I had about an hour of free time tonight so I decided to begin working on 0.10.11a, the next barrage of bug fixes for Pornarium. Someone asked me a question on the bug report page (I believe it was Seip) pertaining to attributes and how they had an effect on your skills. I provided an answer but in the end I felt it really wasn't adequate in a gaming sense so while working on the next update I decided to add it to the skill window so you can see how your stats are having an effect on your skills. Echorid asked me earlier as well what I could do to make the attributes screen not so bland and gave me some awesome ideas but those will have to come a bit further on in the game's development. These types of musings became the impetus for this quick post:
Those of you who have been following me from the start and those of you who are new and have gotten a chance to play, what kind of Quality of Life/Roleplaying enhancements can I add to the game? What sort of small (but relatively little) things can I add to the game either next update or future ones to make it better and feel more "sim/RPG"-like? If you have a small but relatively simple idea, it may be placed in the next update (some simple changes can literally take about five minutes to program) or if it's more complicated I'll save it for when I can implement it properly provided I think it will fit in with the game.
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Alternative "comfortable" areas to sleep. If you're sleeping in the park, the streets, or by the river, it makes sense that it's not a "comfortable" night's sleep, but if you're at the hospital, for example, you'd think you'd be getting a better night's sleep.
ReplyDeleteAlso, travel consuming FP is a pain in the butt, as is showering; showering is literally like a ten-minute thing in reality, and it's far from fatiguing.
ReplyDeleteOn travel FP, I noticed a weird thing where going from the apartment to the park would use 1FP but going from the park to the apartment would use 2FP, meaning I'd get stuck in the street.
ReplyDeleteEating food at the Restaurant should restore fatigue, too. As should eating neko fruit, priapus mushrooms, and other foodstuffs.
ReplyDeleteI also don't know what you had planned for the university, but perhaps you could take classes there for attribute/skill increases, and if a particular attribute/skill is high enough, you could teach there for money.
Aaaaand on the subject of earning money, the one NPC at the restaurant talks about working in the kitchen "full-time." Perhaps that could be implemented as a more time-consuming event, or...
Bad end? A-are there going to be bad ends eventually? Because that's one thing the other indie porn games have on you: bad ends. Maybe you "let your arousal control you" too much, as the game often seems to suggest, and you lose control, or maybe you get tossed in jail one too many times, or drink one too many pink vials, or begin producing far too much milk than you can deal with realistically... There are so many possibilities for bad ends.
Sorry to post so much, but I only discovered this yesterday via a 4chan /d/ thread and I'm very excited for it. It lacks the rampant furriness of Fenoxo's or Valente's games, and is more image-oriented, a la Slavemaker.
I personally find showers rather refreshing. So if anything it would restore fatigue in my mind.
ReplyDeleteAlso fatigue is actually how tired you so maybe you could name the energy bar something else. Or have it start at 0 and increase as you do activities.
ReplyDeletePerhaps there should be some other negative consequences towards sleeping somewhere outside of the apartment. Having solely your fatigue reduced doesn't seem enough of a punishment to stop a person from sleeping elsewhere. That being said, punishment for going to jail isn't nearly as bad as it could be. You somehow manage to raise stats, as opposed to losing stats when being cramped inside of a cell. Maybe an option of bribing the police officer instead of heading straight to jail should be included, money and body wise.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you've probably gotten this one before, but if it's been a while then I'll remind you; this is something for the backburner as it will take a bit of work depending on how much you implement, but choice of clothing with appropriate attributes in either direction would be spiffy.
ReplyDeleteE.G. Looser athletic gear that would buff your STR/STA/AGI and lower Lust, or a tight fitting dress that would do the opposite.
On a side note, I do quite love the game, even now in its early stages, but I must agree with Fenoxo, the UI needs a bit of... polishing, shall we say? I would like to see a consolidation of the two skills windows, perhaps, and the ability to see your current funds at a glance on the standard interface, rather then having to open the item window every time you want to see how much money you have on hand. Just displaying it inside the shops would even be enough.
Also the ability to multi-use item stacks. It's a bit tedious to have to go back to the inventory every time since it cuts to an event screen with each item use.
Dear me, let's see what else I can suggest...
I rather like Kei-chan's ideas about the university and alternate beds, as well as traveling FP use. I'm not against it, but I feel it uses to much, perhaps?
I'm sure you have a multitude of ideas for items yet to be put in, so I'll leave that go...
I must commend you on writing this in what I assume might be Visual Basic, perhaps? Not that I have anything against Flash, because I don't, but it's somewhat refreshing to get a game that hasn't been coded in ActionScript, considering we have Nimin, CoC, and the game that Syanus is working on. And Slavemaker.
My my, what else...
Ah yes! Please don't kick us back to the marketplace everytime we're done working a shift at the restaurant. It's a minor annoyance I grant you, but it's the simple things that make a game stand out.
Ah... the ability to pump and sell milk for money, or drink it for status effects?
Hmm...
Personally I'm not a fan of bad ends, it's my one gripe with Fenoxo's game, but the decision is ultimately yours to make, so pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, as the saying goes.
This game has a wonderful amount of potential, and I don't see you letting it go to waste any time soon. Take what you will from my comments, they are but potential fodder for your creative juices. Or possibly some fruit juices. Either way, I wish you the best of luck, and I will be watching this game closely.
Small Changes:
ReplyDelete* Pull out the travel screen so that it's always on the main menu. if necessary, raise it so that it doesn't make clicking "continue" perilously close to exiting to the southern area. The travel screen should probably grey out if it's not in use such as in the middle of a multi-continue event.
* The item menu is pull-down from the main interface or there are small boxes (a la world of warcraft) you can click on or hotkey to activate. If you can't find pictures representing each, the name in column, middle justified, automatically wrapping form should work.
*Quick travel. Have a master map in either distance-preserving format (a true map) or flat format (list) that lets you go to any place you've already visited.
Alternatively, let there be an item which gives you a complete map if discovering places is too much.
* Day of the week events. May require adding a calender or notification system.
Medium:
* Protracted combat rather than simple win/lose.
* Telephone system which lets you call over previously bedded entities (of course, only if you can get their number).
* Billboard of jobs wanted/available (maybe differing by day/hour). For advanced work, allow the player to post jobs of certain types (fetch me item X, complete job Y, tutor me in skill Z, do action A to group B).
* Random encounters while traveling/quick-traveling.
Large:
* Craft system. Easy way is to have simple recipes. More complex is to have stat requirements. More complex than that is to have time/place requirements. More complex than that is event/people requirements (sucked on nymph's breast, have elf's phone number/is in elf's presence).
* Banking/Ownership system: invest in/enslave people and groom them/unleash one's lust upon them for fun and/or profit.
@Kei-chan: I do think the FP system does need to be revised, and I think you bring up a good point about the shower. It isn't really tiring to take a shower. I think the restaurant does restore FP if you eat there but it's a very small amount. As far as bad ends, one thing I am trying to do with this game is to have virtually no end. I know that may not appeal to some people, but the general idea is that it could go on endlessly. If anything, by letting yourself get such a high lust attribute (let's pick an arbitrary value of 500) you literally would become a victim of your lust. By letting yourself getting out of control, your character would constantly fall victim to being perpetually horny. I guess I want people to know something bad is coming, and if you ignore the warnings things will be difficult (and ideally should play out in game that way) but there is always a way out.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are interested as well. I have what I think is a pretty cool image for the game and I'm hoping that I can get some input from the community (hence this post) to help me shape the game into something awesome. Sometimes I may disagree with some suggestions but generally I feel I'm pretty open to most of them. If you like what you see now, I can only hope that it will continue to improve.
@Bearhook: Every other step is about 1FP if that helps :)
@Hedrax:Hmmm, maybe eventually I'll start a name that fatigue bar post.
@Seip: Good points, though I think as the game world expands the sleep penalty will be plenty bad but not overbearing (the sex system / combat system are not implemented which are heavily fatigue point based). Jail is a tricky one for me, I want it to be annoying but not so annoying that people get angry every time they get sent to jail. An irritating interruption that restarts your travel plans. I have a feeling I'll continue to tweak it to make it better. I do like the option of bribing the cop though. Perhaps I'll add a cop as a character in the sex system to give a seduction option as well.
@Nazca: I have a definite equipment system in the works. In earlier versions (Which I don't believe I have anymore) there was an equipment screen that said you were wearing pants, a shirt, and some boots but other than a plain description it didn't do anything. In the future I plan to have all sorts of equipment that modifiers your attributes and skills.
I do apologize with my terrible UI though I am happy to report you CAN use multiple item stacks. If you click on an item and select "equip item" it will make a button on the main screen for that item.
Yes, I am using VB. I originally started the project with something Archaic called liberty basic. There was a "dep protection violation" or some assorted error with a DLL (it was something that was made in the windows 95 era apparently so it never used DEP stuff) that I don't quite understand because I'm still learning that caused quite a stir on the Futanaripalaceboards. To avoid any bad opinions about the game and to improve the code I switched to Visual Basic. I quickly picked it up as it was extremely similar to liberty basic and was able to transfer the code fairly easily. I don't dislike actionscript, but I am unfamaliar with it so I would not choose to program in it.
Good point about kicking you back to the marketplace, I'll try and fix that in the next version.
The milk idea is a good one, actually Echorid has some evil plans for that.
@Nocturne:
ReplyDeleteI definitely need to redo the UI. I originally promised (more like pledged) to optimize the game for 1024x768 and it's the main reason why the travel window is separate. You can hit "T" to bring up the travel menu and use the numpad to activate the various directions. I don't think I ever really made it a point to clearly state this so I think I should write a post about this to maybe educate people on these tricks :)
I do have an idea for a quick travel system and Echorid has already written an event on this, there is just nowhere to go yet so I haven't placed it in game yet.
I like the day of the week events too.
Combat will be turn based but not overly complicated. There will be a sex system too which works as a sort of sex based combat system. I'll post more about that in the future though.
I can happily say that most of the things on your Medium / Large list will be in the game, though I don't really have any plans to own someone in a slave capacity. That could change but I did want to make this game purposefully different from Slavemaker. One thing I always felt about Slavemaker was that it (appropriately so) was all about your slaves and not enough about you. I wanted to make a game that's focused solely on your character. That said, as the game expands if a lot of people want to own slaves and do things of that nature I'll start working it in :)
>The milk idea is a good one, actually Echorid has some evil plans for that.
ReplyDeleteTell me it's cowgirls. Please tell me it's cowgirls.
I don't think that particular event will have cowgirls (though he can answer it better) but do you really think a game like this would lack cowgirls ;)
ReplyDeleteWhile it may be more complicated than you're looking for, perhaps splitting fatigue into mental and physical bars would be helpful? Going for a swim can be physically tiring but mentally refreshing, whereas working in the hospital could be quite mentally fatiguing and slightly physically fatiguing. This would take care of the "It's just as exhausting to walk two places away as it is to work for four hours" issues.
ReplyDeleteI like that idea and perhaps it will be implemented someday dorkul0n. I'm going to eventually add these suggestions to the suggestion page and slowly but surely I will go down that list until everything I've added is in game :D. Sadly some things will take longer than others, that one would probably be something I would do sooner rather than later if I decided to implement it.
ReplyDeletePerhaps some sort of transit system? No buses obviously, but the two wheels carts pulled by a person could hired to get around, letting one use money instead of FP to get around.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you still want this sort of thing here, but I'd like to make my own suggestion. Not necessarilly small, and probably already to some degree planned. But lovers/pets or however you want to put it. More or less live-in fuck buddies that you can 'recruit'.
ReplyDeleteAlso, expansions to your apartment, more furniture, upgrades to a better apartment in the complex, for when you've got so much clutter that it seems silly for the apartment size.
Also, so far I found the neko fruit as a 'furry' item, which I quite enjoy, though I wish I could get past ears, tail, and adorable eyes.
Also, the ghost encounter gets a biiiiitttt high.... perhaps if you learn magic later youc an ward yourself so you can get a choice after a point to either allow her to approach you or avoid her altogether?
On that note, I DO have a question about magic. When / if ti's in, how might it work?
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhy is there no edit button? My last two post were riddled with silly spelling errors >.<
ReplyDeleteRight, I'll take care in the future, lesson learned.
My take on the travel system as it is now is that it doesn't quite work. But! The game is nowhere near finished, and the plan was to add in equipment (boots) that would reduce FP consumed when traveling, which would alleviate some of the gripe with traveling.
Another system could be that you have a set amount of travel points a day, and when you run out, you have to stop to take a short break, expending some of your FP. This is an idea I got right now, and I have no idea if it would work.
As for the bad ends, I do have to agree with Tacoking. First of all, it's just not my cup of tea (I don't like ryona games either. I don't want to lose to see the naughty bits, I want to strive for victory, with them as an incentive to do well.) There might be areas or encounters that would open up for bad ends, say, you are given the option to steal the loot of a dragon, but then your character, or someone else, would make certain to point out the possibility of death. Since saving takes a long time, it would suck to lose a character you've been playing with for a long time due to a miss-click, or for having skimmed through the text.
I do have a milking event planned, and a whole lot of events involving that restaurant. There will not be cowgirls involved for this event though. As for cowgirls and other such transformations, pornarium is a bit, well, "normalized"(?) compared to say CoC and Nimin. I love those games as well, don't get me wrong, but it can get a bit out of hand at times :P. You will get to ridiculous sizes here too, don't worry (I'll even try to draw a paper doll to reflect that, though this is not a certainty), but your “tools” will hopefully remain of a “practical” size… most of the time. Personally I think the starting area gives you too much to play with (eg 18" cock size), and would have liked to decrease such numbers as the game expands, so that it is a bit more evenly spaced over the new areas, but I'm probably alone in that regard :P.
I believe I'm forgetting something. Oh yes, cowgirls! I think I tried to make a point up there, and that would probably be: no, and yes. I do not mind transformations such as the neko transformations, nor would I mind a transformation where you get a cow's tails, ears, and start mooing, great quantities of milk flowing forth from your breasts. Udders and hooves and whatnot... not so much. It feels a bit out of place in this game, to me at least, and so I would probably not write such changes unless Tacoking wants me to. I will make no effort to stop such things from happening though.
With that said, there is no reason for cowgirls not to exist in the world, and who is to say that you won't encounter a farm with them. And who is to say that you can't expand upon that, perhaps taking ownerships as you get your own personal cowgirl harem... I don't think I can skip writing such an event now, can I? :P
Now, you might call that slave maker-ish, I'd call it a quest. And which adventurer could pass up a man with a golden exclamation mark floating above his head? As much as this is about personal exploration and expansion (quite literally really), it's still you interacting with the world if you do such a quest. And ultimately, you'd get things that directly affect you out of the deal.
Transit system has been written, and will let you use money to save FP over long distances.
Oh yeah, also: About the attribute screen. I'll work on creating some mockups today, as I have a clear idea of what I'd like it to look like. Then you guys and Tacoking can have a jab at them. There probably won't be any fancy graphics just yet, but I’m hoping there will be in the future, if the engine allows it.
But of course, there is also a maximum amount of characters >.<
ReplyDelete@Chaoschain. There will be lovers, and they will move in with you (if you so choose). I already have events planned for that, and the one I have in mind will be rather massive. There will most likely be smaller ones too.
Also, apartment upgrades will be possible, but more skills need to be implemented first (I won't go into details... secret). At least I have something planned, something that I hope the engine will support. Tacoking is the master of programming though, as I am clueless in that regard.
You can avoid the ghost if you solve its quest. Probably should be easier to flee though, so that players don't get stuck at her. She's rather... demanding :P
My... my god. I didn't think it was possible but after that wonderful series of comments Echo, I do believe I may love the game even more then I do now. You sir are a gentleman and a scholar.
ReplyDeleteThings can only get so deliciously better from here on out...
A small change would be to add a barber to the marketplace, or maybe a bodymod shop for piercings and tatoos.
ReplyDeleteMaybe some Food you can buy at the market that instantly restores your Fatigue Points.
@Grimnebuliun: I actually plan to have your hair start growing in a later version. The barber will allow you to cut your hair, change the style, and change the color.
ReplyDeleteOh, I forgot to comment about magic. The magic system will be in the game at a later time, probably around 0.40a if I had to guess. I am first going to work on the sex system, then combat, and then magic :)
ReplyDeletePerhaps, something like gambling should be included for the night life. At the moment the nightlife consists of just having sex with everything that moves. Another, idea that would be less likely would be a good and evil slider, since those are all the rage.
ReplyDelete@Seip: I've put the framework for an alignment in the game but it isn't really used yet. That will obviously change. On the FP boards, some people have even suggested I make it alter your appearance (ala Fable). I suggested for example, if you are really evil you may get a red aura or something anime-esque later on like that.
ReplyDeleteThe beauty of a text game is you can do virtually anything since it's text, graphics hinder your flexibility. The only downside to text games is that...they are text so they force you to use the imagination. Thankfully with things of an erotic nature, people are far more willing to use their imaginations ;)
Bar on the way, nightlife will blossom.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what exactly I said that made you happy Nazca, but since I hope to get it all implemented anyway I guess it doesn't matter. Glad you liked it :)
Had it not been so damn hot, I'd even put on one of my hats to look like a gentleman, not merely act like one.
I was also going to disagree with good and evil sliders, as I feel they add an artificial element to the game, but Tacoking's got the final say in the matter :)
A thought comes to me: perhaps instead of the usual (and rather cliché) good and evil slider, we go more the route of, say, modesty and perversion?
ReplyDeleteAs for you Echo, it was indeed everything you said that made me so excited. You've a wonderfully deviant head on your shoulders, and while now I can't wait to start building my cowgirl harem (perhaps let us use items on our companions? I for one would be immensely pleased with being able to use the pink potion on the girls) even more so I can't wait to hear what you come up with next!
Haha, you've just given me a wonderful idea for the cowgirl farm Nazca. I'll give you a small taste. It will be desolate when you first encounter it... You figure how that will end :P.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the modesty/perversion. It holds much more context with the game. Not sure how it would affect the world around you, but that is a task to figure out for another time.
I forsee many trips to the hospital for lactation injections... I'd better start stocking up on funds.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, another idea, perhaps with a high enough charisma score we might be able to haggle on pricing in the shops? And possibly cost for future medical "treatments"
@Echorid
ReplyDeletehttp://i423.photobucket.com/albums/pp316/colonthreekei/1288571441085.jpg
Cowgirl.
I said before that the reason I like this game is the lack of rampant furriness that is present in, say, Fenoxo's game.
It's more grounded, like Slavemaker.
@Everyone: So many good ideas on this post :D
ReplyDelete@Kei-chan: Yeah, I'm trying to avoid going too furry. I prefer things like catgirls, cowgirls, etc. though I do have a strange fascination with bizarre cocks transplanted on humanoids (horsecocks for example, or a demonic cock) and/or transformations (hooves, claws, etc.) without going to far into the realm of furriness.
@Nazca: As far as perversion goes, that in a sense is your lust score. It doesn't appear that detrimental for now as you are in the main city of the game, but the higher your lust ultimately the more perverse you are. In the sex system, certain sexual abilities can only be triggered with high lust (think those that are more about gratifying yourself. While this is a bad example as you don't need high lust for this, giving someone a facial would be the example of a type of lusty sex action). Low lust is more about the other side of the coin, being less about your gratification but more of your partner's gratification as well.
That's why when you have high lust, you receive penalties to social skills as your wandering eye/drooling betrays your character's true desires: satisfying themselves.
It's also why it raises your arousal faster, you are constantly searching for that climax (hence you reach it more quickly and get aroused easier). While with lower lust it's immediately apparent it's harder to get into sexual situations, it will also be easier when the sex system is in place to keep from hitting the 100% arousal point (more on this in a future post).
I think good / evil was perhaps the wrong word. I've been framing it more as a reputation system which I guess is pretty much the same in a sense. When you do things that are bad or evil, you get a bad reputation and vice versa. There is one such event already that starts making use of this but only on a rudimentary level. This is something that will constantly be expanded upon.
Kei-chan... Agreed.
ReplyDeleteThat is indeed the kind of "cowgirls" my event would include. Have no fear, while I do to a certain degree like furrieness, it doesn't have very much of a place in this game, and I will in all likelihood not write anything involving it. Humans are after all what I'm attracted to :P
And now that I'm done with todays exercise, I will start writing this event :). I suspect it will become quite large, since you are in effect starting your own business.