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Dev Blog #87 - Fashion Foward
🕑 Added 2020-01-16 05:00:59 +0000 UTCGreetings everyone!
Today I wanted to take a little break from talking about the next update and instead finally reveal some major changes coming to the wardrobe and transformation systems in the not-too-distant future. There's some good stuff to cover today, so let's jump right in!
Clothes Maketh Me Mad...eth
When I first started making The Company I had less than zero intentions to introduce any kind of wardrobe system. Now, not only is the game populated with clothing, but a paperdoll representation of said clothing has been released as well! It's a neat addition to the game that, I feel, has never really lived up to its potential.
There are a number of reasons for this. Most prominent in my mind is the absurdity of clothing combinations and how the game is supposed to figure out how to classify your overall outfit. Sure, go ahead and throw on a sheer top, miniskirt and fishnets to show off your loafers, necktie and cotton bra, that'll push you into the "slutty" category and help you achieve your goals of... something? It's a bit of a logistical nightmare on the backend and I've been loathe to add more to it as it would only increase the complexity of what's already a fairly nonsensical system. Of course that doesn't even touch on the other issues such as generating the paperdoll artwork assets for each new piece of clothing as well as the fact that clothing itself doesn't do much from a game mechanic standpoint.
But... People like playing dress-up! I mean, seriously, I would have quit WoW two years earlier than I had if it weren't for transmog...
Ultimately, I decided to take things from the micro level to the macro and remove wearable clothing items from the game entirely and replace them with complete "outfits". So, rather than wearing a cute blouse, skirt, pantyhose, and high heels, you'll simply put on the "Office Attire (F)" outfit. By having a complete outfit, we can easily assign attributes to the outfit as a whole. In this case, the Office Attire (F) outfit is a formal, feminine outfit and would be reacted to as such. Effectively, it allows the game to handle clothes in the way it was always meant to by removing a ton of variance from the equation.
Wardrobe System 2.0
- Clothing ensembles fall into one of three categories:
- Outerwear - The outfit everyone sees you in such as Office Attire, Casual Clothes, etc.
- Underwear - Your underwear, including boxers, briefs, and bra/panties sets
- Accessories - Including glasses and "toys"
- Outerwear will consolidate tops, bottoms, necks, socks, and shoes while Underwear will consolidate bras and underwear
- Accessories will be handled a little differently to maintain their current functionality, IE, one in each... accessory slot
- Some outfits will need to be gathered piecemeal before they can be unlocked and worn
- You might get a piece of an outfit from an event while the other piece is purchased from a shop, at which point you'll obtain the complete outfit
- Outfits will generally have the same overall effect they do now in terms of character reactions and transformations, but they'll be much more controlled
- Additionally, specially outfits can now be more easily added to the game to promote specific transformations
- I heard someone say they wanted more latex?
- Finally, this drastically eases the artwork demands, allowing more outfit visuals to be added at a faster pace
- That said, once the system is implemented I intend to pull ahead of the artwork to get more outfits added to the game
- Expect an "Artwork Goes Here" T-shirt asset soon!
A Tale of Two Models
To facilitate the above changes, my artist and I have been going back and forth since early last year to overhaul (and improve) all the artwork assets for the game. We started with Ava and Dakota's new models in the summer of last year, and only just finally started wrapping up the MC.
One of the things that I wanted to fix with the MC this time around was ensuring that masculine characters looked masculine and feminine characters looked feminine, as the 1.0 models all tended towards the manlier side of the spectrum. In order to achieve this, while also working to simplify the design and production process, we decided to use a two-frame system. That is, a different body frame for masculine characters vs feminine characters. The frame your character will be determined by various transformation and gender-based factors, but the end result is that there will be a distinct difference between a masculine character trying to appear feminine, vs an actually feminine character.
Now with that all out of the way, let's finally check out the new MC model!
From left to right is the feminine MC base wearing the feminine casual, formal and slutty outfits and ending with the satin underwear set. Past that is the same series in reverse with the masculine base and masculine outfits. Of course this isn't all there is to show, but I can't just give it all away before release!
The new MC models follow the same clean design philosophy as Ava and Dakota's redesign, and will go on to inform the rest of the characters as well. When the wardrobe update does go live, expect to see some completely new outfits as well! These will be great on the off-chance you need to clean a residence, work at a cocktail bar, or break into the cosplay scene!
With Great Outfits, Comes Great Rebalancing
This section won't be quite as arm-wavy as the last one, but I wanted to also touch on some of the other, arguably even more important changes the wardrobe update is going to bring with it. Specifically, the yet-to-be-numbered wardrobe update is also going to be setting up to streamline the transformation system.
While it's working "as intended", there's still a lot of room to improve. While nothing is completely set in stone in terms of execution, below you'll find a general idea of what you can expect from the transformation revision coming with this update.
Transformation System 2.0
- Taking actions will no longer contribute to gender transformation
- Outfits and Identity will be the primary contributors to gender transformation
- Complete gender transformations will now require a serum interaction from the player
- No more randomly waking up with new bits
- Gender "states" will be revisited to ensure they make sense
- Specifically in terms of overlapping or shared gender states and what defines them
- A new stat will be added to the game, "Mind", to govern the MC's control over slipping into gender states
- Mind will work on a 0 - 100 slider and constantly trend towards 50 as long as it's 1 or higher
- This means that you'll have to maintain your mental state, possibly repairing it after suffering blows
- Mind impacts how quickly you lose dominance, and how quickly physical changes manifest in your character
- Mind and Arousal will govern the Bimbo transformation while Mind and Dominance will govern the Sissy transformation
- This same update will take a pass on NPC stats as well
- While the MC manages Mind, Dominance, and Arousal, NPCs will manage Mind, Relationship, and Corruption
- NPC Dominance as a (confusing) stat is being removed in favor of more direct behavioral changes
- NPC stats will be primarily used to govern unlocking linear story events
Take the above with a bit of salt, as the stat rebalance is still sitting at the whiteboard phase. After February's update releases, all of the above will start to take a little more priority with the hopes of getting it into March's content update.
I hope this was a fun look into what's bubbling on the backburner. Next week we'll be back on topic for the Diana-focused January update as well as a couple surprises! Thank you all for your continued feedback and support!
Comments
I'd love it if the "serum interaction" causing gender transformation could involve John or someone else dosing the player. Not unlike how the player can dose John to achieve something similar.
ZinTek
Pregnancy?
West, incredible balance choices with this new planning. Gives the player a little more control, but also allows people to enjoy the game as it's supposed too should they be ok with allowing the NPC to have more control. Gotta say, you've really outdone yourself. I look forward to the new updates! Literally keep an eye on your game like a hawk looking for prey. ;)
Westane
The working model is that once you get to a point where your character would trigger a transformation that would swap one set of genitals for another, that would now require a push from the player (or an NPC) for that change to occur, rather than happening "naturally". This is more a means to control game flow than it is to curate the player's experience. There's always the option to disable Forced TF for that :)
So, does "serum interaction from the player" mean that the player will actively need to choose to use it, or can it be forced on them "involuntarily?" Personally, I like the idea of the player being able to tell the game up front about what they're interested in seeing and what they prefer to avoid, and having the game try to tailor the experience toward that to some degree. (So, someone like me could get the TF expedited whereas someone who enjoys the sissy angle could have that play out longer.)
Awesome i love it keep up the good work
Westane
That would be more or less impossible to do. I mean, outside of commissioning models to wear a bunch of different outfits there's no way to make it look "right". Going from individual clothing items to complete outfits will make image pack application viable, though!
Nyrreah
Awesome system overhaul
IMO, I prefer wardrobe system will be functional in the real porn model...
