VN Ren'Py Race of Life [Act 1 v1.04.5] [Underground Studio]

[cooldevo]

Yep it's just points (and that Veronica cheating flag if on her route). Another minor disappointment for me. Was hoping Allie would get to flex and have a better outcome. Jasmine feels like objectively the worst choice to bring to the ball but she also does well so it's all moot. Not even gonna talk about Nat.

I agree that it's a disappointment. Since you can win and lose races costing the MC money, I was surprised that the investor ball and conference are meaningless other than to gain LI points. Obviously, a complete failure would ruin the Lily story, but perhaps degrees of success. From 'good' to 'smashing success', or some such rating system. At the very least it'd allow for a lot more flavoring later in the game to make you feel the impact of your decisions. Flavoring would minimize the branching overload, but at least make it feel like you are doing more than just collecting LI points.

Perhaps assigning 'proficiency' to the skills of each of the people involved.... without breaking the story, it'd at least allow for it to feel like it's impacting something.

Something like: 1) presentation; 2) technical expertise; and 3) sales ability... or something like that.

For example, at the conference:

• V, as an English professor, should help get max points for your presentation, but less in the technical expertise and sales ability.
• Jasmine would be an expert in the technical expertise, but more lacking in the presentation skill.
• Allie would be very good with presentations and sales ability, but lacking technical expertise.
• <and so on>

At the investor ball:

• Allie has top presentation and sales ability for the investors, but very little technical expertise
• Jasmine has the technical expertise and sale ability, but less in the presentation ability
• <and so on>

 

[OWSam000]

After watching all the argument about the importance of each characters in story, they are all useless. My dear Delilah is definitely most important in the story. NO ONE, NOT ANT BITCH CAN BEAT MY GIRL DELILAH.

 

[xXwankerXx]

I thought it was fairly unoffensive scene, but apparently it's too much for those dominant alpha males (bleh) that self-insert in thses.

Just hope the dev doesn't take away Kris's femdom path, because we all know certain alpha's can't stand the fact that there's even an option to do it.

'Scuse us for not liking the same things and characters you do, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to tastes and preferences and just that, there's no self-insertion involved and no lame snarky comments on this topic needed.

We all have our own, there's no need to bitch about them, cuz we don't really give a shit. Try to understand that at least.

the dev removed the only thing Maggie had going for her, she's just not that interesting of a character

Again, that's your opinion, which you shouldn't generalize. I personally find her very interesting, not just bcz she's exactly the type of woman I'd go for IRL, nah, it's simply bcuz there's more to her than meets the eye, and I'm curious to find out what that is. Plus, she's soo sweet, smart and attractive, she's simply worth pursuing, even if it turns out she's just a 'generic' blonde with mommy issues.

With Jammin I really feel like her more romance/emotional stuff will come later, she did seem to struggle a little when they kiss at the fundraiser event, It feels like her route Is more of a slow burn.

Same here. She's definitely worth all the playful teasing and minor headaches so far, but from a believable story perspective, we shouldn't forget that her crush, Jake (MC), is still her boss AND college teacher.

Something like this is exactly the kinda delicate shit that can get him in trouble before he even reaches an ounce of financial success with the project they both worked so much and so hard for, so a slow-burn romantic progress with her is to be expected.

Perhaps assigning 'proficiency' to the skills of each of the people involved

If it's any help knowing this, ALL the girls on your list there proved to us more than once that they're very skilled when it comes to oral... presentation, ofc. The technical expertise part is another story.

My dear Delilah is definitely most important in the story. NO ONE, NOT ANT BITCH CAN BEAT MY GIRL DELILAH.

Shit, I knew I forgot to mention someone there when giving props, but I'm with you on this. Reading some posts here, where users be talking smack about this and that character or praising them for being more or less important to the story, Lily's treatment and MC's project's success without even mentioning the OG best girl Delilah is simply disappointing.

If there's no Delilah, there's no money to be made from racing, and I don't know how else the MC could make enough money for another month of treatment for Lily until his project starts bringing some in... don't really wanna know how Cooper made all that money so fast, but it wouldn't be exactly shocking if we found out it wasn't done as smoothly as he claimed.

 

[Just Jericho]

Just the important fact that without the finances V helped him get and the good word she put for him to William there wouldn't be a project to begin with, but the same thing can be said about MC's ex too tho. Except for paying her first share of money for the treatment, which is to be expected of her to do, since it's her daughter we talking about here and all, she too becomes irrelevant after that. Nothing she does, that other LIs can also do and bring to the table, can be considered anything even remotely 'substantial' to MC's project and the treatment, unless you consider her crying, blaming herself for what happened to Lily and yelling at that idiotic, insensitive doctor a plus, soo yeah... she isn't that much better than V on this front either.

On the other hand, there's Jasmine and Cooper, especially him, the two real and only other MVPs in this story... these two are the only two characters who're crucial to MC's success in this endeavor, IMO, and if we remove them from the equation, no one else can do what they do for him. Period.

This is the problem with responding to a little snippet of a post while ignoring the rest of the post. I acknowledged the fact that Veronica helped with the grant before the events of the story. Apart from that, she has no critical impact on any of the subplots of the broader story (Lily's recovery, Battery, Racing, Wyatt, Ian, etc). Her own subplot (FWB or GF) is set apart from everything else while all of the other subplots are beginning to relate to one another. IF and only if you are on Veronica's path does she become further involved with the Battery subplot, but she's literally plugged in to events that happen with or without her as an option for the conference.

All other LIs are still actively involved in the developing story whether or not you're romancing them and regardless of whether Jake chooses them for the ball or conference. Even on Allison's neutral and hate paths, she's still involved with Lily's recovery at the Wake Up Institute as well as the Wyatt situation. Jasmine is the most involved LI as she's critical to both the battery and racing plots regardless of whether Jake is on her romance path. Maggie is still critical to the Ian and Wyatt plots whether or not Jake initially agrees to help her or accepts her "happy ending". Natalya is still trying to get close to Jake for yet unknown reasons, joining his bridge course and rather stubbornly trying to get involved with the battery project regardless of whether Jake is fucking her.

Veronica is the only LI that is completely removed from the story by Chapter 2 if you're not persuing her path.

That's why I say Veronica is the least important character in the story. Sure she helped with the grant and while that's important, that involvement basically resolved before the events of the story. All of the other LIs are still independently involved in some way with the developing story. Veronica fucks off to Canada. We'll see what happens IF she ever comes back but through the story thus far, she's had almost no impact on the story except for helping with grant and for being Jake's fuck buddy. If the Dev wants to make Veronica relevant, I think he will need to re-integrate her into the story in some meaningful way that isn't contingent on her romance path. Otherwise, she can stay in Canada because she has no actual purpose in the story anymore.

 

[SlapE]

I finally got a chance to play the latest update, it was amazing as expected. I mean, I was thoroughly entertained the whole way through, the story and writing are great, and the sex scenes this time around, particularly the Jasmine scene and the Alexa/Kris threesome scene (Male-dom of course) were both incredible, top tier scenes.

Also, the ending was beautiful, and I'm really looking forward to see where the story goes from here, and how the relationships develop going forward. There was some good Allie progress this time around, and obviously that one is meant to be more slow burn, but it's been very wholesome for the most part. Also, the looks Allison gives the MC when you treat her well and do your best for their daughter, makes my heart swell. Jasmine and Allison are still by far my two favorite characters/paths. Though, I am interested to see what will happen with this Veronica cuckquean development.

 

[cooldevo]

Veronica is the only LI that is completely removed from the story by Chapter 2 if you're not persuing her path.

I don't think she'll be written out completely, as she has her solo and other *ple paths. If turned down, she may just become a non-romanceable side girl. She could easily slot in scenes at the University or doing paperwork on the battery project.

For the simplicity of keeping track of branching stories, and rendering all the scene variations, I think it'd simplify some if she was there, whether as an LI or friendzone. It'd beat trying to write her out completely for <reasons>.

 

[SamualHand]

After watching all the argument about the importance of each characters in story, they are all useless. My dear Delilah is definitely most important in the story. NO ONE, NOT ANT BITCH CAN BEAT MY GIRL DELILAH.

To proved that, you have to fuck her in all her holes!

 

[xXwankerXx]

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I know, and this is why I said the same thing can be said about Allison, obvious big difference between them, Allison being Lily's mom, aside. Except her initial financial contribution, IF the player pursues another LI and doesn't take her to the charity ball, she barely does anything significant to raise the MC's chances at success as the story progresses.

Allison, of all ppl, can't just pack her things, say 'fuck this shit' and simply leave the country like V does without giving a substantial fuck about her own daughter's wellbeing, ffs. And V's most likely gone for a short while after which she'll probably return and try to somehow be involved in MC's life again.

Here's the thing, I never claimed Veronica was a crucial part of the story or MC's team, when all she did was to add her share of contribution to helping him out when he needed her to, only Jasmine and Cooper can be considered that. The fact that she just leaves the country and doesn't even have the courtesy to tell him that in person, not through a text, is probably related to her going through another disappointing (FWB) relationship with a guy that breaks her heart, a thing she thinks about after the dinner at her place when she asks the MC the dreaded DTR q. Some ppl are more emotional like that, others are not, and have it easier moving on.

You can read in the thread how triggered some users got when I said I understood, not condoned, why the MC cheated on her and why I thought it's sadly something that happens IRL a lot, no matter how wrong it was. It's probably the same for her too. You get burned once, you will be more careful next time, or go back to square one... in her case, it's hinted that she got burned A LOT in past relationships (spoiler bellow), a thing that would explain perfectly well why she's soo clingy and pushy toward a guy like the MC, a divorced single dad, whom she barely knows.

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Jasmine is the most involved LI as she's critical to both the battery and racing plots regardless of whether Jake is on her romance path.

Yep, a thing that I already mentioned in my previous reply to you, and Maggie's only important to the Ian subplot... Wyatt probably doesn't even know her, he only wants to get payback on the MC for marrying Allison. Butthurt idiot's probably the one responsible for Lily's accident too, so looking forward to whooping his ass and running him over with Delilah.

Veronica is the only LI that is completely removed from the story by Chapter 2 if you're not persuing her path.

There's no actual reason for Maggie to suddenly leave town too, nor is there any reason for the shady Nat to stop being involved in some way with the MC, if he declines her advances toward him. I don't think she's an LI, but she wasn't too careful with hiding her sudden interest in his potentially game-changing project, so her actively helping or offering to help him for her own agenda is to be expected. Are there any other LIs (!!), not side characters, we didn't mention ??

Veronica is the least important character in the story

Veronica fucks off to Canada.

Wonder why that is lol. One can't help but wonder if ALL the trolling and almost 24/7 bashing on her character have anything to do with that, or it was the writer's plan all along for most fans to hate her, fuck knows why. Be that as it may, I'd argue that she's one of the least important LIs, not characters, in the story so far, when it comes to everything you pointed out there, unless you also consider Patricia, Alexa, Kris, Camille and even Nerd Girl too to be more important than her for the overall story.

 

[Just Jericho]

I don't think she'll be written out completely, as she has her solo and other *ple paths. If turned down, she may just become a non-romanceable side girl. She could easily slot in scenes at the University or doing paperwork on the battery project.

For the simplicity of keeping track of branching stories, and rendering all the scene variations, I think it'd simplify some if she was there, whether as an LI or friendzone. It'd beat trying to write her out completely for <reasons>.

I don't disagree with you there. I'm simply speaking from where we are right now in the story. I agree that there are several ways that she could become more independently relevant especially on the University side of things. But we'll have to see what happens. As of now, she's out of the picture. That may change in later chapters.

If the Dev wants to make Veronica relevant, I think he will need to re-integrate her into the story in some meaningful way that isn't contingent on her romance path. Otherwise, she can stay in Canada because she has no actual purpose in the story anymore.

I know, and this is why I said the same thing can be said about Allison, obvious big difference between them, Allison being Lily's mom, aside. Except her initial financial contribution, IF the player pursues another LI and doesn't take her to the charity ball, she barely does anything significant to raise the MC's chances at success as the story progresses.

Allison, of all ppl, can't just pack her things, say 'fuck this shit' and simply leave the country like V does without giving a substantial fuck about her own daughter's wellbeing, ffs. And V's most likely gone for a short while after which she'll probably return and try to somehow be involved in MC's life again.

Here's the thing, I never claimed Veronica was a crucial part of the story or MC's team, when all she did was to add her share of contribution to helping him out when he needed her to, only Jasmine and Cooper can be considered that. The fact that she just leaves the country and doesn't even have the courtesy to tell him that in person, not through a text, is probably related to her going through another disappointing (FWB) relationship with a guy that breaks her heart, a thing she thinks about after the dinner at her place when she asks the MC the dreaded DTR q. Some ppl are more emotional like that, others are not, and have it easier moving on.

You can read in the thread how triggered some users got when I said I understood, not condoned, why the MC cheated on her and why I thought it's sadly something that happens IRL a lot, no matter how wrong it was. It's probably the same for her too. You get burned once, you will be more careful next time, or go back to square one... in her case, it's hinted that she got burned A LOT in past relationships (spoiler bellow), a thing that would explain perfectly well why she's soo clingy and pushy toward a guy like the MC, a divorced single dad, whom she barely knows.

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Yep, a thing that I already mentioned in my previous reply to you, and Maggie's only important to the Ian subplot... Wyatt probably doesn't even know her, he only wants to get payback on the MC for marrying Allison. Butthurt idiot's probably the one responsible for Lily's accident too, so looking forward to whooping his ass and running him over with Delilah.



There's no actual reason for Maggie to suddenly leave town too, nor is there any reason for the shady Nat to stop being involved in some way with the MC, if he declines her advances toward him. I don't think she's an LI, but she wasn't too careful with hiding her sudden interest in his potentially game-changing project, so her actively helping or offering to help him for her own agenda is to be expected. Are there any other LIs (!!), not side characters, we didn't mention ??




Wonder why that is lol. One can't help but wonder if ALL the trolling and almost 24/7 bashing on her character have anything to do with that, or it was the writer's plan all along for most fans to hate her, fuck knows why. Be that as it may, I'd argue that she's one of the least important LIs, not characters, in the story so far, when it comes to everything you pointed out there, unless you also consider Patricia, Alexa, Kris, Camille and even Nerd Girl too to be more important than her for the overall story.

Honestly if I were to guess, I think the dev didn't really have a plan for her that he was happy with outside of being the "territorial girlfriend" character. I don't think it had anything to do with people's reaction to her. If you avoid all sex scenes with her, she's dejected but she seems far less pushy. At the very least with lower "veronica points", she doesn't declare herself Jake's girlfriend after he said he wasn't ready for a relationship, which is what a lot of people didn't like about her, I think. That and her behavior.

I think you agree with me that all of the other girls have something unresolved in the main story, which is why they're all still involved in some way. Basically, they all have a purpose and an unresolved conflict in the developing story. Since Veronica's arc is almost exclusively concerned with the status of her relationship with Jake, the break up basically resolved her conflict. It puts a button on her story for now. Veronica simply needs more development and a reason for existing beyond being a romantic interest. So we'll see what happens if she comes back from Canada.

I'd disagree with you on Allison though. Even on the scorched earth path, she's still involved with Lily's recovery, even if she actively tries to avoid Jake. And Wyatt is still a problem in her life. So Allison still has a lot of unfinished business no matter which route you take with her.

 

[MiltonPowers]

I agree that it's a disappointment. Since you can win and lose races costing the MC money, I was surprised that the investor ball and conference are meaningless other than to gain LI points. Obviously, a complete failure would ruin the Lily story, but perhaps degrees of success. From 'good' to 'smashing success', or some such rating system. At the very least it'd allow for a lot more flavoring later in the game to make you feel the impact of your decisions. Flavoring would minimize the branching overload, but at least make it feel like you are doing more than just collecting LI points.

Perhaps assigning 'proficiency' to the skills of each of the people involved.... without breaking the story, it'd at least allow for it to feel like it's impacting something.

Something like: 1) presentation; 2) technical expertise; and 3) sales ability... or something like that.

For example, at the conference:

• V, as an English professor, should help get max points for your presentation, but less in the technical expertise and sales ability.
• Jasmine would be an expert in the technical expertise, but more lacking in the presentation skill.
• Allie would be very good with presentations and sales ability, but lacking technical expertise.
• <and so on>

At the investor ball:

• Allie has top presentation and sales ability for the investors, but very little technical expertise
• Jasmine has the technical expertise and sale ability, but less in the presentation ability
• <and so on>

And Nat would beat all 3 of them, being proficient in presentation, technical expertise & sales.

 

[jadepaladin]

And Nat would beat all 3 of them, being proficient in presentation, technical expertise & sales.

Imagine if that was the case, with the catch being that you get a dead end 90% of the way through the story for siding with Nat because she turns out to be a spy and steals everything.

 

[Naps-On-Dirt]

Lily's accident, which we can arguably blame it on her too, btw.

(out of context quote there)
I disagree. (Admittedly I haven't tried the branch where you do blame her and that might negate what I'm about to say because this dev does sometimes conform the story to the players choices.) On the not-blaming path, the sequence of events is that while skateboarding on the sidewalk or driveway, a dog chases Lily, she jumps off the board, runs out into the street and gets hit (by Wyatt we suspect.) If Allison didn't allow Lily to play with her skateboard, she would not have been wearing her helmet. If she was playing in the yard without her helmet when the dog came running and still ran away from it into the street, the accident would have possibly killed her.

So all things being equal, by letting her play with her skateboard and insisting on the helmet, it could be argued that Allie saved Lily's life.

 

[iamcomming]

the branch where you do blame her and that might negate what I'm about to say because this dev does sometimes conform the story to the players choices.) On the not-blaming path, the sequence of events is that while skateboarding on the sidewalk or driveway, a dog chases Lily, she jumps off the board, runs out into the street and gets hit (by Wyatt we suspect.) If Allison didn't allow Lily to play with her skateboard, she would not have been wearing her helmet. If she was playing in the yard without her helmet when the dog came running and still ran away from it into the street, the accident would have possibly killed her.

So all things being equal, by letting her play with her skateboar

ohm, i dont remember this part. i did my best to not remember this horror. poor Lily.

but if Lily was run out in the street where cars are going. then she run out, because the parents are not made her not to run out. i mean, it is the parents job, right? so, they can blame themself, because they should be better parents, not because of the accident.
but ofc. if the accidents happens, nobody cares about the fact the responsibility for being good parent and the responsibility for the accident isnt the same. since if they are enough good parents, then the accident wont happening. or at least not that way, where Lily runs out. accident can happens that way, the car lost the control and hit Lily while Lily is in the sidewalk.

anyway. i did not blame Allie, because i didnt felt blaming her a good idea. she did nothing.

 

[Naps-On-Dirt]

ohm, i dont remember this part. i did my best to not remember this horror. poor Lily.

but if Lily was run out in the street where cars are going. then she run out, because the parents are not made her not to run out. i mean, it is the parents job, right? so, they can blame themself, because they should be better parents, not because of the accident.
but ofc. if the accidents happens, nobody cares about the fact the responsibility for being good parent and the responsibility for the accident isnt the same. since if they are enough good parents, then the accident wont happening. or at least not that way, where Lily runs out. accident can happens that way, the car lost the control and hit Lily while Lily is in the sidewalk.

anyway. i did not blame Allie, because i didnt felt blaming her a good idea. she did nothing.

Did you miss the part about a dog chasing her? The quality of a child's parenting has shit to do with how she reacts in flight mode when a scary animal that weighs almost as much as she does comes charging at her.

 

[Michael_MAN]

It's funny that it takes Veronica 30-45 minutes to prepare romantic scene at the hotel.

And during this time Jake manages to chill out in sauna with Nat and Jasmine, drink for long enough at the bar with Vanessa and Nathan (+sex with Vanessa), then there is still time for a big sex scene with Jasmine.
And after all of this he returns to V just in time.

 

[cooldevo]

It's funny that it takes Veronica 30-45 minutes to prepare romantic scene at the hotel.
View attachment 4470338
And during this time Jake manages to chill out in sauna with Nat and Jasmine, drink for long enough at the bar with Vanessa and Nathan (+sex with Vanessa), then there is still time for a big sex scene with Jasmine.
And after all of this he returns to V just in time.
View attachment 4470354

When you bring the rose petals in, one by one, from outside it can certainly add up the minutes quickly.

She also has to take the time to disregard the lingerie choice you made, back when shopping, to put the one she chooses on.

 

[Maccabbee]

I just can't go for a serious Veronica relationship. Sooo many red flags. I like her, and the sex is hot, but I always go the "break" route. Even Allie is more attractive (personality wise).

As far as Allie goes, the game seems to want to push you back together if you work on the relationship, but I get the feeling that history will eventually just repeat itself. Her anger issues are also a big turnoff.

Jammin' is almost perfect to me, except for the age difference and relationship ethics (work and student).

Maggie is just so hot and wonderful. She's an easy choice, if you don't mind making enemies of a psycho who could destroy your whole life and the lives of everyone that you know...

After the threesome, Alexa and Kris seem a lot like great options, and not just scary stalker chicks. Hot and sweet. It would be nice exploring a route with either or both going forward.

Natalya is really great, but feels like a total honeypot trap.

 

[vucevic]

is the steam 1.02 version the same as the 3.2 version on PC?

 

[iamcomming]

Did you miss the part about a dog chasing her? The quality of a child's parenting has shit to do with how she reacts in flight mode when a scary animal that weighs almost as much as she does comes charging at her.

ohm, i dont remember this part. i did my best to not remember this horror. poor Lily.

but if Lily was run out in the street where cars are going. then she run out, because the parents are not made her not to run out. i mean, it is the parents job, right? so, they can blame themself, because they should be better parents, not because of the accident.
but ofc. if the accidents happens, nobody cares about the fact the responsibility for being good parent and the responsibility for the accident isnt the same. since if they are enough good parents, then the accident wont happening. or at least not that way, where Lily runs out. accident can happens that way, the car lost the control and hit Lily while Lily is in the sidewalk.

anyway. i did not blame Allie, because i didnt felt blaming her a good idea. she did nothing.

 

[Steuan]

It's funny that it takes Veronica 30-45 minutes to prepare romantic scene at the hotel.

Ohh, come'n brother. V is an old woman, go easy on her. We can't expect her to change her clothes as fast as Jasmine or Natalya, can we?

I just can't go for a serious Veronica relationship.

You're not alone lol I can assure you that the vast majority of ppl here agree with you. I think our english professor is kinda meme character at this point.