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

[dalli_x]

He is weird. Does a titanic job. It’s a long time, but the work that DPC does in a year is huge, so it’s hard to call it lazy.
But at the same time, he ignores shortcomings that can be corrected in 5 minutes in DAZ. Remove the effect of chrome teeth from Josy and Neil? -Easy, you can do this once and for all, saving the changes to the model.
Fix Maya's skin? The same thing, in the Surface tab, reduce the texture relief.
Terrible shadows on some renders? It's a matter of seconds to replace the source from point light to disc or rectangle, the lighting becomes softer.
It feels like he is in a hurry and says: Fuck it, it will do as it is. Paying attention to some small details, but ignoring others.

As you suggest, DPC would take much longer to complete an EP. Why? Changing a light source or adjusting a texture may be quick, but it would have to be rendered first to check it. With over 5000 images and more than 200 animations (whether 30 FPS or 60 FPS), development would take much longer.

Despite all perfectionism, you have to realize at some point that it won't work without compromises. You can afford perfectionism with a few images, but not with the amount that is contained in BaDIK.

 

[dalli_x]

Yes, I want more content with the side girls, and no, I don't care how long it will delay the release of the episode. I don't like Josy, Maya, Jill, Sage and Isabella, and I've never played their routes.I understand you don't like the side girls because they take the content away from Maya and Josy, and extend the development period. But you can't decide which girls are important and which are not. We are simple players, and everyone has the right to expect that they will get what they want (within reasonable limits, of course). DPC has developed the plots of the side girls too much to interrupt them now, when there are not many episodes left until the end. And I'll remind you what he said last year during the Q&A:
1) The others route will receive the same amount of love as the main routes.
2) People attach too much importance to the division of girls into main and side.
I'm afraid you'll have to accept that some minor girls will get their own endings (I think it will be at least Zoey, Quinn, Lily, Riona, Nicole and Jade). And I'll have to accept that the main girls will take over most of the content until the end of the game.
The choice between Zoey and Riona that you described looks silly. If a player wants a relationship with Zoey, should he leave Riona to her fate? Of course, the DPC has already made stupid choices in the game, but this... many players will be furious. Nothing bad will happen to Riona, regardless of the player's actions. How do you imagine this? Riona dies in episode 11, and in episode 12, the player calmly feeds the fish, holds another party and hangs out at a concert with Zoey?
Deaths in the game are quite possible, but not in season 3, because after the death of an important character, it will be impossible to return to the atmosphere of fun and parties.
P.S. Cathy didn't disappear, she was missing for 1 or 2 episodes, and now she's back.

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Re 1: Of course DPC will invest just as much love in the "Others" branch, but love does not mean mass.

Re 2: We don't know what fate awaits Riona. The kidnapping may end well for Riona, but whether she stays in college, close to Quinn, is a whole other question. It's the same with Zoey. Does she stay around him after talking to the MC and have to watch the MC make out with his LI or other girl? Does she do that to herself?

None of this means we'll never see Riona or Zoey again. We also saw Cathy again in EP10. But her presence in the game has been reduced. The choice between Riona and Zoey could come down to which of the two girls the MC can keep close.

 

[armion82]

Yes, I want more content with the side girls, and no, I don't care how long it will delay the release of the episode. I don't like Josy, Maya, Jill, Sage and Isabella, and I've never played their routes.I understand you don't like the side girls because they take the content away from Maya and Josy, and extend the development period. But you can't decide which girls are important and which are not. We are simple players, and everyone has the right to expect that they will get what they want (within reasonable limits, of course). DPC has developed the plots of the side girls too much to interrupt them now, when there are not many episodes left until the end. And I'll remind you what he said last year during the Q&A:
1) The others route will receive the same amount of love as the main routes.
2) People attach too much importance to the division of girls into main and side.
I'm afraid you'll have to accept that some minor girls will get their own endings (I think it will be at least Zoey, Quinn, Lily, Riona, Nicole and Jade). And I'll have to accept that the main girls will take over most of the content until the end of the game.
The choice between Zoey and Riona that you described looks silly. If a player wants a relationship with Zoey, should he leave Riona to her fate? Of course, the DPC has already made stupid choices in the game, but this... many players will be furious. Nothing bad will happen to Riona, regardless of the player's actions. How do you imagine this? Riona dies in episode 11, and in episode 12, the player calmly feeds the fish, holds another party and hangs out at a concert with Zoey?
Deaths in the game are quite possible, but not in season 3, because after the death of an important character, it will be impossible to return to the atmosphere of fun and parties.
P.S. Cathy didn't disappear, she was missing for 1 or 2 episodes, and now she's back.

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I also don't care about the main girls with the exception of Sage.

 

[dalli_x]

Is this insider information from you as the moderator of his official server?

No, it's just pure logic. It's not just DPC that has to think about its economic situation, but also its patrons. It makes a difference whether you pay 12€ a year or 120€, 240€, 360€, 480€ etc..

That's why I don't like it when people keep writing that DPC is milking its Patreons, because it's simply not true.

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So, apparently, 5090 will be introduced at the end of this year and 60 fps will no longer be a problem, given that each new GPU is 20-40% more powerful than the previous one. The only question is whether he will upgrade.

I believe that DPC will only upgrade its hardware again when it becomes necessary. At the moment his PCs are rendering faster than he can keep up with the manual work. Ergo, there is currently no reason to upgrade the hardware.

Elena, Sally and others will not have their own branch. They just fuck and that's it.

Well, let's hope so. A foursome with Josy, Maya, Elena and the MC is a dream.

 

[Geralt From Rivia]

It doesn't matter because girls are actually taken out of the game. They may make sporadic appearances in the story, such as Cathy, but that's as far as it will go. The only ones who are relatively safe from that are probably the LIs. Regarding Riona, it doesn't matter what you believe or not. The fact is that Riona is kidnapped at the end of EP10 and her future in the game is uncertain. Please don't get me wrong. I like Riona, the cute little cat and I don't want anything to happen to her. But what I want doesn't matter to DPC.

You don't need to explain to me what "FPS" is or what it does. The fact is one thing and that DPC wrote it to make his new graphics render faster than he can keep up with posing and he wrote it when he was already creating 60 FPS animation. The whole thing is a question of quantity and quality.

He can't increase his quantity manually. He can't do more than work on it and the quantity of his animation and static renders is damn high when you compare it to other game developers. So all that remains is quality. Higher quality also increases sales. Don't forget, DPC is not only a game developer, but also an entrepreneur.

He has already created the snowball fight mini-game and just needs to implement it in the EP. That shouldn't be a problem and shouldn't take long.

To say that Riona was bred from the game, returning to your words that her future is not predetermined, is an assumption and fortune-telling, but not a fait accompli.
And knowing his approach to plot twists at the end of the episode, nothing fatal will happen to Riona. We might see minimal content with her in Ep.11, but that's it. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK...FUCK moment.

In fact, by doubling the number of frames in animations, he doubled the number of calculations and in no way made rendering faster than manual work. In contrast, towards the end of Ep 10's development, we got a queue of animations again as he polished the episode.

Did he create a snowball fight? I don’t remember this, did he write this in his status reports?

Is this insider information from you as the moderator of his official server?

You must be registered to see the links

So, apparently, 5090 will be introduced at the end of this year and 60 fps will no longer be a problem, given that each new GPU is 20-40% more powerful than the previous one. The only question is whether he will upgrade.

They are not a big problem for RTX4090 even now, according to his words it's still faster with 60 fps. And static renders this GPU just swallow without noticing, we don't haved big queue for statics in last cycle.

As you suggest, DPC would take much longer to complete an EP. Why? Changing a light source or adjusting a texture may be quick, but it would have to be rendered first to check it. With over 5000 images and more than 200 animations (whether 30 FPS or 60 FPS), development would take much longer.

Despite all perfectionism, you have to realize at some point that it won't work without compromises. You can afford perfectionism with a few images, but not with the amount that is contained in BaDIK.

Actually no, you don't need to do full pre-renders. Just go to Iray mode in viewing tab and DAZ will quickly show you what your render will look like - with his hardware, one minute is enough to evaluate the result that will come out. Then with experience you get used to it and you don’t need it anymore. The fact is that he knows how to make good light. Many of his renders have very high quality lighting, but some have poor lighting. Perhaps he was just in a hurry and “it will do as it is”.

 

[The Krogan Dude]

Yes, I want more content with the side girls, and no, I don't care how long it will delay the release of the episode. I don't like Josy, Maya, Jill, Sage and Isabella, and I've never played their routes.

Isn't it tragic ? DrPinkcake tried to make all the paths compelling and equal in content but players like you and dalli_x don't even bother to try more than one path

 

[DavDR]

He is weird. Does a titanic job. It’s a long time, but the work that DPC does in a year is huge, so it’s hard to call it lazy.
But at the same time, he ignores shortcomings that can be corrected in 5 minutes in DAZ. Remove the effect of chrome teeth from Josy and Neil? -Easy, you can do this once and for all, saving the changes to the model.
Fix Maya's skin? The same thing, in the Surface tab, reduce the texture relief.
Terrible shadows on some renders? It's a matter of seconds to replace the source from point light to disc or rectangle, the lighting becomes softer.
It feels like he is in a hurry and says: Fuck it, it will do as it is. Paying attention to some small details, but ignoring others.

Just before ep9 was released DPC stated in a message about the length of that development that he made this game as a hobby, and he would do it rather it sold or not, or words to that effect. It struck me at the time that he gave us a real insight into his motivations and intensions.

First of all I don't believe it's just a hobby, after all it's the income from this game that enables him to sit around and play with his toys all day, instead of going out to work. So selling the game does matter to him. But all of the things you just mentioned about ignoring short comings make more sense when considered in this light. I think he enjoys making minigames, therefore minigames infuse the game. I think he's recently become more interested in animation, within the last few years, and we're now seeing an increase in often pointless animations.

 

[Tremonia]

Dream foursome. The ultimate one would be if you add Madame Rose and Stanley to the mix.

And I thought I was a weird one.

 

[Geralt From Rivia]

Just before ep9 was released DPC stated in a message about the length of that development that he made this game as a hobby, and he would do it rather it sold or not, or words to that effect. It struck me at the time that he gave us a real insight into his motivations and intensions.

First of all I don't believe it's just a hobby, after all it's the income from this game that enables him to sit around and play with his toys all day, instead of going out to work. So selling the game does matter to him. But all of the things you just mentioned about ignoring short comings make more sense when considered in this light. I think he enjoys making minigames, therefore minigames infuse the game. I think he's recently become more interested in animation, within the last few years, and we're now seeing an increase in often pointless animations.

He can treat this as a hobby, especially if it brings him pleasure.
But in fact, this became his main job, allowing him to provide himself with a good life.
When your work is your hobby and brings good income, many of us can dream of such life. But it’s almost all the time in front of a PC screen.
His love for mini-games is noticeable, there are a lot of them now and not all of them are successful, the math mini game and this cube are complete crap. Not all players have the mindset to enjoy it.

 

[dalli_x]

To say that Riona was bred from the game, returning to your words that her future is not predetermined, is an assumption and fortune-telling, but not a fait accompli.
And knowing his approach to plot twists at the end of the episode, nothing fatal will happen to Riona. We might see minimal content with her in Ep.11, but that's it. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK...FUCK moment.

In fact, by doubling the number of frames in animations, he doubled the number of calculations and in no way made rendering faster than manual work. In contrast, towards the end of Ep 10's development, we got a queue of animations again as he polished the episode.

Did he create a snowball fight? I don’t remember this, did he write this in his status reports?

For us players, Riona's future is uncertain. This is not an assumption and fortune telling. I can't say 100% what will happen to Riona. The only one who knows 100% at this point is DPC.

One thing is a fact. The render queue is depleting faster than he can keep up with all his work. An empty render queue is of no use to us players and DPC. That's the end of it.

DPC himself wrote so that he could finish all the minigames for season 3.

Actually no, you don't need to do full pre-renders. Just go to Iray mode in viewing tab and DAZ will quickly show you what your render will look like - with his hardware, one minute is enough to evaluate the result that will come out. Then with experience you get used to it and you don’t need it anymore. The fact is that he knows how to make good light. Many of his renders have very high quality lighting, but some have poor lighting. Perhaps he was just in a hurry and “it will do as it is”.

What you write is also correct, but you should consider the mass of images and animation (FPS). In terms of time, this adds up enormously. Then minutes become hours and then days.

 

[dalli_x]

Isn't it tragic ? DrPinkcake tried to make all the paths compelling and equal in content but players like you and dalli_x don't even bother to try more than one path

View attachment 3535778

Why should he? I don't care what happens to Quinn, I couldn't care less about her. Besides, you'll see what you get out of playing all the paths at the same time.

 

[dalli_x]

He can treat this as a hobby, especially if it brings him pleasure.
But in fact, this became his main job, allowing him to provide himself with a good life.
When your work is your hobby and brings good income, many of us can dream of such life. But it’s almost all the time in front of a PC screen.
His love for mini-games is noticeable, there are a lot of them now and not all of them are successful, the math mini game and this cube are complete crap. Not all players have the mindset to enjoy it.

The mini-games themselves are one of those things. Some people like them and others don't. You can't please everyone.

 

[Geralt From Rivia]

The mini-games themselves are one of those things. Some people like them and others don't. You can't please everyone.

Ikr. So I'm just cope it, ignore the results in some runs.

 

[dalli_x]

Derek might have cheated at Hell Week.
Old Lady: "Oh, you young boys with your toys..."
Old Lady: "Put that down and focus."

 

[Kpyna]

So far it feels like the episodes haven't reached their growth limit yet - we now have dedicated time for each MG from Ep.9 (which was not the case in the first two seasons), so the growth limit has been reached here, but:
1. We also have the Side Girls block, which is still in active development, their lines are gradually becoming more pronounced and will develop further. Riona, Quinn, Lily, Nicole, Zoey will most likely receive full-fledged routes with a set of content. So it's more content for episodes.

Probably they are, already. We are at the place of the story where there is no space to grow but to reveal the secrets, get the answers instead of bring the new questions and manage branches which we already have.

DPC told about SGs already. He will satisfy all possible paths in general but only partially in each new episode, speaking of SGs. Some of SGs will have nothing from time to time and they will exchange from episode to episode. We already seen it in EP9 and EP10 and even before in S1-2. And the most part of content will be getting the side girls with a real potential paths, while the ones with filler role (Camila, Sarah, Mel, a bunch of dormies, etc) are exist only to bring us some lewd scenes from time to time. MGs are in much better position, they will always get content and amount of it will be balanced as much as possible.

2. DPC likes to come up with new things, not always successful. Long animations are his innovation. Animations in DAZ simply rape the PC and take a very long time to complete. Moreover, it’s a strange decision to make animations at 60 FPS so that the hardware doesn’t sit idle.

Long animations was new for EP9, but now it's a routine and with his new rigs it's not a big deal either. He was quite modest with animations in EP10 btw. The only long one was a BBQ party intro. Nothing compared to EP9 3 long ass animations.

Regarding 60 fps... well, probably he should use the middle path and do interpolation instead of native 60 fps rendering. But honestly, 60 fps is looks much smoother than 30. If it doesn't increase the development time and makes him happy, since rigs don't stay idle periodically - I'm ok with them. The thing is, that the 30fps will probably won't decrease the dev time either. At least now.

3. He love new mini-games and big free roams, I love interactivity, but it also increases development time. These open world renders, especially the party ones, require a lot of preparation time.

What else mini-games do you expect? I think he didn't lied when he said he did the base work and most of them till the rest of the game. He is done with them for Season 3 and I don't expect something significant or brand new in Season 4, because this season supposed to be quite special and the last half of it will barely have something like new mini-games. Probably none at all, since we will be in the phase of highly branched story outcomes and endings. Even if he will bring some new ones, they will not be so complicated and difficult to code as it was with the party planner and so on.

Now to the free roams and big events. How much of this did we had in EP10? 3 events, mostly. DIK mansion party aftermath and cleaning. BBQ party and Thanksgiving at Maya's place. All other ones are minor and was ranged from middle to tiny ones. And he mentioned that he already done with at least 2 big events (probably free roams). And that sounded promising. Because the other facts are:

- more than 50% of lewd scenes are done and only 8 was left 2 weeks ago and he said that 2 more was almost ready. So at this moment and probably following the next status updates he will only have to complete the 6. And this is amazing, since it's not only about the posing, but rendering them too. It's safe to assume that they are completely done - posed and rendered.

- mini-games are done, tweaking and adding content to the existent ones is quite easy task.

- at least 2 big events (free roams) are done too, which compairing to EP10 is also more than 50% currently.

The rest and major part of work left are canon and branched scenes, static renders and writing.

4. Plus, potential content with girls that MC's magic stick has so far bypassed.
Sally, Elena, girls from the dorm.

Throwing 1-2 lewd scenes for 1-time fuck purposes as it was with Heather in EP9 or dorm girls in EP8 is not that hard.

If there is potential for growth, DPC will most likely take advantage of it. I certainly don’t think that time will increase exponentially, but by the end of the game’s development it could reach 1.5 years, maybe even a little more.
Season 2 received a full release at the end of 2021, now we are unknown at what stage of Ep.11 development and are in April 2024, 2 years and 4 months. Season 3 may well take a full 4 years of development, this is quite possible.
That's a little cold shower from me. But we'll see how it goes; indeed, not all episodes were longer in development than the previous ones.

I'm not so sure about the last episodes and such potential huge development time for them. He will have to unroll all the possible outcomes of branches and sub-branches and not fuck up and spoil the whole game, because the end is the most important part, bring us consequences and so on, but at the same time the last episodes are usually quite linear. I'm not even sure that we will have a free roams (at least the big ones) and mini-games in the last episodes. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see it useful in the epilogue part.

Despite all his obsession and constant desire to add or improve something, he is still aware that the game cannot be in development for 10 years or even more. And that the time for such games is running out and that the gap in quality between the first and last episodes is getting bigger and bigger. It's no news that many players are scared off by the visual part of the first season. Because you have to hook and hold on the old players and bring the new ones. What the new ones have to start with? Right, from the first episodes, the first season... The more years will past from now, the more awful it will look and feel for new players and the more old players will be lost due to different circumstances. At the same time, it is also impossible to remaster and pause the current development in order to bring the game and its visual part to a common denominator at the moment, and he has already expressed his point of view on this matter. That if it will be done, it will be only after the release of the final episode.

 

[DavDR]

He can treat this as a hobby, especially if it brings him pleasure.
But in fact, this became his main job, allowing him to provide himself with a good life.
When your work is your hobby and brings good income, many of us can dream of such life. But it’s almost all the time in front of a PC screen.
His love for mini-games is noticeable, there are a lot of them now and not all of them are successful, the math mini game and this cube are complete crap. Not all players have the mindset to enjoy it.

The point I was trying to make (though admittedly worded badly) was his mindset in making the game. I don't think he's really interested in the story, writing it is just a chore that enables him to enjoy his hobby while making a living. I also don't think he's much concerned with finishing it. He seems to do just enough to keep his patrons happy, then when that's out of the way he can go back to enjoying those things that interest him.

 

[znar25]

are there lesbian only routes?

Yes.... there is a Wendy route in the others path. It just hasn't developed all the way yet.

Kinda anyway, a different throuple, MC, Derek and Wendy.

 

[znar25]

picking "other path" is not always available just for the record.
View attachment 3534467

Proof that there is a great Madame path, it just hasn't appeared all the way.

 

[znar25]

Probably they are, already. We are at the place of the story where there is no space to grow but to reveal the secrets, get the answers instead of bring the new questions and manage branches which we already have.

DPC told about SGs already. He will satisfy all possible paths in general but only partially in each new episode, speaking of SGs. Some of SGs will have nothing from time to time and they will exchange from episode to episode. We already seen it in EP9 and EP10 and even before in S1-2. And the most part of content will be getting the side girls with a real potential paths, while the ones with filler role (Camila, Sarah, Mel, a bunch of dormies, etc) are exist only to bring us some lewd scenes from time to time. MGs are in much better position, they will always get content and amount of it will be balanced as much as possible.


Long animations was new for EP9, but now it's a routine and with his new rigs it's not a big deal either. He was quite modest with animations in EP10 btw. The only long one was a BBQ party intro. Nothing compared to EP9 3 long ass animations.

Regarding 60 fps... well, probably he should use the middle path and do interpolation instead of native 60 fps rendering. But honestly, 60 fps is looks much smoother than 30. If it doesn't increase the development time and makes him happy, since rigs don't stay idle periodically - I'm ok with them. The thing is, that the 30fps will probably won't decrease the dev time either. At least now.


What else mini-games do you expect? I think he didn't lied when he said he did the base work and most of them till the rest of the game. He is done with them for Season 3 and I don't expect something significant or brand new in Season 4, because this season supposed to be quite special and the last half of it will barely have something like new mini-games. Probably none at all, since we will be in the phase of highly branched story outcomes and endings. Even if he will bring some new ones, they will not be so complicated and difficult to code as it was with the party planner and so on.

Now to the free roams and big events. How much of this did we had in EP10? 3 events, mostly. DIK mansion party aftermath and cleaning. BBQ party and Thanksgiving at Maya's place. All other ones are minor and was ranged from middle to tiny ones. And he mentioned that he already done with at least 2 big events (probably free roams). And that sounded promising. Because the other facts are:

- more than 50% of lewd scenes are done and only 8 was left 2 weeks ago and he said that 2 more was almost ready. So at this moment and probably following the next status updates he will only have to complete the 6. And this is amazing, since it's not only about the posing, but rendering them too. It's safe to assume that they are completely done - posed and rendered.

- mini-games are done, tweaking and adding content to the existent ones is quite easy task.

- at least 2 big events (free roams) are done too, which compairing to EP10 is also more than 50% currently.

The rest and major part of work left are canon and branched scenes, static renders and writing.


Throwing 1-2 lewd scenes for 1-time fuck purposes as it was with Heather in EP9 or dorm girls in EP8 is not that hard.


I'm not so sure about the last episodes and such potential huge development time for them. He will have to unroll all the possible outcomes of branches and sub-branches and not fuck up and spoil the whole game, because the end is the most important part, bring us consequences and so on, but at the same time the last episodes are usually quite linear. I'm not even sure that we will have a free roams (at least the big ones) and mini-games in the last episodes. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see it useful in the epilogue part.

Despite all his obsession and constant desire to add or improve something, he is still aware that the game cannot be in development for 10 years or even more. And that the time for such games is running out and that the gap in quality between the first and last episodes is getting bigger and bigger. It's no news that many players are scared off by the visual part of the first season. Because you have to hook and hold on the old players and bring the new ones. What the new ones have to start with? Right, from the first episodes, the first season... The more years will past from now, the more awful it will look and feel for new players and the more old players will be lost due to different circumstances. At the same time, it is also impossible to remaster and pause the current development in order to bring the game and its visual part to a common denominator at the moment, and he has already expressed his point of view on this matter. That if it will be done, it will be only after the release of the final episode.

A quick plot tool to do less path work is a fire. A nice big one that kills off most of the HOTs (no pun intended). DPC, Derek, John Boy and Jacob can only save one each.

This makes finishing by 16 episodes, just a bit easier.

Hope this helps DPC, who reads all the posts here to correct and fill in plot holes.

 

[Moni23]

Isn't it tragic ? DrPinkcake tried to make all the paths compelling and equal in content but players like you and dalli_x don't even bother to try more than one path

View attachment 3535778

The players have more than enough time to decide if they are interested in a girl. If I've already decided that I'm not interested in her before I go on a date with Jill, then why should I kiss her? It's like buying food that you don't like.