Development idea

[Midnight_Amratha]

like all the development games that unlock abilities, crewmembers and other previously inaccessible constructions, would the idea of gaining access to special girls when you reach thresholds in gold amount, girl amount and defeated opponents have any merit? also the access to special rooms/ activities when you have a certain number of brothels? perhaps the access to buy a brothel when you reach a special number or do a certain event?
 
i know it sounds more like a construction game than a basic customer-on-girl concept but the idea of just buying a new brothel when the first is stuffed to the rafters with girls doesn't have much in the sense of game concept to me.
 
i'm a bit unsure on which way you are aiming with the game.

[DocClox]

like all the development games that unlock abilities, crewmembers and other previously inaccessible constructions, would the idea of gaining access to special girls when you reach thresholds in gold amount, girl amount and defeated opponents have any merit?

Well, I do want to greatly increase the control a girl designer has over where and when the girls can be encountered. I've not got the details sorted out yet, but yes, probably.

  also the access to special rooms/ activities when you have a certain number of brothels? perhaps the access to buy a brothel when you reach a special number or do a certain event?

Definitely. Some rooms are going to need an event to unlock them. Most brothels will be bound to a ward, and some may need additional events to unlock them.

  i know it sounds more like a construction game than a basic customer-on-girl concept but the idea of just buying a new brothel when the first is stuffed to the rafters with girls doesn't have much in the sense of game concept to me.

I agree. Currently you can expand the current brothel to as many slots as you like and keep adding girls. There ought to be a point where that hits diminishing returns. In particular I'd like to model the customer population, so you'd get to the point where everyone so inclined was already spending all their money at your brothel, and if you want to make more money, you need to open premises in another ward with fresh punters. 

[Lorde]

 
i know it sounds more like a construction game than a basic customer-on-girl concept but the idea of just buying a new brothel when the first is stuffed to the rafters with girls doesn't have much in the sense of game concept to me.

Doesn't make for much of a sandbox right now either. I've said it before but I would welcome the challenge some limits would bring. And Unlocking things as I do better in the game would be very refreshing.

[Mehzerz]

Definitely. Some rooms are going to need an event to unlock them. Most brothels will be bound to a ward, and some may need additional events to unlock them. 

Would it be possible to assign uniques to specific wards? That'd be pretty awesome.

[DocClox]

Would it be possible to assign uniques to specific wards? That'd be pretty awesome.

I don't see why not. I'm thinking of giving each girl a lua snippet which takes infomation on the context and returns true if it's ok to appear there and false otherwise. Also probably a relative weighting for each girl so you can specify how commonly she might be found inside her tier. So you'd be able to specify some things like "only in Spark End, if the day is odd numbered and the player is holding the Universal Transmogrifier Device".


'Course, that'd be overkill for most girls, so I think it would have to accept things like "catacombs-3" or "pinchpenny slave market". Like I say, I haven't got it all nailed down yet.

[edit]

I'm also thinking about implementing an idea I think zodaic raised a while back, and having the unique girls pre-allocated to various locations. So some of them might be working in a rival's brothel, or linked to an event, and you'd have to hunt to find a specific one. Something to keep the "gotta catch 'em all" types happy

[Lorde]

[edit]

I'm also thinking about implementing an idea I think zodaic raised a while back, and having the unique girls pre-allocated to various locations. So some of them might be working in a rival's brothel, or linked to an event, and you'd have to hunt to find a specific one. Something to keep the "gotta catch 'em all" types happy

I kinda fit into this category. Would be nice to be able to hunt for a specific girl instead of relying on blind luck. 

[Mehzerz]

I don't see why not. I'm thinking of giving each girl a lua snippet which takes infomation on the context and returns true if it's ok to appear there and false otherwise. Also probably a relative weighting for each girl so you can specify how commonly she might be found inside her tier. So you'd be able to specify some things like "only in Spark End, if the day is odd numbered and the player is holding the Universal Transmogrifier Device".


'Course, that'd be overkill for most girls, so I think it would have to accept things like "catacombs-3" or "pinchpenny slave market". Like I say, I haven't got it all nailed down yet.

[edit]

I'm also thinking about implementing an idea I think zodaic raised a while back, and having the unique girls pre-allocated to various locations. So some of them might be working in a rival's brothel, or linked to an event, and you'd have to hunt to find a specific one. Something to keep the "gotta catch 'em all" types happy

Oh yeah, that would definitely be cool. I had an idea about meeting a girl in several locations, and through various dialogue choices you may get her or not.


Or meeting a young girl/boy and your various actions toward them would outline their path later on down the road. Whether they die, turn into a rival, gang leader, fall for you, ect. (That's more scripting though)

like all the development games that unlock abilities, crewmembers and other previously inaccessible constructions, would the idea of gaining access to special girls when you reach thresholds in gold amount, girl amount and defeated opponents have any merit? also the access to special rooms/ activities when you have a certain number of brothels? perhaps the access to buy a brothel when you reach a special number or do a certain event?

I always thought the MC could use some sort of abilities/stats or the like. (It's been discussed multiple times) I don't know about anyone else, but I always thought it'd be kind of cool to use my MC to delve into the catacombs, to fight my rivals personally. Now you can't expect everyone to want to go that route so an MC with stats you can define would be optimal. Mine would be more strength and combat based. But maybe someone would prefer a more deceptive cunning MC who can talk his way out of anything. So he'd be able to have more talk actions with girls, come across them quicker in the streets ect.


There's a lot that could be done. But I don't think anyone has really said their thoughts behind it. Only that they wanted stats. well what's the point of stats and abilities if he/she/it can't do anything with them?

[DocClox]

I kinda fit into this category. Would be nice to be able to hunt for a specific girl instead of relying on blind luck. 

So that would change the placement mechanism from saying yes/no to a specific location, to saying "this is where this one should go". Or I could just cycle randomly through locations until I got one that worked. Slower, but only needs doing on a new game. Then again, new games take long enough already when you have a lot of girls... need to think about this one...

Or meeting a young girl/boy and your various actions toward them would outline their path later on down the road. Whether they die, turn into a rival, gang leader, fall for you, ect. (That's more scripting though)

Doable. I want to have a girl that you have to meet several times before you can acquire her. Your idea would use the same mechanism.

  I always thought the MC could use some sort of abilities/stats or the like. (

On the todo list . Well, it is now anyway

    There's a lot that could be done. But I don't think anyone has really said their thoughts behind it. Only that they wanted stats. well what's the point of stats and abilities if he/she/it can't do anything with them?

No point at all, really.  The sex ones are the most obvious in application: higher your skills, the more effective your sex actions are. I want to add some general skills anyway. A persuasion skill is likely to be among them, since my characters all tend to be talky types. Again, it's something I've not thought out in detail as yet.

[Lorde]

So that would change the placement mechanism from saying yes/no to a specific location, to saying "this is where this one should go". Or I could just cycle randomly through locations until I got one that worked. Slower, but only needs doing on a new game. Then again, new games take long enough already when you have a lot of girls... need to think about this one...

Point taken.

I was thinking along the lines of playing out scenarios to unlock different girls. Example: The Alexandra sisters. Get one in your brothel, the other comes looking for her. Hilarity ensues. That sorta thing. Script writers can take care of the specifics. And Girl creators can take care of the placement. Least that's how I saw it.

[DocClox]

Point taken.

I was thinking along the lines of playing out scenarios to unlock different girls. Example: The Alexandra sisters. Get one in your brothel, the other comes looking for her. Hilarity ensues. That sorta thing. Script writers can take care of the specifics. And Girl creators can take care of the placement. Least that's how I saw it.

Oh yeah - that certainly

Definitely we are going to see event only girls. Or maybe event override in this case. Hmmm.....

[laverinthe]

Maybe you could have special girls be the Matrons of rival brothels that you obtain when the gang burns it down.

[DocClox]

Or maybe just working there, and they get dragged off as booty (if you'll pardon the term) when you do a successful raid.

The downside of that, of course, is that when you get raided, you may lose girls to the raiders.

[laverinthe]

And when you finally turn the tide and burn down their brothel, your previously kidnapped girl is returned to you.  Easy peasy

[Midnight_Amratha]

the stats abilities idea on the Main Character is a nice way to go, only PLEASE don't allow a 100/100/100/100 personality it never sat well with me that the brawny guy was also a smooth talker, make the stats interact, so that if you push one stat, another or several others are deteriorating. that way your actions define the way girls react to you and also the co-operation of gang members and the bureaocracy and other whore masters in the game.
be mister nice guy will make the girls react favorably but cost you in the work morale of your gangmembers and consequently the respect from other whore masters. be a tough guy and treat all around you rough and you have unfailing respect from your gang members but the grudge of the public falls harder on you.
some consistency in the way the various factions interact with you
 
hope i'm not too demanding

[Lorde]

the stats abilities idea on the Main Character is a nice way to go, only PLEASE don't allow a 100/100/100/100 personality it never sat well with me that the brawny guy was also a smooth talker, make the stats interact, so that if you push one stat, another or several others are deteriorating. that way your actions define the way girls react to you and also the co-operation of gang members and the bureaocracy and other whore masters in the game.
be mister nice guy will make the girls react favorably but cost you in the work morale of your gangmembers and consequently the respect from other whore masters. be a tough guy and treat all around you rough and you have unfailing respect from your gang members but the grudge of the public falls harder on you.
some consistency in the way the various factions interact with you
 
hope i'm not too demanding

This sounds like a good idea. An alternative for those who really want characters with 100 in every stat is to set it up so that you earn less for stats you aren't pushing as hard.

Say you have 4 stats... Say Strength, Charm, Inteligence, Cunning (Using these for example purposes) Increase strength early on and it gets a x2 bonus. All others increase at x1. Increase str a bit further and it gets a x3 bonus. Now increase charm and it will get a x2 bonus. But will never get a x3 bonus until it passes str. At which point charm has the x3 bonus and str is demoted to a x2.

The bonuses themselves should be limited to 1 each of x4, x3, and x2. And if a stat caps, it pretty much owns that bonus. Meaning your first stat that caps will eliminate the x4 bonus from the other stats.

This way I figure you emulate natural strengths and weaknesses while not having to hard code "Character types" (Bruiser, Charmer that sorta thing.) While at the same time emulating someone trying to increase there weaker talents through hard work.