I already have some support for contextual exceptions, which I had plans to make localized flavor too (like, having regular sex usually doesn't change the main flow based on location, but can sure be flavorful)
Bigger issue is that I want big changes to be more impactful to the story, outside of just flavor. I tried writing some generic events and they were just uninteresting. I realized most of the charm and flavor of these kinds of stories comes from recurring characters, but I cannot use them in these generic events if I want a coherent narrative.
If events were not the whole game, I would opt for these similar events with different flavor approach. However, since they are the main gameplay and reason to play the game, I decided it's a lot more important to keep events more personal, at the cost of keeping locations rigid.
I also attempted single choice events, instead of a few branching choices, and this also hurts the overall experience I am trying to get to.
I didn't mention it in the devlogs before, but I sort of have a few design pillars that I wanna keep intact:
- Choices should have a strong risk/reward link
- Risk and reward should be clear to the player when they make the decision
- Events need to keep the story moving, no backtracking or looping decisions
- Replaying the game should provide a different, yet coherent story practically every time
Generic events may break the rule #3 if they keep repeating, and they also cannot usually contain #1 or they risk becoming more specific.
The map can enhance #4 and provides another #1 and #2 to the table, but #3 has a risk of failure down the line, and I cannot predict how far it can go so when I scrapped it, it took generic events with it.
Replies to you can be devlog posts themselves xD
But if someone goes down to read comments, they will see it, which works too :p