Quick status update.
All moved-in to the new apartment, I am tired as fuck! I took two days of busting my ass, to pack-up and move everything, and get it set back up.
Unfortunately, the computer is still in a box and the computer stand is not assembled. I will be doing that tonight, once I figure-out where it will go in the apartment. I am sharing a room, so it can't go in there. (We are still pending a three bedroom apartment to open-up. Great, more moving...)
The good news is, my cold is 90% gone. Just a little cough once in a while, and a little throat scratch at night. That was the most annoying cold I ever had, ever, in my life.
Internet is still a little issue. Not sure when I will be tethered back to net. It's slowing me down, having to run to McDonalds, every time I cross an issue in RenPy that doesn't seem to work. At the moment, I am just avoiding all of those issue, which is making the coding a LOT longer than I wanted it to be. (Fuck-it, I can fix it later. I'll have plenty of time on my hands.
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I hope you will appreciate the new introduction. When I have the free-roaming ready 100%, I will make a fast version of the introduction, which you can "break-out of". It will essentially skip all the dialogue, stopping at each of the "choice moments", to allow you to make those "introduction points", which would otherwise be missing, if it totally skipped the introduction.
For those who don't mind reading the TLDR stuff, and like reading about game-internals... Below is some details of my "unique" points system. No spoilers here, but it will give you an idea of what to expect.
First, I never liked the whole "earn xxx points to advance", or something like skyrim and warcraft, or those other MMORPG style points, where everything is just exponential an essentially just throws-up walls at every turn. (Where, honestly, they should have been using the old "earn xxx points to advance" systems.
So... This was my alternative...
1: Do like 90% of RenPy games do, and throw-up walls that only collapse when you do something specific. (I have those too, but that is not EVERY situation.)
2: Invent a new system that makes sense to the game.
Number one, was already in place. Eat fish and you smell like fish. Find money and you can spend it at the new store that opens up. blah, blah, blah... boring...
Number two, was an old idea, which I came-up with, after playing all the games, "Morrowind", "Oblivion", and "Skyrim"... They almost had it, but they still chose to use that horrid exponential points system. (Doubled-up with exponential retardedness of the enemy, in reverse, as a balance of power. Total fail there!)
So, how does my system of points work? (Yea, because you actually WANT to know.
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Too bad, I like TLDR, so I am going to tell you! (Hopefully others who code, may think about adopting it.)
First, since this is a story, the use of hard-coded points is just dumb, unless you actually track and hit every possible scenereo. What I do is the following.
When you encounter a set of choices, which are "unique", those become potential points. Points you could have gotten, but you didn't, because you could only have selected one choice. So, if one set has SNEAK +3 and another set has GREED +3, and another has SNEAK +1 with GREED +1... The total potential is SNEAK +3 and GREED +3. The largest of all choices is the potential you could have obtained in any one area.
So, picking the one with SNEAK +3, will give you 3 points to your potential sneak-ability and also 3 points to the greed-trait. However, you only get 3 points added to your "base" for sneak. You can't fall below 3 in sneak, but you can go down to 0 in greed, which you are at, because you didn't get any greed points. (For unique choices).
Now, for repeatable actions, which are not unique, you only gain the points for doing the actions. Not doing another action has no impact on anything. Your points are added, temporarily, to your total UNIQUE minimum, and can go up to 1.5x the POTENTIAL MAXIMUM (150%)... but, the less UNIQUE points you have, the less points you get for doing the actions. Since, obviously, you are no greed-master, but you can keep repeating greedy actions, to temporarily become one, without actually being one. (Thus, you do not alter your "path", but still have the chance to see some GREEDY actions.)
Now, being a sneak-master, having nearly all your potential unique points... Each action that has sneaking rewards, gives the maximum possible. Thus, you don't have to do much, to max it out, if you are a master, who chose to do all the unique sneaking actions. The temp-points from repeatable actions, last longer and never drop down as low as your greed-points, due to having that higher unique points bumper.
So, how does this alter the game?
Having XXX points in one area, or a set of areas/skills/attributes, will determine your "path". At some point, if you NEVER do greedy things, you stop seeing GREEDY responses and see more SNEAKING responses. Since, obviously, you have no interest in doing the greedy things, or you just don't have enough greed in you, to succeed at doing them. (Pointing-out that failing to do them all before, it is safe to assume you will not do them in the future.)
Thus, you are locked-in to the sneaking paths... and excluded from the greed paths, even if there is a "sneaky-greedy path", you will not be able to do that one.
For progress, hitting those various levels of xxx points, or xxx potential, will trigger unique progressive advances for sneaking, or whatever. (Which also includes "sneaky-greedy", advances, if you are doing that path.)
By the end of the game, you will eventually worked-up to having a narrow selection of choices, no matter what paths you took. But, it will never be down to just "one choice", which I can't stand in games...
"Kiss her?" (Choice: "YES")
That's not a choice, WTF... A choice is more than one to select... Fucking hell! Why waste time programming a single selection! Morons! LOL.
Back to ME...
So, there is a little management of code, to ensure that certain levels are achievable, but less management than attempting to force choices on people, for no reason, just to get points "up to level". For me, it is simply a matter of playing the game and seeing what point-levels I am at. Then thinking, "does it make sense that you are fingering her after having just kissed her, once"... and "is her response of RAPE!", acceptable as a response.
To make a long story short... er...
This is easy to digest, as a player, seeing it unfold, and easy to code for, in the end. The hardest part is NOT FUKING-UP the points along the way. (Forgetting to advance the UNIQUE POTENTIAL, but still giving the UNIQUE POINTS, can sort-of fuck it up. With you ending-up with a higher minimum expected and a lower maximum as your "100%". Which, can possibly be a feature too, if not ever going over the maximum. Like having make-up UNIQUE points, due to losses. However, then you would have no reason to do the simple "actions", which just give points. Which is kind-of the purpose.)
Okay, the people are looking at me funny, at McDonalds... Time for me to go. I have extended my stay longer than desired.
See you in a few days.