VN Ren'Py A Wife and Mother [v0.201] [Lust & Passion]

[Jude6]

... Let's not forget the eliminated Twist. The initial script of the game was quite twisted ...

Clearly I've forgotten things - what was the more twisted version of the game early on?

Although you did also remind me, the early version of this game had Liam as a dual-protagonist.
I don't know how early into development L&P scrapped that idea so who knows what affect it had on subsequent story-lines, but I can image how the dual-viewpoint dynamic would have played out, likely switching back and forth each day, you play the day as Sophia then replay the same day as Liam.

It lends weight to the idea that xxxorro put forward about Liam secretly offering his wife as collateral, if you play the day of the Casino from Sophia's perspective, find out about the debt for a nice big 'Oh no!' moment - then replay the evening from Liam's perspective to deliver an even bigger 'OH NO!'

Having said that, it would be a pretty massive turn for Liam as a character - so doubtful.
At worst so far Liam has only really been depicted as neglectful and insensitive.

 

[Dr.SigmundFap]

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Well, let's say that the "not so good" news for you will turn into much better news for you shortly afterwards.
So, the "not so good" news for you are that I will have a post-correction surgery (of the surgery in Korea last year) on Wednesday this week. But it will take place in Germany, so I will already be back home one day after. This means I won't be able to work only Tue, Wed and Thu. So here we come to the good news. I got all my things done the last days/weeks, so that I won't even leave my apartment for min. 3-4 weeks after the surgery. And I also didn't plan anything for April, May, June and July. So, I will focus all my time on the game which will be more than the weeks before! Or more precisely: around 11 working hours per day Mon-Sun.

What's already done?

I finished the first two side job events. The 1st one has 123 renders and the 2nd one around 222.
So, only two bigger events left. I don't count the Liam and the Dylan/Emma events, because they're too small. I'll start working on the next event (Aiden) on Friday and try to release a first teaser of it this weekend.

 

[Lederzar]

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Well, let's say that the "not so good" news for you will turn into much better news for you shortly afterwards.
So, the "not so good" news for you are that I will have a post-correction surgery (of the surgery in Korea last year) on Wednesday this week. But it will take place in Germany, so I will already be back home one day after. This means I won't be able to work only Tue, Wed and Thu. So here we come to the good news. I got all my things done the last days/weeks, so that I won't even leave my apartment for min. 3-4 weeks after the surgery. And I also didn't plan anything for April, May, June and July. So, I will focus all my time on the game which will be more than the weeks before! Or more precisely: around 11 working hours per day Mon-Sun.

What's already done?

I finished the first two side job events. The 1st one has 123 renders and the 2nd one around 222.
So, only two bigger events left. I don't count the Liam and the Dylan/Emma events, because they're too small. I'll start working on the next event (Aiden) on Friday and try to release a first teaser of it this weekend.

I really don't remember the last time L&P had a smooth development period, we had the surgery last year, then we had to wait 5 months because the yoga event was too big, then came the move out, the failure of the graphic cards and now we return to another surgery, we’re really out of luck

Well let’s ask for a quick and good recovery ( and that nothing else happens)

 

[xxxorro]

Clearly I've forgotten things - what was the more twisted version of the game early on?

Although you did also remind me, the early version of this game had Liam as a dual-protagonist.
I don't know how early into development L&P scrapped that idea so who knows what affect it had on subsequent story-lines, but I can image how the dual-viewpoint dynamic would have played out, likely switching back and forth each day, you play the day as Sophia then replay the same day as Liam.

It lends weight to the idea that xxxorro put forward about Liam secretly offering his wife as collateral, if you play the day of the Casino from Sophia's perspective, find out about the debt for a nice big 'Oh no!' moment - then replay the evening from Liam's perspective to deliver an even bigger 'OH NO!'

Having said that, it would be a pretty massive turn for Liam as a character - so doubtful.
At worst so far Liam has only really been depicted as neglectful and insensitive.

As I said I don't like that and I too think it's a little bit too twisted for a side storyline. And like for the removed Twist, it shed a very dark light on the character.

However, I don't think that the Morello part can be over with the visit in jail.
Ok the "Conditional Realism" (Bane71), but it's hard to believe that a mafia boss, even a well mannered one like Morello, gives up that much money for a 10mins show! This doesn't necessarily means more Sophia's action, but probably as hzjujk suggested he could be interested in getting involved in Liam's business once/if he becomes the CEO. I mean, I don't care about the business part, but as a reader I would find really unrealistic if in the next meeting he says "Good job Sophia, you guys can go, forget about your debt".

I also wondered if Morello meeting Sophia at the table was just a coincidence or something more. I think that we all can agree that the coincidence is quite odd, but again it could be just a way to introduce the character (and mislead us a bit ;-)). On the contrary, the other opens the way to all scenarios mentioned before, even the casino setting up Liam option by nexer (like he got interested by the short flirt with Sophia, found out Liam was her husband and somehow accepted the high-stake gamble because... well, the house knows how to win )

I hope that with the big news of the day we will soon (!!) find out

 

[BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM]

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Well, let's say that the "not so good" news for you will turn into much better news for you shortly afterwards.
So, the "not so good" news for you are that I will have a post-correction surgery (of the surgery in Korea last year) on Wednesday this week. But it will take place in Germany, so I will already be back home one day after. This means I won't be able to work only Tue, Wed and Thu. So here we come to the good news. I got all my things done the last days/weeks, so that I won't even leave my apartment for min. 3-4 weeks after the surgery. And I also didn't plan anything for April, May, June and July. So, I will focus all my time on the game which will be more than the weeks before! Or more precisely: around 11 working hours per day Mon-Sun.

What's already done?

I finished the first two side job events. The 1st one has 123 renders and the 2nd one around 222.
So, only two bigger events left. I don't count the Liam and the Dylan/Emma events, because they're too small. I'll start working on the next event (Aiden) on Friday and try to release a first teaser of it this weekend.

 

[sobstorydev_memes]

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Well, let's say that the "not so good" news for you will turn into much better news for you shortly afterwards.
So, the "not so good" news for you are that I will have a post-correction surgery (of the surgery in Korea last year) on Wednesday this week. But it will take place in Germany, so I will already be back home one day after. This means I won't be able to work only Tue, Wed and Thu. So here we come to the good news. I got all my things done the last days/weeks, so that I won't even leave my apartment for min. 3-4 weeks after the surgery. And I also didn't plan anything for April, May, June and July. So, I will focus all my time on the game which will be more than the weeks before! Or more precisely: around 11 working hours per day Mon-Sun.

What's already done?

I finished the first two side job events. The 1st one has 123 renders and the 2nd one around 222.
So, only two bigger events left. I don't count the Liam and the Dylan/Emma events, because they're too small. I'll start working on the next event (Aiden) on Friday and try to release a first teaser of it this weekend.

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lol, get your face right dev.

 

[Jude6]

... However, I don't think that the Morello part can be over with the visit in jail....

100% agree, there's no way that the prison meeting is the end of that storyline.
The next Morello scene will presumably setup Sophia's requirement to go back to the jail or do something else for the Morello family.

I'm hoping the storyline will incorporate the whole Cumare (Mob Mistress) thing, Larry says if she shows him her breasts he'll tell his brother that she's his Cumare, and entitled to certain privileges - then she shows him, unwittingly agreeing to his offer.
Hopefully the next Don Morello scene will include a line like: 'Well you visited Larry and from what I heard you made his day, for that I will agree to a repayment plan you and your husband can afford - but then Larry tells me you agreed to be his Cumare...? So now you're obliged to go back and see him whenever he asks. And he's already asking.'


Also, for the people arguing about Luck vs Skill in a poker game... do keep in mind that the poker game where Liam lost the house didn't actually happen.
L&P wasn't crunching numbers and studying card-counting to figure out if Liam would be able to win, Liam lost because the game's narrative said he had to lose.
The line from the intro about "... He's also a good poker player, but he has a little weakness for gambling" was written to instill the player with a sense of 'Oh, this guy is pretty good at poker' - so that later when we find out he lost the house in a poker game, we are left with a sense of 'How did this pretty good poker player lose so badly, unless there's something fishy going on.'


Also (since L&P skims this thread sometimes), hope your surgery goes well dude, don't rush that post-surgery recovery and take care of yourself.

 

[ancienregimele]

If it takes that long for the update, then maybe the game will end for about a decade Lol

It is seriously proposed that this IS how long it will take. L&P has even defended this timescale & to be fair, it doesn't bother me that much. (Like most people I have more than enough to worry about right now, without bothering about how daft a 10-year long game sounds). If you think of it like a soap opera, it may not seem so bad. I know of one soap that has run for 61 years........aargh!

 

[ancienregimele]

Something strange happened in the casino. Liam is a good poker player but he lost playing poker.
View attachment 1060181
View attachment 1060177

The casino accepted a bet, supposedly a very large one. Hundreds of thousands.
View attachment 1060179
View attachment 1060180
View attachment 1060176

This smells really bad.

As soon as this sequence was shown I said that Sophia's mini winning streak had been engineered by the Don, so that he could meet her, comment on her beautiful eyes etc. There wasn't complete agreement but now I think most fans accept that everything that occurred was no accident. Just how deeply Liam is implicated is one the major points of speculation & leads to a sense of anticipation for future revelations. I think that it's quite possible that he was gambling while supposedly 'working late.' I'm not so sure of whether he offered Sophia as a kind of collateral but after all, people don't always act in predictable ways.

 

[Johnmakis399]

You should see her other swimsuit. Just straps without bikini.

Wow nice can you post it?

 

[Julius Ash]

100% agree, there's no way that the prison meeting is the end of that storyline.
The next Morello scene will presumably setup Sophia's requirement to go back to the jail or do something else for the Morello family.

I'm hoping the storyline will incorporate the whole Cumare (Mob Mistress) thing, Larry says if she shows him her breasts he'll tell his brother that she's his Cumare, and entitled to certain privileges - then she shows him, unwittingly agreeing to his offer.
Hopefully the next Don Morello scene will include a line like: 'Well you visited Larry and from what I heard you made his day, for that I will agree to a repayment plan you and your husband can afford - but then Larry tells me you agreed to be his Cumare...? So now you're obliged to go back and see him whenever he asks. And he's already asking.'


Also, for the people arguing about Luck vs Skill in a poker game... do keep in mind that the poker game where Liam lost the house didn't actually happen.
L&P wasn't crunching numbers and studying card-counting to figure out if Liam would be able to win, Liam lost because the game's narrative said he had to lose.
The line from the intro about "... He's also a good poker player, but he has a little weakness for gambling" was written to instill the player with a sense of 'Oh, this guy is pretty good at poker' - so that later when we find out he lost the house in a poker game, we are left with a sense of 'How did this pretty good poker player lose so badly, unless there's something fishy going on.'


Also (since L&P skims this thread sometimes), hope your surgery goes well dude, don't rush that post-surgery recovery and take care of yourself.

I want just clarify that word " Cumare " in south of Italy have 2 different meaning, this depends on the context in which it is used : The first is a woman who is not related but gravitates around the family to the point of being considered as part of the family. The second a woman that is involved in a sexual affair with one married man.

 

[nexer]

It seems Morello didn't know that Liam is her husband.

But this one, Morello watched her for a while. The Parkers split shortly before, when Sophia goes to roulette table.
This "a while" is open for comment.

 

[ancienregimele]

It seems Morello didn't know that Liam is her husband.
View attachment 1062085
But this one, Morello watched her for a while. The Parkers split shortly before, when Sophia goes to roulette table.
This "a while" is open for comment.
View attachment 1062087

Could all be part of the deception, for Sophia's benefit. When he says he's been watching her from the bar, it may be true but I'm betting he's also been watching from his central control & CCTV room!

 

[nexer]

Could all be part of the deception, for Sophia's benefit. When he says he's been watching her from the bar, it may be true but I'm betting he's also been watching from his central control & CCTV room!

I don't see any bar around in the scene, and if Morello was watching her on camera he had to see her with Liam.

 

[lockerxx]

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Well, let's say that the "not so good" news for you will turn into much better news for you shortly afterwards.
So, the "not so good" news for you are that I will have a post-correction surgery (of the surgery in Korea last year) on Wednesday this week. But it will take place in Germany, so I will already be back home one day after. This means I won't be able to work only Tue, Wed and Thu. So here we come to the good news. I got all my things done the last days/weeks, so that I won't even leave my apartment for min. 3-4 weeks after the surgery. And I also didn't plan anything for April, May, June and July. So, I will focus all my time on the game which will be more than the weeks before! Or more precisely: around 11 working hours per day Mon-Sun.

What's already done?

I finished the first two side job events. The 1st one has 123 renders and the 2nd one around 222.
So, only two bigger events left. I don't count the Liam and the Dylan/Emma events, because they're too small. I'll start working on the next event (Aiden) on Friday and try to release a first teaser of it this weekend.

good luck with you surgery L&P.

 

[nexer]

good luck with you surgery L&P.

Our Sunday teaser depends on this.

 

[ancienregimele]

I don't see any bar around in the scene, and if Morello was watching her on camera he had to see her with Liam.

What I mean is that he knows who Liam is, even if he's just watched the couple arrive, from any vantage point he chose but pretends he's just another ordinary patron, who doesn't know who's with who & so it seems like a natural conversation.

 

[Jude6]

nexer & ancienregimele,

I still don't think Don Morello knew anything about the Parkers prior to first meeting Sophia.
I replayed the scene to check Nexer's suggestion (it's been a slow day) and after Sophia & Liam agree to split up: she goes over to the roulette table, asks to join them, plays 'a couple of rounds', chit-chats with the guys at the table some more then Don Morello comes over to introduce himself. He for sure is being tight-lipped about who he is, but I feel like that's just serving the surprise later when Sophia walks into his office and realizes their creditor is the man she flirted with at the roulette table.

About the timing - now I've never played roulette, but I've been studying the game intensely for the last two minutes on google and have since learned that a standard round of roulette lasts between 3-6 minutes - so it is feasible that the Don only saw Sophia after she separated from Liam and sat down, and was still being truthful when he said 'a while' (10-ish minutes).
Dunno though.

Also yes, there is no bar in any of the shots used, maybe it's out of frame somewhere.
Can also confirm that Don Morello doesn't pop up in any frames prior to his introduction, so he could have been lying about the Bar part and was watching from the cameras.


One thing I will say, comparing the two Casino visits really does demonstrate L&P's progress:
In the first casino visit it's all wide, bright but flatly lit shots that feel so empty (because I imagine there's only so many NPCs he can put in a scene before over-taxing his equipment), it's kind of understandable since it's a new space and he wanted to show it off in establishing shots.

(kind of surprised he hasn't tried to do an establishing shot of the exterior of the casino)

On the return visit though, the lighting is still pretty bright but more diffuse and is pulling light effects from other sources in the room, plus we have closer shots that frame out the larger space and allow him to crowd NPCs into just the spaces that are in shot.

 

[Sabertooth__]

From the past few pages I am seeing that people are really looking into the dialogues and trying to find meaning in them. Being attentive is good but looking too much into it and speculating is not. It's just like a literature teacher who tries to decipher the meaning of every line in a poem whereas the poet never intended to mean anything from it.

 

[nexer]

From the past few pages I am seeing that people are really looking into the dialogues and trying to find meaning in them. Being attentive is good but looking too much into it and speculating is not. It's just like a literature teacher who tries to decipher the meaning of every line in a poem whereas the poet never intended to mean anything from it.

With the experience I have, you will never be able to improve something without understanding it down to the smallest detail. Or you can, but it's like winning the lottery.
In my case, it's not about understanding but about predicting. The only way to predict is to understand.