devolution

Author Topic: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make  (Read 10356 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Ctwo

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« on: April 09, 2015, 08:26:43 PM »
I played http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/655375 and it got me thinking about making a better pokemon parody. Well, better is subjective. Different. Something based in the same genre but actually closer to whoremaster in general. I've got no intentions to make this into an actual game, but I thought I'd post this stuff up here to amuse myself. Who knows, maybe someone with some actual talent for making games will be inspired?

The Premise: Your a 20-something ex-pokemon trainer who failed to make the big time and now your trying to make a living. You moved out to a place with lots of jobs and you managed to fail at that. Now your almost broke and the only thing going right in your life is the one special pokemon you haven't sold off. You kept it because it was your first pokemon...and because you taught it a special move: Blowjob. The boomtown that the story takes place in need to be a harsh place. Somewhere women wouldn't want to go to. While there are human prostitutes in town...they are few and can charge very high prices. Only bigshots and really desperate guys use them. Our main character gets the idea of becoming a pokemon pimp.

Compairson to WM: this is going to be a more manageable stable of "girls". While you could have tons of pokemon, I figure you should be limited to using 6 total (like a real pokemon trainer), and you personally need to manage each client. I'm thinking an actual trick should work a bit like a pokemon battle: you order your pokemon to perform sex acts which fills the john's meter. The act plus the john's "attacks" drains the pokemon's meter. If the pokemon's meter runs out first it faints and you have an unsatisfied customer (refuses to pay or pays less). If the john's meter runs out he is satisfied and pays. There is a slight chance that something bad happens and there is a real fight. If that happens the trainer fights the john and the pokemon become special attacks to help the trainer. That actually is more or less the "gang battle" part of the game. Instead of hiring gangs and training security girls the trainer does all of that.

Instead of catacomb wandering and a slave market I figure there should be searching the nearby wild areas for pokemon, a few legal shops and after you get a bit of reputation some illegal stores start opening up to you. The first illegal shop that contacts you sells a pill (Anthro) that evolves your pokemon into a more human shape at a decrease of battle stats. That makes them useless for combat and capturing more pokemon, but better at sex acts with wider customer appeal. Oh, and its incredibly illegal. Just to get you interested that first shop owner should give you one Anthro Pill for free (the first one is always free).

Instead of bribing the mayor I figure some one-on-one conversations with the local police (like all pokemon towns, there is only one. But it is a guy here). You work a deal each time he shows up. You trade sex, favors and cash to get rid of him. There might be an option to blackmail him, but I'm not sure that is a good idea. 

Instead of rival gangs you have to deal with increasing enemies based on your fame. At first you don't have any enemies. As you gain fame some of your clients will try to buy or steal a sex-trained pokemon from you. With more fame other rival pimps will attack you, trying to steal your pokemon. (or kill the trainer I suppose. Why so serious, its a game right?) Eventually Team Rocket (or another enemy organization) hears about your special trained pokemon and they come to steal your girls too. So to recap: enemies start few and get more difficult as the game progresses. They should be an inconvenience, never a real threat of shutting down the operation. Oh, and there should be an option to search and rescue stolen pokemon.

Think that is enough for now. Next time I'll start talking about stats.

Offline Ctwo

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
Re: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2015, 08:41:32 PM »
Just really quick mention I'm planning on talking in-depth about several game systems that generally get glossed over. If your interested in game design it will probably be a good read to get a different perspective from what your use to seeing in similar games. I'm mostly talking about NPC interactions and developing skills for the player.

Offline DarkTl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4737
Re: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« Reply #2 on: April 10, 2015, 02:21:23 AM »
Such a game will require original art, and a lot. Ie not just pack makers, but actual artists to draw scenes with pokemons and human shaped pokemons, because they are not nearly as common as usual girls pictures. Without crowdfunding (or some other source of money to pay to artists) this is almost impossible.

Offline Ctwo

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
Re: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2015, 05:42:17 AM »
Such a game will require original art, and a lot. Ie not just pack makers, but actual artists to draw scenes with pokemons and human shaped pokemons, because they are not nearly as common as usual girls pictures. Without crowdfunding (or some other source of money to pay to artists) this is almost impossible.

Well, I did say I wasn't going to make this. Also if you stick to very few pokemon in the game you could do it. You'd need to hit up all the regular image sites and furry sites like pawsru.org would have some of the harder to obtain images. Pikachu and some of the other more popular pokemon would be easy to do. I don't know how hard it would be to make more than a dozen character packs. If your going to insist on an image for each sex act possible in the game I don't think you'll get very far. Instead you might want to have a profile image (or 3), a single "battle image" for the prostitution mini-game, a "sex" image category which should have one or more images in it. That would probably be it for images actually (without custom art being available). Most of the time you'd see a profile image for pokemon, the battle image only during the mini-game, and the sex image as a reward for victory (or something you can browse from the pokedex entry).

I think the main character would be the more difficult character to get art for. All in all though, I'd just avoid ever showing the main character unless there was an artist attached to the project. Actually it would be a very good idea to have a battle image for the trainer, maybe a few choices you can make at the beginning of the game so you can pick what you look like when fighting. (I'd heavily recommend Pheonix Wright because I'd laugh my head off). When something bad happens the trainer is suppose to be the one fighting, not the pokemon, so he needs a battle image at least. Possibly a profile image, battle image and a defeated image. Maybe a victory image as well. Bare minimum would be a battle image and throw a few generic landscape images as default incase there isn't an image for the rest.

 I'm sure you can make due with clipped images for the pokemon like WM uses, as long as nobody tries to make a profit from the game it should fly under the radar and only piss off a few artist. If you wanted to actually get a budget for this thing...your talking about producing all of the art with your own team or getting artists to sign off on you using their work. If any money changes hands you suddenly become the target of successful lawsuits because money = damages in a civil court.

Offline Xela

  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 6893
  • "It's like hunting cows"
Re: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2015, 06:22:49 AM »
If the development of PyTFall last for a few more years (we get Exploration module of some kind), this will not be hard to add as an expansion module... there should be nothing preventing adding moster summons to the game and interacting with them.
Like what we're doing?

Offline Ctwo

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
Re: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2015, 06:51:47 AM »
That kind of leads me into Pokémon and stats. After looking at some of the various versions of the series I'd use a simplified version of the main stats, and then add some more stats that are specific to this game. From Pokémon I'd use:

Attack - how much damage this Pokémon does to enemies, vs human opponent or wild Pokémon. (attack + 100 + random number + type advantage / defense + 100 + type advantage = damage)
Defense - how much this Pokémon can resist and avoid damage.
Speed - when a Pokémon goes. Since its a simple game I'd just use straight speed, and incase of tie the player wins. This stat matters in all battles because pokemon based attacks go off on the Pokémon's speed, not the players/enemies.

I'm going to ignore other Pokémon stats since this is a simplified game. Figure special attack/defense gets rolled into the regular one. Also I'm not 100% sure its worth doing all the type damage bonuses and defenses because this is suppose to be a simple game and I'm sure it would be hell programming in that mess. Well, maybe not. But it shouldn't be a game breaker if it didn't happen. It would be a nice touch. I think the bonuses should be something like 50 for minor, 100 for major. Random number should probably be a 1 to (Pokémon level) so you get a double advantage when you have a level difference.

Stats specific for this game:
Charm - affects sex skills that try to arouse a customer like "tail wag" and "wink". Yes, several sex skills will be based on Pokémon moves. you'd expect otherwise in a parody?
Agility - affects sex skills that rely on dexterity and movement, like "blowjob", "lick" and "tentacles" (eww!)
Toughness - affects sex acts that involve penetration like "pound" and "anal".

Small Pokémon will generally have high agility and low Toughness. Large Pokémon should have great toughness but generally low agility. Charm is going to be subjective. I'm slightly thinking there should be a 4th sex stat to balance out the Pokémon that don't get charm. Since charm attacks are suppose to be like debuffs from Pokémon...maybe...

Special - affects special powers like "hypnotize", "sleep powder" and "paralysis".

I don't like the name special though. That is used for those kind of attacks/defense in Pokémon, but it doesn't feel right here. Maybe someone can come up with a better suggestion?

Endurance - how long a Pokémon can "battle" before it faints from exhaustion. This not only gets used in fights, but it also gets used in sex and training. Actually this should be used whenever the Pokémon is active. This should recover slowly over time, with a huge bonus when the player sleeps. Endurance should increase with level. Maybe large Pokémon should have a larger Endurance, but recover slower? So small Pokémon start with 40 endurance, medium size 60 and large 100. Which leads to...

Recovery - How fast a Pokémon recovers endurance. Large Pokémon recover slower. So maybe large Pokémon have a recovery of 10, medium of 15 and small of 20. Recovery restores 1 point endurance for each point of recovery every game hour of rest. So a small Pokémon is good to go after 2 hours of rest, but a large Pokémon that needs to recover 100 points could take 10 hours to get back to full. This stat shouldn't increase with level, but there should be items that can boost recovery and endurance (temporary and permanent).

HP - when a Pokémon takes real damage they need to visit a healer. My plan is for the Pokémon center in the game town to be closed (Nurse Joy couldn't take the harsh atmosphere, or maybe she's been kidnapped and forced into prostitution by one of the gangsters in town), and instead the legal Pokémon shop sells potions and the first illegal Pokémon shop you run into also took over the old Pokémon center and offers to heal your Pokémon as a free service (or maybe just cheap?). Maybe the legal shop should be in the Pokémon center and offer free healing? Someone has to take care of the legit 13 year old kids that wander into town, right?

Each Pokémon should have some traits, and start at level 1. Levels would be like in Pokémon, 1 to 100. Each stat would get a random boost with each level. 1-3 for bad stats, 2-5 for average stats, and 4-8 for favored stats. Each Pokémon should have 2 favored stats, and 2 bad stats which leaves 3 average stats. Those stats should be set for each Pokémon type. Bonus points for doing weighted stats so the middle of each range is given more weight than either extreme. Like say 20% - 1, 60% - 2, and 20% - 3 for the bad stat. Extra bonus if you keep track of how many times the Pokémon uses each move and you improve its associated stat as they use it more. Say +1 at 10 attacks, +1 at 100 attacks, and another +1 for every 100 after that.

This also means an xp system. I'd suggest something simple. If you want to look into the actual system any Pokémon game uses that would go over really, really well. Personally I'd just use something quick and dirty like 100 xp for level 2, and increase how much xp you need for the next level by adding 100 each time. So you need to earn 200 more for level 3. 300 more for level 4. ect.

Evolutions: I'd actually suggest making all evolution be tied to items being used on the Pokémon. While the real game ties most evolutions to level, that won't work well in this game. Also since you might not have character packs for an evolved version of a creature, having it tied to an item instead of a level means you can choose to evolve a Pokémon later when you do have a character pack that allows it. This gets further complicate by the "anthro pill" since you could have say a Pikachu normal, a Pikachu anthro, and a Raichu Normal pack but no Raichu anthro pack so you could evolve a regular Pikachu but not the anthro version. Oh, anthro counts as a sort of evolution. Packs need to refer to what the evolved stat is. If there is no listed evolved state or the evolved pack doesn't contain data then the pokemon should reject the item used to evolve it.

So as an example if we have a Eevee Pack but no Eevee Anthro Pack (or the Eevee Pack doesn't have a reference for the other pack) then the Eevee will reject the Anthro pill. The same for other evolved states. Eevee might be able to evolve into fire, water and dark normal and anthro, but for psychic only the normal form and for lightning only the Anthro pack.

Last note: anthro change stats! Attack, Defense and Speed should be halved, and all other stats doubled. It is much easier for our dear customers to get off on a human-like pokemon than doing it with a straight animal (unless a customer is into that...and that would be a modifier to that customer!)

More later, maybe onto trainer stats next?
« Last Edit: April 16, 2015, 01:47:02 AM by Ctwo »

Offline Ctwo

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
Re: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« Reply #6 on: April 11, 2015, 06:55:57 AM »
If the development of PyTFall last for a few more years (we get Exploration module of some kind), this will not be hard to add as an expansion module... there should be nothing preventing adding moster summons to the game and interacting with them.

It would be great if anyone liked the idea enough to do it. I'm just posting for my own amusement, or to get this nagging idea out of my head. Either way, I'm not even close to done. Trying to get all of it out at once would make this a really crappy read so I'll do it a little at a time and try to keep it coherent. It also gives me more time to work out how the gameplay should go. Well, if I was designing it which in an odd way I am, and I'm not.

Offline DarkTl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4737
Re: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« Reply #7 on: April 11, 2015, 07:06:10 AM »
Yup, if we won't have high standards for pokemons packs, it's possible. Even at websites that I use there are plenty of human shaped pokemons, and withouth excessive furryness.

Offline Ctwo

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
Re: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« Reply #8 on: April 12, 2015, 01:36:50 AM »
Yup, if we won't have high standards for pokemons packs, it's possible. Even at websites that I use there are plenty of human shaped pokemons, and withouth excessive furryness.

It really is up to anyone that actually wants to make this. I'm glad you brought it up because it deserves to be discussed. While having dedicated artists to a project like this would be a tremendous asset that would allow for this game to look great, it could also act like a stone that drags the entire project down. Either by having artists that can't produce art fast enough, loose interest in the project mid way through, or just plain aren't capable enough to produce art that appeals to the target audience.

 Working with basically stolen art means your at the mercy of what you can find. One of the good things about it is you can get a broad diversity of art styles and subjects. With a pack system similar to WM you can even have fans introduce new "Pokémon" that are basically a set of images that appeal to them. Either something they themselves work on (because someone really likes Digglets), or something beyond the Pokémon universe they want to see (like Cowgirls, or Traps, or robots. whatever).

The packs system makes more sense if you don't have a dedicated artist. If you have a dedicated artist, then I think it would make more sense to make the game overall more difficult for players to modify so you have more control over the game experience. Basically if you rely on other people art, you should give up as much control over that aspect of the game as you can. That way other people can freely enter in their own tastes to expand and improve the game. If your making something that you can claim ownership over making it too easy to mod....mm....could be good or could be bad. I guess overall its probably better to leave it open for players to mod really. But that could end up with you getting a bad rep for what your fan base does.

Offline Ctwo

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
Re: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« Reply #9 on: April 12, 2015, 03:04:20 AM »
So on to the main character, and stats.

Name (well, obviously right?) - no game effect. This should get referenced a lot by other subroutines because its really sloppy to have the entire world refer to the player as "hey you" or "the Courier" for the entire game, right?

Fame - how well known you and your services are. Almost every action in town should increase or decrease fame according to results. Fame will be directly related to customers showing up, random events, and the different shops and services being offered.

Reputation - Should be a separate page because your going to get a reputation for each NPC and group in the game. Most NPCs will belong to a group. When you interact with a NPC you are going to receive a reputation plus or minus for that NPC, and a lesser reputation bump for the group. Lets say there is a Team Rocket member named Cassy you deal with. Depending on what decisions you make you could get a +10 mod for Cassy and a +1 mod for Team Rocket, or a -15 mod for Cassy and a -2 mod for Team Rocket (probably negative mods should be slightly higher than positive). Later on the police are after Cassy and you can choose which side you'll help, which gives +10 for the one you help, and -15 for the one you don't. Casual conversations should give a +1 mod. Talking with people about nothing tends to make them like you a little. Also your wasting time you could use to really improve things. Merchants should give a +1 every time you buy something, and at high levels offer a discount on some services or a new service.

Toughness - a combined strength and endurance stat for combat. This isn't the focus of the game so simplifying player vs NPC combat is probably best. Higher stat means more combat damage from non-pokemon attacks (probably referred to as 'attack' in the combat menu), and it directly corresponds to the player's HP. Can be trained in the Gym and Dojo, or with weights and improved with weapons and protective clothing.

Charisma - Ability to talk people into doing things. High charisma will allow you to work in public places without drawing the attention of the police or rivals. Higher charisma will open up more conversation options. Stat is raised by talking to NPCs and successfully getting 'charm' results, and by wearing impressive clothing.

Business - The ability to work deals with people. Has no effect on shops. It does affect how much you get for tricks, and the prices non-shop NPCs offer. Business should be used as a direct modifier to a NPC's offers. So for payments to the player it would be (default price x {1 + [business/100]}). So if the default price for a Dirt Digger is 10 yen, and you have 10 business you'd get (10 x 1.1) 11 yen. Round everything to the nearest whole yen. Oh, the Pokémon world uses yen and I say stick with that.
You improve business by making deals. Tricks should add about 1/10th of a point, buying a new apartment and deals with random encounters should add a whole point. Business attire also gives a bonus.

Training - Your ability to train Pokémon. As you gain ranks you'll gain the ability to teach new moves to your Pokémon. Also your train action gives a Pokémon a certain amount of xp. Training is raised by training your Pokémon, reading books on the subject, talking with other trainers, and also by pimping your pokemon. Training should give about a half point per session. Pimping should be 1/10 of a point. Books could offer 2 points per read and can be read 5 times to finish the book (so +10 in 5 hours). Talking with other trainers (random encounter?) should add around 5 points, and be rare. Training supplies (sex toys) should offer a boost but no new moves. New moves should be offered say every 10 points, and by doing quests.

Health - starts at 100 and is totally separate from HP. This is your overall health and it should only change slowly. If you don't take care of your own health this will result in your overall performance decreasing. Mainly this stat is decreased by a failure to fulfill other needs, random encounters, and loosing battles. The main way to increase this is to sleep with all other needs fulfilled. Each night you gain 1 point for each need filled (over 70), and loose 1 point for each need not filled (under 40). Needs are Hunger, Joy, and Energy. All these Needs stats should range from 110-1. If you go to zero in any of the need stats, its game over via stupidity.

Hunger - starts at 100, decreases as the character does stuff. Unless the character is eating hunger goes down 1 point per hour + an amount for what the character is doing. That means you get 8 hunger for sleeping or waiting 8 hours! Walking should double that, battling should be at least +3 hunger. Pimping a Pokémon basically means light conversation unless things turn ugly, so probably no additional hunger for that. Eating brings this stat up, the better the food the more hunger is relieved. There are no permanent items to restore hunger, but you should be able to carry some food items like (human) candy, drinks, and snacks. Carried food items should be expensive compared to the amount of hunger they restore. If your hungry, you should look for a restaurant.

Joy - starts at 100, decreases as the character does work. Doing anything while another need is under 40 causes -1 joy per need under 40. Keep track of a character's last 20 activities. If a character does the same action 10 times, -1 joy from continuing to do it and you get a "bored" message. Keep track of the last 30 meals. If a character has 10 of the same meal on the list, -1 joy and another "bored" message. Same for increasing joy. Resting activities don't get tracked, no getting "bored" of sleep or TV. Anything stressful subtracts from joy. Sex, drinking, partying, talking to girls, and other "fun" activities add to joy. Some rest activities should overlap, like watching TV (big energy boost, small joy boost). Some furniture items should give a permanent boost to your max joy, and how much joy you get from an activity. Like a Big TV would add an extra +1 joy when you watch TV. You should be able to buy a video game for your Pokedex so you can Play Game instead of rest, which gives you some joy but less Energy.

Energy - starts at 100, decreases the more active you are. This stat should be easy to shift up and down. You should be able to REST anywhere, but run a chance of random encounters after you rest finishes. a lot of activities won't really affect energy if you aren't moving. Pimping is a spectator sport, but your not exactly resting so it should be a no change. Walking is a slight decrease in town, and a significant decrease out of town or in dangerous locations. Some locations should have better rest activities, like at home you can watch TV to rest and get a slight joy boost. Eating should restore small amounts of energy as well as restore hunger. Buying better furniture will give you more Energy. Buying a better bed will increase your max Energy.

Money - well, its technically a stat. Shouldn't ever go below zero. No max.

More stats could be added later. I think that should be enough to work with.

New Stat added! Perception - starts at 10, increases through use. This stat should generally go up with use. Can be trained by going to public locations and "people watching". At 10 when you Examine a NPC you get Name and HP, and the top Trait. Every 5 points you get an additional trait (if they have one). At 25 you see how much they pay for a trick. At 50 you get the NPCs stat block. At 80 you can see the NPCs factions. At 100 you can see the NPCs skill list! Perception only decreases as a result of using certain items, or events.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2015, 08:50:59 AM by Ctwo »

Offline Ctwo

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
Re: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« Reply #10 on: April 13, 2015, 12:21:45 AM »
I'm just going to make a brief commentary on Sim games. Almost all of them don't have any kind of maintenance level. I mean you don't have to pay for food in most. I assume you eat, but having to earn money to pay for a 1 day class but not spending anything for food or rent is weird. I'd like it if a game actually worked a little more like real life and you had to pay for basics.

I mean seriously, if your a student in a school shouldn't your classes be fixed and paid for? But this is a very, very, overwhelmingly very common troph for sim games. I want a break from that mold, even if its only in a pretend game that will probably never be made. So yeah, you have to feed your Pokémon and yourself. And at the start of the game you'll actually be able to eat cheap enough that your paying more for Pokémon chow than for the cheapest human meals in the game. But if you look at joy, energy and hunger it should be fairly obvious you can't keep eating nothing but (plain) noodles for long.

Well, rent is a bummer but probably a good mechanic to have. Starting the game with 30 days until you have to make a "huge" payment is good. If you make the starting house rent equal about 5 days worth of effort (for a beginning character) its going to be a significant investment, but nothing that the player can't manage with fair warning. I suppose this means there should be a housing screen or calendar that displays rent and when its due, eh? I'll cheat and throw in utilities for free though. Paying for meals and rent appeals to me, throwing every bill a real person would expect seems like too much effort for no real gain. Besides you gain benefits from moving up from your starter apartment and crappy furniture so charging for it monthly seems like a good idea.

Offline Ctwo

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
Re: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« Reply #11 on: April 13, 2015, 01:07:10 AM »
Restaurants: I've been plodding along in a nice 'logical' order so far...and here I am breaking from that. This is the first Shop I'm going to talk about. Restaurants should exist in every city location of the game. Most locations should actually have more than one. There should be a lot of cheap places to eat, and the cheap places in this game are Raman Stands. When you go to a Restaurant it will bring up a Menu. The menu will list what is available and have a check box next to each item. Some items will say (express) next to them. If you choose only (express) items it only takes 30 minutes to eat. If you choose any items that aren't (express), or you eat more than once before leaving eating takes an hour.

The player should be able to see what stat effects the food had before they leave. If they want to eat more they can but it means eating will definitely take an hour. Some restaurants should allow the player to do something other than eat. If so, track and add time for other activities separately. So there might be food in a Karaoke box, or a bar in a restaurant that you can meet people.

Time should be tallied while your in a shop. When you move from the shop back to the location the shop is in time should go forward by what you did in the shop. Don't change time while players are shopping, and don't charge time for players traveling into a shop. Time gets charged for moving from (big) location to location, so traveling inside the location shouldn't cost more time.

So for a basic Raman Stand menu lets have 6 items. Since a Raman Stand is suppose to be fast food, every item is (express). So you have Noodles (express) +10 hunger, -1 health, 2 yen. (cheapest food in game, and yes a diet of just pain noodles is bad for you!), Raman (express) +10 hunger, 3 yen. Extra Egg (express) +3 hunger, +1 Energy, 2 yen. Extra Pork (express) +3 hunger, +1 joy, 2 yen. Deluxe Raman (express) +15 hunger, +1 joy, +5 energy, 6 yen.

A basic restaurant should have a mixture of (express) and items that take longer to prepare and eat. The fancier the restaurant the more expensive the food, and not directly proportional to the benefit. In other words, just because your paying 300 yen for a fancy meal doesn't mean its 50 times better than a Deluxe Raman. You might get a stat bump that you wouldn't get somewhere else though, like +1 fame for eating a really expensive meal.

Example 2: Pizza Parlor. Lets give them 2 express pizza. Cheese Pizza (express) +20 hunger, +2 joy, 10 yen. Peperoni Pizza (express) +20 hunger, +2 joy, 10 yen. (yeah, the exact same stats and cost. so?) Then a non-express menu for a build your own pizza. A checkbox on a topping will automatically put a checkbox in plain pizza. you can't just buy the topping without buying a pizza!

Plain Pizza +15 hunger, +1 joy, 8 yen. Cheese +5 hunger, 2 yen. Peperoni +2 hunger, +1 joy, 2 yen. Green Peppers +1 joy, +1 energy, 2 yen. Olives +1 hunger, +1 energy, 2 yen. Garlic +1 energy, +1 health, 2 yen. Ground Beef +4 hunger, 2 yen. Onions +2 energy, 2 yen. Pineapple +4 energy, 2 yen. Anchovies +1 hunger, +1 joy, 2 yen. Extra sauce +3 hunger, +1 energy, 2 yen.

As you can see a pizza could become very expensive, but have a ton of adds. The express is a time saver, but by getting a custom made meal you can get more of what you want from the meal. In general deserts should never be express and should be big on joy and energy, but low on hunger. Entrée should be heavy on hunger but light on other benefits. Appetizers should be (express) and be light on hunger but give joy. Fruits should be high in energy. Salads and soups should give a small bump to health directly. Never more than +1 health from any food item. 

Offline Ctwo

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
Re: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« Reply #12 on: April 15, 2015, 06:15:56 AM »
So I mentioned locations in the restaurant post above. Locations are the large sections of the game that you need to use travel time to get between them. Each location should have sub-locations that you can do things while your there. Things like shops, buildings, apartments, NPCs and places you can perform activities at should be clickable objects on this screen. Part of the game design is more sub-locations will open up as you progress through the game. A lot of them will open based on fame, some on quests. Locations are mostly to give the player a feeling that they have traveled to a new part of town that has a unique character from the other parts of town. Businesses and especially NPCs for different places should feel different. Some NPC types might be encountered in several districts but the mix of them should make it feel different. As an example you'll find a lot of Businessmen in a business district, doing tricks here will give a lot of business related NPCs. In a red light district you'll find businessmen there too, but the mix of different kinds of professions should make it feel different than doing tricks in the business district.

Travel in this game should be a 2 step process. Hitting a Travel command from the location map brings up the world map. The world map will show all the Locations (lets call them districts) you can travel to. Traveling to a new district will cost 10 minutes, 20 minutes for "out of town" locations (traveling to and from).

Shale Town - your starting location. Lots of cheap appartments, factory workers, miners, cheap restaurants, and a cheap bar that you'll be working to begin the game. You begin by getting customers off the street till you get enough fame to impress the bar owner to let you work in a back room.

Shale Hills - (out of town) Dumping ground for the local mines. Very few Pokémon make this area home, most left when the mines opened. Good location for random encounters with minor criminals and Pokémon trainers.

Portside - Warehouses and factories dominate this area. Lots of teamsters, longshoremen, delivery drivers, factory workers, supervisors and other low income producing johns. Better business than Shale Town, but this is just a small step up. Street hooking can be done, but without enough fame you get snubbed most of the time. You should be able to work at a local bar with a bit of fame, and its possible to open a brothel here from a cheap hotel. Docks area can let you fish, mostly you get fish that can be sold for 2 yen and the rare aquatic Pokémon battle. Should be a lot of random encounters that offer to sell exotic items (sometimes at high or low prices).

Banker's Park - Business district, more of a mid-game location. Business people (businessman, sales associate, secretary, security guard, Boss, Manager) frequent businesses here. Street hooking is strictly forbidden, but a good negotiation with the police will open a bar that you can use as a base. The customers here have more money, but less business since they don't want to be seen here doing this.

Moonstone Memorial - A park located in the center of town. Rumor has it some rare Pokémon can be spotted here at night. Mostly random encounters with potential customers, criminals, police, bums, trainers and other undesirables. Maybe some sort of common cat, dog and/or bird Pokémon could be found here during the day.

Blossom Lane - The pleasure district for the town. Lots of fame will open up an opportunity to buy a brothel. Attracting people to work there other than yourself will upgrade the clients. So will making improvements to the building and advertising. Before you get the fame to buy a brothel one of the strip joint in the area should give the player an opportunity to have his Pokémon perform there and do tricks after a show.

Shady Pines - Graveyard with a lot of trees. Some Pokémon can be found during the day, ghosts and other creepy types at night.

Route 4 - The highway out of town. Features tall grass where Pokémon can rarely be found. Also random encounters with trainers and travelers.

There might be more locations later. For right now this seems like a good start. I'm tempted to put in a university but this is suppose to be a "harsh" place to live so I figure a university is probably out of the question. I also figure the harshness is probably pollution from the mining and factories. Pokémon are rare here because of that. Probably most of the Pokémon that the player can get will be from other people. Bought from shops, trading, one time offers and ... possibly stealing Pokémon. More later.

Offline Ctwo

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
Re: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« Reply #13 on: April 16, 2015, 01:45:13 AM »
Traits:  Going back to character stats. Traits are non-numeric characteristics. Either you have them or you don't. Some can be changed, others are permanent.

Common Traits:
Size - small, large. If you aren't small or large your default "medium" size which is near human size. Certain moves can't be learned if you aren't the right size. Most Pokémon are not medium sized.
Type - Pokémon elemental types. Each Pokémon can have several. Acts as a modifier in combat, and enables this Pokémon to learn matching elemental moves.
Status Effects - Easier to handle as traits. Negative traits that have one or more means to be removed. Probably involves buying an item or service.
Anthro - this is actually handled as a totally separate pokemon with its own pac files and stats, but should be listed in traits. Also Anthro Pokémon should all be medium sized.

Less common traits:
Wings - Allow Pokémon to learn Fly. Fly cuts travel time to out of town locations to 10 min. Just like traveling in town. It doesn't make traveling in town easier.
Energetic - Pokémon has more recovery. Add 20% recovery after all other modifiers.
Flirtatious - Pokémon draws in more customers. Add 1 customer to each location.

Traits can be added as we think of them. Every pokemon starts with some. Traits can be gained and lost through actions. NPCs and the player have traits too. Customers will display traits that relate to what they desire.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2015, 01:47:38 AM by Ctwo »

Offline DarkTl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4737
Re: Random Musings On A Game I Won't Make
« Reply #14 on: April 16, 2015, 09:10:04 AM »
What kind of traits npcs and the player have? I assume they cannot use pokemon traits.