Sleazy, Crude and Boastful

Hello everyone! One of my patrons sent me a message asking me to explain the difference between the crude, sleazy and boastful npc traits. I figured I'd put it here so everyone can read it.


Sleazy is a major trait that influences a lot of npc's behaviour. Originally it just started as something to affect npc's conversation, with the idea that a sleazy man who talks about sex a lot would be a good match for a girl with an overactive imagination who likes thinking about it. It has a conflict with refined girls, as they like things to be 'proper', which means they aren't so comfortable with overt sexuality.
It's also opposed to the charming trait, and the 'romantic' personality type. You won't see npcs with sleazy and either of these.


Since then, it's had a lot of extra content added – too much for me to give a complete list for this blog post. It's the trait I use anytime I want to add content that needs the npc to be very openly sexual, especially if it means going beyond what would normally be socially acceptable.


Basically, sleazy npcs are all about sex. They talk about it more, they'll show sexual interest very directly by e.g. staring down your top, they'll take sexual actions more often, including inappropriate ones like touching you up in clubs. When you make out with them they're more likely to grope you in intimate places than to give you a tender kiss. 


Crude is a holdover from the old days long before the game was online. I was planning to have a massive set of written dialogue for each personality, modified by traits and crude was to be one of these. The general idea was that crude men would be blunt, to the point, and somewhat rude. This would put them in conflict with refined girls, but it would be easier for the player to figure out their likes and dislikes.


This dialogue system proved to be a complete failure, and was entirely scrapped. By the time of release, I was very tempted to remove crude. It had only a couple of references in the game and I wasn't sure it justified its inclusion. It also had some overlap with sleazy which I mostly resolved by handing them over to the sleazy trait. Crude still has the same opposite traits – charming and romantic, although I wonder if perhaps it should only be limited on the charming trait and not the romantic personality.


Because npc traits don't require me to add UI elements to support them, I decided to leave it in and see if I could add useful content to it later.
This happened to some extent and Crude now has many more references in the code, but it's still a minor trait compared to sleazy. Most of its effects modify dialogue rather than changing an npc's behaviour or adding new actions.


Boastful is the newest of these traits. This means it has the fewest game effects, but also a quite well-defined role. Boastful men are proud, arrogant and like bragging about themselves. It has a varied effect on relationships – he might be an annoying braggart, or he might be so interesting that his boasting is fascinating. Boastful men go well with shy girls as they like getting to do all the talking.
Otherwise, they have a few special actions based on their arrogance. For example, if a man fancies you and you ask him to be your friend he might suggest becoming boyfriend & girlfriend instead. Most men won't do this if you already have a boyfriend, but a boastful man is convinced that he must be far better than any romantic rival, so he'll ask you to dump your current partner for him.
It can also lock out some content. The newest event chain in 0.3.8 involves an npc coming to you for help. Boastful men are far too proud to admit that they need someone else to solve their problems, so the event will never happen for them.

Well, I hope that was interesting for you. Now go out there and find a crude sleazy braggart for some sexy fun!