VN Ren'Py Friends in Need [Ch. 8 v0.57b SE] [NeonGhosts]

[metamorphMP]

and... here we go)) well, at least there is no "Tier tables" this time

Here are my top 3:

1) Viola
2) Ash
3) Brit - I played it a while ago, but I remember that I wasn't sure if there is any romantic path for her, I rejected her advances cause didn't want to take advantage of her, dunno how it's now...
if there is a love path with Brittani then it will be:

1) Brit
2) Viola
3) Ash

 

[NebulousShooter]

Brit (I played it a while ago, but I remember that I wasn't sure if there is any romantic path for her, I rejected her advances cause didn't want to take advantage of her, dunno how it's now)

 

[KGpride5]

My top:

1) Brittani
2) I don't even know what the other girls' names are, Julio.

 

[Ragnar]

Other characters who were never planned for, but wound up being pretty important: Ashe, Carolina, Brittani, Pepper, Viola, Wren..

 

[Innocience]

We sharing girl preferences? Here's what I think about each for a longterm relationship from an out-of-character perspective ordered by descending preference:

Spoiler: Pepper, hell yes

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Spoiler: Brittani, lots of potential

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Spoiler: Nicki, sister and last option

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Spoiler: Viola, are you even interested in guys?

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Spoiler: Ashleigh, gotta find common interests

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Spoiler: Madison, who are you again?

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Spoiler: Gabby, too immature

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Spoiler: Isabella, I can fix her

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Spoiler: Mason, learn to love yourself first

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Spoiler: Carolina, my job and my kid are my personality

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Spoiler: Risa, hell no

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[Real Trampas]

best girl in the game

hahahha holy fuck is brittani??? man i have her signature....it's been so fucking ling with no update that i forgot her, fuck this dev

 

[AlexMpog]

Well, for me it's:

1) Brittany - she is far ahead of any other LIs, I anticipate content with her the most with a lot of wholesome moments (well, I sure hope so at least)

and also there are:

2) Ash
3) Viola

 

[Jace_Herondale]

Spoiler: Isabella, I can fix her

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Ok, Who's Isabella. For the love of god, I can't remember her

 

[HiP1]

Changing the topic.. If I did some more in-game short stories (ala the Brent update) who would you like to see get the focus of one?

I definitely have plans for:

• Nicki's time in Florida, and her disastrous 'modeling' shoot.
• Ashe's attempt at modeling, and her dad's reaction.
• Viola being pressured by her landlord.
• Pepper's early camgirl streams.
• A special event with MC interacting with Bonnie, Ashe's mom.
• A special event with MC visiting Brittani at Chesty Cheetahs.

Any other corners of FiN you'd like to see?

more interactions with LIs between themselves without MC being involved to make it more believable as a whole.

for example, a scene where Gabby and Viola need to do some research at the museum and end up running into Ashe that will be very helpful to them, just before MC arrives to have his tour.

also, having a better understanding of how Brittani ended up with Jamie could be interesting. in the game, it just kind of happens, but they don't seem to go well together at all. I'm guessing he is the simp in her comments and he probably worked in her DMs for months before. Brittani liking his family "normal" shouldn't become a thing until they actually date for a while. and Brittani finding out about Gabby, confronting Jamie about it, and all the stuff about the slave kink.

Ashe's dad's accident that forced him to retire, the immediate consequences for the family and their reaction, and how Wren plays into all that could be interesting too.

a fun harmless short story might be one about the guy that Risa came to replace. how he lived his last few days at work, and what he did after he left and a glimpse into his bond with MC.

also, maybe a before and after for the influencers that ambushed MC.

Risa's story growing up and Carolina's divorce will probably be extensively detailed in the next few updates, so there shouldn't be a need to make a special short story on them.

 

[flaviopaganini]

best girl in the game

Do you speak of this blonde?

 

[Joshy92]

I'm looking forward to more Carolina in the future. Maybe I could become Maya's dad?

 

[Real Trampas]

Well, for me it's:

1) Brittany - she is far ahead of any other LIs, I anticipate content with her the most with a lot of wholesome moments (well, I sure hope so at least)

and also there are:

2) Ash
3) Viola

1st is brittani
2nd is viola
3rd is nicki, why nicki? because she is a slut, a fucking slut!!! AAAAAAAAAA so hot, thats why

 

[Joshy92]

Well if we are doing lists here's mine.
1 - Nicki & Mason. I like them both partly because they are really sweet and kind. That is a really attractive trait to me.
2 - All other waifus.

 

[HiP1]

No one. No short stories and no side stories, please.

Don't waste your time and focus on moving the main storyline forward.

it's not a waste of time at all.
the game needs world building. and short stories are also great for the dev's mental health. being able to switch to something "easy" and short when you are stuck on the main thing can help a lot when you get back to the main thing after a small sense of accomplishment.

The plan would be to keep the short stories pretty limited in some cases, and not so much in others. I got to thinking about this while I was doing the prose stories for Ashe and Viola -- these are two that I think would really benefit the story, if they appeared in-game. And, they're two stories that I kind of wrote with the mentality of, "How would I translate these to visuals?"

So, it's mostly just.. Viola talking to her landlord. Ashe typing on her computer. Viola talking on the phone. Ashe posing on a beach. They've got some smut in them, but it's mostly just people sitting around and talking.

Now some, like the one I'd like to do for Brittani, would basically be mini-chapters. I'm trying to get away from the thing where each chapter is basically a day of linear time. So, following the remake of Chapter One, following chapters may have little skips of a week or a few days between them. That serves two purposes. For one thing, it stretches the narrative out a little. It was kind of my intention to make the first phase of the game like.. Guy's Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week. He's constantly talking about how busy he is, how stressed he is, etc. It's supposed to be a tumultuous period in his life, in which a bunch of things are set in motion.

In the next phase, we'll see some of those developments play out with the emphasis being more on the interesting parts of the story, than a rigid POV where we're over Guy's shoulder as he goes about his day. I think that'll help make certain relationships more believable, and it'll help smooth past the boring parts of certain events.

Like, we don't really need a day-by-day check-in as Brittani films a movie. But, we do need to see things like the casting call, her first day of shooting, her first nude scene, etc. That's all interesting stuff.

We don't really need to see every single step of Guy and Gabby's relationship, but if I show the first time they sleep together, their first date, etc. and skip ahead a couple weeks, we can safely assume they have a relationship burgeoning in the background, and we'll check in for the important story moments.

Now, some of those events may be better served as smaller updates, which I can put out more quickly between larger chapters.

Picture something like this:

December: Chapter 11, Big Update of 1100 renders: Guy arranges a meeting with the director of the movie and Ashe, while auditioning Brittani for the part. He brings Viola to his condo to explain her cleaning duties. He has an interaction with Carolina to give Viola a copy of his key, and plan their date. He arranges a meeting with Gabby, to discuss the status of their relationship.

February: Chapter 12, Small Update of 500~ renders: Having noted Brittani was off at her audition, he goes to visit her at Chesty Cheetah's. Noting her popularity, he wonders if they both might not be better served working at a certain diner. Guy takes Carolina out for dinner, but forces outside their control derail their date.

March: Chapter 13, Small Update of 200~ renders: Guy appears on a news segment hosted by Wren's father, a local newsman. Nicki earns her paycheck.

July: Chapter 14, Big Update of 1100 renders: Guy and Risa team up to solve a problem. Wren and Ashe take MC to lunch -- and then for dessert. Gabby asks Guy for help with her portfolio, but he has a request of his own. Guy has questions for Pepper, and checks in on his new waitress (?). Mason proves tech savvy.

September: Chapter 15, Small Update of 350~ renders. Guy pays Bonnie and Cole a visit looking for answers, but receives more than he bargained for.

November: Chapter 16, Small Update of 500~ renders. Brittani's accent coach gives her some tips before her first nude scene.

Basically, I'd use smaller updates to deliver more story content, more often, while still doing bigger updates. And I know people are probably wondering, "Hey, why not just do bigger updates with smaller gaps between them?"

The honest answer is that this kind of work isn't 1:1 in terms of speed. I've said it before, but that Brent mini-chapter took me about four days to write, render, and code. It's around 100 renders, and very straightforward, true. But, the big difference is that I was able to work on it with a very small, concise framework in mind. I didn't have to juggle multiple scenes, which would all need to interact with each other in different ways. There's also just a mental toll. With a short story, the end of the road is visible, and I just have to get there. With these longer chapters, it's more like trying to see the end of the path through a dense wood. I know it's there, but I have to explore a bit before I find it. It's exhausting, and sometimes that leads me to drag my feet because it just feels overwhelming.

Also - the big, complicated sex scenes I like to do, take a lot of time. People sitting around and talking doesn't take that much time. So, I could do some talky scenes that have nudity and light sexual content, and get through them pretty quickly. I've said it before, but part of my plan for these later chapters is to de-emphasize the exhaustive sex scenes. Like, once a character has their big sex scene with multiple positions, I think it's okay to go, "Alright, we've seen her blow him. We can deal with this new blowjob in ten to twenty renders." The scene in Chapter 8 where you have sex with Nicki in bed, or in Chapter 7 where you have sex with Ashe over the table, are good examples. Still robust, but not 125+ renders per scene.

That was kind of long and rambling, but hopefully people could follow it. The bottom line: Smaller updates delivered more often, but longer ones wouldn't go away.

good approach, honestly. but Nicki is only mentioned once in that timeline, suspicious
maybe the big updates should be actual chapters and the smaller update could be ".1" in the numbering ?

 

[NebulousShooter]

Do you speak of this blonde?

View attachment 3621187

That is indeed the 2nd best blonde in the game.

 

[HiP1]

In Chapter 8, if you turned down Brittani in the loft, and were nice during the photo shoot, she's happier to see you, less nervous, etc. and she flirts a bit by showing off her work uniform.

Spoiler

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Is it a lot? No. But, it's appreciably different than if you were more aggressive with her, and it hints that she'll be warmer to you. You know, like you may want in a romantic relationship. But, she's also not super cold to you if you did take her up on her offer. She just clearly feels a bit awkward about it.

I'm just going to skip over complaints about certain girls getting an outsized amount of time, because here's some other characters that have gotten the same complaint: Nicki, Ashe, Gabby, Viola, Pepper, Risa, Carolina, Madison, and actually literally every character in the game.

As for lol at the shop content, that was a late, unplanned addition in order to give Brittani fans a little content, since we hadn't seen her in a little while, and I figured I could tee up her next appearance. It's not uncommon for me to be working through an update only to realize, "Hey, this character would fit in really well, here.." and then I end up writing and rendering an extra scene. It happened in Chapter 6 with Mason, Chapter 7 with Risa, Chapter 8 with Brittani, and Chapter 9 with Pepper. Then, the schedule slips. But, I don't add these scenes, without thinking they'll benefit the story as a whole.

And it seems like that 'story as a whole' idea is something people keep having trouble with. Things happen in the story.. Because the story needs those things to happen. Risa was, initially, just planned as a foil to Carolina. Fun and free-spirited, to Carolina's uptight and rigid. Then, I realized she could work as a viewpoint character into some of the shady things MC keeps brushing up against. So, she took on some more screentime, to move the plot forward in a more interesting way.

Other characters who were never planned for, but wound up being pretty important: Ashe, Carolina, Brittani, Pepper, Viola, Wren..

I mean, I'm not really sure what to say here. It's a story. Characters show up when they have something to do, and they're not around when they don't. When they don't have interesting things to do, someone else gets center stage for a bit. I just don't get it, honestly. Do people get mad when they're reading A Storm of Swords and they get to a character POV they dislike?

"UGH, FUCK! Fucking Tarly. I'll just skip this one and go to the next Tyrion chapter -- such bullshit!"

I mean, do you want to go check in with Gabby? Okay.

• mc"Hey Gabby, how are you?"
• gb"Still mad at you. I'm waiting for a major plot development to occur, which will allow me to forgive you."
• mc"Oh, cool. I bet we'll do that when I see you in Chapter 10."
• gb"Bet."

Oh, here's Brittani.

• mc"Brittani, what's up?"
• bri"Uh, I just saw you today. I'm currently at work. I assume I'll see you tomorrow, or the next day? To audition for the part? But, it'd be helpful if you knew anyone with a Slavic accent to help me with the role."
• mc"Wow! Shockingly, I do! I'll just need to see her in Chapter 10, to tee that up."
• bri"Great, see you after that."

Now, for people who want to complain about the schedule, et al. -- go look at the date this thread launched. March 30th, a bit over two years ago.

Since then I've done: 8,687 images, eight full chapters, a Halloween update, and an April Fool's update. Oh, and I did The Student Loan during that time, which had another 189 images. All of which needed to be written, coded, and playtested, by someone who didn't know how to code or use Daz, before starting this. Add to that juggling my community, trying to navigate through the changing whims of payment processors, having a life, and working my real job, and I think I'm doing okay.

I'm not going to sit here and defend my work ethic, because quite frankly it speaks for itself. I don't like to compare myself to other devs, but there are teams of two or three devs, people who do this for an actual living, who don't put out as much work as I do by myself.

And despite this, I get to deal with people telling me, literally since Chapter One, that the plot branches have clearly spun out of control, and I'll never be able to manage it. Yet somehow I'm still here, putting out releases every four months, and moving the story forward. Two years in! There are TV shows that run for five, six, seven years or more. Fuck, Spider-Man's been published since the 60s.

It's serial storytelling. It takes time.

If you feel you can do better, I make all the Daz files for my characters available in the fanart thread. Have at it! I look forward to playing your much better game.

was that a subtle foreshadowing spoiler of a brittani/viola threesome scene ?

basically I did 'the right thing' in the hope of a romance route and hope for a hint at something at least, but instead the routes already started dark and 'corruptions' are still the ones that benefit from unique interactions, while I'm friendzoned. This is entirely a me and my stupid expectations problem and not a problem with those scenes, narratively, or gameplay wise

dude, you already got that small hint in the shop scene. it's normal for a wholesome vanilla romance path to be *very* slow, with little reward for a long time. slow burn even. its normal for the dark and fwb paths to have instant gratification too, but probably less rewards down the line. it's pretty standard.

to me, on the romance path, she shouldn't even flash her bikini top in the shop. it was probably to reward the good guys, but it would make more sense that she would be more comfortable to do it to an MC that got a boobjob already.

Now, honest question, was the new villain planned from the start, because I assumed the bad guys will be Jamie, Brent and maybe the people that he owed money to, or is he YET another new character to pile on? And if you planned it from the start, do you think it was a good narrative choice to introduce him 8 chapters in?

WTF, bro. any character can be introduced as late as the author wants it. there are a ton of examples where characters, especially main villains, that are introduced at the very end. Chapter 8 is still early in the story even. We are still getting to know the characters.

Might be. She seems very liberal about sex.

she's very flirty, but she said she is a virgin, it was done as a joke, but it could be true

She just offered sex for money/drugs in last update, after offering a foot job while knowing Guy for 10 minutes 2 updates ago, after flirting with him in front of others after knowing him for 5 seconds. Like why are we splitting hairs about this?

I have no problem with people liking what they like, my problem is with people refusing to call the spade they like a spade.

she was in withdrawal. desperate measures for desperate situations. she could go back on her words after she got some drugs too.
she knows MC for a few days only, but they interact a bit. she can already know if she likes him or not. and she knows about him from all the talks people around her have, and the news about him. i'm pretty sure she has a good image of him in her mind already before actually meeting him.
her family is not big on displays of affection, so she has a skewed vision of relationships too.
doesn't make her a slut, yet.

she was never supposed to be anything but background fodder so that will forever will be a vote against her from me.

just like your beloved Brittani... so should Brittani content be cut completely from the game too, if we follow your own logic ?
stories evolve as they are written, characters too.
it could be argued that it is actually VERY bad if an author only strictly follow the original plan and never deviates at all. Editors in publishing companies are there for a reason.

What I do object to is the way Risa was suddenly thrust into such a prominent position without the proper setup. The MC's relationship with Nicki, even with the early game weirdness in Episode 1, was developed well enough that we can understand why Guy will lavish so much attention on her (regardless of how sordid that attention is). But Risa was a very minor presence in the MC's life, and the few choices we had allowed us to blow her off completely if we were so inclined. She was very much an optional extra. Yet somehow the MC is not only willing to buy drugs for her out of the blue, he's even willing to do so personally, after she blatantly lied and manipulated him. And we can barely even get our avatar to raise an eyebrow at this turn of events! It all just happens, and now we're locked into spending even more time with Risa cleaning up the fallout in the next chapter.

It makes no sense. Worse, it unintentionally undermines what I assume was the very point of weaving her arc into the main story this way. She was supposed to be a graceful way to introduce Luthien with out having to drag the game to a halt and drop a lot of exposition on us. But because the MC's are so incongruous with the game up to that point it winds up feeling every bit as heavy handed and artificial as an infodump would have been... while also saddling poor Risa with a level of resentment the game is unlikely to be able to handle. Before Chapter 8 I was happy to turn a blind eye to Risa's constant harassment and assume the MC was inwardly rolling his eyes the same way I was. But now that she's made it clear she's a genuine problem I'm not going to settle for anything less than a tough love stance so unyielding that her father's attitude pales by comparison. Is that a level of branching the game can support? I doubt it.

i think a smoother way to push MC into that situation in the drug den for people that are not on Risa's path could be to actually drive her back home for real, but because MC and her took too much time choosing his outfit, they end up being very late, and Lucien had to send a guy to fetch Risa. MC being there, he gets taken too, by force to pay her debt. or something like that.

4) Enjoyable in my usual taste
- Risa
- Brittani
- Carolina
- Nicki
- Ashe

5) I don't really care
- Pepper
- Amputee girl
- I think amputee girl has a girlfriend? Her, by the way

amputee girl is Wren. her girlfriend is best friend actually, and it's Ashe.

Well if we are doing lists here's mine.
1 - Nicki & Mason. I like them both partly because they are really sweet and kind. That is a really attractive trait to me.
2 - All other waifus.

what happened to Carolina when you just said you wanted to be Maya's stepdad ?

 

[Joshy92]

was that a subtle foreshadowing spoiler of a brittani/viola threesome scene ?




dude, you already got that small hint in the shop scene. it's normal for a wholesome vanilla romance path to be *very* slow, with little reward for a long time. slow burn even. its normal for the dark and fwb paths to have instant gratification too, but probably less rewards down the line. it's pretty standard.

to me, on the romance path, she shouldn't even flash her bikini top in the shop. it was probably to reward the good guys, but it would make more sense that she would be more comfortable to do it to an MC that got a boobjob already.



WTF, bro. any character can be introduced as late as the author wants it. there are a ton of examples where characters, especially main villains, that are introduced at the very end. Chapter 8 is still early in the story even. We are still getting to know the characters.



she's very flirty, but she said she is a virgin, it was done as a joke, but it could be true



she was in withdrawal. desperate measures for desperate situations. she could go back on her words after she got some drugs too.
she knows MC for a few days only, but they interact a bit. she can already know if she likes him or not. and she knows about him from all the talks people around her have, and the news about him. i'm pretty sure she has a good image of him in her mind already before actually meeting him.
her family is not big on displays of affection, so she has a skewed vision of relationships too.
doesn't make her a slut, yet.



just like your beloved Brittani... so should Brittani content be cut completely from the game too, if we follow your own logic ?
stories evolve as they are written, characters too.
it could be argued that it is actually VERY bad if an author only strictly follow the original plan and never deviates at all. Editors in publishing companies are there for a reason.



i think a smoother way to push MC into that situation in the drug den for people that are not on Risa's path could be to actually drive her back home for real, but because MC and her took too much time choosing his outfit, they end up being very late, and Lucien had to send a guy to fetch Risa. MC being there, he gets taken too, by force to pay her debt. or something like that.



amputee girl is Wren. her girlfriend is best friend actually, and it's Ashe.



what happened to Carolina when you just said you wanted to be Maya's stepdad ?

Damn I forgot to put her at number three. But rest assured she is up there with the best.

 

[BadMoonZ]

Tier lists, OK.

1. Ashe
2. Gabby
3. Mason
4. Brittani
5. Nicki
6. Carolina
7. Viola
8. Pepper

 

[Dr.Slime]

The Idea of the girls interacting with each other interesting i liked it. Even if they don’t share something maybe a situation happen and they interact with each other or help each other without MC

 

[Defenestrator.for.traitor]

I'm looking forward to more Carolina in the future. Maybe I could become Maya's dad?

That spot is taken by me mate, move along.