Outfit switching (Patreon)

Hey everyone,

So got some cool stuff working.

As I was talking about last week I wanted to see if you could "change" another characters outfit. This was actually pretty successful.

So actually changing a character outfit wasn't all that complex obviously but the cool part is I managed to integrate it into the save game system. So now I can tag a specific NPC with a specific ID that will save and load as you play.

So this makes NPC outfit changes permanent. Currently the plan is to make this something you can do with important or core game characters like relationship characters ext. However, there is no reason why I couldn't get something similar working on random NPC's but I'm not sure it would be that worth while. But if it's something people want I could upgrade that.

But the system is working which is the good news. I also started work on the next system that is related. I mentioned last week that the game currently doesn't let you "use" a specific item on another character. You can just talk with another character you can't actually give them something.

The code for quests currently just checks your inventory and removes the item needed. But if you want to use a specific like dress on another character you need to be able to select it.

A couple weeks ago someone mentioned the mechanic of "holding" items. In the game there are certain items you can hold. Like the torch or diapers. I didn't have much use for the holding system except for a few key areas.

I don't have the visuals working yet but in that short GIF I'm actually holding the dress item and when talking with a character it can now recognize what your holding. The character can then run logic based on what you are holding when talking with them.

My idea is to make every item in the game something you can hold and walk with. Using a generic holding animation set similar to holding diapers. For most items you'll "hold" a version of the GUI icon.  Which in most cases will look fine. Items like vehicles and any item that already has a 3D version you will use that.

With any luck I should have the full ability to hold items and use them on characters for new interactions working by next week.

I don't plan on returning to the old quests and update them to use the holding item system. The existing game works fine and technically if you choose to hold the item when returning a quest item it will work as expected anyway.

This has the obvious down side of making some things a little more complex for certain events. So I wouldn't expect it to be a huge feature other than in a few key areas.

That's all for now. Obviously this is a pretty big upgrade to how you interact with the game so I'm going to get back to work!