VN Ren'Py Being a DIK [v0.10.1] [Dr PinkCake]

[MrFriendly]

I could see there being a possible time jump in Ep 6 because the MC's answer to his Dad when they were texting ("You're already planning that?") made it sound like his birthday wasn't for a while yet, so for it to be at the end of this upcoming in-game week would undermine the implication that it was still some time away. Unless, when we get to the end of this week, his life has settled into something of a repetitive rhythm and we skip ahead a couple of weeks.

This would also have the added benefit of skipping over the repairs to the DIK mansion and finally giving the MC his own room for the remaining episodes rather than have him continue to bounce around different places.

I really hope there are time jumps. To have everything happen in the first few weeks of school would be disappointing. I like the idea of a sprawling narrative with built in time jumps.

 

[ename144]

Well it's not really a secret given the sex scene in Ep5 is flagged....as is the chpoice you can give to Derek (also flagged) in the code. So, pretty obvious to anyone really there will be individual routes.

To be cynical for a moment, it's not like the game could ignore the choice even DPC had no intention to offer solo paths for each girl. It would be very awkward, for example, if Maya didn't comment on the first time she had sex with the MC just because he chose to follow Josy in Episode 5.

That said, I agree it's exceedingly likely the option will come up someday.

I don't mind the boxing one but wish we didn't have to play it so often for money, renders, and skill points.

As for the english, math, and gender studies I follow the pdf so that I can get through it fast without having to pay attention.

The mini-games really annoy me because on their own I actually like them. Some are a pain, but overall they do a nice job of breaking up the normal gameplay loop and adding a little zest to certain activities that otherwise feel hollow. The problem is that when I'm replaying the game to try to get to a specific scene, they're a massive roadblock that serves no purpose other than to waste my time.

Fortunately, DPC provided a solution for this, because I could leave mini-games On in my main plyaythrough and turn them off in all my others. I need a gazillion saves on my main, but I could live with that. Unfortunately, DPC botched the implementation of the non-mini-game version because money is abysmally distributed.

DPC tried to make things simple by doubling the money you find in free roams. The problem is that free roams don't happen at regular intervals, and some never had money in the first place. As a result, money becomes feast or famine; way more than you need followed by far too little in a short stretch. Infuriating.

DPC should have added extra money locations to the various free roams instead, to ensure a more even supply. But that would be more labor intensive on his part, so he probably thought it wasn't worth the time. He was wrong. Hence my DIK runs are stuck with mini-games just so they can blow the money on ale and whores.

 

[Holy Bacchus]

I really hope there are time jumps. To have everything happen in the first few weeks of school would be disappointing. I like the idea of a sprawling narrative with built in time jumps.

A time jump in this episode could also explain why it's so huge because perhaps we'll not only get this 2nd Scavenger Hunt week, but we'll get to take part in events for the week after a time jump of 2 or 3 weeks.

 

[ename144]

So I havent played the M&J path myself because I m simply not into those things, but I have a question for y'all .. if we chose ("something more") and they actually accept , does that mean that they are in a relationship ? I mean the mc can fool around with anyone or heis actually in a relationship and anythong like that is cosidered as cheating ?

If the trio tries for something more, the official word is that there are still no strings attached for the moment.

They want to take things slow and make sure this is something real. So while they plan to spend time together and communicate a lot, the MC is still free to bone as many sexy girls as he wants.

Except apparently teachers because... reasons? Maybe? Let's just say this is not the smoothest part of the story, IMHO.

 

[MrFriendly]

To be cynical for a moment, it's not like the game could ignore the choice even DPC had no intention to offer solo paths for each girl. It would be very awkward, for example, if Maya didn't comment on the first time she had sex with the MC just because he chose to follow Josy in Episode 5.

That said, I agree it's exceedingly likely the option will come up someday.



The mini-games really annoy me because on their own I actually like them. Some are a pain, but overall they do a nice job of breaking up the normal gameplay loop and adding a little zest to certain activities that otherwise feel hollow. The problem is that when I'm replaying the game to try to get to a specific scene, they're a massive roadblock that serves no purpose other than to waste my time.

Fortunately, DPC provided a solution for this, because I could leave mini-games On in my main plyaythrough and turn them off in all my others. I need a gazillion saves on my main, but I could live with that. Unfortunately, DPC botched the implementation of the non-mini-game version because money is abysmally distributed.

DPC tried to make things simple by doubling the money you find in free roams. The problem is that free roams don't happen at regular intervals, and some never had money in the first place. As a result, money becomes feast or famine; way more than you need followed by far too little in a short stretch. Infuriating.

DPC should have added extra money locations to the various free roams instead, to ensure a more even supply. But that would be more labor intensive on his part, so he probably thought it wasn't worth the time. He was wrong. Hence my DIK runs are stuck with mini-games just so they can blow the money on ale and whores.

I’ve yet to remember to have money to give to Riona (is that her name?) at the preppy party. It’s too true to live as I am terrible at managing my money.

 

[ename144]

I want to ask you a quite philosophical question: what do you mean by happy ending in a game like BADIK?

whether the game spans a quarter or the whole year, in the end the question changes little, what do you need to consider it a happy ending?

Personally, I think a happy ending for a given LI means we get to see how the MC and the LI plan to have a happy life together. We don't necessarily need to see it ourselves, we just need to watch enough of their journey together that we can extrapolate where it would go once the story ends. I agree with others that it probably translates to about the first year of college, but that's just an estimate.

Anything more than that will likely require a lot of time skips to set up details of what happens after college (and certainly after the first year). That could work, but I think it risks robbing the story of some of the charm that comes with a tight focus on the college setting.

Anything less and I think it risks trivializing the relationship. Sure, in the real world college romances break up all the time. But this is a work of fiction. If we'll have literally spent years waiting for the end game, I think we'll be rightly pissed if the MC can just sum up [preferred LI here] as his first real fling. Stick the landing, dammit!

EDIT:
Oooops, good point Holy Bacchus. The happy ending does also require the unchosen LIs survive as well and are on course for a good life. Better to make that explicit with all the kindling around here...

 

[Holy Bacchus]

I want to ask you a quite philosophical question: what do you mean by happy ending in a game like BADIK?

whether the game spans a quarter or the whole year, in the end the question changes little, what do you need to consider it a happy ending?

Everybody lives; the MC, the LIs, the side girls, and all other side characters. The MC and his chosen LI(s) have a good life together after college, as do all the other LIs that he doesn't end up with, and he remains friends, or at least on good terms, with most, if not all, of them and the side characters.

That's where my bar is for a "happy ending".

 

[MrFriendly]

Everybody lives; the MC, the LIs, the side girls, and all other side characters. The MC and his chosen LI(s) have a good life together after college, as do all the other LIs that he doesn't end up with, and he remains friends, or at least on good terms, with most, if not all, of them and the side characters.

That's where my bar is for a "happy ending".

Hmm... I’m not willing to trust that we’ll see that happy of a happy ending. If we’ve learned anything it’s that there will be darkness and that even happy endings are still bittersweet.

 

[ename144]

With the exception of 4 & 5, I'd say that the other episodes had something of a teasing, question-inducing cliffhanger ending; in Ep 1 he gets tased by an unknown assailant for reasons unknown (at that time), in Ep 2 Chad receives a mysterious envelope and angrily refers to the MC for reasons unknown, and Ep 3 of course had the bombshell revelation.

From what we've seen and been told it would seem that this upcoming episode is huge and will cover a lot of ground with his time at college. To also throw in the revelation of the contents of the letter, especially if there were to be a full and detailed discussion/explanation of it with Neil, could possibly be too much. I personally like the idea of it being the cliffhanger without finding out because it keeps the suspense going and keeps you engaged, but it's also because I like the idea of Ep 7 opening with a flashback that gives a backstory of what the letter reveals and then when we cut back to the present, we find that Neil has been telling this backstory to the MC. I honestly think that would be a great way to do this.

Was Chad getting the envelope actually part of Episode 2? I only played the game starting with Episode 4, so the Chad envelope scene is awkwardly tucked in after the Episode 2 wrap-up but before the Episode 3 recap. I always wondered why that was so oddly placed. (Honestly, the timeline at the start of Episode 3 seems to have been deliberately muddled.)

Personally, I'd call that less a traditional cliffhanger and more a post-credit stinger. The difference is that it isn't about the results of actions in the episode current episode, it's just a quick preview of actions coming in the next one. But cliffhanger or stinger, I think it would be difficult to use that format for the Mom Letter in Episode 6, at least as you present it.

If episode 6 takes us up to the point where the MC returns home, the letter is involved in the narrative and thus we will expect to learn something about it. We already know it exists, so that's not much of a cliffhanger. It would be like ending the Empire Strikes Back with the revelation that the Emperor ordered Vader to kill Luke's father; technically we only had Obi-Wan's supposition of that before, but it's hardly unexpected.

If, on the other hand, the game cuts to the MC returning home to read the letter with no buildup in a stinger, it will probably feel like deliberate trolling. Not only would we already know the letter exists, now there isn't even a valid reason to remind us of it.

In short, the contents of the letter might be a suitable dramatic end point, but the letter itself isn't.

 

[Arigon]

DPC has skipped before in his previous abortion of a story Acting Lessons. I think Happily Ever After can be forecast somewhat stupidly from how the story will end around Christmas/Hanukah. Is it real? no... do we think that is enough? sadly yes.

 

[Arigon]

And Bacchus is not some all knowing god. He has opinions. I personally agree with some, and think he is full of shit on some. I think he can disagree all he wants and I could care less!

 

[Arigon]

IF DPC ever looks, which I am told he does not, as his tiny ego won't permit it, he could learn something from all you good folks!

 

[Arigon]

One more thing, just to cause some stuff. Gaz from Timestamps is 1000x better than Quinn, just saying.

 

[Holy Bacchus]

Hmm... I’m not willing to trust that we’ll see that happy of a happy ending. If we’ve learned anything it’s that there will be darkness and that even happy endings are still bittersweet.

I realise that's very optimistic if we are to consider AL as a precedent, but when you exclude the tragic aspects of the AL endings, it could be seen that there was a "happy ending" where the MC gets married, Liam gets back to full strength and falls in love, and the MC and his chosen LI go on to have a happy life.

As is often mentioned, this game has a lighter tone overall than AL and while there certainly is great potential to break a few hearts by the end of this, DPC doesn't seem to be above giving people a "happy(-ish) ending" if you do things in a somewhat "right" way. So maybe it will be possible to keep everybody alive in this one, to have good relations with ex-LIs, and to have a good life with the chosen LI(s) by following a specific path.

But, hey, a man can dream, can't he?

Arigon Can't you just edit your first post to say all that rather than multi-posting?

 

[Arigon]

I realise that's very optimistic if we are to consider AL as a precedent, but when you exclude the tragic aspects of the AL endings, it could be seen that there was a "happy ending" where the MC gets married, Liam gets back to full strength and falls in love, and the MC and his chosen LI go on to have a happy life.

As is often mentioned, this game has a lighter tone overall than AL and while there certainly is great potential to break a few hearts by the end of this, DPC doesn't seem to be above giving people a "happy(-ish) ending" if you do things in a somewhat "right" way. So maybe it will be possible to keep everybody alive in this one, to have good relations with ex-LIs, and to have a good life with the chosen LI(s) by following a specific path.

But, hey, a man can dream, can't he?

Arigon Can't you just edit your first post to say all that rather than multi-posting?

sure bud, but I have to give you something else to comment on!

 

[MrFriendly]

I realise that's very optimistic if we are to consider AL as a precedent, but when you exclude the tragic aspects of the AL endings, it could be seen that there was a "happy ending" where the MC gets married, Liam gets back to full strength and falls in love, and the MC and his chosen LI go on to have a happy life.

As is often mentioned, this game has a lighter tone overall than AL and while there certainly is great potential to break a few hearts by the end of this, DPC doesn't seem to be above giving people a "happy(-ish) ending" if you do things in a somewhat "right" way. So maybe it will be possible to keep everybody alive in this one, to have good relations with ex-LIs, and to have a good life with the chosen LI(s) by following a specific path.

But, hey, a man can dream, can't he?

I don’t necessarily agree with the “lighter tone”, and won’t until we know Bella’s secret, “coerced” prostitution, drinking, drug use, and violence are bad enough but I feel like we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop.

 

[Arigon]

If Bella has a darker story that precludes a happy ending with her, I officially quit DPC games.
Bella is the only choice!

 

[Kellermann]

I really hope there are time jumps. To have everything happen in the first few weeks of school would be disappointing. I like the idea of a sprawling narrative with built in time jumps.

Me too. I would be pretty bummed to not get at least a full school year. Winter break and spring break are ripe with possibilities. Unrelated thought: Derek's eyes change from blue to brown? I think he looks more like Maya's brother when he had blue eyes, but more like a stoner after the change.

 

[Kellermann]

If Bella has a darker story that precludes a happy ending with her, I officially quit DPC games.
Bella is the only choice!

I think you'll get a happy ending with Bella. That would be a proper character arc, a sort of redemption story. Eventually, she'll get her happiness back, I'm convinced. Jill, on the other hand...I'm suspicious.

 

[Arigon]

I think you'll get a happy ending with Bella. That would be a proper character arc, a sort of redemption story. Eventually, she'll get her happiness back, I'm convinced. Jill, on the other hand...I'm suspicious.

I know Jill is the poster child, more than any other... frankly, unless she is a thruple with Bella, I could give a shit, so if she has a bad ending I am ok with it.