User input during scenes?

[Egglock]

I know the title can be a bit misleading, so if you popped in here, I would love your opinion on user input during sex scenes. Please note, I'm not making a vn. The project I'm currently working on is in 3D space. With that said my question is

1. Would you prefer to let the animations play out with minimal control?
Pan the camera(hard locked to a point), start, stop, reset, cum, and change position?

or

2. Full control
Same as above, but you get to choose the speed, when and where to cum, lock the climax. Ability to move the camera around, and the ability to fondle during sex.

 

[bumnedfe]

In general, I would prefer the second option. However, poorly done full control is worse than competently done no-control. The two big stumbling points would normally be the camera controls and the speed control, but without knowing more about the actual control mechanics I couldn't say. That being said, well done full control is clearly the best option in my opinion.

 

[Egglock]

Camera control as in not fixed point to a point where all the player can do is pan in a left and right direction. More as a free cam where you can move around the actors, speed is the thrust the male character is performing. The controls are all based on the typical WASD movements, with some slight variation to a fixed amount of zoom the player can do. Hopefully this clarify some of those questions.

 

[SoulReaverFo]

It all depends on your presentations into the scene, the best of option 1 and 2 is to cycle fixed camera angles and have the option to rotate the scene. The problem is the clipping that occurs during zoom this can be circumvented using a drag camera with mouse and have little movement. I can give an example of some Telltale games that do this if the narative is more important than the scene. That's why is subjective.

 

[Rich]

I tend to agree with all of the above. However, and example of a (probably) bad mechanic is Pusooy's games, where you have to move the mouse around to initiate the "action" and keep it going, and you have to do it over and over and over and over and over until you've done it enough times to advance the scene.

I would certainly say that allowing the player to adjust the viewpoint is an extremely good thing. Also allowing the player to choose when to move on to the next portion of the sceen/position/whatever. I think that "The Twist" does a pretty good job in this aspect. If you took that type concept and potentially added something like "choice of next position" or "ok, I've had enough", you might have a pretty solid experience for the player. Another game to look at is House Party.

 

[kiteares]

Additional to this, I like that you mentioned WASD (ZX for zoom?) - I have seen people complain about having to use a mouse during these scenes, so having keyboard controls would probably go down well.
And if you do need to use a mouse, please make it single click, not click for thrust, click again to pull back, again for thrust....mice cost money

 

[Egglock]

The problem is the clipping that occurs during zoom

What I have on paper so far, there will be collision that prevents the camera from clipping into the actors.

where you have to move the mouse around to initiate the "action" and keep it going, and you have to do it over and over and over and over and over until you've done it enough times to advance the scene.

Indeed that is a horrible way to setup sex sequences. What I have on paper, is
player initiate a dialogue option; all variables = true; sex scene starts.
With in these scenes is where the camera control gets initialize. This is where I am curious as to what players would like.
For a lack of better terms, I'm asking for what features, amount of control players would like during this stage.

I like that you mentioned WASD (ZX for zoom?) - I have seen people complain about having to use a mouse during these scenes,

And if you do need to use a mouse, please make it single click, not click for thrust, click again to pull back, again for thrust

At most the mouse is used for choosing buttons, camera movements, and zooming (middle mouse), though I'll take into consideration that some might not have access to a 3 button mouse. But this also brings another issue, in the fact of complexity. It'll force the player to memorize key press, and I'm not sure if that's the best case?

As far as thrust, that is done using the mouse wheel, or a key. I've never enjoy using my mouse to imitate thrust, I still need my other hand to do other things.

 

[bumnedfe]

An "auto" mode for the thrusting/speed would be appreciated - you get to your desired speed (or select from a button panel, or set it via a slider etc), and then the player can set it to auto and just watch, while still maintaining full camera control. Have you ever played any of Illusion's games? Some of their games have pretty good interactivity in their scenes (some... don't).