VN Ren'Py Friends in Need [S1 v0.85c] [NeonGhosts]

[YogSothoth1982]

I really don't want to divide my focus beyond the girls that are already present. The next two updates (not counting the reboot update) will give proper light/dark sex scenes to four love interests who don't otherwise have them yet. But after that, there are still a number of girls who need proper sex scenes, within the main cast. So, I want to give all the other characters some attention, before I spend too much time on ancillary characters.

But, I do have one scene planned for Bonnie. I currently have it planned for a pretty niche path, buuuut there's always the chance that she gets a few other appearances. I'm certainly fond of the character, and she presents all kinds of interesting possibilities.

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In the end there is no harem path on the love route? just to be sure.

 

[PHIL101-YYouPPHard]

There is no such thing as a non ridiculous harem path.
Its premise is literally every character falling for the protagonist to the point they even forego any kind of personal preferences and needs.

It's honestly weird how some people think harems are a real possibility that the average woman would consider, if only the guy were hot enough and rich enough and had a big huge wang. Last I checked, the research on cheating demonstrated that women cheat mostly when they're unhappy whereas men cheat regardless of how happy or unhappy their current relationship is. It really puts it into perspective. Most men see every single woman simultaneously as an opportunity for sex (and more, ofc, but usually just sex if they're not in love) whereas most women just want one great guy to give them all their focus and attention and love; other women would just get in the way of that. However, once it becomes just an exchange of sex and/or money, then that goes out the window because the woman isn't looking to be romantically satisfied in that situation. That's why a 'harem' makes sense on the corruption route and not the romance route.

I mean, does anyone seriously wonder why basically EVERY harem in history had eunuchs guarding them? Or why the harems were very strictly controlled in terms of freedom? I think it's obvious to most people. Sure, to guard from rape ofc; but I think the main reason is actually because none of those women were truly there by personal will and none of them were being romantically satisfied (meaning they would likely try to cheat if they thought they could get away with it). If they were there by will, it most probably wasn't for love except for the naive or manipulated, and if they did actually get anything out of it, it was security and maybe political power to some extent. But almost never true love. There's no way one man, no matter how great he is, can ever satisfy that many women at once. That's a religious fantasy created by men. Harems just aren't for women; they're for powerful men who treat their women like a resource to guard (in the real world, I mean).

Anyways, I went on a tangent. I think the majority of people who want a harem are aware it's not realistic, but I think they miss the fact that a romantic harem would be jarring and just not fit well with the direction FiN has taken. I like harem content too, btw, but it's very much a more fantastical hentai move rather than a more-or-less grounded VN.

 

[SlapE]

In the end there is no harem path on the love route? just to be sure.

We've had this discussion on here a few times, I'll just briefly reiterate what I know from those discussions.

There won't be a traditional romance harem path like you find in a lot of games on here. There will however be some poly paths for certain combinations of girls (not known which girls yet), and those will be more on the romantic side of things from what I understand. Some girls flat out don't want to share you with anyone at all though, and will only accept a monogamous relationship.

There will however be a corruption harem path, where you can have most, if not all, girls in a single playthrough. However this won't be based on love, and won't be on the romantic side of things (well not entirely at least). It will be a harem founded on the promise of any or all of the following: wealth, power, security, and luxury. (Possibly other things too)

 

[PHIL101-YYouPPHard]

I have two playthroughs and on the dark(er) path I took it is hard to tell if it is really the dark path because although I have been pretty vile to her when I got to the last scene of the update she was still there and still kissed me. Even though I forced her to have anal sex in the first scene, forced her to have sex in the bathroom, forced her to do the photoshoot with Brittani, choked her with my cock while I was playing a video game, and told her in front of a little kid she looked like 10,000 dollars. But at times when I could have told her something really mean I decided not to in favor of something more complimentary, and when she wanted to just sleep next to me one night because she was lonely I didn't bother her. So you can have a very complicated relationship with Nikki and she will still make the choice to stay with you. Romance path? Absolutely not. But I am interested to see how far she will go with bad Guy.

Hmmm, yeah, I can see why that'd be confusing. I must've been meaner to her by a hair on mine, because she's gone for sure. Basically, the game is keeping track of two things for each character: the path that the MC is on with them; and then how many happy points (hpoints) or dark points (dkpoints) the MC has accrued with them. So, I guess the code decides (at least partially) whether Nicki leaves or not based on those points rather than just the MC's current path. Your good (or not-so-mean) actions saved you I guess I'm curious too though how far she'll let evil Guy go.

In the end there is no harem path on the love route? just to be sure.

Nope. The most we might get on romance path (besides a few girls willing to share with 1 or 2 others) is cheating on/with multiple LIs, but I guess no one would consider that harem or romance, so basically no. Now stop spamming the thread please lol.

 

[SlapE]

Nope. The most we might get on romance path is cheating on/with multiple LIs

There will be certain paths with polygamous/polyamorous relationships, so this isn't exactly true. It's done been stated there's a polyamorous character (We just don't know who yet) and characters who will be accepting of an open relationship. So sure there will be chances to cheat on characters when relationships start getting established, but not in all cases will it be cheating.

*Ok I think I misread this the first time, cause you said on multiple LI's. So my bad, yes we will probably be able to cheat even when we are with multiple Li's already.

 

[PHIL101-YYouPPHard]

There will be certain paths with polygamous/polyamorous relationships, so this isn't exactly true. It's done been stated there's a polyamorous character (We just don't know who yet) and characters who will be accepting of an open relationship. So sure there will be chances to cheat on characters when relationships start getting established, but not in all cases will it be cheating.

*Ok I think I misread this the first time, cause you said on multiple LI's. So my bad, yes we will probably be able to cheat even when we are with multiple Li's already.

Yes, sorry, I should've mentioned that too. I didn't because I was thinking moreso along the lines of having as many women as possible at once (which polygamy won't allow because it'll max at like 2-3 and only for a select few characters). I feel like if Neon does write cheating into the game, that's the closest we'll get to a sort of faux-harem. But, I bet you anything Neon will punish us heavily for that lmao and it's fun to think about what that'd look like. Unless we keep the women to a reasonable number (like 2 or 3 at most) and keep them VERY happy (and so not suspicious). Then maybe they won't find out But ofc, that would be even further in concept from a harem.

 

[Master of Puppets]

Last I checked, the research on cheating demonstrated that women cheat mostly when they're unhappy whereas men cheat regardless of how happy or unhappy their current relationship is. It really puts it into perspective. Most men see every single woman simultaneously as an opportunity for sex (and more, ofc, but usually just sex if they're not in love) whereas most women just want one great guy to give them all their focus and attention and love; other women would just get in the way of that.

You seriously don't understand how that indicates the opposite of what you're trying to argue? It's human nature for women to be satisfied with one man, and for men to desire more than one woman, and you think that argues against harems? "women want one great guy" does not logically correspond to "other women would get in the way of that". When you get right down to it, it all comes down to breeding, and one guy can breed multiple women, a woman can only be bred by one guy at once. That's why one male, multiple females is the natural social arrangement of so many different animal species, including homo sapiens. Monogamy is purely a social construct that only exists because of the historical dominance of Christianity. It is not human nature. The only reason people consider harems to be unrealistic is because they've been programmed to by society.

 

[mmmonsterkill]

any idea on the eta of next update, should i check back in a week or a month?

 

[soprano31]

any idea on the eta of next update, should i check back in a week or a month?

Shooting for a Christmas Day public release, but we’ll see! This month is going to be a lot of rendering, and by the end I should have a good idea of where things stand.

 

[NewTricks]

I'm sure that the game is going to be indistinguishable from a harem game until such a time as one of Guys victims... er... love interests demands a commitment. Otherwise, Guy's just going to keep on moving to the next friend in need. The question is which of them would either want that or think they are in a position to demand it? It would be a hoot if someone flips the script and blackmails bad Guy into putting a ring on it.

 

[katzenstreu]

i hope at some point we get the option to try build up a harem and bites us hard in the ass.
become a rockstar does this and its hilarious.

 

[Joshy92]

I personally won't even try for a harem even if it's available
I mostly just want Mason & Nicki
On separate saves of course

I think Mason's solo path will be awesome
I'm going to show him he is a wonderful person who deserves a happy life
Same with Nicki

I will also be doing saves for all the other girls
And a man-whore save too

 

[Defenestrator.for.traitor]

I personally won't even try for a harem even if it's available
I mostly just want Mason & Nicki
On separate saves of course

I think Mason's solo path will be awesome
I'm going to show him he is a wonderful person who deserves a happy life
Same with Nicki

I will also be doing saves for all the other girls
And a man-whore save too

How can you do that to sweet girl Gabby, what about barely standing on her own Pepper, a girl trying to survive in this wold world Viola? You are obligated to create at least one save for each girl, that is your duty man.

 

[Dessolos]

Nikki dated one jerk, then lived with another jerk. Then she came to the MC to beg for alms, ready to endure any of his antics. The smartest thing to do would be to throw her out the door. Simply because this girl is broken. But MC acted like a classic incel during both of their meetings. That makes it very funny to watch. No matter which path you choose, MC is never a "good guy" or a "bad guy." He's always a pathetic and bitter jerk.

Hard disagree with this at least the way I played the good guy path. To me he just seemed like a caring and nice person I never got the pathetic bitter jerk vibe. Maybe im too nice but if I was the MC I would never kick her out especially because she does tell him how she never wanted to ask for the money to begin with. I just wouldnt give her a penny after the first time if she asked for it anyways but I would try to help her out in other ways if she was really a friend and not someone you wanted to just have sex with. Hell the broken aspect of Nicki's character makes me want to be there for even more.

 

[Joshy92]

How can you do that to sweet girl Gabby, what about barely standing on her own Pepper, a girl trying to survive in this wold world Viola? You are obligated to create at least one save for each girl, that is your duty man.

I will be doing saves for all the girls
At the moment my mc is just banging everyone
But once the chapter one reboot is out
That is when I'll start having multiple saves for each girl

 

[katzenstreu]

At the moment my mc is just banging everyone

 

[The Anti]

How can you do that to sweet girl Gabby, what about barely standing on her own Pepper, a girl trying to survive in this wold world Viola? You are obligated to create at least one save for each girl, that is your duty man.

Obligated to dark path them all

 

[Rintal]

Hard disagree with this at least the way I played the good guy path. To me he just seemed like a caring and nice person I never got the pathetic bitter jerk vibe. Maybe im too nice but if I was the MC I would never kick her out especially because she does tell him how she never wanted to ask for the money to begin with. I just wouldnt give her a penny after the first time if she asked for it anyways but I would try to help her out in other ways if she was really a friend and not someone you wanted to just have sex with. Hell the broken aspect of Nicki's character makes me want to be there for even more.

I don't want to get into a long polemic. Simple fact: MC is in the friend zone. There's nothing more pathetic than a guy pretending to be a friend of a girl he's sexually interested in. Moreover, he is also angry that she is dating someone else, despite the fact that he hasn't made any attempts to get closer to her. He is cowardly, pathetic and toxic. I think this is exactly how the DEV wanted to show it. And as far as I remember, it doesn't depend on which path you choose.

 

[Dessolos]

I don't want to get into a long polemic. Simple fact: MC is in the friend zone. There's nothing more pathetic than a guy pretending to be a friend of a girl he's sexually interested in. Moreover, he is also angry that she is dating someone else, despite the fact that he hasn't made any attempts to get closer to her. He is cowardly, pathetic and toxic. I think this is exactly how the DEV wanted to show it. And as far as I remember, it doesn't depend on which path you choose.

I agree if you are talking about the prologue but not for the entire package of the game which is why I disagreed cause I felt like he got better as the game went on and their relationship did too at least on the good path. But also I'm a bit like the MC in the prologue where I have no backbone and pathetic so that's probably why I disagreed as well since I saw the growth and how the MC improved himself though the game granted it only happened cause he got money but still improved.

 

[Rintal]

I agree if you are talking about the prologue but not for the entire package of the game which is why I disagreed cause I felt like he got better as the game went on and their relationship did too at least on the good path. But also I'm a bit like the MC in the prologue where I have no backbone and pathetic so that's probably why I disagreed as well since I saw the growth and how the MC improved himself though the game granted it only happened cause he got money but still improved.

In any case, you can fantasize whatever you want. Who am I to tell you how to take this story? If for you, MC is a nice, good-natured guy, then so be it.