User-defined script Subgoal suggestions

[ceomoses]

I'm excited about the subgoals feature and plan on using it. I've been testing the functionality of the subgoals and thought I'd make a few suggestions, although I'm unsure on how easy or doable they'd be to implement.

1) I found the current subgoal system to be slightly linear, meaning first you accomplish goal 1, then goal 2, then goal 3, etc. I'd like it to be a more flexible, if possible.

Example of flexible subgoal system:

a) Start with 'subgoal 1'.
b) After completing 'subgoal 1', both 'subgoal 2' & 'subgoal 3' emerge.

That much is currently doable by setting the parent goals on subgoals 2 & 3 both to subgoal 1.

c) When completing either 'subgoal 2' OR 'subgoal 3', 'subgoal 4' emerges.
d) After completing both 'subgoal 2' AND 'subgoal 3', 'subgoal 5' emerges.

From my brief testing, I've found that (c) and (d) are not currently doable as the parent goal can only be set to a single subgoal. Attempts to add multiple parent goals result in only the bottom one listed taking effect.


2) Currently, if you have a COO/CTO/CMO expertise change reward that you want, but you currently do not employ that management member (perhaps asking salary is too high), but you accept that reward now (because there's another reward that you want to take effect immediately), you effectively forfeit that reward as hiring the management member afterwards doesn't still get you that reward.

Alternatively, if you do employ a senior management member because they have a particular expertise, you may want to forfeit a particular reward, but are unable to do so without forfeiting all rewards in that subgoal. Of course you could fire that senior management member, accept the reward, then rehire them, but that has other drawbacks.

Having the game remember that you earned that reward and immediately take effect when you do hire that senior management member would be nice for the first scenario and being able to have multiple areas of expertise for a single person would work for the second scenario. Besides, why would somebody forget how to be an expert at something just because they learned how to be an expert at something else?

[David]

c) When completing either 'subgoal 2' OR 'subgoal 3', 'subgoal 4' emerges.
d) After completing both 'subgoal 2' AND 'subgoal 3', 'subgoal 5' emerges.

Could you come up with some examples which require the script system to support 'OR' / 'AND' goals?

We may consider implementing this if it is useful enough.

[ceomoses]

Absolutely. I like doing "complete domination" and have been working on a script for it. Mine is still a work in progress and it would benefit from having the AND/OR parent goals.

The idea is to include as many aspects of the game as I can into one grand challenge, split up into stages. You start off as a small farmer, but as you complete stages, your player grows and grows until they dominate everything. The stages should get harder as you progress, but you get subgoal rewards along the way that reflect the experience you have gained from previous stages to help you.

One of the main critiques I had with this, was that the path to victory was too linear. For example, mine currently starts off with various leather goods (for me, that's the easiest way to start), then the 2nd level is farming. But other players may prefer to do farming first and then go to leather goods. So I'd like to have both subgoals available so the player can better choose their own path. (Ignoring that players could still do whatever they want despite subgoal conditions.) However, if you allow two subgoals to be available at one time, there's not an easy, aesthetically pleasing way to recombine the paths to make sure the player has completed all subgoals before the main goal is reached.

One of the problems is: Subgoals 1 & 2 are both available and can be completed in any order, but both must be completed to accomplish the main goal.

Now, I think you can actually accomplish this by rewriting all the goals listed in the subgoals in the main goal section, but it's not aesthetically pleasing when you look at the goals section during gameplay. You'd see subgoals 1 & 2 with a small list of things to do, but you'd also see the main goal and it's a huge list with all the goals rewritten on it. It just looks messy if you do that. The AND parent goal option would help remove this excess clutter.

Now for the OR parent goal option, my current stage 3 is various chemical products. I would like that to become available when either subgoal 1 or 2 are completed. This would allow for there to always be at least 2 subgoals available for the player to choose their own path to victory instead of saying you have to do this, then that, to be able to get here.

A different, but related issue I've come across is that there's currently no aesthetically pleasing way to ensure the player maintains previous subgoal conditions as they move on to future stages. For example, a player completes subgoals 1 & 2, they're working on subgoal 3, but during their work on subgoal 3, something happens and they no longer meet the conditions for subgoal 1. You could again rewrite previous victory conditions in future subgoals to achieve the desired effect, but it hurts the flexibility of what path the player chooses to victory and is not nice-looking; The goals section for future subgoals would just keep getting larger and larger. It would look cleaner if subgoal 1 would just show back up in the goals list if those conditions were no longer met--as to keep each subgoal section small. Of course, if you did that, you'd also have to make sure they wouldn't be able to double-dip on the subgoal rewards when reaccomplishing them.

I've included my work-in-progress script below, basically a rough draft. I haven't taken into account the latest beta yet. Most of the ideas I've been presenting have come from working on and testing this script and trust me, I have many more that I haven't mentioned yet. I'm wanting to fine-tune everything I can so it's challenging from start to finish before I "officially" publish it here. I still have a lot to do.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[HEADER]

Title=Total Domination
Description=Dominate all markets (except obsoletable ones) with max competitors and max cities.

[ENVIRONMENT]
Number of Cities=10
Your Start-up Capital=Moderate
Random Events=Occasional
Game Starting Year=1975
Retail Store Type=Many
Technology Disruption=No
Stock Market=Yes
Alternative Stock Sim=Yes
Macro Economy Realism=High
Inflation=Inverse
Inflation Strength=Normal
Number of AI Persons=63

[CITIES]
City=Ho Chi Minh City
Consumer Goods Seaports=1
Industrial Goods Seaports=1

[COMPETITORS]
Number of Competitors=30
Competitor Start-up Capital=Moderate
Competitor Aggressiveness=High
Competitor Expertise Level=Moderate
Show Competitor Trade Secrets=Yes
AI Friendly Merger=On
Competence of Local Competitors=High

[IMPORTS]

Consumer Goods Seaports=1
Industrial Goods Seaports=1
Constant Import Supply=No
Import Quality=Low

[PLAYER EXPERTISE]
Product Expertise=Leather Goods, 100

//-------------------------------------------------------

[SUBGOAL]
Goal Title=Leather Dominance
Goal Description=Get your start with products made of leather.

Goal Achieved Text=Congratulations! You have achieved your second subgoal.
Goal Failed Text=Sorry, you have failed your second subgoal.

Deadline=1990-01-01

[SUBGOAL PRODUCTS]
Apparel
Footwear
Furniture
Leather Goods

//[SUBGOAL REWARDS]
//Score change=100
//Player expertise change=farming, 20
//Player expertise change=retail, 20
//Player expertise change=manufacturing, 20
//Player expertise change=training, 20

//------------------------------------------------------

[SUBGOAL]
Goal Title=Farming Dominance
Goal Description=Dominate the entire farming industry.
Parent Goal=Leather Dominance

Goal Achieved Text=Congratulations! You have achieved your second subgoal.
Goal Failed Text=Sorry, you have failed your second subgoal.

[SUBGOAL INDUSTRIES]
Farming

[SUBGOAL PRODUCTS]
Beverage
Food
Livestock Products
Snacks
Tobacco Products

//[SUBGOAL REWARDS]
//Score change=200
//Player expertise change=farming, 40
//Player expertise change=manufacturing, 10
//Player expertise change=research and development, 20
//Player expertise change=marketing, 40


//------------------------------------------------------

[SUBGOAL]
Goal Title=Chemicals Dominance
Goal Description=Dominate the chemical industry
Parent Goal=Farming Dominance

Goal Achieved Text=Congratulations! You have achieved your second subgoal.
Goal Failed Text=Sorry, you have failed your second subgoal.

[SUBGOAL PRODUCTS]
Body Care Products
Cosmetics
Drugs
Household Products

//[SUBGOAL REWARDS]
//Player expertise change=research and development, 20
//Player expertise change=raw material production, 40

//------------------------------------------------------

[SUBGOAL]
Goal Title=Electronics Dominance
Goal Description=Dominate larger consumer products
Parent Goal=Chemicals Dominance

Goal Achieved Text=Congratulations! You have achieved your second subgoal.
Goal Failed Text=Sorry, you have failed your second subgoal.

[SUBGOAL PRODUCTS]
Toy
Computer
Electronic Products
Home Appliances

//[SUBGOAL REWARDS]
//Player expertise change=research and development, 20

//------------------------------------------------------
[SUBGOAL]
Goal Title=Consumer Products Dominance
Goal Description=Dominate small consumer products
Parent Goal=Electronics Dominance

Goal Achieved Text=Congratulations! You have achieved your second subgoal.
Goal Failed Text=Sorry, you have failed your second subgoal.

[SUBGOAL PRODUCTS]
Automobile
Jewelry
Sport Equipment
Watch

//[SUBGOAL REWARDS]
//Player expertise change=research and development, 20

//------------------------------------------------------

[MAIN GOAL]
Goal Title=Complete and Utter Domination
Goal Description=Pay attention to the subgoals in the top right.
Number of Game Years=100
Parent Goal=Consumer Products Dominance

[MAIN GOAL INDUSTRIES]
Retail
Manufacturing
Raw Material Production
Real Estate
Media