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[timmeh]

Been watching this for a while.  Looks really awesome, can't wait for a version I can screw around with

[SolarShado]

Sounds cool, although I'm guessing the current version runs the same (ignoring the use of RNGs) each time, with no user options?

[Outcast Orange]

Yes, basically, but there isn't a need for user input yet.
The thing just isn't interesting enough right now to warrant controlling it in any meaningful way.

Once it is more fleshed out, I will desire some functionality so I may screw with it myself.

I will probably add in locks and keys today.

[SiN.Daeus]

You could add in personality traits.
Things like 'Hot Headed', which would effect aggresiveness and how easily they are calmed, 'Charming', which would change how easily they could calm other people down and their ability at socialising,

And you could present strength and stuff in a more fluffy way, as in, instead of a direct straight up value (i.e [STRENGTH:4]) it would presented in information like weight, height, muscle density, etc. So then maybe the values like strength and agility are not displayed to the player, but weight/height/etc is instead, with the values for those deciding/influencing the 'raw' strength/agility/etc. values.

If you know what I mean.

[Outcast Orange]

I'm not sure I understand what that accomplishes.
There would still be a strength value stored some where,
 and the actual values are never given to the player straight.

If you want it to be more complex then a strength value,
 then it could be broken up later, but for now just a single value will do.

Here's the code for strength declarations:
   

Code: [Select]

{////////STRENGTH
        specials.colorname(id);
        cout << " is ";
        switch(strength){
            case 1: cout << "extremely weak.\n"; break;
            case 2: cout << "very weak.\n"; break;
            case 3: cout << "fairly weak.\n"; break;
            case 4: cout << "somewhat weak.\n"; break;
            case 5: cout << "of average strength.\n"; break;
            case 6: cout << "of slightly above average strength.\n"; break;
            case 7: cout << "of somewhat above average strength.\n"; break;
            case 8: cout << "fairly strong.\n"; break;
            case 9: cout << "very strong.\n"; break;
            case 10: cout << "extremely strong.\n"; break;
            default: cout << "Arnold Schwarzenegger.\n"; break;
        }
    }
That last option is for debugging.
That should never show up in the game.

If anyone wants to suggest semantic changes, that would be sweet.

[SiN.Daeus]

Ok then.. never mind. I've just confused myself.

Hmmm... Maybe, you could add things like religions or sports teams to topics of conversation, and that would affect the peeps as each have their own personal preference? it might lead to fights and arguments.. etc.

[chaoticag]

If that does become an addition, then I can't wait for a bug following the lines of "Person 2 knocked out person 1 for saying that the LA Lakers are better than Jesus".

[James.Denholm]

Oooh! C++! Approves!

On a small note, however - Wouldn't it be better to use

Code: [Select]

cout << "Bleh" << endl rather than newline escape sequences (ie, the \n sequence)? I'm not trying to be criticisive, merely... suggestive, I guess.

[Outcast Orange]

I can't see the difference, and I will often stack a few of the \n\n\n together like that.
It's just a habit at this point.
Like my brain knows that '\n' ~ 'Return'.
What exactly does 'endl' do?

I was planning on a topic system, and the players themselves could be topics,
 and they could add every noun they come across to their possible topics list,
 and even assign a weight on the fly to each thing.
So they could come across toast, and depending on how much they like it,
 they might bring it up in a conversation later.
Most of them will have a few random ones from a pool thrown in.

[James.Denholm]

endl, essentially, sends an "endline" to the terminal output. I only suggested it because I would think it might be more recognised and supported across compilers and so on. But, meh. Tomatoes tomatoes, same difference.

[Outcast Orange]

I am thinking that the "strange traits" will not be actually hard-coded/assigned,
 but emerge based on the randomness of stats. Like that 'charming' would be a high charisma stat,
 and 'hot headed' is a high aggression stat.

I'll have to add a weighting system to those later to keep them closer to average.

Also, trying something out:

Spoiler: Cheeseburgers (click to show/hide)

Ooh. Neat.

[Dave Mongoose]

endl, essentially, sends an "endline" to the terminal output. I only suggested it because I would think it might be more recognised and supported across compilers and so on.

It's also platform independent, since 'newline' can be '\r', '\n' or '\r\n', depending on operating system.

With the idea of them wandering around and exploring the house, it made me think of a kind of haunted house scenario! That doesn't seem to be the direction you're interested in, but it might be an interesting alternative if you get bored.

Edit: Always getting \ and / confused 

[alfie275]

endl ends line AND clears the output buffer.

[Outcast Orange]

With the idea of them wandering around and exploring the house, it made me think of a kind of haunted house scenario! That doesn't seem to be the direction you're interested in, but it might be an interesting alternative if you get bored.

That IS sort of the idea I had in mind, like a mystery/horror simulator.
I am thinking of relocating the house to a rainy island,
 and having them all just wake up on it in random places,
 or showing up on rowboats or something.

[Outcast Orange]

I've completely overhauled character attributes.

Aggression is based on strength.
Charisma is based on aggression, strength, and intelligence.

When reporting a character's traits, it will only display the ones that really stand out.

Spoiler: Example Descriptions (click to show/hide)

That looks a lot more like a storybook description to me.
As you can see, they are no longer asexual.

I've decided on a persons "relationship" depending on three values:
Familiarity, trust, and respect.

Familiarity doesn't really need an explanation.
It will modify a ton of situations, and influence trust.

Trust is unused right now, but will be used later when characters need to swap information.

Respect mostly modifies the way characters act towards each other.
Right now respect is modified by intelligence and sex, so the less intelligent a person is,
 the more likely they are to disrespect someone of the opposite sex initially.
I'll be adding in other case-by-case correlations like that in an attempt to mirror my view of reality.
Respect can be modified by conversations and fighting, and things like that.

I'm probably going to start working on conversation flow and topics.


EDIT: I've completely rearranged the character actions, and they now have a sensible set of priorities:

    - They always get to do a few basic functions without expending their turn,
     like noticing doorways and other characters.

    - They will put a priority on ending a conversation or fight they are in.

    - Next up is sleep. If they are tired they will head straight to bed. If they don't know where a bed is, they will explore.

    - If sleep is not an issue, they will continue to explore the house.

    - If the whole house has been explored, they will try to enter conversations. If there are no conversations present,
     they will wander around until they find someone.

I've finally hammered out the path finding system into an airtight function.
Once another function has picked a target location, the function for path finding and following paths takes over.
There are no cases where it can fail. The only input it takes is the room id, and it can not be interrupted.
If it is interrupted (somehow) there is a function where the character will forget where they were going.

I figure interrupting will be possible in the future when people can act more hostile and doors can be locked.


EDIT: Characters now remember the last place they saw each other.

I've added support so that a character will remember which bedroom each character occupies.

There is not a method of finding this out currently, but once there are locks and keys,
 they will be able to figure it out by watching a person enter a bedroom,
 or asking for the information during a conversation. (trust will likely be involved)

I'm not sure where I am taking this thing, but I want to add in topics of conversation,
 and give them the ability to trade valuable information.

I don't know what sort of information that will be,
because I haven't decided what tasks they will be trying to achieve,
 or even what mindset they are all in.

I'm thinking they are all just trapped and wish they could escape,
 and then intrigue and suspicion hits when it turns out some of them secretly have motives.
Basically, I want there to be a reason for them to establish trust before helping each other.