New Mechanic

[Muria-Worm]

Hey, so i'm thinking of adding a kind mechanic

 

[Winterfire]

Neither of them sound like a good idea, I believe it would be best if it was action based.
I do not know anything about your game, so I will just use an example... If MC goes to work to earn money, that is an action that would pass in-game time.
If MC has sex with a woman, that is an action that would pass in-game time.
(...)
However, the player idling in the menu while they are walking to the kitchen to grab a snack wouldn't pass any time.

 

[Carrera]

Go play the Sims,,,,,,,,,, There's your idea in action.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Hey, so i'm thinking of adding a kind of management mechanic to my game. This would make it so the girls have things like hunger, hornyness etc along with also giving you the abiliy to send them to work for you. All these things would change over a time period though and i didnt really know how to get that exactly right.

Beyond the time part, for which I join Winterfire answer, there's something else that you should wonder: Is all this worth it ?

There's a game that do, to some extend, what you try to achieve, Glassix.
I don't really know how it is going now, because I became bored long ago by this game. Every two/three updates the mechanism and way the girls' stats where handled was changed, forcing you to find a new approach of the game play.

The problem with this kind of mechanism is that either you have full erratic behavior for the girls, or a behavior that will strictly repeat over time.
In the first case, they'll act when "it's time". Eating in the middle of the night, because it's when the hunger is triggered that day, showering at 3PM, because that day it's at this time that the hygiene stats will reach its lowest, and so on. Then the next day they'll eat at 11 AM, shower at 10 PM, and so on.
In the second case, you correctly tune the stats and their evolution, and they'll eat every day at the same time, shower every day at the same time, and all.
Therefore, either you've a game too unpredictable to be enjoyable, or a game so predictable that it would be easier for you to just code a schedule ; it's 7 AM, the girl awaken and shower, 7:30 AM, the girl eat, 11:30 AM, the girl eat again, and so on.

Plus, among the problem you'll encounter, there's not just the realism (showering or eating at improbable time) but also the availability of the action. If the girl is doing some shopping when it's time for her to shower, will she really stop and go back home to do it ?
Therefore, you'll have to deal with the stat itself, its fluctuation factor (if the girl did some workout she'll be dirtier than if she just watched TV), the availability of the action (is their a usable shower nearby) and the compatibility between what the girl is doing and the action that should follow (can the girl interrupt what she's doing to shower).
All this for what will look, for the player eyes, like scripted actions that happen always at the same time and/or always in the same order.

Therefore, like I implied above, it's better to rely on a schedule.
It don't need to be something frozen and you can make it evolve, but globally it will give better result and also be easier to code ; and therefore you'll drastically reduce the risk of bugs.
It could be something that looks like:
7AM Awakening - shower
7:30AM Breakfast
8AM-11AM [a choice of action, either randomly picked, defined depending of the day, or chosen by the player]
11:30AM lunch
And so on.

For the actions that can be chosen/picked, they wouldn't necessarily be a single action.
If it's decided that the girl will watch TV, she'll just do that. But if it's decided that she'll workout, then two actions will be forced just after this ; she will shower and then eat something.
This will still give something interesting from the player side, without the downside that come with the use of real stats.


It's only stats like mood or hornyness, that can effectively follow a random pattern. But only if you make them apply when there's interaction between the MC and the girl.
The way the girl will react to the MC will depend of her actual mood. If the girl is full hornyness she'll try to have sex with the MC even if he came just to talk, and at the opposite will she refuse to have sex if her hornyness is too low, even if the MC want to.
Be noted that here "MC" is generic. The important part is that the girl do not react to those stats out of the blue, just because the stat is now maxed, but when it make sens for this stats to change her behavior.

 

[chainedpanda]

Just wanted to add to this, historically time management stuff hasn't worked out very well for gaming, period. Most users tend to hate the experience or find work-arounds. Ignoring mobile games, Dragon Age: Inquisition and maybe Fable 3? tried similar things. Fans really didn't like those systems, and if not being able to manually adjust the systems time manually, it likely would have infuriated fans. This method wouldn't seem to work for your game, since adjusting time either wouldn't work, or completely break the characters.

As for adult games, well someone already mentioned The Sims no? No offense, but why would anyone bother to play your game if they could get a more fleshed out experience with more freedom from The Sims? Furthermore, Strive attempting something similar when the game was first announced, but was ultimately pressured into creating a manual time advancement feature.

But don't let the posts deter you, I would love to see more management systems incorporated into adult games. I've long held the belief that the two genre's were made for one another. Sadly, management games seem to nearly have tunnel vision on brothels and the porn industry. I just think the time management stuff may be the wrong direction, but the jobs and such you briefly mentioned may be the right one.