Ren'Py Holiday Island [v0.4.5.1] [darkhound1]

[Philip Screwdriver]

@darkhound1, would you be willing to share your outlook for 0.2.0 beta here?

 

[jikorde]

Darkhound has posted his future plans on his Patreon page. I'm really excited to see all the poses done for all the girls, myself.
Awhile back he asked for suggestions for what to do with some of the player stats. Some like Looks aren't used much at all, and strength beyond 6 isn't really necessary, since you only use it for the Amy lifting scene. Also, once you've read to increase your hacking and charm, you never do it again.
Also, the girls strength and anger stats aren't used for much either.
So my question to all of you is what else can the PC use Looks, Strength and reading for? & What else can the girl's use Strength, Endurance & Anger for?
I came up with Looks giving one of the girls a crush on you, so that she follows you around.
Anger could stop the talk action for that girl until she gets a gift from you.
Anger could cause the girl to slap you when you fondle her.
Sneaking could allow you to snoop around a girl's room when she's not there.
Reading could allow you to find out more about HI, Inc.
What are your ideas?

Looks should just be fused with charm. They have the same purpose, being attractive to the girls. Unless we can get modeling jobs with the girls via looks.
I thought about having some scenes where you need a high strength for certain positions, like carrying the girls while screwing them or just doing silly poses with them. Other then that, strength isn't really something I see a lot of use for in this setting. Misc. chores for the girls or needing high strength for physically taxing sex positions is about all I can think of.

The reading mechanic could be for porn mags, seriously. I might be wrong, but aren't some of the girls on the islands essentially models? Why not let the player look at some photo shoots and interviews from the girls to raise lust or fill in some holes on who the girls are. Maybe tie this into the girl story things he wants to do(that I don't like the sound of, having them mention old boyfrineds is one thing, reading about them actively going for a guy in the past is just not for me. To close to NTR for my tastes.).

Girls are a bit harder. Their strength really should just be cosmetic. Unless darkhound wants to invest in a keijo mode, having them get psychically stronger doesn't really help anything. Unless, again, you want them able to do more physically impossible positions via strength like how Ivy picks you up.

Endurance can do some fun things for competitions(girl is tried in butt contest, she bends more from being exhausted or some such). Or like the Eva scene for changing the results of the sex itself. Thing is, the way endurance recovers every time slot it's impossible to manage in any way to actually get a specific outcome. You'd have to make their endurance only recover when they sleep at night and make ways to lower it in the morning and then maybe you can start really doing things with the stat.

Anger is kinda iffy. The game isn't really about anything happening that really advances the world, so you can't have the girls do anything major because they are angry. At the same time, just having high anger block content is kind of boring. But the only content that comes to mind blue balling or orgasm denial. Makeup sex could be an option, but I don't know about pissing girls off on purpose just to get a slightly different set of images.

 

[Puppet Master]

I like the idea of modeling with the girls. Maybe Jennifer or Yumiko can take pics of you with one of the girls.
Reading could give you the same thing as sexting. Most of the girls were models before coming to the island, so you could look for their pics online. Then Darkhound1 could use pics from his DA account for Jessica and Faye.
Maybe Strength could be used for training sessions with the girls. We already have Yvette and Alice. Perhaps the MC could train with the girls so that their strength or endurance increases.

 

[darkhound1]

@darkhound1, would you be willing to share your outlook for 0.2.0 beta here?

Outlook for 0.2.0 beta
Hello my friends!
This post is to provide you with some information on what to expect when the game will get it's next bigger version jump.
I will also provide you with some info on what has changed the last year and what direction the game development will take (or won't take).
Medium term plans, release of 0.2.0 beta:

• all actions with renders for all the main girls (like hugging, kissing, groping, etc.)
• night bar drink scene for all the girls
• at least the basic workout scenes for all the girls and all swimsuits
• every tier 3 girl will have at least one pool scene , all tier 2 girls at least two and all the tier 1 girls will have all the pool scenes
• You will be able to visit all the girls in their room and it will show up in the achievements
• Personal and girl specif "herself" chat lines for all the girls
• All girls get the "walk on the beach" action
• All the girls will have at least one sexting message

General stuff to expect in the future (before and after 0.2.0 beta):

• As you have surely already noticed, the game is still a sandbox style game. But the number of elements (scenes) that are like a visual novel have increased. This will continue with future updates.
• "All" new images will be at least 1920x1080 in game and are rendered in 2560x1440. They will also use the webp format instead of jpg and png to save space and provide better image quality. Why "all"? There are some areas where due to game mechanics it's not possible to mix jpg and webp images for common stuff like e.g. sexting.
• Since I have upgraded my PC hardware and will probably do so again in the not far future, you can expect to see more animations and more renders with 2 girls + mc.
• There is a huge collection of ideas for future versions in this post:
  You must be registered to see the links
  
  I will check and consult it from time to time to see if I can add something from the huge pool of ideas.
• Don't expect new regular island girls any time soon. Although there might be a spot or two for additional special girls.
• I have some "girl story" ideas in my head since last summer. I will probably start with one and see how you like it. The idea is e.g. that a girl tells a story to another girl and the mc can listen in. The first story is about Yvette and an 18 year old boy she met at the prom. There will be a lot of text compared to the number of renders and the perspective will switch between kinda "thinking about, have it in your mind" and watching the girl tell the story. It's a bit similar to Jennifer's transformation story you'll get with 0.1.4 but with less images.
  So it's gonna be like a little erotic story inside the game, told by a girl accompanied with some renders.
• Some new things that could work like mini games with some rewards. Don't worry, it's not gonna be the typical "waste your time" mini games to earn cash or similar.
  One idea (not mine actually) is to have a part of an image send to you on your phone. Could be legs, mouth, breasts, whatever and you have to guess who it is. The reward could e.g. be the full image. Not too many to get anoying.
  Another idea is to add some kind of "truth or dare" or "never have I ever" type of mini game or scene. But I need some ideas on how to do/implement that.
• I'm also thinking about getting rid of some of the talk options and changing the stuff to make it less senseless and repetitive. This is probably one of the weakest and most boring parts of the game right now imo. At the beginning of the game you "have" to do it in order to increase the girl's stats. From a certain point on, you don't do it at all, because there is no reward in whatever form.
• Another topic (which is huge) is the way the stats system works right now (or doesn't). A lot of stats like love, affection, anger, etc. range from 0 to 100. I'm not so sure any more that it was a good idea to do it like that.
  What I have in mind is to kinda keep the old system in the background, but have e.g. from 0 to 5 hearts for each girl to represent the love level. What is done right now with the love checks, is that they have 5 levels (0,1,2,3,4). In the code, it checks if e.g. love is > 40 to give you a success message for the check. Havig the "hearts" would make the system a lot easier to follow and understand. It would also make it easier to have certain scenes/events, related to a heart level instead of "you need 58 love points" for the scene.
  To make sense, it would require a complete redesign of the stats system. So we could finally have an idea about the reqirements in hearts and whatever is used for affection for a scene to be triggered.
  I would also like to change the way you increase affection and love, since it is quite boring right now. Having to talk and kiss and hug is all nice. But if you e.g. only do it to increase the affection to level 2 or 3 and after that you have to do other things like gifts, spend time with the girl or do something for them. It would allow to make it less linear. E.g. getting 1 heart can be quite fast, but 2 already slower and so on. Right now it's just love points until you have 100 for each girl. And if you're really an ass, you could lose love or affection as well.

Thanks for taking the time to read it all
I'm happy for any comments you post. Especially concerning the general stuff.

Darkhound

 

[darkhound1]

I'm all for a discussion of possibilities for charm, looks, affection, anger, love, etc.
What would be great is to have a differentiation between "new stuff to do" and the way game mechanics should/could work to make it a better experience.
I was mainly talking about the latter in my patreon post. Your above posts suggest you're mixing the two which is not a bad thing in general, but it's hard to make something I can use in the game with it.
So for example: Fusing looks with charm as @jikorde suggested falls into the latter (second) category. The idea is sound, I agree with the statement. How to exactly implement it in the game is still a different matter.
Another example (more complicated): Anger could stop the talk action for that girl until she gets a gift from you. as suggested by @Puppet Master. This is mainly a use case for the anger attribute, so it falls into the former (new stuff) category. But it touches the game mechanics as well, because gifts have to lower anger (which is already implemented btw).

Let me try to outline the ideas I have for a change in game mechanics:

• Keep the values as they are now in the background (range 1 to 100, except for looks)
• Replace them by values ranged 0 to 5 where you, the user/player can see them directly (e.g. 0 to 5 hearts for love, 0 to 5 angry "faces symbol", etc.)
• Link all actions, scenes, parts of scenes (e.g. have vaginal sex, titfuck and so on) to certain ratings (e.g. you need 4 hearts and 3 lust to have real sex with the girl, or at least 3 hearts and 5 lust, something like that)
• If an action was mainly "lust triggered", the girl could get second thoughts about it afterwards, making her angry. This way we could have certain scenes "before their time", but a ta certain cost in anger.
• If anger is >= 2, the girl won't do a), b), c) with you. If it is >= 3 - she won't do d), e) , f) if it is 5, she will leave the island. E.g. anger gets down by 1 point per week when she's not on the island. But affeciton/love could get down too.
• To come back to the type of scenes: We could e.g. have different categories:
  basic actions (like working out at the gym with her) --> e.g. requires 1 or 2 affection, anger < 4
  a little more advanced (like walking the beach or swimming) --> e.g. requires 3 affection, anger < 3, or 1 affection and xx looks/charn
  advanced but still basic stuff (e.g. posing at the pool, gym training yoga) --> e.g. requires 4 affection, anger < 3
  and so on... The short list isn't meant to be "real" or how it has to be. They are just examples to categorize the scenes
• Advancement in hearts/affection --> Since the background values are still 0...100, the values 0 to 5 will be non linear.
  E.g. >=10 -> 1 heart, >=25 -> 2 hearts, ..., >= 95 -> 5 hearts
• Only advancements up to a certain point can be made with talking or kissing/hugging, or the allowed frequency could be lowered to make it a less repetitive/boring thing. Or you have to alternate to advance the stats. E.g. the game rememebrs last action was "hug/kiss". So to advance love you have to do something else, like use a gift. After that you can "hug/kiss" again.
• To make this work, we need new ways to advance affection and love. (we have talking, hugging, kissing, gifts right now). Also through scene interaction, but which is kinda random right now (I put some where I thought it might fit kinda logic).
  I was thinking about spending time with the girl as a general thing and maybe do something "special" for her. Like get her a special flower, a swimsuit, whatever else...
• I have though about the "max love", "max affection" stuff as well. Depending on the way the changes are done, they might no longer be necessary. Or they could be used in another way. To allow for love, affection go down under certain circumstances. But it will be easier to brig them back up, since you already had them at that level (which is stored in the max... variable)
• Change the anger attribute into more of an anger/jealousy attribute. This will give additional options. E.g. if three girls are at the pool and you pick one to swim with her. The other 2 "remember" they were not picked. If a girl isn't picked xx times, she gets angry/jealous. Once you pick her, it will be reset. The level could be different for each girl. E.g. Yvette doesn't get angry/jealous so easy. She is not the type. While Eva will do so quite fast.

In the end what I'm aiming for is the follwing:

• Less boring and grinding game start
• Less repeptitive (girl) stats advancement
• Still having a use for talking, hugging, kissing after a certain point with a girl has been reached
• More transparency as to which requirements are needed for what scene or type of scene
• A better feeling of advancement/having accomplished something with a girl for the player. I think switching from a 0 to 100 value range to a 0 to 5 "hearts" rating will help doing that. Right now you either use cheats or click "talk", "hug", "kiss" a felt 50 times, until all stats are maxed without reading the stuff or looking at the images any more... I really would like to change that.
• Make the different personalities of the girls more important in stats development

 

[TwilightStorm]

Darkhound has posted his future plans on his Patreon page. I'm really excited to see all the poses done for all the girls, myself.
Awhile back he asked for suggestions for what to do with some of the player stats. Some like Looks aren't used much at all, and strength beyond 6 isn't really necessary, since you only use it for the Amy lifting scene. Also, once you've read to increase your hacking and charm, you never do it again.
Also, the girls strength and anger stats aren't used for much either.
So my question to all of you is what else can the PC use Looks, Strength and reading for? & What else can the girl's use Strength, Endurance & Anger for?
I came up with Looks giving one of the girls a crush on you, so that she follows you around.
Anger could stop the talk action for that girl until she gets a gift from you.
Anger could cause the girl to slap you when you fondle her.
Sneaking could allow you to snoop around a girl's room when she's not there.
Reading could allow you to find out more about HI, Inc.
What are your ideas?

Something like jealousy?
If MC kiss or gropes a girl iinfront of another with high love level, anger should increase?

 

[WaveOfPig]

Something like jealousy?
If MC kiss or gropes a girl iinfront of another with high love level, anger should increase?

Please don't encourage obstacles and difficulty

 

[darkhound1]

Please don't encourage obstacles and difficulty

I don't see it that way. It's to increase realism and gameplay.
If you want to cheat, you can still do so and all of that is meaningless anyway.

 

[Puppet Master]

I think your goals for the stats are good.
Everyone should understand that these changes will be implemented over time until 2.0 is released sometime between September and December (just guessing).
I like that you have to earn your hearts, almost like a mini quest.
Would love and affection be folded into one stat? If not, maybe we could have 0-5 hearts for affection, 0-5 hearts with arrows through them for Love.
Hearts for affection could be earned easier than hearts for love.
Affection hearts would allow some basics: calling you by your first name, having a drink at the bar, etc. Love hearts would allow more intimate actions like fondling, flashing and sex.
Some girls could be easy and allow actions for less hearts.
Flames or exes could be used for Anger.
I think sometimes a loss of affection would be more appropriate than gaining anger.
There's a lot to think about in Darkhound1's post.

 

[CHOO11111]

May i ask how to active poledance clothes event??

 

[Puppet Master]

Heather choosing clothes for her pole dance is necessary to get her the pole dance option. It is random, but you need to have one of the following girls on the island for her to show off to: Brenda, Delizia, Lacey or Renee.
Keep going back to your room until you get the scene.
Good Luck!
Thanks for joining the site just to ask this question.
Consider becoming a patron of Darkhound1 at his Patreon page.
It costs as little as $1 per month and helps the creator complete his game.

 

[Puppet Master]

I disagree that Charm and Looks should be fused. As a long time D&D player, I know that Charisma and Comeliness are two different stats.
I think that more stats translates to more realism, which is good because the story is a fantasy.
In a fantasy, the more believable the world, the more real the story seems.

 

[darkhound1]

I disagree that Charm and Looks should be fused. As a long time D&D player, I know that Charisma and Comeliness are two different stats.
I think that more stats translates to more realism, which is good because the story is a fantasy.
In a fantasy, the more believable the world, the more real the story seems.

I was more thinking along the line to make them react in a similar or maybe the same way. Not to remove them completely.
E.g. to determine how hot/cute the guy is, both values are used and combined somehow. they can still be developed individually. I try to reduce complexity as well.

On another note:
What do you guys think about having a new thread for discussions like that?
It's really hard to find anything if we put these here as well, having a mix between game related questions and the general discussions is gonna be a mess. And probably only a smaller number of people wants to participate and read these discussions.

 

[Puppet Master]

So maybe keep both looks & charm stats, but offer a back up check if charm fails?
If I tell Faye that my phone takes good pictures, and fail the charm check, then I get a second check with looks.
Maybe we should have a second thread just to tell people to upgrade from 1.32 to 1.33. Just kidding, hopefully that won't be a problem after the 16th.

 

[jikorde]

So maybe keep both looks & charm stats, but offer a back up check if charm fails?
If I tell Faye that my phone takes good pictures, and fail the charm check, then I get a second check with looks.
Maybe we should have a second thread just to tell people to upgrade from 1.32 to 1.33. Just kidding, hopefully that won't be a problem after the 16th.

Or how about some of the girls prefer a higher looks then charm based on their personality? Like Faye would accept the charm check at level 3, but the looks check would succeed at 4. Vary it up to make both actually useful.

A thread for ideas in general wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

[Miniwand]

To get the sex scene with Heather: Jessica and Heather have to be in their skimpy bikinis. Heather must be on the beach and Jessica must be there 30 minutes later. Walk on the beach with Heather. Look at her cleavage, but then compliment her. After her posing, Jessica will show up. Be attentive and nice to Heather, and Jessica will make sure you get some.
To get Heather's Sex Scene after Pole Dancing: You must have Renee, Brenda, Delizia or Lacey on the island. Walk to your room a lot in the afternoon, early evening. A random event will trigger of Heather picking a costume. Once you see this scene, Heather will get a Pole Dance option in the night bar. Click it, watch her dance, Say that you liked the way she looked at you, Don't say You're not in the mood, and she'll take you to the special room.

I'm going crazy here. I can't get the sex on the beach with Heather and Jessica and I do everything right.

Both Jessica and Hather are on the beach with no one else.
30 minutes later they are still alone on the beach.
They are wearing skimpy bikinis.
All stats are max except anger (which is 0).
I walk with Heather, stare at her cleavage, compliment her and she poses for me.
I pick the two choices multiple times but neither work.

What am I doing wrong? It is the only scene for those two girls I didn't see yet.

The only thing I find strange is that when I walk with Jessica, I don't have choices to look at her cleavage or sneak peek at it. The whole walk is a single talk without choices.

 

[Bantry]

I'm going crazy here. I can't get the sex on the beach with Heather and Jessica and I do everything right.

Both Jessica and Hather are on the beach with no one else.
30 minutes later they are still alone on the beach.
They are wearing skimpy bikinis.
All stats are max except anger (which is 0).
I walk with Heather, stare at her cleavage, compliment her and she poses for me.
I pick the two choices multiple times but neither work.

What am I doing wrong? It is the only scene for those two girls I didn't see yet.

The only thing I find strange is that when I walk with Jessica, I don't have choices to look at her cleavage or sneak peek at it. The whole walk is a single talk without choices.

Try changing some of the variables. For example Heather and Jessica should not and do not have to be on the beach together. Heather is the one that needs to be on the beach and not necessarily alone. Jessica needs to show up within 30 minutes, so try and avoid right before meal times or when Jessica is the maid.

Lower some of Heather's stats. Not a lot, but allow some room for them to raise. Which ones? I can't remember so try them all in various combinations. When she is posing for you there are only a couple choices, but trying to be a nice guy instead of a pervert seems to work better. You'll know you got it right once Jessica shows up.

 

[Bantry]

On another note:
What do you guys think about having a new thread for discussions like that?
It's really hard to find anything if we put these here as well, having a mix between game related questions and the general discussions is gonna be a mess. And probably only a smaller number of people wants to participate and read these discussions.

Good idea for a new discussion thread.

You also mentioned in one of your posts that if a girl got angry enough, she could/would leave the island. All well and good as long as there is mechanism or action path to follow to get her back. For realism's sake I think it would have to be more than go to the receptionist and spend some HI points.

 

[DuckSwim]

While the existing setup is a bit towards grind/repetition at times, I'd be rather hesitant to change it dramatically.

- It is a sound game principle
- It is easily understood, by everybody
- It is already built into the game, and in the form chosen

I'd on top of that speculate that it is easier to work with than most other setups (ex. pure story setups with their brances, bugs and what not).

Could be wrong, but it seems to me that it and the sandbox gives a ton of freedom and flexibility. And it can always be expanded in any direction - the typical being a story/mini-story tier on top of it, once the player hits max level (the epic dungeons, boss battles and what not, now with mega babes! )

On the consumer side of things. imo, players actually dont mind grinding much, oh some will randomly whine a bit over it, but when it comes down to it, they'll do it anyway for "rewards" and here they are babes, so yeah

Properly rewarded and applied the repetitions are not much of a grind when it comes down to it (dont recall ever seeing the patreons complain either, the girls would make them buy sand in sahara ) and as the game fills out, it becomes less and less an issue in many ways (indeed, content and events will eventually swamp it or make it a very minor thing)

So believe simply extending the reward framework, when and how "rewards" occur, is preferable to changing away from the mechanics as they are.
(not saying that was ever the plan, simply thinking out loud, why any extreme ideas, might be problematic, and we should therefore suggest things that gives the most result for the least "disruption")

The hearts could be how the player advances the girls 'epic story line or ultimate events' that can start when they are maxxed in all other ways and certain conditions are fulfilled.

I have tried to illustrate below with anger how flexible the framework actually is and how it can be tied into it and used, in what is hopefully a simple and meaningful manner.

Game Mechanic : Anger

Spoiler

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TL;DR : I speculate/guesswork that anger could affect the existing logic to produce results without invention of numerous new concepts, renders or complex code. (Not saying all is a good idea, or feasible within the code, or even should be done) .The spoiler is a concept examples of how. Thanks for reading.

 

[Puppet Master]

Could Favor be used to get a girl to do something even though she's angry?
Maybe Favor should be replaced and poker, rubbing sun tan lotion, giving gifts be part of earning hearts.