REQUEST [Mod] Polyamory

Discussion in 'Mods' started by Nemphorous, Mar 17, 2016.

  1. Nemphorous

    Nemphorous Void-Bound Voyager

    As stated by the title, I would really appreciate it if someone could put together a mod (Most suitably through SMAPI) that allows the player to indulge in polygamy or multiple wives/husbands. It would be the completion of quite a dream to be married to Leah, Penny, Abigail and Haley.
     
    • LiaSays

      LiaSays Void-Bound Voyager

      SECONDED as long as there's support for wives and husbands at the same time in the same game!
      Suggest retitle to polyamory?
       
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      • excursion12

        excursion12 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

        Ya I have to admit that I'd like this as well. I can't choose between Abigail, Penny, and Leah. Combine the three of them into one and you have the perfect woman for me...
         
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        • Nemphorous

          Nemphorous Void-Bound Voyager

          /thread bump
           
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          • GameAdam

            GameAdam Void-Bound Voyager

            I really want a mod like this, marry all the girls I say, ha ha. If I knew how to make mods for this game, I would do it. But I don't know what language this game use's nor how to code something this advance. Plus I can't draw or write scripts for characters that well.
             
            • Cimeni

              Cimeni Phantasmal Quasar

              I wonder if I'm the only one who finds this sort of thing to be a very weird request for this sort of game. This is a small, close-knit town, and considering the personalities of the characters, it seems like quite a few of them would become very insecure, jealous, or flat out break up with you because they'd consider it cheating, or not go out with you in the first place.

              More power to those that want it. It just seems very unrealistic for this story of game c':
               
              • HoaxRumors

                HoaxRumors Phantasmal Quasar

                Warning: thou shalt encounter conjectural pedantry ahead. Tarry not, fair reader, lest thine eyes cross with the wide-ranging swath of my meandering monologue.

                (Translation: I wound up discussing the issue with myself while I was writing this and it kinda got out of hand. tl;dr is highlighted down at the bottom if you don't wanna read it all.)

                Such a mod would doubtless have to handle elements such as Abigail's inherent jealousy (IIRC she gets angry and loses relationship points if you even talk to other marriage candidates after getting hitched, though I don't know if other bachelor/ettes do as well) and the way the game handles adding on their respective house extensions, but it would certainly be an interesting thing to have. Perhaps when Storm is more fleshed out and allows for adding/altering dialogue and scene events, a mod could be put together that would functionally allow such a thing, but it would have to either be a massive undertaking, or incredibly limited and buggy.

                As it is now--and this is entirely conjecture based on what I've witnessed in modding communities over the years, particularly from the Elder Scrolls series--with how the relationship system works, the only way I could see it being possible to make a working, not-skeletal-and-buggier-than-Florida-in-July polyamory mod would be to code an entire new relationship system for the eligible NPCs and effectively hook all of their internal calls to the relationship system out to said new structure, a la the Civil War Overhaul mod for Skyrim (which required disabling large portions of what was literally load-bearing code in many cases, as the main story quest structure was tied to several civil war elements).

                Similarly, polyamory mods in Skyrim have been tried, but with varying degrees of success, for the same reason: the original system in place is tied to so dang much in the game that changing what's there is 10 times harder (and more potentially damaging) than cutting it out and replacing it wholesale, and that requires building a new system from scratch, and dealing with all the potential gremlins that could arise there. Every case I saw last I was actively brea--er, playing Skyrim, the mod devs eventually ran out of steam either because a game update broke one tiny thing that shattered everything to bits, or because they'd wound up spending more time coding the game than playing it and lost the drive to continue.

                Possibly, if/when multiplayer support is implemented, it could be possible to piggyback off the way the game handles multiple players' marriages in the game, if CA doesn't just relegate getting hitched to "host-only" (or make the multiplayer mode entirely marriage-free), but either you'd end up with only one more spouse and the game thinking you're playing two-player--with all the possible WTFery that might bring from the game expecting two people and seeing only one--or, again, something incredibly buggy and skeletal that results in your spouses having a hivemind and being in a perpetual quantum state of happy you're talking to them but mad you're talking to them because it's not them, it's the other them, and/or occupying the same physical location in spacetime.

                And this is just taking game functions alone into consideration! There's also the whole issue of how one would go about getting the characters to interact in a way that remains in-character for them under a polyamorous marriage structure, and all the game design jiggery-pokery that comes from that. Do you make certain characters opposed to it? Do you rationalize it all away with Jedi Mind Tricks? Do you resolve it by way of a spousal kissing contest that gets way out of hand and then the player winds up left out alone in the cold because the spouses all decide they're far more interested in each other than the player? Do you go the Tenchi Muyo! route and turn it into a never-ending rivalry over a well-meaning milquetoast sop that can't just fortify himself and make an executive decision about his life? And how the heck are you going to figure out sleeping arrangements? Who's the feudal lord and who's the handmaiden? WHO GETS TO BE THE BIG SPOON?
                [my personal unnecessary opinion on the last three: giant snuggly cuddle-pile, there is no war in Ba Sing Se, and either decide via rock/paper/scissors or a pile of dice and a need/greed system factoring each relationship member's remaining ability to even.]

                In no way do I mean to doomsay at all with any of this, a polyamory mod is Definitely Not Unlikely, but in the perpetually paraphrased words of many a disenfranchised codemonkey to a clueless middle-manager: "fast, clean, effective. Pick two."

                And my guess may be wrong! It could be CA used some method of setting up the relationships that I can't myself think of that would, if used right, allow for more than one spouse with minimal engine shenanigans, and all that needs done is for the game to have a way to populate the list past marriage #1, and some interesting interactions to keep everyone in character. I for one would be pleasantly surprised if that were the case! ...but I personally doubt it.

                tl;dr: Theoretically? Totally doable, albeit potentially super complicated. In practice? You'll probably have to find someone willing and able to code a new relationship system from scratch (using whatever method available, if there even could be one), cancel out the existing system (either in part or in whole) without breaking the game, and then insert the new one (and either future-proof it or provide updates in the event of future changes possibly altering one thing that breaks everything ever).

                still tl;dr *shrugs to the sky* Could happen? Maybe someday? I'm inclined to assume "no", but who knows?
                 
                • excursion12

                  excursion12 Scruffy Nerf-Herder



                  Ya... i can see how it would be really complicated. If I had to choose between them I'd probably go with Penny. Dat bathhouse scene doh. Who said she was an innocent mother/housewife figure :rofl:. Maybe if there was a way to change it so none of your spouses are jealous of you talking/gifting to other bachelors/bachelorettes. That would be nice.
                   
                  • daikiraikimi

                    daikiraikimi Astral Cartographer

                    If polyamory were included in the game, I like the option that some characters are up to polya relationships while others are more monogamous. That said, though, right now every character is bisexual/pansexual, so having everyone be polya is more fitting to the current feel of the game.

                    You might need a new house expansion and a much bigger bed, though.
                     
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                    • Nemphorous

                      Nemphorous Void-Bound Voyager

                      My thoughts were to stop the game from reading if I was already married or not to allow myself to marry others, the event of them getting jealous hadn't come to mind. The difficult part as I see it is what you mentioned, The house. We would need new house .xnb upgrades to allow expansion for each of the candidates rooms, such as Leah's painting room and so forth. In Consideration that the game was programmed in C# finding and cancelling the check to be married should be fairly simple in correlation to the other tasks, and for the others I can't tell how difficult they will be.
                       
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                      • jacjac78

                        jacjac78 Void-Bound Voyager

                        Tried my hand at modding the save files unfortunately there's something in the code that checks your spouses and resets them back to the first listed one if you try adding more than one. But I did manage to get the other girl to move into my house without the house extension couldn't make her use marriage lines though only the girlfriend ones.
                         
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                        • ReyVer

                          ReyVer Void-Bound Voyager

                          I'm married to Elliott and I already cheated. I gave bouquets to every other marriage candidate. I've got all but Alex, Sebastian, and Leah to 10 hearts. I've had all the cutscenes for everyone else. I'd love to marry them all.
                           
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                          • Nemphorous

                            Nemphorous Void-Bound Voyager

                            Progress :p, any and all work towards the goal is appreciated.
                             
                            • Dillweed

                              Dillweed Void-Bound Voyager

                              As someone who is polyamorous I'd love to see poly being implemented into a game. However polyamory wouldn't be something that could happen in the game, unless some complex system was put into the game. You, the player, are marrying someone. And if you marry someone else it is still the PLAYER who is marrying the other person. And great, fantastic, but romantic relationship with person A has nothing to do with romantic relationship with person B. Marrying Penny and then marrying Leah means you are married to both, but they're not married to each other. And unless there's a way where the NPCs can fall for each other (in some weird not forced way) you don't have polyamory folks you have Polygamy. Which is very different.
                               
                              • GreaterPorpoise

                                GreaterPorpoise Void-Bound Voyager

                                Not strictly true, you're thinking of a polyfidele triad but there are many different kinds of relationships like Vs, polycules, etc. What WOULDN't be polyamory in this situation, is if your multiple spouses don't know about and/or do not like the arrangement.
                                 
                                • Dillweed

                                  Dillweed Void-Bound Voyager

                                  I was wondering if someone would bring that up! I know there are different types, but again in the setting that we have where your other partner can't give their okay with you being with someone else ect I do not consider that polyamory. Also, being aware =/= polyamory. Again, if the option to marry multiple people in the game is added in that doesn't make it polyamorous. It's only if the NPCs are able to build a deeper relationship with each other (romantic or platonic) that I'd consider it polyamorous and not just polygamy. Since romance is just an extra layer to the game I didn't mention/go into all the types of relationships/poly because that would just...be waaaay too much for this game. And be asking for too much.

                                  Just in case I'm not being clear, because its 4am and I write super good right now, the point I'm trying to make is that if your character/you the player go "I'm going to marry X" and then marry X, and later choose to marry Y and do it you have married two people. Yes. But in this setting, in typical Harvest Moon ways of playing...the NPC doesn't have a choice. If you get them to level 10 or a read heart and do the special shit they'll say yes. So if you can marrying more than one person they'll still say yes. But theres no conversation, no talk with your other spouse, no nothing because they wouldn't get a say in this really watered down version because that again would be super complex to add in. You'd just have two wives. Or two husbands. Or a husband and a wife. But it still wouldn't be polyamory UNLESS a second type of relationship thing for NPCs was created so they can bond but I dont even know how that would work ect ect.

                                  The easier way around all of this, maybe, is if you could end up dating/marrying a couple.
                                   
                                  • GreaterPorpoise

                                    GreaterPorpoise Void-Bound Voyager

                                    Ah, you meant for there to be (more than just) spouses' acknowledgement/recognition of each other. I understand now, no disagreement here! But it's a sad realisation that we probably won't ever get a proper polyamory mod.
                                     
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                                    • LiaSays

                                      LiaSays Void-Bound Voyager

                                      I agree, especially being poly myself (though currently happily in a monogamous relationship till we both find the right polyfidelous partner to share, if we ever do! xD) as well. However, polygamy refers to two or more women while polyandry refers to two or more men, and I thought polyamory would be more inclusive as I intended to just Imagine npc consent and mutual love of various kinds. To see that actually written in, however, would be fantastic!
                                       
                                        Last edited: Mar 21, 2016
                                      • Zero Zet

                                        Zero Zet Space Spelunker

                                        I vaguely recall being able to tie the loose ends together (read, pair off the spares not picked up) at one of Rune Factory or Harvest Moon games, so it is possible to create secondary relationships. OTOH, it was predetermined pairings, and you just helped them to come to life, while replacing the partner in one of them, so yeah. In our situation it would require to create a whole bunch of "everybody with everybody else" romantic scenarios, and that would be quite a number of megabytes long scenario file, if you wanted full-length event chains of your spouses properly falling in love with each other alongside with you. Still, don't likes of Fire Emblem series allow you to put pretty much anyone with anyone else (didn't play a single one, so that is purely from what I heard)...
                                        All while a strict harem type solution could work just as well in the end and require far less events to program (a couple to convince perspective partners to "share", and another couple to show them adjusting to work and live together. Just ask Momo - she's running one such project at the moment. Or pray to Tenchi-no-kami for an enlightenment - he did manage to marry them all after all, word of creator, main continuity. Of course, being a next in line for a galactic trone helps, but who knows, maybe Great Yoba endorses polygamous/polyandrous relationships here?


                                        Oh, that's actually make sense - program probably just finds first possible wife and runs with it. Hm, then if you just edit your other partners' values to be like married without setting married flag, they start to live with you and stop having their own life like proper wife do, but be considered "dating"... And then just move around the marriage flag between their entries every morning, to make game select a new person for wifely conversations each day... Could be and easy'ish way to represent a harem here!
                                        Would be mighty annoying to do that by hand, so a mod to make such round-robin "wife of the day" arrangement of a savefile should be better. Mods do can change what game is going to write on the save, right?)
                                         
                                        • Katrien

                                          Katrien Space Hobo

                                          Ooh! I hope this can be done. I am poly in real life and have two wonderful partners and it would be neat to have something similar in game.
                                           

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