Erin the T h i c c Gamer Girl

ebifry22

Member
Sep 21, 2017
10
3
Hey everyone! This is my first time ever writing anything for this project, and I kind of picked it up as a joke from Adjatha's stream. I figured I would write something for it, and see where it goes. Essentially, this is just a new character who appears in Tavros Station, and is encountered through beating her high score through a video game. Here is the link to the doc with more background details: (FEEL FREE TO MAKE SUGGESTIONS!)

LINK

I intend to work on this character a lot over the next few days, and hopefully I can get a working draft done before too long.

The current biggest issue I've been having is that I don't know how I would want to implement the high score system. The score the player gets is most likely going to just be straight skill check maybe with a random number attached so it seems like the player doesn't get the same score every time, but the PC can check the high score list in the arcade machine, and I don't want to be too much of a burden on whoever does coding just in case I can push this thing all the way through, and it gets accepted.

Currently, I have a couple solutions, but I'm not sure which one I should go with.

First, I could just make it so the player can get any scores and the high score list just should update with the scores. This is the laziest option, and makes me the whole thing kind of a lot of work, so I don't really like this idea. The scoreboard only has 10 names on it, and any new scores would need to be sorted in the order, while the lowest score is bumped off. This means the player can just theoretically keep playing the game and overwhelm the scoreboard, which I kind of dislike. (But wouldn't be against in case the PC wants to.)

Second, I could make it so that the PC has seen this game before. Sort of like... "You remember this game from back when you were a kid. There was an exact one of these back in your home on blah blah blah, and you used to play it when you visited the soda fountain with your grandpapa." This makes it so that when you play it, you have a good way to just blow the current high scores out of the water, with magnitude dependent on your skill check. This also makes it easier to proc the actual encounter with Erin, as you need to blow her score out of the water to start interacting with her. (as currently planned.)

Lastly, I could just make it so that if you fail the skill check you don't make it to the high scores, and if you make the skill check you beat the number one score, and you can begin the actual character encounter. This will place your name on the top of the list like the second option, except it leaves a possibility for failure.

Another issue is that no matter which one is selected, the PC might have the option to play the game again and try to get more of themselves on the high scores list. This leaves the same problem where the high score list needs to be updated each time.

A big part of the actual encounter with Erin is that you teach her how to play the game, so that makes scenario 2 kind of good, but I don't want to leave no room for failure, etc.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks everyone!

Also Adjatha .... I know I said I would have it done in 48 hours, but I don't think I can feasibly do that without just straight dying. I've tried to avoid this situation in my life up until this point, and I wish I could let it go to fulfill my stream promise, but I don't think my family would be OK with that. I hope you'll forgive me ;-;

Also any ideas on what I've already written or what you'd like to see would be welcome with open arms :)

Edit: 9/29/17 I've been working on this every night for the last couple of nights, and have gotten a lot of her talk options done! Hopefully I can finish this project soon. (School makes me busy so progress is slow )
 
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Klaptrap

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
436
202
You could have the game portion be in several stages with multiple choices, where your stats could add good options/remove bad options. This way high stats aren't mandatory, since playing "smart" means you rack up the points anyway.
 

Crablord

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2016
1,071
742
you could always make it like the bomb mini game on tarkus ;)
 

ebifry22

Member
Sep 21, 2017
10
3
I'd like to put a system that is dynamic and changes based on each player, but I don't know if it could reflect well on the way the leaderboard appears. That's the main issue. If I recall correctly, the bomb mini game on Tarkus was like lights out, and I don't think it would work very well for a video game. I was thinking that just having the player make some big decisions with some skill checks to determine the final result would be best. I'm not too sure, though, due to the high scores board.
 

NotYouNorI

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2015
2,269
807
@tsundekawaii Regarding, the themes I've read in the doc so far (currently too tired to be thorough) You are aware that modern arcade machines aren't necessarily 8-bit or 16-bit things anymore and that in the incredibly far future that is TiTS they can be virtual reality harness things as the ones in Syri's scenes? Or do you mean this to be an ultra retro thing?
 

ebifry22

Member
Sep 21, 2017
10
3
@NotYouNorI I thought about that, yes. I figured the whole virtual reality thing was kind of done, though, with the VR lounge and the whole Syri arc. I was just thinking some junk machine some guy lugged out there with him and it kind of got passed around before being put into some bar somewhere to be forgotten. Obviously it wasn't actually made in the 80's. Maybe some small company somewhere manufactures weird old stuff like that. I'm sure there are some people into the whole retro thing, maybe.
 

NotYouNorI

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2015
2,269
807
It could still be a current modern thing as that would also be "retro" to the people of TiTS.

FYI I'm just throwing out suggestions. Whatever you make of this is up to you, of course.
 

ebifry22

Member
Sep 21, 2017
10
3
I guess I'm just a sucker for that kind of aesthetic. Right now, I'm just trying to work out the problem of the scoring and such ...

Thanks for the suggestion! I don't really want to step into the territory of more contemporary games mainly because there's already a fair bit of that in the universe. (So many gamer girls)
 

Night Trap

Scientist
Creator
Oct 31, 2016
294
765
I guess I'm just a sucker for that kind of aesthetic. Right now, I'm just trying to work out the problem of the scoring and such ...

Thanks for the suggestion! I don't really want to step into the territory of more contemporary games mainly because there's already a fair bit of that in the universe. (So many gamer girls)
IMO, there's no need to worry about an actual scoreboard. You could just have the series of skill checks and choices and have three end results: no high score, top 10 and just have 10-2 randomly determined by dice roll, and top high score. To me this seems the simplest way to write and code it all aside from a simple pass/fail.

And don't worry about not writing a whole character in 48 hours, my dude. That would be absurd.
 

Woider

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2015
4,830
659
27
Denmark
IMO, there's no need to worry about an actual scoreboard. You could just have the series of skill checks and choices and have three end results: no high score, top 10 and just have 10-2 randomly determined by dice roll, and top high score. To me this seems the simplest way to write and code it all aside from a simple pass/fail.

And don't worry about not writing a whole character in 48 hours, my dude. That would be absurd.
I'd expect something like 240 hours to be more accurate.
 

SpicyShino

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2015
114
29
A suggestion (from a complete amateur) maybe have 2 routes to meeting her.
1 You bet her score
2 You take 5-10 tries at the machine and are still complete garbage at it.

It may reverse the dynamic, but you'll still have a good starting point either way.
(tbh I haven't completely read through the doc yet, I might edit this post.)
 

ebifry22

Member
Sep 21, 2017
10
3
@SpicyShino

Yeah, I think I'm going to just make it either you beat her score or you don't make it on the leaderboard at all, and you can never play the game again after the first time if you beat it.

Thanks for the advice, though! I ended up putting a lot of thought into it, and decided already, though. Feel free to read and give some criticism, though!