VN Ren'Py Abandoned Due Process [v0.3.6.0] [kivik]

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Kuatt

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Mar 10, 2017
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blackdraco said:
looking at his patreon page current is beta 0.3.7. but it wont let anyone download and i'm a $5 patreon
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I'm a 1$ patron (or rather, a nothing patron, since the campaign is on hold while kivik works on his remake of the game) and can download it without problem.

Are you sure you are searching for the correct post? Obviously he hasn't put the link in the overview, otherwise everyone would be able to download it, but in the 1st of september update you will find the link for 0.3.7.
 
E

Ereg

New Member
Jun 20, 2017
14
13
bunk_88 said:
in 2 month its a year since the last update.... i think its abandoned
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Kivik posted an update for patrons as recently as this past March and April with ideas for how they were going to proceed with the game, including some pretty significant revamps of the story.

This was the last one I got:

So I had today off work, and I finally managed to drag myself out of the house and went to the library to work on the game whilst my computer does more rendering at home.
I'm still at the planning stage, coding wise I've only written a few barebone pythons classes that will be the foundation of the game mechanics' data structure.
I want to share the current combat ideas with you guys, perhaps get some feedback from you guys.
First of all, I was mostly influenced by a video by Extra Credits about the Leviathan Axe in God of War. They talked about how the game introduced depth by using a single weapon, used in a variety of ways, to basically give player choices - if they're advanced enough to take advantage of it. This video probably inspired me to boil down my combat game mechanics to the simplest elements - but introduce variety to make more complex gameplay.
So the entire game revolves around these gemstones that has been appearing in Violet City. When a certain energy is channeled through these gemstones, special powers come out the other end - the four discovered gemstones causes heat (fire), cold (frost), wind and gravity / earth (still subjected to change and open to ideas!). The technology around this gave birth to the superheroes in this city. These are your magical powers in the game.
A second layer to the gemstone is that they can tap into a person's life force, and affect their abilities - giving them extra strength, dexterity, stamina etc. These are basically character attributes.
There are 4 types of gemstones (for each elemental type), and they come in various sizes (progression), which have to be cut and fit into specially made slots in your equipment to allow the channeling of the energy or influence your stats.
Of course ultimately I'm making a mind control game, and Karen's research is basically the effect of the gemstones when she channels a different form of energy - which has the power to influence lust, memory, will and consciouness.
I'm still not 100% set on what the nature of this energy is, but I'm currently calling it aura, or maybe I'll stick to life force - which you drain from people through sexual encounters.
So this not only leads to ultimately sexy slaves using the gemstone's powers, but requires you to engage in sexual encounter to get there. I don't know if this feels arbitrary, but the reason behind it was that it's meant to take some time both narratively and progression wise before you get the sex slave content - and ultimately I'm making a h-game and I can't deprive you guys of that content till late - end game!
I'm currently playing around with the structure of the combat mechanics specifically, what stats are needed, and what effects different abilities will have.
Like most RPGs, there will base stats that helps calculate the effects of actions, and bar stats like HP and MP (energy). However, unlike typical RPGs, you can choose to tackle the HPs, or other bar stats such as consciousness, will and lust to end battles.
In the long run, this core mechanics can grow in variety / complexity simply by introducing a new gemstone type or a new energy source. There will also already be other things in place such as equipment modifiers, maybe slot & gemstone compatibility modifiers etc.
I'm not building everything all at once however, as I want to build a core framework for the entire game first, like the broad strokes when you start a painting, and expand on the details as time goes on.
This means combat itself may start out automated until it gets more advanced and control each individual action, in fact they may be invisible to start with as part of the heist game loop where you just see the outcome.
That said, I still want to make sure I'm not coding myself into a corner by laying the right foundations for everything. For example, what if I introduce a mechanic where a particular gemstone is disabled in certain areas? I'm adding a function check to my code now, so that whilst it'll always return TRUE right now, it can become dynamically changed in the future!
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, I really feel like I'm onto something fun here!
kivik
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Chili Dog

Chili Dog

Newbie
Feb 17, 2018
24
79
I'd say there is a good chance this is abandoned. Patreon is full of creators like this that fail to deliver finished products.
It's a shame - the core gameplay was fine. The creator just should have finished his story with the mechanics he had created and if he wanted to do something new, save it for a new game or sequel game.
 
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c3p0

c3p0

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kivik said:
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I know I'm not good at this, and I know I'm not where I should be regarding keeping you guys updated. For that I'm genuinely sorry. I need to work on it and I know that I've had my head in the sand when it comes to letting you guys know what's going on. I can't promise I'll be where I need to be soon, but I'm working on it.
Sparing you guys my life stories, here's another long overdue update.
Development had been stagnated big time the last few months. I never really got started properly, but I have now, as of these past few days.
What's changed? I've been long frustrated with not having a concrete idea that I can sink my teeth into. That meant I lacked the drive on top of other life things that are getting in the way.
Whilst struggling to fall asleep the other night, I suddenly had the brainwave I wish I had a year ago. I know exactly what I'm doing now, I know what I'm coding now will actually go into the final product.
So I've achieved the old project on
You must be registered to see the links
and started a new one. I've setup a new personal server a few weeks ago that I've linked up, and after much frustration I've got my pipeline setup. I've also realised that I can isolate the access permissions on gitlab, so my actual code is hosted on the same project as the issue tracker - only you guys can't see the code! Here's the link:
You must be registered to see the links

I'm going to use the gitlab project as my todo list and bug tracker basically.
So what's the brainwave?
I hate the word I've used for it, but it's probably the best descriptor for it: Cards. Almost everything will be made from cards: actions, equipment, characters etc. at a conceptual level.
Cards will have attributes, and these attributes will dictate how different things interact with each other. Some examples include:
- Missions are cards, their attributes are basically prerequisites to attempt a mission. During preparation you'll need to get the intel to unlock the mission
- During the mission, you have encounters, and you have to counter them with equipments or abilities you have. For example, for a security camera, you can play your stealth card to avoid it, or your hacking card to hack the camera feed. The stealth attribute needed may be lower, but at the same time it may cost you more time units than hacking. And the mission will have limited time units before you have to abandon it. Your cards or your encounters will also have secondary effects that accumulate to increase your chance of being caught, or your being identified (from evidence you leave behind) outside of the mission.
- During combat, your opponent will have attributes that you have to beat. You use your combat ability or equipment cards to counter the opponent's overall stats. You may use more power cards to save time units, or multiple less powerful cards at the expense of time units.
- For research, you need to produce certain resources (cards) to fulfil the requirements for a research.
- For the all important mind control, it'll be like encounters where you counter certain status of your subject - and whatever additional effect will then affect the subject.
This solves a big problem I've had with the game potentially having lots of unrelated mechanics and not particularly "fun" or interesting gameplay, whilst simplifying everything into a single relatively easy to learn system.
It also solve a concern I have with combat, where I'd have to build a decent turn based system (I hate just switching turns because then the concept of a fast character doesn't exist, whilst with this I can create modifiers to the time units based on your speed stats), and a rudimentary AI system, which is probably a lot more complex than it's worth.
All cards will have base stats and random bonus stats, so there will be random elements that you have to deal with.
Best part is, the coding should be fairly simple, the hard part is more developing intuitive mechanics itself. Balancing should be easy as well as I can just tweak the card stats directly.

So with a concrete idea to code towards, I'm finding the drive to push the coding. Instead of sitting mindlessly in front of the TV with my wife, I'm now either coding or actively thinking about what to do with the game.
Unfortunately I've found that I've forgotten a lot of Ren'py and Python language, but it should be like riding a bike and I should be back up to speed in a few weeks.
I can't make any promises of when the first release will be, but I just want you guys to know that I've found some momentum, however small it may be.
Thank you to all my patrons for being so patient with me and for your support, I know I don't deserve it, but I truly appreciate it.

Oh, and above you'll find a few renders I've done recently. Nothing special, but it's a start I hope.
kivik
I know I'm not good at this, and I know I'm not where I should be regarding keeping you guys updated. For that I'm genuinely sorry. I need to work on it and I know that I've had my head in the sand when it comes to letting you guys know what's going on. I can't promise I'll be where I need to be soon, but I'm working on it.
Sparing you guys my life stories, here's another long overdue update.
Development had been stagnated big time the last few months. I never really got started properly, but I have now, as of these past few days.
What's changed? I've been long frustrated with not having a concrete idea that I can sink my teeth into. That meant I lacked the drive on top of other life things that are getting in the way.
Whilst struggling to fall asleep the other night, I suddenly had the brainwave I wish I had a year ago. I know exactly what I'm doing now, I know what I'm coding now will actually go into the final product.
So I've achieved the old project on
You must be registered to see the links
and started a new one. I've setup a new personal server a few weeks ago that I've linked up, and after much frustration I've got my pipeline setup. I've also realised that I can isolate the access permissions on gitlab, so my actual code is hosted on the same project as the issue tracker - only you guys can't see the code! Here's the link:
You must be registered to see the links

I'm going to use the gitlab project as my todo list and bug tracker basically.
So what's the brainwave?
I hate the word I've used for it, but it's probably the best descriptor for it: Cards. Almost everything will be made from cards: actions, equipment, characters etc. at a conceptual level.
Cards will have attributes, and these attributes will dictate how different things interact with each other. Some examples include:
- Missions are cards, their attributes are basically prerequisites to attempt a mission. During preparation you'll need to get the intel to unlock the mission
- During the mission, you have encounters, and you have to counter them with equipments or abilities you have. For example, for a security camera, you can play your stealth card to avoid it, or your hacking card to hack the camera feed. The stealth attribute needed may be lower, but at the same time it may cost you more time units than hacking. And the mission will have limited time units before you have to abandon it. Your cards or your encounters will also have secondary effects that accumulate to increase your chance of being caught, or your being identified (from evidence you leave behind) outside of the mission.
- During combat, your opponent will have attributes that you have to beat. You use your combat ability or equipment cards to counter the opponent's overall stats. You may use more power cards to save time units, or multiple less powerful cards at the expense of time units.
- For research, you need to produce certain resources (cards) to fulfil the requirements for a research.
- For the all important mind control, it'll be like encounters where you counter certain status of your subject - and whatever additional effect will then affect the subject.
This solves a big problem I've had with the game potentially having lots of unrelated mechanics and not particularly "fun" or interesting gameplay, whilst simplifying everything into a single relatively easy to learn system.
It also solve a concern I have with combat, where I'd have to build a decent turn based system (I hate just switching turns because then the concept of a fast character doesn't exist, whilst with this I can create modifiers to the time units based on your speed stats), and a rudimentary AI system, which is probably a lot more complex than it's worth.
All cards will have base stats and random bonus stats, so there will be random elements that you have to deal with.
Best part is, the coding should be fairly simple, the hard part is more developing intuitive mechanics itself. Balancing should be easy as well as I can just tweak the card stats directly.

So with a concrete idea to code towards, I'm finding the drive to push the coding. Instead of sitting mindlessly in front of the TV with my wife, I'm now either coding or actively thinking about what to do with the game.
Unfortunately I've found that I've forgotten a lot of Ren'py and Python language, but it should be like riding a bike and I should be back up to speed in a few weeks.
I can't make any promises of when the first release will be, but I just want you guys to know that I've found some momentum, however small it may be.
Thank you to all my patrons for being so patient with me and for your support, I know I don't deserve it, but I truly appreciate it.

Oh, and above you'll find a few renders I've done recently. Nothing special, but it's a start I hope.
kivik
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c3p0

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kivik said:
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Unlocked
Future proofing saves
One of the biggest issues I had with the last version of Due Process was saves breaking as new versions were released. This was because of changes made to the fundamental data structure of the game mechanics, from character attributes to task mechanics.
If I added new attributes to the character templates, and the game then requests that new attribute information from an old save before the data existed, the game crashes.
It was always a bit of a headache thinking about how to tackle this, and I toyed with the idea of creating "conversion functions" that triggers when saves are mismatched and apply the changes with default values. That approach was always going to become more and more complicated overtime, and I'd need to keep care tracks of all the changes, on top of normal development.
This problem is always an issue with releasing a game in development, especially when it uses local saves. I guess on multipler games you can push the data changes directly to the servers so everybody's saved state gets updated, so I wouldn't have to worry about save data from two versions ago being used on the latest release.
Anyway, now comes the current iteration of the game, with the advantage of hindsight, I've prepped my data structure to prevent this problem as much as possible. I'm going to save as little data as possible, and since we're dealing with primarily a card based system, it shouldn't be too hard for most of it.
A year ago, I'd have created the card objects, and save the entire card object - name, description, attributes etc. to the save file. Now, all the cards will have a "constant" version - which means they're not saved, it's loaded into memory when the game starts.
So for instance, Card 1 is a ability card called Hacking, it has a name, description and attributes. Since those won't change during the course of the game, they'll stay the same, and all I'm saving is the fact that you've got the Hacking Card. Now you save the game, and I update the card system, Cards now have lores attached to them. No problem, I'll just update the cards and add lores to them. When you load the save, the lore for the Hacking Card is automatically available to you!
In reality it's a little more complicated than that, since cards will have variations to them. There are bonus stats for example, which are determined when the card is created. Well I'm saving the variation along side what the card is in the save file. So as long as the variation data structure doesn't change - I can change other aspects of the cards without breaking the old saves!
Since most of the mechanics will be card based, with the right planning, there should be very little I need to worry about changing that would break the game going forward.
Another thing I've planned is that attributes themselves will also be constants, so attributes can have descriptions, but also mechanical properties. The value of the attribute will be saved, but I can change the behaviour of the attribute by rewriting the attribute functions / methods, which are reloaded each time you start the game - and they can behaviour differently based solely on the values (constant) + variations (saved).
Hopefully this will make the game more robust during new releases going forward, and only major changes (associated with major release changes) will break saves, but they shouldn't be as frequent!
kivik out
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dm12345

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4.50 star(s) 8 Votes