VN Ren'Py Friends in Need [Ch. 9 v0.60c] [NeonGhosts]

[NeonGhosts]

Do you plan on any impact of the redone chapter 1 on the following chapters? I.E., looking at the code, you somewhat changed how you were tracking routes with Nicki and Ashe. Are you gonna make those more in line with how you handled it later? Or will it be a like for like in terms of path?

I'll definitely be re-labeling some things, and adding new/different variables. A lot of the early chapters suffered from me not labeling things appropriately. But, I don't want to get too in the weeds with it, and create a giant mess.

 

[Joshy92]

A recurring theme in the game is that most people are kind of miserable in the circumstance where we first find them. This mirrors Guy's own path. Like, does Guy in Chapter 1 seem like someone you want to hang out with? No! He's a miserable misanthrope that spends his day's moping over the girl he likes, but is too much of a wet noodle to make a move on.

• Nicki's perpetually screwed over by the blindspot she has for controlling men, leading to one crappy decision after another.
• Gabby's an 18/19 year-old who feels chained to a business she wants no part of, right when she's trying to start her own life.
• Ashe's career aspirations (and life) have been stalled by people being unwilling/unable to take her seriously.

So on and so forth. If everyone was perfectly well-adjusted and happy, they wouldn't need Guy/the player in their life.

To be fair I'd be mopey too if Nicki left I mean she an angel so I can understand Guy there.

I've said this on this thread multiple times, that you can make a case for each girl being a total bitch or a damsel in distress depending on how you interpret their actions (except for Viola, who, to my reckoning doesn't really have a 'bitch' interpretation yet).

Nicki - Gold digger / Needs rescuing from her poor choice in men
Ashe - Opportunist / Naive and ditzy
Gabby - Spoiled brat / Girl from a broken home
Brittani - User of everyone around her / Victim of a unloving mother
Risa - Drug Addict / Trying to make amends for past bad choices
Mason - Lazy / Victim of a transphobic father
Piper - Close off Ice Queen / Comes from a horrible home life
Viola - (Not sure) / Trying to do the best for her ailing mother

I'm sure I'm forgetting someone. But like I've said, it all depends on interpretation of their motives, which is why I love this game.

Mason lazy? I'm now triggered lol

 

[Drew Anderson]

Mason lazy? I'm now triggered lol

Somehow I knew you would be.

 

[MagicMan753]

Nah, the update following Chapter 10/my hiatus will just be Chapter 1, with some stuff from following chapters reworked/tweaked. Chapter One's basically going to be a ground-up rework, and I'd expect it to land somewhere in the 750-850 render range. So, it'll be pretty sizable. But, at that time I also plan to add in/fix some content that I'd been wanting to address for a long time. Ashe's Dark and Corruption dates will get more content, as will all of Risa's sex scenes from Chapter 9. New positions, etc. I'll also be cleaning up some of Gabby's content in Chapter 2, tweaking things here and there. Then there's also a few scenes where the renders need touched up -- some clipping on Viola's shirt in Chapter 3, disappearing/reappearing wine bottles in Chapter 7, etc.

The goal is basically to present a redone Chapter 1, and a tidied-up Chapters 2-10, somewhere around March.

Do you also plan on possibly adding that point system at the end of ashe's date that you mentioned a couple times too, during this slight rework, to be able to do more things before psssing out?

 

[Dr. Mick]

I've said this on this thread multiple times, that you can make a case for each girl being a total bitch or a damsel in distress depending on how you interpret their actions (except for Viola, who, to my reckoning doesn't really have a 'bitch' interpretation yet).

Nicki - Gold digger / Needs rescuing from her poor choice in men
Ashe - Opportunist / Naive and ditzy
Gabby - Spoiled brat / Girl from a broken home
Brittani - User of everyone around her / Victim of a unloving mother
Risa - Drug Addict / Trying to make amends for past bad choices
Mason - Lazy / Victim of a transphobic father
Piper - Close off Ice Queen / Comes from a horrible home life
Viola - (Not sure) / Trying to do the best for her ailing mother

I'm sure I'm forgetting someone. But like I've said, it all depends on interpretation of their motives, which is why I love this game.

Interesting take on it.
Admittedly, I'm not sure who two of those are; probably didn't find them interesting enough to remember them (I'm also bad with names). Half of that list I'm interested to see where their story goes, along with one other character not listed. The other half could disappear from the story, and I'd barely notice.

To each their own.

 

[PHIL101-YYouPPHard]

Yeah, but that also sucks. I kinda just want to yell at her and make her go away? But my options are to either be a beta loser or a rapist...

You can just pay her and keep the sex pretty casual as a middle-ground. I guess come March it'll all be tidied up anyways, maybe it'll be better received then.

It is unfortunate though that any kind of vulnerability or weakness in an MC character sometimes gets chucked into the "beta loser" bucket. We're all 'beta losers' at some point in our lives, I think it's nice when it gets represented in fiction. I know it's sex fantasy so a lot of people don't want that angle, but I love it. Gives lots of room for character growth and an actual story as opposed to 'magic dick, wins every physical altercation'.

I'm giving her a chance, I was soft to her in the first interaction, I think any other reaction was too harsh for a chick that was just needing money.

Are there any Gabby scenes? the walkthrough makes it seem there arent.

There's a BJ scene where you can potentially do some other naughty things, but no sex sex yet

 

[Machete]

Yeah, but that also sucks. I kinda just want to yell at her and make her go away? But my options are to either be a beta loser or a rapist...

I understand you. Not with Nicki, i'm rather fine with her, but i had LIs of some game that i really couldn't suffer and they where even unavoidable. I stopped playing a few games because of that. The complete full agency unfortinuately is way impossible. I think Friends if Need leaves a lot of choices though. I don't see it much like simping with Nicki. You can flaunt her some big bucks that MC can totally efford and send her her merry way or put here decently under control if you then go romantic. Sure is not the most reassuring pandering relationship in the world of visual novels, but i think the false start makes it more interesting. Not really my pair of shoes, i prefer other girls from the game, but i'm cool with her.

 

[NebulousShooter]

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Hey friends, hope you're all doing well this week! Hopefully the hurricane/storms that swept up through the southeast corner of the US didn't affect any of you good folks. I caught a tiny bit of it here in the midwest, with some sections of my city losing power. But, I was fortunate enough not to have any real problems.
I'm happy to say that the shopping scene for Chapter 10 is officially complete, aside from a little touch-up I need to do for a handful of renders. Current render count stands right around 1030. I'm now working on Mason's big ero scene, which I hope to have finished within the next few days. Then there's a little bit of connective scene tissue I need to work on too. Basically, I just need a short scene (10-20 renders) of the player dropping off/picking Mason up from the optometrist, and then a 30~ render conversation scene transitioning from the Mason storyline, over into Gabby's content. Pretty sure I can knock both of those little sections out in a day.
Today I'm stuck at my day job, so I've been poring over the script, seeing if there's any improvements I could make. I always get this weird feeling of nervousness before I release a new chapter, and this time's no different. I remember that, when writing Brittani's photoshoot scene way back in Chapter 4, I was convinced I'd completely fumbled the whole thing, and everybody was going to hate it. On the contrary, I think it stands as one of the more highly-regarded scenes/chapters to date. But, there's always that little perfectionist voice in the back of my head whispering, "Better! Faster! More!"
Perfectionism aside, I'm feeling pretty proud of this one. It's bigger than I planned, and touches more characters than I intended to. But, I think it hangs together well as part of Guy's Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and ultimately culminates in some things that will set up the next big phase of the story.
I'll be working hard to get it into your hands as soon as possible, but until then: take care of yourselves, and thank you for your support!

 

[RC-1138 Boss]

Look forward to Guy's bad day.
Hehe it can't be that bad, dumb Brent aside it is a whole day with Mason.

 

[Lightaces]

Mason lazy? I'm now triggered lol

Seriously. Physically injured and disabled is NOT lazy. It's a medical problem.

 

[With The]

Seriously. Physically injured and disabled is NOT lazy. It's a medical problem.

what physical injury she got ? i only know she just homeless.. lmao..

 

[Elduriel]

what physical injury she got ? i only know she just homeless.. lmao..

pay attention then when reading, she was injured some time back (TBI), the speech impediment is a direct result of that.

 

[With The]

pay attention then when reading, she was injured some time back (TBI), the speech impediment is a direct result of that.

ah forgot about that, well she got taken care by mc now

 

[RC-1138 Boss]

He got taken care of.

 

[Joshy92]

Seriously. Physically injured and disabled is NOT lazy. It's a medical problem.

I didn't say it was someone else did.

 

[Lightaces]

what physical injury she got ? i only know she just homeless.. lmao..

HE was beaten for the "crime" of being trans, which caused permanent traumatic brain injury. That's why he stutters, that's why he has problems with his memory, and is a big part of why he is homeless.

 

[Lightaces]

I didn't say it was someone else did.

No, I know. I was just agreeing with you.

 

[horns of giant]

Is it weird to call Mason a femboy? Would he like it?

 

[RC-1138 Boss]

Is it weird to call Mason a femboy? Would he like it?

Now that is a interesting question. He does seems to go for that energy.

 

[Drew Anderson]

Seriously. Physically injured and disabled is NOT lazy. It's a medical problem.

Never said anything of the kind. Just said his situation could be interpreted that way. None of the extremes I outlined are 100% the truth. Just the extremes of the interpretations. Also, Mason's health/physical issues are just one piece of who Mason is, not the whole.