Firstly, I'd like to briefly mention, that there's some work ongoing related to overall gui and playability (as you could see from new inventory) in which I basically try to make my old clunky scripts into more reasonable stuff. Not only that, but I do also make plans regarding art for most lacking parts of the game. Hopefully we will see lots of improvements in next month.
Now onto my big concern and stuff I've had lots of considerations for quite some time. When I originally created slave stat system I had pretty bare-bone concept at that time: it should be fairly straightforward yet unique, so courage-confidence-wit-charm thing came to light, supported with skills from side.
Then things changed: we gained combat and energy, so I also had to implement abilities and physical stats (str, agi etc). At that point skill system became somewhat redundant, as combat is basically strength and body control is an agility. However, after the introduction of new sex unlocks system, I feel like old skill system has completely outlived itself: there's no point in sexual proficiency if you can literally measure number of unlocked and practised actions. Final obvious issue, is how many jobs and tasks are actually reliant on the Service skill.
So, to sum it up, I plan to lighten up whole skill system, remove combat and sex stuff and maybe expand Service skill slightly, depending on how it will look like. I might entirely scramble it into something different, but in any case I feel like this should be done, as we already have to many important stats (and probably more to come), and having lots of non-obvious choices is not very good design (like choosing between spending point on combat or on strength). Actually, skillpoint system requires some additional revisions as well, but I gonna leave it to next time.
Now about the new complexities.
Gear and items
Technically, you could've guessed it from new inventory system, but I actually planned onto expanding this aspect next in collaboration with explorable world. Basically, I want to make inventory something more than thing you sometimes stumble upon when in need of a potion. With that, slaves will have gear slots. I don't think I'll go above 4-5 slots, but you can be sure they will be important.
Obviously, clothes will make into gear and will have to be acquired first, but give some reasonable benefits. Influence behavior, magic gear which would unlock new options or block displeasing actions. Speaking of those benefits, I also want to solve another long-lasting problem - an overly straightforward late game.
Firstly, I will be redesigning job options. I want to make reputation more significant at that and also explore more interesting options. I will try to keep it relatively simple early on, so forage should still be your obvious early way to go and such, but I'll have to actually sit down and draft new plan on that. I imagine making new job system should be pretty simple and fun, so we can expect to see it by the end of a month.
Lastly, the thing I have most doubts about: let's call it 'demand' system (for the lack of better word in my head). Basically, the idea is to make slaves of higher upbringing (trying also to renovate cast system here) will require better conditions to stay obedient and cooperate with you to their fullest. Things like personal room, better clothes and accessories, pocket cash or cosmetic procedures would be demanded by them, or they would suffer in obedience or stats drop. Maybe also limit lower class slaves in some way. I feel like system like that would make the most in gameplay sense: early game stays mostly the same, but for greater slaves you would have to bear some expenses. Obviously, there would also be some way to lower/raise slave's caste and expectations.
Lastly, I have a mild temptation to make more non-valuable items which would serve as selling loot and would be acquired from encounters to be sold to the vendors, with an additional job for slaves to sell them for you.
That's about it for this week, I'm sorry if next release will take some time, as I actually readjust some code sections for better performance and interactivity, there has been not too many additions yet.
Final thing: next week I'll be doing Questions&Answers, so if you have something you want me to talk about in details, send your question here anonymously or post in the comments below, I'll be answering those of high demand or more interesting. Thanks for your attention.
This is getting interesting *rubs hands*
ReplyDeleteFirst of all: I didn't forget about the "portraits" I've promised. But the damned new PC is giving me troubles, so it's technical stuff getting in the way. Soon (In a couple days).
Now, considering your idea of having slaves requiring better treatment, and the rep system... maybe you could do some sort of dominance stat? High for dominant, low for submissive.
For example: with the old sex system, I could -more or less- pinpoint a sort of personality for characters, by "buying" the sex options I wanted. So, my powerful alpha Wolf beastkin could get a actin, ask for blowjob, then want to fuck someone to cum. Now he gets some action, asks for a rimjob, and wants anal, because the options unlock all the sex types, and the randomness gets in the way. It totally ruins the mood, or the expectations we have for a slave.
A sub>dom system could solve this. So, a battle trained Wolf can ask for a bj, and then fuck someone. A dominant player could refuse or agree, strengthening the dom feature of the wolf, or lower it by negating the requirement (which could be tied with the demands they'll have that you're planning). It could lead to interesting situations to mold your player too: a sub player might find himself getting fucked a lot, or a dom might struggle with an alpha wolf (but might strenghten his loyalty if player wins).
This would lead to a more dinamic building, and add a lot of replayability.
I've recently played JoNT (because you mentioned), and found it repetitive and somewhat boring. There's no versatility between slaves, and if you start over, it's basically the same with different skills (with some leveling all your characters end the same).
Same for Free Cities: didn't knew it, played because you recommended. Again, the only difference is you get boobs or not. After a while they're mechanic.
Then it's Slavemaker (which is the one that got me here). I love the difference between plays, and that's because events and a -sort of- sub-dom system. But it's not defined really, it kinda plays because the events. And I fucking hate the slaves.
So, your slaves are better. They're varied, and fit several kinks the players might have. You have a good amount of sex scenes (texting can be developed later, the bases are there). You have a decently described content for players and the slaves. You have plans for rep. If you can develop that, and (in my opinion) a sistem of dominance, you'll trample pretty much all the other games!
P.S: if you want, I can do some small sex pics. generic enough to not conflict with races, but versatile for whatever you need them. Just lemme know.
About disposition stat: I do plan to eventually bring it back, it's just I wasn't exactly sure where to fit it and even considered to invent new system by which slaves would choose what they ask for. Hopefully, I'll sort it out soon enough.
DeleteI never actually recommended free cities (if I like them that much in first place, strive wouldn't exist), it's just something I've borrowed few ideas from. I did enjoy JoNT for quite some time though, but once you understand the mechanics, it's very straightforward, yeah, but still I adore the personal treatment in that game(also there's no non-human races so that's a huge minus i guess lol).
Slave maker has varying feelings from me. Some mechanics are nice, but often I feel overwhelmed with same-looking stats and obscure choices.
Not sure how you imaging generic sex pics, if you could make an example or two, i would interested in taking a look.
Sorry, you didn't recommended anything, true. I meant since you mentioned them, I got curious.
DeleteI agree with what you say about the 3 games, that's why I got so interested in Strive. It covers the 3 things interestin of the other games!
Disposition as you said, could work more or less like confidence: dominance builds with fighting or command roles. It lowers with serving roles, like whoring or maid.
Or you can simply add "dominant" and "submissive" traits, like "pervert" or the like.
The difference is that the slaver could get them, and wouldn't affect his development (aside of maybe getting into different situations). The good side is that it builds different paths with different options.
Generic pics: it's very simple. You have (for now) 4 types of dicks: human, dog, horse and slime. So i can do the 4 main interactions: ass, vag, mouth, tits. Simple, straightforward close ups of the action (i.e: a cock being blowed by a mouth). And the variant of each action with cum. I was thinking on being black-white pics, or sepia to avoid skin color issues (with volume and shading, not just plain lines). It's very simple, but you can use for whatever option needed, and it should be simple to adapt to specific situations.
Basically: I draw the 4 types of cocks, the 4 body parts, and 2 mouth types (m/f), and then just paste the combinations with or without cum. Rim and tail jobs would use the ass/vag pics w/o cum, etc. I just would need to draw around 10-15 small pics, and then just photoshop to make the combinations, fairly easy.
Generic pics is an interesting thought, but I have serious doubts they will make any sort of impact. We could try it, I suppose, but to me it seems somewhat unfitting yet.
DeleteI would like to know if you would be adding any more slave races to the game because I remember a race from a show called Yuki-onna a snow woman case it would make sense for frostfrod.
ReplyDelete