different settings

[tiamat343]

I don't mean anything crazy like an empire spanning the country in dozens of cities or whatever. My suggestion would be, at the start of the game, you get to decide which city (or district or region or whatever) you'd like to start in. Each setting has a few unique characteristics but otherwise wouldn't affect gameplay (and therefore hopefully wouldn't require much to code).


For example, a scientific city renowned for its cutting edge, if somewhat unorthodox, medical practices. Girls regain health faster, but disease outbreaks are somewhat more common. You can sell bodies from your dungeon for medical research (for less than selling a live slave, obviously) or donate it for + to rep, though obviously not more than you'd get for killing anyone. Pay for operations that can give random traits to a girl, good or bad (on average good, since most people wouldn't like to risk it)


or, center of commerce city. Your girls earn slightly more but are more likely to get attacked, robbed, whatever. Raising accomodation costs more due to cramped conditions. Prices are slightly lower, perhaps fluctuate from month to month depending on trade.


vatican-like city (some religious place). Your presence is tolerated as a necessary evil. Less chance of crime against you, but authorities get on your ass if you have any low rep. Catacombs may offer greater yield. Haha, perhaps make abortions lower your rep in this city (oh silly catholics).


I hope you get the idea. Even if you don't like the settings I made up, they're just possibilities. Starting in a different city wouldn't affect your gameplay drastically at all... to be honest, if anything I went rather overboard in coming up with unique effects from each setting. It'd just be nice to customize a bit more (perhaps different building pics, without much trouble on either the part of the developer or player.

[letmein]

This isn't planned for the main release, but Doc is looking into making mods of different cities.  I'm not sure whether these will just be cosmetic or actually affect gameplay - it probably depends on how motivated he is, and what the base game looks like when its done.

Personally, I'm not a fan of introducing this sort of thing into the main game - it just seems like an unnecessary complication, in a game that's already pretty complicated and on the road to getting worse.  Keeping extras that don't really do anything except screw with game balance isn't a good idea.  As a mod, though, it might be a good idea - mods generally don't have to worry so much about balancing, and can make things for the sake of being neato.

[DocClox]

Oh, if I get it done, it will definitely affect gameplay. There are two parts to what I have in mind.

• The first one is just an expansion to the current skinning features ofthe game. It'll convert the screen layouts to use XML and let you addarbitrary images and the like.
• For the second one though, I want to replace necno's home grownscripting language with lua, and shift a lot more of the game mechanicsinto scripts.
• The third part (which should be pretty easy) is to let modders attach scripts to their own buttons and the like.

If I get that far, the game becomes more of a game engine. You'll be able to change the mechanics, because the mechanics are just scripts. You'll be able to add and remove screens, change the interface.

After that, I want to do a mod as a demo for these features, but that's got two threads already, so I won't talk about that here.

[tiamat343]

Looking into doc's thread, I see that he's already got something similar planned and could be interesting. However, my suggestion isn't anything so drastic, just some background changes with minor effects on the game, rather than

Basically the same engine, but different content

that doc is looking into. Tweaking numbers, not content, like raising acommodation in a large crowded city while lowering item prices slightly reflecting its trading nature (and new skins to keep things fresh, perhaps?) Yeah, I definitely went overboard with what I suggested before. I suppose there's no need for this suggestion at all if doc's mods goes smoothly, otherwise I think some kind of minor additions for the main game would be beneficial.

edit: by the way doc (hi, didn't see your post til now =)) I'd love to help your project through creative contributions, though I'm afraid I'm ignorant of coding and scripting.

[DocClox]

I can see where you're coming from. Sort of like the different schools in Hentai High.

Tell you what - let us try and get the basic game a bit better balanced, and we'll look into it.

[necno]

I'm kinda new to XML (well i covered it at UNI but was asleep most of the time) so its good to have Doc on board. Although I'm picking it up quickly