Sunday, August 30, 2015

Still working on the exporting

I more or less tackled all the main variables, but I still have a few left, and I am still trying to figure out if there is an easy way to export the status of the items, or if I just need to resign myself and attach a variable to track all the ones I wanted exported one by one.
I am also trying to figure out if I want to make some things easier, even if it means possibly "screwing over" some of the players. For example, the upgrades for the house/station you buy aren't really tracked by variables in the game, with the exception of the last room. Do I simply check that one and be done with it, ignoring all the players who didn't completely upgrade the base before finishing the game, or do I add variables to track the single rooms? The amount of players who buy the house and the upgrades but not all of them is probably very small, but it doesn't seem completely fair to deny them their upgrades, especially since they won't have that money in the bank when the export function will check how much credits they have.

Not all situations are quite as messy, but the Falcon/Dragon Guild fork is another troublesome one, since you can start both but not get ahead in either of them. I can probably just say that since you didn't get involved with them too much, you lost your contacts with these organizations, but I think you can see how it's taking me time to crack this puzzle. I should be able to put together the "fake" chapter 2 pretty soon, though, so I can see if things can really work this way. If they don't, then I'll have to figure out a way to deliver a LONG series of questions to the players, without boring them to death, and just forget the import/export option (which would be quite sad, considering I have already invested some time on it).

Well, nothing much to report, outside of this. I did some minor picture hunting, but that's about it. Next week, we'll see where I am with this system, and maybe we can celebrate me not screwing things up. :p Until next time! ^_^

6 comments:

  1. Honestly I'd be fine with just answering questions to set things.

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    1. What if I told you I am still far from done, and the number of possible answers is already close to 30? I am not Bioware, so people will get different experiences depending on their choices, but that means a LOT of things to keep track of. I could simplify everything, of course, but I don't want to do it lightly, if I can make it work the way it's meant to, then it would be for the best. I could compromise on some stuff, as I mentioned (pretend everyone bought all the items and the upgrades for the base, money and stats wouldn't be exported to the next game, and other minor such things), but that's as far as I can go, and that's going to make my life much easier, but it's also the stuff that wasn't meant to be in the questions, so on that front it's still going to be a long list, no matter what, unless I purposefully butcher the game, which would make me a very sad panda. :(

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  2. I'll probably keep a save and go back to it for any partial completion. I'd only be bummed if I couldn't complete it just before the final cutoff point/mission.

    If you do manage to create a large amount of questions, you could make them default to some value if left unanswered. Then group them by category and allow answering a category or maybe questions in the category. This would mean you only fill in background you care about.

    Glad to hear how things are going smoothly.

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    1. Well, the idea is to have a small list of questions for chapter 2 to be viable even without an import file, but of course people would miss out on several things, that's why I would prefer to have a working system to import data between the two.

      Grouping the questions in categories might actually help navigating them more easily, that's true, although I have to wonder how to categorize some of the stuff in a way that makes it obvious for players what's going to be in there (does your pornstar career go under "jobs", or should it go under "crew sidequests outcomes"?). It's definitely worth considering, though.

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  3. One suggestion is to give player a code or something to input at teh pregame start screen of ch1. This code would be given at the end of Ch1.

    Using it would unlock a selection of choices similar to the DA worldstate editing in Dragon Age Keep.

    Honestly, if you gave it every possible branch point (photoshoot, pornstar, alexis, dragon/falcon) I'd be happy to have to suffer through it to completely customise it.


    Of course, the 'cheesing it' way would be a selection menu in events in CH2 when checking - for example "became pornstar" in a future quest where you say "yes, Celeste agreed to star" or "no, she didnt", and selecting one or the other locks out or advances the quest.

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    1. The idea behind the questions is also to allow people to replay the game and trying new starting points without having to import for all the possible situations, so they are going in no matter what, it's just about striking the right balance between completeness, giving something extra to old time players and not making it a really tedious process.

      I could use selection menus, but I'd rather keep what affects what not so easy to spot, and keep people guessing on what exactly they are going to face based on their choices.

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