Unity Venus's Club [v9.5.0.1] [Disgruntler]

[ChubberLang]

I don't know if you guys are aware of Sailer's utility but it works really well for me. It doesn't have the newest features included (obviously) but it will let you change stats en masse, and even set pricing (to sailer's particular algorithm) to match those stats. It also makes it super-easy to fix up girlpacks with errors and to turn on and off specific booth acts, and setting specific portraits (though portrait 25 etc. you need to rename yourself).

As a girlpack maker(and someone who has hoarded 725(!) girlpacks) it's an essential part of my workflow, at least in terms of efficiency.

 

[CaptC]

I was not aware of the utility, but it looks very nice. Thanks!

(It would just sound like bragging if I said I had 981 packs, wouldn't it? XD)

 

[jggold]

I use sailer's app all the time for editing and for checking pack configuration -- like making sure I actually put the files into the folder I meant to put them into while I'm making a pack.

It's great and I think it easily could be modified/co-opted to add traits. I've thought about digging around in there to see if I could come up with something when the Specialty trait was added. Then I remembered that it's likely in French so I back-burned it and forgot until just now.

 

[mgunner2010]

Ok, you two make me feel better with only 652 packs, haha! Its ok about the Python thing, I could learn it if I sat down and tried but I am too lazy in this point in life to do that, lol. I didnt know if you had anything or not along those lines CaptC, it was a shot in the dark really. I might have to check out Sailor's Utility now to make a run through on my packs (especially the older ones I got), ChubberLang! And I have to thank all three of you (CaptC, ChubberLang, and jjgold) for your excellent Girlpacks, I use all three of you people's packs!

 

[Disgruntler]

I am sorry that python is not for everyone. But then, I built the tools for me, and published them after only after requests.

From my standpoint, I just feel that it's easier if it's a part of the game engine itself, available and accessible to everyone. Especially if I go and add in stuff that can go into the configuration. And putting it in the game vs a seperate system makes bugtesting a lot easier on myself as well, so it's ultimately a total win.

The fact is though, your scripts are part of the 'idea seed' behind things like Scramble Mode, and this, and so I do want to give my thanks for you making these convenience tools available.

 

[stonechitlin]

Hello folks, I download the "alternative" VCHH v9.3.J, when I click any of the 4 buttons to start a new game, nothing happens. Not sure if it included the basic girl pack, but I have a few downloaded as well on top of it. Only trouble is, no idea where to put them.

 

[ChubberLang]

You'll need to create two directories in the game directory (Girlpacks and Musics). Place the girls in the girlpacks directory in the separate folders they come in. The musics directory can remain empty but it is necessary for certain things to work. These are usually included but can get missed since a lot of us just copy both directories over when installing a new version.

Also, the basic girl pack needs to be downloaded separately. Hope that helped.

 

[stonechitlin]

Downloaded the original and copied over the girlpacks and music, now its working. Thanks!

 

[Disgruntler]

Yeah I sometimes forget the Musics directory cause... well what he said... though that might not be as necessary now, I -think- I fixed that a while back.

 

[Doktor7007]

I really liked the sort of story line in the original Game. Especially the ongoing corruption of Nicole Aniston. So is Disgruntler planning on building upon that or at least on more Nicole content?

 

[CaptC]

That does not appear to be part of Disgruntler's plan. He is thinking about mechanics for a new game, rather than extending the story line of this one. And I am in favor of Disgruntler doing what interests him, given his current track record.

 

[mgunner2010]

That does not appear to be part of Disgruntler's plan. He is thinking about mechanics for a new game, rather than extending the story line of this one. And I am in favor of Disgruntler doing what interests him, given his current track record.

I agree, Disgruntler has basically doubled the game content so far and with great game content to boot!

 

[Disgruntler]

I really liked the sort of story line in the original Game. Especially the ongoing corruption of Nicole Aniston. So is Disgruntler planning on building upon that or at least on more Nicole content?

Not at this time.

Unless something that I feel is worth putting out there comes to me, I'm more inclined to look at ways to better incorporate Nicole into the existing loop.

 

[atmosphere1980]

Also the first Crown Jewels step i had (100 rep) was completed with me having like 30,maybe that was because of the advertiser staff that hit 112% at that point, didn't get anything for it though.

I think I've seen this one happen too. I was 7 days in, saved my game, came back, loaded a game, and saw the indicator that I had the first of the crown jewels. Except I was only 7 days in so my rep was 14. There was nothing special about that game except I bought the third stage before buying all of the four basic improvements (trying a slightly different strategy)

I did have another recent saved game where I reached 100 rep, had 18 hires, hired the first crown jewel, and she never showed up in the new hires or anywhere in the game. Rep went to 0 as expected but I still had 18 hires. That was when I started the new game. I don't know if there is any shared data between game saves?

FWIW I did play a game over the weekend where the crown jewels worked as expected.

 

[mgunner2010]

Did a complete playthrough on Scramble w/CJ and never once did my girls Group stat ever go up. This was even with them working in a Modulated Group defined Booth. I know the stat changes dont take effect until you designate a trainer but does the trainer's stats levels affect whether the girls serving customers stat levels (as in going up in value)? This was at the end game BTW and my performing girls did have higher stats than the ones working in the office. All other stats during the game rose except the Group stat and energy was consumed during the group performances.

 

[Disgruntler]

Did a complete playthrough on Scramble w/CJ and never once did my girls Group stat ever go up. This was even with them working in a Modulated Group defined Booth. I know the stat changes dont take effect until you designate a trainer but does the trainer's stats levels affect whether the girls serving customers stat levels (as in going up in value)? This was at the end game BTW and my performing girls did have higher stats than the ones working in the office. All other stats during the game rose except the Group stat and energy was consumed during the group performances.

Performing girls having higher stats makes sense, office girls aren't practicing. But that's neither here nor there.

Stat changes still take effect, but they're dampened a bit.

Bit of mechanical clarity.

So, the way the system works on the inside, is every 'tick', it rolls the dice. There's a set value that it assigns as the 'chance' of getting a skillup. When it rolls the dice, it then divides the number by certain co-efficients, based on costume, and so on.

After that, it does a general 'divide by' which is based on a formula: Trainer % (0 if absent) + 75%. So, what should be happening is if you don't have a trainer, it's less, but if you do, and she's got the right trait, you actually get skill ups faster.

So, that's how it SHOULD work.

I'll peak my head in and see what's going on with the Group action.

 

[Disgruntler]

Follow up: So I took a look, and I found the problem on group stat training.

Somebody (not naming any names) created a generic method to train a skill based on work type (rather than having a million branching points everywhere that all do the same thing but to different skills) and somebody (not naming any names) did a copy and paste method because typing out code six times is tedious, easier to c/p and then change each entry to the right skill, and somebody (not naming any names) forgot to change the 'group' skill and the entire time it was just training sex skill instead.

It was a 5 second fix.

I very much appreciate you rigorously testing it, and ruling out RNG for me. This is the sort of thing that's easy to fix but hard to catch when your attention is on other mechanics.

EDIT: I've added in more robust error checking for Crown Jewels. The system should be more rigorous about checking the Jewels now, and making sure that you don't see the number of Crown Candidates dropping without recruiting.

Regarding this, just so I'm clear, was there any saving and reloading involved? I've strengthened the checks there but I do want to be sure.

EDIT 2: A common new player complaint I've noticed is a lack of notification that they need to grab girlpacks in game. The game is supposed to give an error but doesn't. I'm trying to see what that is.

Found the problem. If there's no Girlpacks directory, the game just gives up on life and won't do anything with anything, but if there IS one, it gives the error message as normal. I've added code to make a Girlpacks directory if it's missing, and then the error message (as well as instructions on how to solve the problem) are now included. This will also autocorrect the Musics directory and subdirectories.

 

[Kane2607]

Regarding this, just so I'm clear, was there any saving and reloading involved? I've strengthened the checks there but I do want to be sure.

It's been a while and i don't remember 100% but i don't think i did any loading? It was very early in the run so i don't think i had any reason to.

 

[mgunner2010]

Follow up: So I took a look, and I found the problem on group stat training.

Somebody (not naming any names) created a generic method to train a skill based on work type (rather than having a million branching points everywhere that all do the same thing but to different skills) and somebody (not naming any names) did a copy and paste method because typing out code six times is tedious, easier to c/p and then change each entry to the right skill, and somebody (not naming any names) forgot to change the 'group' skill and the entire time it was just training sex skill instead.

It was a 5 second fix.

I very much appreciate you rigorously testing it, and ruling out RNG for me. This is the sort of thing that's easy to fix but hard to catch when your attention is on other mechanics.

Ok, thanks for your diligent reply on this, and I had not noticed that the Sex skill was going up because I was too tunneled vision on the Group skill and trying to watch for that on 3 different booths, lol. Up until that point in the end game, it all ran pretty smooth for me and loving it so far, especially the Scramble Mode. All the new mechanics have really made me take time to ponder on who I want to hire now and my individual strategy at the moment. Its like "I really need someone for a Secretary/Accountant/etc... so who has a corresponding skill to best work that job among the available recruits...." It pretty much doubled the time it took to reach the end game so kudos!

 

[Disgruntler]

In retrospect I am displeased with the skill-rate gain in early game.

I am going to test a change. Girls who are below a certain threshhold (20 if you have no Trainer, 60 if you have a 200% trainer) will be given a free skill point for showing up in a booth.

Reputation gains from Managers (On-Floor, Nicole, and CJs) were being improperly multiplied by the Advertiser, basically making reputation costs (especially CJs) meaningless. Fixing that.

Bad news and Good news. Bad news is the code for the retraining Investment was a terrible mess and I clearly was undercaffinated when I wrote it.

The Good news is, I wanted to change the mechanic slightly anyways, and this became a much better solution.

The way the mechanic will work (not that it worked before) is the first time you retrain a girl's trait, it costs nothing. Each time after costs an increasing amount of connection.

Secretary was doing too good at her job at bringing in nefarious customers, which, unfortunately, is really bad for Girls Next Door. Changing the trait so it affects influence and connection gain directly rather than by bringing in a different rate of bad boy customers.