Others Flexible Survival [v2025-11-11] [Nuku Valentines]

[Sarkath]

Technical Difficulty always happens. But it's devs job to solve them.
The iterations came before FS, is like experiments created for FS, which were moved on pretty quick.
But that's not what's happening to current FS.

The iterations were a fraction of the size of FS, and it's basically impossible to tell what an engine's breaking point is going to be unless you actively push against it. So far FS seems to be the only game (out of possibly thousands of IF titles that have used Inform 7 since its release in 2006) that has managed to kill the compiler this badly, and even then it took over a decade for it to become large enough to do so. There are some things you simply can't plan for, and this absolutely is one of them. I also don't think they have any actual programmers (if they did, the Godot port would have probably seen much more noticeable progress) so well…here we are.

I mean, just for context, I'm a fairly seasoned developer at this point (both professionally and personally) and sometimes it can still be tough to predict how well a from-scratch design is going to scale, even after doing your damnedest, running simulations, etc. Writers who just wanna make a game using an existing engine or framework generally don't even consider things like that because they tend to just trust the tech. Regardless of which camp you fall into, trying to plan for unknown situations that can happen a decade down the road is a borderline impossible, unenviable task. There's a reason veteran software engineers are worth so much money, after all.

I can't speak for their intentions with the recent Patreon shifts, but considering how much of the writing seems to be commissioned, coupled with the fact that their funding has been on a steady decline, coupled again with the technical issues, yeah, I don't see things ending well unless something changes. I mean, I highly doubt they just woke up one morning and said, "Alright, time to Blackgate this shit!" given their history, and at this point I'm still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, at least through the first half of 2025.

 

[nackedsnake]

The iterations were a fraction of the size of FS, and it's basically impossible to tell what an engine's breaking point is going to be unless you actively push against it. So far FS seems to be the only game (out of possibly thousands of IF titles that have used Inform 7 since its release in 2006) that has managed to kill the compiler this badly, and even then it took over a decade for it to become large enough to do so. There are some things you simply can't plan for, and this absolutely is one of them. I also don't think they have any actual programmers (if they did, the Godot port would have probably seen much more noticeable progress) so well…here we are.

I mean, just for context, I'm a fairly seasoned developer at this point (both professionally and personally) and sometimes it can still be tough to predict how well a from-scratch design is going to scale, even after doing your damnedest, running simulations, etc. Writers who just wanna make a game using an existing engine or framework generally don't even consider things like that because they tend to just trust the tech. Regardless of which camp you fall into, trying to plan for unknown situations that can happen a decade down the road is a borderline impossible, unenviable task. There's a reason veteran software engineers are worth so much money, after all.

I can't speak for their intentions with the recent Patreon shifts, but considering how much of the writing seems to be commissioned, coupled with the fact that their funding has been on a steady decline, coupled again with the technical issues, yeah, I don't see things ending well unless something changes. I mean, I highly doubt they just woke up one morning and said, "Alright, time to Blackgate this shit!" given their history, and at this point I'm still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, at least through the first half of 2025.

Wasn't undermining it's difficulty nor achievements.
I'm simply point out a pattern I recognised.
(Let's hope I'm wrong and FS devs are indeed outliers that's still cooking something good.)

Most devs were setting out to create games rather than chasing profit (Yes even Bane of Blackgate), but people changes, what's beneficial for them then can no longer be beneficial now, vise versa.
The fact people (even ex-devs) are calling for Changes / Reboot for so long yet nothing comes out of it, then then doubling down on what's currently on, tells a lot.
If nothing else, it's a show this development model doesn't really work (anymore), and they are not trying to improve.

The Godot port was like the hope for people to hold onto, then they killed it. At least the are transparent?
Simple question: What can you even expect from this game anymore?

 

[somebodyelseiguess]

The Godot port was like the hope for people to hold onto, then they killed it. At least the are transparent?

The Godot port is gone!? I looked and cannot see Godot being mentioned in the news after June of 2024.
What happened there?

 

[Devronman]

flexible editor works fine. you have to export your progress then use flexibleeditor on one of the files created (there are several) and save the changes. Then importing the file again (which will take 10 to 20 minutes for some reason)

Thats how i managed to enter the lupine lair, by making the hidden rock cavern entrance a public place instead o a private one -.-

Old post, but I can't seem to make this work for some reason. Maybe the editor is too old at this point? I exported my progress, then pointed that editor to the folder, but it couldn't seem to find the files anyway.

Edit: Oh , you said Flexibleeditor, not FlexEdit, which is the one you can just download and run. Having the darndest time trying to compile the editor.

 

[Sarkath]

Edit: Oh , you said Flexibleeditor, not FlexEdit, which is the one you can just download and run. Having the darndest time trying to compile the editor.

There's a pre-compiled binary available. GitHub's release system can be a wee bit confusing if you don't know what to look for, though.

You must be registered to see the links

.

It's still not as friendly as FlexEdit since it basically just gives a raw view of the glkdata file, but if you're just looking to edit character data this reference is still mostly-relevant (though last time I checked the file is now FSCharacterVariablesSave4, not 3).

 

[Devronman]

There's a pre-compiled binary available. GitHub's release system can be a wee bit confusing if you don't know what to look for, though.

You must be registered to see the links

.

It's still not as friendly as FlexEdit since it basically just gives a raw view of the glkdata file, but if you're just looking to edit character data this reference is still mostly-relevant (though last time I checked the file is now FSCharacterVariablesSave4, not 3).

Thank you very much Sarkath.

 

[Naturestune]

Is this the regular version or the backer version?

 

[Say_10]

The Godot port is gone!? I looked and cannot see Godot being mentioned in the news after June of 2024.
What happened there?

Based on what I've heard in the project's Discord, the Godot version has been frozen indefinitely.

 

[Natalie Dawg]

Based on what I've heard in the project's Discord, the Godot version has been frozen indefinitely.

That's a major bummer.

I hope work continues to the base game regardless so that it doesn't die.

 

[Mr. X]

I'll never forgive them for giving bunker NPCs storylines and leaving them half cooked and unfinished forever.

angry raised fist noises

 

[Say_10]

That's a major bummer.

I hope work continues to the base game regardless so that it doesn't die.

As I understand it, the team developing the Godot version of the game simply had more important things to do at some point in time. As I said earlier, the development was frozen, but not canceled. A lot of work had been done, a lot of mechanics had been ported over, and it was just a matter of starting to port the content that had been written, so it would have been a dreadful waste of resources to just cancel it.

 

[Natalie Dawg]

I'll never forgive them for giving bunker NPCs storylines and leaving them half cooked and unfinished forever.

angry raised fist noises

Wait, that's the fate of all the bunker NPC's?
lmao

I always wondered why it seemed a bit random to have a lot of those characters there, and it's a bit of a letdown to know that Stella will never get any updates.

As I understand it, the team developing the Godot version of the game simply had more important things to do at some point in time. As I said earlier, the development was frozen, but not canceled. A lot of work had been done, a lot of mechanics had been ported over, and it was just a matter of starting to port the content that had been written, so it would have been a dreadful waste of resources to just cancel it.

Well, here's hoping it can get picked up sooner or later.

Thank you for replying and educating me on this matter~!

 

[Woozieydreamer]

As I understand it, the team developing the Godot version of the game simply had more important things to do at some point in time. As I said earlier, the development was frozen, but not canceled. A lot of work had been done, a lot of mechanics had been ported over, and it was just a matter of starting to port the content that had been written, so it would have been a dreadful waste of resources to just cancel it.

While that sounds good on paper and I want to be optimistic, there have been way too many cases of devs having all the foundations and basics down for their projects, only to completely dumpster it and never pick it back up. Don't underestimate how many furry game devs are entirely willing to waste all that time and effort by throwing out or forgetting about their work after slapping an "indefinite hiatus" label on it.

 

[Dagger15]

So I think I just figured out how to deal with the slower load times of the game. You will want to use git instead of gluxe. As well as run the game from your SDD, instead of an HDD.

Here is how:
1. Go here and download the file called "

You must be registered to see the links

Windows security will likely give you an alert. It is a false positive. Extract the zip into your Flexible Survival folder if you created one, if not its helpful to do so.

2. Go here and download the file called "

You must be registered to see the links

. Download and install the exe. Again you might get alerts about a virus, those are false positives, allow the installation.

3. Double click on the .gblorb flexible survival file to play and navigate to "git" that you extracted from step one to use as the interpreter.

4. Enjoy. This has been faster to use than gluxe player but has the same style.

 

[Sarkath]

2. Go here and download the file called "

You must be registered to see the links

. Download and install the exe. Again you might get alerts about a virus, those are false positives, allow the installation.

This is not necessary. This is related to a different piece of software that happens to have the same name as the interactive fiction interpreter.

The only thing you need to install is Git_138_Windows.zip (note that this is the interpreter bundled with Flexible Survival, at least last time I checked, but it's good to know where to grab it if you don't want to run the full installer).

 

[somebodyelseiguess]

I use garglk to load the game. It supports individual colour themes. Awesome for nights and OLED etc:

You must be registered to see the links

 

[Natalie Dawg]

I use garglk to load the game. It supports individual colour themes. Awesome for nights and OLED etc:

You must be registered to see the links

I just use the git.exe version and have modified the configuration to best suit me.

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Can I get better results using Gargoyle?

 

[nackedsnake]

This is not necessary. This is related to a different piece of software that happens to have the same name as the interactive fiction interpreter.

The only thing you need to install is Git_138_Windows.zip (note that this is the interpreter bundled with Flexible Survival, at least last time I checked, but it's good to know where to grab it if you don't want to run the full installer).

Wait, so if it's already bundled with Flexible Survival (the one I use)
Then that's not what make the game run faster / less laggy?
Dagger15 simply threw hardware (SDD) at the problem to solve it?

Which means there's no way to make this game less laggy, as long as you use HDD?

 

[Sarkath]

Can I get better results using Gargoyle?

Gargoyle uses the same interpreter as git.exe, with a different frontend. There shouldn't be much, if any, of a difference aside from the GUI.

I'd say Gargoyle's best feature is that it's cross-platform, so if you happen to use any Mac/Linux systems you can share a configuration file between all of them.

Wait, so if it's already bundled with Flexible Survival (the one I use)
Then that's not what make the game run faster / less laggy?
Dagger15 simply threw hardware (SDD) at the problem to solve it?

Which means there's no way to make this game less laggy, as long as you use HDD?

My guess is that they were using gluxe for some reason. They probably downloaded it from here in that weird period that they only redistributed the gblorb and only discovered git later on. Git is a lot faster than gluxe—I remember discovering that when I first started getting into interactive fiction.

The SSD probably does help given FS's size, but I don't know how much of a difference it actually makes.

 

[somebodyelseiguess]

Can I get better results using Gargoyle?

Gargoyle changes the same values for text/colours. You want RGB or AI generating NSFW pic?