Future suggestions to improve difficulty

[exodia91]

Giving unique Named characters a special ability, but limiting the use of them so you have to use generic characters is a feature started by sim brothel? Your argument is that it's "what simbrothel did"... that's not really an argument. Secondly, this isn't really an H game, I don't even spend time looking at girls pics in turn summary. And I think random girls are meant to be the meat of your brothels, its just the torrent of girlpack mods that changed this.

[letmein]

Wait...   you've spent hours looking for pictures for your mods, and you don't even look at them?  Huh.  Well, thanks for finding the pics for *me*, anyway.

And you're right; it's not strictly an argument.  It's more of an opinion, but one that may be pertinent to the discussion.

As for whether random girls are supposed to be the main part of your brothels, well, that may have been (probably was, actually) the original goal but given that the girlpack mods *do* exist now, I would think that the assessment should change accordingly.  The girls are there now, and I think it's safe to assume pretty much everyone that plays the game for more than an hour has at least a couple of them downloaded.  Given that there has, indeed, been a change the game should probably change with it - that's why necno is using beta releases to begin with.  You may disagree, but I would guess (perhaps wrongly) that necno does not.  Given that a change should be made, the question is "what change?", and I (along with some others) am only giving a couple possible answers to that question.

And as for balance:  I think that *IF* a randomizer is created, it would be a LOT easier to balance than a lot of random mods.  Mods, by definition, are not standardized to the game itself but to the mod author's intentions - this idea would reverse that once again.

[zodiac44]

or, instead of all the crazy complicated stat system changes which would take forever to balance perfectly, you could limit how many unique girls can be in each brothel, and tweak the random girls stat probabilities. You would need to make them more special in some way, say give them custom abilities, but only allow like 3 in a brothel at any given time. This would make unique girls more "unique", and balance them at the same time. It would also give random girls their time to shine, and if you make great looking random girls rarer, solves your problem too.

I would hate a change like that.  Maybe we could make it an option, but I would simply not play the game if it was mandatory.  I dislike the random girls for a number of reasons, the primary one being that it is next to impossible to distinguish one from another.  If you kept unique girls unique, but randomized their stats, then you still would have only one of each.  Much easier to manage.

[Balmung60]

hmm, my thoughts on a randomizer its that it shouldn't be completley random, but rather based on the given stats, because if its completely random, the unique girls also feel less special

[letmein]

I dunno...  I think that most people would make traits the deciding factor on "uniqueness";  I know that I do.  Stats are pretty ignorable in the main, since they're too easily changed and (at this point, anyhow) they tend to resemble each other at steady 100%'s across the board.  Of course, a lot of the traits are repeated everywhere too, but that's a discussion made elsewhere.

[zodiac44]

Well, since nearly every skill/stat in the game is trainable/adjustable to the max/min desired, all girls skills and stats tend to end up looking rather similar except for traits and the looks stat.  Rebelliousness can vary as well, but a dedicated player can fix that too.

That being the case, I really don't see why it makes any difference at all what the values are for the majority of starting skills and traits.  From my perspective, the only thing I care about is how long it will take to train the girl up to the maximum so I can put her to work.

[Mehzerz]

I think one way to improve difficulty would be instead of starting with 4k of YOUR money. It's being loaned to you by one of your fathers friends.
Depending on whether or not there's a difficulty choice can not only effect how much money you start with but also how much interest is. As it stands 4k is actually more than enough to keep you started. I only spend about half that giving myself 4 gangs and about 2 girls. (Of 80+ beauty)
Or instead of it being a part of the difficulty it could be an option AFTER choosing difficulty. While Hard mode or Extreme what have you will force you to start with a loan.
Paying it back can just be a button added to the bank, I suppose you can even add a button to take out another loan with a maximum of whatever.
The only problem with this... is that it just makes the beginning more difficult rather than the game as a whole. But as it stands the game is painfully easy anyways.

[Rose]

I'm definitely against the idea to limit the number of custom girls in a brothel. I enjoy the variety, and I personally never have more than one of each type of random girl in a single game. As for a stat randomiser, it sounds like a neat option to have, but it shouldn't be mandatory. If a randomizer was made, it should be a selectable option so you can choose wether to use it or not.

[Mehzerz]

Another would be to boost rebellion. Some girls have insane amounts of it and it takes a life time to remove them of it. This is common with unique girls and girls you find outside the market (which makes sense)
While I do think girls you find in the market should have a low, low rebellion. Many of them... many of which have a beauty of 80+ are still in the negatives of rebellion. I think slaves should have a rebellion of 0-40/50 at least. (Highest I've seen is 15 or so) I'm aware that girls are random but if they're to receive a new master against their will. I would think... depending on how their previous master treated them. They'd be some what against you at first. I don't think it'd be too unusual to have to re-enforce who is the boss when girls have higher stats. I have no clue as to how girls stats/prices affect them. However I think buying/selling should be determined by not only how good they are in bed but their over-all stats as well. Beauty in particular should have a HUGE increase in cost.
Everything in the game is far TOO cheap. Girls included. I'm still amazed how I can get an elegant gown for 30 bucks but have to spend 200 for makeup. Also not entirely related to difficulty, but would be nice if we could see what an item does in its description Such as
Elegant gown - Blah blah blah +5 to looks
Or however much it increases.
The economics in this game are still pretty out of whack. Which could be changed dramatically with the new building system.


I mentioned it a while ago in another topic, but another thing that could be considered is girls refusing to work if you let them get away with anything. They'll refuse to work, expect expensive accommodations. Perhaps even pocket money.
While being too mean to them will have them make attempts at your life, tell authorities on you, share secrets with rival gangs ect. ect.
But that... could get complicated code wise. :/ 

[Bloodly]

There is a different answer to the stat question.

Cap maximum stats by level(Possible 'except for one at random'-a lot of girls might have stats above the max, would be cool if every level gained unlocked another one for taking to 100).  Also make training grant EXP as well as stats.  Then make it so it's a little easier to GET levels so you're not stuck in a rut for too long.  255 takes an absolute age to get, and the benefit is honestly small.  100 always seemed far more reasonable to me....

Make the level mean something.

[Mehzerz]

There is a different answer to the stat question.

Cap maximum stats by level(Possible 'except for one at random'-a lot of girls might have stats above the max).  Also make training grant EXP as well as stats.  Then make it so it's a little easier to GET levels so you're not stuck in a rut for too long.  255 takes an absolute age to get, and the benefit is honestly small.  100 always seemed far more reasonable to me....

Make the level mean something.

Stat caps isn't a bad idea. It'll give equipped items a longer use as well. And yeah, it takes ages to level your girls. I believe the only benefit is how much they cost per encounter? The problem is finding out where stats should be capped. Say the cap is 25 you put an item on her and her stats will be 30. Or a specific trait will increase it to 30 or what have you.


I like this idea... lol, I don't know if anyone else will though.

[Bloodly]

I saw the baseline as roughly 50-55%, with the cap increasing by 5-10 per level.  A lot of the random and even custom girls don't go that much higher than that to begin.

This would also allow some variance in price and skills when buying and selling-a level 8 would be worth far, FAR more than a level 1, for instance.  Hopefully there'd be major profits in it.  Training and selling off should be do-able and even profitable, given that you have several sources of 'infinite' girls.  The profit would have to be extreme given the amount of time it would take...

[DocClox]

I saw the baseline as roughly 50-55%, with the cap increasing by 5-10 per level.  A lot of the random and even custom girls don't go that much higher than that to begin.

This would also allow some variance in price and skills when buying and selling-a level 8 would be worth far, FAR more than a level 1, for instance.  Hopefully there'd be major profits in it.  Training and selling off should be do-able and even profitable, given that you have several sources of 'infinite' girls.  The profit would have to be extreme given the amount of time it would take...

I broadly agree. It should take more work to max out a girl, and it should be possible to make good money selling her on. Although, I don't think I'd want the selling price to be too profitable, A well trained girl should be virtually priceless. It's just that you can't always find a buyer who can afford what she's worth.

Might be worth having an annual slave fair as well, where the serious dealers can be found and you can sometimes get prices approaching what the girl is worth. That would give you a training deadline, and maybe the chance to buy and sell some rare items...

[zodiac44]

What if we made levels the source of improvement in stats?  Have training and working grant XP, and then each level grants skill/stat points to be distributed either uniformly, at random, or by the player (set as an option on the config screen).

As far as the selling price for girls goes, I worked out the basic formula for fully trained girls:
f = selling price for fully trained girl
e = earnings per customer
c = expected number of customers per week
m = cost of maintenance
i = expected rate of return on the investment

f = (e * c - m)/i

Less than fully trained girls is:
u = cost of untrained girl
w = expected number of weeks it will take to train fully
t = cost per week to train the girl

u = f * (1 + i)^(-w) - t * (1 - (1 + i)^(-w))/i

Those formulae solve the problem from a strictly financial standpoint.  Given that current max customers per girl is 16 per week, assuming 0 maintenance costs, a price of 100 per customer, and an expected return of 10% per week, the maximum price a fully trained girl would sell for is 16,000.

Financial formulae aside, there is room for fudge factors when taking traits into account (how do you value "Cool Scars" or "Aggressive" as examples).  There is further room for fudging if we assume that there are intangible values associated with slave ownership which drive prices up.  These can have an exponential growth if the benefits are tied to a stat - like beauty - which is highly prized by owners even if it doesn't have a great effect on their bottom lines.

[Bloodly]

The issue there is it resembles Sim Brothel Flash Edition a little too much to be comfortable.