action editor problems

[iqa]

Don,

I am working on a new action file and two issues surfaced.

1. When a person lands on an undevelopped property, an action is activated from the list of actions intended for undevelopped land. Then, after completion of that action, if the subject decides to build, a store is created. There is a prompt screen that says...."You get to provide a service for your first customer" (or something like that). Then another action comes up. That next action should be pulled from the list of actions intended for the individual store. If you built a massage parlor, shouldn't it be a massage parlor action? Instead, I find it is also pulling actions from the undevelopped land list again. I know this because actions are comeing up here that are only intended for undevelopped land. This happens even if there are massage parlor actions availible and appropriate for the level of the game.

2. This may be more of a question. I created a "get naked" action. The action editor lists it as a 5-5R action. Doesnt that mean it should come up beginning at level 5? Or, does the R make it jump a level. I am using the standard player profiles and it will not come up before level 6. (On test runs I can get an "error no suitable actions" when this action is availible on level 5)

[Mick]

I'm not sure your problem is the same as what I struggled with, but it sounds similar. If you try to bypass the normal "remove clothing" process in the game by inserting actions that try to force the game to remove clothing at an earlier level, you will most likely run into problems. You can read the thread on clothing removal problems posted earlier in this forum. The best work-around I've found so far is to run the program speed on a faster setting and manually back the level down occasionally if desired. The problem is that there is no algorithm in the game for adjusting the speed of clothing removal, and the normal speed can easily go into level 9 even before all clothing is removed. This is fine, I'm sure, for many, as they see the goal of the game to be having all clothing gone by levels 8 or 9. But to others who feel that the fun just gets started when the clothing is all removed, this can be a problem.

Don has indicated that he is aware of this problem and is working on it. In an otherwise really excellent game, this is something that should be addressed. As I have indicated, I would like to see an option at the beginning of the game where the players would indicate at which level they would want any remaining clothing immediately removed. Say, at the start of level 6, if that is the chosen level, a "remove clothing" action would be selected by the game that would remove any clothing the player was still wearing. (I wouldn't be surprised if the problem is easier stated than solved, however, and that major coding changes might be necessary.)

Anyway, you can read about my struggles to "fix" this problem, and how I finally gave up - except for speeding up the game and manually backing down the levels occasionally as the game progresses. The problem, when I tried to force clothing removal, was that the game got mixed up, couldn't remember which clothing items players were still wearing, and selected actions from inappropriate groups and also levels of play. It really messed up the game. Once I removed all of the actions that interfered with the game's algorithm for clothing removal, the game has gone back to acting like it should.

I hope that Don might read this and comment, as this change would be a significant improvement, IMHO.

[iqa]

Thanks for your input. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who has had this problem. I created a work around in a few ways.

#1 I did not try to build in intermediate steps to naked in my new action file (see the exchange for highlevelnakedfun.bjf). Its all or nothing. All of my undress actions make you get completely naked.

#2 The "default" passion level for any clothing removal action was 5-5R. In testing, it appears that an action at that level will only come up when the players are passion level 6....not higher or lower. If the action does not come up when both players are in this window, it never will. At normal game speed, that gives it about 8 chances.

#3 So...I made copies of the strip naked action and customized the categories for each one (this meant lying about the exact elements of the action). This left me with the same action, but many different versions. One was set to be 5-5R. One was set to 6-6. One was set 7-7. One was 8-8. One was 9-9. One was 5-9R. This gave the action a chance of coming up regardless of what passion levels the players were at (assuming at least a level of 6). I found that this greatly increased the liklihood of getting naked faster. Strangely, the 5-9R version does not like to come up as often, even though it would seem to be the most flexible in terms of passion levels.

#4 I created a get naked player state (player state = 68 - I had a LOT of player states in my file). Hitting any of the strip actions would set the player state. Since every version of the action was set to check state 68, only one get naked action should appear during the game.

Yes, this took 6 versions of an action to get the desired result.
Yes, this took a lot of work with custom player states to accomplish
Yes, there should be a way to guarantee nakedness by level 7 IMHO

But I like the game so much, especially the fact that it is customizable, that I can forgive this quirk.