Wow.

[dcb42]

How I missed this game's existence, I have no idea, but a comment on the SimBrothel v2 development boards got me poking around in Google; earlier today I downloaded the game and have been playing around with it ever since. I wanted to ask a couple of questions, but please bear in mind that I still have only the vaguest idea of what I'm doing, so bear with me, huh? 

1) Is it just my imagination, or is running your girls as whores actually less productive than making a movie? You have to build up a nest egg to keep yourself afloat while filming, granted, but I can have my girls film in the daytime and have free time at night, and so long as their accommodations are good (it took me a while to figure out the accommodations, too, I have to say) they don't lose health and they don't get tired - So I can just set them up to film and then I don't even have to think about that building again until they finish (so I can start them on a new movie). This makes a lot of the gameplay actually kind of irrelevant in the mid- and late-game; is there some substantial bonus to having your girls turn tricks that I'm just not seeing?

2) Is it intentional that once you take a girl off of birth control you can't put her back on it? Also, does childbirth actually have an effect on gameplay? Does anything happen to the kids? does being pregnant affect a girl's work? It didn't seem to, but I may just not have enough data to compare.

3) I know this is a topic that's being kicked around in the suggestions forum, too, so I won't belabor the point here, but there's a real disconnect between the meat of the gameplay - buying, training, and tricking out girls - and the actual victory condition. Your girls seem to exist mostly as a way to fund your goons, but they don't contribute to victory in and of themselves. It just struck me as kind of jarring, from a gameplay perspective.

All that being said - wow. How did I manage to miss the existence of this game for so long? It's fantastic! I'm really, really impressed with the depth of play here, and now that I actually know about the game I look forward to hopefully being able to offer suggestions and see it get even better with time.

so. Yeah. Long-winded intro. I'll shut up now.

[DocClox]

I wanted to ask a couple of questions, but please bear in mind that I still have only the vaguest idea of what I'm doing, so bear with me, huh? 

No problem

1) Is it just my imagination, or is running your girls as whores actually less productive than making a movie? ... is there some substantial bonus to having your girls turn tricks that I'm just not seeing?

Game balance is an on-going problem. Hopefully the next major release will help with things like having to buy the movie studio before you can start filming. But yeah, they can be very effective.

The problem really is how effective ought they to be? If they make too much money, it takes away from the whoring side of things, which is bad. If you make movies less effective than turning tricks,then no one will want to make movies. We could take them out of the game, but I think that would be a shame. So really, we're still looking for a role for the movies.

I think they probably need to be a bit more complex than they are. I'd like to see movies make more money than brothels, but with a high startup cost, and enough complications that it's generally simpler to have girls turn tricks. Maybe we could have an "actress" skill or trait (not that porn stars are known for their thespian skills) such that not all girls were suitable for the movie business.

The other thing to do is to delve a bit deeper into the economics of the thing, and to make sure A) that there's money out there that will only be spent on movie crystals, and B) that the economics of whoring are tight enough that you can't expand based purely on whoring. Making the film industry a little more demanding on the girls themselves would probably help as well.

Other ideas are welcome, but that's roughly the plan.

2) Is it intentional that once you take a girl off of birth control you can't put her back on it?

That sounds like an old bug, resurfacing. You might want to raise that on the appropriate bugs thread. Although there's a minor release due today or tomorrow, so you might want to wait and see if it still happens with that.

Also, does childbirth actually have an effect on gameplay? Does anything happen to the kids? does being pregnant affect a girl's work? It didn't seem to, but I may just not have enough data to compare.

Not much, yes and slightly. The only affect of childbirth apart from the child, is that she can't get knocked up again for a month. The kids will age 18 years in five years of gametime (I blame the screwed up spacetime continuum of the game) and then appear in the dungeon as slavegirls or be sold as slaves depending on gender. The plan is that sons eventually take over as  leaders for the goon squads. I think being pregnant attracts some customers (fetish) and puts others off, but there are enough customers at the moment that it doesn't really matter much.

3) I know this is a topic that's being kicked around in the suggestions forum, too, so I won't belabor the point here...

Fair enough. My thoughts on the subject are on record, so neither will I

so. Yeah. Long-winded intro. I'll shut up now.

Welcome to the forums

[zodiac44]

How I missed this game's existence, I have no idea, but a comment on the SimBrothel v2 development boards got me poking around in Google; earlier today I downloaded the game and have been playing around with it ever since. I wanted to ask a couple of questions, but please bear in mind that I still have only the vaguest idea of what I'm doing, so bear with me, huh? 

Welcome!  Always great to see new faces around here.  >;o)

1) Is it just my imagination, or is running your girls as whores actually less productive than making a movie? You have to build up a nest egg to keep yourself afloat while filming, granted, but I can have my girls film in the daytime and have free time at night, and so long as their accommodations are good (it took me a while to figure out the accommodations, too, I have to say) they don't lose health and they don't get tired - So I can just set them up to film and then I don't even have to think about that building again until they finish (so I can start them on a new movie). This makes a lot of the gameplay actually kind of irrelevant in the mid- and late-game; is there some substantial bonus to having your girls turn tricks that I'm just not seeing?

There is a tipping point at which making movies becomes more profitable than running a brothel.  There is something awesome about maxing out the size of a brothel (255 rooms), filling it with fully trained girls, and making movies full time.  Of course, by the time you can do that, money is irrelevant in the game, so the only reason I can think of to do it is to watch your bank account soar into the billions.

2) Is it intentional that once you take a girl off of birth control you can't put her back on it? Also, does childbirth actually have an effect on gameplay? Does anything happen to the kids? does being pregnant affect a girl's work? It didn't seem to, but I may just not have enough data to compare.

That is definitely an old bug that got zapped in the ass several releases ago.  Double check that you downloaded and installed v1.23, with the 1.29 and 1.29.2 updates (you can't just apply 1.29.2).  I suppose that there should be some install guideline posted as a sticky in the download section.

3) I know this is a topic that's being kicked around in the suggestions forum, too, so I won't belabor the point here, but there's a real disconnect between the meat of the gameplay - buying, training, and tricking out girls - and the actual victory condition. Your girls seem to exist mostly as a way to fund your goons, but they don't contribute to victory in and of themselves. It just struck me as kind of jarring, from a gameplay perspective.

We're trying to work that out now, and any suggestions, comments, or criticisms you may have will be most helpful.

[letmein]

Well, Doc and z put it about as well as I could, so I'll just say hi.  Glad to have another [hopefully] active member.  Comments, criticisms, suggestions, etc. are always welcomed, although I do recommend that you skim the forums to get an idea of where the game is going, and what bugs are already known.

Oh, and @Doc, I'm pretty sure the length of childhood is a lot less than five years;  last I checked, it was something around 60 weeks, give or take.

[DocClox]

You're right. I knew that, but I was thinking in months instead of years for some daft reason...

[dcb42]

I think they probably need to be a bit more complex than they are. I'd like to see movies make more money than brothels, but with a high startup cost, and enough complications that it's generally simpler to have girls turn tricks. Maybe we could have an "actress" skill or trait (not that porn stars are known for their thespian skills) such that not all girls were suitable for the movie business.

Maybe a "Theatrical Talent" trait that makes a girl eligible to make movies - or some kind of Exhibition statistic that calculates with Confidence and Stripping that manages her effectiveness?

'Course, if we're limiting movie-making to a certain number of effective girls, it'd be cool if there was an easier way to move girls from one brothel to another, so you could set up a dedicated movie studio... but for all I know that's addressed in the patches, which now that I poke around I haven't actually installed. So. Doing that now!

EDIT - Yep, it's there. I had thought that when I downloaded the 1.23 version I was actually downloading 1.29; I didn't realize I needed to patch it as well, I thought the patch was there for people who had older versions but the "full" version was up to date. The lesson here is "I'm a tool."

[Midnight_Amratha]

would it be useful to say that each girl has a movie skill but some won't be able to turn a profit because their skill is not high enough. if you put in a fixed value and do not allow it to increase you can have different girls earn different amounts of money, but if you want the movie to turn a profit you need to have the high-skilled girls in it. If you want some specific girl turn movies but she doesn't turn a profit you can always have some highly skilled girls to help turn a profit. btw, don't make the movie skill visible, let ppl figure out who turns a profit and who doesn't. You can even have the girls have different skills according to their specialties like BSDM and so on and make fringe movies for special markets.

[dcb42]

Right, so, having now actually played the up-to-date version (God, I'm a tool), a couple of questions and observations...

Any advice on trying to give a girl Broken Will or Mind-Fucked? Because once I had the game beaten, had 255 girls in the 6th brothel and was working on filling up the 5th again, I kind of figured I may as well try some really depraved stuff and see what works... and I took a random girl and subjected her to most every kind of degradation I could think of, but while her Rebellion stays constant at around -45 (+/- 5 or so), I just can't quite seem to shatter her brain.

On the other hand, I discovered that the player can impregnate his own enslaved daughter, so that's a good bit of depravity right there. Hey, boundaries of good taste are there to be pushed.

I don't know if the jobs got balanced out or not, but with high-class accommodations I was able to set my girls up to work in the brothel during the day and then have free time at night, and then I didn't have to think about them anymore (except for the one girl who died on me, but she had Fragile, so...). This was very, very useful, in that I didn't have to scroll through a 255-girl list to look for highlights.

On a related note, any chance we could see support for the Page Up/Page Down keys? 'Cause damn, going through that whole list with just the mouse wheel is a pain.

Also, hotkeys would be nice, if only to cut down on the carpal tunnel strain. If I'm gonna hurt my wrist playing a pornographic video game, I'd prefer it not be because of the mouse...

Otherwise... damn, this game impresses. I may have to try a Nice Guy playthrough instead of being evil all the time, just to see how well it works; damned if I know how I'm going to get the girls' rebellion down, though. Maybe with classy accommodations, so they'll be happier and love me more... hmm...

[letmein]

Going down the list...

Well, unless you wimp out and make an item, the only way to get either of those traits is with persistence and lots of torture.  Get their health low, let it rise again, slam it back down - I haven't been able to find a way to do it consistently.

Yeah, that's in there - the next update will make it so that doing this involves a chance of a deformed kid, though.

Jobs aren't balanced.  Nothing's really balanced, at the moment.

No idea about the page up/down, that's a coder's problem.  I'm sure it's possible.

Some hotkeys are implemented, but I forget what they are - I know you can switch brothels using the number keys.

[zodiac44]

Any advice on trying to give a girl Broken Will or Mind-Fucked? Because once I had the game beaten, had 255 girls in the 6th brothel and was working on filling up the 5th again, I kind of figured I may as well try some really depraved stuff and see what works... and I took a random girl and subjected her to most every kind of degradation I could think of, but while her Rebellion stays constant at around -45 (+/- 5 or so), I just can't quite seem to shatter her brain.

The rebellion mechanic is borked...not asborked as it used to be, but it's still borked.  Aside from curiosityas to how it worked (the thought of torturing anyone makes me ratherqueasy), I haven't tested the torture stuff, so I don't know how hardit is supposed to be to give a girl the broken will trait.  I suspectyou have to beat her into submission over and over again, until herrebellion hits rock bottom, then she'll have some random chance ofpicking up the trait after each subsequent torture session.

On the other hand, I discovered that the player can impregnate his own enslaved daughter, so that's a good bit of depravity right there. Hey, boundaries of good taste are there to be pushed.

You know what they say, if you can't keep it in the pants, keep it in the family.  >;o)

I don't know if the jobs got balanced out or not, but with high-class accommodations I was able to set my girls up to work in the brothel during the day and then have free time at night, and then I didn't have to think about them anymore (except for the one girl who died on me, but she had Fragile, so...). This was very, very useful, in that I didn't have to scroll through a 255-girl list to look for highlights.

Hmmm...I didn't know the accommodations level had been made to have any effect on the game as of yet.  I must have missed that in the updates.

On a related note, any chance we could see support for the Page Up/Page Down keys? 'Cause damn, going through that whole list with just the mouse wheel is a pain....Also, hotkeys would be nice, if only to cut down on the carpal tunnel strain. If I'm gonna hurt my wrist playing a pornographic video game, I'd prefer it not be because of the mouse...

I would love to see the hotkeys expanded (can we have a quicksave/quickload set pleeeeeeeeeeeeease?), and page up/page down would be a boon as well.  In the meantime, there are hotkeys (I don't know what they are off the top of my head), just type the alphabet and you'll find them.

Otherwise... damn, this game impresses. I may have to try a Nice Guy playthrough instead of being evil all the time, just to see how well it works; damned if I know how I'm going to get the girls' rebellion down, though. Maybe with classy accommodations, so they'll be happier and love me more... hmm...

Use the talk options instead of the torture options.  I gather it is slower going than torture, but you can raise love, lower hate, and lower fear all with one action.  Give them gifts (chocolates and flowers are cheap and [IIRC] raise love as well).  Having a brothel filled with girls who all think you're a gift from god has its perks.  >;o)

[letmein]

Accomodation has some effects, yeah.  The higher it is, the more the girl costs - but in return, you get a happiness boost, and a slight raise to PClove (and thus, lower rebellion).  I'm not sure if low accomodations actually have negative effects, or whether it's just an opportunity cost.

[zodiac44]

If that's all it does, it isn't really worth it.  I never have happiness problems with my girls unless they have one of the negative happiness traits or have a drug addiction.  Chocolate and flowers cures one, and drug cures fix the other.  When the new system is implemented, though, it should be an important factor.

[dcb42]

In my experience - and I have no idea if this is actually a valid game effect or if I'm seeing a pattern that isn't really there - better accommodations tend to lead to girls getting less tired while working, so I don't have to spend as much time checking to see if they're getting exhausted.

Now, this COULD be because by the time I think to raise their accommodations they've earned more Constitution through experience, too, but it seems to me, at least, that the accommodations help. am I crazy?

[dcb42]

Oh yeah, I remember the other question I had. When a customer can't pay and doesn't have daughters to throw your way, you can put him in your dungeon and sell him as a slave. Is there any benefit to torturing him, holding him for a few days, anything like that?

[zodiac44]

I think torturing him as an effect on your rep, and probably influences the rate of deadbeat customers.