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Author Topic: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod .06 is out now  (Read 1025487 times)

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Offline trex

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #540 on: December 08, 2012, 05:11:51 AM »
Thanks, it makes more sense.


To stop women becoming too powerful too soon (soon for me is 1-5 years from the start lol) perhaps you could consider making so only one trait levels up on her leveling up, and including your idea of 'trait caps', only traits that have room to grow? (maybe this is what you already intend though)


Perhaps +2 to an affiliated stat so say charismatic=>+2 charisma if chosen on level up to a maximum of 5 times, ending with that capped out trait giving +10 charisma. She would have had to level to lvl 5 minimum.


With women having obviously more then one trait, this would give small incremental gains. Considering traits could only be gained over time by job performance or age (or instantly via items), you will be diluting the pool as time goes on.


Perhaps to make it more even, you could code it so no trait is consecutively chosen? Or discourage the 'easy' option of items adding traits, if possible, by making traits added via items not level. So this trait system is more kind to women who've gained their traits the 'hard' way?


Diversifying the stats the traits give +2 (or whatever per level you feel is appropriate) to would help even out the women's progression, but perhaps lopsided women make sense if they've only been a stripper their entire career (specialization perk)?

This proposed idea would fit very well with the change of excluding gaining traits every 5 levels, as long as job-related gained traits is not too generous, maybe set a minimum time for a women to of had done a job before being eligible for gaining a job-related traitand for added challenge, the minimum time starts when she is doing the job to an acceptable level? (This may already be present though)


I'm pressed for time, I would of liked to say something about merging both PP's and your ideas for traits but I haven't thought too much about it, would it be feasible, and something you would consider?




Offline Xela

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #541 on: December 08, 2012, 05:35:11 AM »
 I generally dislike everything that limits possibilities. Girls being able to get a lot of traits shouldn't be a problem... Also is there an ending planned in with the mod? If not why are overpowered girls a problem at all?

 Also ability to pump up your favorite girls t the max of everything fast is a fairly important part of the game experience.
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Offline Parlarkey

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #542 on: December 08, 2012, 09:44:20 AM »
I generally dislike everything that limits possibilities. Girls being able to get a lot of traits shouldn't be a problem... Also is there an ending planned in with the mod? If not why are overpowered girls a problem at all?

 Also ability to pump up your favorite girls t the max of everything fast is a fairly important part of the game experience.

For you perhaps, I don't find having maxed girls fast very appealing. I prefer to play my game a bit more micro-managey, trying to get the most out of every week. I rarely even get to end the second year before starting over, the infinite gold (which is on PP's shortlist) and overpowered girls having ruined the experience by then. I usually avoid the OP girls in the shop on purpose these days, making a note to trim down their .girlsx files later by removing some traits and/or lowering the base stats.

Of course, you could do the opposite and just beef up your favourites if you find them lacking, that's the beauty of the system :). Even if a whole new system concerning traits is implemented (which I hope, I really like the idea), creating a simple modifier in the config.xml to have traits level faster (default 1.0 but you can set it to 5.0 if you want traits to go up five times as fast for instance), players of both preferences would still get the system they want. The downside of the current system is that the starting statistics of a girl are (in my opinion) too good too fast, without there being a lot of ways to limit this.
 
That's the only thing I miss about WM EX: while it is sort of a one trick pony it has a certain depth in its strategy that the basic WM lacked, it basically being just a fancy way to check out your image collection. I'm really digging all the extra additions crazy and PP have added already and are planning to add in the future, hoping their WM mod will become just as challenging as a management game as it is fun to just browse through collections.

Offline trex

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #543 on: December 08, 2012, 10:29:40 AM »
Xela, Parlarkey, you both make good & valid points.


Xela, I think the one fair way to boost the amount of traits you may find lacking is items. Quite a few members on the board have made their interest in developing and releasing more items. I too will be creating items. I plan on making it very comprehensive, and also I'd release it in two, possibly three variations, easy (cheap to buy), vanilla (roughly based on current items costings) and expensive (act as an optional gold sink). If and when this would become a reality, I think there'd be at least some more items available by the time any changed traits system would be released.


Of course parlarkey's ideas are also a remedy if you don't feel using items is something you'd be interested in. I understand that items too can be tedious and something some players do avoid using, it can become a pain to micromanage many girls this way.


There are many girlpacks available designed to have high amounts of traits and stats still around. And it is easy enough to edit a girlsx file if you'd rather something be towards your taste. And any changes to the trait system would not effect those packs. There hasn't been mention of an endpoint being added in this mod, and breaking away from the original WM and adding new and different systems is the ultimate decision of the mod makers.


It is good to hear more opinions though, is there any sort of compromise or easing of difficulty/harshness you'd consider for a new traits system? Crazy seems fairly adamant in axing the traits added by leveling, but maybe there's something you'd like to see?


Parlarkey, I like the idea of adding the traits speed into the config (if possible). I guess you may also of included the trait acquisition rate from job-performance. Maybe two separate config switches for both of those ideas would allow a simple compromised solution in regards to the amount of traits?


The amount of traits a girl starts with is obviously up to the pack maker and the player. I'll consider this when making my packs, and add in two .girlsx files that hopefully saves players wanting either option from having to manually make changes.



« Last Edit: December 08, 2012, 10:36:09 AM by trex »

Offline Xela

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #544 on: December 08, 2012, 11:00:52 AM »
Well, I trust in crazy's judgement as we had very similar issues with WM:EX and this mod was supposed to add new elements while not drowning player in micro and narrow development paths.

I've not been dropping any ideas lately since starting to develop my own version of SimBrothel and helping out with Alkion whenever possible but this trait thing seemed odd.

btw I can adapt this mod to my needs when it is done, with items or through editing hard code (I've learned a bit of C++ before switching to Python since I wanted to do what crazy is doing now), my concern was for general playability rather than having this suit my own needs :)
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Offline Parlarkey

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #545 on: December 08, 2012, 01:23:42 PM »
Playability is always a top priority of course, I'm not advocating EX's system which, while interesting, was very constricting in terms of how you had to build up your brothel. Both the small specialized approach and Walmart approach have their merits, and I must say I've tried both and found them both enjoyable at times... it really depends on my mood.

I personally think that using a leveling system would be a good way to make girls scale up over time, so it's more rewarding to buy certain girls early and improve them rather than the current "What you see is what you get" approach if you're not blasting through the years. However, for fans of the Walmart approach this might be an undesirable system, requiring them to go through the summary screens of all their brothels weekly to find out if anyone leveled so they can level up the traits they like. Perhaps an option to automate the level up process (not sure what the criteria would be though.. largest increase in stats? Make categories and let the game prioritize traits that give, say, Combat if Combat is chosen in auto level up?) could be added to meet the players who aren't too keen on going over the weekly summary every time to see if a girl happens to have leveled up. Or am I misunderstanding you and is the leveling up to be fully automated in the first place?

The config.xml has numerous options already, if trait gaining speed could be added as well that would be great. I'd say that the more features that can be scaled in the .xml, the better. It lets everyone play the game just the way they like it, putting more emphasis on the mechanics they find interesting and reducing the effect of the mechanics they find undesirable. Of course, this shouldn't be used as a get-out-of-jail free card to add a ton of stuff that a lot of people might find undesirable. The game should be well playable and user-friendly, right out of the box.

And now that we're mentioning playability... one of the things I would like to request (if at all feasible) is that if anyone is working on the interface, would it be possible to get all the stats of a girl onto one page? I can understand that it's too much information to put on one page if you're running 800x600 resolution, but for those playing on higher resolutions (I usually modify my ScreenMode file to 1400 900, but haven't touched the interface files yet) there should be enough room for all information. Less clicking would be easier comparing.

Also, a girl's Constitution is not mentioned in the slave market... whereas it's a pretty important modifier to know, in terms of how much you can put her to work before she has to rest. Is there any particular reason why Constitution is hidden?

Offline crazy

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #546 on: December 08, 2012, 09:52:17 PM »
Also, a girl's Constitution is not mentioned in the slave market... whereas it's a pretty important modifier to know, in terms of how much you can put her to work before she has to rest. Is there any particular reason why Constitution is hidden?
Your right it should be on there I'll look at having it on there for the next patch.

Offline trex

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #547 on: December 08, 2012, 10:00:52 PM »
Your correct in that I was thinking that it should be automated. The game would just randomly pick one of the traits to boost, maybe it could just boost the trait that's most relevant to the job the girl does most/or just the job they're on that particular week.


I think that's the point, if there is going to be an addition that some don't like/want, well they can 'opt out' by rigging the system to basically be to their liking. All players could alter it to their preference out of the box, because pleasing everyone with the default is fairly unrealistic.


I too would like to see the interface set up, but for 1920x1200. So perhaps if the gallery and other buttons for the arena/clinic/other is also being worked on for the next immediate release, could it be possible for a few different higher resolution interfaces to also be released?

Offline PinkPervert

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #548 on: December 09, 2012, 03:08:25 AM »
I'm too tired to comment on a lot of the last two pages, but I will say that one of my future plans is to create an IN-game option system. Hopefully in the long run be able to do away with having to edit the config.xml file.

Offline dpman03

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #549 on: December 09, 2012, 03:34:36 PM »
...would you suggest anything I should be aware of or anything you've noticed from making items?

The technical end of making items is pretty straightforward.  If you happen to edit the XML directly, the names of things like traits have to be exact.  Even a change in capitalization will cause it not to work.  Also, the game already has some items with different possible effects.  They're basically just different versions with the same name in the items file.  Unfortunately, they don't actually work.  When you save the game, the XML save file just includes the item name.  It has nothing to indicate the different versions.  When it's loaded again, the game searches through the items list and matches it to the first entry it finds.

The most difficult part was balancing items and writing good descriptions.  The descriptions can only be about 12 lines (in the very small box in the editor).  Otherwise they'll start running off the page in the actual game.  Keep in mind that 12 lines has to include the list of effects.  The descriptions are probably as important as anything, since that's the kind of thing that makes the game more than just a bunch of stats and mechanics.  A couple of the items I've made were more for "fluff" and adding to the feel of the game, rather than affecting gameplay.

As for balancing, it's nice to be able to throw some powerful effect on an item, but there obviously needs to be something to offset it.  There's always adding negative effects, but you also can use both the rarity and cost of the items.  I prefer to go in that order, since money eventually becomes less and less of a problem.  If I want to make a really powerful items, I just make it "catacombs only," since that makes it kind of a rare and special reward.  Finally, don't forget to consider how an item will interact with other items in the game.  If one item can add to the effects of another, or stop it's negative effects, the combination may end up being way too powerful.

I generally dislike everything that limits possibilities. Girls being able to get a lot of traits shouldn't be a problem... Also is there an ending planned in with the mod? If not why are overpowered girls a problem at all?

 Also ability to pump up your favorite girls t the max of everything fast is a fairly important part of the game experience.

I wouldn't disagree with the idea of girls becoming really powerful.  Bur as it stands, you can just selectively buy ones with good attributes and traits and then equip them with the right items.  They start out immensely powerful, and there isn't much reason to ever interact with them again.  It makes the game focus mostly on setting up new girls and acquiring the right items.  It's important not to make the player keep doing a bunch of boring management over time, but earning new traits and skills could make the player feel like they're being rewarded.

With no level caps, girls would end up being at least as powerful as they are now.  It would also be exceptionally great if the player got to make some choices about how they progressed, since that's going to be a lot more fun than it happening automatically.  However, as I've already mentioned, I don't know how feasible that would be.  At minimum, it would probably require a complete rewrite of the leveling functions, along with adding something to the interface to make it happen.

Offline Unchained

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #550 on: December 10, 2012, 12:09:22 AM »
I think it's been hashed through before, but personally I'd love to see the option to limit the number of starting traits/attributes, with anything beyond the base added through gameplay or breeding. Basically giving the player the ability to handicap themselves to whatever degree they choose, similar to many of the other options in the editor. Breeding's been discussed extensively, and is more involved than it sounds, but limited traits might be more feasible?

Offline crazy

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #551 on: December 15, 2012, 04:28:22 AM »
New version posted http://www.mediafire.com/?4wraa9fvvn61iq7
New to this version
1. Movies have been reworked with new jobs and it can now make a profit (they was quite a lot of work done here)
2. A second gallery was added so you can see all pic types now
3. brothel setup screen now matches new buildings so you will need to set them up for each building
4. .ani images will now work for the new types I added as before they wouldn't
5. Some hotkey changes
6. Several bug fixes

As always plz let us know what bugs you find and enjoy.

Offline F-Trill

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #552 on: December 15, 2012, 05:51:27 AM »
Looking forward to this, Crazy!  Thanks!

Offline rxformula91

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #553 on: December 15, 2012, 08:34:20 AM »
Thanks for the new file, btw any chance to post the source?  thanks

Offline E.

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Re: Combining the big mods aka crazy's mod
« Reply #554 on: December 15, 2012, 12:06:53 PM »
Two things:
First, the movie income is not actually earned.
It says that I gained 20000 gold, but the amount I possess does not change.


Then, what stats actually determine a girl's performance in the studio?
...