Brainstorming for Cow Girl Flash Game

[Tinn]

Originally Posted by Shinigamis Past

After some thought I'm leaning on the end of not having anthro-ness being a limiting factor on roles. My rational is that I want the game to be palatable to more people than less. I feel that treating the anthro-ness as an aesthetic such similar to an outfit with small bonuses will allow for the greater mod-ability as well.

[...]

The focus on specialization of the cows should fit the bill for differentiating a player's herd. I'll need to toy with the types of specializations cow girls can take, but the main goal is to force the player to make a variety of different cows. This achieves two fundamental game design goals; encouraging a path for progression, and forcing the player to experience all the aspects of a game. I know the same can be said about the anthro design, but this method would be more acceptable the greater number of players.

Taking this direction would also allow me to make anthro-ness entirely optional and toggle-able like futanari and tentacle monsters are in Slave Maker.

This should work, so long as players can't make 'generalist' cowgirls who are good at everything - or making it too easy to change a cowgirl's fields of specialisation.

Originally Posted by Shinigamis Past

I'm also curious on what sort of small adventures can be had by exploring the nearby areas, say a forest or lake with your cow girl. [...] we could probably do stats checks.

Hmm... Maybe, when you could send the cowgirls off to do their respective jobs, you could choose which group you follow. That way, the player would have slightly more freedom to choose what types of events they'll get to make choices in, while other events will be handled by automatic stat checks from the 'girls.

[Tinn]

Originally Posted by Shinigamis Past

Unless I misunderstood you, this is the idea I'm going to use. I'm going to allow cows to gain any body type they want which wont matter as that will be mostly an aesthetic choice. The defining factor of whether they can max out milking or what not depends on which specialization they take, which they can have a max of say 2 specializations at a time.

This allows for players to have cow's look however they want, get the appropriate flavor text for actions, and need to mix up their cows to take advantage of all the specializations.

Oh, sorry for misunderstanding... I should really read the whole thread before I start writing replies.

[Muhznit]

Originally Posted by Shinigamis Past

Unless I misunderstood you, this is the idea I'm going to use. I'm going to allow cows to gain any body type they want which wont matter as that will be mostly an aesthetic choice. The defining factor of whether they can max out milking or what not depends on which specialization they take, which they can have a max of say 2 specializations at a time.

This allows for players to have cow's look however they want, get the appropriate flavor text for actions, and need to mix up their cows to take advantage of all the specializations.

This. All I wanted. And so long as there is a decent number of things to specialize in, "generalist" cowgirls shouldn't be rampant.

As for a short list of general farm actions:
Gardening/Harvesting, Making milk, Milk Machine Repair, Manual Milking, Processing, Packaging, Delivering, Cleaning, Cooking, First Aid, Legal, Scheduling, Accounting, Inventory. All the ones I can think of at the moment. Some can probably be combined, but remember what I said about the number of areas to specialize in.

[Tinn]

OK, thread read. Now I feel kind of bad for posting so many replies in a row.
...And now I'm over it. More replies!

Originally Posted by SoylentOrange

How about combining them into four stats?

Physical- anything relating to completing a task of labor.
Mental- anything requiring book-smarts, like accounting and so on.
Emotional- Anything requiring people skill, like administration, being a receptionist, etc.
Maternal- A catch-all for all the cow-ish activities like expressing milk, giving birth, raising new cowgirls, etc.

Ooh, seconded. Having too many stats with obscure or overlapping purposes would make the game harder to write, balance, and learn.
I'm not sure about 'Maternal,' though - if the game is going to focus on a relatively small number of cowgirls, opportunities to give birth to and raise them might be slim on the ground. Maybe 'womanliness' might be a better fit? Unless we go with the 'faceless extras' idea, or have some kind of child-management system like Flexible Survival did, where calves effectively boost their mother's stats and affect vents... Hmm.

Anyway, I'm gonna go ahead and suggest some skills/abilities that would presumably be affected by or based on whatever stats the game ends up having.

Administration - The ability to make calls, balance accounts, and otherwise do the paperwork and bookkeeping that a business needs to survive. Every action that involves stuff outside the farm (organising outgoing milk shipments, ordering in supplies, buying cowgirls, etc.) could require a certian number of skill-hours be spent on it before it is completed. It might be sensible to split this skill into a variety of related ones, but it'll depend how much detail we want in this part of the simulation. Potentially, this skill could also include getting discounts on purchases, or extra cash on sales.
Breast Size - Duh. Given the focus of this part of the forum, I suspect this stat will be a priority on a lot of farms. Come to think of it, it'd be interesting if different cowgirls had different preferences for ideal breast size - and it'd be a lot better for your accountant's morale if she really liked waterbeds. Then again, I suspect a lot of players have their own preferences for size, so maybe that particular gameplay element should be avoided.
Conversation - This could affect the chance of a cowgirl telling you about issues that need your attention, instead of just lowing mournfully. It could also be involved in improving cowgirl morale, and in many game events.
Cooking - Because an all-grass diet is inappropriate and unhealthy for the more human kinds of cowgirl, as well as the presumably-human player character. This skill could be important in improving morale, as well as ensuring better nutrition.
Dairy processing - Perhaps this should be rolled into Cooking, but as someone mentioned, milk-based recipies should feature heaviliy in this game - perhaps heaviliy enough to have their own skill. Either way, selling cheeze, yoghurt and butter instead of milk should be a viable way of increasing your farm's profitability. This could potentially also incude making dairy products with potion-like effects, e.g.: weight gain cheese, BE milkshakes, and energising yoghurt.
Pasturing - The ability to maintain, expand, and care for the rolling green hills that keep your cowgirls happy, healthy, and fed. This should probably also include making hay and storing it for winter, assuming we want our cowgirls to eat grass.
Labouring - This could be a catch-all for all varieties of rough-and-ready farm labour that don't get covered by something more specific: Repairing fences, digging irrigation ditches, checking soil salinity levels, hauling things from one place to another, digging cellars, raising barns, and so on. Hmm... I'm not imagining some kind of harvest-moon-like scenario, where you have to repair or rebuild half the farm's facilities before you can use them.
Lactation Rate - I'd like it if this was seperate from Breast Size. I mean, sure, lots of activities that increase one would be expected to increase the other, but having them seperate could increase the variety of cowgirl builds possible, and makes the strategy slightly deeper. Personally, I reckon this stat should determine how much a cowgirl lactates, but not whether she lactates in the first place. That can wait until you dose her with the right medicine - or until she gets pregnant. All cowgirls lactating all the time could make for easier gameplay.
Mechanic - modern farms involve a lot of machinery, and older ones will have carts and tools that need repairing. A skill to fix things that break could be the difference between meeting a deadline and not having the cash to buy new milkmaid uniforms.
Medicine - Feverish cowgirls might set the heart racing, but in the long-term, keeping cowgirls healthy is an important part of keeping your farm (and relationship with the girls) running smoothly. This skill could be used to treat illness, and could passively increase the chances of spotting it in the early stages before it becomes severe. This skill could also possibly allow a cowgirl to suggest ways of improving nutrition, or of achieving certian physiological improvements.
Milk Capacity - If the amount of milk a cowgirl could store was distinct from the amount she could produce, then it could become part of the strategy of which girls to milk, and when. If a girl isn't milked often enough, her production could start to decline - but maybe that's what you want, if you're trying to train her for non-milking duties. Hmm... Maybe this should be rolled into breast size. Or maybe it shouldn't, and cowgirls could occasionally have Bazongas of Holding.
Milkmaid - The ability to extract milk from another cowgirl for storage and sale. Perhaps cowgirls should be able to milk themselves, too, if they can reach their own nipples. The player character should probably have this skill, or something similar. I'm assuming mechanical milking machines won't be a substantial part of this game, 'cause why would we let a machine have all the fun? (Unless the game also includes robot milkmaids, of course, but that's probably getting a little out-of-scope.)
Observation - This skill would represent a cowgirl's attention to detail and situational awareness, and could be checked in a whole lot of events.
Sensitivity - This would presumably have an effect on morale - while milking, at least. And possibly in other circumstances, if any 'Sexual skills' are involved in play.
Sexual skills - To let cowgirls improve each other's morale while the player character is busy. Of course, high morale could also be achieved though other means, but I suspect that enough players will want this particular feature that

The above skills make certian assumptions about the game.
Firstly, it assumes that the game will focus on managing the amount of time spent on a particular list of activities that includes farm maintenence, bookkeeping and paperwork, milking, cowgirl care, milk processing, produce sales, social interaction between cowgirls and social interaction between cowgirls and the player character, as well as including a variety of random events, possibly involving NPCs, that are based on what the player character (and the cowgirls) do. Other kinds of activities - or a completely different game - might require a drastically modified, extended, and/or shortened list. Ooh, how about:
Agriculture - For taking care of crops, assuming we don't want to have a purely-dairy farm.
Tax Evasion - Fun in any era, but not necessarily appropriate in a peaceful farming simulator.

Secondly, it assumes that the game will have a reasonably modern-day real world-ish kind of setting, but more fantastic or historically interesting settings are possible, and could include skills such as:
Alchemy - Anyone can improve through hard work, but weird potions do it faster and with more explosions.
Folk Magic - From charms to keep the weather nice, to herbs that encourage safe birth, to the right ettiquette for dealing with milk fairies, folk magic is a way of making superstition into a gameplay mechanic.
Herbalism - Alchemy's less academic and more homely cousin is nearly as effective, cheaper, but includes fewer explosions.
Nanotechnology - Why breed cowgirls when you can restructure the physiology of passing travellers on a nanoscopic scale? Well, because the ethics of it are highly questionable, and not everyone likes the idea.

[SoylentOrange]

I'll admit "Maternal" was a bit of a punt, but it would basically cover milk production and any other "Sexy" bits in the game. ^^;

The skills are neat, but I'd be wary of laying too many on at this juncture.

[Tinn]

Originally Posted by SoylentOrange

The skills are neat, but I'd be wary of laying too many on at this juncture.

Fair point on the skills - It's an easy area to bloat. I guess it'd make sense to work out what kinds of activities definitely will be in the game, and only then to work out what skills would actually be needed to support them.

One of the things that will determine a lot of the game's content, as well as the kinds of skills to be included, will be worldsetting. A lot of fetish games seem to use the ol' sword-and-sorcery standby of "Lazy Medieval" (i.e.: theoretically "europe in the dark ages," but with a bunch of anachronistic elements thrown in), but there's no reason why this game couldn't be set in the present, the future, or any other interesting time and place in history. Shinigami, have you decided on a particular setting? Or is that in the to-be-brainstormed pile?

[SoylentOrange]

I was thinking something semi-industrial age-ish, if you're going to have milking machines and so on. Dedicated dairy farms just meant to produce milk weren't around until the 1800s. So late enough for there to be machines but early enough for people to still walk everywhere.

[TickTock]

I'm partial to the ambiguous contemporary setting oppose to use strictly pseudo fantasy, or the lazy medieval mentioned. This is taking place in a rural area, so it will always have a feel for behind the modern times. I'm thinking of some thing like My Neighbor Totoro, where it was something like modern 1950s, but the rural-ness made it seem so much more homely and "Back in the day." Another reason why I think that kind of setting is nice is that it worked so well to have the magical elements blend perfectly well and it was not strange to see the odd car or bus (Not the cat bus mind you) or telephone pole.

I feel the need to stay away from hi-tech for this setting so I'm torn about having scientist and research types. It would be fine to have the random unknown Phlebotinum that is so hi-tech it behaves like magic but beyond that I don't believe farms need fusion reactors.

Also, every time I think 1800s or industrial anything I automatically think of the steam punk Victorian Era and Top hats. Milking machines designed in this mindset look nothing short of nightmarish in my mind. XD

Sorry if this response seems a bit rambly, but I'm toying with getting basic game engine components together.

[mik4384]

i wouldn't mind being a beta tester for this game

[Muhznit]

I would like to mention if we go the route of cowgirls giving birth to more cowgirls to raise, we may want to opt for a world with genetic engineering. Or maybe cloning technology.

I'm not too sure how many of us are going to be comfortable raising calf-lolis with tits bigger than themselves. <_<

[TickTock]

Originally Posted by Muhznit

I would like to mention if we go the route of cowgirls giving birth to more cowgirls to raise, we may want to opt for a world with genetic engineering. Or maybe cloning technology.

I'm not too sure how many of us are going to be comfortable raising calf-lolis with tits bigger than themselves. <_<

I was going to go with the excuse that they would grow up abnormally fast and become normal sized adults in the span of like a week after being born. We can say its something in the water or magic or just pure handwavium.

[SoylentOrange]

Yeah, that was my thought, too. Infant to adult in as long as it takes for an update to pass in the game. ^^;