Hi Xela
I have a few questions if you don't mind
1. First of all, should I ask these questions here with PM or post them on forum?
Best ask in here so I do not have to write stuff twice or trice.
2. I looked for pictures that you ask me to, but I must admit that I'm not really sure what some of these categories are supposed to mean. Like where they will be actually used and how much often (so I will not be wasting efforts on a lot images for category that are rarely seen where its better to use just the most accurate one). Few examples what I'm unsure about:
- is profilenormal same as profile (show in brothel screen) or is it something only used when meeting girls?
- there are two types of nude pics on net - one where girl is nude, but otherwise normal (=standing, doing something common) and the other type where she is undressed in bed or showing herself or spreading etc. (=sexy ones, just before action...)
- what degree of anger/sadness is better? Is she supposed to be just a little upset about something, or is complete "battle rage" or "down in tears" better?
The idea behind this is that when I'm in actual "Development" I want to put a little more efford into this than if it would be just a another girlpack - these will be probably presented with the game afterall.
I uploaded some Sakura pictures so you can tell me what is good and what is not accurate and I will use that example for all future girls - for now I'm collecting for Hinata and one other girl for general testing (like you wanted) and then I want to make my own one and try writing events for her.
Ok... I am not sure about a lot of that stuff either but here's what makes sense to me:
profilenormal (Should be
'profileneutral') will be used a lot I expect, just like the other profile pics with feelings. Rage and down in tears is a definite overkill for profilesad and profileangry categories, but might be ok for lets say profilerage and profile tears categories
Simply said, the amount of categories will depend for the most part on the amount of people that would be willing to work on events, quests and interactions etc., but night is already using those in basic script he's working on for interactions menu. For example, when you choose to scold the girl, when text is stating that she is defiant or sad and randomly chosen profile picture from 'profile' category shows her looking really happy dancing in the field of some freaking flowers doesn't do justice to the game. Another application is to use those to display as profile pictures depending on girl's joy in idle girl management screen. Another during events and girlmeets in town and I am sure we will find many different applications as we work on the game in the future. Since it is very easy to make sure that if category is not found, game will fall back on more basic categories or some form of default pictures that could be applicable to all girls (I will take care of that code later), you should really decide for yourself what degree of anger/sadness is better...
I don't have a lot of time today and will not do any coding but I glanced through your Sakura folder and it looks really good!
3. That comes with another thing - you wanted only some categories of images that you're testing now, but when I'm at it, the're is almost no difference if I'm looking for just something or taking all that's useable from site where I am. So I will do so (and most of WM packs can be improved, trust me) but I need a list of all image categories in use now (or planned) - with all of these WM versions, I'm confused a bit.
But that comes with another issue - adding sex pics enlarge size of these girls a lot, and if I upload them to dropbox, it can take a lot of precious space away. Is that no issue, or should I use some sort or placeholders and store them separatedly? (nice solution, but there will be nothing to look at through development )
Ok, like I've said in my PM to you, I simply could use a couple of girls from the shows I am familiar with so testing the code I write for the game is more fun. We will NOT be making actual packs for the game any time soon cause there is no way of telling what image categories there will be in the end! It is as simple as that, we may need to adjust categories, traits, stats, locations, castes and so on MANY times in the future... We already have Hinata, Sakura and a bunch of girls from Persona games, couple more maybe but no more than 10 - 15 AND definitely we don't need a lot of sex pics, just one or more per category will do just fine!
4. I want to normalize size of these images to save space and memory, do you know what size/resolution/ratio is best? (but i can figure that myself)
Game native resolution is 1280x800, frames holding the pics even smaller. Size of the pictures is adjusted for the player by RenPy. I cannot tell for certain if game will support different resolutions cause that means a good deal of extra work and RenPy is exelent with managing window size + Full Screen Size so there is little point. Also even resized by RenPy engine, larger pics look a lot better than small once...
5. You mentioned Simbro1x girl meeting style - that version have predefined standard actions that you can perform with a girl, like chat, give gift... is it's still viable for me to write a specific story for a girl with its own different options and splits? Something thats goes through more meetings in style more like current tifa quest - will that work together?
Yes, as code advances, it will be possible to replace interactions, girlmeets, events and quests from default to unique once OR any mix of of the two. Basically, I will have the game to look for the label called:
label 'uniquegirlid'_'ineractionname', if that does not exist, game will use the default label that can be used for all girls. With unique girlmeets, events and interactions you will be able to use specific pics as easy as you would categories, so if a modder really cares to make a good pack for a girl, you can choose texts to match the pics perfectly, you can either use pictures that are not even in any of the categories but are totally unique or to choose specific pic from a category or to use a random pic from a category... it's all up to the creator, you can even throw unique backgrounds for totally unique scenes to be used only with that girl in her pics folder and use those as backgrounds for the events.
6. And mentioning Simbro1x, there is something about this version I'm really interested about - customers chosing girls by their character or appereance. Is there any plans of implementing that in this project? I actually wrote a quite agitating wall of text about this (located at my folder now) but if you already discarted that idea, just ignore my suggestion.
I've read the file, the truth is that SimBro 1X is not opensource and I have no frigging clue what happens under the hood, only what I see during gameplay. It is also one of the stupider things about the game, like a girl changing color of her hair to suit the costumer while picture shows her usual color and usually the wrong picture category
Is it hard to code? No... Is it hard to 'fake' using the current code, end-user being non the wiser, again, no. Right now the logic simply creates a costumer during the interaction so there is no pool being generated and matched against girls in your brothels but if we decide to change that, costumer class will not need to be changed or even adjusted... Matching is also easy, do we need it? I have no frigging clue once again...
I suggest we get back to this topic during:
v0.2 - 0.3 - Advanced logic behind next day.
v0.2 - 0.3 - Advanced logic for traits, 6 items planned for the original release, 6 pieces of clothing for girls and advertising + updates for brothels.
I am doing my best to code the game in such way that puts nothing or at the very least next to nothing off the table. I already understand that game needs to not only make sense but also be fun to play, hence the costumer/girls ranks + castes matches so player is forced to do management that is not repetitive and as unique to each round.
Another thing as costumers go, I want to create a number of NPC costumers that will have names and maybe portraits, come back to your brothel for favorite girls/actions and play other roles, maybe we can even give them own avatars. It is fairly easy to do and adds a lot of depth to gameplay, I am actually surprised that it has not been done before. In any case, it's one of the ideas I have for the game.
Anyway, the logic we have now is very basic and doesn't kill a single option or possibility, when we get to the advanced stuff, we will all put some ideas on the table, go through them and decide on how to proceed.
X. And at last, is this ok with you to read message this long and explaining? I found that some people are uncomfortable if they are forced to read anything more then is absolutly necessary - so if your time is really precious, i will try my best to shorten any futher messaging to required minimum. Anyway, I'm hoping there will be no need for many questions like these and I will become more of a help then a nuisance soon.
It's ok, especially since I have not addressed this stuff elsewhere, just do it here next time so I don't have to answer same questions later.