With the conclusion of content for Our Life: Beginnings and Always, I think this is a fitting end point for this blog. It’s crazy to me how fast time has passed!
I want to thank @gb-patch for creating a game that has touched me, and so many others so deeply. And I want to thank all of my fellow simps for the amazing community that we have on our little corner of the world! I know I am looking forward to their next project- Our Life: Now and Forever, and if you enjoy OL1 I hope you’ll do the same!
“He likes cats. He likes memes. He's weird and sad and needs a hug! Whats not to like about him ??”
Tamarack propaganda:
“She's fat. she can date women. she has a path in life crisis at 14 years old. she loves the forest. she loves music. she will care for you so much. she's fat and the game just treats this as a fact about her! she's curious and loves to know things and gift things and AUGH she is so datable. i want to kiss her and have a picnic with her. who doesn't love a gal who appreciates the forest and the people around it?”
Another day, another post dissecting Our Life's code! This time we'll be going over how Our Life decides whether your Cove will be Studious, Sporty, or somewhere in the middle!
If you've already seen my post on how the game decides where Cove is on the spectrum between warm and cold, then most of this will feel extremely familiar, but you don't need to check that post to understand this one! I'll be going over everything exactly the same.
According to GB Patch, getting a sporty or studious Cove is primarily based on what you do with him activity-wise.
Part of it is what Cove literally ends up doing in the events. There are multiple times where he can do something more physical or do something more low key. Another part is a somewhat meta “the player is creating their reality” type of deal. For example, if the player makes it clear that their MC is the sporty one around, that would have to mean Cove isn’t the sporty one. So even without interacting with Cove directly you’d rack up a lot studious points for him because your choices are describing a world where Cove isn’t that into sports.
That’s not to say it’s impossible for the MC and Cove to both be into sports. Describing your MC specifically as the one into sports is excluding Cove from being super into sports, but he doesn’t have to be excluded.
The most straightforward way to get a sporty Cove is to just really focus on it. Whenever there’s something that could possibly make him more interested in bookish things, lean away from that. And whenever there’s a way to encourage him to like or do physical stuff, do it. So, for example, don’t accept just being a silver medalist in Grown-up, don’t say that the MC is a faster runner than Cove when trying to get away from Shiloh, do ask him question that lead to him talking about outdoorsy activities he does, etc.
Calling it "points" is very accurate because it's very much a points system. Whenever you do certain actions with/say certain things to Cove, the game will add a "point" to either Cove being studious or Cove being sporty (in extremely rare cases, it will add two instead of even subtract one).
(also, shockingly, reading the book with Cove in Sleepover actually has zero effect on Cove being Studious/Sporty; I even had to read through the script to confirm and the only reasoning I can imagine is because it's related to getting a CG and the devs wouldn't want players who want the CG to feel forced into making Cove more studious just to get it)
The tutorial of the game also vaguely details the studious to sporty spectrum:
[Cove']s interests fall along a sporty-mixed-studious spectrum. It works similarly to the personality one. When he's young, Cove has a variety of interests.
As time goes on that can stay the same, begin to focus on more athletic/outdoorsy activities, or become more interested in academic/indoorsy ways to spend time.
And, if you've ever been in the Cove Creator, you'd know that there are five "states" that Cove can be in when it comes to his interests, with one state being between Studious and Mixed while another is between Mixed and Sporty. However, as far as I can tell, the game will never actually check for these two states, meaning that Cove is either Studious, Mixed, or Sporty, without any sort of Studious-Mixed or Mixed-Sporty at all.
In terms of the first check of the game - after the end of Step 1, of course - the game will examine the points you've gathered and decide where on the spectrum Cove is. If you have more Studious points, then the game will look only at how many points you've gathered there and vice versa with Sporty points. If you have an equal amount of Studious and Sporty points, then there will be a sort of "coin flip" to determine which points the game will check (this actually happened to me once where I had to go back on a save and got a Sporty Cove instead of a Studious one even though I'd done nothing different, simply because I'd accumulated an equal amount of sporty and studious points with Cove).
The remaining points in the other category are thrown away, and if you don't have enough sporty/studious points (depending on what you had more of or what the game chose in the "coin toss"), then you get a Mixed Cove.
Interestingly enough, the game is actually uneven in how it calculates a "fully Studious" or "fully Sporty" Cove. If you have six or more points in Studiousness, then you get a "fully Studious" Cove, but the game only asks for five of more in Sportiness to give you a "fully Sporty" Cove. This means that you could have six points in both Studiousness and Sportiness, which would give you a "fully Sporty" Cove if the coin flip picked Sportiness, but if the coin flip picks Studiousness, you'll only get a "Studious-Mixed" Cove.
As stated above though, the Studious-Mixed and Mixed-Sporty states don't really exist and serve as Studious and Sporty respectively anyway. In the grand scheme of things, it won't matter, but I digress.
Keeping that in mind, the game only cares if you have three or more points in either Studiousness or Sportiness. If you have three or more Studious points, you get a Studious Cove, and if you have three or more Sporty points, you get a Sporty Cove (and a coin toss if you're equal in both to decide whether he's Studious or Sporty). If you do not have enough points in either, you get a Mixed Cove. A Mixed Cove is most likely if you either play through Step 1 without playing any moments or avoid leaning Cove towards anything Studious/Sporty at all.
Cove's personality and appearance are also unrelated to whether he's Studious or Sporty, excluding moments where a multiple choice option might affect multiple values at once (but this is coincidence rather than direct correlation and, yes, I'll mention them when they come). Cove will also still do things like go surfing in Wave even if he's Studious, it's just that he'll be an awkward surfer instead of a graceful one (no comment if he's Mixed).
In terms of things that affect the player directly, the gummy bear toss in the Step 2 DLC moment Birthday is one of the biggest things that come to mind, as you'll lose if Cove isn't sporty and your MC hasn't been given any "sporty points" of their own (since this post isn't about the MC, I'll keep it brief and just say that the game keeps track of your own athletic ability during Step 2, such as if you tell Kyra that you like to swim). If that matters to you, you can opt for a sporty Cove and save yourself the trouble as there's no Studious equivalent of the gummy bear toss.
As for all of the moments in Step 1 where you have a chance to influence Cove's Studiousness/Sportiness, here they are!
Step 1 - Prologue
When Cove and the MC try to flee from Shiloh (if the MC agrees to go along with Cove):
He was fast, but you knew you could outrun him if you had to. [sporty +1]
He was not that fast, you knew you could outrun him if you had to. [studious +1]
He was not that fast, but neither were you. [studious +1]
At that speed, you weren't sure if you could go fast enough to reach him. [sporty +1]
Shopping
When Cove is staring down absentmindedly at the sand:
"Are you looking for snails?" [sporty +1]
"Are you looking for shells?" [studious +1]
"What is it?" [studious +1]
"You didn't feel the need to ask why." [sporty +1]
When Cove goes back to not saying anything on the beach:
You didn't either. [sporty +1]
"What did you want to go to the shops for?" [studious +1]
"What do you usually do on the beach?" [sporty +1]
Grown Up
When Lizzie tells Cove and the MC that they won silver in the pretend Olympics:
"Silver sucks. I don't want silver." [sporty +1]
"I'm okay with that." [studious +1]
"Hey, we can do better than silver!" [sporty +1]
"Silver's not bad. Nice." [studious +1]
You stayed silent. [no change]
Long Day
When Lizzie asks the MC if they're a chicken who doesn't want to ding-dong-ditch the mean grandparents:
"Yeah. Cluck-cluck." [studious +1]
You'd rather just avoid them. [studious +1]
You thought they deserved worse. [no change]
"I'll do it." [no change]
When the MC gets to decide what they see in the clouds:
You saw a dolphin. [studious +1] {note that this will give Cove the dark blue short-sleeved shirt}
You saw a car. [sporty +1] {note that this will give Cove the red salamander sleeveless shirt}
You saw an alpaca. [sporty +1] {note that this will give Cove the dark blue short-sleeved shirt}
You saw a smiley face. [sporty +1] {note that this will give Cove the red salamander sleeveless shirt}
You saw cloud shapes. [studious +1]
Sandcastle
[NONE]
Fireflies
When the MC notices Cove lagging behind the group while en route to poppy hill:
"Are you not gonna come?" [no change] {but will give Cove cold +1}
You tugged him along. [sporty +1] {note that this will give Cove cold +1 on Indifferent and warm +1 on Fond/Crush}
You walked with him. [no change] {but will give Cove cold +1}
You waved at him to hurry. [no change] {but will give Cove warm +1}
You ran off. [no change]
When Cove fails to catch a firefly after the MC catches one:
You encouraged him to try again. [sporty +1] {note that this will give Cove warm +1}
You told him about the firefly you had. [studious +1] {note that this will give Cove cold +1}
You made a joke about what happened. [studious +1]
You did your own things. [sporty +1]
Library
When the MC chooses to go with Cove rather than participate in the quiz:
[sporty +1] {note that this will give Cove cold +1}
When the MC and Cove are about to be interrupted in their game of hide-and-seek (dependent on how good the MC has been at the game; answers marked with a * are the correct ones):
1st round of hide-and-seek
Next to a Peter Pan poster.
*Beside the fairy tale display.
*Behind the solar system model.
2nd round of hide-and-seek
By the fire awareness station.
Near the stuffed animals.
*Under the giant piece of fruit.
By the outlaw poster.
*In the fantasy section.
Near the toddler books.
3rd round of hide-and-seek
*In all the old Christmas stuff.
Next to the kid detective poster.
*Behind the Willy Wonka statues.
Final Tally
the MC won zero rounds (Cove will say "I'm doing good.") [sporty +1]
the MC won one round (Cove will say "I'm doing good.") [studious +1] [sporty +1]
the MC won two rounds (Cove will say "I can still win.") [studious +1]
the MC won all three rounds (Cove will say "I need to do good in at least one round.") [studious +1]
If the MC chose to go do the quiz instead:
[studious +1] {note that this will give Cove warm +1}
Ghost
[NONE]
Barbecue
When the MC is racing the other kids to catch the girl with the squirt gun (if the MC chose to go play with the kids in the first place):
You outran them easily. [studious +1]
You outran them with effort. [sporty +1]
You weren't as fast as them because they were speedy. [sporty +1]
You weren't as fast as them because you just weren't fast. [studious +1]
You moved to the side to let them pass; you didn't wanna win this race. [no change]
When Mr. Holden comments on his interests:
"Those are things Cove likes." [sporty +1]
"Wow. It's a good thing you live by the beach." [studious +1]
You stayed quiet. [no change]
Runaway
[NONE]
Sleepover
[NONE]
Step 1 - Ending
When Cove tries to skip a rock across the water (if the MC chose to stay with him):
You were impressed over how far he got it to go. It sailed way out into the sea. [sporty +2] [studious -1]
It was a good toss. That was pretty neat. [sporty +1]
It wasn't a long throw. But he didn't care to try for that. [studious +1]
The rock sunk kind of... like a rock and fell back down almost right after he tossed it. [studious +2] [sporty -1]
And that's all of them! A few surprises are in there, but it's mostly straightforward in either prompting Cove to talk about outdoor/active things he does or choosing options that imply he's particularly good/fast (whether compared to the MC or in general). Particularly tricky are the ones that might change Cove's appearance/personality when you didn't intend for that to happen and are trying not to use the Cove Creator to get the Cove you want.
Still, it's definitely easier to gauge than Cove's appearance or personality, so whether you wanted this for a guide or just for the data, I hope you enjoyed! :D
We're getting more weather alterations for the BGs of Our Life: Now & Forever! Lots of nice rain 😌
Our Life: Now & Forever is a nostalgic Visual Novel where you create your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with your two closest neighbors. It’s currently in development by GB Patch Games.
