Ren'Py Lessons in Love [v0.45.0] [Selebus]

[vehemental]

Just set the preference to skip unseen text, and tap ctrl it skips the "forced" wait.

Sure, but that would only solve the hard pauses, and I'm talking about the general user experience - every single player shouldn't have to learn a trick to make the game more playable.

For myself, I removed all of the instances of ", hard=True" and set custom Dissolve times. Incorporating DRM will break this ability as well as the desperately needed Progress Mod.

Also:

The headpat system, by the time it's finished, will have you doing nothing but clicking your mouse as fast as you can for at a bare minimum 41 minutes (assuming 7

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There are also over 10,000 instances of a text line consisting of only "..." so far which is another bare minimum 23 minutes of pure clicking - that's assuming your reflexes were perfect, so easily triple that amount for reading comprehension time.

Dead Space is a zombie horror game set on a spaceship, not something that belongs in a VN. This shit adds up.

 

[Wardtnaci]

The headpat system, by the time it's finished, will have you doing nothing but clicking your mouse as fast as you can for at a bare minimum 41 minutes (assuming 7

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)

I have accepted the fact that I'll never get a girl in this game to Pat-gasm!

Real world.... not an issue!

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Cool stats gathering though.

Did you happen to count number black screens with text? Because that feels like its a lot.

 

[vehemental]

I have accepted the fact that I'll never get a girl in this game to Pat-gasm!

Real world.... not an issue!

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Cool stats gathering though.

Did you happen to count number black screens with text? Because that feels like its a lot.

That video changed something in young me however many years ago (like a dozen? ) I first saw it.

Use the attached headpatcentral.rpy file to replace the one in your game directory (back up the original in case I'm an idiot) and it will accelerate the process by 5x if you want. Make sure you don't have any incomplete patting sessions before using it or you'll miss dialogue.

Only 2,764 instances of "scene black"

 

[Jimbolance]

What's your guess for the total length of all the hard pauses in this game, added up?

21.5 minutes!

How about the total length of all the dissolve transitions?

4.5 hours!

That's just the game forcing you to sit there and look at a still image on the screen.

It hurts me how easy it would be to make this game more fun to play and appealing to a wider audience, which could potentially solve the game's "growth problems" that have caused so much strife recently. I get that the intentional subversion of player agency is a stylistic choice and sometimes comedic, but I think when it's taken as far as this game takes it, it unnecessarily turns people away who might like it otherwise, even when considering the subject matter.

People who bounce off this game have been pretty vocal about what /specifically/ they don't like about it over the years.

It's not stuff like the hard pauses and transitions, even those who criticize it's length point to grinding out event triggers well before talking about anything like that

I'm not really weighing in on whether the pauses and transitions are good/bad/whatever but I think it's safe to say that it's the least of this games problems if your looking at what prevents it from appealing to a "wider audience"

Still, pretty interesting data!

 

[alex2011]

Quite frankly, he's making a Denpa game that is at some point going to contain adult content that is also a big limiter on how many would play, that was already guaranteed to turn people away. Some genres are not meant for wider audiences. If Sel was ever worried about that, he wouldn't be making the game he is, it would be something more like what already exists in terms of what kinds of content it aims for.

 

[vehemental]

Just wishful thinking that there's a world where this game is more accessible while keeping the same subject matter I guess. I agree that the event hunting alone is worse than 5x this amount of dead space.

The dev hates this place and me personally so much that it's not like this train of thought is going anywhere regardless of its merit, so I guess I'll just get back to getting caught up instead

 

[BlackDays]

I do see a slight problem here with what he wants to convey/the genre and the amount of customers/his income. While not the most favorable genre to me, i'm quite used to it.
Just wondering if his "i do my thing mentality" works together with his "i want to make a living out of my work" mentality can go hand in hand.

I guess he's pretty lucky that there are people willing to "donate" interesting amounts of money to keep the numbers where they are. Fanbases are really interesting in general.

 

[alex2011]

I do see a slight problem here with what he wants to convey/the genre and the amount of customers/his income. While not the most favorable genre to me, i'm quite used to it.
Just wondering if his "i do my thing mentality" works together with his "i want to make a living out of my work" mentality can go hand in hand.

I guess he's pretty lucky that there are people willing to "donate" interesting amounts of money to keep the numbers where they are. Fanbases are really interesting in general.

It can be done, but in a niche genre like Denpa, it requires knowing what the fans of that genre would be into and leaning heavily into that knowledge, which is what he has done. There are some pretty well known examples to pull from to figure out what fans of the genre would want and he took those games into consideration when developing the story as it stands today.

In fact, the 'I do my thing' mentality is a huge benefit in cases like this as it can serve as a defense against the temptation to try and branch beyond what he is going for, which can and has been an issue with other games in the past. Try to please everyone and you will end up pleasing no one.

 

[Juice86]

Also, this game is making me sad as hell. Hopefully some more cheerful things happen soon or I may need to stop playing.

Unless you are Rin or Otoha... maybe they get a happy ending. Selebus seems to favor them for some reason. They are the least 2 likeable characters (outside Osako). Where-as cool characters like Molly get a shitty story. <3 Molly.

 

[derekthered56]

Unless you are Rin or Otoha... maybe they get a happy ending. Selebus seems to favor them for some reason. They are the least 2 likeable characters (outside Osako). Where-as cool characters like Molly get a shitty story. <3 Molly.

I doubt Rin+Otoha is gonna survive Otoha's kiss with Niki, not after all the guilt Otoha has thrown at Rin just for having feelings. Personally I hope they can work it out though; I like Rin and her getting a chance at a throuple would be nice to see before everything goes Dark.

And yeah, we need more Molly. I quit the game for a year when I saw she didn't have any events after the Halloween incident.

 

[KnowNoHope]

Unless you are Rin or Otoha... maybe they get a happy ending. Selebus seems to favor them for some reason. They are the least 2 likeable characters (outside Osako). Where-as cool characters like Molly get a shitty story. <3 Molly.

molly is cool? I thought she was mainly sel's nerd mouth piece so he can talk about things not plot relevent in his life... but he does that a lot anyway with literally every other character so she probably is cool

I doubt Rin+Otoha is gonna survive Otoha's kiss with Niki, not after all the guilt Otoha has thrown at Rin just for having feelings. Personally I hope they can work it out though; I like Rin and her getting a chance at a throuple would be nice to see before everything goes Dark.

And yeah, we need more Molly. I quit the game for a year when I saw she didn't have any events after the Halloween incident.

I think it would be hilarious if Sensei banged Otoha before Rin.
I had hopes on Niki being just as bad a person as sensei and using her authority as her teacher to take advantage of her but then we got that shocked face pull back from Niki after the kiss. Was a let down. Mainly because I saw that as how Niki would try to lure Sensei into 'loving' her by being the more depraved option available and she would then string Otaha up with a bow served to Sensei for them both to play with. I mean it could still happen if Niki reflects on that moment and changes her mind. not enough has happened for that to be a completely dead possible plot line. Not much hope on my part though.

though the thing I'm still holding out on is when Rin finally has a mental breakdown after finding out about the kiss and runs to her floozy of a mom (that will kiss just about anyone with just a bit of booze) for parental comfort... only the mom has been drinking and fucks it up with the wrong kind of comfort

edit: or Molly gets with Rins mom after both of them get drunk cause that would be hilarious in a black comedy way. Rins mom just says something that reminds Molly of Rin and she off loads her feelings into that moment.

 

[Bingoogus]

I mean it could still happen if Niki reflects on that moment and changes her mind. not enough has happened for that to be a completely dead possible plot line. Not much hope on my part though.

I really don't see it happening cause her reaction was pretty visceral and she was very "you're a god damn child ffs". Even if she thought that could give her an edge with Akira it doesn't mean she could stomach it, she's clearly not into sexing up the underaged let alone if she's even into girls.

 

[hcguy]

she's clearly not into sexing up the underaged

Another reason why she and Sensei aren't right for each other.

 

[Bingoogus]

Question time, cause i'm bored.

Who do you think is the most well written character? Not potentially counting Akira, and not who you necessarily like or hate the most, just the one with the most depth and complexity in their characterisation.

 

[vehemental]

Question time, cause i'm bored.

Who do you think is the most well written character? Not potentially counting Akira, and not who you necessarily like or hate the most, just the one with the most depth and complexity in their characterisation.

 

[Bingoogus]

View attachment 2432382

... a cat?

 

[fisty123]

I am still playing catch up with only starting this game this week but I am in tears of laughter from the scene

Spoiler

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I know this game is not all about laughs and some characters take a turn as I have seen in the comments about this in the past here but so far the characters in this game are really well done, it hard to say who I would put as best character for me but I am looking forward to meeting the rest, really enjoying this one for now at least.

 

[alex2011]

molly is cool? I thought she was mainly sel's nerd mouth piece so he can talk about things not plot relevent in his life... but he does that a lot anyway with literally every other character so she probably is cool


I think it would be hilarious if Sensei banged Otoha before Rin.
I had hopes on Niki being just as bad a person as sensei and using her authority as her teacher to take advantage of her but then we got that shocked face pull back from Niki after the kiss. Was a let down. Mainly because I saw that as how Niki would try to lure Sensei into 'loving' her by being the more depraved option available and she would then string Otaha up with a bow served to Sensei for them both to play with. I mean it could still happen if Niki reflects on that moment and changes her mind. not enough has happened for that to be a completely dead possible plot line. Not much hope on my part though.

though the thing I'm still holding out on is when Rin finally has a mental breakdown after finding out about the kiss and runs to her floozy of a mom (that will kiss just about anyone with just a bit of booze) for parental comfort... only the mom has been drinking and fucks it up with the wrong kind of comfort

edit: or Molly gets with Rins mom after both of them get drunk cause that would be hilarious in a black comedy way. Rins mom just says something that reminds Molly of Rin and she off loads her feelings into that moment.

She's really just the overly exaggerated stereotype of people into anime, by which I mean that the stereotype itself is overly exaggerated from what we are actually like (mostly, will not contest that there are people who fit it), not Molly being the over exaggeration.

Question time, cause i'm bored.

Who do you think is the most well written character? Not potentially counting Akira, and not who you necessarily like or hate the most, just the one with the most depth and complexity in their characterisation.

Have to go with Rin, as biased as that might sound considering I am a Rin fan. Her moments, you know the ones...Delirium, actually trigger emotional responses that are highly unusual for me in games. I am more often as cold and emotionless as Maya when in games, but those moments, and I do mean all of them, wouldn't let me do that and even broke me out of doing that for other characters across the game.

There are only two things that can get an emotional response out of me:
1. Things that are real and filled with emotion.
2. Fiction that is well written, skipping past my emotional detachment from fiction entirely.

LiL hit 2 in 0.8.0, which is when I started supporting it. In fact, that was the reason I started.

 

[crustlord12]

Question time, cause i'm bored.

Who do you think is the most well written character? Not potentially counting Akira, and not who you necessarily like or hate the most, just the one with the most depth and complexity in their characterisation.

Outside of the aforementioned Maya, I think Rin and Noriko are both written pretty well. Rin is probably the most "teenagery" of them all, and Noriko does feel like she's living in the shadow of her sister.

Honestly, I feel like a lot of the characters are written very well, with their motivations staying in line with who they are over the updates. Makoto and Chika both have had some solid character growth.

Hot take but I don't know if I'd call Ami's character well progressed, in that her progression to Uncle Lovin' just comes out of nowhere (unless I'm mis-remembering, and I'm welcome to being corrected)

 

[barglenarglezous]

Question time, cause i'm bored.

Who do you think is the most well written character? Not potentially counting Akira, and not who you necessarily like or hate the most, just the one with the most depth and complexity in their characterisation.

Yumi

That girl has so much damage, but her portrayal is consistent with that damage in a way that her archetype usually isn't.