Adding Roles - v0.8 Progress Update

My thinking is that your Head of HR is going to also need to be important. For instance, what if you had to schmooze her to change the dress code? And what if you had a suggestion check to get her to unlock the "serum testing" perks?. For research, I'm seeing the potential to have several avenues of research require seducing/suggesting/obedience your way over moral objections. Your head of marketing could also object to selling certain effects in potions. And certain attempts to make the entire department sluttier. And she might have to be talked into sleeping with certain public officials to allow higher powered serums on the market. For production, there might be ways to get your head of production to do some unethical things. Like, say, issue serums to herself and all her staff to consume on shift… Like marketing, there are probably ways she could sleep around to do her job better. (In this case: secure better prices.) Another avenue to explore would be to add an “ethical whore” component of personality. Sluttiness is what people will do for fun. Obedience is what they will do out of obligation. Suggestiable is what people do when overpowered by charisma. But certain people are more amenable to monetary inducement than others. On the “whore” end of the spectrum, give the person enough cash, and they pretty much will do or think anything. The flipside is Humiliation. If you manage to get an otherwise ethical person to do unethical things, they will want to hide that. With enough humiliation built up, you can blackmail them to get past persuasion checks. So this would be an “Ethics” score of intrinsic personality, and a new state variable for humiliation. But humiliation is a double-edged sword. If breeds unhappiness, and will eventually force someone to quit. Every time someone quits with a high enough humiliation score, they have the potential to go to the press and end your game. (My thinking is that humiliation is "cashed in" for persuasion. So if you cash in your favors, they don't build up. Or if you are roping someone for the long haul, you better keep them happy.)

That's the plan! She's canonical "head researcher" that you'll be presented with at the start/near the start of the game. The role is completely modular though so if the player doesn't want her (or wants to play a sandbox game with no story attached) anyone can be slotted in and have their own dialogue based on their personality.

Vren

All great idea's, I'll probably be coming back here to steal some of them as I work!

Vren

Hopefully we'll get to see Stephanie in this update boss

I'll see your head researcher comments and raise you a text wall on the entire R&D dept: Currently there is not enough researchable tech to justify more than 2 R&D employees after ~90 days all tech is done and the department becomes a waste of funds. This could be solved/mitigated in many ways. -Make each research area have multiple tiers. For example unlocking boob growth would just unlock the first tier which would have a minor effect and would allow for the research of the next tier (boobs I->boobs II->boobs III-boobs IV: a new hope, etc) having at least 5 tiers for each aspect (obedience, happiness, $ value, suggestibility and so forth) would mean you could potentially field a research team of 4 for one in-game year before they finish generating all the knowledge of mankind and become redundant. -Lab accidents! (The not so fun kind). Have random crises that setback research or take unlucky R&D members out of service for a while. We're pushing the boundaries of modern science, things are expected to go wrong. -Have the occasional new test serum fail in spectacular fashion and force the user to try to make it over again. As it stands the option to not test the prototype serum on your workers has never been chosen because we already know that it will do precisely what we want it to. Give the user a legitimate reason to consider sending the new formula off for official testing as opposed to playing kinky mad scientist and sexy Igor with the staff. -Randomize research outcomes or add unknown variables to prototype serums. A big part of research is the unknown. making what is discovered a random draw pretty much eliminates the meta and makes each playthrough unique as the user must adjust their strategy to best use the tech they have while trying to get the tech they want. Likewise prototype formulas could have little unforeseen modifications to stats not present in the design screen. Such 'mutations' could be ironed out in the 2nd phase of testing (this is the actual 'D' of R&D). -Add research topics for serums that could affect age/height/weight/gender/fertility. We already have hirees in the game who are listed as 49 and look 16. Why not address this with giving the 35+ workers age-reflective models that the user can age down with special serums. Likewise throw some fat models into the mix that could be scaled down (or up if that's your thing). I'll even make the argument for throwing dudes into the game just for the hilarity of a lab accident turning hard worker Kevin into hottie Cassandra and have the user try to figure out if they really want to switch him/her back (there's actually a quite valid argument to the introduction of non-fuckable love rivals and cockblocks [re: dudes] for raising challenge levels and the thrill of the conquest. But that's for a different text wall) -Unionize the workers! No more working late nights and weekends. At least not without proper compensation from the bulge in your pants (no, the one that holds the credit cards). As for the head researcher position, if you have implemented a couple of the above suggestions here's what she/he can provide: -Head researcher will actively stay and work evenings and weekends. LR1's Nora was a prime example as she barely left the lab to so much as breathe. -Raise the obedience of the rest of the R&D team to match her own. It would be a slow trickle effect (and could go the same for other stats as well) but it would at least compensate for the fact that many happiness boosts come at the cost of loyalty. -She would increase the % chance the randomly selected test subject would be ok with the testing of prototype serums on them. HOWEVER she would be vastly opposed to being a test subject herself. -The head researcher could reduce the chance of lab accidents and unwanted prototype serum effects.

Pretty much each update is a standalone. Ditch the old one and unpack the new one, Saves generally have a hard time being ported from on vers to the next.

for some reason when head researcher was mentioned, i immediately thought of the other side of the spectrum, of the lowest job of being a test subject, but i guess that role is kind of fulfilled by any and all personal in this game :P maybe in the future, create a business policy where new employees go through testing where they are exposed in a controlled environment to substances they will work with, to see how they react and make sure there are no allergic reactions. Thats when you drug the sh*t out of them. Or there could be a crisis where an employee is short on money and you give them an opportunity to participate in extra testing (maybe to boost research, maybe with a probability of the employee getting a negative debuff, duuno, penalty on stats that lasts a few days for example) (now i am thinking about an overdose mechanic, but that seems to be a bit more complex topic, maybe not as much in terms of putting one into the game, but, at least for me, it seems to be something that is really difficult to think through properly (how it should work or how do you want it to work))

retchedegg

when downloading the new version will we have to redownload a big file or whats the go?

Would she be someone you hire specifically for the role or someone you promote from within? It would be kind of awesome if management were their own class of characters with haughty personalities/poses so it's a different experience when you take them down a peg, since all of these other characters off the street are already so eager to please because they're all coming in at an entry level position. I'd love to be able to believe they're actual, capable leaders instead of just another girl with an office instead of a desk.

onen