So, I’ve been moving all of the scenes in the game over to class objects, and it seems to be going smoothly enough thus far.
General idea is that I now have an “Event” class that holds information such as:
- Has the player seen this event?
- Does the event require swimwear?
- What NPCs are featured in the event?
- Etc.
At the very least, this means I can move work events into the same style of scene-picker that I’ve been using for free events for a while.
Not really my goal with this, though. The impetus behind this was to revamp the overall schedule to do a better job of handling the passage of time and prevent looping events. I’m also adding a priority level to each event, so hopefully, filler events won’t accidentally bump critical story events.
Being able to tag scenes with the characters involved and other things (such as whether or not there’s a TF or MC aspect to the event) should also give me the ability to filter scenes—this makes it much easier to handle things like, say, one of the NPCs disappearing for a while, or giving the player the option to disable certain types of events they might not care for.
Making Scheduling Smarter
As I try to walk myself through the logic for the revamp, I do find that there are some things I’d like to be able to do, that I’m not sure of the best way to handle…mostly related to event chains.
A good example is the sequence of events that lead to working for Reika. The main triggering event is a hotel investigation event where the PC helps a drunk guest.
Depending on what the player chooses during this scene, either things will continue as normal, or there will be two special events that happen the next day.
The first event has to take place during the middle of the night. The second needs to happen during the first block of time in the morning.
As more scenes get added to the game that trigger these sorts of event chains, the higher the chance that two or more of them will need to schedule things at the same time.
I’d like to find a way to avoid that (or even plan for certain event combinations). I’m still struggling with it, however.
I’m picturing a way of having the game tentatively schedule all of the events a day or so in advance, with certain events held in reserve in case the player doesn’t trigger the event chain (thus freeing up the time slot).
So, I need to…
- Figure out how to save chain event information as part of the class object (what scenes follow, their priority level, whether or not they have an option to avoid, etc.).
- Figure out how to schedule these events in advance and handle “cancellations” if the chain isn’t triggered.
Anyway, while I struggle with this, my backers can briefly entertain themselves with a look at how I created the backgrounds for the bedroom in Scarlet’s suite from the last update. It’s got some interesting potential for future CGs.
Usagitriplesix 
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