outfit randomization

[ThePotatoGuy]

UPDATE: Adding high priority label, this should be done after base-separation

Outfits should now have randomization options. (aka, monika should pick what she wants to wear each day.)
This should also affect hair and certain ACS (like ribbons, and later rings).

Can use #3377 to signify which outfits can be picked by Monika

This will not be purely random. The following factors may be considered in the final product:

• seasonal clothes
• month
• staleness - how long monika has been wearing the same thing straight
• user selections - which outfits users select in wardrobe
• pool topic outfit opinions - pool topics where you can say "I like your outfit" or "i dont like ur outfit"

pre-reqs:

• JSONify sprite objects #3416 - needed to make adding new outfits seamless
• opendoor should stop resettting outfits. Could replace the table/chair line with "let me change into something more comfortable"

weighting considerations in detail

weighting basics

This will be governed by a summation weighting system. Weights are summed with all outfits, and an outift's piece of the total sum acts as its percentage.

Each outfit will have a base weight per season, as well as a base weight per month. Base weights for season and month are added together when doing the main calcuations. This weight can be adjusted by user selection and how long monika wears it, but the outfit will always naturally tend to the base weight. (Except for cases where the user does not like the outfit. See below)

For a season, 2500 should be the base weight. range is [0, 5000]
For a month, 2500 should be the base weight. range is [0, 5000]
For a user-based thing, 0 will be the base weight. this is the only weight that can be negative. Range is [-10k, 10k]
The goal of the values here means that if you really dont like an outfit, you can erase it from being shown completely with the -10k of bad weighting. However, month+season weight determines availability of an outfit. If this sums to 0, the outfit cannot be monika-selected regardless the user weight.
NOTE no reasoning behind this, i just picked numbers that kind of work. The scales could easily be reduced if the potential point adjustments seem not useful. especially considering the stale/freshness values.

weight adjustments

The current weight of an outfit can be modified based on user habits. The base weights are never modified. Weight offsets are tracked, saved, and reapplied on startup.

user selection

User selection (via change clothes topic) increases the user weight of an outfit by 10 per hour for the first 8 hours after the selection. (leads to a maximum of 80 weight - 0.8% gained when a user selects an outfit). This prevents users from spamming selections to artificially increase weight, since the weighting is based on time after selection. Weight is only gained while the mod is open.

staleness

User weight is reduced by 2 per hour (after the first 8 hours). This corresponds to losing all weight gained by user selection exactly 48 hours after initially selecting the outfit. Weight will continue to reduce by 2 per hour until effective weight is 0 or the outfit is taken off. Weight reduction occurs even while the game is off (except in special circumstances, see below).

freshness

An outfit that is not worn will increase in user weight by 1 per 2 hours until it reaches 0 user weight.

outfit selection

Everytime Monika selects an outfit:

1. weighting value for every outfit with a non-zero weighting for the season is summed.
2. each outfit is given a range of that total weight based on its weight.
3. random number from 1 to that sum is selected
4. the outfit with the range that contains that number is selected.

Considerations for outfit selection:

• should outfits be selected at specific times?
• should outfits have a minimum amount of time worn?
• should user-selected outfits override monika-selections for a period of time? (I think yes, but then how long?)

For some of the above, I've thought about 8 hours being a long enough amount of time to prevent monika-selections after an outfit selection.

outfit opinions

Pool topics can be used to tell monika if you like or dont like something.
Some considerations:

two options (I like or I dont like)

This is simple, but prevents us from having nuances when adjusting weights. To make this work, we'd probably have to make weight adjustment a blanket amount like 100+-, which might be too rough and make the system too gameable.

5 (or 4) options (strongly like, sightly like, neutral, slightly dontlike, strongly dont like)

The 5 point scale is a decent mix between simple categories and having enough options. This could give us a wide scale for handling nuances, we can attach different weight gains/losses based on the selected choices.

Neutral, however, is kind of pointless here. If we do use this scale, I would probably remove neutral so it becomes a 4-point scale.

Potential values:

• strongly like = +100
• slightly like = +30
• slightly dont like = -30
• strongly dont like = -100

However, there is an issue with this. There's been studies on test questions, and its been discovered that 4/5-point scales are really bad in comparison to 10-point scales.

10 options (Rate from 1-10)

The 10-point scale has been proven to be best scale for capturing exactly how people feel about things. we could definitely get the best nuances and weight adjustment by using this scale.

Potential values:

• 10 - +100
• 9 - + 80
• 8 - + 60
• 7 - + 40
• 6 - +20
• 5 - -20
• 4 - -40
• 3 - -60
• 2 - -80
• 1 - -100

NOTE: all numbers selected above are arbitrary. Actual weighting adjustments can be discussed.

These pool questions will only be available once per selection per day. This is to prevent spamming to increase/reduce chances of an outfit being selected.

affected items

Generally, clothes will be the main target of randomization. Hair and ACS can be included, but each potential selection adds significant overhead in the selection alg.

ACS will not be included in randomization at this time
Only clothes and hair will change, clothes willl not change as outfits, but hair will take off ACS as necessary.

Consideration:
Since outfit_mode flag is a thing, perhaps this should only be limited to clothes (and probably hair)? and then we just assume outfit mode when changing clothes?

technical

implementation will likely be wrapper classes around MASSpriteBase objects, similar to selectables.
JSON support will be added, with a default (base value 5k) randomization option.

example of weighting system and selection

lets say its currently summer in july.

lets say we have these clothes:

• uniform - 1000 weight in july, 500 weight in summer, 200 user-based - 1700 total weight
• blazerless - 1000 weight in july, 2500 weight in summer, 400 user-based - 3900 total weight
• sundress - 3000 weight in july, 3000 weight in summer, 300 user-baesd - 6300 total weigtht

The weights are summed: 11900 total weight.

Each clothes is given a range:

• uniform - 1-1700
• blazerless - 1701- 5600
• sundress - 5601-11900

A random number is selected from 1 to 11900
Lets say its 5673.

That means sundress has been selected.

[Buy1Get1]

I'm sure you've got something in mind already, but here's what It sounds like to me:
Sounds like this, but with images.
import random
import NOUN # maybe an import os that is used in a similar fashion?
NOUN = ('Dog','Tree','Ground','Sky','Color','Breeze','Field','Water','Building','Car')
A_Noun = random.choice(NOUN)
print("The {0} is a noun".format(A_Noun))
print(A_Noun)
You'd just drop the clothes into the variable spot for the day.

[Rai99]

Will Monika be choosing a randomized outfit each and every day? I think it might be a bit weird to have Monika wear wildly different outfits every day, and I personally think it's just a little hurtful to ask Monika to wear something specific and then have her change it the very next day.

I was hoping for some kind of weighting system where Monika would heavily favor outfits you chose for her. Maybe something like every week, she has a chance to change outfits but has a 70% chance to keep the outfit you chose for her. Maybe even ask if the player minds her outfit change and revert back if they say they want her to keep the old outfit.

[ThePotatoGuy]

I've already had seasonal variance in mind, but I've added some additional considerations including user selection above.

[jmwall24]

I would say we want to limit the amount of clothes changes unless there's a reason for it. Like whatever she picks to start the day, I'd leave there unless say it starts snowing and she wants to put something warmer on, or if you take her on a date and she wants to dress up. Or like if/when we get PJs or the like, she could change into that at night, wear em in the morning, then pick an outfit for the day and stick to that until there's a reason to change. But for normal circumstances, I'd say one normal outfit per day.

As for user-selected outfits, probably the same deal. If you have her wear something 'normal' keep it for the day, again unless there's a circumstance that would make it necessary to change. I'd say no matter what, she won't change for say an hour after you have her change, so if you want her to wear something specific for a date, she won't change. For things like swimsuits, that I could see her changing out of more quickly and maybe only wear for a few hours.

As for seasonal, I think seasonal is fine, not sure we need to break it down by month.

[ThePotatoGuy]

month is probably necessary for holiday-themed outfits.

[jmwall24]

well, I figured that was given and handled by the specific holiday code, like in d25 mode eg.

[ThePotatoGuy]

actually i removed the blurb about seasonals. It's already mentioned with the weighting system, basically you can assign a base weight for a season and month, then that gets summed with the user-determined weight and that gets put into the selection system.

[jmwall24]

As for seasonal changes, how about a transition period. like 2 weeks before a new season, we start slowly increasing the odds for the new season's clothes to be worn and then have that increase continue until 2 weeks after the season starts. that way it's not from all sundresses to a coat in one day. You get that feeling that the weather is slowly changing, with some warm days and some cooler days.