"Car Trip SA" My version of None and Faust's original

[turtlbrdr]

Yay, stuff to comment on!

Suggestions and questions, in no particular order:

• Could you get a (git|svn|hg|etc) repository and show us some code?  If you're going to keep working on this for months more, people will lose interest.  Unless you intend to sell this, of course, I don't see how it could hurt.
• Will you allow disabling the bowels (or bladder, for that matter)?
• I think you overestimate how much people will want to write their own events.  It's probably a good idea to design them elegantly (how are they done now?), but is it really a priority?
• Why is priority of events a problem?  Is the system more complicated than just a number for the priority?
• How are items stored when not in play?  How easy is it to modify items? (I think people will want this.)
• How easy is it to modify the dialogue and descriptions, and again, where are they stored?
• Where is the second relationship stat?  I couldn't find it in the screenshots.  Or is it internal?  I wouldn't name both `shyness' or have them depend on one value, in any case.

I think that's all for now, thank you for your patience. ^^;

I'll continue my explanation by editiing my last post, but I'll answer your questions directly.

• I don't intend to sell it, I suppose I could try to package a page in a zip for this site. Otherwise I don't know of any svn sites that allow the sharing to multiple people without paying. I'm not familiar with the otherr services you mentioned (git/hg)
• I will allow the disabling of all scat content from the game, this includes any event that would feature the content, as well as any items that were associated. Essentially the bowel motive and any trace of it will disappear. As for your other question, I don't know why I'd make bladder optional, would you be saying for the people who would only like the scat content.
• I'm thing so too, however if I can find a way to implement that kind of modularity in the system then I will. After all, a lot of us spend our day on a computer, but even the most computer-attached person does something a little different on occasion. Furthermore it would help me too, layering all of the events in Car Trip 1 is really what killed my ambition; nothing does that faster than figuring out how 5 events should stack, only to find another that needs to between them and have to re-write a good portion of it.
• The priority is important to keep more urgent things occurring when they need to, and the less important ones (simply riding in the care) can happen when nothing else more pressing needs to be addressed. I think a number system could do the job efficiently, however there's also the problem if I really end up adding user support for events; what number do they take? That's actually the only thing condemning the notion of allowing user-made events right now.
• Items bought are stored in a settings file supplied by the VB engine for Car Trip 1 along with everything else. In 2 they are to be stored in a specialized .xml file in the saves directory for the game. To modify items in Car Trip(let's say I botched grammar on the apple), I would have to find the apple item in the shop page, then modify the text there; then I would have to go to the inventory screen and repeat the process. That's not too hard.
  
  However, adding items is a nightmare. In order for the shop and inventory lists to populate properly, I have to add the item to the list of items displayed in the shop, then add the Boolean arguments that allow the program to display all of the information about it. On the inventory page, only items that have been bought show up on the list, so I would have to add more Boolean arguments to check if the you have an amount of the current item and then from there display it on the list, finally I have to add the code for the actual use of the item. that is where it gets intensive.
  
  In 2, all of the items installed will have separate text files for each item. The game keeps track of the link to item and can draw information about that item when necessary. The exact structure of the item save file is to be determine. To modify/create items for the CT2 engine I will create a item editor for the game, it will make making/editing items "no bullshit easy", I intend to create this tool (and several others) before I begin the main game, that way I'll be able to test the program, but it will also allow me to create the items a lot quicker.
• The dialog and the descriptions of the events are all stored with the events, in line, in the engine (a further complication to lining up the events) in CT1. It is tough to edit them at best.
  
  In the CT2 engine, I plan for dialogue to be matched up with personalities, somewhat. I'm not sure of the exact relationship between the dialog and personalities right now. The dialog files will likely be the biggest of the normal non-image associated files. A dialog file will include a line for every peice of dialog in the game, and will be similarily hard to modify by hand. However, again I will make an editor for the dialog, if at first only to sustain my sanity. using the editor the user can call up any category dialog lines (wetting situation) and edit them quickly and easily. Plus there will obviously be support for amking your own dialog file as well if that's what you wanted to do.
• I was afraid I would lose some people with my explanation of shyness. Simple way to describe it is that there are two variables named shyness, one stores personality, and one stores a type of relationship tracker. They're unrelated as far as value, but they do work together to determine several things during the game. The relationship shyness variable is an internal value, it's kept by the game to tell how much she has warmed to the user. Finally, there is no real variable named relationship in the game. There is a relationship variable that I do keep track of, however. It is not stored or even used by the game, it's a theoretical contra-variable to the shyness relationship tracker; that is, as one increases the other decreases and vice versa. to calculate "relationship" you take 40 (the maximum number of points the shyness variable will contain) and subtract out the current shyness stat. At zero shyness the girl isn't shy around you. and your "relationship" would be the full 40. However, as the game starts out, the girl will have 40 points of shyness, and the corresponding "relationship" value would be "0".

As always, I'm always happy to take questions. I hope this serves to answer your's.

[Ranpalan]

git and hg are version control systems, similar to SVN.  You are mistaken about there not being free ones -- Google Code, Github, Gitorious, Launchpad, all come to mind.  In addition to that, I have an account on animepee.me (if it hasn't been removed yet) that I could host some things on, although that would make it harder for others to see things.

I have no particular reason for asking for the bladder to be disable-able -- I don't have an issue with it, was mostly just curious.

I think I understand the shyness mechanism (as far as you've described it).  Also, don't be afraid of throwing in some example code here, I doubt VB is sufficiently different for it to be incomprehensible.

All in all, it sounds like refactoring is indeed needed, but it doesn't sound like it warrants a rewrite from scratch to me.

[Dynamic]

I strongly advise against using anything commercial for the first game:  it costs a lot, and while you work alone, there's only so much you can get out of it, anyway.  My advice for a 3D engine would be Unity3D -- I'm sceptical of starting a 3D project without having a team, but if you really want to, it seems to be the way to go these days.

Unity3D is pretty easy to use, powerful, and the license for the indie version is pretty permissive.  It also makes use of very high level scripting languages, so you don't have to worry about writing native code.  If you are new to 3D then Unity is a fine way to go.


If it's free and you want ease of use coupled with control you might look at Blender 3D.  It is a free 3D modelling/animation software package with integrated game engine, and is very powerful.  The learning curve is steep, but well worth the effort.

Or, you can look into OpenGL bindings for VB... if you're reasonably brave.  I guess there is DirectX too but... bleh.

[tester]

I'll continue my explanation by editiing my last post, but I'll answer your questions directly.

• I don't intend to sell it, I suppose I could try to package a page in a zip for this site. Otherwise I don't know of any svn sites that allow the sharing to multiple people without paying. I'm not familiar with the otherr services you mentioned (git/hg)

You should put up a zip file once you have anything of interest.  Even if its not a game.  I'm sure other people would be interested in looking at it, and possibly modifying it for a different game that they might make.

Seriously, a lot of people would appreciate that, as it lets people look at something early, and work on it as early as possible.

[Dynamic]

The user none already did that, and this is a result of those efforts.  If you want a starting point go download none's source and poke around.

[Ranpalan]

Access to an up-to-date repository would be far more convenient than a simple zip archive, especially one that was posted months ago.

[turtlbrdr]

Well, I decided. Tonight I start work on Car Trip 1.0.

After cleaning it a bit to preserve code I want to keep hidden for now, I'll be releasing the full source for the demo version here within a couple of days to a week.

I apologize for going dormant for so long, but to anyone who's in college you should know what it's like. I am not going to speculate the release on the full version, but those interested in helping design the clothes and characters for car trip, you may post any works.

Again, I the only thing I could give in return for the art design (the one I choose to be the winner) is insider info and early access to the game/beta/alpha..

Right now, for the next couple of weeks (probably more than that) I will be starting work on the game file editors. These groups of tools will be used to aid the creation of the items in the game as well as nearly every other aspect.

Please, as always, feel free to ask any and all questions you might have

[turtlbrdr]

Not much new news on the project.

Sadly my main computer (An Asus g73) is in the shop with a reoccurring issue that hasn't been fixed yet with three subsequent visits. This leaves me operating on a small Asus netbook for all of my computer time. Though for the record: After a bit of tweaking I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of stuff I haven't lost the capability to do, and I am now much less likely to throw myself into the nearest four-way intersection since said epiphany.

However, efficient programming is not one of those things I find myself able to do on here. So a good portion of the work has to be postponed until this issue with my main computer is resolved. This amount of time could be until further this week, or further down close to Christmas; depending on the success of the current fix.

Unlike previous times however, I'm not totally stymied by this turn of events. Slow progress is still being made on the CT2 Source. A lot of the back-end process are being designed in Onenote. Already complete are things related to the inventory and modular item systems.

Right now I am a bit hung up with the designs however. The slow-down (in addition to the computer portion) is that I need to completely map all of the new variables that will be used in the newer version of the game. (at least 24 right now). This is because the items for the game will be able to change just about any stat in the game.

[turtlbrdr]

I've gotten done with the issues with my computer, and after the holiday I'm going to resume regular processes for the game.

I've fairly much nailed down the variables that I'd like in the game, but I'm worried I might not be accomidating something. Therefore I'd like to ask everyone to write about what kind of features they'd like to see in the game.

Secondly, I've started a post (http://www.animegirldesp.org/f/index.php?topic=4444.0) to ask about the types of personalities that we'd like to see in the game; if you have a minute, please go and choose a couple.

Finally, I may have a line on the next step of car trip, but I don't know yet

[turtlbrdr]

I'm in fairly close proximity to releasing the first bit of program for Car Trip, the new item creator. The program is comming along nicely and if I'm not distracted I should be able to get it out by the end of the next week.

There are two main obstacles standing right now

• First I'm going to have to completely go through all of the variables and sort them out to where they will be stored in the new version
  
  In the first version all of the variables were stored in the VB formats onboard save file, however, in the new version the variables will be stored in several places. It will take me a little time to figure out where each variable is going to sit and then I can start adding them to the creator to be able to create items
  
  


• Second, the last thing standing in my way is getting the item creator to be able to create the text saved files and then be able to read them. This will also be a big step into the main game, because the main game will use the same algorithms to decode the files in order to install them.

[turtlbrdr]

Another setback, this time with the straight programming, I have to figure out a way to allow dependencies. Say, once you use x item, you want the user to be given y. I need to figure out a way to make sure x cannot be used unless y is installed.

I start schooling again next week too.

[Drying]

Another setback, this time with the straight programming, I have to figure out a way to allow dependencies. Say, once you use x item, you want the user to be given y. I need to figure out a way to make sure x cannot be used unless y is installed.

I start schooling again next week too.

I think we have at least two programming experts here (see insane code topic).

I can help with programming problems, but this is way too vague, so if you would like help, a lot more info is needed.

[EnragedFilia]

Another setback, this time with the straight programming, I have to figure out a way to allow dependencies. Say, once you use x item, you want the user to be given y. I need to figure out a way to make sure x cannot be used unless y is installed.

I start schooling again next week too.

Well, ask a general question and get a general answer: Set a flag when y is obtained, and when attempting to use x, check whether the flag is set. If necessary, clear the flag when y is lost.

[tester]

Status on this?  I feel like this is becoming a dead project.  And what you really need to do is just release all the code that you've got so far so that someone else can work on it if they want.

[turtlbrdr]

Status on this?  I feel like this is becoming a dead project.  And what you really need to do is just release all the code that you've got so far so that someone else can work on it if they want.

'
It's been kinda put on the back burner recently. I've been kind of dragging along since I started a job in addition to my schooling, plus I just changed computers and had to get everything set up. But I'm working on it, putting work into the documentation I work from, I usually get some time on Thursdays to play around with things.

I've also started a new program on the side for personal pursuits and it can import files, so I have completely learned how to do so, when it comes time to do so for CT it will be much easier.