This is getting too long, time to collapse the post.
The problem is that she made it difficult by making everything schema-less. Take a look at the serialization code for a great example of this. I'm not sure how much you worked with it, but Java/.NET/whatever are fully capable of handling XML (de)serialization more or less automatically, but LT's approach is to manually build the XML document. When I actually gave a shit, I noticed that the serialization logic took a surprising amount of CPU time. When I looked at the serialization code I noped the fuck out and gave up, lol.
To be honest, I've only ever used XML when working on C# projects during uni. Entirely because it did all the work for me like you said. It was never the right solution, it was the lazy solution. I just figured she was doing the same lol
It's been like three years or so since I've bothered looking at that part of the game. I honestly completely forgot how she was doing this.
For me this is more or less about building the kind of game that I've wanted to play for a long time.
Admittedly, I am a little worried about Starfield sucking me in (especially after the modding scene gets their hands on it), since I'm sure that's gonna hit a lot of the right buttons.
The game I want to play is a more interesting version of LT's slave management sandbox. Or, I guess more accurately, a way more interesting version of free cities. And I kind of really like emergent game play in games. Give me a a fairly simple sim with lots of variables that leads to interesting results and I'm having a good time. I'd rather create the porn version of dwarf fortress than make another text adventure, even if I'm using exploration as a driver for progression with the rest.
I've got a prototyping/testing tool that'll absolutely end up being in the game, if it ever reaches the point of being a game, where the game just kind of plays itself in pseudo-real time and you can just watch all your NPCs going about their lives. It's literally just a simple system where its taking "turns" automatically, but its fun to watch the NPCs going through their routine and seeing how small changes affect them. It's like those moments in LT where you get to spy on your slaves doing there thing, but on crack. And my favorite thing about developing something like that is watching how small additions can have a big impact on what's happens.
When I first found LT, I thought that it was a sandbox game and probably going in that direction. Boy was I wrong about that. Probably why it bothers me so much how jank that part of the game is lol
Although really, the more I work on my own project the more I side eye this game. Because holy fuck, it's really *not that hard* to create complex behaviors and have lots of characters with lots of variables per character and not have it run like ass. I mean, I knew that, just look at like, RTS games and shit. LT shits the bed when tracking like 50 entities. I was playing games 20 years ago that would track 10000 individual units with as complex of an AI. And the more I work on this shit, the more I realize how easy some of the pitfalls Inno has fallen into are to avoid. There's absolutely no reason why save files should be so fucking massive for so few NPCs, for example.
I guess it would be more accurate to say, "shove it further down the pipeline like the filthy procrastinator I am."
I'm ADHD as fuck and I'm usually working on this stuff while off meds lol
I'll get a lot of work done when the passion is there. And if I want to do something else, fuck it. I say embrace your inner procrastinator, as long you're enjoying the stuff you're doing instead. But also don't make the stuff you're procrastinating on your job lol
Without any joking, I seriously wonder if Inno has ADHD and isn't medicated. She behaves like I would if I wasn't medicated and didn't have any external pressure to do anything.
Same, honestly.
They did open up a Patreon poll about revamping the combat, but I'd be surprised if that happens anytime soon given their switch to Godot.
I'm not really counting on anything happening anytime soon with that game. They have so many partially done story lines and re-writes. Plus moving engines at the same time. I have a feeling a number of the story lines are being put on hold until they're able to do more with it. The current version of the game is pretty damn restrictive.
Ooh yeah. It's a bit on the overwhelming side, but it's probably one of the most innovative systems I've seen so far. It essentially has a full-on stance and stability system, with grapples, and incorporates a dynamic sex system in the combat engine.
Shit, okay I'll play that after testing out Unholy Arts' new update. That sounds fun. And I'm always drawn to the overwhelming games lol
Yeah, finding that balance between complexity and Cookie Clicker is really tough, and lately I've been finding myself looking outside of the adult gaming sphere for inspiration since those games tend to live and die at the hands of their combat mechanics.
As for my current thoughts: I find that Pokémon's TTL is about right where it needs to be for random encounters, I rather like that Earthbound lets you auto-win low level fights and will definitely consider that (basically, the prompt would come up and you could pick "ignore," "auto-win", or "submit" to be able to see the scenes), and I find Final Fantasy VII's materia system to be a simple, yet powerful, system for choosing skills and abilities.
I tried looking at the games I like most, but it turns out their all MMOs, FPSes, or exploration platformers like the Ori games. And I don't have the artistic talent for anything like that lol
FFVII, also the original Dragon Age are two games with systems I liked. I like the idea of being able to set up conditional scripts for your characters and then letting them play out the fight without player input. But that's a pretty fucking complicated thing to create lol
That said, it's right in line with the kind of emergent game play I was talking about earlier, so its definitely something I'm going to *try* and create at some points. Because fuck it. What's the worst that happens? It ends up being good and taking a ton of work? lol
I'll have to check that one out. Thanks!
I feel like I should have included a warning about that one being overwhelming lol
The UI is a cluster fuck and pretty overwhelming. It's one of those games where there's a lot to it, and the UI is a mix of badly organized and organized for experienced players without thinking about how it'll make things complicated for new players. It also has a couple difficulty walls that it won't explain well. It took me like, 5 or 6 games before I puzzled out how to get past some of them. Just be ready to ask questions over in their thread (and then you'll probably get an answer for one other person or myself, depending on what time it is lol)
Don't forget about some of the grossly overpowered racials. I mean, I understand why a wolf-morph might be stronger than a human, but a +25 physique and +25 unarmed bonus is just nuts. There's a reason games generally tend to bend the rules a bit in order to balance things out.
Aug, yeah. That shit. Again, this is stuff that I think other games figured out ages ago. Give interesting or meaningful non-combat related bonuses, or limit most of the bonuses to small defensive bonuses.
And yeah, that wolf bonus is fucking bonkers. Like, isn't the unarmed bonus capped at 100? The fucking racial gives 25% of the cap? Like, why? Again the progression in that game is so fucked.
Another thing that doesn't help LT's combat system is that so many critical strikes depend on the "only when used thrice" rule.
Yeah, the rule of 3 system is dumb. Just wholesale dumb.
Not to mention that it's a bit, uh, half-baked:
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Yeah. Honestly, I could write another couple pages on how much I hate the fetish system, but this is getting long enough. I realize its just a super simple system meant to turn on or off some optional dialog and to influence the NPC AI, but I just hate how simple and static it is.
The couple perks that you get with the right combinations are interesting. I originally expected that whole system to get expanded with more stuff like that, but it just never happened.