Purple Dream: Weather, Activity, and Special Events

Not much of an in-game look, as a good chunk of progress has been on back-end systems.

Last log I talked about the map system, and I mentioned there being a weather in the works. The main purpose of the weather system is to add some changes and variability in POI settings, as well as also having some effects on the player. There are currently 4 different weather types, 2 which are smaller scale, with one being mostly beneficial and the other one being mostly detrimental, and then the other 2 are big ones, which are kind of neutral as they bring many changes, with some of them being good and some others being bad.

One of the most important changes, and also kind of the bigger reason to add the weather system, was for it to also be a sub-system that would help another system I had in mind and had in the works, which is what I am calling the activity system.

First, I need to introduce the activity system. Think of it as a POI population system. A measure of how active a POI is at that point in time. This is a really important aspect of gameplay, as activity has some important effects on gameplay.

The main effect activity has in gameplay is that during some interactive events, which is the bulk of the experience at various POIs, at any point in time NPCs are able to step in and join the event, which results in there being one more NPC that can do things to Aika/Shizumi. The more NPCs, the more that happens, but at the same time, the more NPCs there are, the harder it is to control the event. More on this when I do the complete breakdown of NPCs. Anyhow, this results in activity working almost like a difficulty setting. There will be some instances where things align, and the population on a POI will be really high, which will make things a lot more difficult, and will result in that being a POI that you would be better off avoiding for the time being, but at the same time, if you are up for it, you can take the risk and partake on a really eventful experience, which can really backfire if it goes south. More on this on the event gameplay breakdown. On the other hand though, you could get an almost empty POI with barely any activity, which will likely result in an experience that isn't very eventful, but could be good if maybe the MC's stats aren't looking too good at the moment, or if you want to take the opportunity to ease the MC into a low level trait. There are some other effects of POI activity, such as it affecting stat regen in some POIs that have stat healing purposes, but I'll talk about those on other posts.

So, that's the base functionality of activity, but something that really helps bring the system together is the variability aspect of it. I made the system in a way where it will always be a bit different, with it being affected by five different factors:

1. Time. I gave the system the ability for it to have a predetermined level of activity at certain hours. It makes sense for the beach to be empty during the morning, but then for people to start stopping by past noon once the sun is nice and hot. The system can do that

2. Day. I gave the system the ability to have different presets for different days. Makes sense for there to not be that many people on the beach during the weekdays when people are busy, but if it's the weekend on the other hand, there will naturally be a lot more people. That is in the system.

3. Variability. This is a layer of RNG added to that base predetermined POI activity. Activity goes from 0 to 100, and if at noon the beach is predetermined to be at 30, then this variability layer can turn it into maybe 45, or 20. Fun layer of RNG.

These three factors are the main bread and butter of the system, and with them, the activity level, and thus the event gameplay experience, will always be a little different and a bit unpredictable.

4. Weather. Another layer of RNG. Weather is random, so days you will have weather, some others you will not. Weather has both positive and negative effects on POIs. If it's raining, expect the beach to become almost empty, but at the same time, expect POIs like the bar, or the arcade, to both remain mostly untouched, as they are indoor POIs and rain doesn't really affect them. If it's hot on the other hand, some places with an AC might get some more activity, as well as the beach. Again, another layer of RNG to spice up the activity level.

5. Special events. This is another layer of RNG, but rather than having global effects, such as weather, special events are instead local and will only affect a POI. Each POI will randomly set up special events for itself, and it's of course random whether they will have a special event or not, and if they do, which special event. Special events can be something like a celebrity appearance at the beach, in which case there would naturally be more people hanging around, or, discounted drinks at the bar, during such an event the bar will likely be bursting with people because of it. Drink up.

Special events are a recent addition that I came up with while implementing the activity system, and it was intended for it to just be an additional layer of RNG on activity, but, now I am also working on implementing some of these special events at a deeper level. If there are discounted drinks at the bar, wouldn't it make sense and be fun if NPCs would offer and bring more drinks to Aika during interactive events? Special events were an unexpected but fun system that I will continue on expanding and improving.

Anyhow, as you can see, there is plenty of variability in the activity system, which allows activity to follow a pattern that is somewhat predictable, but at the same time, unpredictable. You know that during a weekday afternoon a certain POI will have a tame amount of activity, with some degree of variability to it, that is the somewhat predictable side of it. But, under the right special event, the POI will become a lot more packed, and if it also happens to land with the right weather type, it could become overwhelmingly busy, and that is the unpredictable side of it. A really fun set of systems that will spice up the game in various ways.

The activity system itself, is all fully implemented and complete. Well, it was actually completed a couple of weeks ago. Right now I have moved on to work on some other really exciting things, which were going to make for a really nice in-game look, but they unfortunately aren't ready yet, hence the sloppy screenshot of the activity and special event icons (Partially placeholders by the way). Well, the current WIP stuff will have to wait until the next progress log. It will be a good one!

I've rambled for long enough. I will be leaving this log here.

Thank you, for supporting the development of Purple Dream!