

this seems like a cool idea as an alternative, though it'd imply there being active/budding kismesis among the students.

that raises the question: would you have to compete for certain quadrants a la harvest moon (if you don't woo them within X time, they hook up with someone else)? and if so, who would they be?

also:
>gamzee available in the flushed quadrant
>john (or rather, any of the kids) not available for anything

well color me surprised--now i'm not a fan of johnkat, but i half expected to see it here. good on ya i guess.

[betaVoracious]

this seems like a cool idea as an alternative, though it'd imply there being active/budding kismesis among the students.

that raises the question: would you have to compete for certain quadrants a la harvest moon (if you don't woo them within X time, they hook up with someone else)? and if so, who would they be?

also:
>gamzee available in the flushed quadrant
>john (or rather, any of the kids) not available for anything

well color me surprised--now i'm not a fan of johnkat, but i half expected to see it here. good on ya i guess.

In terms of the pool of candidates to choose from, I was thinking along the lines of keeping things with somewhat already-canonized kismesitudes. Say, for example, how Vriska used to have a kismesis relationship with Eridan at one point. Or Tavros. Or could potentially have a kismesis relationship with Terezi or Aradia. Then you have Eri / Sol, or the potential for slightly more cracky ones, such as Gamzee / Dave, Gamzee / Terezi (because of her investigations and the blatant crimes against JUST1C3), or Gamzee / Sollux (thanks to that one moment in a flash when Sollux couldn't decide whether or not to go black for Gamzee).

More on that:

show spoiler

hide spoiler

There would be a meter that would go up based specifically on if you're answering questions in a manner that pushes them a certain way with a certain character. Let's use Vriska. She's having issues with both Tavros and Terezi; Terezi won't help her fuck with Tavros, which really pisses her off. But on the other hand, Tavros is being too much of a wimp to even put up a fight for the Scourge Sisters. If you were to respond to her with something that defends Tavros, but harms Terezi (ie, "Wow, Terezi's being a bitch. You oughta put her in her place, fuck the team rules.") then you would end up pushing the meter towards the Terezi / Vriska pair. As such, you'd eventually become an auspistice for these two. (Conversely, if you helped Terezi but harmed Tavros with something like "Oh, just shove him off a cliff; he's useless anyway," it would end up making things into a Tavros / Vriska kismesitude, with you as their auspistice.)

The other idea is to have already established relations after the kismesis chapter. Say you end up having Vriska as your kismesis. This would throw her out of the potential auspistice quadrant pool, and only allow you to choose from, perhaps, Eridan / Sollux. (Among others.) These relations would be pretty well-clarified before any major meter changes regarding points, and then certain interaction with either member of the kismesis pair would help to push their meter up more.

I haven't quite decided which option I like more. :B

There would probably have to be some sort of give-and-take regarding how canonical the relationships work out, considering how difficult auspisticism is already. I mean, the concept of it requires an already black relationship between two people, and then a third steps in to keep the two from becoming so black it just destroys everything. Or, in some cases, to prevent quadrant infidelity - when two trolls are becoming dangerously close to becoming kismesii when one or both already have a filled black quadrant.

Regarding the humans -
I think it's kind of silly not to have them in there, as well! o______o I didn't notice that at first. xD Several of the kids could be in different quadrants, and their multicultural barriers would provide for decent plot devices.

Another thing...
I've been having about a million ideas for this entire thing myself, and have even kind of half-assedly started working on it. Well, if it were to be more of a visual novel than a dating sim, at least. I've been working on a plotline, different chapter details, how certain mechanics could work out... If this whole project ends up falling through for some reason, or will definitely not have a few certain features, I was thinking about just going ahead and making my own visual novel. :B I don't want to necessarily idea-steal though, so I'll wait until the original poster either gives the A-OK or lets me know what's going on. But yeah. Ren'Py doesn't seem like it's too difficult to use, code, and create a game with, so I feel like this is a project I could tackle! And if I do go on to just make my own, then I'll make a new thread for it with more of my ideas.

[nadiaff]

Eek, sorry I don't check this place that often.

Yeah, for some reason I thought that a dating sim was a type of visual novel. I wasn't really thinking about stats and all that, though thinking back on it, I suppose I have seen those aspects included in some of the games that I considered visual novels. But I have no particular plans in that regard.

I was thinking of having it worked out in the way that betaVoracious explained above.

As for the ashen thing, here's what I've observed in the comic.

From the first AlterniaBound flash game, the one where Karkat wakes up, there is a conversation between Terezi and Eridan where Eridan tries to get her to act as his auspistice:

"hey ter can you go givve that four horned mustard blooded land licking sack of rubbish ovver there a message for me"
"tell him to put his honey wwhere his mouth is and meet me outside for another duel"

"1 4M NOT M3D14T1NG B3TW33N YOU TWO!"
"S3R1OUSLY, COULD YOU M4K3 YOUR 4DV4NC3S 4NY MOR3 OBVIOUS 3R1D4N?"
"1F YOU'R3 W4X1NG 4SH3N FOR M3, F1N3 1... GU3SS 1M FL4TT3R3D???"
"BUT H3S TOT4LLY NOT 3V3N 1NT3R3ST3D 1N TH3 TYP3 OF UH... R1V4LRY YOU W4NT W1TH H1M, OK?"

"swweet stinkin murder i am truly pathetic arent i"

"Y3S 4BSOLUT3LY"

In this conversation, Eridan is trying to get Terezi to mediate for him in order to facilitate a caliginous rivalry between Sollux and himself. Terezi shoots him down by pointing out that Sollux would not be interested in such a rivalry. This suggests that at least part of the auspistice's job is to mediate between two potential caliginous rival, which is also demonstrated in the various instances where Kanaya has a clover response like when Gamzee and Karkat are ostensibly about to duel or when Dave and Karkat are fighting. The problem with referring to Hussie's animated troll quadrant relationship explanation is that there are a number of viable explanations for what's going on. That's why I prefer to look at instances of what's going on in the comic. None of the characters in question (Sollux, Eridan, Gamzee, Karkat or Dave) is already in a caliginous rivalry. Why would Kanaya or Terezi be expected to mediate in order to prevent them from committing black infidelity when they aren't in a relationship yet? That may be part of what an auspistice does, but I think it's clear from examples elsewhere in the comic that they can be involved prior to the formation of a proper relationship, when characters are black flirting with each other.

I'm happy to listen to everyone's interpretations, but ultimately, I'm going to go with the one that makes sense with all of the evidence that the original comic presents and what makes for the most interesting and sensible interactions within the game, within the parameters set by the information we've been given in the comic.

[nadiaff]

Personally, I'm finding myself wondering as to why you decided to put the kids in this if you cannot enter relationships with them and they're in exactly 0% of classes. At least give them SOME kind of purpose.

Yeah, sorry, I completely didn't make it clear in the original post! The kids may or may not be in the game. I was just kind of throwing together some ideas for potential classes and relationship pairings and what not just using the trolls.

If the kids show up, then they would definitely be in the classes and would be potential relationship partners. But I haven't really come to a decision about whether or not to have it all troll or have the kids be involved yet. Still thinking about it.

[nadiaff]

In terms of the pool of candidates to choose from, I was thinking along the lines of keeping things with somewhat already-canonized kismesitudes. Say, for example, how Vriska used to have a kismesis relationship with Eridan at one point. Or Tavros. Or could potentially have a kismesis relationship with Terezi or Aradia. Then you have Eri / Sol, or the potential for slightly more cracky ones, such as Gamzee / Dave, Gamzee / Terezi (because of her investigations and the blatant crimes against JUST1C3), or Gamzee / Sollux (thanks to that one moment in a flash when Sollux couldn't decide whether or not to go black for Gamzee).

More on that:

show spoiler

hide spoiler

There would be a meter that would go up based specifically on if you're answering questions in a manner that pushes them a certain way with a certain character. Let's use Vriska. She's having issues with both Tavros and Terezi; Terezi won't help her fuck with Tavros, which really pisses her off. But on the other hand, Tavros is being too much of a wimp to even put up a fight for the Scourge Sisters. If you were to respond to her with something that defends Tavros, but harms Terezi (ie, "Wow, Terezi's being a bitch. You oughta put her in her place, fuck the team rules.") then you would end up pushing the meter towards the Terezi / Vriska pair. As such, you'd eventually become an auspistice for these two. (Conversely, if you helped Terezi but harmed Tavros with something like "Oh, just shove him off a cliff; he's useless anyway," it would end up making things into a Tavros / Vriska kismesitude, with you as their auspistice.)

The other idea is to have already established relations after the kismesis chapter. Say you end up having Vriska as your kismesis. This would throw her out of the potential auspistice quadrant pool, and only allow you to choose from, perhaps, Eridan / Sollux. (Among others.) These relations would be pretty well-clarified before any major meter changes regarding points, and then certain interaction with either member of the kismesis pair would help to push their meter up more.

I haven't quite decided which option I like more. :B

There would probably have to be some sort of give-and-take regarding how canonical the relationships work out, considering how difficult auspisticism is already. I mean, the concept of it requires an already black relationship between two people, and then a third steps in to keep the two from becoming so black it just destroys everything. Or, in some cases, to prevent quadrant infidelity - when two trolls are becoming dangerously close to becoming kismesii when one or both already have a filled black quadrant.

Regarding the humans -
I think it's kind of silly not to have them in there, as well! o______o I didn't notice that at first. xD Several of the kids could be in different quadrants, and their multicultural barriers would provide for decent plot devices.

Another thing...
I've been having about a million ideas for this entire thing myself, and have even kind of half-assedly started working on it. Well, if it were to be more of a visual novel than a dating sim, at least. I've been working on a plotline, different chapter details, how certain mechanics could work out... If this whole project ends up falling through for some reason, or will definitely not have a few certain features, I was thinking about just going ahead and making my own visual novel. :B I don't want to necessarily idea-steal though, so I'll wait until the original poster either gives the A-OK or lets me know what's going on. But yeah. Ren'Py doesn't seem like it's too difficult to use, code, and create a game with, so I feel like this is a project I could tackle! And if I do go on to just make my own, then I'll make a new thread for it with more of my ideas.

To be honest, after coming to the conclusion that my ideas are on the ambitious side, it might be better to start out by making something a little simpler that follows a little closer to the canon, like you're suggesting.

So what I'm thinking now is maybe trying to put my weight behind supporting whatever ideas and plans you've got doing while continuing to plod away at my own ideas.

Anyway, I added you on Skype, so let's talk about it. :3

[Nephirin]

Yeah, sorry, I completely didn't make it clear in the original post! The kids may or may not be in the game. I was just kind of throwing together some ideas for potential classes and relationship pairings and what not just using the trolls.

If the kids show up, then they would definitely be in the classes and would be potential relationship partners. But I haven't really come to a decision about whether or not to have it all troll or have the kids be involved yet. Still thinking about it.

I would certainly put in a vote for the kids myself, if you're undecided on it. (Mostly because JohnxVriska is my favorite pairing).

Anyways, on the subject of Auspistices, its supposed to be 'platonic hate' with a mediator to keep the trolls from simply offing each other. A lack of a mediator doesn't mean that it's going to become a kismessitude, just that someone is probably going to die. At least, that's how I see it. However, I wouldn't mind particularly if you went about it another way, in order to make the game flow easier. Having the playable character act only as a mediator in that quadrant does sound like the easiest choice in terms of writing.

(Clubs based relationships are also referenced in the second Hivebent walkaround when Eridan starts arguing with Sollux and Feferi thinks he's trying to trick her into Mediating, if you're looking for more canon info on that. Dunno how helpful that particular reference would be though.