WhoreMaster: Abby's Crossing

[hewhocumsbynight]

Very interesting.  Thank you for the sneak-peak:  We shall collectively wait with bated breath for your consumation.

[DocClox]

Very interesting.  Thank you for the sneak-peak:  We shall collectively wait with bated breath for your consumation.

I'll do my best. It's going to take some time, though.

I know I said I wasn't going to post any more pics for a while, but I decided that the widget that printed trait descriptions was indescribably dull



I like this one better

incidentally, the widget screen is nearly working now. Well, when i say "nearly", the traits don't display yet (but at least they're now being generated), the images resize about 50px too small for some reason and you can't buy anyone yet. but apart from that it's doing really well. Might have a shot of a working screen soonish

[hewhocumsbynight]

Very nice - I like how it invokes the feel of a Pipboy readout!

[DocClox]

Very nice - I like how it invokes the feel of a Pipboy readout!

I suppose it does. I learned to program on a green screen monitor (yup, I'm *that* old!) so that particular look always resonates with me.

I just got the trait display working. All I need now is to hook up the monitor and make the "buy" button work. And after that, I guess the next job is "Girl Management"

[rudistoned]

Code: [Select]

class SlaveMarket_Souk(SlaveMarketBase):

#
#       little func to make sure the exclusions get passed
#       to all slots
#
        def mk_slot(self, **kw):
                xs = [
                        "Demon", "Gynoid", "Undead",
                        "Not Human", "Construct",
                        "No Souk"
                ]
                return Slot(excluded=xs, **kw)



Minor nitpick: If all mk_slot does is that it always passes a list of strings to the Slot constructor, why don't you make that list an attribute of the slave market class? Like this, for example:

Code: [Select]

class SlaveMarketBase(object):
    def mk_slot(self, **kw):
         return Slot(excluded=self.girltype_exclusions, **kw)
       
class SlaveMarket_Souk(SlaveMarketBase):
    girltype_exclusions = [
                        "Demon", "Gynoid", "Undead",
                        "Not Human", "Construct",
                        "No Souk"
                ]

It works either way, just an idea that popped into my head while reading the code. I like the setup in general. I also thought the camel was a nice touch, but not nice enough to demand a comment 

[DocClox]

Minor nitpick: If all mk_slot does is that it always passes a list of strings to the Slot constructor, why don't you make that list an attribute of the slave market class? Like this, for example:

Code: [Select]

class SlaveMarketBase(object):
    def mk_slot(self, **kw):
         return Slot(excluded=self.girltype_exclusions, **kw)
       
class SlaveMarket_Souk(SlaveMarketBase):
    girltype_exclusions = [
                        "Demon", "Gynoid", "Undead",
                        "Not Human", "Construct",
                        "No Souk"
                ]

It works either way, just an idea that popped into my head while reading the code.

Yeah, that would work better, wouldn't it?

I think I just saw the code getting messy and slapped a little function around the slots just to make it look a bit neater. Didn't really give it much more thought than that.

I like the setup in general. I also thought the camel was a nice touch, but not nice enough to demand a comment 

I just had this mental image of the market being deserted, so this camel wanders over and peers into the camera.  Just my sense of humour, I suppose

[rudistoned]

I just had this mental image of the market being deserted, so this camel wanders over and peers into the camera.  Just my sense of humour, I suppose

That's about the impression I got from it. Empty, dusty streets, heat and a bored camel. Made me smile 

Sounds like you think about your game like it was a movie. You're definitely very visually oriented.

[DocClox]

Sounds like you think about your game like it was a movie. You're definitely very visually oriented.

I suppose I do. Long habit from refereeing countless face-to-face RPG sessions. I used to imagine the scene, and then work out how it would translate into game terms.  Seems to work for computer games as well

Finally got that monitor hooked up, btw. By default it prints the girl's description.



But hover over a trait and you get the description of the trait. The second screeny shows the alternate stat screen that you get when you click the "more" button



Of course, the poster seems to have sprung a display bug now, but the screen functionality is all there. Next up, girl management!

[rudistoned]

Looks very nice!

[DocClox]

Looks very nice!

It does, doesn't it. Even though I say so who shouldn't

Here's a mockup for the girl management screen.



I'm thinking of using drop down menus for the job selection, hence the absence of selection boxes. If it turns out I need 'em, there's plenty of room to make that table smaller.

Comments and suggestions are welcome

[rudistoned]

Drop-down menus (combo boxes) were my initial choice for job selection in Pytherworld. They work well for a small amount of jobs (up to 15 or so?), but are less practical for more jobs.
If you are talking about actual drop-down menus, not combo boxes, you could alleviate that problem by having sub-menus. However, that approach has limits too - everyone who tried to get into a third-tier submenu in the programs menu on Windows knows that.
SimBrothel opens a window displaying the available jobs in an iconview (a window displaying named icons). That's quite a visual approach IMHO, especially if you give each job an icon.
Another option is having a list of jobs somewhere that you can drag and drop into slots in the schedule. Not sure why that would be a good idea though.


Now I'm off to look at ldconfig. Thanks for the reply

[DocClox]

Drop-down menus (combo boxes) were my initial choice for job selection in Pytherworld. They work well for a small amount of jobs (up to 15 or so?), but are less practical for more jobs.
If you are talking about actual drop-down menus, not combo boxes, you could alleviate that problem by having sub-menus. However, that approach has limits too - everyone who tried to get into a third-tier submenu in the programs menu on Windows knows that.

Hmm... I was thinking of putting the general duty category on the table. So if the duty area was brothel, it would only display the brothel activities. They'd all need a rest option, but otherwise the list should be manageable. Balanced against that, a girl would have to do all her activites in the same duty area - so she couldn't go whoring in the morning and explore the catcombs in the evening. That shouldn't be too limiting,although it's harder to see why she might not be able to whore in one shift and work behind the bar in another. What I would miss is being able to block select a group and change them all - although I might be able to make that work

I'd need to lose one of the time slots to make room as well - lost sight of this detail when I was making the headings. Either that or use numbers rather than descriptions for happiness and so forth...

Maybe the solution is just to keep the number of possible jobs small

SimBrothel opens a window displaying the available jobs in an iconview (a window displaying named icons). That's quite a visual approach IMHO, especially if you give each job an icon.
Another option is having a list of jobs somewhere that you can drag and drop into slots in the schedule. Not sure why that would be a good idea though.

Hmm... the popup selector would be my second choice, but I can see that getting fiddly quite quickly. Which incarnation of SimBrothel is that?

Now I'm off to look at ldconfig. Thanks for the reply

No problem. Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

[rudistoned]

Hmm... the popup selector would be my second choice, but I can see that getting fiddly quite quickly. Which incarnation of SimBrothel is that?

The original one. I have not played it since the fund-raising effort. That version only had a couple jobs (9?), so it had no problems displaying them all anyway.

[DocClox]

The original one. I have not played it since the fund-raising effort. That version only had a couple jobs (9?), so it had no problems displaying them all anyway.

Fewer than that, now I look at it: Whoring, Tea Ceremony, Resting and four training options. Seven in total. Just shows that we don't need so much complication to make a good game

And on the subject of needless complication:



That's constructed in game, but still with mock-up data. I might end up re-thinking the whole thing yet - a screen that's going to get looked at so much should be clearer, I feel. I'll see how it goes, I guess.

The alignment on some of those buttons could stand some smartening up too, now I look at it again. Oh well...

[rudistoned]

You could use colour indicators instead of the grade-like system. Something like a little lamp, turning from green to yellow to red. Easiest to implement and understand are probably three (or five) hand-picked colours for that lamp. More information could be provided by implementing a gradual change between the "border colours", but I've only done that for progress bars showing the whole gradient, so I don't know how to do it for a single spot.