I have a bunch of mattering choices in my story, and so far I’ve been trying to keep track of it all via points system and by simply remembering the past choices (if choice is “___”)…
Sometimes it gets confusing and tiring, and errors will happen, lol.
I’ve specifically avoided using gains at all in my story. I heard that if I update a chapter, the gain doesn’t go away. So, if the reader has to re-read it, it doesn’t go away? Is that right? Which I feel like would mess things up… right? Because maybe they don’t want to make the same choice when re-reading…
No, points reset when u replay a story. Ik bc when I don’t get the ending I want, I replay. And yes, it’s v complex, I don’t recommend it unless ur an experienced director.
Gains, Points, and Named Choices all reset if a reader has to reread a chapter.
If you were to put a skip option in a chapter, and the reader chose to skip it instead of rereading, it would be like they never read the chapter at all. It basically resets the progress of that chapter as if the reader never read it.
That is why in stories I write that choices matter, I do not offer a skip option. Because skipping choices or gains within the chapter could mess the story up later on.
Gains are good if you want to add the same gain through different routes. Perhaps it’s remembering if the characters ever kissed, or the character ever lied.
When you use named choices, it is specific to THAT choice.
Also, when you use named choices, you have to type the if/elif exactly how the choice is worded. I don’t know about you, but some of my choices are complete sentences. By using gains, I can have (gain EP_1_PICKED_RED_DRESS or gain KISSED_CHARACTER). I can make the gain specific and long, or I can make the gain short and generalized. I also don’t have to worry about the quotation marks within the if/elif statement. It’s simply
if (KISSED_CHARACTER) {
}
I personally only name choices just so I can find them easier on the side bar.
Thanks. When you test out gains, how does it work? Like, since you can’t ungain them, I’d assume that you can’t change them when you’re testing it out, right?
Ahh I see. Thank you. I might start using them now. My main issue was being able to test them out for errors properly, but now I see where the flags are.
gains/flags are fab lol. that’s like 90% of what I use in my more involved stories. they reset if the chapter is updated, so keep that in mind if you do a skip option (e.g. write a short choice after the say “yes I want to skip” that gives a brief description of the scenario, the choice, and the answers with their respective flags beneath). some people mainly use points and have the proportion of points earned determine which branch the reader flows into, other people like to have a direct choice determine the branch. another good thing is you can combine them (e.g. if A and B and C…etc.) or reference the negative (e.g. if A and B and [NOT C]…etc.) for the real nitty gritty fine tuned choices. I guess just decide what system would work best with what you’re writing and go from there haha. best of luck
