Ren'Py Heavy Five [Ch.2RS] [Nottravis]

[frap]

...

By the way, now that your mad skillz finally surfaced, maybe you could also throw in a few wallpapers. The landing Vanny, for example, is a work of art

That it is... I may have already downloaded it and blown it up to screen size in Photoshop...

 

[Dripping]

Sadly I just can#t get rid of them. Built into a single bone asset and so nothing I can do about it unless I learn how to rip assets apart on a whole new level, so we're stuck with them.

However for game purposes they don't matter. No one makes manual landings...oh.....

If you happen to have Hexagon (They gave it away for free at some point. Maybe they still do. It should be in the DAZ store somewhere), then it's a matter of:

Spoiler

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Now you have a morph to hide those pesky railings.

 

[DA22]

My thoughts remain unchanged: DO NOT PAUSE YOUR PATREON PAGE! DO NOT STOP TAKING PATRON DONATIONS! We are supporting the artist, not hiring a contractor for piece-work. Sharing some of the remasters on Patreon for those patrons who aren't here (are there any ?) keeps interest up there (along with keeping other things up.)

If you feel you absolutely must do an extra BP for the Patrons, go for it. (I know you have the chops to put one of those out in no time at all, relatively speaking.) But for all the gods' sakes... DO NOT PAUSE YOUR PATREON PAGE! DO NOT STOP TAKING PATRON DONATIONS!

There, I've said my piece... you agonizingly stubborn woman! It's a good thing we love you so much, else we'd toss you into a skip!

If that was too harsh: here's a virtual boxx of Jaffa cakes, a fresh pot of virtual coffee and let me light that ciggie for you.

Very much this, I might have said it a little harsher and more threatening though, with more package of jaffa cakes and packages of ciggies as consolation. Guess I will have to be mean now though, Had wanted to wait till after the release of chapter 4. Also one last tip, as you already said doing all those re-renders will partly be a very boring job. So please make sure you also do a few fun things in-between, without feeling guilty. You having fun and taking care of yourself is way more important to me as a patron as having next release two or three days earlier or a week.

Edit: By the way Nottravis if you want to check what I mean by being mean just check your Patreon page, had to do it before u would possibly do something I might disagree with.

 

[frap]

If you happen to have Hexagon (They gave it away for free at some point. Maybe they still do. It should be in the DAZ store somewhere), then it's a matter of:

Spoiler

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Now you have a morph to hide those pesky railings.

I did something similar to bend the wheel of a bicycle - it took me around six hours and nine tries start to finish, but it works. And calling the interface clunky is being far too generous. I consider it more onerous than clunky. (Of course, that's probably just because I don't know what I'm doing!)

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

Wasn't too happy with that last render try so will park it for now.

Now then....

ON DATES....


So Four is finished as we know. Almost hit the end of August but the water stuff slowed me down a bit. But then came the remaster...

Now originally I was just going to do some of the Vanny interiors. the MC's room and the hallways which would have been around half of One, about a third of Two, a quarter of Three and, say, a tenth of Four. A lot of renders for sure but mostly fairly simple and not too demanding which meant I could do the end of September.

But, as a few of you suspected, once I started.....along came mission creep.

For example the landing scene in One I wasn't going to touch but you've seen the remaster of that yesterday. How can I possibly settle for what's currently there when I can make it look like that? Would you?

Same goes for the movement system, the character idents when speaking, Vanguard on approach, Sarah's room etc etc. It's the difference between night and day. So now I'm remastering approx all of One, most of Two, about half of Three and I'm having to redo a good third of Four (Sarah's, the Mc's bedroom plus hallways in case you were wondering). I'm too scared to count them all but well over 1,200 renders is my guess.

It's a lot of very unfun work. Remember I'm a writer not an artist so the thought of having to do that many renders, especially old ones, isn't a fun activity for me. But it simply has to be done as part of the launch of Four.

So how long and where does that leave us?

As to how long, I honestly don't know. On the upside a lot of the earlier renders were very simple in construct and so remastering them isn't taking that much render time. Certainly much less than when they were originally done with some taking around 15 minutes as opposed to the original hour. But certainly not September at any rate. Not now the workload has increased.

I was tempted to release Four to patrons regardless - but I have a pirate as a patron. I know, I know, I hang around with pirates all day so what's my beef....but bear with me.

The whole point of the remaster is when Four hits and the interest rises due to super-smut, new players see it in the new perfect glory and go wow - not meh. Of course existing players get the knock on effect of all the interiors, movement, char icons etc now looking much better too.

But there is little point in me doing all of this remastering in support of Four if a murkier version of Four will get released within the hour. It will be the murky version with all the unremastered work that does the rounds and so all this effort will have been pointless. And yes, it will happen. Three was released with a game breaking bug and, although I let everyone know within the hour and had it fixed pdq, some little scroat despite knowing this still decided to pirate and throw out the bugged version rather than waiting half a day and pirating the working version. So, if I release Four in it's current state that's the one everyone will see.

I don't want that to happen and so can't, and indeed won't, do that - so for once on here, piracy actually isn't your friend...

So what am I going to do?

I haven't entirely decided. I obvs need to make a call and let Patrons know asap for sure but I have a little while yet - but sooner rather than better for a host of reasons not least of all the value for money angle for them.

My current thoughts are very much to freeze the patron page, crack on with the work and unfreeze it when it's done. No one can deny I'm not working on the game of course (indeed arguably harder than ever before) but given that a lot of what I'm doing is in respect to older content, it's debatable how much benefit patrons get from this.

I'm also minded to release "Bored Pilot" to all current patrons this month as a separate download just so they'll have got something for the money this month. Of course they'll have to be a new BP for Four (oh the shame!) and McGruders one will also hit the PDA at the same time so the collection remains complete in game of course.

Anyhoo, I'll just leave this here for now. I welcome your thoughts as always before I make up my mind.

Thank you for a detailed account of what's going on!

I've said from the start (for clarification, the start is when I first became a supporter) that I'm supporting you as a creator. I don't expect a release every month or even every other month. You'll have my support until I get hit by a flying LGM or Annie tries to kill me with a cannon (again). Or... the extremely unlikely event that you disappear for 3-6 months with no communication at all. If you want to pause your Patreon page, why don't you put up a poll asking what your supporters think?

If you do pause the page, that is completely your decision of course. I'll just up my pledge for the following month.

If you don't do the remaster now, when you do want to do it later on it'll only take longer and delay stuff even more, my vote (if I even have one) is to do everything you can now, even if it takes us into October and beyond.

PS I'm all for a BP, should it become necessary!

PPS I know we're all pirates here, but scrotes like the one that released the buggy CH3 deserve everything Chris can throw at them, and maybe shut into a certain cave with a family of spiders!

 

[Dripping]

I did something similar to bend the wheel of a bicycle - it took me around six hours and nine tries start to finish, but it works. And calling the interface clunky is being far too generous. I consider it more onerous than clunky. (Of course, that's probably just because I don't know what I'm doing!)

My REAL thoughts about Hexagon's interface would've earned me a ban for explitive language even on this site.

 

[Akamari]

For example the landing scene in One I wasn't going to touch but you've seen the remaster of that yesterday. How can I possibly settle for what's currently there when I can make it look like that? Would you?

Same goes for the movement system, the character idents when speaking, Vanguard on approach, Sarah's room etc etc. It's the difference between night and day. So now I'm remastering approx all of One, most of Two, about half of Three and I'm having to redo a good third of Four (Sarah's, the Mc's bedroom plus hallways in case you were wondering). I'm too scared to count them all but well over 1,200 renders is my guess.

My thoughts are as follows. Remaster the shit out of it until you are happy with it.

Chapter Four is a big release that can approach wider audience. It's a sound strategy to bring the older chapters up to speed in terms of render quality and unify it visually. Let's face it, the patrons numbers have been stagnant for a while. It's the 17th September and and the support is nearly at the same level as on the 1st of August. I expected it would keep growing in August, but sadly it didn't. So, in my mind it's clear the interest needs to be reinvigorated. There's hardly a better way to do it then landing spectacularly in a cloud of dust.

It's a lot of very unfun work. Remember I'm a writer not an artist so the thought of having to do that many renders, especially old ones, isn't a fun activity for me. But it simply has to be done as part of the launch of Four.

Maybe time to plot the Scarlet Pirate game (or *wink* *wink* expand H5 a bit) while the renders are cracking? I hope you will have a good time in spite of doing so many re-renders.

But there is little point in me doing all of this remastering in support of Four if a murkier version of Four will get released within the hour. It will be the murky version with all the unremastered work that does the rounds and so all this effort will have been pointless. And yes, it will happen. Three was released with a game breaking bug and, although I let everyone know within the hour and had it fixed pdq, some little scroat despite knowing this still decided to pirate and throw out the bugged version rather than waiting half a day and pirating the working version. So, if I release Four in it's current state that's the one everyone will see.

I don't want that to happen and so can't, and indeed won't, do that - so for once on here, piracy actually isn't your friend...

I totally agree. If Chapter Four got leaked early, the number of people who would try the remaster just for better graphics wouldn't be high and the effect would be lost.

My current thoughts are very much to freeze the patron page, crack on with the work and unfreeze it when it's done. No one can deny I'm not working on the game of course (indeed arguably harder than ever before) but given that a lot of what I'm doing is in respect to older content, it's debatable how much benefit patrons get from this.

As you know, I'm against this. If people want to pause patronage let it be their choice not yours. They are adults enough to make the decision for themselves. All you have to do is be as informative as you always are.

I'm also minded to release "Bored Pilot" to all current patrons this month as a separate download just so they'll have got something for the money this month. Of course they'll have to be a new BP for Four (oh the shame!) and McGruders one will also hit the PDA at the same time so the collection remains complete in game of course.

Heh, without meaning to brag, I did make a suggestion of having an off-month BP available to patrons as a bonus, so naturally I fully support this. I've said this many times, but BP is fantastic! Defo a nice thing to entertain ourselves with while we wait.

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

My thoughts are as follows. Remaster the shit out of it until you are happy with it.

Yep, totes this!

As you know, I'm against this. If people want to pause patronage let it be their choice not yours. They are adults enough to make the decision for themselves. All you have to do is be as informative as you always are.

Yep, totes this too!

Heh, without meaning to brag, I did make a suggestion of having an off-month BP available to patrons as a bonus, so naturally I fully support this. I've said this many times, but BP is fantastic! Defo a nice thing to entertain ourselves with while we wait.

I made this suggestion too! I don't remember if it was here or on Patreon, but I recommended releasing it as a PDF as an extra bonus or something.

 

[Akamari]

That it is... I may have already downloaded it and blown it up to screen size in Photoshop...

Hmm... I haven't thought of that. (Very) oddly enough, I have a collection of aircraft photos and art I use on rotation as wallpapers. That render is, even though it's fictional, a worthy addition.

 

[Akamari]

I made this suggestion too! I don't remember if it was here or on Patreon, but I recommended releasing it as a PDF as an extra bonus or something.

OK OK, I admit your suggestion inspired me to expand on it. I actually did present it as such, so don't think I just stole it without dues (back then). ...so let's call that a team effort?

 

[Huitieme]

As you know, I'm against this. If people want to pause patronage let it be their choice not yours. They are adults enough to make the decision for themselves. All you have to do is be as informative as you always are.

Re: pausing the Patreon page, I wouldn't advocate in any way, since as Akamari pointed it, pledgers are adults and it's their prerogative to pause or not the pledges, but as a dev myself (hu hu hu), I understand where you're coming from.

For those who don't know, I decided not to activate the pledges on my patreon page until chapter 1 is out, because I knew it would take a lot of time and didn't want to deal with self-culpability as well as potential accusations of milking. The amount I would get is nothing compared to Notty's pledges, but it's a necessary price for peace of mind, either from external or internal reasons.

So if you think pausing the Patreon would help you feel better, follow your heart. But as said a lot of time, I wouldn't recommend it. The best solution, if you really feel guilty, would be to warn your patrons and they may remove/adapt their pledge in consequence.

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

OK OK, I admit your suggestion inspired me to expand on it. I actually did present it as such, so don't think I just stole it without dues (back then). ...so let's call that a team effort?

I can live with that! especially if it happens!

 

[Sulring Durgul]

My thoughts remain unchanged: DO NOT PAUSE YOUR PATREON PAGE! DO NOT STOP TAKING PATRON DONATIONS! We are supporting the artist, not hiring a contractor for piece-work. Sharing some of the remasters on Patreon for those patrons who aren't here (are there any ?) keeps interest up there (along with keeping other things up.)
If you feel you absolutely must do an extra BP for the Patrons, go for it. (I know you have the chops to put one of those out in no time at all, relatively speaking.) But for all the gods' sakes... DO NOT PAUSE YOUR PATREON PAGE! DO NOT STOP TAKING PATRON DONATIONS!

There, I've said my piece... you agonizingly stubborn woman! It's a good thing we love you so much, else we'd toss you into a skip!

My thoughts are as follows. Remaster the shit out of it until you are happy with it.
Chapter Four is a big release that can approach wider audience. It's a sound strategy to bring the older chapters up to speed in terms of render quality and unify it visually.
As you know, I'm against this. If people want to pause patronage let it be their choice not yours. They are adults enough to make the decision for themselves. All you have to do is be as informative as you always are.
Heh, without meaning to brag, I did make a suggestion of having an off-month BP available to patrons as a bonus, so naturally I fully support this. I've said this many times, but BP is fantastic! Defo a nice thing to entertain ourselves with while we wait.

^ This ! Totally agree with Frap and Akamari: no Patreon pause while you remaster, and give us a BP magazine to read while we wait!

 

[Nottravis]

Guys, I'm staying quiet whilst you all have your say on this, but in the meantime...

By the way, now that your mad skillz finally surfaced, maybe you could also throw in a few wallpapers. The landing Vanny, for example, is a work of art

That it is... I may have already downloaded it and blown it up to screen size in Photoshop...

Spoiler: 4K version if that helps.

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[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

Guys, I'm staying quiet whilst you all have your say on this, but in the meantime...

Spoiler: 4K version if that helps.

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Oh, it most definitely does, thank you!

 

[PJWhoopie]

ok... but after this, no more "Remastering" till after chapter 7!


methinks you are a perfectionist, whose artist potential even now isn't fully realized

 

[somebodynobody]

My opinion as probably the most critical regular of this thread.

You shouldn't pause your page. Patreon is about being a patron of the creator and not paying for the product. That would fall more in kickstarter or those other backer/share ownership type sites.

You should be up front with your patrons and tell them basically what you said to us, minus the whole pirate thing, and give them a couple of your best changed images, and that extra BP you mentioned. If you have not you may want to mention if you ever get that super pc and the final re-render with the additional MC choice.

Pausing your page hurts the income to get that new PC to speed everything up, but also some people will probably leave anyways, instead of maybe a small drop in patron money influx you kick yourself harder by getting none. Financially a bad move for both you and the game, and purchase of jaffa cakes/cigs.

Now other than that I will nitpick the image as I normally do. Other than the hand rails I joked about, isn't the dust a bit on the dark side? Looks much closer to smoke than kicked up landing dust (the portion closest to the Vanguard) especially since the dust is so light in color in the rest of the image.

 

[Nottravis]

My opinion as probably the most critical regular of this thread.

You shouldn't pause your page. Patreon is about being a patron of the creator and not paying for the product. That would fall more in kickstarter or those other backer/share ownership type sites.

You should be up front with your patrons and tell them basically what you said to us, minus the whole pirate thing, and give them a couple of your best changed images, and that extra BP you mentioned. If you have not you may want to mention if you ever get that super pc and the final re-render with the additional MC choice.

Pausing your page hurts the income to get that new PC to speed everything up, but also some people will probably leave anyways, instead of maybe a small drop in patron money influx you kick yourself harder by getting none. Financially a bad move for both you and the game, and purchase of jaffa cakes/cigs.

Now other than that I will nitpick the image as I normally do. Other than the hand rails I joked about, isn't the dust a bit on the dark side? Looks much closer to smoke than kicked up landing dust (the portion closest to the Vanguard) especially since the dust is so light in color in the rest of the image.

Oooh. A bit I'll answer (not touching the patreon thingy just yet so more can have an opinion).

Nice spot on the vanny pic but delib choice on the colours. So dust at the bottom but exhaust venting at the top where the engines lay which I figured would be darker.

 

[noname777]

Now originally I was just going to do some of the Vanny interiors. the MC's room and the hallways which would have been around half of One, about a third of Two, a quarter of Three and, say, a tenth of Four. A lot of renders for sure but mostly fairly simple and not too demanding which meant I could do the end of September.

(...)

As to how long, I honestly don't know. On the upside a lot of the earlier renders were very simple in construct and so remastering them isn't taking that much render time. Certainly much less than when they were originally done with some taking around 15 minutes as opposed to the original hour. But certainly not September at any rate. Not now the workload has increased.

To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed. Originally Chapter 4 was planned for July (well, it should be April according to the very first statement) and now it turns out that it will be released in October at the earliest.
At this rate, I don't think the game will be completed before 2021.

 

[Akamari]

To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed. Originally Chapter 4 was planned for July (well, it should be April according to the very first statement) and now it turns out that it will be released in October at the earliest.
At this rate, I don't think the game will be completed before 2021.

You really should pay attention to the circumstances. There won't be a remaster every time obviously and I thought you knew by now what happened in spring. No offence, but I don't understand why do you dwell on the early "estimates" so much.

If you want a release rate, you should look roughly at two months release period going forward. Chapter Four is completed. It took about six to seven weeks to produce.