Public Post: Links return!
Hi folks!
Firstly this is
NOT a new update, there's no progression on JP in this patch but I'll outline what's been done throughout the post ^_^ The images below all follow the same structure of Left = Before and Right = After.
A lot of the old CGs have extremely washed out whites. In the CGs I've tailored I've tried to reduce this.
Links:
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FINALLY! It's over! I literally just saw a few CGs that could've done with being updated in the Rubbin's events but I'm not recompressing everything again tonight lol ^_^
I've been a bit worried about re-uploading the game because it's not like I can assume that releasing in tiers will filter out any glaring bugs because there's no further content and it's unlikely that returning players will be starting new games anytime soon so I've really tried to be as thorough as I possibly can in as little time possible but as always if you find something iffy in there please let me know asap <3 I think the most likely errors that could still be floating around in there are references to Paul.
Literally every character had some instances of this awful grin ^_^
Playing through the first hours of the game was tough. Like it was
really tough to look at some of it lol! The introductory section of the game was inundated with these predatory grins and really amateur renders but I'm sure you all know this already ^_^ It did take quite some hours to play through the entire thing, re-render some really bizarre images and adjust some of the dialogue to be less "rigid" though a
lot more work needs done at some point but I am satisfied for now.
I think some of the dialogue was really,
really awful for the first portion of the game and I imagine that's probably because 1: I wrote it before I had a good concept of who each character actually was, so they all interacted like NPCs to some degree which I really don't like and 2: because I was a much more timid writer back then but it's been briefly adjusted for the time being though I will revisit it again before the final version of the game.
Bye bye Shargrin >)
A lot of the re-rendered scenes are found in the first section of the game like when Lisa first arrives at the house and when meeting Gina at the coffee shop. These didn't take too long at all as I spent about 1-2 minutes each fixing settings, adjusting lights, rectifying facial expressions, quickly simulating the clothing / hair and finally applying a denoiser then setting it to render whilst I continued with the playthrough.
Other scenes are crying out for a remake or at least touching up like Marcus' early content, Rubbin's content, Theo's first jobs, Shopping with Sharon, Danny Nights 1&2 and Swim Trip events but most of these scenes require a full overhaul of the sets or at least the lighting used so that'll be pushed back until much later. Other glaring issues are CGs with a "sweat" / "wet" shells applied - these tend to look really poor unless under very specific lights so I'd like to address those at a further date too. Noteable scenes with these messy looking shells are Byron Visit & Theo's Night events. I've at least learned how to better apply these for future scenes
Lisa's new "Jogging Outfit" that replaces the black sports set.
Whilst I was going over everything I decided I may as well address the Fitness clothing so it's been completely changed with a more appropriate outfit which I think works super well. I didn't think making a poll here was really necessary as the new "Jogging Outfit" won't really be used much with the inclusion of Yoga in 3.X and it'll likely have it's own clothing so it's only really used in events and CG most of you have already seen.
There was also a continuity issue with how the text is displayed, the first few of hours of the game were displayed on a "Dim" background (you'll note this as the background when Lisa's inner monologue is playing) then it changes to the pink heart background later. I've corrected all (or at least most of) these discrepancies but if you find any outliers please let me know. This took hours upon hours to fix, it's a simple job but with around 4 text boxes per CG and there being a few thousand CG with this applied it really took it's time lol.
One thing I didn't update in accordance is the Recollection Room. It's already taken me so many hours to fix everything and I just ran outta patience. I will update it at some point but I need a break from the old content lol! All of the scenes in the RR
should still work, some may break though I think it's probably unlikely.
These changes were all things that I knew needed corrected for a long time and I just wanted to do it now since I had a reason to go back in the first place ^_^
Gina also had quite a few scary grins but they have likewise been banished ^_^
Because of the previously mentioned "issues," I ended up altering almost every event in the first 5-10 hours of the game in some way, whether it was dialogue updates, formatting, CGs, music or transition times. The whole grind was monotonous, cringe-inducing and above all exhausting and I knew it would be so I'm just so happy that it's over at least for the time being. It's a tremendous weight to lift.
I've made a note of all of the scenes that require additional work for later and the list is as long as my arm lol.
Though tedious and boring; replaying all of that old content was still kind of interesting and insightful in a way, just seeing how much content there actually is and noting some of the CGs I used to think were the bomb only to re-evaluate them as "get that off my screen, that is
hideous!" x)
Byron too :'(
Some things I noted as well when replaying the game which some of you might be interested in:
1: Episode 1 is a little barren
I just felt when playing the opening hours that the world was a bit too big with too little to do in it at this time in the game because there isn't any Instagram or very many happenstance events so that's something I'll definitely be looking into at some point in 3.X.
2: Episode 2 feels fairly complete
It's quite stark how different it felt returning from the Swim Trip. After a few in game days the journal fills up quickly and you really have a lot to do here which is great. On top of that I felt the Deviancy increase was pretty balanced. I think especially if I add a few more small events in E1 then have them continued into E2 it'll feel really good. I have some
really nice ideas for more random events later but they are quite "daring" we'll say so I'd need something a little tamer lol! So if you guys have any ideas, even commonly used tropes for smaller events that wouldn't scare a timid Lisa away (at least not too much lol!) then let me know (even better if we can ramp the events up with higher Deviancy levels, yes!) ^_^
I added some additional detail in a few CGs that needed changed - this one obviously because of Lisa's new outfit. Here I added a "Porsche" and a dull city-esque fog.
3: Night desperately needs content
Now this isn't much of an issue because a sizeable focus in 3.X will be night content but still having that third tick of each day is almost pointless for 20-30 hours of gameplay (outside Lisa's house at least) and I'm not too sure how best to combat that or whether it needs addressed at all. I've added a note in the opening of the game that states that Night events don't really begin until Confidence level 3 for now ^_^
4: The progression actually isn't terrible
A huge concern of mine lately has been that the growth of Lisa's character might feel a little off for a new player but upon replaying the game while yes there are areas that could be fixed or optimized (e.g. Swim Trip); overall I'm pleased with how it moves forward and with the pacing.
dForce really makes a huge difference, floating sleeves are pG's petpeeve.
5: The game needs more balloons
RPGM balloons are the little bouncing images that float over characters or objects depicting moods or objects of interest. I had a really quick look at the fitness events and added balloons to said events when Lisa is wearing the Jogging Outfit to better illustrate that these events are "useful" in a way. This is something I'll be looking into a lot more when working on 3.X Renshire. I want to add balloons for all of the locations in the game like above Rubbins' or even in Lisa's room, this should liven up and make the player experience more intuitive but it's something I think is really missing. Since I'm using RPGM, it really makes no sense not to utilize every detail of the engine if it improves player experience though I'm not much of a sprite artist so I might have to source out someone who is ^_^
As mentioned above when moving into 3.X I'll be taking a look at each map and making an effort to add new events to a lot of them. I want that fresh +Confidence (used to be Exhibitionism) feeling when the player gets hold of Lisa's new outfit, a new cap on Deviancy (50 after Confidence 3) and is set free in a totally new Renshire with maps that are begging to be explored. This is obviously a huge task but I'll hopefully chip bits off it with each patch in 3.X
An example of one of the CGs that simply couldn't be salvaged and had to be completely remade though this bra set is truly abominable to work with.
Just to reiterate; there very may well be other instances of ghoulish grins, text boxes displaying incorrectly or references to Paul flickered around in there so if you find any please do let me know but at the very least the majority should be fixed
)
I do want to share more teasers of JP but they're all very x rated and I can't post that stuff publicly (public posts can't have nudity and these links have to be public
) or I'll get in trouble lol! I'll probably do another update later during the week because now, at long last I'm pretty much 100% up to date and can get back to working on current content.
The best news of all is that the links are back up and running so that's a
huge weight off my mind and I apologize to everyone and anyone who was trying to download the game in the past month. It's been a doozy overall lol.
Thanks so much for your patience guys, sending you all my love and I hope you have all had an
amazing weekend ^_^!
//pG
