Goals System and Character Sheet Update
Added 2018-08-14 08:49:45 +0000 UTCThe last couple of days I have been working on the new character goals system. That system provides the main character with experience to spend on their stats, which meant the character sheet needed an update to make it A) interactive and B) more attractive. The character sheet was also the obvious place to put the full goal progress and descriptions (I am thinking about adding small goal progress bars on the main UI as well).
I'm happy to say the code behind the goal system is some of the most expandable and elegant I've written for Lab Rats 2 so far. I wanted to provide support for as wide a range of goals as possible, so the system makes as few assumptions about what a goal is. A new event listener system sends active goals updates when an event is fired. Each goal has a function that determines what it does when a goal is fired. As an example, the "Brave New World" goal, which requires the player to personally generate research points, adds the amount of research generated to an internal count when the research event is fired. Other goals keep track of people you have talked to and finish when you've interacted with enough unique people. Goals can also have unique functions attached that determine how their progress bars and progress text are displayed.
Each category of goal has an internal difficulty score that is increased as goals are finished. The same style of goal will have higher requirements as the difficulty rises, which should keep experience gain in line with productivity gain over the course of the game. Goals can also be set to only be presented to the player if certain requirements are met; for example difficulty over or under a threshold, a special role assigned to someone, or a certain amount of money in the business.
The goal writing process is quick and flexible - I added 9 of the 12 current events over an hour tonight - so I will be adding more going forward. I hope to use the goals as a tutorial system with early goals guiding players through the basic steps of running their business.
Let me know what you think of the new look and if you have any suggestions!
Comments
The game is intended as a corruption simulator. The business is the backdrop that provides some sort of normal environment that helps contrast with how slutty/obedient you've made your employees. It also serves as a mechanical excuse to let players design their own serums with unique effects instead of giving them pre-made ones as in LR1. I like the idea of taking in community added content, I don't have any system in place to accept it or plan for asking for it yet but I'll think about how I'd set it up. That's a pretty solid idea for a tutorial zone, I might actually steal it! I'll admit I've gotten a little distracted by adding in the goal system and some starting goals for it so I might bump back the tutorial content until the prototype weekend.
Vren
2018-08-17 07:24:33 +0000 UTCThis sounds great, can't wait to test it!
Petechons
2018-08-14 16:40:01 +0000 UTCSounds like some great framework. With the theme of 'goals' I am kinda curious as to the ultimate goal of the game. Is it to be a business simulatior that happens to have sex? or is this a Sex-em-up with business elements? This is a serious no-wrong-answer question. In its current embryonic state the game could really go either way, so I'd be interested to see where your focus lies (Also this way I'll stop pushing for elements that would impractical for the projected scope). Another question: Will community-submitted crisies/events/quests/dialog trees be a thing? One final thought comes after playing House party, and it reminding me about the glaring problem with many games (adventure games in particular): The user is generally poorly taught about how the game world works. There's often things that the devs expect the user to do naturally that the user has deemed impossible or unproductive because of previous interactions with the game environment, or simply they did not get the specific sequence of causality the dev had in mind. In the particular case of LR2 its getting a starting player to have a stable business model. The first 2 weeks are the hardest part of the game so far as this is where those unfamiliar with the meta tend to nosedive into bankruptcy. I know you have a tutorial planned with my fav gal Steph, but hear me out for a bit on this one. Currently LR2 starts with you having a the MC hired for a position at a company that immediately goes under (Probably because the owners had never played the game before). You then have a heartwarming conversation with Scruffy, the local janitor then suddenly are in charge of Boobz LLC. How about instead the MC is actually hired as planned (MC would have a choice of which section to work in: HR,Supplies,Production,Marketing,R&D). It would be a small company consisting of the MC, his boss and one random gal assigned to whatever spot the MC didn't select. As a regular employee the MC would get a base salary (since access to the company piggy bank would be off limits for the time being) and be groomed by the boss to learn the ins-and-outs of the place to one day take over. The company would be currently be producing Placebex (TM), a wonder-drug that has the properties of only generating marginal profits, the MC could begin influencing research towards the serums we all know and love (to use on unwitting participants) at which point the game would push an event where the boss leaves you in charge of the place. From there on its LR2 as usual; All the research paths, expenditures, sexual harassment and Russian Olympics team level doping is under player control with the knowledge that if the company fails its because the player actively did something to run it under as opposed to a newby just not yet figuring out the somewhat complex path of what to research before hiring, and who to hire, how many for each dept, etc. Those are my thoughts on it anyway.
2018-08-14 16:03:20 +0000 UTCExcellent! Good luck in your work! I have been following you for a long time already, do not cease to please. Well done!
ExxxPlay Games 18+
2018-08-14 15:53:58 +0000 UTCThat sounds pretty neat and makes for a interesting system to interact with. But the most difficult part is making the progress feel good. To slow progress and everything starts to feel like a grind for Stats and Skills. To quick progress and the Stats are going to loose meaning to the player. The difficulty in that is, that only playing the Game is going to show if a good balanced is reached.
Red Claw
2018-08-14 15:52:19 +0000 UTCI really want to try the mobile version of the game, but I don't have enough space... I guess I'll keep track of the updates. Have a good one y'all
Nicolas
2018-08-14 12:06:28 +0000 UTC
