Remove Sex, Keep Procreation

[Deantwo]

The mating animation is horrible and ridiculous.

I suggested Hazeron to a group of people that had never hear, they immediately saw the "ages 17+" tag and read the "sex" warning. They dismissed the game after that, since their computer is in the living room where their whole family is.

Basic solution is to just remove the mating pose and animation. Instead have a more cartoony version of it, fade the screen to black of the avatars involved and then have the "bonk" message of success after stamina drain or whatever. Onlookers wouldn't need to even know that it happened at all, or they can just see a small heart sprite above the creatures similar to what you see in Minecraft when breeding animals.

There is nothing wrong with procreation apart from that. Though it is nice to keep procreation mostly PG-13, even if you want the game to be for an somewhat mature audience.

If this was done, the worst offender of "ages 17+" tag could be removed and make the game a lot more acceptable.

The update for reference: (Update thread) 2019-10-31 Animal Poses

[Athena]

[OnePercent]

Disagree, Sex is completely voluntary in the game and no one ever is forced to do it.

[Deantwo]

Disagree, Sex is completely voluntary in the game and no one ever is forced to do it.

If the huge "age 17+" warning wasn't on the site with "sex" listed as a reason for it, I would agree. But while that warning has "sex" listed there, it will always get way more attention than it needs, even if the feature/action is completely optional.

The "sex" pose and animation doesn't add anything to the procreation feature, instead it costs the game all measures of innocence. The only effect of having the "sex" pose and animation in the game is the need to add "sex" to the age warning. It might even be the only reason to have the age warning be so high.

[Celarious]

Disagree, Sex is completely voluntary in the game and no one ever is forced to do it.

Then why have the detailed animation in the game? Just because "Nobody is forced" doesn't make what's happened ok. Unless you want to defend Haxus wasting dev time on such useless things when he could be improving the game...

[Rockinsince87]

So I have two viewpoints on this, my personal feelings and my business sense. 


Personal feelings, it's not a big deal, it's a natural process that many species have practiced for millions of years. As a 30 year gamer vet, this does not bother me what so ever. In fact I applaud Haxus for all the detail of the code for the entire process from mating to procreation. Well done. If you don't like it, don't do it. 


Business sense, If Haxus wants to put Hazeron on steam, he should do something about this. Purchasing power will fall ultimately in the higher age bracket but sales in the lower age bracket will affected. However there are parents that will purchase it anyways (Like the GTA series in it's whole and kids for example). I would personally want my game to be accessible to all ages, but that's me. You also don't want the game to end up on the wrong side of parents radars, like GTA San Andreas and the hot coffee cut content mod. However on the flip side, that negative news cause sales of that title to jump. 




Overall, I would make a compromise with my artistic vision and the accessibility of my product only if I plan on moving to Steam and if I feel the need to expand the age bracket into the lower band of 13+. Find some middle ground.

[Celarious]

If you don't like it, don't do it. 

Except for the fact that you have to if you wish to be competitive. A highborn, minmaxed avatar will always crush any which aren't. Also, that isn't a valid defence. If Haxus adds mechanics which actively make the game worse, we should be doing our best to convince him to remove them and why they're bad.

In fact I applaud Haxus for all the detail of the code for the entire process from mating to procreation.

This is valid. It has been valid ever since he added gen3 sex. Which was a simple, non-animated comedic thing. Why is gen4 not also like this? It looks far better, and doesn't disgust anybody who sees it. We're not arguing for the removal of mating entirely, just to change it back to what gen3 was. None of us at any point criticized the mating/procreation code he's worked on, only the horrible animation gen4 avatars have

[Zensras]

I uh...had no idea about this until someone on discord mentioned it.

as someone in discord mentioned:

hide it behind the esoteric haxus switches in the options

[Rockinsince87]

In fact I applaud Haxus for all the detail of the code for the entire process from mating to procreation.

This is valid. It has been valid ever since he added gen3 sex. Which was a simple, non-animated comedic thing. Why is gen4 not also like this? It looks far better, and doesn't disgust anybody who sees it. We're not arguing for the removal of mating entirely, just to change it back to what gen3 was. None of us at any point criticized the mating/procreation code he's worked on, only the horrible animation gen4 avatars have

Actually this is a valid point. The gen3 would be the perfect compromise actually. It's non-animated like you said and still gets the job done, no pun intended...

[Yukondano2]

I've only used Gen3 so wasn't aware there was something with more stuff, and dialogue. I will at least voice that I second Dean's request. An option would be alright at least. The sex content in this game's, kinda odd. Spawning in a ship designer with my wang out doesn't make any sense to me either. It's not prudishness here it's just, a completely unnecessary addition that will put people off. Given the game's nature that doesn't seem ideal, it's already quite niche. It's too offputting to be sexy and it's too sexual and out of place to easily ignore. It's a cudgel of uncanny valley smacking you in the face with its polygonal wang. Tonally it's like if an art program splash screen was a squirrel being violently disemboweled with a comb, it's just a head scratcher.