SBURBDEV Forum

[Legendary]

Here's a fun note. Consorts are tricky little bleeders, but here's what we know about them:

They come in lots of colors!
They have all been reptilian or amphibious so far!
They are very distrac- ooh shiny.
They enjoy becoming secret wizards.
They also take other clothing items from players, but there is great shame attached.
Every player gets their own set.
They help the server player manipulate the house when the player is away.

We can also assume that they are not specifically aligned to domains. Terezi seemed to know about how crocodile consorts worked, suggesting they might have been her consorts, and the statues on LOSAZ (Tavros's world) match the statues of LOFAF, suggesting they share consorts. This actually works out nicely in that it introduces some replay value! Sure the salamanders are glubby and goofy but the crocodiles are nakky and downright stupid. Therefore, we can assign particular quests to each consort that aren't domain or class related.

We will also need to make consorts have two behavior classes. There is the client behavior, for a player talking to them in person. This should work more or less as we see John interacting with everyone in LOWAS. There is also the server behavior. Here I propose a simple, RTS kind of design. A server clicks the consort they want and gives them a simple direction, like "captcha that desk". Yes, captcha. For alchemizing to be possible, the server will need to interact with the environment and therefore need captcha cards attached.

A consort should have a tiny inventory, and these should always be empty (or at least have only a tiny chance of having an item) until a server tells them otherwise. Consorts with inventory should automatically head towards the alchemizer unless they receive a different order. Consorts without inventory should explore other rooms.

They also should tend to pick up bedsheets and alchemize them automatically. This should be at a conserved rate, perhaps there is a secret wizard cap determined per echeladder rung, to stop a Greentyke from assembling a small army of wizards. In the event of major plot events, such as the awakenings of Denizens or worldwide fires, or whatever, they should tend to try to respond to handle the situation. They will inevitably fail, but if they get close to a player who enjoys using consorts as soldiers, they can at least provide firepower.

Consorts in general should be weak without weaponry. However, a dedicated player could fully outfit a small army and make some progress in this respect, but weapons designed for consorts should have higher grist costs to cancel out the inevitable snowball effect. Also, consorts following a player should be limited by echeladder rung as well, again to cancel out the snowball effect.

Hmm... I am not remembering anything else specifically about consort behavior that happens! Obviously they give out quests and run shops and provide information too, but these are much easier to code. Thoughts? Suggestions? Bitter disagreements you will fight me with until the end of the Earth? Let's hear 'em!

[The Cool]

So maybe we should make a list of potential Consort species?

Salamnders
Turtles
Crocodiles
Whatever Jade's are

for convenient reference this is what we have so far


Are we gonna have unique consorts for every player? Or wuld some of the trolls, for example, have shared consort types, simply because of how many players?

[immortius]

Eridan's consorts were angels apparently.

[Legendary]

There's actually some ambiguity there, along with Sollux and the brains. It's POSSIBLE they were consorts, it's possible that Lands can have two sentient species, one of which isn't meant to assist the player at all. In this case, I suggest that rather than desperately repeating the question to Andrew, we do whatever seems easier for us or at least funner for the player.

[Captain not a troll!]

[This post has been removed by the author]

[darkDetective]

I vote yay on the weasels, clowns, elves, and hogs!

Anyway, I suggest we make at least 16 different consort types, since we are planning on having the max chain be 16. We could make up to 32 if we want to, but I suggest those come in patches after release so we don't overwhelm ourselves.
I think the best way to do consorts is choose a random species that matches that chains type (aka one chain would have amphibians, another would have PS consorts, etc), and then assign a color to that consort depending on the player whose world it is in. The second part is optional though, since John's consorts have no real relevance in their color.
I don't think the blanket thing is totally necessary, though I do think that the consorts in each session should have some sort of quirk, like making a blanket cult, worshiping spoons, wearing buckets and other cleaning supplies as armor, and so on and so forth. The blanket thing would become old if it happened every time, but unique quirks would keep the denizens entertaining in their own right.
I don't think anyone should be able to command denizens to fight, I think that it would probably be better just to give general simple orders, such as "alchemize this with that" or "build the house higher". Denizens would actually be great for the second one, so you could just give that order and put a certain amount of grist toward it per day and the denizens would build as fast as they could with that grist. It would eliminate the need to sit there building the other persons house piece by piece all the way to the 7th gate (which is astronomically high, btw).
I do think you COULD order them to fight though, if you had a Tavros like power. I suggest that 1 player per session can have the power to order around denizens. Letting him order around imps too would just be too powerful, so I suggest we limit it to simply denizens.
Also I think each denizen type should have a distinct personality. Crocodiles will always be goddamn stupid, turtles will always be slow and easily scared, and weasels will always FLIP THE FUCK OUT!!!!

Other than all that I do like all your other ideas for denizens though! We shall continue to work on this, cause I see a lot of potential in denizens being important in an actual Sburb game. (rather in the kids game where they totally ignore them)