Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make

[Ctwo]

What kind of traits npcs and the player have? I assume they cannot use pokemon traits.

I think there might be a starting package you could choose from at the start of the game. Each package would up some stats and give a trait like:

Tough - player takes 20% less damage in combat vs other humans. Can also be gained after 100 fights with criminals.
Smooth Talker - player gains 20% more faction and looses 20% less. Can also be gained after earning 1,000 total faction.
Miserly - Starts with an extra 100 yen, pays 10% less in stores. Can also be gained by eating nothing but plain noodles 30 times in a row.
Pervert - Trains Pokémon 10% faster and starts with an extra move learned. Can also be gained by having sex with Pokémon 100 times.
Fast - Player takes 10% less time to do anything. Can be earned by doing a quest.
Quick - Player's Pokémon do 10% more arousal. Can be earned by performing 250 tricks.

Other traits probably exist. Some can be earned by doing quests, or getting enough faction with a group. Some might even come from owning an item.

Example: you buy a Luxurious Feather Bed, and you gain the trait: Well Rested - +10% endurance, +20% recovery.

NPCs are more likely to have traits that describe them. This is important for battles and tricks. Otherwise they mainly act as flavor text.
Liking a trait is the same as being weak to it (takes 50% extra damage), and disliking/strong it means less damage (30% less). Love x2, hates means no effect and if this is prostitution a 50% chance the customer leaves (battle ends, no payment!)
Some examples:

Chubby Chaser - weak to big Pokémon, strong against small Pokémon.
Furry - Likes (weak) Pokémon with fur. Hmm...suppose that should be a trait for Pokémon.
Lolicon - Likes small Pokémon, strong against big Pokémon.
Scalie - Likes reptile Pokémon.
No Pets - hates normal Pokémon, ok with antro Pokémon.
Endowed - small pokemon take 30% extra damage, and do half damage.
Small - likes small pokemon, hates large pokemon.
Flirt - likes Charm based attacks
Excitable - likes Agility based attacks
Slut - likes tougheness based attacks
Impatient - dislikes Charm based attacks.
(need to think of an appropriate word) - dislikes Agility based attacks. A guy that basically hates oral sex.
Delicate - dislikes toughness based attacks.
Green 'Thumb' - likes plant pokemon
Feral - likes basic Pokémon, hates anthro Pokémon.

a lot more traits could be added to this list, based on pokemon families, elemental types, sexual fetishes. oh, and traits that don't have any real effect on the game but add to the character of the game. Like maybe adding a trait like: Businessman to all of the NPCs that in development we generically refer to as Businessmen but in the final game might get more specific titles to indicate a rank/grade of Businessman. The same for criminals and even different rankings amongst trainers, miners, factory workers and teamsters.

Quick example: Gangster is the Trait shared by all: Street Thugs, Toughs, Mussel, Enforcers, Street Lieutenants, Made Man, Gangster, Boss and Capo.

[Ctwo]

NPC interactions. This is going to be one of those sections that probably rambles on and won't be covered all in a single post. This is the part of the game that should separate this from a lot of other Sim games. Most Sim style games lock you down to a single "correct" path and possibly offer you multiple choices to fail. I'd like to see the player make decisions and have it possible for the outcome to be good or bad. There should be the "obvious" route for every encounter, and then some less obvious routes possible. Some will have bad results, but multiple beneficial routes should be possible (depending on the player's stats and circumstances). Lets give an example "random encounter".

Pokémon Trainer: While wandering an out of town area looking for wild Pokémon the player runs into a Pokémon Trainer.

Opening Dialogue: You've run into a teenage boy who has several pokeballs on his belt. This young trainer says "Hey! Are you a trainer? Want to battle old man?"

Route 1: Battle - proceed to a standard Pokémon combat using combat stats (stacked in the NPCs favor), with a yen bet.

Route 2: Seduce - You say "I use to be a Pokémon Trainer, but now I'm a Pokémon Breeder. Have you ever considered breeding?"  Pokémon Trainer replys "Umm...nu...nu...no?"  You reply "How about a demonstration?" Route 2a: "Why don't you send out a Pokémon?" Pokémon will have sex. End encounter. Route 2b: "Why don't you just watch?" You choose a Pokémon and get 3 attempts to use allure moves to seduce the Trainer. If you succeed proceed to prostitution encounter. Gain 1 fame.

Route 3: Trade? You say "I'm a Pokémon Breeder and I'm looking for new Pokémon for my stable. You wouldn't happen to have any female Pokémon to trade?". 50% chance the Trainer replies yes and offers a Pokémon from the foreign list. Can choose a Pokémon to trade for the offered Pokémon, or reject offer. Gain 1 fame. End. If no, gain 1 fame and encounter ends.

Route 4: Attack Trainer: You say "sure lets battle", but instead of a Pokémon battle you immediately attack the trainer! Proceed to a Player vs NPC battle, NPC starts with Surprised condition (looses 1 action), and NPC has a 50% chance of attempting to Run every round. If the Player wins he goes through the trainers pockets and gets 0-50 yen, 1-3 pokeballs, and 0-3 Pokémon: 1-50% no Pokémon (has no Pokémon you want), 51-80% 1 Pokémon, 81-95% 2 Pokémon, 96-100% 3 Pokémon. Gain 1 fame. The next time the player enters the city there is a 80% chance to encounter: Criminal Investigation with a 50% penalty to Charm. If the player Loses, 50% chance of immediate Criminal Investigation encounter with charm options not available, 50% chance player will lose 10% of all yen, all pokeballs and 1-3 random Pokémon.

Route 5: Decline: You say "sorry, not interested." and leave.

Route 6: Seduce 2: You say "It gets really lonely out here. Want to have some fun?" The player tries to pick up the Pokémon Trainer. Make a Charm attack on the NPC. If successful proceed to a sex scene. If it fails the Trainer runs, 10% chance the next time the Player enters the city he immediately has a Police Harassment encounter.

If you want to avoid gay sex scenes all trainers could be default female.

 I'd generally like to offer 6 selections on the main screen of any encounter. Most encounters should take 10 minutes, or 30 if sex is involved. There should be at least one criminal selection in each encounter. Following a route may lead to a lot of different choices, not just 1 or 2. Depends on how important the encounter is. Random stuff like a Trainer in the woods isn't exactly vital to the game. Battling against the various factions in town should have a lot of choices because what you do after you win is as important as winning. You could try to screw them over as much as possible, or you could just beat them and say its a warning to not mess with you. How it affects your standing with that faction could vary a lot.

Also there should be an option to Examine the NPC so you can see what traits your dealing with. I guess that means introducing a new player stat Perception. Higher perception means more information from Examine action. You can train perception by using it, one improvement per encounter.

[Ctwo]

Shops: A combination of a location and an NPC. After all, it isn't like your buying items from the building. At a bare minimum shop owners should have a portrait and a name. I think it would be a good idea to have two separate windows for the shop interface. A small window for interactions with the NPC, and a larger window below that for handling shop transactions. The top window could show the portrait and give dialogue messages, starting with a default greeting and giving a short log of the conversation your having with the NPC this visit. I'd assume after a few visits the player won't actually talk to the shop owner, but we could give a message that the shop owner wants to talk to the player if some sort of event has been triggered. It might be best to not open the store menu in this case until the player has progresses through the event.

By default I think every shop owner should have a few basic questions with some default answers, and some determined by chance. The standard "How are you doing" should give a general rote response of "fine, thanks for asking" but might occasionally lead to a quest. "Hear any news recently?" might give clues or quests or random gibberish. "Proposition" might entice the owner into having sex with your Pokémon for either money or a discount. I'd consider putting in a "rob the store" type option but this isn't a general crime simulator so lets avoid that. Some options to gain favor with the store owner would be good, quests that result in you gaining reputation with the store (resulting in better items being sold? Or a discount? Possibly introductions to more quest NPCs) and store credit. Quests could be delivering items to various NPCs, advertising the business at different locations, selling requested items to the store, and working deals with NPCs. Deals could be as simple as working out delivery of already purchased goods to bribing officials to negotiating a discount for the store from one of the factories.

Not every store should offer quests. The cook at the Raman Stall should be a simple NPC that doesn't offer quests. The guy that runs an illegal Pokémon store out of the "closed" Pokémon center should offer quite a few quests at different points of the game.

As far as what is offered, I think there should be a buy and a sell tab that changes the window. Each should list what the shop is selling, and what it is willing to buy. Different shops should be willing to buy items they deal in, and unwilling to take things that they don't offer. Lets face it most people don't want to buy your left over Pokeballs, but any shop dealing in Pokémon could resell them. Likewise if you happened to acquire a whole crate of cell phones the Pokemart probably doesn't want them but a surprisingly diverse group of stores might make you offers for the crate. Some stores probably offer more than others and it only costs time to check them all...and time is valuable.