Platform Randomiser
Bored of the Playsystem 2 almost always being the right choice over the Gamesphere? Want to play a game where it was the TES that flopped? What would it be like if mature gamers flocked to the Gameling? This mod for Game Dev Tycoon randomises the success or failure of different consoles within the game. It can be configured to affect multiple aspects of a console’s success including it’s sales, lifespan, and what kind of audience it manages to attract.
Features
- Randomise Launch Sales
- Randomise Lifetime Sales
- Randomise the Lifespan of consoles - Will the Dreamvast outlast the Playsystem 2?
- Randomise Console Audiences - Does the Gameling attract the mature audience? Do RPG fans flock to the OYA?
- Choose which options you want to enable per save file.
Installation
The version number is 0.0.4 for a reason. While it will randomise your consoles, expect everything to be potentially broken. I’d advise not loading any important save files with the mod loaded, and instead disable the mod, restart the game, and then load your important save files. With that said, here you go:
- Download the mod from Bitbucket and unzip it inside your mods
directory for Game Dev Tycoon. - Launch Game Dev Tycoon
- Open the Mods menu.
- Enable the mod API and this mod by clicking on them.
- It is recommended you start a new game to use the randomiser, though it may work on existing save files.
- If the mod doesn’t work for you, please let me know. If you can also get a copy of your error logs (available in
C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/userdata/<random numbers>/239820/remote/slot_errorlogsfor Steam copies) and send it to me, that would be useful, but if you are unable to find this file, then a screenshot of the error might do, depending on the problem.
Usage
Whenever you load up a save file that the mod hasn’t seen before, or start a new game (and complete/skip the tutorial), the mod will pop up a notification asking you if you want to enable the randomiser for that save. If you select no, the randomiser will leave that save alone. If you select yes, the randomiser will display the options menu to allow you to choose what to randomise for that save file. Close the options menu when you’re done, and the platforms will be randomise for that save file.
It is recommended that you leave the option to exempt PC enabled, to prevent the (admittedly rare) situation where you are left with no platforms to develop for.
If you start a new game with the Randomiser, then I strongly suggest you skip the tutorial because the event to start the randomiser cannot happen before the tutorial completes, which could be a while into the game.
Mod compatibility
The randomiser should work with other mods which add new platforms, however compatibility is not guaranteed. When the mod is more complete, I will focus more on compatibility.
Limitations
- The current version of the mod only randomises the stats of consoles, it doesn’t do anything with the events associated with the consoles. This can cause issues where the game proclaims a console to be a huge success because the event to pop up the message still exists, whereas the randomiser actually turned the console into a huge flop.
- The above limitation applies to mods even more so.
- The current version is almost completely random, which means it can generate silly results like early consoles selling 2 million on launch day, or entire console generations failing. If you turn off the option to exempt the PC from randomisation, then bad luck could leave you with no surviving consoles by the end of the game.
Future Features
- More plausible generation, along with matching events. The default events announcing success or failure of a console will be removed and replaced with versions determined when the console is randomised. As well as that, an attempt will be made to simulate an evolution of a console so you can get consoles that launch poorly (due to a lack of games for example) but later become successful, or consoles that launch strong but don’t follow it up. There will be matching events explaining these occurrences.
- Ability to write compatibility mods. This will allow people to write simple mods to allow their favourite mods to be randomised, or to have less variable results, for example by allowing them to declare which events are explaining console successes/failures and allowing them to be replaced, or writing console specific flavour text for different types of successes or failures.
Maybe
- Megahits influencing console sales (idea from @wiedemax). If you release a title that’s very successful on one platform (like GTA 3 or FF7), it might increase the userbase. Something like this would probably be better as a standalone mod, so it could be used without the randomiser.
- Generate new consoles randomly (idea from @Drakiren)
Known Bugs
- Later PC graphics are probably broken.
Changelog
0.0.5
- Fix Genre and Audience weightings option ignoring the GUI setting.
0.0.4
- Fixed a second issue that would occur when running a game that had not previously run under 0.0.1
0.0.3
- Fix new game creation which was broken by the 0.0.2 update.
0.0.2
- Fixed settings transferring across save files.
- Name changed from Console Randomiser to Platform Randomiser
- Fixed mod link being incorrect.
License
Will probably be LGPL when I make my mind up.
At the moment though, all rights reserved, except:
(a) for those granted to Green Heart Games through the modding agreement.
(b) You may include this in any modpack, provided you link to this thread in your modpack’s description.
But for the meantime, since the PC is exempt and disabling that is not a good idea (it could leave you with no platforms to develop for), it’s just consoles. When I change it to make sure there’s multiple concurrent platforms, I’ll change the name here.
Will update official mod list.