News:

Please request registration email again and then check your "Spam" folder

Former www.henthighschool.com

Shop Sidequest Mod

Started by MCLover, Jul 30, 2024, 03:51 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

MCLoverTopic starter

My first time making a mod. It features a way to get the Merchant girl from the Shop into your brothel. This is for BK 0.2 but as long as Goldo didn't change how the shop works in 0.3 this should work just fine.
Link: Mediafire version 1b

Version 1b:
Spoiler
Fixed the quest trigger and corrected some story inconsistencies. Also added a bonus for the "good" end.
[close]

How to start the quest:
Spoiler
You must purchase from her 40 times and also upgrade the shop once.
[close]

Be warned that the Merchant girlpack is 95% AI generated images so expect weird low quality stuff from the pack.

MCLoverTopic starter

#1
Other stuff I want to say but can't be bothered to organize in the initial post:
  • Any advice is appreciated. I'll reiterate again that this is my first time trying to write in-universe with BK so if anything seems amiss please call it out.
  • I'm sure that the quest will have weird grammatical errors since English is not my first language.
  • Biggest problem with the mod right now is:
    Spoiler
    I have no idea what a good reward for NOT making her your slave. Discounts wouldn't work since at this point of the game money is easily obtainable.
    [close]
  • I am planning to do the same idea for the slavemarket but thats not gonna be any time soon.

Jman

#2
Impressive for a first mod.

It doesn't work for 0.3, for several reasons. The simplest being the 'all-.ogg' sound overhaul (not using filenames directly, but e.g. 's_chimes', would solve that particular problem), but for example merchant looping is different, too.

It also doesn't work for 0.2, since 'story_flags["shop_sidequest_start"]' and 'shop_sidequest_start' are two different variables. :'(

The 'mod' is also not really a mod, i.e. it doesn't use the mod system as such. Basically, you can't enable/disable it at all, short of uninstalling/reinstalling.


Not a great fan of the too-modern robot/corporate aesthetic and/or storyline, nor the AI art. But I'm not a fan of AI art in general. :-\

Also, there's e.g. Sill with some sort of 'recording device' as if it was nothing, when a great big part of chapter 1 story was acquiring a recording crystal from the temple of Shalia. And that took a lot of wrangling. So, not sure this is 100% or even 50% lore-compatible.

Edit: Also, not a fan of the idea that 'some officials' are enough to get past the 'consent to being a slave' bit, while a pimp's testimony is both enough to support that and yet also necessary to the degree that the corpos don't just grab some random corporate drone to do that. If a relatively upstanding citizen like a shopkeeper (and not a vagrant, like all the actual 'free' girls) can be enslaved while denying their consent, and that denial can beoverruled via forgery and second-hand testimony from people who are already on questionable terms with the law, well...

I suggest using a more reasonable trope, like the Shopkeeper being a runaway slave from another land or having a big debt from before coming to Zan. Alternatively, perhaps she took a loan from someone in the city to establish the shop, and business sabotage causing her to default (maybe having the MC boycott the store to cement this or, conversely, making big purchases to support her). Kinda like the deal with Bast, where you blackmail her with legit stuff, instead of outright fabricating things. /edit


As to rewards, a single slave and 100K isn't amazing, but not too shabby, either. 0.3 has dammed the gold flow to a great extent with the tax system, so a noticeable discount and/or something like a free restock per week would be a reasonably good alternative for not selling her out. Or getting her as a trainer, maybe.

Actually, while she's an original, 'Skilled Tongue' isn't that great, and she starts as a rock-bottom level 1/rank C slave. No special events, either. Not exactly sure why she's a 'free' girl, so she's not resellable?
And with strange aeons even death may die...

MCLoverTopic starter

#3
QuoteIt also doesn't work for 0.2, since 'story_flags["shop_sidequest_start"]' and 'shop_sidequest_start' are two different variables. :'(
Whoops fumbled that one.

QuoteThe 'mod' is also not really a mod, i.e. it doesn't use the mod system as such. Basically, you can't enable/disable it at all, short of uninstalling/reinstalling.
I couldn't figure it out and the mod installing keeps breaking. I figured it should be fine to release and just add it later.

QuoteNot a great fan of the too-modern robot/corporate aesthetic and/or storyline, nor the AI art. But I'm not a fan of AI art in general
Me neither but it's the only thing I can think of to make the girlpack.

QuoteAlso, there's e.g. Sill with some sort of 'recording device' as if it was nothing, when a great big part of chapter 1 story was acquiring a recording crystal from the temple of Shalia. And that took a lot of wrangling. So, not sure this is 100% or even 50% lore-compatible.
It reuses the same recording crystal from the chapter 1 story, I just typo it to device instead of crystal. If I didn't mess up the story requirement the trigger to activate the sidequest should only be available after chapter 1 is done.

QuoteEdit: Also, not a fan of the idea that 'some officials' are enough to get past the 'consent to being a slave' bit, while a pimp's testimony is both enough to support that and yet also necessary to the degree that the corpos don't just grab some random corporate drone to do that. If a relatively upstanding citizen like a shopkeeper (and not a vagrant, like all the actual 'free' girls) can be enslaved while denying their consent, and that denial can beoverruled via forgery and second-hand testimony from people who are already on questionable terms with the law, well...
The idea is to show how much power he owns to allow such things to happen. I want this to be some allegory to tech companies making the government close their eyes in their evil ways in the name of innovation.

QuoteAs to rewards, a single slave and 100K isn't amazing, but not too shabby, either. 0.3 has dammed the gold flow to a great extent with the tax system, so a noticeable discount and/or something like a free restock per week would be a reasonably good alternative for not selling her out. Or getting her as a trainer, maybe.
I don't like the idea of her being a trainer. I didn't know that 0.3 has a tax system and a discount could benefit that, but on the other hand I don't want to "gamify" it with making the good choice the better choice.  I'm fine with exploring the discount number but I'll look into other ideas.

QuoteActually, while she's an original, 'Skilled Tongue' isn't that great, and she starts as a rock-bottom level 1/rank C slave. No special events, either. Not exactly sure why she's a 'free' girl, so she's not resellable?
Skilled Tongue is more of a lore reason. I was planning to make custom personality and special events for her but I don't have any idea on what her special events gonna be. For now it's shelfed so I can work on other stuff first (ie. Slavemarket Sidequest). Reselling her would break the story that MC didn't want to put her into the slavemarket.

For the C Rank, I didn't know you could change it. Any tips how to?


MCLoverTopic starter

#4
Made a hotfix for some of the stuff Jman said.

The reward for keeping her:
Spoiler
You'll get 1 free item of your choosing every restock/week.
[close]

I'm not sure this is a good reward but I'll keep it until a better idea pops up.

Jman

#5
If you do hotfixing, it'd be a good idea to separate the 50MB girl pack and the rather small actual mod from each other. To keep down the electron wastage, you know. ;)


Getting mods to stick is indeed a bit messy, but we can manage. Putting your triggers behind mod activation shouldn't be too difficult.


I thought the crystal was on loan from Satella, and in any case needed her cooperation (plus repaying that ;) ) to make it work via 'godly energy'?


The tech allegory doesn't really work, because right now it's "people with machines use government corruption to enslave people", which sorta-kinda fits the trope, but falls apart on closer examination. IRL, they 'enslave' people to work for them, if at all. Here, they enslave the Shopgirl to get her store and replace her with an automaton, whereas the RL luddite fear is that the 'techies' outcompete her with their own auto-store and take her job.


Again, some sort of debt scheme would fit far better. She's got a loan, corrupt officials enforce an shady, unfavourable contract that she really did consent to, the debtors drive her shop under via their own mech-shop and then do a hostile takeover and put her into debt slavery. Boom, the end result is the same, the luddite fantasy is present, and nothing disrupts the balance of power and/or how slavery works in Zan as extremely as your current story does.


'Good' vs 'evil' choice can be about short-term vs long-term effects. Getting a theoretically infinite amount of items for free vs a one-time lump sum and slave fits that perfectly.


Trainers are one of the better ways to attach interesting effects to the MC/brothel, beyond one-time boons like gold, items or slaves. If you dislike having her (or the Slavegirl) as a trainer, perhaps a special 'spell' could do the same.


As to special events, perhaps for starters a version of the 'back rub', either as a night event or once per day/week when interacting with her?


Getting her to start as a higher rank is as easy as this:
girl = create_girl("Shopkeeper", free=True, force_original=True, level = 15)
This makes her rank A, verging on S. Every five levels correspond to a rank.



Finally, this is an interesting way do make something free. ;D
price = it.get_price("buy") - it.get_price("buy")
And with strange aeons even death may die...

Goldo

Quote from: Jman on Jul 31, 2024, 07:29 AMFinally, this is an interesting way do make something free. ;D
price = it.get_price("buy") - it.get_price("buy")

Needlessly complicated, when this could have given you exactly the same result:
price = ((4.859*12**30)-25486/(44445*(3.14159*(0.00414**0.5)/123**-82)))/(11**30)-66.10034492755668
Maker of BK. Looking for the latest patch for BK 0.2? The link doesn't change, so bookmark it!

Jman

And with strange aeons even death may die...