I'm having some trouble deciding how to handle the situation where the characters in my game are completely unclothed. The player fully controls her/his own character (also him or her) and what is worn. The player can also force paid lackeys to wear whatever they want them to wear, within limits, depending on each character's personality. Many (if not all) characters will refuse to strut around naked. Clothing is auto-unequipped when conflicting clothing is equipped, but it still leaves a problem with situations where the player might need to sell items in order to buy new items, etc. It also doesn't suit me to have the player's character refuse to do anything requested by the human player. Males are pretty easy, because any skin shown around the boxers-area is pretty untasteful anyway (I would think). I certainly don't want to force male characters to wear shirts. But I'm leaning towards the idea of forcing females to wear something over their breasts. The problem comes from the fact that some really cool female blouse and top designs will conflict with the base model regardless of what type of bra I use for that base. That goes for the thigh and hip area as well. Here are some choices I've been thinking over.. 1. Allow topless ladies. I can still avoid showing details such as nipples. 2. Provide under-clothing on the base model (I did this with boxers on the male). This will conflict and limit the styles of clothing worn over the area (which wasn't a problem with the male boxers). For example, no backless dresses because an ugly white/black bra-strap will cross there. 3. Create actual seperated underwear and automatically equip them when sensitive areas are uncovered. It will require a heavy background hack. Characters will need to be carrying these hidden items in inventory at all times. I would need to add flag values to clothing specifying whether they cover certain areas or not, etc. This one is the most work, but it probably has the most potential. My project is certainly not a childs toy. But a few filtered-out words and subtraction of some gore and.... well, nah, it's still not going to be very friendly to children. This is why I'm having trouble. Topless females don't seem very daring to me. It's difficult for me to understand how seeing someone's guts, brains, and blood fly across a screen is okay while a totally normal (and beautiful) part of someone's body being exposed is so taboo. If my game is already designed for an 18+ audience, should I even be concerned? If I were to use movies as a guide, I would just go ahead, nipples and all. But for games, it looks like the wall is closed in around us a bit tighter. Any opinions?

If you're targeting an 18+ audience anyways, why worry? It's not as if walmart refusing to stock your hobbyist project is going to be a show-stopper. The key reason most commercial projects shy away from going above M (to 18 or Adult), is that their primary distribution channels (EB, Walmart, etc) are pretty puritan, and refuse to stock anything abouve M. As an independent, you don't care.

Allan

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Original post by __ODIN__ If you're targeting an 18+ audience anyways, why worry? It's not as if walmart refusing to stock your hobbyist project is going to be a show-stopper. The key reason most commercial projects shy away from going above M (to 18 or Adult), is that their primary distribution channels (EB, Walmart, etc) are pretty puritan, and refuse to stock anything abouve M. As an independent, you don't care. Allan

This is a commercial project. Or at least I believe it will eventually become one. The idea of topless nudity (dancers) seems to me like a great way to enhance a sci-fi theme, rather than something that will bother it.

There are actually games marked above M? Surely the rating system wouldn't suggest that 17 year olds are too young to see breasts?

Thanks for your suggestions.

Well its not taboo you should be worried about, but more on legal issues when concerning nudity. In some countries pornographic materials are illegal, unless you can find some ways to protect yourself you may find yourself (or company) being sued by someone in some distant country you have never heard about.

That being said I think you can just made a skin colored bra (different colors depending on skin color) with faint lines that shows it on the character, the lines shouldn't be visible unless your really close in ;) . That should solve the problem of nudity, you can point out your characters are really wearing underwear, while designing clothes that can reveal flesh without contrast issue.

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Original post by Si Hao In some countries pornographic materials are illegal, unless you can find some ways to protect yourself you may find yourself (or company) being sued by someone in some distant country you have never heard about.

What prevents these people from suing our movie directors? In the U.S., full nudity isn't even considered pornography.

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Original post by Kest Quote: Original post by Si Hao In some countries pornographic materials are illegal, unless you can find some ways to protect yourself you may find yourself (or company) being sued by someone in some distant country you have never heard about. What prevents these people from suing our movie directors? In the U.S., full nudity isn't even considered pornography.

You made a valid point, probably wasn't a big issue then just pointing out the possibilities there.

Ah, Active Topics... always leading to interesting stuff [smile]


Could you provide some more background on what exactly characters may be doing when this state of undress occurs? For instance, would it be plausible to have them cover up with an arm/hand for a moment while swapping clothing items, assuming a typical "dress-up" style screen is involved? That way you preserve the range of possibilities for clothing design without getting too risque. A cute, sheepish grin and a bit of blushing would be a nice touch as well.

I don't see any problem in going with number 2. You can get a bra nowdays that has no straps at all. Regardless, there's no need to show strap lines. Just cover the sensitive bits. You can invent a similiar thing for the lower area.

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Original post by ApochPiQ Ah, Active Topics... always leading to interesting stuff [smile] Could you provide some more background on what exactly characters may be doing when this state of undress occurs? For instance, would it be plausible to have them cover up with an arm/hand for a moment while swapping clothing items, assuming a typical "dress-up" style screen is involved? That way you preserve the range of possibilities for clothing design without getting too risque. A cute, sheepish grin and a bit of blushing would be a nice touch as well.

I hadn't thought of doing something like that. That's very clever. The only situation that currently allows changing clothing is within the inventory screen. It does allow rotating the view of the character, though:



There may still be annoying limitations, though. Such as the requirement to swap clothing, rather than taking some away, doing something, then giving some back. An example would be upgrading a piece of armor in a shop or with an NPC. There's also an issue with selling something and buying something in it's place. Do I not allow the player to walk away from a situation where an item has been traded in, but nothing bought in it's place? Should I have the NPC search for a replacement item? I'm worried that things like this will get annoying to the player or tedious for me.

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Original post by iMalc I don't see any problem in going with number 2. You can get a bra nowdays that has no straps at all.

A bikini wouldn't work over those. Sorry, I'm probably trying too hard to stay flexible for future costume possibilites. This is the type of thing that confuses me a bit, though. The difference between breasts with no nipples and a flesh-colored bra with no straps is a single round line of pixels. Perhaps I can just go with nipple-less breasts, knowing that if anyone has a problem with it, I can claim the bra is flesh colored with seamless lines that are made to be invisible to the naked eye. One of the wonders of sci-fi.

you could put a billboard with pixelated effect/black box on the naughty bits when they are exposed (similar to the sims, I think). then each clothing will have some flags "blnCoverLowerParts, blnCoverHigherParts" to know if the billboard/s will be shown. This can allow for more exotic costumes (like ermm... I dunno assless chaps?)[grin].