I don't mind complexity, prolly would prefer an interesting system to a linear one. Ranks names we need to come up with as well.
Alright, cool.
Well, let's start throwing ideas around then.
Things we want to achieve- A dynamic system that incentivizes changes without forcing them
- Rank-up rewards that feel rewarding
- Limits that make sense both early and late in the game
- Mechanics that don't snowball without breaking the rewards
The first point suggests a non-linear system simply because waiting for a condition then pressing the rank-up button (as it is now) isn't dynamic, it's boring after the 3rd time. Essentially, rank changes need to work and make sense both ways (up and down) - which will also help the 3rd point a lot.
In order for the last point to work with that, a fixed amount of "openings" for every rank is the most obvious approach, but it also needs to scale with the overall amount of girls employed by the player.
And the rewards? Mostly a balance issue I'd say, but the first step to make it feel more rewarding (without messing with the balance) would be to only allow a promotion if there are enough girls in the tier that the girl should be promoted from. That also makes sense because you never have more superiors than workers, whatever job it is. However, that amount may not be too high (otherwise high tiers would require insane amounts of employees).
As a side effect this would require to find new employees near constantly, therefore providing motivation no matter how long you keep playing.
So how could that workLet's see.
- For every rank, there is a minimum amount of characters required in order to unlock one position of the next rank. Similarly, there also is a maximum so the current tier can never exceed the previous one. A character can only be promoted if there is a free spot in the next tier.
- Demotions are always allowed. This helps to ensure that position changes are easy to accomplish. If the maximum of the new tier is exceeded by a demotion, the system will deal with that itself by not allowing the player to promote further characters into that tier.
- Promotions have a cost. If a character payed the cost once for the current tier, (s)he can be freely promoted and demoted up to that tier. This will ensure that demotions actually make sense if there is a better character available for the position.
- There is a highest tier (that should be somewhat difficult to reach).
- There is no absolute maximum of employees in a tier. The only limitation is the amount of characters in the previous tier.
Example Tiers (with scaling): Minimum :: Maximum
- A :: Unlimited
- B = A * 2/3 :: 2 * C * 3/2
- C = B * 1/2 :: 3* D * 3/2
- D = C * 1/3 :: 3 * E * 3/2
- E = D * 1/3 :: E (no maximum required, it's the highest rank anyway)
Example for scale 1 (values rounded up):
- 27 :: Unlimited
- 18 :: 27
- 9 :: 14
- 3 :: 5
- 1 :: 1
That would mean that it requires 58 (1 + 3 + 9 + 18 + 27) characters in a job to be able to promote one of them to the highest tier. I personally think that is a reasonable amount (the highest tier should be hard to reach).
Things that I didn't consider yet:
What is the effect of a higher rank?
Honestly, I don't really know. You are the game's gurus, I'm certain you have better ideas on that point. I just want to note that a rank-up is an achievement that should be rewarded properly and increasingly (meaning that the reward from 4 to 5 should be much higher than the improvement from 1 to 2).
Five tiers for every job. I'll edit this part of the post as suggestions come up.
Names, anyone?I think we can safely ignore the different jobs and stick with the general occupations for the rank names.
Prostitute- Bimbo
- Whore
- Courtesan
- Escort
- Madam
Warrior- Thug
- Mercenary
- Warrior
- Veteran
- Legend
Stripper- Stripper
- Lap dancer
- Ecdysiast
- Temptress
- Burlesque queen
Service Girl- Wench
- Servant
- Maid
- Chambermaid
- Housekeeper
Discuss!
Have fun!