*HoT: Suggestions

“I’d probably code it where that text file you mention would be what the game looks for and loads (not sure if that’s what you meant).”

I’ll clarify, no worries. For the .txt checking code, I was referring to a way to be able to edit the file without worrying about crashing the game due to an existing character profile, or ending up with duplicate characters that the user couldn’t remove from play.

This is mostly a speculative step, since I’m not sure how the game handles character files; if it’s a simple matter of the game scanning and reading the .txt file or if it embeds the character data from the .txt and into the master files and uses it there.

If it simply picks up the .txt, then the copy-proofing step would not be needed and you can completely disregard my rambling, hehe! If the game embeds the data into the master code, then that is where the step would come into play. That way the player won’t accidentally have tons of duplicates or possibly crash the game and have to re-install.

I’m thinking the game would have to embed the data, however, due to the skill selection process. Whereas the stats are a stationary and consistent set of data that is always present, the skills are unique and have to be selected to fit that character. The only other way I can think of to add the skills without embedding the data, would be to have a secondary code string in the .txt file. The skills would be assigned numbers (00 through 012, or how ever many individual skills are in the game) and would be in a separate string. Dredging up my previous example, it would look something like this:

bowtie_profile.txt

[50,45,20,35,50,60]
[02,11,06,08]

Name: Bowtie
Sex: Male
Bio: Blue tiger and snow leopard mix, tall and toned, stern but caring. Will only top, very dominant in bed.
Impressions: There’s a regal air about him. Has a thing for his hind paws being played with.

The second line of attribute code would assign the skills for the character using the above mentioned assigned numbers. I tossed random numbers in, but it would basically be handled thus: [02,11,06,08] => Shrewd(02),Bookish(11),Scholar(06),Domesticated(08)

At this point, I’d suggest a character creation manual to be handled by a separate readme file, given the amount of information mostly related to the stat/skill mechanics >_> Including it in the ‘How to Play’ would make for a long and cumbersome file. Usually, this is the case with so many games I’ve played and ended up creating a new file and copy/pasting the relevant info to have both manuals open at once to cut down scrolling time (or at the extreme end, printing a 200-page file and putting the manual in a binder! I’m looking at you, Sierra On-Line.)

I think I need to stop now, I went way beyond overboard, lol!

@Firewolfe
Have me wanting to just skip ahead to character creator stuff already ^^

To make things easier for people who like to edit text files, I’d probably use ini files. So they’d look something like:

[general]
name=”Yo Noid”
class=”Pizza Man”

[stats]
charm=9
sex=-1
hustle=999

And error check the data as it’s loaded, so if hustle is over 100, it would be set to 100. If we go with txt files, I have a tendency to just dump random data in there, use new lines instead of commas, and hash tag it all up. But I’d also like to have an in-game way to create and manage custom characters, so that would be the focus.

@Starlight
That is pretty clever! Can image little pixel sprites showing the action instead of boring text on the feedback banner. Not sure if we can squeeze that in, but definitely something to keep in mind.

Have actually been looking into various 2d animation options the past couple of days. Hopefully something comes out of it.

I like the idea about important story characters verse extras. Things should make more sense once we put the story mode into the game. The casual mode is supposed to include everyone and not have hard requirements like the story mode will so far as who you need to have and who is available.

Not so much suggestions in this post, more of revisiting previous ideas in light of recent game updates.

– The issue of health and protection has been eased considerably with the new lowered volume and greater income mechanic. I can rotate and revive workers at a more manageable pace than before. However, an expandable inn would still be a great help, especially for longer gameplay.

– Obedience point gain has been helped by the recent additional skills, however an obedience school would still be a welcome addition (some workers could still do with extra ‘training’, heh heh ;P )

– Changing the ‘+5%’ skills to ‘+4 Points’ has noticeably improved the stats.

– The issue seems to be resolved for tougher characters, they are now lasting longer before getting worn out.

hey, I don’t mean to insult you or anything (very sorry if i do) but the art is a little on the lower side of quality. i was thinking if you ask all the fans out there to help and maybe post some reference pictures, i’m sure people would jump at the opportunity, i know i would. All you’d have to do is put a name/nickname into the credits.

I think the only way to really justify the selling characters is to include some kind of mechanic where… if you groom a character to certain stat thresholds, you could sell them for much more than they’re usually worth. The stats or attributes could be listed when you visit the ‘sell character’ slot.

Otherwise, I think it’s good to have in case people really want to get rid of a character, but game-wise I just see it not making sense to use.