I was using Notepad, not Notepad++, thanks. Looked through the serum rpy file and saw the Lover's serum, but not the actual "code" behind the serum (unless the "positive description" is meant to be how it codes as well), two quick questions:
1. Am I looking in the wrong place to look at the code of serum traits? I saw the side effects file and that looked like it was coded properly, but I haven't been able to find "Lover" in script.rpy and none of the other files look appropriate. Honestly knowing how to mess with the serum codes would be fun in general, just jack up the value or make everyone who takes one of the stat boosters just an instant +100 god.
2. Assuming I do find it, could I just modify it in .rpy, or do I need to download stuff to decrpyt .rpyc, mess with that file, then encrypt back?
1. Can't say since I've deleted the game -- not gonna try until Vren make any significant progress on the plot tbh -- however, if memory serves, he didn't program each trait as a singleton (i.e. defining each trait as its own class, which is only used by one object in the game). So your best bet is to find a Class object named trait/traits or something like that.
Furthermore, playing with the console commands shows that the serum class has functions for adding (and removing) traits. So if you find the Serum class and look through its functions, you will likely find out how to mess with its effects.
You can look open all the .rpy files in the game's directory with Notepad++ and use find function to look up a specific serum in all opened documents -- note that some are not named the same way as shown in-game, you can either guess or use renpy's object viewer to find them (IRRC the futuristic serum production is actually a Trait object called futuristic_serum_prod). These traits would be initiated as a Trait object, which I presume will take effects and side effects as arguments, or perhaps have effects added to it after being created. You can probably play around with them there.
For my part, I simply wrote a function to go through every single researched traits and set their mastery to something ridiculously high, like 999, and run that function via console. This will change all negative effect chance to 0%, but any side effect is unchanged. It's not an issue for me since all late-game traits are objectively better and have no negative effects.
2. you don't have to convert them to .rpyc -- in fact, renpy to automatically encrpyt any unencrypted rpy files to rpyc when you run the game. Personally I delete all the rpyc files without a synonymous rpy file in the directory, just in case the game doesn't load the edited script. But I don't believe it changed anything; renpy probably prioritizes rpy over rpyc files.