Life simulator idea

[milkykou]

So im not sure if this is the right forum for this question or not but im looking to try to make a life simulator sort of like a animal crossing game, however Im wanting the main draw to it to be more of designing the town itself for villagers to explore and have fun. Things like item shop for people to buy weapons and items and trade houses and such. Though this isnt the MAIN feature its a second dary feature. I guess the closest game i can relate the idea to is dark chronicle (dark cloud 2 here in the us)


What im trying to figure out is i guess the programming for deciding on when certian buildings and such can be unlocked and how it can be placed. This is the most important part. The next part is how to determine what random villagers show up and what random lines they will say each time you talk to them. Would this be set via events or something else? I know this is preety ambitious but it is something ive been wanting to try to make for a while and i think with MV i can finally do it. The rest of the game with the rpg elements i can handle and story but the main *gimmick* Is what im worried about getting this to work.


Thank you for any help or advice.

 

[BigToastie]

I suppose the first thing you need is a time system, this way every day you can alternate which doors in the village are locked (either randomly or by certain days)


>Try looking at Orange Time System and the various scripts that's been created by Orange.


using the above scripts


If you want them to be a standard open day of monday to Friday you could make an IF statement to check the "Day Variable"  then act upon that: for the days saying if monday/tuesday etc. - transfer event  |  if sat/sun - this door is locked. (You can do the same with specific opening hours too it would just be an additional IF statement to check the time too) - i have the time check in my game as my shops are only open through the day.


With randomness create a random variable (I have this for my NPCs so they dont spurt the same sentence out every time you speak to them)


So create a variable "RandomNumbergen" or whatever. 


Check the Random field and put a range in there.


Then you can use this variable to help with the randomness basically using if randomnumbergen = 1 user says "Hi There!" if randomnumbergen =2 user says "Get Outta Here!" and so on.


You can go further into it so its basically 


If RandomNumberGen = 1


 If DayVariable = Monday 


   "Its Monday!"


 Else


  If DayVariable - Tuesday 


   "It's not Monday"


and so on


If RandomNumberGen = 2


 If DayVariable = Monday 


   "Its STILL MONDAY!"


 Else


  If DayVariable - Tuesday 


   "It's Tuesday not Monday"


and so on


So you basically create an npc to say different things on different days, as well as randomizing it via the random variable.


I may not have explained it too well, but if you let me know I may be able to draft something up very briefly to give you a better indication on what I mean


(As I am quite bad at explaining things!)


EDIT:


He also has a weather system, so you can go EVEN further into it and modify speech, shop access etc. by weather :3


All the above can be applied to events for different NPCs and such (as I again, in my game, have NPCs appear on certain times, certain monster encounters can appear in different weather conditions etc.)

 

[milkykou]

Oh no that makes alot of sense how to do it. Though I think i might make it instead of monday-friday more like day 1-end day like day 300 or something for the checks and such of npcs arriving maybe or not. The way im having it set your not the hero of the story. More like a side character that happens to run a town or in charge of how it functions, while the hero of the story may come by to buy weapons and such with the evil that is happening in the world. 

Now the next part is to figure out how to have a player place buildings inside the town and determine what items would show up and such in shops. Maybe even a way on how to set events up like a festival or training days for villagers or something like that. But mostly how to determine what buildings can be placed. 


The other part of the game would be you have to travel to local dungeons to get materials for building these places and such. I swear there is a game similar to this im thinking of but i cant think of what it would be.

 

[Dalamar]

The original Dark Cloud was like this.  Having the player place buildings will be the most difficult part of the idea you're planning, but getting the shops to change stock will be easier with: http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/58804-unlock-shop-items/#comment-570463 .


Having the npcs say random things would just require variables/self switches and a lot of conditional branches depending on how many responses you want them to have.

 

[milkykou]

The original Dark Cloud was like this.  Having the player place buildings will be the most difficult part of the idea you're planning, but getting the shops to change stock will be easier with: http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/58804-unlock-shop-items/#comment-570463 .


Having the npcs say random things would just require variables/self switches and a lot of conditional branches depending on how many responses you want them to have.

Really the original was? I never got to experience it so i never knew. But yeah i am thinknig placing the shops would be the hardest as well as setting unlock conditions. I would have it set to take 1-2 days to build depening on the shop. Maybe this is too ambitious an idea? Then again im taking alot of ideas from similar games like stardew valley and animal crossing happy home designer and new leaf. 


Another idea i had for a different game would be creating blacksmith forging which i might try to have here but im not sure if that would be using alot of events or not. Thanks so far for the advice, ill be sure to try some of this when i get back home.