VN Ren'Py Eternum [v0.7.5 Public] [Caribdis]

[Dorfnutter]

Some of these are a real stretch. Revealing that nova gets the eye bleed in egypt is not connected to the eternum mystery, come on.
Yeah, you can make a point that there's some story hints in most of them, but they are rarely major and it's rarely the point.

Warthogs doesn't move the story forward, neither does andromeda, or egypt, or red herring or ekabar or semper invicta. They are there to be fun events with the gang, with some plot sprinkled in at some points.
All of that is fine. This is what Caribdis excells at. Writing fun, funny adventures with a likable gang of people and some sexy scenes. Not everything needs to move the story forward. To me these games are more like slice of life. There's a story and it's fun and interesting, but the point is to have these fun events and excursions.

Red Herring definitely did. Or do you think the gang getting their first gem of doom and encounter with the syndicate doesn't count as story progress?

Warthogs and Semper Invicta does by getting Penny and Nancy into Eternum and defining their roles moving forward (one having a future as a healer while the other as a commander).

Andromeda is essentially foreshadowing to the Bleeding Effect (it's implied that the "Bleeding Effect" is some form of waking dream based on Luna's dialogue of what she said Orion was doing throughout the entire ordeal) and added a lot of fuel to the "is Eternum really a game" question.

Egypt...fine, I'll give you that. But I feel like some of the character trait reveals there (particularly Nova's eye issue) feel like they're going to be a bit significant in the future.

Yeah sure, they are fun events. But they also move the story forward, if a little, as uncovering the truth regarding Benjie's mysterious death also ultimately leads the gang to uncover the truth about the nature of Eternum, the Founder, and whatever reason he has in having millions of players find those damn gems. So every progress they make in the game is crucial to the story, even if it's masked as an in-game activity or bonding moment with the girls. Compare that to "Once in a Lifetime" (Caribdis' first game) where majority of events with the girls absolutely did NOT move the plot forward at all (especially in much of the beginning segments of the story), and only served as ways for the OIAL MC to deepen his relationship with the girls instead of being crucial to the plot.

In fact, I'd dare argue that there's more deliberate plot and lore building in this VN more so than in OIAL (which is not surprising considering that Caribdis is writing this entire thing as a mystery story where you're encouraged to follow the breadcrumbs and keep your eye out for clues and theorize until the inevitable reveal), so to just view all that's happening as "fun events and excursions" feels like it's dismissing the stuff that Cari has been doing as far as the storytelling is concerned.

 

[Son of Durin]

Some of these are a real stretch. Revealing that nova gets the eye bleed in egypt is not connected to the eternum mystery, come on.
Yeah, you can make a point that there's some story hints in most of them, but they are rarely major and it's rarely the point.

Warthogs doesn't move the story forward, neither does andromeda, or egypt, or red herring or ekabar or semper invicta. They are there to be fun events with the gang, with some plot sprinkled in at some points.
All of that is fine. This is what Caribdis excells at. Writing fun, funny adventures with a likable gang of people and some sexy scenes. Not everything needs to move the story forward. To me these games are more like slice of life. There's a story and it's fun and interesting, but the point is to have these fun events and excursions.

What's a story without a few tangents? Do you want completely linear? You may as well get an AI to write the thing and take all human whimsy and distraction out of the story. Of course, then you'll take all of the humanity, soul and what makes things interesting out of the story and everything will be a Hallmark Channel (but with sex) cookie-cutter VN with no real story, no real surprise and nothing to differentiate it from the thousand other boring "romp from one lewd scene to another" choices out there.

One scene I found a bit superfluous that made my eyes roll a bit was the animated story server with the bear. I thought "oh brother" and rolled my eyes when it started. But now I think back on it and chuckle and really hope we get to pop back in at some point to see what things are like there now. It was goofy and not extremely enlightening from a story arc perspective, but it was fun and showed us a little bit of the mind of the author and that's something to appreciate (and maybe fear a little...).

 

[Alandir]

What's a story without a few tangents? Do you want completely linear? You may as well get an AI to write the thing and take all human whimsy and distraction out of the story. Of course, then you'll take all of the humanity, soul and what makes things interesting out of the story and everything will be a Hallmark Channel (but with sex) cookie-cutter VN with no real story, no real surprise and nothing to differentiate it from the thousand other boring "romp from one lewd scene to another" choices out there.

Did you just not read what I wrote? I never complained about it. Eternum isn't a complex, focused story and that's fine. That's what these games are good at, to have a more relaxed, chill story. The purpose of the game isn't to string you from story beat to story beat. The purpose of the game is to get you from one fun event to another fun event, which may or may not progress the story.
I am not saying that is bad, quite the contrary in fact. It's great, because this is what caribdis is good at. That Eternum focuses on that strength of his writing is good and the game is excellent for it.
I am just arguing because I get the feeling that Dorfnutter is arguing that the game is something that it isn't.

 

[Son of Durin]

Did you just not read what I wrote? I never complained about it. Eternum isn't a complex, focused story and that's fine. That's what these games are good at, to have a more relaxed, chill story. The purpose of the game isn't to string you from story beat to story beat. The purpose of the game is to get you from one fun event to another fun event, which may or may not progress the story.
I am not saying that is bad, quite the contrary in fact. It's great, because this is what caribdis is good at. That Eternum focuses on that strength of his writing is good and the game is excellent for it.
I am just arguing because I get the feeling that Dorfnutter is arguing that the game is something that it isn't.

I read, but your tone suggested you really didn't get it. Maybe you do, but if you get it, why bring it up? Why make it something if it's nothing? And if you think the game isn't "something", then figure out what you think is "something" and go enjoy that. Let those of us that enjoy this game - and consider it something more than you do - enjoy the game.

Adios.

 

[Dogorti]

when some psycho are gonna make a incest mod for this game?

p.s: i kwow this game have no incest thats why i said mod

 

[ArDZer]

when some psycho are gonna make a incest mod for this game?

p.s: i kwow this game have no incest thats why i said mod

Might be difficult to pull off, and imho the game's already fine as it is (at least in terms of relations between the characters). There's a reason why Patreon cracked down so hard in such content sometime ago iirc.

 

[Dogorti]

Might be difficult to pull off, and imho the game's already fine as it is (at least in terms of relations between the characters). There's a reason why Patreon cracked down so hard in such content sometime ago iirc.

There is a guy who made an incest mod for love season, changing almost the entire story. If someone has the desire and time, it's possible, I would do it if it wasn't because I don't know anything about programming lol

And as for patreon, there are still incest games and new ones come out every year as easy as using alternatives such as subscribestar or the usual "fan" patches.

 

[Dragon59]

Might be difficult to pull off, and imho the game's already fine as it is (at least in terms of relations between the characters). There's a reason why Patreon cracked down so hard in such content sometime ago iirc.

Yeah, pressure from the banking services who were afraid of being penalized for dealing with such material. Much like federally insured credit card providers won't allow their cards to be used in legal marijuana dispensaries. Legal in that state, but they have to deal with federal and international consequences. Mastercard pressured PayPal, and PayPal pressured Patreon.

 

[Deleted member 5730975]

when some psycho are gonna make a incest mod for this game?

p.s: i kwow this game have no incest thats why i said mod

Hopefully never because it goes against what the developer has envisioned for the game. This game is not designed to be an incest game where the MC fucks his mom/sisters/whatever - you can see this on the dev's profile page where someone asked him about creating an incest mod. There might be a threesome/foursome with a milf and her 2 daughters but no incest involving the MC. And I think it should stay that way.

 

[Yvier the Duck]

Hopefully never because it goes against what the developer has envisioned for the game. This game is not designed to be an incest game where the MC fucks his mom/sisters/whatever - you can see this on the dev's profile page where someone asked him about creating an incest mod. There might be a threesome/foursome with a milf and her 2 daughters but no incest involving the MC. And I think it should stay that way.

First of all, I'm 100% with you that this game doesn't need incest, but the developer vision is irrelevant for mods. I played Skyrim with Thomas the train being the dragons and using the Kamehameha instead the Fus Ro Dah, and I'm pretty sure that it wasn't the creative vision of Bethesda, but it was funny for a replay.
If someone prefer incest because the tabboo even imposted turn him on then cool, and you are free to play with or without mods, but we can't talk about the correct form to play a game because that doesn't exist, is a cyclical topic without real answer.

And about an incest mod in this game, it can be really difficult because is not changing one or two words, you need to change the story and it gonna have a lot of plotholes, like Dalia and the MC having the same age but not being twins, the father only taking Orion and totally ignoring the other two daughters, Nancy searching a new job when Orion is still with her, the cold reunion between Orion and his "sisters" at the beginning, etc.
Is practically another version.

 

[Dorfnutter]

I am just arguing because I get the feeling that Dorfnutter is arguing that the game is something that it isn't.

If by "something that it isn't" you mean I'm arguing that the game is a complex story with antagonists that have complex agendas and a plot that is confusing unless you pay close attention to the moving parts, no I'm not.

I'm arguing that a lot (note: not all of em) of the events that look like "one fun event to another fun event" on the surface level serve a narrative purpose other than just that. Not to mention that there's various hints and clues peppered in both the dialogue and lore reveals (i.e. NPCs being controlled by a chip which feels needless if they're supposed to be a full virtual construct) that eventually lead to even bigger reveals in the story (the 0.5 ending sequence is a testament to that).

Does that make Eternum's story complex? Not really. The entire thing is already building up to the fact that Orion and co will eventually switch from playing the game to stopping whatever bad thing is happening in Eternum (and I don't just mean the excommunications). Anything beyond that is just extra.

But the way the story is told beyond the surface level - from the deliberate peppering of information that Cari is doing to nonchalantly revealing certain things that eagle-eyed observers would freak out at - makes me believe that there's a lot more thought put into the storytelling and making the entire thing feel like you're uncovering a mystery instead of just being stringed along one random event to another like in OIAL (which is fine for that game since the entire thing played more like an Indy-style adventure with porn once Asmodeus was introduced to the story).

 

[Dogorti]

Hopefully never because it goes against what the developer has envisioned for the game. This game is not designed to be an incest game where the MC fucks his mom/sisters/whatever - you can see this on the dev's profile page where someone asked him about creating an incest mod. There might be a threesome/foursome with a milf and her 2 daughters but no incest involving the MC. And I think it should stay that way.

what the other guy told you. I asked for a mod, not a patch, I know this game doesn't have incest.

 

[Dogorti]

It just doesn't fit the story, maybe that's why there isn't one.
Which of the girls would you want to (somehow) be related to MC?
Are you asking for a mod that lets you choose if you want familial relationships with each of them?

nah, that wouldn't work, by mod I mean something that changes several lines of dialogue to add the incest in a kinda organic way (a lot of work) anyway it's not necessary I enjoy the game without the incest, but still it would be fun.

 

[Dogorti]

& if someone did create one, but it's not the girl you wanted incest with, what then?
Or do you not care which girl it is, you just want any incest content, with any of the girls?

all girls are goated so idc

 

[Dogorti]

There are so many games which do have that content, I really don't understand why you'd want to get it introduced, by a 3rd party, to a story which it doesn't fit with.

Because i'm sick and the more incest the better.

and again it would be a mod, something like putting porn on the sims or skyrim. there's nothing wrong with it, it's for fun

 

[Phase_01]

There are so many games which do have that content, I really don't understand why you'd want to get it introduced, by a 3rd party, to a story which it doesn't fit with.

I mean that is by definition, what a mod is. Plenty of games have mods that completely change it up. Look at Skyrim and Minecraft.
Having mods doesn't take away from the fact that the base game is amazing, just adds different experiences to it.

Not saying I want an incest mod, just don't think its that confusing why some people would want mods that give you different experiences in a game. It wouldn't be Eternum of course, but would be an overhaul mod that changes the story for people that would want to experience it. Same way people put Lord of the Rings in Minecraft to experience Lord of the Rings and not Minecraft.

Personally I don't feel like needing a mod cuz I like the base story, but I won't judge people that want it

As long as they still like the base story of course, if they don't then I've got words and fists for them

 

[Dorfnutter]

I feel like any discussion about modding incest into Eternum is still premature at this point given that there's still a lot of story to cover and Caribdis could still throw some curveballs that could potentially compromise said mod (like, for instance, showing off Orion's biological mother in a flashback or two, or revealing info about Orion's nature that would make any biological connection between him and the Carters mess up the entire story and necessitate a major story rewrite for the mod to work).

 

[Deleted member 5730975]

First of all, I'm 100% with you that this game doesn't need incest, but the developer vision is irrelevant for mods. I played Skyrim with Thomas the train being the dragons and using the Kamehameha instead the Fus Ro Dah, and I'm pretty sure that it wasn't the creative vision of Bethesda, but it was funny for a replay.
If someone prefer incest because the tabboo even imposted turn him on then cool, and you are free to play with or without mods, but we can't talk about the correct form to play a game because that doesn't exist, is a cyclical topic without real answer.

And about an incest mod in this game, it can be really difficult because is not changing one or two words, you need to change the story and it gonna have a lot of plotholes, like Dalia and the MC having the same age but not being twins, the father only taking Orion and totally ignoring the other two daughters, Nancy searching a new job when Orion is still with her, the cold reunion between Orion and his "sisters" at the beginning, etc.
Is practically another version.

It is not irrelevant because the story is being developed. Modding what you want in a completed game is not the same as modding something that is ongoing. What if Caribdis introduces the MC's mother next update? Not only does the story need to be altered to fit the current game but if from the developer's perspective incest does not fit, it will also have to be altered in the future. If a mod is going to be made it should happen after the plot points are resolved. It is a massive waste of time and energy otherwise and it is a lot to ask of any modder in my opinion.

But I guess my initial reply of 'hopefully never' was a bit uncalled for. You are right people like what they like.

 

[Yvier the Duck]

It is not irrelevant because the story is being developed. Modding what you want in a completed game is not the same as modding something that is ongoing. What if Caribdis introduces the MC's mother next update? Not only does the story need to be altered to fit the current game but if from the developer's perspective incest does not fit, it will also have to be altered in the future. If a mod is going to be made it should happen after the plot points are resolved. It is a massive waste of time and energy otherwise and it is a lot to ask of any modder in my opinion.

A what if is not a good reason to not make something. If the real mother appears in the game then yes, the mod is irrelevant, but that's every mod in every game, you can't predict what the author is gonna make. We stop making walkthought mods because the author could make one in the future? Gallery mods? Translation mods? No, because is useful now, change the game now, and the future well, who knows.

But I guess my initial reply of 'hopefully never' was a bit uncalled for. You are right people like what they like.

Oh, don't worry, It wasn't a bad take and I understand you, I just wanna tell my opinion. We all love the game, no need to apologize, and sorry if my reply felt a little agressive, it wasn't my intention.

 

[Jeycii_]

(copy pasting my review on the game to show how awesome i view this game to random ppl in the forum)

Euhh...
i came here after seeing the tv ad from My Bully is my Lover and after finishing Once A Lifetime. I was really hooked in OAL and was kinda sad, that the game ended so early. (I love Carla <3 )
At first I was really hesitant on Eternum because from the pictures it looked like sci fi shooting bla bla which i wasnt too much interested on, but... HOLY *** MACARONY I HAD NO IDEA ETERNUM WOULD BE SO *** GOOD!!!
I love EVERYTHING.
The designs, the characters, world building, story, animations, renders, jokes, dialogues, pacing, music, art... OH MY GOD, ITS SO GOOD. This easily reached my top favorite games, if not even #1... oh damn. I cant go into any details because im a noob for creating games and etc, but damn... this game is a masterpiece and im positive that it will s tay this way. Hell. 11/10. I cant praise this more, its really freaking good.

Thanks for this game dear Caribdis and team (im just assuming there is a team lul)