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

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shazba jnr

shazba jnr

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Feb 3, 2024
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Lizzardcheese said:
Spent the last 2 weeks or so playing the game through all the paths. Thought I'd share my thoughts with some likeminded folk.
First, I'm not sure if I'm sad I found the game this late, or sad I found it too early. Discovered I could actually like VNs through Our Red String and this probably ties that for me in terms of story and characters. And goes well above it in branching and ambition.

Main criticism is that (until Zoey showed up at least) every girl with a tattoo is a whore or a stripper. It's an old cliche,but I've known way more slutty non tatted girls than tatted girls. Minor annoyance, but it is what it is.
Full DIK is easily the most fun (even without being a manwhore) but the gay gardening putdowns put me off a bit. Seems out of character even as an asshole.

Maya: She had me in my first run but all her substance was frontloaded imo. She starts great and becomes dull later on. Maybe its just Josy stealing her spotlight but shes's just lacking the spark you had in the beginning. Also, how MC didn't bring her over for a movie date on his big TV just baffled me.

Josy: She's cute and the only reason I stayed on the path after a while. Her pillow fort was one of my favorite "dates" in the game. But mostly I feel bad for her. She wants what Maya might never give. To be happy and romantic in public. I feel like a lot of her self esteem issues (yes I know its a game) dwell from living in the closet. She does nothing but hold herself back. And you can see it hurts. I also really like that she is a Neutral affinity choice.

Jill: The sweetest path for sure. Was not expecting that costume change for halloween and it had me rolling pretty good. She's sweet but pretty boring. Which makes sense, she's new to everything. Would have made a bigger impact if the concert helping was only on the romantic path though.

Bella: Darkhorse. Did hers last and it was really touching. Really slow burn but it pays off a lot. MC is the cringiest in this one, but I can let that slide. Plus, her putting those yoga skills to work was great. I'm excited for her story, love interest or not and I cant say that about most of em.

Sage: My favorite of the official MGs. She annoyed me at first but quickly won me over. You definitely have the most chemistry with her. Her route feels natural. You're both hurt and find each other. She encourages your studying and you train her and teach her guitar. It's cute, but doesnt feel forced cute. Like many I thought she would be an airhead but she's smart as hell and freaky as hell. She solidified me in that escape room on Halloween. If you know, you know.

Others: Lily is fun.Learning how smart she was definitely took me by surprise. The rolling together thing has me hopeful for some shenanigans later on. I think shes worth her own save file for sure.
Rinoa is exactly the person I would date irl if she wasnt a literal hooker. She's cute, has the OCD perk you can tease her about. Her arcade date was the best date in the game imo. Sad I couldnt steal her on Halloween for the night to prove we could just cuddle and not fool around. Having played Acting Lessons I'm scared for her for sure.
The other others didnt really leave anything worth remarking on. Nicole is cool, bout it.

Zoey: Her story is alright. It makes sense. She is trying too hard for someone who ghosted us for so long. She's a bad friend, but I get it. I like that we can give her branching personalities. But my fav is that we can be nice or mean. Ignore most texts, refuse to hang out. I love that option. IRL, It would take me a month or two to want to just chill with someone who broke me so much and then ignored me for 8 months or so.

Quinn: Saved the best for last. My first playthrough was MJ and so I rarely talked to her and thought she deserved to be in prison or shot (though, I'm sure if maya had come out and said "Hey, I'm an actual lesbo I cant do these things." Quinn probably would have listened. She's all for punishing the shy girl, but I think she'd draw that line).
Then I did what I thought was going to be a Sage playthrough and fell for Quinn instead. And having played through them all I'd consider Quinn the be the best implemented character in the game. She easily has the most variables of any girl. She can like you, tolerate you or secretly love you. Little things like downward glances or slightly changed dialogues in scenes with other girls if she likes you. Nobody else really gets as much as she does. The hidden disappointment during sages lewd at the HOTs party was great. But itsnt there if she isnt into you. I love all of that. That's stuff that doesnt need to be in the game, but I'm glad it is. My latest playthrough was full DIK, only sleeping with Quinn and I was surprised she mentioned I never actually ordered from her restaurant. She might be a bad person, but growing up a dealers kid and who knows what else. She could be much worse. Her chemistry also feels natural and gradual. Bout died when she started calling me Babe. I can fix her.

If anybody actually read this far, thanks. Look forward to discussing ep 11 with ya.
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Welcome to the thread!

Some of us have been here for years, and a lot of us have gotten jaded with this game over time (the long time between episode development is a killer), but it's still one of the best. It dominated the #1 spot on this site's rankings for a few years, but now there's some very good competition that's knocked it off that perch.

Coming into the game now and playing all 10 episodes for the first time must have been intense, you probably got a sense for how long it was as it announces each episode, but at the same time, each episode (especially the more recent ones) are mammoth lengths.

Episode 11 is just around the corner (maybe a month away, give or take), but you're gonna feel the wait for episode 12 then, it's about a year between episodes these days. Check out mpa71's post for stats on each episode, plus that post has links to other good posts:


There's going to be about 16 episodes, so we're talking roughly another 5 years before this story is complete if the developer continues at the pace of his last two episodes.

Loved your take on all the characters, and loving that you picked up on all the nuances (particularly surrounding Quinn), to me that's one of the developer's strengths.

Not sure if you've read much on this thread, but it's a great source of camaraderie for the players between episodes.

Quinn is my favourite character too. She has the most interesting development among all the girls, and given it's just a game, it's a lot of fun dealing with her.

A Quinn post you may enjoy.

 
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Lizzardcheese

Lizzardcheese

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May 25, 2024
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shazba jnr said:
Quinn is my favourite character too. She has the most interesting development among all the girls, and given it's just a game, it's a lot of fun dealing with her.

A Quinn post you may enjoy.

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Thank you. Quite enjoyed the Quinn post and the preview timeline is great.

Really hoping if you've gone full Quinn and then roll with Lily there is some fallout. There's already tension there.
I'll probably do a more leaning towards Maya run now a few of you mentioned it gets better.

And while the wait sucks, I've seen enough posts when I started to expect 2030 to be a likely finish date and I can wait. I've waited longer for worse games.
 
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P

poser002

Newbie
Dec 22, 2019
45
49
woscarricoche said:
Damn, a year without a version release. I've seen the "Abandoned" tag on other games for much less.
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Maybe they aren't a good company with no track record of there releases. This game is expending with each update. I do think they need to Reduce a few story archs and bring the game back down to a more manageable level. Also would love to see a 2nd game but focused more on a sorority side
 
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Chalk boss

Chalk boss

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Aug 31, 2024
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Roger-a-Dale said:
If you didn't get the documents Josy's drama is the last straw and they break up.
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Well, I don't think so.
It's an illusion of choice from DPC, I assume there would be nothing in the stolen documents that would allow the loan to be canceled. Either Derek comes home later and steals the documents to help Maya.
Otherwise, DPС needs to create two branches of Maya, one with stolen documents, one without. One branch creates some possibilities and variables, the other branch creates others, and things go on from there. This is too complicated, DPC would just get confused.
It makes sense to create such complex сhoices late in the game, but not so early.
Well secondly, we've already gotten some joint previews of Maya and Josy where Maya doesn't look sad.
The anal scene between Maya and Josy might be a bonus if the documents were stolen, but nothing more than that.
Creating a code as complex as you described is insane.
 
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Roger-a-Dale

Roger-a-Dale

Well-Known Member
May 9, 2024
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Chalk boss said:
Well, I don't think so.
It's an illusion of choice from DPC, I assume there would be nothing in the stolen documents that would allow the loan to be canceled. Either Derek comes home later and steals the documents to help Maya.
Otherwise, DPС needs to create two branches of Maya, one with stolen documents, one without. One branch creates some possibilities and variables, the other branch creates others, and things go on from there. This is too complicated, DPC would just get confused.
It makes sense to create such complex сhoices late in the game, but not so early.
Well secondly, we've already gotten some joint previews of Maya and Josy where Maya doesn't look sad.
The anal scene between Maya and Josy might be a bonus if the documents were stolen, but nothing more than that.
Creating a code as complex as you described is insane.
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What is so complex about it compared to anything else in the game? Hell the code that actually decides if you succeed is way more complicated and that already exists. The branching is already there. Why make it possible to succeed or fail if the other just railroads to the same thing? There are already two distinctly different ways to play Sage's path aside from the affinity variations. Why do you think this would be too confusing?

Actually your whole thing shows that you don't know jack shit about coding and it's you who would get confused. Have you even completed the existing content? Did you need mods? The only illusion here is your illusion of knowledge. You're ignorant of your own ignorance.
 
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Crusader of Romance

Crusader of Romance

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Dec 14, 2019
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Chalk boss said:
Well, I don't think so.
It's an illusion of choice from DPC, I assume there would be nothing in the stolen documents that would allow the loan to be canceled. Either Derek comes home later and steals the documents to help Maya.
Otherwise, DPС needs to create two branches of Maya, one with stolen documents, one without. One branch creates some possibilities and variables, the other branch creates others, and things go on from there. This is too complicated, DPC would just get confused.
It makes sense to create such complex сhoices late in the game, but not so early.
Well secondly, we've already gotten some joint previews of Maya and Josy where Maya doesn't look sad.
The anal scene between Maya and Josy might be a bonus if the documents were stolen, but nothing more than that.
Creating a code as complex as you described is insane.
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I kinda agree that it's most likely has as huge effect as it seems. I expect that both paths will soon return to a form of a status quo that makes them less different.
Roger-a-Dale said:
What is so complex about it compared to anything else in the game? Hell the code that actually decides if you succeed is way more complicated and that already exists. The branching is already there. Why make it possible to succeed or fail if the other just railroads to the same thing? There are already two distinctly different ways to play Sage's path aside from the affinity variations. Why do you think this would be too confusing?
Click to expand...
But this would divide the game into even more different paths in a big way. Not just for Maya and Josy but everybody around, like Derek, Jill, Sage, everybody involved in helping Maya, because in one route they have to continue trying to help her, the other all her troubles are over. It's not like just having different dialogue if you play CHICK or DIK, it would affect much more.

Choice based games usually avoid big splits like that in storylines for too long, in my experience. They usually try to get back to a status quo not too much later. So I expect that by Episode 12, something will have happened that makes both paths return to something similar. Could be that Maya gives up in the one where they fail so there's no need to keep helping her with it or that the documents don't help as much as they thought, or maybe Patrick changes his mind.
But I highly doubt the game will continue until the end with one path where Maya is now free (and everybody involved are happy), and one where everybody kept trying to save her from her dad (and everybody feels like shit).
 
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