Progress update- fluid tanks and pipes (Patreon)

OKAY. SO. Modular fluid storage and transfer is operational! It's composed of a few parts:

• Tanks. They store fluid. These can be body parts (e.g. womb), literal tanks, toys with liquid storage, etc.
• Ports. They transfer fluid in/out of a tank (e.g. the stomach can input/output through the mouth or da bum). There can be any number of them on a tank. They can be dynamically linked and un-linked based on the situation.
• Pipes. Technically, these are just tanks with low storage capacity. Could be literal pipes, or something like the throat which functions as one. They can have any number of connections.
• Pressure. A tank/pipe that gets filled enough will build pressure inside. Fluid will flow when under pressure, and try to come out all ports.
• Flow. All tanks, pipes, and ports have flow limits. So like, the stomach accepts fluid from the throat easily, but coming up from the bowels (in the case of lots of fluid getting pumped into the butt) will go more slowly cause the port has higher resistance. Fluid will flow in the direction of the least resistance, which is based on pressure, pipe size, etc.

Got it working in-game on stream. Stream VODS are here. ('Videos' tab at the top.)

So, yeah! The hardest part is done for fluid storage and transfer. In game right now it looks like... well... this:

Fluid being added to the first tank is properly transferring throughout a linked system. It actually friggin works! Though it's, y'know, a text game right now.

There's actually more functionality in this than the player can use, since there aren't really modular tanks/pipes implemented... yet. 

>.>

So there are no visuals cause there's more to do. Gotta do some cleanup on small fluid amounts, add more sources of flow (e.g. pumping out, sucking in), make sure the system sorts flow priority properly, and hook up fluid exits (like, where it spills out of the body) so it works with the particle emitters.

The visuals themselves are actually the easiest part code-wise. I'll just hook up the fluid values to the animations for swelling bellies, filling tanks, etc, and the animation systems will do the rest. 

This week's goals were:

• Finish particles collisions code, which I didn't touch at all :(
• Finish all fluid handling code. Close! A few more pieces before we're done.
• Show fluid stuff off in-game. I don't think a text screenshot counts.

Honestly I sucked a bit on getting stuff done. The difficulty of doing the fluid code made it really hard to bite into. Once I finally did, it started moving pretty quickly. If I'd pushed a bit harder earlier on, I think I could've been done with the second goal already. But, this progress is still good to have :3

Goal for next week: All fluid mechanics done. 

That's all. ^^

Technical info on fluid system implementation:

It's not a realistic system physics-wise. It prioritizes gameplay needs instead.

The system goes from tank to tank, focusing only on forces causing fluid to flow out. It cycles through every port, and does two passes to figure out where to send the fluid- 

It tries a gentle, least-resistance path first. It starts with the port with the lowest resistance, and flows out until any amount of resistance is met. Then it'll do the same with the next port. Meaning a little will come out of every port if allowed. 

An example of this is a throat being filled with fluids by... something inside it, while the stomach is already full. The fluid will try to flow into the stomach, and out through the blocked entrance of the mouth. Some will probably spurt out in both directions, but since both directions have lots of resistance...

It does a high-pressure pass, where it forces its way through the available directions in order. This is still subject to flow limits. It'll fill the stomach as much as it can based on the stomach's flow input max. If that's not enough, the rest will force its way out around the blockage in the mouth and come spilling out as a last resort.

Technically, it'll also be pushing its way down into the bowels and out the other end. But the game only sees the current tank, and its immediate connections, so that happens separately.

The actual flow limits are highly tweakable, so I think this is a good compromise between realism and gameplay needs.

Q&A

Will spells like the "stretchier" spell affect max capacity for inflation?

I love this question. I got it during the stream. It strikes to the core of fun game design. If I'm doing things right, the answer is yes. 

The genius of the question is that it's asking about intersecting gameplay mechanics.

The Stretchier spell makes an orifice stretch to easily accommodate huge insertions. That deals with the penetration code. Max capacity for inflation is in the fluid storage code. But they're both dealing with the idea of how much you can stretch the character out. So there might be a core piece of data they both derive their values from. A stretchiness value that affects both (just for the sake of example).

Systems in this game should interact like that. It's just so much more fun. Writing the game mechanics to be modular is basically opening up the world of interconnecting systems like this.

So you're doing fluids... what about watersports? Assuming there's no ToS problems with this kind of content, then yes, this'll be added. It'll be optional though. 

Could we make a character wet themselves via tickling? Yep! Tickling and other high-intensity things will also make characters lose control of other bodily exits that are trying to hold fluids in.

What other fluids might there be? Eventually (not this update), I want to use fluids for a whole potion brewing idea that'll replace the Spells mechanic. So... a lot of bodily fluids, like sweat and tears, could be useful as ingredients for potions. Then you could feed the potion, as a fluid, to the character for different lewd effects. E.g. an aphrodisiac, or a TF potion, etc. I'll make a post about this and get community ideas before starting on it btw.

... and that's all for now!

I'm kinda flying by the seat of my pants when writing these posts. While I'm trying to get help writing them, I'm also terrible at utilizing that help. 

I still had trouble focusing this week, partially because the code was hard, and my brain was desperately trying not to let me look at it. I'm pretty frustrated about that lost time. It's hard to feel positive about anything when I can't do the one thing I'm trying my hardest to. Eyes forward, though. Next week will be better.

And, I'm still proud of getting through it anyway. The end result is looking nice so far. A truly functional fluid system has been a lewd game dream of mine for aaaages. So yay! Stuff is gettin' done! But I can and will keep trying to do better.

Thanks so much for following along! It's ridiculous how much y'all have supported this project. I'll keep doing my best! <3