Hey guys, so here's the scenario. Let's assume that I have a previously released a chapter of my VN, then on my next chapter, I decided to change some stuff in the ending of the first chapter.
What kind of stuff ? Because forcing the players to replay a scene also mean doing twice everything that is in this scene.
How do I make it so that people who load into their previous save in the new release get pushed back to the scene before the changes occur? This is to make it so that they are forced to replay the new ending. I also want to make sure that we don't skip to this point if the player hasn't gotten to where I've changed the story.
Well, there's many way to do this.
The most obvious one would looks more or less like this:
Python:
label whatever:
$ whateverControlChan = True
[your content]
if hasattr( store, "whateverControlChan" ) and whateverControlChan:
jump nextLabel
jump whatever
If the player come from another label, the flag is raised, and therefore at the end of the label, the player will be sent to the continuation of the game.
But, if he saved while being inside this label, the flag will be unknown, and at the end of the label, the player will be sent back at it start. Then the flag will be raised and you already know what will happen.
And, no, this wouldn't works from the "after_load" label. Whatever the place where the save would have been made, the flag would be unknown. This even if you initialize it with
default. What mean that you would have no way to know where the player was when he saved.
There a set keeping track of all the already seen labels, but it's a global value. This mean that the list isn't related to this particular play, and a label can be marked as "seen" just because it have been seen during another playthrough. Do not use it to try to guess what content the player have seen or not, except if it's as part of a gallery or achievement mechanism.
This being said, it's the most obvious solution, not the most efficient. If the player saved, let's say two lines after the start of the label, he will have to pass through the rest of the label once, then will pass through it a second time. But you can benefit form Ren'Py behavior to solve this.
If the changes in a label are significant enough for Ren'Py to not be able to find the save point, then when the save file will be loaded, Ren'Py will restart at the top of the label.
Therefore, something like this should works:
Python:
label whatever:
jump whateverUpdated
label whateverUpdated:
[your new content]
It will be totally transparent for a player who haven't reach the updated label yet, while a player who saved inside the label, whatever at what moment inside it, will be taken back to the only line still in it, and from there forced to replay the label you updated.
All this being said, it's way better to plan all this beforehand. As I implied above, depending of the changes the consequences can be really not pleasant. Variable increased/decreased twice, opposite flags being both raised because the player decided to make a different choice the second time, are part of the possible consequences.
Changes in previously released content should limit to bug fixes and narratives. Everything regarding the game mechanism and player decision shouldn't be changed, except eventually one time, when you release the final version.
