VN Ren'Py Ravager [v5.2.0] [4MinuteWarning]

[GrandPaBrowning]

I know that we only have his actions to go off, but my point was that its hard to imagine him being possessed by a demon when he's inclined to help people and avoid harm and there being no signs of any kind of internal struggle over it. And I am familiar with 40k but this is really making huge leaps that this is all might be some sort of part of a grand plan by a demon to do something nefarious by doing good deeds, just apply Occam's Razor to this and you see it doesn't seem plausible.

I think, I can skip this part. Given Fikedever's brilliant comment, this point seems mute now.

It's not about whether someone is "meant for breeding" but more whether they are "capable" of doing it, and the vast majority in the dragon's harem are, all kobolds are the spawn of his. This is something that Issa can't do, so maybe his hatred from kobolds stems partially from that.

Yeah, can be. But I can't say much about it - honestly, more of a speculation, really.

No, I don't think you get it. The people in-story do not write the story, the developer/writer does. We are the ones reading it. The people in the story are irrelevant when we come to ask, why did you create a world like this, what setup for, what purpose does this setting facilitate? The tropes are tools, used to achieve a goal, nothing more. Characters as they are could have been written in an innumerable amount of different ways and the objective of this line of questioning is asking yourself why did it land on specifically this outcome.

EDIT: To clarify, I mean in the sense the apocalypse is objectively a *thing* because we can see it has effects on the world, I don't mean it in the sense of it actually ending it. You can change your point of view to that the apocalypse is start of something new or whatever, but I don't mean that, I mean what does this all lead to, what can you "get" out of the world being constructed in this kind of light. So far, I haven't seen anything good.

Breaking news! Devs wrote the story instead of Bad Dragon! Also, 'gardener's approach' - some stories kinda write themselves. Author is, weirdly enough, not always in complete control of what he writes. Writing takes your hand and run with you - that's probably the best allegory of how it is done that I can muster.

I don't think this is that relevant, however. And it could be turned the other way, since authors are obviously vague in-narrative on the Cataclysm on purpose. Yes, they wrote the story, which is told to us through characters and descriptions. Specifically, characters with vague portents of doom and vague descriptions that the end is nigh. What details we do get, we aren't getting beforehand. Heck, I'm not even sure we get anything but the vaguest doomsayings before Malice becomes a thing.

And once again - no warnings on the Deerie-Ann!

Artists can do all they want, but it does not make their art good. Freedom of the artist is not directly proportional to the work's quality, but rather it simply enables the artist to do certain things that they otherwise might have not been able to. Sometimes, it leads to incredible works of art, and sometimes it leads to complete garbage, that is what it means to be free. I don't think something like that makes sense to be celebrated in the sense of being universally good, you will simply end up with a bunch of "le random" works that are bizarre but pointless and meaningless. What happened to Marie-Anne is just gross and uncalled for, sometimes you have to take a step back and reconsider what you're doing. There's a reason why the Star Wars prequels were generally considered poorly written compared to the original trilogy, it's because in the original you had people who would come and say "no" to George Lucas's poor ideas while the prequel was just him completely unfiltered which led into it being less cohesive. I want to enjoy Ravager but it's sometimes hard to when you have to deal with content you despise, that would just be better saved for its own game made for its own crowd rather than this kind of wide appeal that is frustrating at times.

I am mostly pro-freedom even when it harms the quality - except when it drops the quality to the gutter, of course. The goal of any art, be it game or painting, is expression of one's self, ideas and the world around. I will easily trade some quality for uniqueness.

Like, Call of Duty is series choke-full of high-quality games. Very bland, boring, unoriginal games I struggle to enjoy and even when I manage to, they mostly leave bad aftertaste. Sour candy - the game series.

On the other hand, Stalker is a veritable piece of post-Soviet junk. The workings of its engine is a mystery to even the wisest of mystiques and sages. Bugs and glitches are called "extra-anomalies" because they are just as frequent. An hour with no crashes is nice, two hours - luxury, three - how did you get so lucky, buddy?

Yet, it is so full of SOUL. It's unique, it stands out and it's thoroughly enjoyable.

I am in Camp Stalker, not Camp CoD. Fuck CoD. Fuck blandness. Give me junk I can be inspired by. Give me an interesting art, dammit!

I am also a huge Prequel Trilogy fan for that same reason. Like those junky movies more than the OG ones - precisely because they have: "George Lucas' mind" written all over them. It's a delve into someone's soul, man!

That's what art is for, not CONSOOM.

Though, I would like some fine balance between freedom and quality, of course.

Other than that - well, to each their own.

But it was. Literally every character that had dialogue about Cataclysm, was talking about dragon dooming everyone, and/or bringing the end of the world.
But of course players collectively ignored all the warnings, handwawing them away for one reason or another.
And now the playerbase became that "surprised pikachu face" meme manifest.

Not that many char's, no precise warning, most given after the Cataclysm became inevitable.

What do you mean "no warning"? That "boy turning into a bird" event has been there for actual years at this point.

I wasn't judging the topic from meta-narrative point, of course. In-narrative you have a few general warning when you try to make Malice, a few after she becomes a thing and then bird-boy just happens and you get "reality is melting" kind of speech from someone, IIRC.

Again - vague portents of doom, yes.

 

[GrandPaBrowning]

> Don't have malice

A. Heresy of the highest order. This game sole reason for existing is Malice.
Malice is Love. Malice is Life. Malice is the best character by far. This game should be renamed to include her name in the title. Something like "Malice's Story"

Exactly, my maliciphiliac brother! Any playthrough without Malice is heresy! We should have Malice, Malice and more Malice!

There is no thing as too much Malice, right? Right?!

LOLZ. So glad I went to ScrewCube and listened to that!

Yeah, kinda epic, right? And it stucks to your head quite well.

 

[TowerEpik]

I am mostly pro-freedom even when it harms the quality - except when it drops the quality to the gutter, of course. The goal of any art, be it game or painting, is expression of one's self, ideas and the world around. I will easily trade some quality for uniqueness.

It doesn't seem like a proper principle if you can ditch it when it becomes inconvenient. Freedom in of itself buys you nothing, it's a means, not an end. Similarly with uniqueness, if it lends itself to making the end result better, it's good, otherwise it doesn't really matter - what use is a novelty that has no appeal?

Like, Call of Duty is series choke-full of high-quality games. Very bland, boring, unoriginal games I struggle to enjoy and even when I manage to, they mostly leave bad aftertaste. Sour candy - the game series.

On the other hand, Stalker is a veritable piece of post-Soviet junk. The workings of its engine is a mystery to even the wisest of mystiques and sages. Bugs and glitches are called "extra-anomalies" because they are just as frequent. An hour with no crashes is nice, two hours - luxury, three - how did you get so lucky, buddy?

Yet, it is so full of SOUL. It's unique, it stands out and it's thoroughly enjoyable.

I am in Camp Stalker, not Camp CoD. Fuck CoD. Fuck blandness. Give me junk I can be inspired by. Give me an interesting art, dammit!

I fully resonate with your sentiment, but I would argue that stalker is good despite it's jank, not because of it. It's "soul" aspect comes from the quality of its world-building, the atmosphere, these things are material to the game itself. How much joy, tears, or sweat went into the game is not important here - CoD games have hundreds of people dedicating their craft, crunching hours to get it done on time, but it does not change what it is at the end of the day. Quality has many dimensions to it, and while stalker might not be "refined" in a traditional sense, what makes it good is precisely it has qualities other games don't.

I am also a huge Prequel Trilogy fan for that same reason. Like those junky movies more than the OG ones - precisely because they have: "George Lucas' mind" written all over them. It's a delve into someone's soul, man!

That's what art is for, not CONSOOM.

In all due respect, this is consumption of the art by definition. Counter-consumerist perspective would be more akin to believing that what people feel about the artwork is irrelevant because regardless of how many gaze upon it, what their opinions are, art just *is*, it exists for its own sake. While here, you seem excited because it draws you in on a personal level, saying that this is good because it makes you feel those things.
Liking the prequels is fine, but I would again contest that people tend to like it despite's its flaws, not because of them. I did not mean to imply they were better or worse than the original trilogy, just that a certain aspect of it - the writing (dialogue in particular) - has suffered. Which in turn has led to him selling the franchise off to Disney, when it could have been avoided had he not made those mistakes, which could have been caught had he challenged his notions more, or had people help him with that. It would have just as much "soul" to do that because it would still be his work, just more refined. This is why I don't think it's a good idea to conflate people's ideas and concepts with their personality, it's not a healthy thing for a mind to do, it becomes harder to adapt and grow with time.
Also, obligatory:

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[harem.king]

Exactly, my maliciphiliac brother! Any playthrough without Malice is heresy! We should have Malice, Malice and more Malice!

There is no thing as too much Malice, right? Right?!

Lovely picture.

 

[Nobles]

nah bro choices need to matter - one of the things i hated about SWTOR is whatever you say leads to the same outcome

the solution is the dev team needs to put their heads down and work... cause i get the feeling that aint the case and they just leisurely going, (cause if they complete it the money stops - patreon/subscription is ironically counterproductive for games)

I didnt say choices didnt matter. But it gives you different routes to the same objective. For a major event like the apocalypse.

 

[Lareit]

I didnt say choices didnt matter. But it gives you different routes to the same objective. For a major event like the apocalypse.

If going left takes me to the same place as going right then there wasn't much point in giving me the choice was there?

 

[Govow]

Noticed that some versions includes Steam DRM, if you get sent to steam with a "no license" error, just drag and replace files into main folder, and it should launch right away.

Steam Fix

(Detections are false positives, the unpatched exe also gets flagged.)

If you want to bypass the DRM yourself, just use steamless and goldberg emu.

Sir, you are a legend (and installation in 1st page should be updated as I had no idea this would launch Steam )
Hats off to you for that wonderful signature

 

[ChubbyFatBoy]

If going left takes me to the same place as going right then there wasn't much point in giving me the choice was there?

On a micro scale? Probably not. But other then that, it depends on what and how much is on each path. Don't think converging in the same/similar spot is all that bad. If the journey there is different and entertaining enough between choices.

 

[Ambiguousprophet]

Can I take the steam download, load it into renpy/RAPT and make an apk? Never done it before but before I bothered learning i hoped to know if it is feasible.

 

[JeiJwi]

My android user brothers here are starving. When are we getting an update?

 

[f45450]

My android user brothers here are starving. When are we getting an update?

Did you try joiplay, maybe it works?
Or try this

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[DraCoMIX]

Anyone know how to get this hidden achievement? Can't seem to figure it out

Spoiler: Hidden Achievement

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[Chelsea:p]

Exactly, my maliciphiliac brother! Any playthrough without Malice is heresy! We should have Malice, Malice and more Malice!

There is no thing as too much Malice, right? Right?!
View attachment 4314664

Yeah, kinda epic, right? And it stucks to your head quite well.

She is the gem of this game, there needs to be more content with her and much more

 

[GrandPaBrowning]

It doesn't seem like a proper principle if you can ditch it when it becomes inconvenient. Freedom in of itself buys you nothing, it's a means, not an end. Similarly with uniqueness, if it lends itself to making the end result better, it's good, otherwise it doesn't really matter - what use is a novelty that has no appeal?

Who said anything about ditching? As any principles, mine have limits too - and those I pointed out, that's all.

As for the question of freedom - yes, I deny the notion it is an end in itself. In this topic, it is means for people's self-expression.

Of course, we must have balance between freedom of expression and quality. We need limits against which art will struggle to grow up, not sideways. Like railing for the grapevine.

And I think there exist a sweetspot of sorts, where freedom starts to drop quality - but not too much. That spot where gems in the rough are made - things like Stalker or Pathologic. Unfriendly for those who will interact with them, they nevertheless provide unique experience.

And uniqueness, in most cases, is an end in itself. It expands your views, expands, basically, the data that is your memory and your mind. Enriches you, gives you new intellectual tools to interact with the world.

But yeah, better it be benignant and high-quality rather than turbo-junk.

I fully resonate with your sentiment, but I would argue that stalker is good despite it's jank, not because of it. It's "soul" aspect comes from the quality of its world-building, the atmosphere, these things are material to the game itself. How much joy, tears, or sweat went into the game is not important here - CoD games have hundreds of people dedicating their craft, crunching hours to get it done on time, but it does not change what it is at the end of the day. Quality has many dimensions to it, and while stalker might not be "refined" in a traditional sense, what makes it good is precisely it has qualities other games don't.

Stalker won't be nearly as much fun, if it not for the fact that you have to fight the game to get it. It gets ridiculous at times, how this game can just screw you over for no reason. My favorite example is bucket in Novice Village - for some reason, when you step on it, there is a chance it will kick you from below, instakilling you and throwing your corpse 50 feet in the air.

In Soviet Ukraine, you do not kick the bucket - the bucket KICKS YOU!

Another one is the fact that enemy will remember your position mid-loading. Meaning if you save to close to the enemy - well, fuck you! Now they get X-ray vision and see you through walls for some reason!

It wouldn't have been that much fun, if the game wouldn't have been this huge uphill battle against bugs and janky mechanics. It's basically a huge meme - and that is important! It makes it more memorable.

Won't argue against your point of quality dimensions. That's just true! But when I say "quality" I mostly mean "polished", not "having a certain quality". My bad, I guess.

Tangent: slight difference in words' connotations coming from language differences. In Russian (my native) word "качество" (cachestvo) seems to be clear equivalent of "quality". But it is not, in fact. In Russian, it is mostly used in technical sense - how well something is made, heavily associated with the word "качественный" (cachestvenniy), which means "high-quality". It's very rarely used in sense of having certain quality, because in Russian, the plural form ("качества", cachestva, "qualities") is mostly used for that, not the singular.

And sometimes I just forget about this slight difference, using the words interchangeably - which they are not.

In all due respect, this is consumption of the art by definition. Counter-consumerist perspective would be more akin to believing that what people feel about the artwork is irrelevant because regardless of how many gaze upon it, what their opinions are, art just *is*, it exists for its own sake. While here, you seem excited because it draws you in on a personal level, saying that this is good because it makes you feel those things.

I was talking of consumption as approach, not the matter of fact deed. Yes, if you partake in art, you consume it - no way around.

I just try to look past this fact, I guess. Find meaning in the act beyond the act, something more elevated, so to speak.

Liking the prequels is fine, but I would again contest that people tend to like it despite's its flaws, not because of them. I did not mean to imply they were better or worse than the original trilogy, just that a certain aspect of it - the writing (dialogue in particular) - has suffered. Which in turn has led to him selling the franchise off to Disney, when it could have been avoided had he not made those mistakes, which could have been caught had he challenged his notions more, or had people help him with that. It would have just as much "soul" to do that because it would still be his work, just more refined. This is why I don't think it's a good idea to conflate people's ideas and concepts with their personality, it's not a healthy thing for a mind to do, it becomes harder to adapt and grow with time.
Also, obligatory:

You must be registered to see the links

Here comes the interesting part - one's flaws is another's boons, oftentimes. Yes, there exist objective downsides, like subpar dialogues and actors playing as if they were these guys:

Guess George Lucas' real name was Urfin Jus all along! (Not that many people get this reference, but I am leaving it here anyway)

But so many people hated politicing in the Prequels - and I love that part. People were pointing out that like that's a downside - to me, it's an up.


Other than that - yeah, I agree. If you don't get your opinion challenged, it - and you yourself! - will become stale and stagnant, usually garbage too. That's a basic loop of any autocracy, BTW - any fan of that thing here? Yeah, probably not - that thing sucks huge horsefuta-balls (of which I have reference in mind, of course).

But funnily, there exist a balance in that too. If you listen to others too much, you'll just muddle your view with their ideas. Basically, any creator must pinpoint what is absolutely necessary to his work and stand their ground on that one, while also listening to criticism and freely changing less important details. Also importantly - listening to own doubts, since those are often our best advisors.

As an author it's your job to say - but do not forget to be ears too, so to speak.

 

[GrandPaBrowning]

Your request led me into the rabbit hole.

Spoiler: All occurances of petrichor

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Spoiler: He cannot answer?

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Spoiler: Reputation

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Spoiler: What do we know?

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Spoiler: How was he changed

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Spoiler: Why won't he tell us?

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Spoiler: Summary

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To sum it up:
1) direct comparison with Malagar's work likely means that whatever weird is happening to Issa's body does that due to Valzira's experiments, not demonic possession;
2) his "we" is a play on us, since in only dialogue where he is 100% serious he does not stutter;
3) I am not sure that blending with shadows was magic and not elaborated way to say that he hid there. But! It would explain how he seemingly effortlessly sneaks around;
4) divine blood in the veins of character, who bears Jesus' name in Arabic? Yeah, probably not a coincidence;
5) talks of creating better world, Bad Dragon's blood reigning eternally and creating a foe so terrible it will unite everyone kind hints at him wanting to have more dragons or bigger dragon. Couple it with him taking interest in Adeline - why, if not for her ability to breed dragon eggs? Seems that his goal is unity and peace through fear of overwhelming force - if that can be called a "better world";
6) Malice is a cute scaly wrench in his plans for some reason. Either she can remake a world into something he wouldn't be able to reshape, or her being around is a threat to the Dragon, whom Issa obviously need;
7) I think it is safe to assume that his (sassy) dialogue with Valzira is truthful (at least, mostly) and sincere.

So, guy with both divine essences (lunar from Valzira's experiments and his innate solar from kobold heritage) is going to make World 2.0: The Better Boogaloo for likely reason of bringing salvation to its people, and he is also named after the Savior. For that means he cheats, lies and manipulates many, including our protag. His stated goal is probably true, but his means to this end is largely shrouded in mystery, except the part of making the world dragon-er.

I yearn for his new content almost as much as I yearn for Malice content. I want to check whether or not our assumptions on him stand true!

 

[Ambiguousprophet]

Did you try joiplay, maybe it works?
Or try this
Pixeldrain

I haven't tried joiplay but will check it out. The app you provided works perfectly so far. Much appreciated!

 

[TowerEpik]

Stalker won't be nearly as much fun, if it not for the fact that you have to fight the game to get it. It gets ridiculous at times, how this game can just screw you over for no reason. My favorite example is bucket in Novice Village - for some reason, when you step on it, there is a chance it will kick you from below, instakilling you and throwing your corpse 50 feet in the air.

In Soviet Ukraine, you do not kick the bucket - the bucket KICKS YOU!

Another one is the fact that enemy will remember your position mid-loading. Meaning if you save to close to the enemy - well, fuck you! Now they get X-ray vision and see you through walls for some reason!

It wouldn't have been that much fun, if the game wouldn't have been this huge uphill battle against bugs and janky mechanics. It's basically a huge meme - and that is important! It makes it more memorable.

I can appreciate most of what you said but this I really don't understand, nobody I that I know has fond memories over the stalker games trolling them, most people remember the early and mid-game fondly but towards the end e.g. in shadow of chernobyl it just turns into an uninteresting shooting gallery with bullet spongy enemies that often one shot you unfairly. Likewise when the game crashes, its not fun at all, you can lose hours of progress, or when a quest bugs and you can't complete, these are straight up awful and everyone rightfully says to install the unofficial patch because what's the point in playing a game that doesn't work? When I talk to people they find the first encounter with the bloodsucker scary, or trying not to get killed by the military, or the labs creeping them out. I think the most cruel one in the series was clear sky because the moment you get even slightly scratched you bleed to death in a matter of moments like you have hemophilia, and everyone hated that, it sure gives you memories but not the type you want.
I can get behind liking things despite of the flaws, but thinking they're actually good seems more like copium, its like having an abusive relationship with a video game, you don't really want to get mad at it cause you like it a lot so you convince yourself what it's doing to you is a good thing.

 

[GrandPaBrowning]

I can appreciate most of what you said but this I really don't understand, nobody I that I know has fond memories over the stalker games trolling them, most people remember the early and mid-game fondly but towards the end e.g. in shadow of chernobyl it just turns into an uninteresting shooting gallery with bullet spongy enemies that often one shot you unfairly. Likewise when the game crashes, its not fun at all, you can lose hours of progress, or when a quest bugs and you can't complete, these are straight up awful and everyone rightfully says to install the unofficial patch because what's the point in playing a game that doesn't work? When I talk to people they find the first encounter with the bloodsucker scary, or trying not to get killed by the military, or the labs creeping them out. I think the most cruel one in the series was clear sky because the moment you get even slightly scratched you bleed to death in a matter of moments like you have hemophilia, and everyone hated that, it sure gives you memories but not the type you want.
I can get behind liking things despite of the flaws, but thinking they're actually good seems more like copium, its like having an abusive relationship with a video game, you don't really want to get mad at it cause you like it a lot so you convince yourself what it's doing to you is a good thing.

You gave me a good genuine pause here. I never thought of my game quality preferences from perspective of "copium". And now that I did...

Nah. I know it's easy to swat such suggestions aside, but trust me - it is not. Reason is - I began gaming in the 90s. Jank was the meta, basically. For example, my favorite game is Might&Magic VI, of which I still have buggy and many times copied (which added a few new bugs) Russian bootleg version - on my drive, not on disk anymore . It has partial and mediocre translation that messes with you at times and is so buggy you basically have to dance around bugs to make things work. Other games of the era I had weren't much better, if at all - for example, I also had bootleg Half-Life... With literally all NPC- and enemy-related sounds removed. You were fighting and helping various cohorts of angry mimes!

Naturally, such experience taught me to figure out how to make things work in every game I play. Having fully-polished game is appreciated, but... Feels off at times. Especially when the polishing hides bland and boring gameplay! All in all, my early gaming experience made me very tolerant of various bugs and weird features some game may have. Basically, it kinda makes me ignore or downplay what others would no doubt consider huge downside. Or, in more complementing perspective, taught me to look past the downsides towards whatever makes up the good bits. It taught that if I overcome the menagerie of bugs and glitches, the reward for doing so may be more than worth the efforts put into.

So, instead of 'copium' (that at this point in time lost much of its meaning due to overuse) the terms of the day would be: 'duckling syndrome' and '(kinda awkward) comfort zone'. I think so, at least.

P.S. Dude, Shadow of Chernobyl gives you every mean to mitigate incoming bullet damage. With good loadout (a few artis on bullet res+exo) you take damage basically just from 9x39, which, granted, is in hands of a lot of late-game grunts (Monolith do have plenty of good guns). But still, your odds at getting one-shot aren't nearly that high to be worth complaining about. They have to headshot you to achieve that.

I am not counting gauss-rifles and bazookas, of course (they WILL one-tap you into bits, yes) - those are very rare and enemies do not have the best high-range aim anyway. Also, don't give grenade thrower from Abandoned Village to anarcho guys - that's you best gun. You can one-tap even exo-bastards just by landing tier 2 grenades at their general vicinity. Makes Pripyat into shooting gallery (except the snipers, of course).

I don't get all this fuss about late-game being one-bullet-fest-too-much. I really liked that part for that exact reason (then again, I am a huuuuge Serious Sam fan, so just yelling into the screen while I wrap-up my minigun and turn scores of enemies into fine mist is good gaming experience in my book). And game is fair - you can get all the resources you need to make even that into a cakewalk. After all, prepping for missions is, like, step 1 of Stalker gameplay.

 

[naeblis4]

I already did a playthrough with sunken temple and i really liked the later interactions between Mother and Malice, do the other lairs characthers provide good Malice content ?

 

[edit99]

i want to play this game again but i remember the story being divided in many routes and was hard to keep track of choices each update
is it still like that?