4.30 star(s) 40 Votes

yv0751

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Jul 8, 2017
1,150
3,343
I thought I had to comment, I played the last public release recently and really enjoyed the game! The variety of scenes and quests was just simply fun!

A small thought I had for a small mod, but really a request I suppose (though I could make the mod). There are only few images of the main character I see in the game folder and their gender is seldom referenced...sort of. A start game option to be a trans or preferably futanari (it's the future and science!) looks like it would be quite simple, just a few alternate images of the busts as the sex scenes for instance would be unaffected I think given the view/angles usually used. And alter the few references to guy/he etc in text.

Thanks for the game!
Gld you enjoyed the game so far.

I thought about making MC male or female in the beginning.
I found, though, that a female MC is a turnoff for most so I shelved it.
(That was also the reason I postponed my 'School of Magic' project, as the MC would be a female student like Hermione...)

As to futa MC, it is technically feasible as far as the models are concerned. Still, a bunch of renders would need to be doubled for a fraction of the audience (and it will drive many off alltogether). So I decided tostay with a mainsteam narrative, as its a trainer.
 

FuriousFungus

New Member
Jun 26, 2017
1
0
I find the intro confusing. So i'm a space pirate I get on a derlict ship, there is an explosion, a drone tells me there is no crew left. And then T'ris shows up. Where did she come from? Is it her ship? Can someone clarify?
 

EmperorGus

Active Member
Oct 11, 2020
866
1,332
Gld you enjoyed the game so far.

I thought about making MC male or female in the beginning.
I found, though, that a female MC is a turnoff for most so I shelved it.
(That was also the reason I postponed my 'School of Magic' project, as the MC would be a female student like Hermione...)

As to futa MC, it is technically feasible as far as the models are concerned. Still, a bunch of renders would need to be doubled for a fraction of the audience (and it will drive many off alltogether). So I decided tostay with a mainsteam narrative, as its a trainer.
Games on this site sorted by number of views.
Note that numbers 2 and 8 are female protag.
#10 is choice of male or female protag.
And might be worth mentioning that #14's male protag is more of a 'trap', in the very least, a futa.

My point being: If the game/story is good, it'll find an audience.
 

OhWee

Forum Fanatic
Modder
Game Developer
Jun 17, 2017
5,711
28,934
OK, so about my personal mod...

The public version of 0.10 should be dropping not too long from now, but if a couple of you are bored or whatever and want to try out some alternate bot economics and a couple of other related things in the meantime and don't mind a bit of 'beta' mod playtesting...

NewBotConfig_Arcade.jpg

OK, so this particular screen isn't particularly remarkable, but I should note that a lot of those bots USED TO have current values in the $40-60+ K range, or possibly more...

This seemed a bit over the top to me. In my mind, making $10-20 million credits for a particularly well built bot seems somewhat reasonable, but more than that seemed excessive. So I played around with a few things...

So in this mod (if you replace three files with the ones in the attached .7z file):

1) Modifiers that affect the bot's value are now added together before multiplying the value of the bot. In the 'official' 0.9c version, base price is multiplied multiple times based on various factors (IQ, traits, uniformity, total skill level, etc.), so the multipliers are stacking. I changed this so that all modifiers are added together into a single multiplier variable, which is then applied to the price of the bot.

I did this to reduce the 'craziness' of OTT bot prices (once you assembled a bunch of Gen 3 Mil Grade bots to work in the Sex Arcade or whatever) which was resulting in insane amounts of income each night. This is more of a mid-late game issue, which is overshadowing the need to do cargo runs and such as at this point your Arcade Bots (in the 'unmodded' version) pretty much cover your income needs at that point, with lots of cash to spare.


2) I reduced the amount of space that Bio/Nano/Energy Pods require in the cargo hold, so they now take up 0.1 tons each. This was to offset the need for more pods, see below...

3) Training and Repairs now require more Bio & Nano materials as well as Energy for training. The lab can store up to 4 pod's worth each of material to help offset this a bit -this ties in to increased material requirements for more extensive repairs. This is essentially the same as in previous versions of my 0.9c mods, with one change: Activating a cortex requires 25% Bio. Note that repairs to bot parts may require more materials now...

4) If T'ris is set to Pod resupply, she will now purchase 3 Bio, 3 Nano, and 6 Energy each morning from her 'alternate source' (instead of restocking pod levels to 5 each). Just something I wanted to do...

5) Bot values are now affected by grade as well as gen level. The more parts that are at the same Gen and Grade as the Cortex currently is, the higher the uniformity bonus. You now get partial credit for having multiple parts of the same Grade and/Or Generation as the Cortex part.

6) Grade now also affects the initial IQ roll, as well as Gen level. So Mil grade cortexs will have a higher average IQ than say Basic or Sub-Par cortex parts. Essentially, the manufacturer is 'binning' the parts and using the best parts for higher grades. Minimum IQ levels are also adjusted upwards accordingly, if an IQ roll is particularly bad...

7) The Current and Max Skill level is now on a bit of a bell (gaussian) curve, and traits now affect the maximum skill level, as does grade and gen level. So Gen 3 cortex bots will have higher base skill levels than Gen 1, same for Grade.

8) The bot 'Shell' now has it's own slot, for customized shells. Existing bots can re-assign a custom shell to this slot if you get it into your lab first.

9) Note that this stuff will 'drop in' to an existing game, with some changes being applied immediately while others (such as changes that apply to new cortex activation) won't affect existing bots.

10) I made a few alignment adjustments to a few relevant bot-related screens, to take better advantage of existing space, and in the case of the Bot Manager and Sex Arcade sub-screens, reduced the need for scrolling (all 10 Arcade Bots are now shown on the screen at the same time, no scroll bar needed/shown). Note that there are some new sort buttons in the Bot Configuration & Training parts/addon screens, but these do not currently work. I haven't figured out how to get the sort options to work here, this does NOT affect the Parts Inventory screen sort options.

---

This is all about tweaking the gameplay experience as it related to bots, to make it perhaps more interesting/a bit less of a cakewalk in the mid/late game.

To install this mod:
backup/replace the 110_classes.rpy file in the /game/100_core folder with the one in the .7z
backup/replace the 212_init_rooms.rpy file in the /game/200_init folder with the one in the .7z
and
backup/replace the 760_sexbot_lab.rpy file in the /game/700_minigames folder with the one in the .7z

Then start up your Space Journey game, and the changes should be applied. You should be able to load an existing game and try things out from there,

I recommend not overwriting your most recent 'unmodded' save (i.e. the one that you want to use the Multiverse Pod for) so that you retain your progress there. This shouldn't be a big deal, just being cautious here. Worst case, uninstall my mod/replace the above three files with the originals and re-load that 'original/unmodded version' save, deleting any subsequent saves (hover over save slot and hit 'del' key to deleta a save). Then save your 'original/unmodded version' save again after you piddle around for an hour or whatever.

In any case, yeah if a couple of you want to try my silly ideas out with 0.90c while we wait for the 1.10 version to be publicly released/shared here, and provide a bit of feedback r.e. the changes (and not implemented yet new sort buttons), that'd be awesome!
:cool:

Edit: Found a bug involving traits cubes and one of my changes, so I've uploaded an updated .7z with the fix.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Test279

ponx

Newbie
Aug 15, 2019
25
8
Is there a gallery unlocker of some sorts? I missed out on Nillhem's image, the one where u unlock her crate and take something. I accidentally gave it to her straight away and now I'm too far gone to go back to it.

Btw. Can we customize the shell for our personal bot? It seems like a waste having various bot shells but we're stuck with just 1 for our own personal bot.
 

OhWee

Forum Fanatic
Modder
Game Developer
Jun 17, 2017
5,711
28,934
Just a note about my personal mod that I released yesterday:

OK, so about my personal mod...

The public version of 0.10 should be dropping not too long from now, but if a couple of you are bored or whatever and want to try out some alternate bot economics and a couple of other related things in the meantime and don't mind a bit of 'beta' mod playtesting...

View attachment 3005229

OK, so this particular screen isn't particularly remarkable, but I should note that a lot of those bots USED TO have current values in the $40-60+ K range, or possibly more...

This seemed a bit over the top to me. In my mind, making $10-20 million credits for a particularly well built bot seems somewhat reasonable, but more than that seemed excessive. So I played around with a few things...

So in this mod (if you replace three files with the ones in the attached .7z file):

1) Modifiers that affect the bot's value are now added together before multiplying the value of the bot. In the 'official' 0.9c version, base price is multiplied multiple times based on various factors (IQ, traits, uniformity, total skill level, etc.), so the multipliers are stacking. I changed this so that all modifiers are added together into a single multiplier variable, which is then applied to the price of the bot.

I did this to reduce the 'craziness' of OTT bot prices (once you assembled a bunch of Gen 3 Mil Grade bots to work in the Sex Arcade or whatever) which was resulting in insane amounts of income each night. This is more of a mid-late game issue, which is overshadowing the need to do cargo runs and such as at this point your Arcade Bots (in the 'unmodded' version) pretty much cover your income needs at that point, with lots of cash to spare.


2) I reduced the amount of space that Bio/Nano/Energy Pods require in the cargo hold, so they now take up 0.1 tons each. This was to offset the need for more pods, see below...

3) Training and Repairs now require more Bio & Nano materials as well as Energy for training. The lab can store up to 4 pod's worth each of material to help offset this a bit -this ties in to increased material requirements for more extensive repairs. This is essentially the same as in previous versions of my 0.9c mods, with one change: Activating a cortex requires 25% Bio. Note that repairs to bot parts may require more materials now...

4) If T'ris is set to Pod resupply, she will now purchase 3 Bio, 3 Nano, and 6 Energy each morning from her 'alternate source' (instead of restocking pod levels to 5 each). Just something I wanted to do...

5) Bot values are now affected by grade as well as gen level. The more parts that are at the same Gen and Grade as the Cortex currently is, the higher the uniformity bonus. You now get partial credit for having multiple parts of the same Grade and/Or Generation as the Cortex part.

6) Grade now also affects the initial IQ roll, as well as Gen level. So Mil grade cortexs will have a higher average IQ than say Basic or Sub-Par cortex parts. Essentially, the manufacturer is 'binning' the parts and using the best parts for higher grades. Minimum IQ levels are also adjusted upwards accordingly, if an IQ roll is particularly bad...

7) The Current and Max Skill level is now on a bit of a bell (gaussian) curve, and traits now affect the maximum skill level, as does grade and gen level. So Gen 3 cortex bots will have higher base skill levels than Gen 1, same for Grade.

8) The bot 'Shell' now has it's own slot, for customized shells. Existing bots can re-assign a custom shell to this slot if you get it into your lab first.

9) Note that this stuff will 'drop in' to an existing game, with some changes being applied immediately while others (such as changes that apply to new cortex activation) won't affect existing bots.

10) I made a few alignment adjustments to a few relevant bot-related screens, to take better advantage of existing space, and in the case of the Bot Manager and Sex Arcade sub-screens, reduced the need for scrolling (all 10 Arcade Bots are now shown on the screen at the same time, no scroll bar needed/shown). Note that there are some new sort buttons in the Bot Configuration & Training parts/addon screens, but these do not currently work. I haven't figured out how to get the sort options to work here, this does NOT affect the Parts Inventory screen sort options.

---

This is all about tweaking the gameplay experience as it related to bots, to make it perhaps more interesting/a bit less of a cakewalk in the mid/late game.

To install this mod:
backup/replace the 110_classes.rpy file in the /game/100_core folder with the one in the .7z
backup/replace the 212_init_rooms.rpy file in the /game/200_init folder with the one in the .7z
and
backup/replace the 760_sexbot_lab.rpy file in the /game/700_minigames folder with the one in the .7z

Then start up your Space Journey game, and the changes should be applied. You should be able to load an existing game and try things out from there,

I recommend not overwriting your most recent 'unmodded' save (i.e. the one that you want to use the Multiverse Pod for) so that you retain your progress there. This shouldn't be a big deal, just being cautious here. Worst case, uninstall my mod/replace the above three files with the originals and re-load that 'original/unmodded version' save, deleting any subsequent saves (hover over save slot and hit 'del' key to deleta a save). Then save your 'original/unmodded version' save again after you piddle around for an hour or whatever.

In any case, yeah if a couple of you want to try my silly ideas out with 0.90c while we wait for the 1.10 version to be publicly released/shared here, and provide a bit of feedback r.e. the changes (and not implemented yet new sort buttons), that'd be awesome!
:cool:

Edit: Found a bug involving traits cubes and one of my changes, so I've uploaded an updated .7z with the fix.
I'm still trying a few things/playing around with code, and will probably release an updated version in the next several days. I introduced a routine for attitude cubes that improves attitude level instead of selecting a new one, that checks for cube grade (i.e. reduce by one levels if sub-par or basic, reduce by two levels if advanced or mil grade), and gives you the Abort option only in the pop up notification if your bot's attitude is already 'complaint'.

I plan to do something along these lines with traits and personalities, i.e. randomly select from a pool of more favorable traits, while 'leaving' already favorable personalities in place maybe... I need to play around with this a bit. I'm just not a fan of randomly selecting things only to have the level 'degrade' if that makes sense.

I also tweaked the 'max talent level' skills code again, as the ranges I was using was hitting the min/max levels a bit too hard.

I'll release an 'updated' set of files in the next couple of days, once I've had a chance to battle test these latest changes a bit more.


So yeah, just some ideas I'm trying out in my personal mod. Not sure if anyone is giving this stuff a try or not whle we wait for 0.10 to drop, but if you are, feedback is always appreciated!

When 0.10 drops, I will of course be looking to add my latest personal mod modifications to the updated .rpy files. I've also been providing 'change' files from WinMerge to yv0751 , and will do so again once I've battle tested the latest version of my personal mod a bit more, so that he can more easily look over the changes and pick & choose/use/modify the bits that he finds interesting (for possible use in 0.11) and ignore the other stuff as he sees fit. I just find the 'baseline' bot construction mechanics here interesting and am feeling the need to tweak things just because!
:p
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gamle

yv0751

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Jul 8, 2017
1,150
3,343
Just a note about my personal mod that I released yesterday:



I'm still trying a few things/playing around with code, and will probably release an updated version in the next several days. I introduced a routine for attitude cubes that improves attitude level instead of selecting a new one, that checks for cube grade (i.e. reduce by one levels if sub-par or basic, reduce by two levels if advanced or mil grade), and gives you the Abort option only in the pop up notification if your bot's attitude is already 'complaint'.

I plan to do something along these lines with traits and personalities, i.e. randomly select from a pool of more favorable traits, while 'leaving' already favorable personalities in place maybe... I need to play around with this a bit. I'm just not a fan of randomly selecting things only to have the level 'degrade' if that makes sense.

I also tweaked the 'max talent level' skills code again, as the ranges I was using was hitting the min/max levels a bit too hard.

I'll release an 'updated' set of files in the next couple of days, once I've had a chance to battle test these latest changes a bit more.


So yeah, just some ideas I'm trying out in my personal mod. Not sure if anyone is giving this stuff a try or not whle we wait for 0.10 to drop, but if you are, feedback is always appreciated!

When 0.10 drops, I will of course be looking to add my latest personal mod modifications to the updated .rpy files. I've also been providing 'change' files from WinMerge to yv0751 , and will do so again once I've battle tested the latest version of my personal mod a bit more, so that he can more easily look over the changes and pick & choose/use/modify the bits that he finds interesting (for possible use in 0.11) and ignore the other stuff as he sees fit. I just find the 'baseline' bot construction mechanics here interesting and am feeling the need to tweak things just because!
:p
Thanks for the suggestions.

Dedicated shell slots made it into V1.10 (see screenshot below)
Actually makes the whole shell handling easier if only one specific slot is used for them

  • Existing legacy multiverse pod bots will be assembled accordingly
  • Loot bot assembly was adjusted
  • Multiverse export was adjusted
screenshot0005.jpg

P.S. The QC +10 info shows the one time Max Skill Increase potential if you do a personal end of line quality control (animation :)) with your bot.
It depends on the MCs TEC skill and also improves that TEC skill (up to 20)

On a side note: Public Release of V1.00 will be on 20th Oct.
 
Last edited:

dachicken

New Member
May 29, 2017
1
0
(That was also the reason I postponed my 'School of Magic' project, as the MC would be a female student like Hermione...)
Out of curiosity, what would be the model for this potential future game? Something from the WEG scene? Your trainer games use a lot of Akabur's tropes, so maybe a female protagonist game would also be inspired by something specific?
 

Zellgoddess

Member
May 11, 2017
312
260
Sooo, as one of the many who have fandom in these types of games I can say male protagonists is 90% par the course. Iv seen a few that try female protagonists however the only ones that did well were by self curruption, and none with futa content. Seriously this isnt the crowd for that, so safe call on that YV. Reason being a lot of the people who are into futa are mostly hardcore sandbox haters on top of the fact most people who play curruption/trainer games are dudes 80% strait at that.

Also I get you guys are trying to get what you like here, however its half past bloody development so not the time to try n change that now. Second there are plenty of games with those contents out there, but as for these types of games your asking the dev to sacrifice 80% of the fanbase in lu of a smaller 20%. In terms of $$$ support for the game it's just a bad call.
 

EmperorGus

Active Member
Oct 11, 2020
866
1,332
Sooo, as one of the many who have fandom in these types of games I can say male protagonists is 90% par the course. Iv seen a few that try female protagonists however the only ones that did well were by self curruption, and none with futa content. Seriously this isnt the crowd for that, so safe call on that YV. Reason being a lot of the people who are into futa are mostly hardcore sandbox haters on top of the fact most people who play curruption/trainer games are dudes 80% strait at that.

Also I get you guys are trying to get what you like here, however its half past bloody development so not the time to try n change that now. Second there are plenty of games with those contents out there, but as for these types of games your asking the dev to sacrifice 80% of the fanbase in lu of a smaller 20%. In terms of $$$ support for the game it's just a bad call.
I'm seeing alot of %s and 'most peoples'...
What are your sources, please? :devilish:

As for "$$$ support for the game"...
Yes, 'male protag / vanilla' is the largest portion of the market.
But it also means that's where the most competition is. Making it considerably harder to get noticed.
Yes, the reward is higher (if you get noticed), it's also the highest risk (because it's that much harder to get noticed).
Put another way: Low chance of a big payday, high chance of little pay.

But if you're fishing in a smaller pond, like female protag...
Less potential for high income (because it's a smaller market). But, because there's also less competition, it's easier to get noticed and grab a moderate income.

And, since I just chastised you for making stuff up, let me point to something that at least resembles a source:
Currently 15654 games on this site.
The average views of the top 5 (skipping AWaM, since it's F Protag) is 41m
Filter for Female Protag: 4901 on this site, roughly 31%
The average views of the top 5 (skipping BaD, because F Protag is just in the interlude) is 27.1m or roughly 66%
So... with a F Protag game, you've got about 69% less competition, for only a 33% loss of potential views.
It all comes down to the risk v reward the dev is comfortable with.
 

Eillahn

Newbie
Jul 8, 2017
29
10
I'm seeing alot of %s and 'most peoples'...
What are your sources, please? :devilish:

As for "$$$ support for the game"...
Yes, 'male protag / vanilla' is the largest portion of the market.
But it also means that's where the most competition is. Making it considerably harder to get noticed.
Yes, the reward is higher (if you get noticed), it's also the highest risk (because it's that much harder to get noticed).
Put another way: Low chance of a big payday, high chance of little pay.

But if you're fishing in a smaller pond, like female protag...
Less potential for high income (because it's a smaller market). But, because there's also less competition, it's easier to get noticed and grab a moderate income.

And, since I just chastised you for making stuff up, let me point to something that at least resembles a source:
Currently 15654 games on this site.
The average views of the top 5 (skipping AWaM, since it's F Protag) is 41m
Filter for Female Protag: 4901 on this site, roughly 31%
The average views of the top 5 (skipping BaD, because F Protag is just in the interlude) is 27.1m or roughly 66%
So... with a F Protag game, you've got about 69% less competition, for only a 33% loss of potential views.
It all comes down to the risk v reward the dev is comfortable with.
In fact, it is only interesting to address a niche market if the competition is low and the average income is high.
To support your point, it would therefore be necessary to prove that in terms of game/user ratio (and not in number), the competition is weaker on this target and that users are ready to pay more.
 

EmperorGus

Active Member
Oct 11, 2020
866
1,332
* Fixed that for you vvv
In fact* opinion, it is only interesting to address a niche market if the competition is low and the average income is high.
To support your point, it would therefore be necessary to prove that in terms of game/user ratio (and not in number), the competition is weaker on this target and that users are ready to pay more.
Only if the goal is to make the same high income as the top games in the larger market.
Which is an unreasonable goal.
Since the larger market has a higher risk of little to no income due to being 'drown out' by the competition.
Besides, I'd already addressed that when I said:
Less potential for high income (because it's a smaller market). But, because there's also less competition, it's easier to get noticed and grab a moderate income.
Also,
Still waiting for your sources for the earlier post. :devilish:
 
  • Angry
Reactions: Sh4dyW0lf

yv0751

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Jul 8, 2017
1,150
3,343
Giving my 5 cents to the discussion:
  • usually you go for mass market with low prices and niche markets with premium
  • imho that "normal" approach isn't particularly valid when there are 'expected/accepted/established' price brackets / tiers
  • even if we assume there is an "unserved" niche with low competition, the entry barriers are almost zero, so as soon as this becomes evident competition evens out
  • From the Princes vs. SJX comparison, I can assume that the little less mainstreamy Princess game had limited appeal due to its Goblin mc choice
  • some part of the latter's lower appeal might also have been attributed to design flaws as my first game (suboptimal user guidance, no proper galleries, low rez, few anis,...) so its a bit hard to say
  • I do almost no marketing for the game except engaging on F95 and itch, so there might be some potential there as well (if we take the "10-20% earnings share shoud go into marketing" rule of thumb in this domain)
I set myself the goal to be in the top 100 (adult) games on patreon (just to have a goal) and am still a way off; around 300ish on earnings metric (guess, since graphtreon clashed with patreons new user reportin I can't really track until graphtreon updates stats). That is merely for self motivation though.

Long story short: With SJX I tried to find something which I wanted to play myself and which has a certain mass appeal and which poses a challenge to what I have to do/learn/finish...
(And I wanted a MC who can say 'Make it so!')

So from that POV all suggestions are welcome and provide an interesting perspective.

:)

P.S. And all my loot crates in the game are free :)
 
Last edited:

Leobbb

Member
May 24, 2019
177
534
The goblin mc in the previous game was indeed not that appealing for me, but overall I still enjoyed the game and wouldn't point any design flaws limiting my enjoyment, so I guess the goblin thing was the only small issue, at least for me. I'm also glad you are sticking to the mainstream theme for this game and hope people trying to steer the development into their own unpopular fetishes will find some other game thread to satisfy their agenda pushing needs.
 
4.30 star(s) 40 Votes