Crush, I don't know if its been suggested or not but the sexual history seems a pretty empty tab at the moment. Any plans to expand upon it? Perhaps have it list scenes that you complete successfully such as "Won wet T-shirt contest" perhaps with embelishments like got naked, made our with girls on stage. "Shot Amatuer porn"
HTML Female Agent [v1.20.1p] [Crushstation]
- Aug 3, 2017
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I cannot recall if I voiced this or not before, but I am a little concerned with all these skills that could be unlocked depending on how you went about the game and during character generation. With so many, will they ever be meaningful? (Most haven't.) Or will the game continue to rely on a small set of factors or kinks? Or are these other skills/experiences just for aesthetic purposes?
If the broad range of skills are going to be taken into account and be meaningful, then it's possible that development will be quite the grind as it tries to factor in all the various ways the PC agent could resolve the different scenarios that she finds herself in and the consequences of those actions. The outcomes of which may or may not branch off in unexpected ways that requires further work (that few players might even ever see).
On the other hand, maybe all these skills and their proficiencies are kept in the game, and that there are times where they would be extremely useful. But will those situations be few and far in between? Will they need a certain level of proficiency in that skill? How do you deal with ways that would allow the player to overcome those situations in a positive or in a less-detrimental way--instead of outright "failing"--that doesn't have those skills (without it snowballing into issue after issue in similar future situations)?
Quite the rabbit hole, no? That's not even taking into account the RNG factor the game already incorporates. Don't get me wrong, the game is a very detailed character generator so far and I enjoyed that (despite the fleshed out background information appearing to be unused afterwards). However, very little of the nonsexual skills can be used after the PC agent agrees to go on her assignment. Am I just overthinking it and shouldn't be concerned? What are your opinions on the matter?
If the broad range of skills are going to be taken into account and be meaningful, then it's possible that development will be quite the grind as it tries to factor in all the various ways the PC agent could resolve the different scenarios that she finds herself in and the consequences of those actions. The outcomes of which may or may not branch off in unexpected ways that requires further work (that few players might even ever see).
On the other hand, maybe all these skills and their proficiencies are kept in the game, and that there are times where they would be extremely useful. But will those situations be few and far in between? Will they need a certain level of proficiency in that skill? How do you deal with ways that would allow the player to overcome those situations in a positive or in a less-detrimental way--instead of outright "failing"--that doesn't have those skills (without it snowballing into issue after issue in similar future situations)?
Quite the rabbit hole, no? That's not even taking into account the RNG factor the game already incorporates. Don't get me wrong, the game is a very detailed character generator so far and I enjoyed that (despite the fleshed out background information appearing to be unused afterwards). However, very little of the nonsexual skills can be used after the PC agent agrees to go on her assignment. Am I just overthinking it and shouldn't be concerned? What are your opinions on the matter?
I just want to toss in a thought on this subject, not spy skills but combat skills. A fairly large number of people, male and female, go to Thailand to train Muay Thai and even MMA nowadays. Consider working in some content addressing MCs interested in "training" combat skills as part of their cover.
- Jun 19, 2018
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I've had this thought as well but decided to wait how this develops. Considering how slow the writing part of development goes (compared to coding and artwork which has been the main focus for quite some time now) i honestly can't fathom how all these skills could possibly come into play meaningful in the story. It's just so much. So many conditions, variables and possible outcomes of scenarios and dialogue trees.
So i guess we'll see how this continues to develop but i'm honestly sceptical.
Back and Ashburn: thanks for raising the questions about skills. One of the rules mechanics I'm pretty pleased with is that skills can increase the player's stats – which is not something I've seen in other RPG rule systems – so that (for example) levelling up in the Kickboxing skill can increase your Strength and (physical) Daring, and levelling up Cosplay can increase your Creativity and (social) Confidence.
So even skills that are unused aren't necessarily useless, because they indirectly affect your agent's overall capabilities. (In a way, that reflects something that I've read about actual spy recruitment and training: they seek generalists who can quickly improvise solutions to problems they've never encountered before.) If your choice of how to break into a building is between climbing up a drainpipe to an open third-floor window or bluffing your way past the security desk, your decision might be influenced by whether your agent was a kickboxer or a cosplayer at university (even though she won't actually make a Cosplay or a Kickboxing skill roll in this scene).
That said: the more skills are used directly in the story, the better. I hope that the presence of the skills will inspire writers to factor them in to their scenes and side quests.
For instance: imagine you're writing a foot chase through a crowded night market. Lots of Running rolls for the agent and the thugs on her tail, obviously, but maybe you suddenly remember we have a Ride Bicycle skill, too! You can now insert a decision point where the agent can choose to steal someone's bike to aid her escape, and now introduce some Cycling skill rolls to weave through the crowd at high speed. This is suddenly a much more interesting scene!
Note how this cool little scene might have been hard to invent without the presence of the Ride Bicycle skill, and would certainly have been hard to implement in a way that felt exciting or fair without the skill. (Either deciding to steal the bike would succeed automatically – not exciting – or it would succeed or fail based on some kind of arbitrary random factor – not fair.)
So even skills that are unused aren't necessarily useless, because they indirectly affect your agent's overall capabilities. (In a way, that reflects something that I've read about actual spy recruitment and training: they seek generalists who can quickly improvise solutions to problems they've never encountered before.) If your choice of how to break into a building is between climbing up a drainpipe to an open third-floor window or bluffing your way past the security desk, your decision might be influenced by whether your agent was a kickboxer or a cosplayer at university (even though she won't actually make a Cosplay or a Kickboxing skill roll in this scene).
That said: the more skills are used directly in the story, the better. I hope that the presence of the skills will inspire writers to factor them in to their scenes and side quests.
For instance: imagine you're writing a foot chase through a crowded night market. Lots of Running rolls for the agent and the thugs on her tail, obviously, but maybe you suddenly remember we have a Ride Bicycle skill, too! You can now insert a decision point where the agent can choose to steal someone's bike to aid her escape, and now introduce some Cycling skill rolls to weave through the crowd at high speed. This is suddenly a much more interesting scene!
Note how this cool little scene might have been hard to invent without the presence of the Ride Bicycle skill, and would certainly have been hard to implement in a way that felt exciting or fair without the skill. (Either deciding to steal the bike would succeed automatically – not exciting – or it would succeed or fail based on some kind of arbitrary random factor – not fair.)
I definitely do want to include a Muay Thai camp as a location in Thailand. I hadn't considered that her learning MMA could be a good way to reduce Suspicion but it's a great idea (and easy to implement), so thanks!
Yeah I'm afraid that whenever we change something major, it breaks your saves from the last version. This is likely to continue for some time, but hopefully will settle down soon.
There are few things that are important in designing role-playing game mechanics like skills:
1. More skills you have - the less important and weaker each individual skill become.
2. It is much easier to confuse a player if you have a lot of skills and player have no real ability to determine how useful each individual skill is.
So a good way to design a skill system for an RPG (of any kind) is to determine what a character would do in the game and then split everything that he or she would do in more or less equal parts and assign a skill to each part. You (as far as I can see in the game) used an opposite approach - you look at what you character would learn in her life and created skills from that. It is not really a good way, it just create a lot of clutter and trap options for the players.
For example: you have multiple firearms handling skills in your game which make very little sense because of thematic of your game. Heroine is not supposed to use guns during her assignment, she clearly will not have a lot of opportunities to use different guns, so how much better she is at handling M4 automatic carabine in comparison with her abilities with Glock 17 pistol or with a random sniper rifle is entirely irrelevant.
Thanks cd13. My goal is to make Bangkok an open world experience that supports content written by others (i.e. side quests written by fans or hired writers). So with the RPG system, I actively tried not to limit the skills to ones that I anticipate using myself.
I think your observation about the granularity of skills is correct and it's something I've struggled with. With firearms specifically, I've reduced it to 3 skills: Sidearm, Longarm and Sniper. There's an argument for reducing those to a single Shooting skill, but that felt a little too simple when I considered it.
In terms of combat in the story, action scenes are in fact a popular user request! One fan has already contributed a complex action scene for Operators who get deployed to Syria, so agents may get to put quite a few rounds through an M4.
I think your observation about the granularity of skills is correct and it's something I've struggled with. With firearms specifically, I've reduced it to 3 skills: Sidearm, Longarm and Sniper. There's an argument for reducing those to a single Shooting skill, but that felt a little too simple when I considered it.
In terms of combat in the story, action scenes are in fact a popular user request! One fan has already contributed a complex action scene for Operators who get deployed to Syria, so agents may get to put quite a few rounds through an M4.
- Aug 3, 2017
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Is that the actual plan? I've read several posts on F95 and elsewhere that touched on it or inferred to that before, but I do not recall anything definitive.
I, for one, typically do not enjoy a work with multiple authors as the "voice" of the narrative tends to become disjointed. They become irregular and asymmetrical not only in tone, but in quality and even with the diction used. For instance, going from one writing style to another and then back again is an unpleasant, jarring experience especially if there's a great omission in the details we've come to expect in this project. Plus, with multiple authors you run the real risk of having less continuity in the plot--whether it be from past content or planned future content.
On the other hand, if you're just taking in ideas and reworking them into your project, then that's fine. I even welcome that. They're nice to have. You can do other plotlines you may never even considered, or have things pointed out to you regarding something you've overlooked or were less knowledgeable on. And when you feel like you're in a slump, then perhaps these ideas from other people with different life experiences and perspectives will inspire you to pen something awesome.
In my opinion, however, I generally believe having too many hands in the pot for a narrative project like this is a bad idea especially from fans. But, if you're going to outsource, then having a small team that can all get on the same sheet of music is the way to go, I believe. Frankly, I don't have any faith in the quality of any additions from random contributors.
This sounds interesting. Review it, edit it, and rework it into the story so there is a smooth transition from the existing work, and then afterwards.
Morning Back! You and I are on the same page I think. My plan is to personally edit the new ideas so they feel consistent with the rest of the game.
Ideally, I'll work with the people who want to become serial contributors so their submissions need less and less editing, and eventually we'll have a circle of people who can all write in the "game style". Then the flow of new high quality content into the game will be exponentially faster.
Ideally, I'll work with the people who want to become serial contributors so their submissions need less and less editing, and eventually we'll have a circle of people who can all write in the "game style". Then the flow of new high quality content into the game will be exponentially faster.
It is a good idea, yet I wanted to point out, there are people like the idea of seen a MC fighting all her way to the end yet still fail and fall under control by someone. So there should be one or a few critical choices and one final choice. So that player can enjoy all outcomes and passes: a) Break through the hypnosis, b) Willingly give up to hypnosis, c) Battle the hypnosis real hard yet finally commit true submission to someone. The fun is the struggle, the more struggle alone the way of building up the story, the more fruitful the outcome will be for players to enjoy. 'Nothing comes cheap'.
Do the developers have any plans on adding female NPC's and lesbian content later?
- Jan 16, 2019
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Hi Korder, female NPC's and lesbian content are already in the game. It certainly is in the minority compared to MF, but it is there and will be expanded upon. Be sure to select the bisexual kink to discover them.
Hey blackmeow13, thanks! I'm really looking forward to revisiting the hypno content and beefing up this part of the game. Our hands are full with 1.5 at the moment, but there was some good dev talk today about how to model the agent's resistance using her stats (like Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, Confidence etc).It is a good idea, yet I wanted to point out, there are people like the idea of seen a MC fighting all her way to the end yet still fail and fall under control by someone. So there should be one or a few critical choices and one final choice. So that player can enjoy all outcomes and passes: a) Break through the hypnosis, b) Willingly give up to hypnosis, c) Battle the hypnosis real hard yet finally commit true submission to someone. The fun is the struggle, the more struggle alone the way of building up the story, the more fruitful the outcome will be for players to enjoy. 'Nothing comes cheap'.
We found a really cool text effect that we're planning to use to represent hypnotic suggestions in the game narrative:
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I'm really excited about this part of the game but it will be a while before we get around to attacking it. So much to do!
No worries, I was just pointing out a suggestion, not in any hurry, I understand the developing process is long, don't worry about it.
