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

[ename144]

Affinity system showing its flaws once again as does dividing up characters on certain paths, like not being able to do anything with Jade and Cathy by staying with M&J.

So much of this game is now becoming an exercise in trying to understand why, from a character perspective, the MC wouldn't do certain things with certain characters or why they wouldn't do anything with him. It seems as though, in an effort to create replayability, the locking of certain events to different paths and affinities is creating inconsistency issues with how the MC is and what they can do because, as has been discussed many times, a player can do everything with M&J and can have just about all their RP points, yet they get rejected just because they're DIK afffinity. Well, in this episode we saw that we can also be rejected by Quinn even if we've done almost everything with her just because a player doesn't have DIK affinity and is with M&J.

Aside from the gaming logic of replayability factor, it doesn't make sense in either case to be so cut off because if you take out the hamstringing affinity system, the MC has done enough in both cases to surely be accepted in these moments. Without locking content to certain affinities and relationship paths, there would be still be a of replay options with the different routes you can take of focusing on particular LIs and all the variations therein.

A lot depends on how you look at it, but I mostly disagree.

Take Quinn. Yes, the MC can fool around with Quinn while still being an overall CHICK on M&J's path. But by the same token, that makes it look to Quinn as if she's just another of his dolls. Since Quinn has a big chip on her shoulder and hates feeling weak, I can see how that would tilt the balance and prevent her from opening up to the MC.

So to me this feels like one of those 'realistic' consequences I mentioned in my reply to Arigon: Quinn will only be willing to trust the MC if he makes her feel both wanted and special. I get how you might see it differently, though.

Still, to me, the real flaw is that DPC is bad at laying out coherent ground rules for how consequences in his world will play out. For the first season, nearly everything hinged on Status or Affinity, with RP adding a little depth to the scene here or there. It was rare pursuing one opportunity would foreclose another.

As we advance, Status and Affinity are becoming more rigid even as they tend to be less important than the specific actions an MC has taken before. It makes for a confusing path to navigate. This is made even worse by the muddled feedback DPC gives.

I've complained before about Maya/Josy giving contradicting explanations for why they rejected the MC; any player trying to work out their mistake based on the in-game logic is in for a serious headache. Some of the new branches are even worse because they provide NO in-game feedback that a consequence has even occurred: the MC turning down Cathy or Quinn turning down the MC thanks to the M&J path are the big offenders here. At least Jill's photo provides a coherent explanation for why the MC will turn down Nora.

The Affinity system itself has that problem in spades, to the point I don't think even DPC could give a succinct explanation for why the various choices (and only those choices!) count the way they do. Tying a bunch of consequences to that mechanic was almost doomed to rankle our feathers, but we're pretty well stuck with it now.

 

[R1viel]

How can a game make us feel so fucking bad? It really never ceases to amaze me that we care so much about people who don't exist, at least to me.

I don't know the regular slams of emotioal gut punchs did make me weirdly introspective. I would never have expected an adult visual novel to promote personal growth but somehow here we are

 

[Holy Bacchus]

How can a game make us feel so fucking bad? It really never ceases to amaze me that we care so much about people who don't exist, at least to me.

I sometimes think that what it is is that we are playing this game, visual novel, whatever you want to call it, and ordinarily in the things, whether they're adult games or console games, there's generally this feeling that there are no bad endings, that you are in control of how things go and can always do things the right way, but this game is starting to feel like that's not going to happen. There's a lot going on that make it feel as though there's going to be devastation no matter what path you pick and that characters are going to get hurt emotionally and/or physically in ways you just don't see in games/VNs, and there will be nothing we can do to stop it which makes us feel less in control than we usually are with these things.

It like ME3 all over again where you are presented with no good options and that was a major game developer who changed that because of intense backlash, yet DPC may be headed down a similar no-good-option, no-win scenarios, and that doesn't feel good.

 

[Restor104]

First of all, please excuse my English, it's not my native language, but I hope we understand.
I really appreciate the work of the developer, I firmly believe that this game will still have many extensive parts. But now to the point, since this is a game with a university environment, the game somehow lacks one small essential detail, and that is pregnancy, so the possibility of fertilizing some (or even all) characters would certainly not hurt to add the possibility of pregnancy to the game.
I hope that part of this wish will come true
end of vote.

 

[always86]

Dude C'mon

Haha. We’ll see. I know some people hate the idea, I only care because I’d like happy endings with all LI’s, it’s my preference that it doesn’t happen. I’m just tracking the potential breadcrumbs.

 

[Gladheim]

I sometimes think that what it is is that we are playing this game, visual novel, whatever you want to call it, and ordinarily in the things, whether they're adult games or console games, there's generally this feeling that there are no bad endings, that you are in control of how things go and can always do things the right way, but this game is starting to feel like that's not going to happen. There's a lot going on that make it feel as though there's going to be devastation no matter what path you pick and that characters are going to get hurt emotionally and/or physically in ways you just don't see in games/VNs, and there will be nothing we can do to stop it which makes us feel less in control than we usually are with these things.

It like ME3 all over again where you are presented with no good options and that was a major game developer who changed that because of intense backlash, yet DPC may be headed down a similar no-good-option, no-win scenarios, and that doesn't feel good.

Another game who did this to me was Red Dead Redemption 2 or FF7 Remake but this last was for nostalgic feelings

 

[PBS666]

Please help me, has anyone found a solution for the mac problem? running it through permission fixer for mac didnt work, help :C

There are two files to be fixed, both called BeingADIK. Look in Contents/MacOs and in Contents/MacOS/lib/darwin-x86_64.
Add the execute permission with chmod a+x to both these files in Terminal.

 

[KeShane]

I also think this episode added to evidence for Aunty Jill .


Lynette was wealthy
Lynette died young
Jill’s sister died
We still haven’t fucked Jill (Technically no incest yet)
Jill’s sister liked to write
Lynette was on her 7th diary.
DPC clearly doesn’t mind doing Us dirty

This is still coincidental, and I’m not convinced, but just want to keep track of the hints if it does happen

Correct me if i'm wrong, wasn't jill's sister younger then her?
If that's the case, weird that jill is a student there as well.

So the fact that MC is 19 years old, and his mother died when he was born.
and if i'm right about jill being older then her sister. closes this case.

 

[Tserriednich'sNen]

Haha. We’ll see. I know some people hate the idea, I only care because I’d like happy endings with all LI’s, it’s my preference that it doesn’t happen. I’m just tracking the potential breadcrumbs.

There are no breadcumbs. Jill is a LI. End of story.

 

[Dr. Psychedelic]

I thought the previous episodes were sad and emotional but this episode just brought a whole new complexion to this Saga
the update was worth the wait but.
I dont like where all of this is going
Holy Bacchus is as right as crystal

 

[PBS666]

is anyone else having issues running on mac big sure?

Apparently there are, but I suspect the issue is the same as on other versions of MacOS, namely the missing execute permission of the executable files in the game package.

 

[godkingxerxes]

It like ME3 all over again where you are presented with no good options and that was a major game developer who changed that because of intense backlash, yet DPC may be headed down a similar no-good-option, no-win scenarios, and that doesn't feel good.

Mass Effect's ending was poorly written, but the destroy option was there and was always from Eden Prime onwards the only true option.

Plus with the citadel add on we know Jack tattooed us so she can pull our body from the rubble, meaning even without seeing it we know Shepard and Jack lived happily ever after as Pirate King and Queen.

 

[dosenspezi]

Now the lights are coming on at the poor writing skill of DPC!!!very good!
Bravo!

Hey there's plenty more dark energy in this thread than ingame! Nevertheless, I enjoyed the update party <3

 

[PBS666]

Any other mac users having trouble? I tried extracting it with unarchiver but it's saying the zip file is incomplete, and with just the normal extraction tool I don't have permission to open the file.

The permission problem is easy to fix, but if the zip file got corrupted during downloading this won"t do much good I suspect.

 

[krmit]

Is there a way for the

Spoiler

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Seems like its the end of that plotline no matter what you choose.

 

[rj677]

On this, I think I'm in partial agreement with Holy Bacchus : if DPC is worried about finding ways to shoehorn in lewd scenes for all the girls then he should stop writing the story in such a way that forces us to choose between the girls! Don't put in some half-assed (if lovingly rendered) dream sequence for us to fap to.

Personally, I like the branching paths. It adds exactly the sort of consequences to the relationships that I feel is sorely lacking from simple harem games like, say, WVM. Yes, I worry that DPC hasn't built up the trust that's required to really pull that off, but that's a risk I am prepared to take.

But in that case, DPC should stick to his guns and just admit that sometimes there won't be super-hot lewd scenes for everyone. We'll get over it (eventually, when the next episode comes out).

This was what disappointed me about this episode. When I opened the game for the first time in ep6, i went straight to the secnes menu to see how many we had after 5.5 months, and when I saw that many I was so hyped and looking forward to it. Then I finish the episode and see that only 8+Jills were real ones and the others were from DnG.

So we waited more than usual for animations and renders of a SIDEQUEST??

Put that together with the fact that almost no advancement was made with LIs, and you get a disappointing update in terms of story. The god tier music and the god tier animations and real scenes saved the update to just disappointing and not complete trash.

 

[Holy Bacchus]

Take Quinn. Yes, the MC can fool around with Quinn while still being an overall CHICK on M&J's path. But by the same token, that makes it look to Quinn as if she's just another of his dolls. Since Quinn has a big chip on her shoulder and hates feeling weak, I can see how that would tilt the balance and prevent her from opening up to the MC.

So to me this feels like one of those 'realistic' consequences in my reply to Arigon: Quinn will only be willing to trust the MC if he makes her feel both wanted and special. I get how you might see it differently, though.

The thing is though, on the DIK path, what really is different with Quinn's interactions? About the only thing I can think of is the scene in the HOT house in ep 4 if you stay with Sage, but you can do pretty much everything else without being on that path and can have a reasonably good relationship with her. Also, you can stay at the HOT house with Neutral or CHICK affinity and Sage starts telling the MC about how she thinks Quinn likes him and you get the same hints to that throughout the game as those on the DIK path, yet she turns your help down just because you're not on the DIK path and with M&J, both of which are things that, realistically, shouldn't have any effect here if you've done enough with her.

Whether the MC is DIK or CHICK, Quinn would still feel it "weak" to open up to him and there's nothing to really differentiate these 2 paths such that Quinn would feel more comfortable talking to a DIK MC as opposed to a CHICK or Neutral MC. The only thing that really should matter is what you've done with her, and as long as you took her number, used her services twice, and had sex with her in ep 4, that should realistically be more than enough to make her trust him on any path.

 

[PBS666]

guys i cant open macos version i played all upadates but when i click this time it says it cant open

Unzip with The Unarchiver, or fix the missing execute permission on both executable files called BeingADIK inside the game package. Use chmod a+x in Terminal.

 

[Dracconic Evolution]

Being a DIK v0.6 walkthrough

In this scene it is not "+1" it is "-1"

Spoiler: Jill Error

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[Arigon]

There are no breadcumbs. Jill is a LI. End of story.

And that is where DPC wants you to be. She was a late add on. The cover story would make it unlikely to impossible, but what if some or all is a lie? Stranger things have happened. Until I replay when the story is done(assuming it is not shit like AL) I will not have Jill as a LI unless she comes free with Bella!