No name yet, text-base game with futuristic cowboys

[Anonymouse]

I don't think as3 supports the charAt function. So the % thingy won't work,

Did you see my code and swf? I already got an example of this working (if you are talking about what I think you are)

[Terrantor!!!]

Aww, darn. The only access I have to the site is through the iPhone which doesn't run flash. I cannot see or download ur demo.

[BlueLight]

Aww, darn. The only access I have to the site is through the iPhone which doesn't run flash. I cannot see or download ur demo.

Here is a modified version of his code. I added some comments but they'll likely not help you since 1 i didn't get far and two i'm using the process of making them to work through the syntax.

package
{
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.text.TextField;
import flash.text.TextFieldType;
import flash.text.TextFormat;

/**
* ...
* @author Anonymouse
*/
public class Main extends Sprite
{
private var inTf : TextField; // input
private var outTf : TextField; // output
private var thesaurus : Object; //No clue but we'll find out.

public function Main():void //Main method or consturctor.
{

if (stage) init();//if the stage already exist, then just initalize the program
else addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init); //we add a eventlistener by adding a constant and a variable named init.
// init is a function that returns void but for some reason it's a variable.
}

private function init(e:Event = null) : void
{
removeEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init);

//add both the TextField to the Main Object. Input on top, Output on bottom.
addChild(inTf = new TextField());
addChild(outTf = new TextField());

//sets the default stats of the TextPanel
inTf.defaultTextFormat = new TextFormat("Verdana", 12);
inTf.width = 600;
inTf.height = 200;
inTf.type = TextFieldType.INPUT;//Because of this, it will accept input.
inTf.border = true;
outTf.defaultTextFormat = new TextFormat("Verdana", 12);
outTf.width = 600;
outTf.height = 200;
outTf.y = 400;
outTf.border = true;

thesaurus = { race : getRace, cock : describeCock }
inTf.text = "Try writing text here, including the tags %race and %cock."
inTf.addEventListener(Event.CHANGE, parseText);
}

private function getRace() : String
{
return "human";
}

private function describeCock() : String
{
var options : Vector.<String> = new < String > ["cock", "penis", "dick"];
return options[Math.floor(Math.random() * options.length)];
}

private function parseText(e : Event) : void
{
var text : String = inTf.text;
for (var s : String in thesaurus)
{
while (text.indexOf("%" + s) >= 0)
{
text = text.replace("%" + s, thesaurus[s].apply());
}
}

outTf.text = text;
}
}
}

[Duplicity]

Referencing my vague document. Told you I didn't know what a design document was. Yet you haven't told me yet....
Just a note on the travel system costs.
The gains of 2 or 3 to strength, speed and stamina would be permanent. While the stamina cost of -20 or whatever would be temporary until you rested or slept. So each exploration makes you stronger and fitter depending on the environment.
I was annoyed CoC never cost fatigue to travel anywhere. Only to cast spells. Or certain attacks hurt your fatigue. Apart from the odd stat gain when randomly travelling and not encountering anything. There was no impact.

A day and night system would be grand. Each location would be altered depending on the time of day. Different enemies, different dangers and different travelling conditions.
Also if any enemy captured you they didn't take you to your home, but their own. But I like your suggestion more Blue. Being tied up at the fight location makes more sense.

And if you dislike the time lost from lost fights. Make it an hour lost no matter if you win or lose. If you lose you simply travel slower thanks to your injuries.
I don't know about the second health metre for injuring the character as they travel. Wouldn't draining stamina achieve the same result?

[Anonymouse]

BlueLight, in a way, functions ARE variables - they are members of classes and you can pass references to them. In C# you can create delegates and pass them around, and I think in C/C++ you can do a similar thing, so this seems to be a feature that is just missing from Flash. With init, you seem to be having an issue with "addEventListener(Event.ENTER_STAGE, init)". Events are crucial to programming in AS3, and this is how they work: You add a listener to an object with two parameters, one is the event to listen for and the second is a reference to the function to call when the event happens. For a function defined by "function init()", "init()" is a call to that function and "init" is a reference to it.

In actionscript, this is valid code:

Code: Select All Code

var F = new function(...args) : void
{ /*code*/};

Have to go now, will explain better later on today

Edit:
What I'm doing in the previous code is creating an object that associates strings with functions. In AS3, the Object class is sort of like a Hashtable or Dictionary in Java and is declared like:
var obj : Object = {propertyName : propertyValue, property2Name : property2Value};
then you can access elements of an object by:
obj.propertyName or obj["property2Name"]

So going back to my code, "thesaurus = { race : getRace, cock : describeCock }" creates an object with properties "race" and "cock", which are references to the functions "getRace" and "describeCock" respectively.

Next, in the parse function, we search every element of the object with "for (var s : String in thesaurus)" which is basically "For each string s such that thesaurus[s] exists". Then we check the occurrence of s, preceded by a percent sign, in the text and replace that occurrence with the result that the function associated with thesaurus[s] returns.

Hope this helps

[Terrantor!!!]

Wow, cool, so now inTf can be modified with custom return fx's prompted by the percent sign. Excellent. Duplicity, u seem to have ur shit down with the game theory. I currently have a dice roll function that pretty much compares two stats, was wondering what other tools you would like to work with and would you be able to implement them yourself?

[Anonymouse]

Started on a character creator/description thingy. I know the description is pretty bad atm, this is just to illustrate that it works.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Click to Play
(Javascript Required)

Creator.swf [ 42.73 KiB | Viewed 1664 times ]

[Duplicity]

Dudes I have none to less than none coding ability. I'm on page 200 of nearly 900 pages of essential AS3. So I don't know crap. Code how ever you want to.

I was thinking and call me stupid if it is. But maybe have a main enemy class and all enemies inherit from that?
So in the main class you would create a template of the enemy make up. So their speed would affect dodging and hitting. Strength would control attack power and damage resistance. Stamina would control how many big attacks they could do(no fecking stun locking satyrs) as well as chances of being staggered.
Along with the chance of being in a certain region, tying up the character after raping them and whatever.
Then each inheriting class would add their own values and attack names or whatever.

Does that make sense and would it be less work? Or make adding enemies easier later on?

So the dice roll would need to compare the 3 combat stats of the enemy and character(if you want). If strength is overwhelming in the favour of the character the enemy attacks would barely hurt them. Could you subtract the two strength stats and the bigger the difference the less damage done?
almost like 30 - 29 = 1 (attack lowered by 1) or 30 - 15 = 15 (attack lowered by 15)???
There is probably a much more simple way to do this all.
Maybe just do if speed is greater add % to avoid enemy attack. While % of dealing critical blow.
If stamina low add % to stagger or stun.
If strength higher add % bonus damage and subtract % damage taken.

[Terrantor!!!]

That's a good idea, actually it'll be great to customize individual enemy types. As for how ur stat rolls are computed, I'm sure I can just figure out a few formulas. So don't worry about coding, lol.

[BlueLight]

I suggest you work out formulas before you move on. Hell we don't even have stats yet so this is the cart before the horse.

[Aisy]

Yo, I took a look at the discussion and it looks like you guys are makin' good progress! It's a large help to have this kinda community work together with coding nonsense. Anyway, I guess we can't really confirm anything without Cthulhu, but I'd like to help out with what I can w/r/t suggestions.

@Anonymouse The character creator so far seems pretty neat, is it possible to add presets to it? Working with sliders can be great in terms of detail but casual players might just want to go with average or slightly above-average without worrying too much about numbers. It's trivial, but can help with accessibility.
I've seen a similar character creation method go into a project (long dead) where you had the option to pick out things like eye colour and hair colour from a large list, but you also had the opportunity to randomize it. Not only that, you could also kick up the randomizer to 'deviantart-tier' levels of ridiculousness, where you'd get secret options like 'silver-red heterochromia' and 'pitch-black starry hair'.

While I'm on this train of thought, what about something similar to Fallout, where you could get preset by choosing a specific race? You'd end up with a very cookie-cutter appearance like black hair/brown eyes/tan skin, but having the option gives something for people to work off on. It might seem a bit complex at this point, but definitely something to consider.

@Duplicity re: Design Document, take care not to work off of CoC TOO much, because making a reskinned CoC isn't worth the effort. If we were to fix things about CoC, a big one is the lust system. It's ridiculous to defeat punkish raiders on motorbikes by waving your ass at them - you weren't giving up, you were literally subduing them by making them too aroused to fight. But! I'm saying this because the tone of the game so far seems more serious than CoC. It might not be, so heck it mightn't be an issue in the long run.

Be careful when it comes to worldbuilding cities - a post-apocalyptic wasteland can afford a few, but a sex-game needs a lot of content before you can consider making one. Giving people an in-world reason as to why there aren't many around will help. I love the radioactivity level replacing the corruption one, but we don't need too many bars involved. What if we considered things like hunger or thirst to replace status modifiers, or make combat modifiers less involved? Things like strength and stuff are implied to be boosted to unnatural levels in CoC, but what if your combat stats were determined by what you wore and used in battle instead? Maybe there could be a smithing mechanic that would help, whereas changes in appearance like muscles remain purely aesthetic and gained through regular means. I'm suggesting a more realistic take to it, but! Feel free to offer a more whimsical solution, since it doesn't have to be gritty and dark.

[Terrantor!!!]

Ok well I like the way Bethesda does stats. Let's come up with a bunch of main stats with transitional stats between each. For example strength and stealth can have sneak attack as a transition. Strength and speech craft can have intimidation as a transition. With these kinda smooth eases into one another, the player can develop his/her own style.

[Duplicity]

I'm going to the dentist Tuesday to have a root canal. I hope to hell he doesn't give me any more antibiotics. The last lot made me constantly sick for a whole week, just on the tail end now. So depending on how I pull up I might not to be up too much.

But since Cthulhu seems only interested in the art I will try to 'lead' the project. I say lead. I really mean I will come up with things, like ideas and you guys can hammer them into the shapes you want. Really just to get the ball rolling. Once the engine has been made, hopefully I can be more of a help.

But for now we should work out what we want and need. So maybe could people have a list of what they think most important?
I think the image parser should wait until the character desciption is mostly completed.
You say we need stats and formulas. I reckon we start everything off at a nominal value, say '10' and build from there. If it doesn't work out we change the values.

Terrantor
I've done some, but some are really tentative.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Main stats
Strength
Stamina
Speed
Speech
Stealth
Intelligence
Seduction
Radioactivity
Pride
Psychic

//Feel free to change stuff, just leave ' // ' to let me know where it was changed.

Strength x Stamina = stagger/stun attacks
Strength x Psychic = move items,
Strength x Speech = intimidation options on non-monster NPC's(merchants, police, Knights etc)
Strength x Stealth = ambush
Strength x Seduction = Rape in town???
Strength x Pride = Resist the immoral/seduction
Strength x Intelligence = Critical hits, resist hypnosis
Strength x Seduction = Forceful seduction attacks (kinda like the enemy lust attacks of CoC. You don't just stand there and pose.)
------
Stamina x Speed = Faster travel
Stamina x Psychic = Longer effect
------
Speed x Intelligence = think quick
------- // The speech stuff might be too fiddly to have, but I'll list some options.
Speech x Psychic = influence people
Speech x Stealth = Lie strength
Speech x Intelligence = Correct conversation choice highlighted?
Speech x Pride = Speak morally (great for police and Knights)
-------
Stealth x Psychic = Something insidious
--------
Intelligence x
---------
Seduction x Radioactivity
Low = a little better effect on seducing
Medium = You extrude pheromones
High = You literally ooze sex
-------
Radioactivity //Apart from seduction slightly lowers all stats.
Over a 1000 and you mutate and lose the main game, but can play on as mutant?
------
Pride x
-------
Psychic x

Anybody feel free to comment, If you like the system. If you think it is too hard or we should be concentrating on getting the main engine running first or whatever.

Trouble is I don't know if magik should be apart of the world or not? Maybe psychic powers instead? You are supposed to be a evolved human after all.

[Anonymouse]

but I'd like to help out with what I can w/r/t suggestions.

Just wondering, have you studied some form of higher level maths/science? Only ever seen mathematicians use w.r.t. as an abbreviation. Maybe it's just more common than I thought... Anyway, on to the actual post:

@Anonymouse The character creator so far seems pretty neat, is it possible to add presets to it? Working with sliders can be great in terms of detail but casual players might just want to go with average or slightly above-average without worrying too much about numbers. It's trivial, but can help with accessibility.

I'm glad you like what I have so far. Maybe I should have been more clear, but this isn't a character creator in the sense that this is what players would see when they first load up the game, it was more to allow people working on the game to create any character in the game to test descriptions and stuff.That's why it goes to 0.5cm (0.2") intervals - I doubt players would care about that small a difference, but it seems like a good base for the game engine to work in. [I choose this as the interval because I wanted it to work in both inches and centimetres (with the player able to choose which to use) and taking 1" = 2.5cm means 0.5cm=0.2" is the largest factor of both.]

While I'm on this train of thought, what about something similar to Fallout, where you could get preset by choosing a specific race? You'd end up with a very cookie-cutter appearance like black hair/brown eyes/tan skin, but having the option gives something for people to work off on. It might seem a bit complex at this point, but definitely something to consider.

I really like that idea. I mean obviously you want people to be able to customize their characters however they want, but I think it would be better if they had a base to start from and then they had to do in game stuff to change their character into what they want. If they can start with whatever they want, in game transformations are useless.

What if we considered things like hunger or thirst to replace status modifiers, or make combat modifiers less involved?

I really like the idea of a survival element, where you have to spend a proportion of your time scavenging for food and water.

[BlueLight]

Ok well I like the way Bethesda does stats.

I am sorry but i've never seen Bethesda make a good stats system. Interesting yes, but not good. Fallout 3 is the best i can think of and really they screwed that one up.
I know personally opinion and all but... they've never showed skill in this department; only creativity.

Strength
Stamina
Speed
Speech
Stealth
Intelligence
Seduction
Radioactivity
Pride
Psychic

So pride... I'd personally remove it or start it at 0. It's always annoying when a character can't doing something because the programmers decided that they're "Pride" is to high. Add on to this, their pride score always starts at 100% which means that their not snobby prideful bitches... which would be way cooler! If we're careful about the stat, we can make this work, but we shouldn't stop the player from bedding everyone in a town on the first day because of "pride".

Here's how i'd break up the numbering. There is a lot of interplay between the different stats you have that we might as well split it up to support this. For instance Strength/fitness will have a affect on your speed. You have to be fit and intelligent to seduce so this system supports that.

Attributes
Fitness
Intelligence

Stat
Stamina
Speed
Seduction
Psychic
Radioactivity

Fitness
Stamina
Speed
(Seduction += log(Fitness*10))/2

Intelligence
Seduction/2
Psychic

[Anonymouse]

This is what I'm working on atm, expanding and redesigning my character creation thingy:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Capture.PNG (27.45 KiB) Viewed 1606 times

Just got a billion events and a new description function to write

[Duplicity]

See good stuff happens when people fix up my ideas....
I should make up a list of things that annoy me in sex game.
People who are there and only fill only function. Like a merchant only being a merchant? Stupid right? They must also be a sex chance.

Anyway all this is still really just thoughts. Nothing concrete. Even the names for most of the stats I would like to change. Psychic to Esper or something like that.
I actually just played a game recently, might have been Knight Zion Claire. You could buy different outfits for certain things. Oddly having a mini skirt and short top was the only outfit that allowed you to work as a whore in the shop. Being naked or in a bondage outfit wasn't good enough apparently. Give me credit for working this out in a japanese game.
Anyway the point is. You had to slowly degrade yourself with small events until you could actively chase sex. I think I spent an hour before I could wear a different outfit. The only sex in one hour was one rape scene when I deliberately lost to the boss. This is a pretty common and pretty annoying theme in games.

So yeah I agree having too much pride at the start would be bad. Though the character is supposed to be some mighty human coming to clean up enough.
Maybe in the opening act you get your arse kicked, wake up in the rubbish dump surrounded by an alien orgy and kinda figure this isn't the space station/city you were raised on. Specially because of all the dried cum all over you from being used as the orgy tissue.
You drop to half? pride and have the choice of getting back to 100% or giving up on being a squeaky clean human.
So instead of hiding events because you don't have the correct stat(which annoys me) you still have the options. But because your stat doesn't match maybe some sort of penalty? Participate in an orgy when still relatively new to the planet and you get hurt from the many, many penises?

Looking good Anonymouse

[BlueLight]

-_- we're going the... BLAHAHHAHHA SEX! route.... ewww! It's kinda funny how designing a game, one looks at the tropes. The problem i have with the orgy idea is that it's really taking control away from the player.

Why not just allow the player to tweak these settings at start up. We don't need to some overly complicated system to deal with this. Also, i personally hate the idea of funneling the character into situation just because.... "because"! The character is the players way to interact in the world, and if they want a pure virgin who hasn't smelt the stench of cum before... then that would be nice if we support it. on top of that, why must the character be grouped with any anyone? These are some of the things CoC did a good job on, where the character is the players creation, not some cookie cutter that some programer gave them.

[Terrantor!!!]

Armor based stats was done in monster hunter, really cool way and incentive to farm resources. Only problem was combining from different sets usually led to ur character looking mismatched and the stat bonuses not doing shit. But I figure if the armors activated perks like a switch then a threshold, this could be bypassed. And I mean it's the apocalypse, who cares if ur clothes match?

[BlueLight]

Armor based stats was done in monster hunter, really cool way and incentive to farm resources. Only problem was combining from different sets usually led to ur character looking mismatched and the stat bonuses not doing shit. But I figure if the armors activated perks like a switch then a threshold, this could be bypassed. And I mean it's the apocalypse, who cares if ur clothes match?

My pink boots have to match my Yellow hat! That's a requirement!