Ren'Py Desert Stalker [v0.16b] [Zetan]

[Skeltom]

I got around to this one again and just did the scene after the hive. I am wondering if Fangs is always going to be part of the mutant scenes? She's fine and all but I was really hoping for a solo scene with Mantis. If she is going to strong arm herself into every action with them I'll likely just avoid the mutant scenes altogether. Also I think I'm seeing a pattern. The two threesome scenes that I've come across so far have not been animated, basically just a montage of stills and text. I personally think it makes them much less enjoyable.

I also think the side quests could really do with some attention. It seems they have been stagnant for what feels like forever. Aside from the Shani content, that I haven't tried yet, the game is in the same state as it was the last time I played it. Also, if the player doesn't choose to view scenes from her POV is the update even smaller, or is it a none optional part now?

 

[goulet1995]

I got around to this one again and just did the scene after the hive. I am wondering if Fangs is always going to be part of the mutant scenes? She's fine and all but I was really hoping for a solo scene with Mantis. If she is going to strong arm herself into every action with them I'll likely just avoid the mutant scenes altogether. Also I think I'm seeing a pattern. The two threesome scenes that I've come across so far have not been animated, basically just a montage of stills and text. I personally think it makes them much less enjoyable.

I also think the side quests could really do with some attention. It seems they have been stagnant for what feels like forever. Aside from the Shani content, that I haven't tried yet, the game is in the same state as it was the last time I played it. Also, if the player doesn't choose to view scenes from her POV is the update even smaller, or is it a none optional part now?

i agree thats probably the one thing in this i havnt liked so far i like mantis so i wanted to go the route to get her but i really am not a fan of fang and would rather avoid her altogether

 

[Skeltom]

i agree thats probably the one thing in this i havnt liked so far i like mantis so i wanted to go the route to get her but i really am not a fan of fang and would rather avoid her altogether

I feel the same. The animations added to this one are pretty lack luster as well. The lewd ones anyway. I doesn't make any sense to me, they rendered fully animated environment videos so they know how to animate with Daz but the "adult" animations never seem to get any better. If anything they've gotten worse. It's definitely the weakest part of this project.

 

[Невзор]

View attachment 2134693

Can you share it with the people? You will be our hero! Well, or send me a private message... you will be my personal hero ^__^

 

[Cynicaladm]

Z is learning animation as he develops the game. Posing 3 characters to animate instead of 2 is exponentially more complicated, not to mention demanding on the hardware. There are limitations to what's possible depending on the equipment and time limits.
Could he create a 3 person animation? Possibly, with a few weeks of time to do the work and learn what he might need to.. time that would be allocated exclusively to that, at the expense of the rest of the update.
Z is the main Dev and does at least 95% of the visual work on his own.

Shani's story arc is crucial to the development of the overall plot. If you've chosen not to see her scenes that's on you. It's pretty obvious that updates that include her current mission will seem smaller if you don't play her content.

I'm not clear on what you mean by side quests being stagnant.
There's been plenty of content in the last few updates, and if you read the Dev update, you must have seen that there's more coming.

 

[JohnF95zone]

Z is learning animation as he develops the game. Posing 3 characters to animate instead of 2 is exponentially more complicated, not to mention demanding on the hardware. There are limitations to what's possible depending on the equipment and time limits.
Could he create a 3 person animation? Possibly, with a few weeks of time to do the work and learn what he might need to.. time that would be allocated exclusively to that, at the expense of the rest of the update.
Z is the main Dev and does at least 95% of the visual work on his own.

Shani's story arc is crucial to the development of the overall plot. If you've chosen not to see her scenes that's on you. It's pretty obvious that updates that include her current mission will seem smaller if you don't play her content.

I'm not clear on what you mean by side quests being stagnant.
There's been plenty of content in the last few updates, and if you read the Dev update, you must have seen that there's more coming.

I love Shani Arc, too bad is ending sooner that I wish but all is good considering that probably the game will move on to the "Desert Stalker Phase 2" after Shani Arc is done I guess .

 

[Skeltom]

Z is learning animation as he develops the game. Posing 3 characters to animate instead of 2 is exponentially more complicated, not to mention demanding on the hardware. There are limitations to what's possible depending on the equipment and time limits.
Could he create a 3 person animation? Possibly, with a few weeks of time to do the work and learn what he might need to.. time that would be allocated exclusively to that, at the expense of the rest of the update.
Z is the main Dev and does at least 95% of the visual work on his own.

Shani's story arc is crucial to the development of the overall plot. If you've chosen not to see her scenes that's on you. It's pretty obvious that updates that include her current mission will seem smaller if you don't play her content.

I'm not clear on what you mean by side quests being stagnant.
There's been plenty of content in the last few updates, and if you read the Dev update, you must have seen that there's more coming.

I realize its more demanding as well as complicated, never said it wasn't. My point is comparing the none lewd animations to their counterparts is night and day. I know it's not the only part of the game but it is part of it and it doesn't get the same care put into it as the rest of the game. Take the Raider scenes for example. Two to three characters at a time plus props and vehicles all animated together. It doesn't seem like it's a resource problem to me. Or a matter of difficulty.

I have chosen to view Shani's POV, what I asked is if it is a non optional part now. I did finally try it but it's not developed very far right now anyway so it doesn't add too much. I was just curious. I'm also wondering how they plan to have her arc impact the game if someone does choose to just be the original stalker. If it is such a vital part of the overall plot it may have been better to just make her a part of the game without that option.

I've been behind the dev updates and rarely read changelogs so I can avoid spoilers. I can't say how the side quest have been treated overall but they are the same as the last time I played regardless. I don't know what others consider "plenty of content" but I don't think any of them are more than three, maybe four, events long. All of their available content combined is probably less than fifteen minutes or so depending on how fast you read.

 

[Paz]

Two to three characters at a time plus props and vehicles all animated together. It doesn't seem like it's a resource problem to me. Or a matter of difficulty.

It kind of is a matter of difficulty, in the sense that it needs a lot more pampering. Animating in DAZ is finicky and borderline more fun than dragging your balls across broken glass.
The key difference between "action" sequences and sex sequences is the tolerance of clipping when you animate stuff.
E.g. having a car wheel go 5cm into the ground during an animation is far less noticeable than having the MC's hand go inside the belly of the partner.

Especially when you want to animate uneven movement -so it's not robotic as fuck-, you tend to get all those weird issues like moving the waist causing the hands to float away and such. Or make bodies touch precisely but not clip into each other. And the more people you add, the more things can go wrong in an exponential fashion.

That said, I'm not saying that animated threesomes won't happen or something, it's just that it is not an 1-to-1 analogy when it comes to complexity.

I have chosen to view Shani's POV, what I asked is if it is a non optional part now. I did finally try it but it's not developed very far right now anyway so it doesn't add too much. I was just curious. I'm also wondering how they plan to have her arc impact the game if someone does choose to just be the original stalker. If it is such a vital part of the overall plot it may have been better to just make her a part of the game without that option.

Shani's POV is very much optional. In fact, if you choose to not see events as Shani when you're first asked (around the whole first Mutants visit / Shani meeting the Queen) you will not have the option to play as Shani in the Zone if I recall correctly.
Still, those events happen regardless, although you miss on the details for now.

 

[Skeltom]

It kind of is a matter of difficulty, in the sense that it needs a lot more pampering. Animating in DAZ is finicky and borderline more fun than dragging your balls across broken glass.
The key difference between "action" sequences and sex sequences is the tolerance of clipping when you animate stuff.
E.g. having a car wheel go 5cm into the ground during an animation is far less noticeable than having the MC's hand go inside the belly of the partner.

Especially when you want to animate uneven movement -so it's not robotic as fuck-, you tend to get all those weird issues like moving the waist causing the hands to float away and such. Or make bodies touch precisely but not clip into each other. And the more people you add, the more things can go wrong in an exponential fashion.

That said, I'm not saying that animated threesomes won't happen or something, it's just that it is not an 1-to-1 analogy when it comes to complexity.



Shani's POV is very much optional. In fact, if you choose to not see events as Shani when you're first asked (around the whole first Mutants visit / Shani meeting the Queen) you will not have the option to play as Shani in the Zone if I recall correctly.
Still, those events happen regardless, although you miss on the details for now.

I know it's not a 1-to-1, I didn't mean for it to come across that way. What I was trying to express overall was the fact that the dev clearly puts effort into the project, it's just not the same effort everywhere. Even the simple missionary scenes are pretty much a video of genitals moving around. Then there are the ones mentioned that aren't animated at all. Something as simple as a hand job. It's very inconsistent is all I'm saying.

I think my review shows that I have enjoyed the overall experience but I'm not one to ignore something's short comings. It doesn't help anyone, be it the dev or the players. I have also notice a pretty massive increase in exposition as well as an overall change in the MC's dialogues. He kind of feels like a different character to me.

 

[Paz]

I have also notice a pretty massive increase in exposition as well as an overall change in the MC's dialogues. He kind of feels like a different character to me.

I'm curious about that, if you have specific examples to share of it's the overall vibe.

 

[Skeltom]

I'm curious about that, if you have specific examples to share of it's the overall vibe.

Two off the top of my head are the multiple paragraphs of descriptive text in the Raider scenes. Four or five paragraphs explaining what a run down shack looks like for example. I would also say that a good 80% of Shani's Zone visit is made up of that. There is almost no actual dialogue or inner monologue to speak of.

As for the MC at the start of the game he was much more composed and menacing a stalker. Again using the Raiders when you talk to General just picking a simple question leads to a response filled with ! or ?! like he's become unhinged for no reason. There has also been a lot more polite mannerisms, "won't you please wait" and "may I see you for a moment" that aren't present in the previous updates, at least not to the same degree. To me a lot of it feels like a change in writers but I don't think that's the case.

 

[Kellermann]

As for the MC at the start of the game he was much more composed and menacing a stalker. Again using the Raiders when you talk to General just picking a simple question leads to a response filled with ! or ?! like he's become unhinged for no reason. There has also been a lot more polite mannerisms, "won't you please wait" and "may I see you for a moment" that aren't present in the previous updates, at least not to the same degree. To me a lot of it feels like a change in writers but I don't think that's the case.

I haven't played in a while, but isn't the player often given in-game choice to be polite or a dick? I choose "evil" options whenever possible. Maybe you are right and I just need a replay because I've obviously forgotten.
It just always seems like this game goes out of its way to give you choices (something I really appreciate even if I rarely if ever select nice guy options).

 

[Skeltom]

I haven't played in a while, but isn't the player often given in-game choice to be polite or a dick? I choose "evil" options whenever possible. Maybe you are right and I just need a replay because I've obviously forgotten.
It just always seems like this game goes out of its way to give you choices (something I really appreciate even if I rarely if ever select nice guy options).

I does and that's why the changes seem so different to me. I have been playing on the other side I guess, a softie who's still a badass when they need to be but lately it seems like almost every choice leads to some sort of aggressive response.

 

[JohnF95zone]

The game DOES NOT try to portrays a perfect human being, perfect realism, perfect player immersion, perfect player self-projection or self-insertion, perfect choices and branching etc. It does not try to be perfect in any way either. Most players realize that and come to term with the flaw and imperfections of this game particularly, and other games generally.

The game does offer limited options for players to complete quests and advance the main plot, and surely those limited options might feel forced on the players especially if the players have a totally different idea on how to do things. It is impossible to handle all angles with regards to how all players would feel about certain aspects (like choices) of the game or certains characters or even the main character, because they are higly subjective matters.

We, the players also were NOT TOLD everything about the main character and any other characters as far as the current release is concerned. We most likely had built a character reference frame for them based on what we know and our own biases. The more we imposed our biases the more odd we find a character behave, talk or act. Just like with our real life experience with other humans. If we don't know someone personally, only what we were told about them, when we meet and interact that person, it is possible that the person is not exactly like what we knew (on that setting specifically). A person normally reacts, behaves or talks in a certain fashion but differently under certain circumstances, which is normal I think.

It is best if we can be objective about what specifically the oddities that a (or the main) character exhibits rather than a vague general overview. For example (made up), Zaton greets everyone Hello but when he meet Igor he said hey Motherf*cker. That is very odd and that is very objective. Although, there is an explanation for that, Zaton and Igor were best friends that goes along way back and they just messing with each other in what seemingly aggressive greeting.

I, personally just enjoy the ride and play the game to experience the story that Zetan and team are making the best to their abilities, barring all kinds of limitations and impedences. I viewed Zaton, the MC as a rational guy instead of good guy, bad guy, softie, chad or whatever. I don't know or think that rational is the best word here, but basically he is a man of reason. Sometimes it is a good reason, sometimes it is a bad reason, sometimes selfish, sometimes honorable, sometimes despicable. Is Zaton a realistic person? Probably not. But that's how I played him. I can do that because I DO NOT self-insert or self-project into any characters that I play in a game, and I can play practically any games. I don't care about immersion either, but I get a feeling somehow that others will find that my 'play style' breaks and ruins immersion altogether.

In the end, I guess it boils down to what type of game and what type of players that this game made for?

However, if there are some objectively weird or incomprehensible elements of the game, I would be vocal about it. For example, if there is Godzilla wrecking havoc in Old Cairo in future update, regardless of what the explanation is or are, I would definitely give the developer a piece of my vocal and harsh opinions . Cheers.

 

[Skeltom]

The game DOES NOT try to portrays a perfect human being, perfect realism, perfect player immersion, perfect player self-projection or self-insertion, perfect choices and branching etc. It does not try to be perfect in any way either. Most players realize that and come to term with the flaw and imperfections of this game particularly, and other games generally.

The game does offer limited options for players to complete quests and advance the main plot, and surely those limited options might feel forced on the players especially if the players have a totally different idea on how to do things. It is impossible to handle all angles with regards to how all players would feel about certain aspects (like choices) of the game or certains characters or even the main character, because they are higly subjective matters.

We, the players also were NOT TOLD everything about the main character and any other characters as far as the current release is concerned. We most likely had built a character reference frame for them based on what we know and our own biases. The more we imposed our biases the more odd we find a character behave, talk or act. Just like with our real life experience with other humans. If we don't know someone personally, only what we were told about them, when we meet and interact that person, it is possible that the person is not exactly like what we knew (on that setting specifically). A person normally reacts, behaves or talks in a certain fashion but differently under certain circumstances, which is normal I think.

It is best if we can be objective about what specifically the oddities that a (or the main) character exhibits rather than a vague general overview. For example (made up), Zaton greets everyone Hello but when he meet Igor he said hey Motherf*cker. That is very odd and that is very objective. Although, there is an explanation for that, Zetan and Igor were best friends that goes along way back and they just messing with each other in what seemingly aggressive greeting.

I, personally just enjoy the ride and play the game to experience the story that Zetan and team are making the best to their abilities, barring all kinds of limitations and impedences. I viewed Zaton, the MC as a rational guy instead of good guy, bad guy, softie, chad or whatever. I don't know or think that rational is the best word here, but basically he is a man of reason. Sometimes it is a good reason, sometimes it is a bad reason, sometimes selfish, sometimes honorable, sometimes despicable. Is Zaton a realistic person? Probably not. But that's how I played him. I can do that because I DO NOT self-insert or self-project into any characters that I play in a game, and I can play practically any games. I don't care about immersion either, but I get a feeling somehow that others will find that my 'play style' breaks and ruins immersion altogether.

In the end, I guess it boils down to what type of game and what type of players that this game made for?

However, if there are some objectively weird or incomprehensible elements of the game, I would be vocal about it. For example, if there is Godzilla wrecking havoc in Old Cairo in future update, regardless of what the explanation is or are, I would definitely give the developer a piece of my vocal and harsh opinions . Cheers.

Overall I think it's done well and I have enjoyed the experience. I of course don't care for every little thing, honestly who would. But with the sandbox elements and all of the different "mission tables" I think they are going to have to give the player at least a little more agency going forward or all of those mission tables are just going to be glorified quest starters.

There is also Shani to take into consideration. Whether or not the player chooses to control her or not she has been being shaped my the MC's interactions with her. If the player isn't allowed to deal with situations in varied ways she is only going to turn out one way, making that entire aspect completely pointless.

 

[JohnF95zone]

Overall I think it's done well and I have enjoyed the experience. I of course don't care for every little thing, honestly who would. But with the sandbox elements and all of the different "mission tables" I think they are going to have to give the player at least a little more agency going forward or all of those mission tables are just going to be glorified quest starters.

There is also Shani to take into consideration. Whether or not the player chooses to control her or not she has been being shaped my the MC's interactions with her. If the player isn't allowed to deal with situations in varied ways she is only going to turn out one way, making that entire aspect completely pointless.

Indeed, we will find out how it goes. I don't think what had been set up so far will be for nothing. Just how much agency a player has (will have) depends on the writing compentency, capability and 'technology' availability, to name a few. Although not specifically mentioned or identified as 'Desert Stalker Phase 2', I am looking forward to that. What I meant by Phase 2 is basically, the game is now in a phase where there is 2 Desert Stalker main characters (as far as the players are concerned). Cheers.

 

[dolfe67]

There is also Shani to take into consideration. Whether or not the player chooses to control her or not she has been being shaped my the MC's interactions with her. If the player isn't allowed to deal with situations in varied ways she is only going to turn out one way, making that entire aspect completely pointless.

If you don't play her side, you can't complain about that.

 

[Yngling]

I, for one, think Shani is a great character and potentially a worth successor to her father.

If anything, probably more interesting than her father, who is still somewhat trope-ish.

 

[Kellermann]

I, for one, think Shani is a great character and potentially a worth successor to her father.

If anything, probably more interesting than her father, who is still somewhat trope-ish.

She is a great character and that would be excellent for a sequel or spin off. But if the MC dies or severely injured before game end and it perma-switches to Shani MC, then what a stinker Protag switches in AVNs are annoying af (pick a lane), but here at least it is all optional.

I will take the trope-ish MC we have now over following Shani as she scissors her way across the desert or gets molested on every mission by rando raider dick (all fem protag AVNs seem to end up like that...either full lez or graped at every turn). I am sure that stuff has plenty of fans, but that 180 mid-story is not what I signed up for with this particular game. Save it for the sequel I believe.

Anyway, I much prefer what we had in the beginning; MC and Shani exploring and fighting together (followed by secluded fun time). The MC we have now is one of the more interesting male protags we have on F95. If you want to see trope, then look no further than the mountain of virgin teen MCs going to school, perving around the suburbia, and having endless inner monologues about why his pp is hard looking at landlady.

 

[Zeph3r]

I, for one, think Shani is a great character and potentially a worth successor to her father.

If anything, probably more interesting than her father, who is still somewhat trope-ish.

The interest may be due to the player knowing more about her and having been more involved in her character development (however slight) compared to the MC. That's not to say Zaton (MC) isn't interesting, just the guys got so much history behind him, with a lot of it still being written, that there are times where he may not feel like a complete character (as again, parts of his history are empty or unfinished). He's in a bit of an odd place as it's more interesting that he's not a blank slate, but at the same time he's so well established in the game's world (due to both his age and status) that players can't really make choices that would affect his character development without running the risk that it completely breaks lore.