Pink Petal Games
Game Discussion => General Discussion & Download => Topic started by: Zylo on July 08, 2012, 12:43:24 AM
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--Update - 14 Dec 2012--
This is just updating everyone on the game. Development has been slow. RL got in the way and I decided to redesign a lot of what is in the game. When I get time I'll write up what my new changes are but this is to tell people that I'm still working on it. I am really expanding into simulating a very robust legal system which I'm hoping will add a lot more depth to the game.
--Update - 9 Aug 2012--
I've been working on it in my spare time. I got a menu system up and running. Now I'm working on the content. At the moment, it is the interactions between characters when in the personal portion of the game.
--First Post--
First off, I would like to say that WM is an awesome game.
I was thinking of making a WM like game in java. I would like to read what everyone thinks about the idea. I was not planning to just porting it over to java though. I was planning on expanding and changing some things (really making my own game). I am a novice java programmer and already have code for the GUI and a lightweight database I was going to use to store the game’s saves. I do not think it will take too long to make the game (maybe a year by myself to get it working but do not quote me on this though).
I was going to make the game play a lot more strategic (hopefully for the better). The region map will be a 6x6 grid (for simplicity sake). Each grid square will have a number of “locations” procedurally generated at the start of the game (mainly random though). These “locations” will affect which shops, jobs and the type of people that will likely be there. As the game goes along, I was planning to allow the player to control the grid squares and the “locations” via squads.
For the people, I was planning on generating them at the start of the game and simulating their actions each turn. If a lot of them die, I can generate more of them. I have done some small scale (AI-wise) tests from other projects so I was think in the ballpark of 600 people. Since the game is turn-based, I do not think it will be too taxing to simulate that many. That should make it where there are at least 10 people in each grid square (assuming some are dead or not of age). Every person can be male or female with various levels of employment. :P
Each person can lead a squad. When upgrading a person to a squad, they will have a squad type that affects the movement and combat efficiency. The squad types have specific damage table vs. each type of squad. Every person, if they have a squad or not, can move around the map and do different actions/jobs. The people cannot die for combat, per se. If a person loses their whole squad in combat, they have a chance to escape but if they fail on escaping then the enemy has option to make of releasing, hiring, enslaving or executing the person.
The turn mechanic will have two stages, a strategic portion and a personal portion. The strategic portion is where you will order your squads/people around. The personal portion is where you interact with people, hanging out in the dungeon or go shopping, etc.
What do you think about this?
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First off, I would like to say that WM is an awesome game.
Yeap, got me there!
I was thinking of making a WM like game in java. I would like to read what everyone thinks about the idea. I was not planning to just porting it over to java though. I was planning on expanding and changing some things (really making my own game). I am a novice java programmer and already have code for the GUI and a lightweight database I was going to use to store the game’s saves. I do not think it will take too long to make the game (maybe a year by myself to get it working but do not quote me on this though).
Another Java hah? Popuri wanted to make a java version of WM (you would have found his topic if you used search function)... maybe you two can get together and form a team.
There is actually already a java based WMlike sim in the making, but it is a commercial project with 2 or 3 professional programers and a graphics designer working on it.
So now we have Sims in C++, C++ + Lua, C#, Python, Action Script and Ruby... maybe someone should try and code one in Assembler :)
I am not sure you can create a game like WM in an year, I think we are already working on Alkion for an year now and still don't have all that much to show for it. I suppose if our programmer had more time... it all depends on your skilllevel and time you're willing to put in, it doesn't sound realistic thou, a game like WM with advanced features by a novice coder in one year is not likely possible.
I was going to make the game play a lot more strategic (hopefully for the better). The region map will be a 6x6 grid (for simplicity sake). Each grid square will have a number of “locations” procedurally generated at the start of the game (mainly random though). These “locations” will affect which shops, jobs and the type of people that will likely be there. As the game goes along, I was planning to allow the player to control the grid squares and the “locations” via squads.
For the people, I was planning on generating them at the start of the game and simulating their actions each turn. If a lot of them die, I can generate more of them. I have done some small scale (AI-wise) tests from other projects so I was think in the ballpark of 600 people. Since the game is turn-based, I do not think it will be too taxing to simulate that many. That should make it where there are at least 10 people in each grid square (assuming some are dead or not of age). Every person can be male or female with various levels of employment. :P
Each person can lead a squad. When upgrading a person to a squad, they will have a squad type that affects the movement and combat efficiency. The squad types have specific damage table vs. each type of squad. Every person, if they have a squad or not, can move around the map and do different actions/jobs. The people cannot die for combat, per se. If a person loses their whole squad in combat, they have a chance to escape but if they fail on escaping then the enemy has option to make of releasing, hiring, enslaving or executing the person.
The turn mechanic will have two stages, a strategic portion and a personal portion. The strategic portion is where you will order your squads/people around. The personal portion is where you interact with people, hanging out in the dungeon or go shopping, etc.
What do you think about this?
All great concepts, we have actually considered all of the above for Alkion at some point, but I am guessing there isn't much we haven't considered with all the time we've spent on Skype chatting :D.
This sounds like it can become a great game, I could suggest that you get familiar with some other PL and join one of the already existing projects but it's up to you. Personally I dropped the idea of making a game like WM on my own a long time ago after I realized how much work it took and how slow progress at my current programming skill would be.
In any case, Best of luck with whatever path you decide to take!
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I'm working on a new game called Whore Master Cathexis (WMX). The game engine is being written in C++/Qt, while the front-end is using QML/Javascript. It will have a SQLite database for save games. The reason I'm posting here is becouse my game will also have a more tactical approach to map control. In my game the concept of Squad will be represented by Gangs, just to stay true to the orginal game. Gangs will be made up if random people just and you won't be able to see this individuals, all you will see is the Gang name and Stats and also the number of people in it. Like the original game you can set the Gang to Recruit to increase the number of peope in it. I'm also considering a feature where a player could assign one of his characters as a Gang Leader to make the Gand stronger. If a Gang is wiped out the leader will be treated in a similar manner to the way you are treating your Squad leaders. Just like your ideas my map will be divided into sectors and player will be able to attack adjacent sectors to the sector he already controls. When the player gains control of a sector, he will then gain access to shops and other buildings that are available in the sector. The goal of this feature is to enable new gameplay options as the players expand his control of the city. I have mentioned some of this features in some of the posts in my my threads but I will only sort out the details when the time comes to implement the city map.
If you go on with your project, we can share some ideas in Tactical City Map control system as well as other ideas you might have. But if you feel like coding in C++ or QML/Javascript you could help me. And if you don't go ahead with your game, but doesn't want to get involved in the development of WMX maybe you could still participate in the game design discutions. In any case, gl with your project
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If you go on with your project, we can share some ideas in Tactical City Map control system as well as other ideas you might have. But if you feel like coding in C++ or QML/Javascript you could help me. And if you don't go ahead with your game, but doesn't want to get involved in the development of WMX maybe you could still participate in the game design discutions. In any case, gl with your project
Unfortunately, I don't know C++ that well. I had to take some classes a while back that were in C++ but I'm not all that great in it. I can help out with the design and discussions. I think that will be a rewarding experience.
In any case, Best of luck with whatever path you decide to take!
Thanks
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*ahem*
First off, not dead yet! Still tinkering on my game in my free time, though it's branching away from WM's structure a little. For example, I'll be replacing gangs with individual male 'henchmen' who serve a similar purpose. Right now I'm still working on my graphics, some of the game's engine, and trying to do a streamlined 'config' setting, where adjusting the values for horizontal and vertical window size will dynamically adjust all the other graphics to fit.
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*ahem*
First off, not dead yet! Still tinkering on my game in my free time, though it's branching away from WM's structure a little. For example, I'll be replacing gangs with individual male 'henchmen' who serve a similar purpose. Right now I'm still working on my graphics, some of the game's engine, and trying to do a streamlined 'config' setting, where adjusting the values for horizontal and vertical window size will dynamically adjust all the other graphics to fit.
Yey.... who said anything about 'dead'? :)
Great to know you've been working on you project by the way!
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Hee.
One thing I want to do is expand other aspects of the game, but not abandon the brothel running. As well, to make the player matter. I plan on giving the player their own set of stats, and each time period (haven't decided between day or week), the player can choose to train, interact (which will prompt them which girls to interact with after hitting 'next day/week'), or oversee an area, which will boost the effectiveness of any girls there depending on the player's skills.
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For example, I'll be replacing gangs with individual male 'henchmen' who serve a similar purpose.
What benefits does henchmen offer over gangs? I know that I would have an easier time coding the battle in WMX if I use a single person instead of a group of persons. But aside from the coding aspect I can't really see the benefits. From a realistic perspective a powerfull criminal (eg the player) would benefit more from a gang then a single person, unless he needed a specialist like an assassin.
Right now I'm still working on my graphics...
Do you have any screenshots you can post?
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What benefits does henchmen offer over gangs? I know that I would have an easier time coding the battle in WMX if I use a single person instead of a group of persons. But aside from the coding aspect I can't really see the benefits. From a realistic perspective a powerfull criminal (eg the player) would benefit more from a gang then a single person, unless he needed a specialist like an assassin.
Gangs often 'feel' weird in WM. Especially if they fight a single girl and loose. Knowing that a well trained girl ALWAYS has a chance of defeating a gang of 15 men always made me think of gang members as of useless, weak kittens that can never even be as strong as even 1/15 of any of your girls... Henchmen solve that issue so it is not a bad concept and I don't think it will ruin the game in any way or form.
Another issue with gangs are demographics... try counting how many people in gangs die each year. Consider also all other gangs fighting eachother in the city. It's a freaking WAR, I mean like a real scale warfare, not some gang violence but Crossgate does now feel like a city in civil war so it is AGAIN couter-intuitive and odd.
You were right to say that gangs are a bit harder to code BUT they are also very difficult to balance in a way that makes sense to all players AND it is also one of those issues that cannot be resolved with a simple poll as there are to many variable and community can never know what exactly they are voting on so there are some benefits in dropping gangs and I don't really see any serious disadvantages either. As gangs are in WM, they do not ruin the game but they are neither logical nor intuitive. I think a far better design would have been gangs ONLY on enemy side and ONLY girls on your side with all functions that gangs do for the player would be done by warrior girls, as long as girl more or less equals in combat to a gang already why the freck did they include gangs on player side has never been very clear to me...
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ok, if you guys are going to do away with gangs, would it be possible for those jobs that the gangs did to be assigned in the dungeon or another building to be made so you can place girls in there to do the work. I'm concerned that it would make it so you have to have more girls working these jobs then you do working the traditional WM jobs, like one of the other mods did.
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ok, if you guys are going to do away with gangs, would it be possible for those jobs that the gangs did to be assigned in the dungeon or another building to be made so you can place girls in there to do the work. I'm concerned that it would make it so you have to have more girls working these jobs then you do working the traditional WM jobs, like one of the other mods did.
I understood that Popuri wanted to replace gangs with henchmen, so there will be no huge changes in that area... in any case, there will be like 5 new WM like Sims within an year so some are bound to have gangs :)
Also in cases where the game keeps WM in it's name, there should always be a path where you can have most of your girls work at 'traditional' WM jobs or your title will make no sense...
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The reason I wanted to know what advantages henchmen has is becouse of 2 things. First if it made sense I could replace the Gangs in WMX with single male characters. This would have 2 advantages. First I could use the exact same code that I use for Girl combat. There would be no need for any special code for the gangs. And second is becouse if is that I can introduce male sons. So a male son could either have a administrative job or become a "henchman".
What do you think about that Xela?
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The reason I wanted to know what advantages henchmen has is becouse of 2 things. First if it made sense I could replace the Gangs in WMX with single male characters. This would have 2 advantages. First I could use the exact same code that I use for Girl combat. There would be no need for any special code for the gangs. And second is becouse if is that I can introduce male sons. So a male son could either have a administrative job or become a "henchman".
What do you think about that Xela?
Yeap, that approach has already been discussed on this forum, using male sons in gangs instead of having to sell them to slavery all the time (I think that selling into slavery is a very bad approach by the way, as a player I've never been anywhere close to comfortable with that... and with the fact that you were never even given any other options).
But the best approach in my mind is a mix (somewhat harder to code thou :(). Instead of doing away gangs all together, we could agree that a gang can only exist with a gang leader (henchman or one of your girls) as head. Instead of gangmembers having their own stats, they simply 'add' to girl's/henchman's own battle stats, that way you can still use the same code as for girl fights but remain 'true' to WM's original design as you wanted in one of your previous posts...
Basically this way will not force you to write a large amount of extra code and will be fairly neutral so noone in the community should have strong objections. It's a win - win scenario... well, in any case, that's what I think.
Only complication here is in case people decide in favor of userguided combat, this way more than a transparent .PNG would have to be made to represent a girl on the battlefield, a couple of 'rugged' looking guys/girls would have to stand behind the leading character/girl. That can be done fairly easy thou... We can always put together a team to take care of these things so you can work on the code.
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Gangs often 'feel' weird in WM. Especially if they fight a single girl and loose. Knowing that a well trained girl ALWAYS has a chance of defeating a gang of 15 men always made me think of gang members as of useless, weak kittens that can never even be as strong as even 1/15 of any of your girls... Henchmen solve that issue so it is not a bad concept and I don't think it will ruin the game in any way or form.
Another issue with gangs are demographics... try counting how many people in gangs die each year. Consider also all other gangs fighting eachother in the city. It's a freaking WAR, I mean like a real scale warfare, not some gang violence but Crossgate does now feel like a city in civil war so it is AGAIN couter-intuitive and odd.
If you think gangs are the way to go why did you say that?
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If you think gangs are the way to go why did you say that?
Because personally I don't think gangs are the way to go, there will be no gangs in Alkion for example (under the current design plans anyways) but I am also not sure that NO gangs is the best way to go in WM:X either, here is why:
Gangs are one of those elements that separate WM from other similar games... Our team started with plans to make a WM2, now we are so far off the original WM that we are not even planning to keep the name :( To tell you the truth, I would hate hate similar thing to happen to WM:X as well.
As you can gather from my first post, I believe that their are two major problems with gangs in WM. One being 15 men that are called ''gang'' being at same strength as one girl. Second demographics. If you simply modify lead girl's/henchman's strength by 100% for every 5 (or so) members of the gang and have less casualties both problems are solved...
There is me being against gangs as a concept in sim game like WM but I have no way of knowing if my opinion actually reflects majorities opinion on this issue... With userguided battle for example, I was far more certain because I've read countless requests to make u.g. battle more interesting in games similar to WM that had u.g. battle already and requests to add u.g. battle to games that never had it to begin with. With gangs, I have no such information so I offered a combined solution that would in my mind everyone would be happy with. I hope that makes my thoughts on the issue a bit clearer...
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My game will have some sort of way for the player to gain control of the city. Its an important concept of the design. But I don't really care if they are called Henchman or Gangs or something else. What matters is that the player and his oponents will battle for control of sectors in the city. Controling a sector will give you money since you will charge for a "protection" fee from bussiness in the sector. This is an evolution of the "bussiness controled" concept in the orginal game. Adicionally a player will only be able to build a new Brothel in a sector he already controls unlike the original game were all the player needs is the money to afford it. Finally each sector will have diferent places that the player can visit. This places will be closed to the player if he does not control the sector that has that bussiness. My goal with that is to allow the player more and more options as he gains control of the city. So this concepts will be in the game no matter what.
My doubts are just related to how I can implement this concepts in a way that makes sense. Thats why I wanted you opnion on the matter. You seam to care about making sense as much as you care about having fun. I always put fun over sense, but if there is a way to satisfy both then thats the way to go. One thing that I might do is to not allow for gangs to fight girls. That can be done by limiting the jobs available to Gangs. So Gangs would not be able to Explore the Catacombs, Kidnap, Recapture or Spy on your girls. Spying would be replaced by Managers. So a Bar Manager would be able to detect if a girl is stealing money from the bar. Recapturing would require a new job, something like a Tracker. Exploring that catacombs will already only be available to Girls no matter what I do with Gangs. Finally there is the Kidnapping job. I don't really know what to make of that. One option is to simply remove that feature. I already think that its too easy to aquire new girls, and WMX will have even more options depending on what sectors you control.
So Xela what are your thoughts on removing Girl vs Gangs fights? What about you Zylo, you seam to have put some thought into Gangs so got any sugestions?
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So Xela what are your thoughts on removing Girl vs Gangs fights? What about you Zylo, you seam to have put some thought into Gangs so got any sugestions?
Well, would depend on what gangs and girls will be like in WMX but in general as you can imagine from my previous posts I don't think gangs and girls should cross path in proper combat as they do in original WM. If gangs are in game, at very best if a girl somehow encounters enemy gang is to simply check against her agility (or similar stat) if she can run away, if not... either rape, capture or worse (death), but that depends on the game itself, what jobs and options there will be.
I think it is important to decide on one concept for/against gangs and stick with it. Past that it will be easier to brainstorm towards making whatever was decided fun, interesting and functional. I am going to catch some sleep, so g.n.
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Because personally I don't think gangs are the way to go, there will be no gangs in Alkion for example (under the current design plans anyways) but I am also not sure that NO gangs is the best way to go in WM:X either, here is why:
Gangs are one of those elements that separate WM from other similar games... Our team started with plans to make a WM2, now we are so far off the original WM that we are not even planning to keep the name :( To tell you the truth, I would hate hate similar thing to happen to WM:X as well.
As you can gather from my first post, I believe that their are two major problems with gangs in WM. One being 15 men that are called ''gang'' being at same strength as one girl. Second demographics. If you simply modify lead girl's/henchman's strength by 100% for every 5 (or so) members of the gang and have less casualties both problems are solved...
There is me being against gangs as a concept in sim game like WM but I have no way of knowing if my opinion actually reflects majorities opinion on this issue... With userguided battle for example, I was far more certain because I've read countless requests to make u.g. battle more interesting in games similar to WM that had u.g. battle already and requests to add u.g. battle to games that never had it to begin with. With gangs, I have no such information so I offered a combined solution that would in my mind everyone would be happy with. I hope that makes my thoughts on the issue a bit clearer...
well, what if we took a more historical perspective and called the gangs "guardsmen", "men-at-arms"or "mercenaries", or something similar, and took out the gang type of jobs (kidnapping girls, or recruiting them... though they could be prizes, being slaves).
though I do have to agree, girl vs gang should not happen too often, but I do see why it should could happen with torturing, though I also agree that it'd be very hard/impossible for one person to defeat 15/16 other people. This is why I think a minimum relation should happen, a smart person would have others, maybe not all 15 but a few, with him if he were torturing another person, if only to keep her/him from hurting the torturer when transferring from devices/restraints. One person taking outa few groups of 3-4 people is much more likely then 1vs15 (like she beats the 3-4 people in the cell, then the one or two on guard at the entrance to the dungeon, and then the 2-5 people she runs in to in the halls/grounds).
Then again I would do the whole system over, and handle most things completely differently. But then again I don't code, and it'd probably be really bloody hard to code.
I also agree that the body count is way to high, though if you take some of those "deaths" as improperly reported injuries, the number would go down. ('cause your gangs will recruit if they are training, those "recruits" could be seen, by giving a little leeway and imagination, as people who just broke a leg and needed to heal.
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Then again I would do the whole system over, and handle most things completely differently.
I code and I am writing a new game from scratch. Also there are other projects in the making and potential new project like the one described in this thread. So if you have some insights on how to handle gangs and such, they could be usefull to many people.
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I code and I am writing a new game from scratch. Also there are other projects in the making and potential new project like the one described in this thread. So if you have some insights on how to handle gangs and such, they could be useful to many people.
ok, this may or may not turn into a very long post, but I'll give it a go, and try to compress and express my opinions/ideas.
first, buildings, and capacity. Until the most recent times most people who worked in one building slept there. It was not one person to a room, but multiple people in each room. the servants would sleep in the attic, kitchens, or in their masters (dressing) rooms. You can make a reasonable assumption that most whores would have their own room, but I've also read stories where that's not the case, where it was multiple women in one room, all selling themselves. So I don't like the ideal behind WM and OW (otherworld) that there are only ___ rooms available. (OW is more acceptable to me, since there is such a low limit of slaves, and you have individual room decisions to make). Yes there should be a building capacity, but it should be based on an assumption about the size of the building, rather then one girl per bedroom. There is a need for bedrooms to exist, because it makes more sense for customers to prefer privacy then exhibitionism. So if we assume that the building has an attic, or a large outer building to house slaves, we can free the bedrooms for work. The difference is, if it's an outer-building, making extensions (like adding a bar or casino, or more bedrooms) won't add to the capacity of the building, while any changes make to the house probably will add more space for people to sleep. For a rough estimate, I'd say 5-10 people in the kitchen, 20+ in the attic, and one per room, with no more then one person per bedroom whoring in the building (unless you want to get complicated, and add special rooms) and for an expansion of 20 bedrooms would add space for at least 40 more people (though only 20 would be able to whore in the house).
I do see why it would be done 1-girl/room, it's easier to code and calculate, but it doesn't make as much sense (when thinking like someone from that time), I mean why would you give a slave such a luxury for cleaning, cooking, or serving some beers.
I both like and dislike the dungeon. I like the idea of a place to store extra girls, but I don't like that I cannot do anything but talk and torture them. If it were me in real life, I wouldn't bother assigning anyone but whores to the brothels, and would just send the extra staff to what ever brothel they needed to be at each shift. I might not even assign the whores to the brothels, or I might move them if I found that some one from another district/brothel wanted some one like her, or her brothel was really slow, and the other couldn't keep up. I know that this example would probably be hard to impossible to code, it's just a real life reaction. But that doesn't mean nothing can be done. Instead of "dungeon" it should be "Headquarters", with it's own screen, because it's supposed to be really safe, so you'd keep all your extra beasts there, and you would not have all the rooms as barred dungeon style rooms, (imop) you'd have sections of it altered, so first thing you'd see would resemble a normal house, then there would be another less pleasant space, just normal 4 walls with a cot on the floor room, last would be the actual dungeon, with the bar walls (or at least one wall of bars). That is unless it's really not endless, and is something like a converted warehouse, then I could see only having the basic rooms, and/or cell type rooms. types of jobs available, either way, training, cleaning, resting, street-whoring, torture/bondage.
I know that basically turns it into another brothel, but what can I say, If it were me, I'd not let lack of proper brothels to imped my ability to use the slaves I bought.
then there is the technology aspect. this place doesn't seem one that would have power, and you need some type of power to have movies. I can accept pictures, though, because we had those a bit before we had regular power, I think. But a better thing would be, the arts and theater. so there would/could be: paintings, nude paintings, statues, nude statues, photography, perform in play (takes place of film movie, takes weeks), attend parties. (actually I really like the attend parties job in general, I can believe it's not in the original game, or any mods. oh well.)
Gangs- how I think gangs could work. Well, I've always pictured them more like guardsmen or mercenaries of old, rather then actual gangs. 'cause really most gangs wouldn't be able to do half of what these ones do. get rid of the kidnapping, that would get you caught and killed quickly, since it'd be more visible since historically populations are smaller. AND I think the game is coded for something like 10,000-20,000 population. when 100 girls go missing, it will be noticed. especially when their relatives visit the brothel you are whoring them at. instead, make the debt acquisition of girls more important. have business owners sell themselves if they can't pay their extortion, or their daughters/slaves. You could also implement "recruit" instead of kidnap, which would have less of a return, but the girl would not be as pissed, would actually like the player, and there would be no angry family to visit. Catacombs and mysterious portals also play a part in this. you get monster girls, and girls without a family from them. Basically their job should be to defend, recruit (legally), intimidate/destroy enemies, and loot the catacombs, and you know spy on the slaves. I've also suggested this before, but I'll expand on this. your "gangs" would probably live with you, or at least each "gang" would probably live in one housing, you want to keep them happy, and not back stab you. Whores can be very expensive. to keep them happy, and have everything cost less (or lower, if you made them mad), you should be able to assign slaves to "service" them.
how customers are handled- I really don't like how customers are handled, how one girl gets all that apply to her, then the next and the next, it's not accurate enough, for me. it should go like a CD each song/girl gets played once before a song is played again. unless of course there isn't a customer interested in a girl. you should also have it easier to set a customer limit, like a alterable number (like pay percentage), with the max she can handle shown beside it. Because, I don't like having my girls wear themselves out, I like them to never have a break (actually I lie, I long ago stopped assigning girls to more then one job a day...).
thats all of it I can think of right now.
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ok, this may or may not turn into a very long post, but I'll give it a go, and try to compress and express my opinions/ideas.
first, buildings, and capacity. Until the most recent times most people who worked in one building slept there. It was not one person to a room, but multiple people in each room. the servants would sleep in the attic, kitchens, or in their masters (dressing) rooms. You can make a reasonable assumption that most whores would have their own room, but I've also read stories where that's not the case, where it was multiple women in one room, all selling themselves. So I don't like the ideal behind WM and OW (otherworld) that there are only ___ rooms available. (OW is more acceptable to me, since there is such a low limit of slaves, and you have individual room decisions to make). Yes there should be a building capacity, but it should be based on an assumption about the size of the building, rather then one girl per bedroom. There is a need for bedrooms to exist, because it makes more sense for customers to prefer privacy then exhibitionism. So if we assume that the building has an attic, or a large outer building to house slaves, we can free the bedrooms for work. The difference is, if it's an outer-building, making extensions (like adding a bar or casino, or more bedrooms) won't add to the capacity of the building, while any changes make to the house probably will add more space for people to sleep. For a rough estimate, I'd say 5-10 people in the kitchen, 20+ in the attic, and one per room, with no more then one person per bedroom whoring in the building (unless you want to get complicated, and add special rooms) and for an expansion of 20 bedrooms would add space for at least 40 more people (though only 20 would be able to whore in the house).
I do see why it would be done 1-girl/room, it's easier to code and calculate, but it doesn't make as much sense (when thinking like someone from that time), I mean why would you give a slave such a luxury for cleaning, cooking, or serving some beers.
What you suggest seems to be simply allowing more girls to live in the building and maybe even work in the building than there are rooms. Also to bring back older 'rooms' system (I think that it was in future plans for WM as well, to bring back and expand 'rooms'). It is very difficult to give advice on these issues since there are like 10 different GOOD and LOGICAL approaches on how to make Buildings/Rooms fun...
I both like and dislike the dungeon. I like the idea of a place to store extra girls, but I don't like that I cannot do anything but talk and torture them. If it were me in real life, I wouldn't bother assigning anyone but whores to the brothels, and would just send the extra staff to what ever brothel they needed to be at each shift. I might not even assign the whores to the brothels, or I might move them if I found that some one from another district/brothel wanted some one like her, or her brothel was really slow, and the other couldn't keep up. I know that this example would probably be hard to impossible to code, it's just a real life reaction. But that doesn't mean nothing can be done. Instead of "dungeon" it should be "Headquarters", with it's own screen, because it's supposed to be really safe, so you'd keep all your extra beasts there, and you would not have all the rooms as barred dungeon style rooms, (imop) you'd have sections of it altered, so first thing you'd see would resemble a normal house, then there would be another less pleasant space, just normal 4 walls with a cot on the floor room, last would be the actual dungeon, with the bar walls (or at least one wall of bars). That is unless it's really not endless, and is something like a converted warehouse, then I could see only having the basic rooms, and/or cell type rooms. types of jobs available, either way, training, cleaning, resting, street-whoring, torture/bondage.
I know that basically turns it into another brothel, but what can I say, If it were me, I'd not let lack of proper brothels to imped my ability to use the slaves I bought.
then there is the technology aspect. this place doesn't seem one that would have power, and you need some type of power to have movies. I can accept pictures, though, because we had those a bit before we had regular power, I think. But a better thing would be, the arts and theater. so there would/could be: paintings, nude paintings, statues, nude statues, photography, perform in play (takes place of film movie, takes weeks), attend parties. (actually I really like the attend parties job in general, I can believe it's not in the original game, or any mods. oh well.)
You are prolly gonna love Alkion when it is finished, most stuff you describe will be coded in there along with extensive rooms/buildings system that will allow multiple girls per room, parties in your own house to improve your own fame and social standing and so on... also large scale quests like nobility requesting 20 - 30 girls for a 'party' at their place or rich merchant caravan coming into town and asking to rent out your whole brothel (and so on).
I don't really care for dungeon, it will be an optional room in Alkion BUT this is an issue where you WILL get a HUGE backslash from the community if you try to rename it or do away with it all together... many people on forums talk in favor of expanding dungeon functionality and adding more options, never seen that many wanting to get rid of it all together.
Gangs- how I think gangs could work. Well, I've always pictured them more like guardsmen or mercenaries of old, rather then actual gangs. 'cause really most gangs wouldn't be able to do half of what these ones do. get rid of the kidnapping, that would get you caught and killed quickly, since it'd be more visible since historically populations are smaller. AND I think the game is coded for something like 10,000-20,000 population. when 100 girls go missing, it will be noticed. especially when their relatives visit the brothel you are whoring them at. instead, make the debt acquisition of girls more important. have business owners sell themselves if they can't pay their extortion, or their daughters/slaves. You could also implement "recruit" instead of kidnap, which would have less of a return, but the girl would not be as pissed, would actually like the player, and there would be no angry family to visit. Catacombs and mysterious portals also play a part in this. you get monster girls, and girls without a family from them. Basically their job should be to defend, recruit (legally), intimidate/destroy enemies, and loot the catacombs, and you know spy on the slaves. I've also suggested this before, but I'll expand on this. your "gangs" would probably live with you, or at least each "gang" would probably live in one housing, you want to keep them happy, and not back stab you. Whores can be very expensive. to keep them happy, and have everything cost less (or lower, if you made them mad), you should be able to assign slaves to "service" them.
To the best of my knowledge WM isn't coded for any amount of population (maybe it is but I have never seen that code). Rest can be coded in as events by the community and be optional. Personally I have a very different ideas on how girls should be acquired but I have my own 'perfect' game design in my head that I am hoping one day to code into existence (If I ever learn how to code on the level required, but I am dedicating to trying to learn Python most of the free time that I have).
how customers are handled- I really don't like how customers are handled, how one girl gets all that apply to her, then the next and the next, it's not accurate enough, for me. it should go like a CD each song/girl gets played once before a song is played again. unless of course there isn't a customer interested in a girl. you should also have it easier to set a customer limit, like a alterable number (like pay percentage), with the max she can handle shown beside it. Because, I don't like having my girls wear themselves out, I like them to never have a break (actually I lie, I long ago stopped assigning girls to more then one job a day...).
thats all of it I can think of right now.
All of that can also be achieved in many different ways, all depends on game's general concept... Generally approach should be where costumer chooses a girl based on his own preferences. That is achieved in WM for example by matching 'Fetish' that costumer wants to girls that your have. Similar approach will be taken in Alkion as there will be traits that simply describe the girl. You CD reference is called iteration in programing and is very easy to do, but I am fairly sure that it is already done like that in WM and is the most logical approach so same will apply for WM:X I expect. It will definitely be a case with Alkion.
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Hello,
I am a senior Java developer that code for living in a Nasdaq company. I tried to code a simulator on Android last year, it was in Java too. Let me advise you on the technical side:
- You should share your project with a source management system. It will enable you to get the help of others to code. You can start a project on SourceForge and you will get one. Maybe you will not be allowed to store the mature content media on the system, but at least you will store the code.
- A game classes are generally divided in two parts: the purely technical ones that draw the screens and the buttons and the ones that really describe a game object, a girl, an item. You have a singleton object "Game" and all your game objects are linked directly or indirectly to it. When you save or load a game you serialize or de-serialize this object to a file. The "screen" elements are basically modifying the game objects. They also listen to game object changes to refresh the display. At each turn you can trigger a "game.endTurn()" method that will do the job. Don't code everything in this method but rather delegate each task to each game object.
- For storing data, rely on default serialization mechanisms. With SQL lite you will loose time creating a model that will never fill the ever changing world you are creating.
- Nowadays, creating a game is mainly creating content, coding is secondary. If you recycle the WM data you can start with a lot of work done. If a game mechanism require a lot of pixel-art, I hope you have graphic resources.
- The game mechanism should be balanced, the game should be extended. It's hard to do it without external help. The peoples that will help you will usually not be able to build your game. For this you should consider using an extension language. As an example, it's hard to contribute to WM because it's C++ and the program is not well structured. When I tried to code my Android game, I used beanshell (bsh): it's a small library that enable you to create java objects from a text file without the need to compile it. I created a package "jstory" with all my game objects. The adventure was not coded in compiled java but in scripted files where the basic game objects where extended. Anybody is able to create new girls, places...
- In WM there is plenty of mechanisms that are not documented or explained. Limit them and explain them. The players like to explore not to learn complex rules.
Please find the sources of the game. It's not working but it can give you an example.
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@Orden
I don't really know if I want to use SourceForge. I have never really used it to code. I'll have to think about it.