Ren'Py Lust Academy [S3 v3.10.1d] [Bear in the Night]

[Deleted member 5878729]

• Is it imperative I stop all my work now and playthrough S1 to get a solid grasp of S2 pathings, etc.? Some of y'all know I work on some very complex VN's but I generally always have background before I jump into the deep end of the pool.
• There's a Sandbox and VN mode (this smells eerily familiar)... which one do most folks play? I don't want to code them simultaneously unless I must... it slows things down to a bog even with a multi-monitor setup.

1. Not necessary
2. Sandbox

 

[Sancho1969]

The choices are pretty much straight forward. Every scene stands on it's own, there is no 'path' to follow. I think you can even keep a girl in the friend zone the whole time and then bang her on the first opportunity. I never found out, what 'relationships' were carried from S1 to S2, I think it's only player stats and inventory.

Good morning. Now I'm really wondering... it must be folks want a mod for all the other features besides a walkthrough, since it would seem to me from these comments (remember it's me not having played it yet) that, if all paths are accessible, a guide is secondary to some other issue or need. Fine by me, I can release a UI enhancement only mod if that's what the playerbase is looking for. Thoughts?

 

[Nemo56]

You know how people are, before even installing the game they ask for a mod/walkthrough.

For this game in particular (I can only speak for the Sandbox mode) I hardly see any reason to do this.
The game has a ingame walkthrough which consists of two parts:
1. the quest guide. For every girl and the main quest you can see what to do next. In the few cases where that's not enough info there's the
2. scheduler
For each day and each time of the day you see an overview what activities there are available, it even shows if the activity will forward time or not. And if you are lazy enough you can click a activity in the evening and automatically foward time and jump to the according screen.
I have never seen any sandbox game that is as easy to follow as this one.
For each girl you can choose if you want to flirt (or whatever) or not and it's kinda obvious what losens the pants. So far I didn't see any later consequences for choices.

There is a weekly competition for house points which can be earned by going to lessons, performing activities, finding lost books (4 each day, sometimes 3, one location seems to be bugged) or by earning money and also by duelling.
In season 1 this is more important than in season 2, because the reward is a visit to a town on weekends with story components. In season 2 the visit will happen one way or another, but the winner gets a little pocket money.

The duels are a bit of a grind factor, once the max competition level is reached, there is a special enemy which requires very high stats.

The books could be made better visible, maybe also the option to get that flower on tuesday night. That's all I can really think of. There is one secret recipe that can be found at the cauldron including that flower, maybe a hint for that can be included.
I managed to miss the party on Sundays for the winning house, because I kept fast forwarding. Only by playing normally with the scheduled return home the party will take place.
An outrage (This is NTR!!!) was that at the optional spin the bottle game at that party a gay guy could kiss the girls ...
So maybe put a warning there.

 

[Crazy_Chicken87]

You know how people are, before even installing the game they ask for a mod/walk through.

For this game in particular (I can only speak for the Sandbox mode) I hardly see any reason to do this.
The game has a in game walk through which consists of two parts:
1. the quest guide. For every girl and the main quest you can see what to do next. In the few cases where that's not enough info there's the
2. scheduler
For each day and each time of the day you see an overview what activities there are available, it even shows if the activity will forward time or not. And if you are lazy enough you can click a activity in the evening and automatically forward time and jump to the according screen.
I have never seen any sandbox game that is as easy to follow as this one.
For each girl you can choose if you want to flirt (or whatever) or not and it's kinda obvious what loosens the pants. So far I didn't see any later consequences for choices.

There is a weekly competition for house points which can be earned by going to lessons, performing activities, finding lost books (4 each day, sometimes 3, one location seems to be bugged) or by earning money and also by dueling.
In season 1 this is more important than in season 2, because the reward is a visit to a town on weekends with story components. In season 2 the visit will happen one way or another, but the winner gets a little pocket money.

The duels are a bit of a grind factor, once the max competition level is reached, there is a special enemy which requires very high stats.

The books could be made better visible, maybe also the option to get that flower on Tuesday night. That's all I can really think of. There is one secret recipe that can be found at the cauldron including that flower, maybe a hint for that can be included.
I managed to miss the party on Sundays for the winning house, because I kept fast forwarding. Only by playing normally with the scheduled return home the party will take place.
An outrage (This is NTR!!!) was that at the optional spin the bottle game at that party a gay guy could kiss the girls ...
So maybe put a warning there.

I absolutely agree with you on this completely great minds think alike!

 

[Crazy_Chicken87]

For the first question, I'd say I don't think so. At least not for pathing, which is essentially, "Bang all the girls. And one dude if you're into that sort of thing." There are zero conflicts and none of them are mutually exclusive. Pure Harem Fantasy stuff here.

Almost everyone plays Sandbox, and it's my understanding that is the devs preferred way for people to play.

I play vn mode because I hate almost anything sandbox besides a few vn's

 

[Bear in the Night]

You know how people are, before even installing the game they ask for a mod/walkthrough.

For this game in particular (I can only speak for the Sandbox mode) I hardly see any reason to do this.
The game has a ingame walkthrough which consists of two parts:
1. the quest guide. For every girl and the main quest you can see what to do next. In the few cases where that's not enough info there's the
2. scheduler
For each day and each time of the day you see an overview what activities there are available, it even shows if the activity will forward time or not. And if you are lazy enough you can click a activity in the evening and automatically foward time and jump to the according screen.
I have never seen any sandbox game that is as easy to follow as this one.
For each girl you can choose if you want to flirt (or whatever) or not and it's kinda obvious what losens the pants. So far I didn't see any later consequences for choices.

There is a weekly competition for house points which can be earned by going to lessons, performing activities, finding lost books (4 each day, sometimes 3, one location seems to be bugged) or by earning money and also by duelling.
In season 1 this is more important than in season 2, because the reward is a visit to a town on weekends with story components. In season 2 the visit will happen one way or another, but the winner gets a little pocket money.

The duels are a bit of a grind factor, once the max competition level is reached, there is a special enemy which requires very high stats.

The books could be made better visible, maybe also the option to get that flower on tuesday night. That's all I can really think of. There is one secret recipe that can be found at the cauldron including that flower, maybe a hint for that can be included.
I managed to miss the party on Sundays for the winning house, because I kept fast forwarding. Only by playing normally with the scheduled return home the party will take place.
An outrage (This is NTR!!!) was that at the optional spin the bottle game at that party a gay guy could kiss the girls ...
So maybe put a warning there.

Btw, Do you really think about the student bottle game as NTR?

 

[Segnbora]

I agree with those who wonder how a walkthrough mod could enhance the gameplay. It's a sandbox that doesn't really advance unless you do the correct things, which the game already tells you exactly how to do.

I love your mods, but i'm not sure this is worth your time.

 

[Badjourasmix]

Btw, Do you really think about the student bottle game as NTR?

Yea some people will consider that NTR. I don't mind that kind of stuff as long as you can avoid it, but some people don't want any interaction between other males and the girls in game.

 

[Nemo56]

Btw, Do you really think about the student bottle game as NTR?

Heck no, but some guys reacted like that. In the worst case it could be called 'sharing' if one considers kissing is a sexual interaction.

 

[Nemo56]

I play vn mode because I hate almost anything sandbox besides a few vn's

That's where great minds differ The more the player has to do, the better. My favourite play style would be something like an point & click adventure game, meaning: A LOT more dialogue than sandbox usually have with NPCs giving hints about what to do next (not directly, but for example talking about the upcoming xy event or missing something). Collect items, combine them, use them with something specific. That's what I love House Party for. Except for the visials and relationship stats, it plays just like a classic adventure game. I also played "Moist" again a few days ago, a adult text adventure. That one is so awesome. Sadly with prerendered images it's impossible to have so many possible actions and variations.

Of course an adventure style game is not easy to do if you release your games in episores and updates, almost impossible. They require a lot more planing and sticking to the story. You have to prevent that a item gets consumed that becomes necessary only very late in the game to prevent dead ends. You need to see the game as a whole and not just add stuff the patreons want. That's why I stick to buying finished games and support games on kickstarter, they usually have an idea of what they want to do.

 

[Solomon Grundy]

You know how people are, before even installing the game they ask for a mod/walkthrough.

And then follow that up by begging for a completed save.

 

[Sancho1969]

Bug Report

Whoever has correspondence with the dev team, bug in the interface when using hotkeys, specifically "p" or "P" for the phone. The code calls for audio file "iphone" but it doesn't exist. The proper audio file name is "snd_iphone". This causes a non-fatal exception error. Can be found in four lines in the below snippet:

        if not renpy.get_screen('lustagram_screen'):
            key "p" action Function(setMusic, music = 'snd_phone_open'), Show('lustagram_screen', transition = Dissolve(.3)), Function(setMusic, music = 'iphone')
            key "P" action Function(setMusic, music = 'snd_phone_open'), Show('lustagram_screen', transition = Dissolve(.3)), Function(setMusic, music = 'iphone')
        else:
            key "p" action Function(setMusic, music = 'snd_phone_open'), Hide('lustagram_screen', transition = Dissolve(.3)), Function(setMusic, music = 'iphone')
            key "P" action Function(setMusic, music = 'snd_phone_open'), Hide('lustagram_screen', transition = Dissolve(.3)), Function(setMusic, music = 'iphone')

There's other bugs I've found but I haven't been logging them down since I'm not updating a mod, I'm writing it.

 

[Solomon Grundy]

Bug Report

Whoever has correspondence with the dev team, bug in the interface when using hotkeys, specifically "p" or "P" for the phone.

Dev team actually follows this thread, so they should see it. Also, you are doing hero's work, my dude.

 

[Sancho1969]

Dev team actually follows this thread, so they should see it. Also, you are doing hero's work, my dude.

Good deal and thank you for the info bud, sincerely. If they see this then I have more than a few items to point out that they really need to stop doing and get orthodox.

An example (I've already changed about a hundred of these) is using:
""

instead of the proper:
pause

A blank dialogue box is not the way to pause the game properly. It's a very poor and sloppy habit if I'm being honest. Whoever on the team is coding the Python should whisper in the ear of whoever is writing the dialogues. Little things like this will make a much more professional, efficient, and proper build. Obviously they don't expect someone like me to write code to modify their baby so they don't notice some of the the old habits that remain in the code, so hopefully me pointing some of these things out will help a few on the team improve their skills or be more noticeable of those things they already should know by now (considering this is the second season of the game).

Trust I'm not wagging my finger, I'm genuinely lending some sound advice to enhance the product, not deprecate it or belittle anyone. Regards, it's going to be a long and busy weekend in the studio.

 

[Bear in the Night]

Good deal and thank you for the info bud, sincerely. If they see this then I have more than a few items to point out that they really need to stop doing and get orthodox.

An example (I've already changed about a hundred of these) is using:
""

instead of the proper:
pause

A blank dialogue box is not the way to pause the game properly. It's a very poor and sloppy habit if I'm being honest. Whoever on the team is coding the Python should whisper in the ear of whoever is writing the dialogues. Little things like this will make a much more professional, efficient, and proper build. Obviously they don't expect someone like me to write code to modify their baby so they don't notice some of the the old habits that remain in the code, so hopefully me pointing some of these things out will help a few on the team improve their skills or be more noticeable of those things they already should know by now (considering this is the second season of the game).

Trust I'm not wagging my finger, I'm genuinely lending some sound advice to enhance the product, not deprecate it or belittle anyone. Regards, it's going to be a long and busy weekend in the studio.

Yup, we are here
So if you found anything else interesting - feel free to leave it here

 

[Sancho1969]

Yup, we are here
So if you found anything else interesting - feel free to leave it here

Good morning. See a bug report here in case you missed it bud. I'll do my best to go back and log the others I found as well. Regards.

 

[SonsOfLiberty]

There's other bugs I've found but I haven't been logging them down since I'm not updating a mod, I'm writing it.

So, guess I can look forward to replaying this one to then with a new mod addition

 

[hampsure]

That's where great minds differ The more the player has to do, the better. My favourite play style would be something like an point & click adventure game, meaning: A LOT more dialogue than sandbox usually have with NPCs giving hints about what to do next (not directly, but for example talking about the upcoming xy event or missing something). Collect items, combine them, use them with something specific.

I'd say it's usually down to the game for me, though I'm not entirely play-style agnostic. I do lean towards the same personal preference as yourself having grown up on classic adventure games myself. If I had unlimited time and brainpower, then generally the more engaged/involved the game gets me in interacting with it the better (as long as it doesn't get to be to tedious survival/management game levels)... BUT, with more limited time as I've gotten older and sometimes just wanting to just relax and experience something that requires much less thought/participation I find that I really like having a good mix of different types of game styles to go back and forth between depending on what I feel like and my schedule.

I'm also kinda split on games that let you experience everything in a one giant playthrough vs. games that require multiple playthroughs to see different aspects that interest you (there's also "New Game +" types that are somewhere in between I guess). While I generally prefer the former, which is usually the minority of AVNs, some of my favorite games are the latter and again I feel like it's down to implementation and what fits the game/story.

 

[Nemo56]

I'd say it's usually down to the game for me, though I'm not entirely play-style agnostic. I do lean towards the same personal preference as yourself having grown up on classic adventure games myself. If I had unlimited time and brainpower, then generally the more engaged/involved the game gets me in interacting with it the better (as long as it doesn't get to be to tedious survival/management game levels)... BUT, with more limited time as I've gotten older and sometimes just wanting to just relax and experience something that requires much less thought/participation I find that I really like having a good mix of different types of game styles to go back and forth between depending on what I feel like and my schedule.

I'm also kinda split on games that let you experience everything in a one giant playthrough vs. games that require multiple playthroughs to see different aspects that interest you (there's also "New Game +" types that are somewhere in between I guess). While I generally prefer the former, which is usually the minority of AVNs, some of my favorite games are the latter and again I feel like it's down to implementation and what fits the game/story.

I don't consider VNs to be games really. They are just novels, just as their description implies. I have both a huge movie and game collection, so when I just want to experience something, I have plenty of options. When I want to play something, I actually want to play something. But it must have a structure and a story. Those bullet hell shooters or repetitive games with generated levels are not for me. I grew up with the 80s jump & runs, but at some point I prefered graphical adventures.
I hardly ever touch NG+, that only brings something in very few cases (HZD being an example). But I must have completed IJ4 easily over hundred times

I share your time problems, I hesitate a lot before touching a game with a hundred or more hours of playtime. Shorter games are better suited for me. When I see "20 hours" (or up to 40) on the game description page, that really suits me.
I do find the need for some brain activity in games relaxing however.

 

[Ahchi]

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Dear witches and wizards! Welcome to our weekly DevUpdate.
But first, let's set the mood with a dirty little joke:
Why do witches wear no underwear while flying a broom?
...
It gives them a better grip on the handle!

But don't focus on the jokes too much. Let's get back to important info, more precisely, to the news about the development process. Here is the list of things we've finished this week:

• Finished 23 new renders with Leona, Dakota, Haley and Amelie.
• Retouched 45 renders to add a special magical atmosphere!
• Finished 12 more full HD 60fps animations for hot scenes.
• Finished proofreading dialogues for Lily's storyline.
• Finished proofreading dialogues for Amelie's storyline.
• Finished proofreading dialogues for Dakota's storyline.
• Finished quest logs and character info for season 2.

That concludes this week's update. Thank you for your time and comments. With each update, we strive to enhance Lust Academy!

Sincerely,
Bear in the Night