Remove Involuntary Flirting Encounters and Dialogue
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Before I begin, I would like to clarify that I am going to tolerate a grand total of zero antics on this thread. Some of the topics I am going to discuss have a history of sparking arguments and controversy. But here? None of that. No hogwash. No buffooneries. No horseplay. You insult someone on this thread? To the dungeons! You try to derail the thread? Straight to the chambers!

We're good? Ok. We're good.

What I am here to propose is that all involuntary flirting encounters and dialogue are removed from events. I am defining involuntary as any encounter in which I do not have the option to avoid flirting (apart from perhaps skipping the encounter entirely - which I am not going to entertain as a solution because a girl still needs her event currency). After discussing this with several other players, it has become clear that there are wildly different comfort levels when it comes to our kings being forced to flirt with NPCs. My particular concern lies with the fact that many lioden players do not have male kings. In recent years especially, it has been increasingly common for players to use lab frogs and decor to create female "queens". In particularly, me and many other players have lesbian queens. However, all dialogue is written with the assumption that we are playing as male kings. Therefore, there is a sizable amount of dialogue written where male NPCs flirt with our kings with the intent of being seen as a joke (yes, Nirah - and I am going to talk more about him later). While the intent may be for these encounters to be light hearted, they have the unintended impact of subjecting our poor lesbians to unwanted male advances. This same logic applies for AroAce players/ AroAce kings, where players find all unwanted flirting uncomfortable.

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Voluntary vs Involuntary Explore Encounters
To illustrate my point, I am going to show you an example of what I believe to be a very well done voluntary encounters, and what I believe to be an involuntary encounter. Hopefully this will allow you to see the difference.


This encounter is a fantastic example of voluntary flirting. I have the option to flirt with her, but I also have the option to take an entirely un-romantic route. Fun!


This encounter is not so fun. Regardless of the option I choose, my king is either forced to wrestle with Nirah or get "wrapped in a cocoon". Once again, my side queen is a lesbian. She would rather die than allow either of these options to happen.

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Event Storyline Flirting
For this next little section, I'm going to be walking us through how certain storyline dialogue could be altered to preserve the integrity of the characters while also making events a more comfortable experience for everyone.

V'Kai
NO V'KAI AGE DEBATES OR I BLOW YOU UP WITH MY MIND LASER

In order to select a male groupie boost, you need to endure some flirtatious dialogue about how V'Kai is joking about you being into guys. You also have the option to directly flirt with V'Kai as well, and while this is technically voluntary, I think it could be better written. He also calls us a "horny shit". AroAce players found dead in a ditch. Down below I have the original dialogue next to my edited version.


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There is also this message given when completing the claim 5 lionesses quest.


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Nirah
Ok. Yeah. The big guy. His dialogue is riddled with innuendos and incessant flirting. And you really can't stop him! Because Nirah hosts crunchies, the vast majority of players are going to leave at least one king with him. I end up sending my lesbian queen to hell because I know she'd rather put up with that than Nirah. And I know what you're saying, Nirah being flirty is like his whole personality. Wrong! I reviewed all his dialogue and he's not just a down bad guy. He's a lazy dude-bro who schmoozes to get out of hard labor. He's pushy and socially inappropriate, but that doesn't inherently mean he need to be a weirdo. He can be a kiss-ass without having to talk about having sex with my king. More rewrites below


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(there were two here that were so bad I didn't even know how to rewrite them)

this may not be all the weird dialogue in the game, but it is what is most significant. i'm not re-reading every single line of event dialogue ok (not for free at least)"

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once again please keep everything civil - but feel free to share thoughts down below!