@mbmb So, you are asking for inputs for future expansions of your game. Good. There is nothing better than feedback from fans. But: As I do have some experience as project manager, you should take things one at a time:
I do not know if you are the only person working on the project and how big your team is. Define your versions as mile stones and make sure that you can achieve them in a set time window (like an update frame). So don't go for the most complicated things first, try to bug fix to consolidate game fun and iron out code fumbles. IMHO baby steps, like breaking down complex structures into simpler ones (idea to code, animation and/or visualization, implementation and release), are more effective than jumping right into them and loosing the overview.
Having that said, let me give you some feedback:
a) Date and Time:
Your game starts at a Tuesday, err, a Monday? It's quite interesting to see the first payments redacted from my cash at day 6, which is obviously a Sunday or a Friday? This is just a minor flaw, but I still need to keep that in mind when I do the production planning and release. Consider a display of month, week and day to ease the user's desire to match cash flow with the dates depicting the income. A week should end with paying your staff and a month should end when the earnings of the homepage come in. I'm sure nobody bothers with this in the early game, but in the late game I do use an office calc sheet to handle my production, which is quite annoying since you could handle that easier, right?
b) Production Cycles and User Preference:
Production cycles have to reflect user's choice. You have a full range of users. Some ignore everything and hit the money button in the city just for the scenes, others do a random like production, and some do in depth analysis of your given parameters to maximize income and 'fame'. We are talking about how 'popularity' and income is handled by the user. The choice is then to either do an ad hoc production (girl is 'free' and a scene is 14 days published on the net) or to refine your production cycle. You can choose between n*7 as release cycle, where n=2 also matched the income cycle. That case brings 12 usable scenes on a fortnight's Sunday (day n*14-1) at 18:45h per week and studio. It also holds the option to do one ad hoc production on day n*14-2.
c) Homepage Blues
The homepage is surely the one to go for since it expands your income greatly and is not limited to a 4k per scene max out (depending on fan count). Having a homepage thus is quite intensive about management of clips and actors, especially when you decide to widen your portfolio. Given the production and popularity cycles as set in stone, you need at least -3- clips every 14 days to keep subscribers happy. One clip to be released at n*14-8 and two after you uploaded all other clips to the Internet. Marking clips for the homepage in production is tiresome, but possible. So -3- studios seem to be optimal to have 32 actresses and a single homepage.
d) Fans and Portfolio
Also fans should correlate to the portfolio you offer. In the beginning you sure give a damn about what actresses you hire or what kind of scenes you shoot, but at some point of the game this can be quite disadvantageous. You hired an Asian girl at week 8 and you fired her at week 22, but you still have Asian fans. So you could face a fan demand for Asian. Tough luck for fans, but we do business, don't we? Fans are strictly added, not subtracted. You don't loose fans when you switch your portfolio. Hell, I did an Asian homepage for testing purposes and had about 30 Asians and still got those 7k fans lustering for the non-Asian actress from the tutorial. I don't deal their stuff anymore and still they are addicted to me?
e) Filters
We do business and we demand excessive information about our actors, male and female. But: I do not get that information on the spot due to the lack of proper filter options. I do need to keep track of how many black haired Latinas with house demand 2 I have. That makes -3- filters total. I use the renaming option excessively just to have a slight chance to keep track of my posse. At the moment I use a system of letter codes to track it. Starting with the 'unchangeable' assets ending with the 'changeable' ones: 1st F to A about the house demand: 0 = F and A = 5. 2nd age O = MILF, Y = Teen and N = normal. 3rd heritage Wi, La, Pn = pale normal, PA = pale Asian, Bn and BA. Quite a lot to rename just for simple information I do need to be fully saturating the market there is. Oh, -4- filters would be nice for future expansions, just to be on the safe side.
f) Scene Price Points
The scenes you schedule have different ROI margins. A gang scene with an 'A' grade actress teamed with 'A' grade studs costs about 10k calculated without the 'A' staff in the 'A' studio around it. Sure, this is end game content with a non-scene-related homepage behind it with at least 50k happy 20$ subscribers. You should give the User at least a hint about the raising price points and lowering ROI by stating a company trying to do a gang homepage early is destined to fall flat on its face. Maybe restricting the first homepage would help here the unexperienced User. Also you should note the shift of ROI in the late game due to Chemistry and the needed Quality. Solo scenes are therefore just for starting the popularity route, when you can not afford more actors in a scene. The 'normal' route to go would be (solo) - MF - FF - MFF - MMF - gang, related to fan count and subscribers.
g) Personal Assistant
I do like the idea you implemented. It is a help for nonchalance Users for less clicking, but is it business? Certainly to a degree, but it does not nail it. As the boss, I need more control options. Filters. And a focus that is 'strict'. When I tell my PA to list all Latinas and there are Asians on the list, consider my PA as fired. Reduce the PA management to -1- studio. the ROI is still 'ok' at 1500$ per week, but use the won space to add filters and a check box for 'strict' focus. My aim would be to let one PA handle my 'F' class posse, one the 'D' class posse, etc. Also keep in mind the max out profit margin is 14 days for Internet scenes, what calls for a 14 day cycle per studio, right?
h) Missing Descriptions
Many Users here sure bet, that the trait 'crazy' is responsible for cash lost after a quick MF. Maybe you should make clear, that the word 'crazy' in the event window is a random event calculated at the shooting as well as the boy-friend event or the STD event. Do a compendium for traits and events - sounds like a lot of work, but I am sure, you have your notes in electronic form. Just copy and paste for the beginning and use a rough editing and mark it as 'WIP'. It took me a while to figure out, that 'charming' and 'cute' is the combination to look for my purposes^^.
Still reading? Ok, then lets go to the missing features and bug section
i) Missing Features and bugs
i1) Outfits (high)
Missing pregnant outfits for swimsuits and others revert the outfit after the pregnancy to default. I usually do only one quick FM scene to adjust outfit to some point it is a not funny to recreate a 'D' class outfit all over and over.
i2) Correct Number of Actors (high)
Subtract 'deleted' from 'all' in the Overview Screen. I hate to see 182 instead of my real 96 posse.
i3) Delete Button Male Actors (medium)
Yeah, seriously. As Quality becomes a major factor in late game, I still have those 'F' class studs in my database.
i4) Save File Compression (low)
Save file gets too big. Try to figure out a translating script to reduce this. JSON or self made. Just dumping all objects and descriptors in full length just bloats it. You have a defined set of variables in your girl database ('mywhores'). Just export these accordingly as well as the scenes table.
i5) Game Performance (low)
After having 200+ actors acquired, the game tends to drop in performance. Maybe use C# data filters on an ordered table. Filtering 'Deleted' as first step and handing this to a second query is not as efficient as doing a query with multiple filters at once. The Godot engine is capable of such queries.
i6) LBFM MIA
[Ebony] [ASIAN] is likely no more in game? After doing 100+ ads and charming 50+ girls I did not see this combination anymore. Random Number Generator fail or removed?
You are still reading? ok... Let me finish this wall of text.
h) Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Porn Empire has solid potential and has made significant progress in a short amount of time. It uses custom animations and not some Poser or image based events, like too many other low budget teams rely on.
The discussion with actual Users off the pay-related sites is exceptional and deserves respect. Regarding the financial situation, the developers could consider adding a donation wallet for BTC or other cryptocurrencies on their homepage, since many are not a friend of repeated payment models - we do business, right?
Considering the game still in the early development phase, Porn Empire is worth to take a look at.
