Oo, can I take it from the question that you’re making progress?
This is my first post here and i just want to say this game is one of my ultimate favourites, and i cant wait to see more! Its a fairly simple concept but with a lot of detail, but I love that I dont get 100% control of things. Ive seen a lot of complaints about characters going against what we control them to do, but that makes it much more interesting then just telling them to eat 24/7 without any challenge. I love seeing the repeat NPCs and seeing them change too, as well as their opinions on our character.
Eagerly awaiting an update and keep up the good work 
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Excited at the prospect of more of this game but in the meantime, I might start another playthrough on what we already have.
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So I had a stray thought today. Before getting to it just to avoid any confusion I want to be clear Project Bob is Dead, i will not be working on it as you see it.
With that said just like any project of mine they usually spur branching spin off ideas. I have been relearning html and css, since the last time I messed with it was in 2010, specifically making web pages with the python bottle module. In doing so I realized while its not possible to have python handle large number of npcs like in project bob, it would totally work with all human players. And it would probably be easiest if the game was a dynamic web page, using the python bottle module.
So, while I am most defiantly not committing to anything, what would be the interest in a MMO web version of project bob? Main concern is having enough players play at once.
- Sounds cool, I would play.
- Not for me.
0 voters
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Well color me supriesed by the results so far, i was not expecting almost a 50/50 split. I thought more would want to try their hand at stuffing others or getting stuffed by others.
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Do you have any further information on how exactly it would work or how it would be similar to Project Bob?
Shame about the project, I thought it could really be something with a proper update, but the choice is ultimately in your hands and if this is what you want to do then so be it
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At the moment im imagining much the same game, the difference being a real person on their computer would be controling the other character. I guess the biggest change i think people would like is the fact that since were a community of fat loving people i think it would solve most peoples complaint about runing into skinny loving npcs.
There are many many many unreleased versions of Project Bob as i iterated on making the ai work, and between working on the ai, i worked on many other things as a breather. Unfortunately the game needed more computational power than what one thread can do. And a 5min minimum turn wait for the ai is just not very fun. The game has progressed along way from the version posted. If ideas for morphing this game into another one, are like horses, then this is just one of many horses, some unlike this one have already left the stable. Which horse will win the race, idk.
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I have tried mmo style fetish games before and haven’t found the experience that worth the time investment given the amount of free time I have for it.
I would maybe try it if the game was really fleshed out, but that kind of thing takes a while.
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To be frank if the AI was such a big issue, it might just be reasonable to cut down how many characters are generated. At least 95% of the characters “met” in a playthrough of the current version end up being completely irrelevant and only serve to take up processing power. A lot could be cut down code-wise without sacrificing any gameplay.
If the decision’s been made though I guess I can respect that.
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They were irrelevant and unneeded because they did not impact the simulation because they were mannequins. They did not hold any limited number of job positions nor did they do anything. The intention was that once they can play, you have to complete with them for housing and jobs making it more of a simulation rather than just, mannequins for the player to interact with, which is what they were in version 1.4.2. They consumed no processing power which is why 1.4.2 works with 10,000 of them. All 1.4.2 has to do is pick which ones you saw at a location. I think your missing my goal which is that if a npc or human player held one of the 5 ceo jobs in the city that you then could not have or do that job. Same with limited number of nicer housing.
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I feel like you can accomplish that with only a few hundred NPCs regardless, if even that.
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Think of the Sims series. How many npc sims does a person interact with during the lifetime of one sim? Having most NPCs act as mannequins is perfectly fine; details are only necessary for the characters the player chooses to interact with more frequently. Odds are it’s less than like 20, let alone 2000. Even with a game like say, Free Cities where you can theoretically end up with a massive number of player-controlled NPCs, I always find myself self-limiting just so I don’t have to worry about micromanaging all of them.
It’s one of the little tricks in game development. Everyone talks about how immersive certain games are yet there might only be a tiny fraction of NPCs with actually unique features - saving greatly on development time and cost.
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Hey, stoppin’ by to say hi and ask a question. This may be against the rules, don’t know if it technically counts as asking for updates, but are there any functional versions that you made after 1.4.2 that you’d mind letting people try out?
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I’ve been working on a version with a bunch of fixes, tweaks, and QoL improvements for my own personal use. Obviously I can’t just release it, but it exists.
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How much progress have you made? If you can get in contact with the developer, you could probably release it publicly if you’re interested in that. I personally like this game conceptually so I would be interested in your version.
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I’m on board with this idea…
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Very excited for this 
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As far as I know there’s nothing that forbids you from making and releasing fan-forks of sorts!
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Publicly releasing an altered version of a developers without their consent is definitely not the thing you want to do. If the dev had an issue with it after it was posted it would be removed from the site.
There’s a difference between fan inspired work and altering the original game without permission. Any fan inspired alternative games I’ve seen on the site either have permission or the dev isn’t around to have an issue with it. And atleast trying to get in contact with the dev should be done.
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