Last I played the game HasQuest didn't actually do anything (at all), but from my understanding it it's meant to protect quest NPCs from inconsistencies that might break their quests/immersion.  Things like keeping their stats in check for normal story progression, or lowering chance of them having sex by the time they're supposed to have their 'canonical first time' etc.  There's now also ways to fully disable such interactions, but they're mostly unused.

My vague understanding of mechanics based on bugfixes/comments:

- Hypno:
-- Harder to hypno HasQuest target (around 50% chance to fail at 100 hypno), and less impact on their stats.
-- Downside: Makes it harder to hypno other NPCs if a HasQuest NPC is nearby?  Also might be that regular NPC hypno has regular effect on HasQuest NPCs.  Is this fine?  Should HasQuest NPCs perhaps be straight up ignored when it comes to others?

- Drugs:
-- Harder to use?  Less effect?

- Sex:
-- Less effect?

- School policies/lessons:
-- No difference?


The point of this post is that I want people to comment what they know of how this stuff works/how it impacts gameplay etc. for a better overview.

Especially inconsistencies in how it works.  And when it's added/removed from an NPC in a way that's not consistent with others/balanced.

Quote from: TBBle on Jun 17, 2022, 02:23 PMNot sure this is a bug, but the school doctor Karin Hardman might be missing the HasQuest flag. Her daughter Sierra Hardman has the flag, and that questline leads into blackmail for Karin; when I hit this in my current playthrough, I'd already "romanced" Karin into supporting me on the PTA, as I'd forgotten about this questline entirely.

Perhaps it's been left off because it's futanari content, but it might be better to be a "clear HasQuest on explicit/repeated rejection of the quest start" situation. I believe it already has a "Talk to the parent" early-out on the questline that does that once it's a little way in. (But I might be thinking of the Titsbig questline's "call the police" option?)

I'm not sure how, in general, events are handling quests (and hence HasQuest) that are deny-listed by player's content settings. The only place I noticed any consideration of this was an event (I forget which, maybe enslaving MissingGirl?) which had a code-path for "You have deny-listed this content type, but you'll see that if you continue down this path".

That's more of a wider discussion though.

Edit: I checked, and Principal Office\HardmanMeeting1 has the option to report to the parent, which early-outs the chain with Karin in Low Favor; it doens't clear the HasQuest on either Sierra or Karin (but as noted, Karin doesn't _have_ HasQuest), and AFAIK that's the end of the chain.

The "Early out with the police" I mentioned is the Titsbig chain, but it also doesn't remove HasQuest, so I must have been thinking of some _other_ chain with an early-out that removes HasQuest. Completing the Sandra Therapy process does remove HasQuest. So maybe in-general HasQuest handling needs to be checked for all quest chains to ensure all terminal states remove the flag.

Drugs:
Acceptance chance if HasQuest: 75+% chance of failing if target is asleep, unchanged if awake (per Interactions\Items\Aerosol_SlutMaker).
Stat change if used: Has about 10% of normal effect (per ItemEvents\Slut Maker_ItemEvent)

Hypnosis/MC Device:
Acceptance chance: FunctionLibrary\Suggestion\CanHypnotise Has a TODO marked to put hypnosis chance on HasQuest characters at a 75+% failure rate, doesn't seem to actually function? Mind Control Device has a flat 80% chance of failing on HasQuest characters.
Stat change: In all behavior-changing cases except for 'Raise Authority' (FunctionLibrary\Suggestion\Behavior\) HasQuest reduces the stat change to about 10% of normal.
Using hypnosis to have sex seems to have normal effects?

You also cannot progress on their "do you have any interests" mini questline or invite them over to your place for a date until you clear the HasQuest marker.

My general understanding of HasQuest is as you described in the OP, that it's to keep the stats and history of the relevant character consistent with the quest-driven story.

So it makes hypno and drugs basically pointless, and locks out the majority of friendship/relationship building: "Flirt", favours, and dating.

The trade-off I expect is that finishing a questline will deliver some or all of what those systems would have delivered, but faster/cheaper/easier (pick two...), e.g., Rhonda Bells's questline delivers 50+ corruption with zero chemistry or hypno practice, which would not be achievable otherwise without the second stage of Corruptor or Suggestion. (Similarly, the Jenny Coppers quest-line requires chemistry, but gives results equivalent to a much higher level, IIRC, and with less risk.)

I'd also expect that quests are the way to achieve the PTA support flags or equivalent results, e.g. Beth Manili (IIRC) doesn't get a PTA support flag, but her questline ends with her in love with the MC and hence doesn't need the PTA support flag. There's no sandbox mechanic for PTA support flags, so HasQuest visually flags to me that there's a PTA support mechanism that isn't the sandbox mechanics of "date, drug, or dhypnotise".

As quoted above, and see also

Quote from: Albatross on Sep 23, 2022, 12:26 AMthe discussion starting here on Ronda Bells

there's definitely room for some consistency improvements in the application and removal of HasQuest across the various quest-lines, particularly in the "early-out" paths and incomplete quests.

I have also hit the issue you mentioned in the OP that a HasQuest NPC in the room makes hypno practice on other people problematic. I wonder if ignoring that person is a good solution, or perhaps Hypno should not be harder on HasQuest NPCs, just Suggestion (perhaps disabled entirely?), since Hypno itself doesn't (AFAIK) have any effect that is likely to cause problems for quests, and as long as they're not the target, you could have them get something like the "figment of their imagination" result for all Suggestion actions, i.e. they are basically ignored for the Suggestion effect, but still count towards the secondary target check.