Brainstorming for Cow Girl Flash Game

[Tinn]

I just realised - It's been explicitly stated that the game will contain cowgirls with different body types, weight gain, breast expansion, and clothing for said cowgirls. Would it therefore make sense for clothing to have bust/waist/hip measurements? The expansion-based fetishes often pay attention to what happens to clothing, so infinitely elastic garments might make the game slightly less interesting.

Of course, if clothing is continually being outgrown by girls with changing curves, it'd become almost worthless, so maybe its sizes could be expressed as ranges. Or it could be altered by cowgirls with the 'tailoring' skill. Or it could be very, very cheap and easy to replace. Or some combination of the above.

[TickTock]

Including clothes sizes is not something I had thought about before. It's currently not something I've considered putting into the engine at this time, but it should be supportable with a few changes to my items. However, including this feature is very slim as I see many extra complexities with incorporating it.

From a game play standing, it think it would be annoying to have to have several versions of the same outfit in different sizes, not to mention potentially expensive. Clothes will become require a new facet of engine code to manage the effects and limits. And finally it would make using a paper doll concept even more complex by needed dozens of different states for clothes being stretched and burst or what not.

After the prototype is ready, we can see where this idea stands and maybe test a small facet of this idea. But at least in the mean time, do not expect this feature.

Right now I'm working on some of the more complex engine components that manage the event node with XML System I'm planning on using. I'll be banging my head against the wall a bit tonight.

[SoylentOrange]

Instead of literal sizes, why not just have it sized to whenever they get the outfit and then have growth thresholds for "Loose", "Baggy", "Tight", "Stretched", "Overflowing", and "Coming apart at the seams"? WOuld be a lot fewer engine checks, just a comparison of current to original size and then checking that against a list of >= statements.

[TickTock]

Originally Posted by SoylentOrange

Instead of literal sizes, why not just have it sized to whenever they get the outfit and then have growth thresholds for "Loose", "Baggy", "Tight", "Stretched", "Overflowing", and "Coming apart at the seams"? WOuld be a lot fewer engine checks, just a comparison of current to original size and then checking that against a list of >= statements.

It's a bit more than that but I see what you are saying. I'm still posting it as a potential feature, but it's a bit out of the ways on what I'm currently trying to achieve. I do agree having something like that is awesome, but just not at the moment. XD

[Tinn]

Originally Posted by Shinigamis Past

Including clothes sizes is not something I had thought about before. It's currently not something I've considered putting into the engine at this time, but it should be supportable with a few changes to my items. However, including this feature is very slim as I see many extra complexities with incorporating it.

From a game play standing, it think it would be annoying to have to have several versions of the same outfit in different sizes, not to mention potentially expensive.

It's true that having to manage hundreds of slight variations on outfits would be painful for the player to manage, but I was thinking that the complexity could be handled with a minimum of action on the part of the player, by making size management automatic, provided certian prerequisites were met. For example:
The player has assigned an outfit to each of his cowgirls. Unfortunately, some of the outfits don't fit their owners, having been tailored for women with less generous endowments. Therefore, the non-fitting outfits don't get equipped - but they are marked as 'belonging' to the cowgirls in question. Wanting to rectify this situation, the player assigns Daisy (a skilled seamstress) to the task of being the farm's tailor.
Each game time unit that passes in which Daisy remains assigned to that task, the game will check through the list of the outfits on the farm, and when it finds one that doesn't fit its assigned owner, its size will be adjusted by a number of points equal to Daisy's Tailoring skill. If it only needs some of her skill to achieve a perfect fit, the game will then continue through the list until it finds another outfit that doesn't fit, and apply her remaining skill points to that one, and so on until all the outfits are fixed or all of Daisy's skill points have been allocated.
This would mean that the player could easily queue up garments to be adjusted without having to micromanage every small change, and that while bustin' out of clothes could occasionally happen, it'd be limited to the rare occasions when growth is extemely sudden, or when there aren't enough skilled tailors on duty to keep up with the whole farm's gradual growth.

Originally Posted by Shinigamis Past

Clothes will become require a new facet of engine code to manage the effects and limits. And finally it would make using a paper doll concept even more complex by needed dozens of different states for clothes being stretched and burst or what not.

After the prototype is ready, we can see where this idea stands and maybe test a small facet of this idea. But at least in the mean time, do not expect this feature.

It might sound odd for me to say this moments after explaining how it could be done, but I didn't expect clothing sizes to be a priority. I knew from the beginning that it'd be a headache to implement, and even if it wasn't, it's unlikely to become a core feature of gameplay.
On the other hand, this is brainstorming, and even ideas that are completely useless might end up inspiring something that's workable from someone else, so I went ahead and said it anyway.

[Tinn]

Originally Posted by SoylentOrange

Instead of literal sizes, why not just have it sized to whenever they get the outfit and then have growth thresholds for "Loose", "Baggy", "Tight", "Stretched", "Overflowing", and "Coming apart at the seams"? Would be a lot fewer engine checks, just a comparison of current to original size and then checking that against a list of >= statements.

Good point. I was originally thinking that some outfits would be stretchier than others (and would thus need custom size ranges) but I was probably overthinking things. I imagine most players will be interested in how well clothes fit and when they actually burst off, rather than on the mechanics behind it. Your idea of using adjectives to describe fit would handle both nicely and (as a bonus) would work well with my tailoring skill idea.

Still, as I said in my previous post, I didn't expect clothing sizes to be a high priority, and if Shinigamis Past wants to focus on other things, I shall bow before his or her mighty game developer wisdom.

[Tinn]

Originally Posted by SoylentOrange

I would prefer something a little softer than outright "Sold off like cattle" slavery. Maybe something like if they volunteer to go work for the national food bank the government gives you some money for it? ^^;

Come to think of it, reflavouring the buying and selling of cowgirls isn't the only option - they could be obtained through completely non-monetary means as well. As long as some effort is required to increase the number of cowgirls on a farm, balance could be preserved. Transforming existing people probably wouldn't fit well with the 'relaxed rural' setting unless the transformations were truely voluntary, but there are other options.

Biological reproduction has been mentioned as a possibility, and that could be attempted in all sorts of ways.
...Get your mind out of the gutter. Sure, sex is one option, but so is cloning, or herbs that that work like the pregnancy-inducing 'Magic Medicine' that appeared in some Harvest Moon games.
Such methods should probably not be the only way of getting new cowgirls, since they share the disadvantage of encouraging incest, which I imagine a number of players might not want.

Cowgirls could come to the farm voluntarily, due to random game events of great rarity - which the player could encourage to happen by dedicating time to certian acts. For example, new cowgirls might be gifted to the farm by the local kami (or some other supernatural being).
Of course, if this is the only way of getting cowgirls, it does reduce the amount of player agency involved, so this method would be best combined with one of the others.

My last idea is that cowgirls could come to the farm once the player character (or a cowgirl with the appropriate skill) spends a certian amount of time dedicated to the task, perhaps by placing personal ads in the newspapers:
"WANTED: Cowgirl for small dairy farm. Must be good milker, carpenter. Lesbian orientation a plus. No pets allowed."
Time-based cowgirl procurement would allow a player to jump-start a farm without having much cash, and would mean that established farms wouldn't be able to expand exponentially once a certian profitability threshhold is reached, so that the late game doesn't become unchallanging. On the other hand, it does raise questions as to the role of cowgirls in the game setting - specifically, whether they're farmhands or livestock.

At least a couple of us don't seem to like the idea of buying and selling cowgirls like slaves, so perhaps that shouldn't be the only option. On the other hand, I'm now imagining playing a character who buys cowgirl slaves, frees them, and then gives them a home on the communual farm...

EDIT: Oh, and since the game is supposed to building relationships with a small number of girls, selling them off probably shouldn't be encouraged. At the very least, it should be less profitable than keeping them as staff and milk-makers.

[Thinkingman278]

I've been keeping an eye on this for a while now and I have to say it looks really good and I hope it works out. My only question is will any of these ideas actually see the light of day or is this all just for fun? ._ .

[mik4384]

Originally Posted by Thinkingman278

I've been keeping an eye on this for a while now and I have to say it looks really good and I hope it works out. My only question is will any of these ideas actually see the light of day or is this all just for fun? ._ .

and how long will it take to build it?

[Tinn]

Originally Posted by Thinkingman278

I've been keeping an eye on this for a while now and I have to say it looks really good and I hope it works out. My only question is will any of these ideas actually see the light of day or is this all just for fun? ._ .

Well, according to http://ticktockgames.blogspot.com/?zx=b57e23d30572affa, Shinigamis Past has already started work on it.

[TickTock]

Yeah, sorry for dropping off in responses in this thread but I've been really busy of late. I believe I've gotten enough ideas and suggestions to understand the scope of the project, and I'm currently building the systems to support it. I don't have everything planned out yet, so any more suggestions are still valid and appreciated.

I've been ramping up my work on another project since we are doing a showcase this Saturday, and I've hardly been able to touch the code on this one. If you wish to follow my progress closely, as Tinn suggested you can take a look at my blog which is listed somewhere in my sig.

[Thinkingman278]

Awesome and thank you. Good luck with this and your other projects