[Ren'Py] SU Re-Imagined, an UNOFFICIAL Proof of Concept Ren'Py Demo - Community Development Thread

[OhWee]

In the realm of making things more complicated and annoying in a way that's probably not worth it, but still something that would be on my wishlist; I don't really like single track corruption. I prefer trainer games where you can push the girls in different directions, in different orders and at different times, focusing on the specific fetishes you want to play with, instead of having to do everything in a fixed order to get some final max state.

Soooo, about that...

One idea that I've had is that repeating a specific activity in the cell after the 'Rule of Three' requirement is complete, well this would increase that 'activity skill level'. Said skill would increase the income that said girl might earn in the GS/MB when doing that activity.

Of course, this is meaningless unless Lex has a limit to how much he can do in a day. I've discussed the 'Lex fatigue' stat before, where doing activities other than talking would increase Lex's fatigue level, and when Lex's fatigue hit a certain level, he was essentially done for the day. This would essentially put a limit on how many activities Lex could do in a day.

Some people hated this idea though in the SU thread. Having sex with around 3 dozen women in different locations in one day? Yeah I'm thinking that's just repetitve, silly, and there are only so many hours in a day... unless Lex is the 30 second premature ejaculation wonder, which might explain why Lex can't keep a girlfriend...

In any case, adding a Lex_fatigue stat would introduce more 'pre-planning' into the game, where the player works within the time/fatigue budget on a given day. A number of other trainer games already do this (Brothel King and SimBro for example).

Anyways, back to your idea of 'bypassing' certain activities in favor of others. I'm not opposed to this, the question is how to go about it in such a way that 'fits' within the 'need to ease a girl into things' narrative that is the SU backstory...

If 'skill levels' for various activities were introduced, we'd already need to create stats for each activity for each girl, so I could 'divorce' activites partially from the Corruption Level, but of course you'd still need a certain corruption level before specific activities would become options. The question then is 'so how else can Lex earn corruption points if he decides to take a pass on say handjobs?'

One option is that Lex has to do each activity at least once, but that the other two times are optional, with perhaps lower corruption point awards if Lex should decide to focus on a 'lesser' activity instead until he's earned the points to 'unlock' the next activity.

On a somewhat related note, what was it that I called it in my unreleased Lab Rats mod (for an ancient version of that game, wouldn't work with the later builds) that I was thinking of using in one of my backburner projects? (checks Consent UI screenshot) Ahhh yes, Horniness! I'm thinking that 'leaving a girl wanting' in Lex's cell might increase her horniness level, as she's not getting any, so if a girl has become really horny, well this might change the progression a bit. So essentially making her 'wait for it' might unlock a higher level or something... It's a thought...

In any case, yeah these are ideas that I think are worth exploring.

 

[Perniciousducks]

In the realm of making things more complicated and annoying in a way that's probably not worth it, but still something that would be on my wishlist; I don't really like single track corruption. I prefer trainer games where you can push the girls in different directions, in different orders and at different times, focusing on the specific fetishes you want to play with, instead of having to do everything in a fixed order to get some final max state.

My thoughts on this are that if this were a new game that might be a reasonable idea. The problem is we are adapting an existing game, to do that fundamentally changes the game, where as most of the ideas are just extending what’s there. And that means the game needs to be substantially re-written on a scene by scene basis. Personally I’m having a lot of fun doing the translation of the old game to the new, but have far less interest in scraping so much of it to do this kind of change.

I have the same issue with the idea of avoiding the GS/MB with all girls, maybe with some selective ones could be possible.

 

[Perniciousducks]

God damnit, now I have an idea for the robotics system.

Robo-Lex.

Lex only has so many hours in the day, but Robo-Lex-STG could train Stargirl on a nightly basis and could be set to work on specific skills so you don’t have to, Lex is a busy man, but his prisoners don’t need to know he’s neglecting them.

Creates a whole new way to waste money on building and upgrading robots.

 

[OhWee]

So I want to take a minute to address 'ReImagining SU'.

Someone brought up making a demo that is 'more true' to the original style. In fact, in many respects xMendoza's efforts are trying to do exactly that, so in that respect ReBuilt kind of covers that.

Of course, the major focus of this thread is ReImagined, which is rethinking the game mechanics as well as building upon them.

So, to be clear, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING stopping a 'downgrade' of ReImagined, that keeps the improved mechanics/gameplay flow ideas that are 'desirable' while reverting back to the old interface artwork and such.

I want to point out that SU was conceived back in 2016, and it is now 2023. Games that were considered 'top tier' back in 2016 are now considered dated, and you'll see a bajillion comments on this forum about games that look 'dated' and that don't meet today's expectations design wise. if SR7 were designing a game from scratch today, it might look a bit more 'modern', as he's learned a few things along the way since 2016.

Some people are set in their ways though, but note that there are a few mods for other games out there now that 'update' the look of older games.

So my point is that I'm in the 'SU Unity's interface is very dated at this point' camp so I'm not going to let that hold me back in my ReImagined efforts.

THAT BEING SAID though, again if I were asked to work on this in an 'official' capacity, of course I'd collaborate with the 'team' to get them the product they wanted. Keep in mind though that this 'new ReBuilt/ReImagined' push is about four months old now, and GS Games has been pretty dismissive about the whole thing.

So if GS Games simply isn't interested, I'm not going to let an 'old' design hold me back. SU ReImagined simply looks better IMHO, and feels more 'comic book style' to me, mostly thanks to my allowing the girls to overlap the box borders and such, but also a couple of other things that I've done...

This goes for gameplay mechanics as well. Since we aren't 'constrained' by official edicts here, this being a community effort and all, OF COURSE we can explore various ideas, and I encourage this. Keep in mind however, that my intention is to eventually 'flag' a number of the changes as optional rules that a player can decide if they want to try them out or not, once I have most/all of the framework in place, and working without annoying bugs...

The intention is to have a 'classic version' and 'enhanced version' button at the start of the game, where if people want to (mostly) stick to the 'original gameplay', just hit the 'classic' button. But if you want to change up the gameplay, that'll be your choice.

This won't be 100% perfect, as I've made my best guesses to 'reverse engineer' a few things in an attempt to emulate SU gameplay (mostly the cash situation), and also certain 'improvements' are a strong driving force behind this effort to begin with (The GS/MB management screens being combined as one example), and would require a significant redesign to 'better emulate' the old systems.

Personally I don't think anyone enjoys having to go back and forth between the GS and MB just to clear schedules in SU Unity so that some girl could be scheduled at the other location, and then having to run back to Lexcorp just to upgrade each girl's device though a rather clunky set of menus... if you like that though, and want a 100% pure experience, just play SU Unity, just sayin...

To bring this back around to girl packs/content though. For right now, we just need a few girls have their quarters content implemented, and personally I'm 100% fine with 'sticking to the script' as far as transcribing dialogues and such. 'Enhanced' dialogue can come later, once the 'new ideas' have been discussed a bit and a 'clear path' is arrived at.

So in short, if you want a 100% SU Unity experience, just play SU Unity. SU ReImagined is NOT that. SU ReImagined is building on the SU Unity gameplay, but our goal is to make things BETTER, with smoother gameplay.

So yeah, y'all, those are my thoughts and my approach regarding this.

 

[freebirdfreebird]

I’m interested in this, so I’ll chime in- since we have the girls fight crime to keep up appearances, why not make it to where they start skimming money of the villains they are catching? Say, at level 2 of corruption/device level, they start skimming money and they skim more as corruption/device level goes up?

A separate discussion, but one that those who have spent time working with the art might know, the majority of bodies in this game are the same with skin tone and head changed, correct? I’ve been playing with Live2D and similar things lately, and while I’m probably not going to be doing it any time soon, I think working with a generic body I (or anyone else) could slap together some animations with head swaps to up the ante a bit.

 

[OhWee]

I’m interested in this, so I’ll chime in- since we have the girls fight crime to keep up appearances, why not make it to where they start skimming money of the villains they are catching? Say, at level 2 of corruption/device level, they start skimming money and they skim more as corruption/device level goes up?

A separate discussion, but one that those who have spent time working with the art might know, the majority of bodies in this game are the same with skin tone and head changed, correct? I’ve been playing with Live2D and similar things lately, and while I’m probably not going to be doing it any time soon, I think working with a generic body I (or anyone else) could slap together some animations with head swaps to up the ante a bit.

Trust me, we are WELL AWARE of how some body sprites are 'recycled' for use with other girls. And I've personally modified a number of sprites myself, just take a look at my body of work, as well as a number of others, in the SU Sprite ReMix/Fanart thread...

As for your idea of some of the girls 'turning evil', that's more of a dialogue thing, but if someone wanted to 'write' that turn of events as a mod or something, well one of the reasons I'm putting all of this effort in is to allow others to do exactly that, i.e. create their own 'alternate storylines' for various characters.

Note that Terra eventually sorta kinda joins the ranks of Team Lex already in SU Unity, so there IS precedent for this...

A lot of these ideas are 'pencil these down for later once everything is working and there is a fair amount of story content in place' ideas, but since each girl's dialogue is already being handled in her own .rpy file, it's pretty easy to start working on such ideas/alternate storylines right now if someone wanted to. It'd be nice to have the 'original dialogues' in place first though, but this isn't 100% required...

Moddability is one thing that I want to strongly encourage here! We don't get to mod SU Unity, so there's a lot of lost potential there. But here...

Carry on!

 

[freebirdfreebird]

Fair enough. I was thinking, you could easily make lex have a line about how the devices “compel women to make money for their master” as an excuse for skimming money. I was just trying to throw out an idea for income flow with what’s already been discussed without using MB/GS.

 

[mr.AwesomeGameTaste]

So I want to take a minute to address 'ReImagining SU'.

Someone brought up making a demo that is 'more true' to the original style. In fact, in many respects xMendoza's efforts are trying to do exactly that, so in that respect ReBuilt kind of covers that.

Of course, the major focus of this thread is ReImagined, which is rethinking the game mechanics as well as building upon them.

So, to be clear, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING stopping a 'downgrade' of ReImagined, that keeps the improved mechanics/gameplay flow ideas that are 'desirable' while reverting back to the old interface artwork and such.

I want to point out that SU was conceived back in 2016, and it is now 2023. Games that were considered 'top tier' back in 2016 are now considered dated, and you'll see a bajillion comments on this forum about games that look 'dated' and that don't meet today's expectations design wise. if SR7 were designing a game from scratch today, it might look a bit more 'modern', as he's learned a few things along the way since 2016.

Some people are set in their ways though, but note that there are a few mods for other games out there now that 'update' the look of older games.

So my point is that I'm in the 'SU Unity's interface is very dated at this point' camp so I'm not going to let that hold me back in my ReImagined efforts.

THAT BEING SAID though, again if I were asked to work on this in an 'official' capacity, of course I'd collaborate with the 'team' to get them the product they wanted. Keep in mind though that this 'new ReBuilt/ReImagined' push is about four months old now, and GS Games has been pretty dismissive about the whole thing.

So if GS Games simply isn't interested, I'm not going to let an 'old' design hold me back. SU ReImagined simply looks better IMHO, and feels more 'comic book style' to me, mostly thanks to my allowing the girls to overlap the box borders and such, but also a couple of other things that I've done...

This goes for gameplay mechanics as well. Since we aren't 'constrained' by official edicts here, this being a community effort and all, OF COURSE we can explore various ideas, and I encourage this. Keep in mind however, that my intention is to eventually 'flag' a number of the changes as optional rules that a player can decide if they want to try them out or not, once I have most/all of the framework in place, and working without annoying bugs...

The intention is to have a 'classic version' and 'enhanced version' button at the start of the game, where if people want to (mostly) stick to the 'original gameplay', just hit the 'classic' button. But if you want to change up the gameplay, that'll be your choice.

This won't be 100% perfect, as I've made my best guesses to 'reverse engineer' a few things in an attempt to emulate SU gameplay (mostly the cash situation), and also certain 'improvements' are a strong driving force behind this effort to begin with (The GS/MB management screens being combined as one example), and would require a significant redesign to 'better emulate' the old systems.

Personally I don't think anyone enjoys having to go back and forth between the GS and MB just to clear schedules in SU Unity so that some girl could be scheduled at the other location, and then having to run back to Lexcorp just to upgrade each girl's device though a rather clunky set of menus... if you like that though, and want a 100% pure experience, just play SU Unity, just sayin...

To bring this back around to girl packs/content though. For right now, we just need a few girls implemented, and personally I'm 100% fine with 'sticking to the script' as far as transcribing dialogues and such. 'Enhanced' dialogue can come later, once the 'new ideas' have been discussed a bit and a 'clear path' is arrived at.

So in short, if you want a 100% SU Unity experience, just play SU Unity. SU ReImagined is NOT that. SU ReImagined is building on the SU Unity gameplay, but our goal is to make things BETTER, with smoother gameplay.

So yeah, y'all, those are my thoughts and my approach regarding this.

you are doing god's work.Seems like no one is interested in making dc themed games that are not about Teen Titans. No one is willing to compete with SU and seems it's full of bugs with crappy code and slow update cycle this is the only option to get some nice DC content. keep it up, i have high hopes for this.

 

[FakeNudes]

God damnit, now I have an idea for the robotics system.

Robo-Lex.

Lex only has so many hours in the day, but Robo-Lex-STG could train Stargirl on a nightly basis and could be set to work on specific skills so you don’t have to, Lex is a busy man, but his prisoners don’t need to know he’s neglecting them.

Creates a whole new way to waste money on building and upgrading robots.

A way to DP the heroines without triggering the NTR crowd too

 

[Perniciousducks]

A way to DP the heroines without triggering the NTR crowd too

Your faith in the NTR crowd not being triggered by this is adorable. I’m pretty sure the NTR crowd finds a girl using a dildo to be cucking them. Hell, they probably think using a condom to be latex cucking them.

 

[FakeNudes]

Your faith in the NTR crowd not being triggered by this is adorable. I’m pretty sure the NTR crowd finds a girl using a dildo to be cucking them. Hell, they probably think using a condom to be latex cucking them.

I guess I don’t really understand them as i’ve been fine with the heroines in the bordello. Hell, I feel the bordello could be made better if it was villains fucking the heroines not just faceless dudes.

 

[OhWee]

Hmmm, where's an example of NTR in SU...

(looks though sprite folders, discovers a missing fetish in SU...)

Dammit!

Looks like I'll need to fall back on art from another game...

Behold, New Titty Rings!

N.T.R. aka New Titty Rings, is a severely neglected fetish in SU apparently, that the SU fanart community needs to rectify IMMEDIATELY!

This moment of comedy brought to you by the OhWee Ministry of Disinformation...

 

[Perniciousducks]

Hmmm, where's an example of NTR in SU...

(looks though sprite folders, discovers a missing fetish in SU...)

Dammit!

Looks like I'll need to fall back on art from another game...

Behold, New Titty Rings!

N.T.R. aka New Titty Rings, is a severely neglected fetish in SU apparently, that the SU fanart community needs to rectify IMMEDIATELY!

This moment of comedy brought to you by the OhWee Ministry of Disinformation...

I personally dislike piercings of any type, so if you want that content for any char I work on, you’re going to have to mod it yourself.

 

[Macfinn99]

Soooo, about that...

One idea that I've had is that repeating a specific activity in the cell after the 'Rule of Three' requirement is complete, well this would increase that 'activity skill level'. Said skill would increase the income that said girl might earn in the GS/MB when doing that activity.

Of course, this is meaningless unless Lex has a limit to how much he can do in a day. I've discussed the 'Lex fatigue' stat before, where doing activities other than talking would increase Lex's fatigue level, and when Lex's fatigue hit a certain level, he was essentially done for the day. This would essentially put a limit on how many activities Lex could do in a day.

Some people hated this idea though in the SU thread. Having sex with around 3 dozen women in different locations in one day? Yeah I'm thinking that's just repetitve, silly, and there are only so many hours in a day... unless Lex is the 30 second premature ejaculation wonder, which might explain why Lex can't keep a girlfriend...

In any case, adding a Lex_fatigue stat would introduce more 'pre-planning' into the game, where the player works within the time/fatigue budget on a given day. A number of other trainer games already do this (Brothel King and SimBro for example).

Anyways, back to your idea of 'bypassing' certain activities in favor of others. I'm not opposed to this, the question is how to go about it in such a way that 'fits' within the 'need to ease a girl into things' narrative that is the SU backstory...

If 'skill levels' for various activities were introduced, we'd already need to create stats for each activity for each girl, so I could 'divorce' activites partially from the Corruption Level, but of course you'd still need a certain corruption level before specific activities would become options. The question then is 'so how else can Lex earn corruption points if he decides to take a pass on say handjobs?'

One option is that Lex has to do each activity at least once, but that the other two times are optional, with perhaps lower corruption point awards if Lex should decide to focus on a 'lesser' activity instead until he's earned the points to 'unlock' the next activity.

On a somewhat related note, what was it that I called it in my unreleased Lab Rats mod (for an ancient version of that game, wouldn't work with the later builds) that I was thinking of using in one of my backburner projects? (checks Consent UI screenshot) Ahhh yes, Horniness! I'm thinking that 'leaving a girl wanting' in Lex's cell might increase her horniness level, as she's not getting any, so if a girl has become really horny, well this might change the progression a bit. So essentially making her 'wait for it' might unlock a higher level or something... It's a thought...

In any case, yeah these are ideas that I think are worth exploring.

I like the idea of training the girls in the cells for sexual activity that will increase their % income in GS & MB. You can include that % improvement as part of their profile.

As for increasing horniness, you can add an "edging" function in the cell where you bring some of the more resistant heroines to the edge of orgasmic release to breakdown their willpower. You can do this with Lex visiting them or have a special section in the gym with machines that will do this. I would suggest that you have only certain of the henchwomen assist you with this task such as Mercy or Darci in nurse outfits or labcoats. If you really want to get funky, you can import Susan and Mary Test or even Dexter to administer the training, ( You can always go to the Rule63 Dexter from an alternate universe if you want to keep an all female staff)

 

[Perniciousducks]

I find the default set of expressions SR7 made for Stargirl very limiting.... so I've doubled them.

Original 3:


Additional 3:


Hat tip to DudeMcGuy1477 for the help with them.

 

[Macfinn99]

Are we going to see more content fill at GS & MB this next update or are you working at adding gaming aspects? (You're going to spoil us with these weekly updates)

 

[Perniciousducks]

I look forward to the inevitable accusations of coasting and just taking all of the non-existent patrons money and doing nothing with it when the updates slow to bi-weekly

 

[OhWee]

Are we going to see more content fill at GS & MB this next update or are you working at adding gaming aspects? (You're going to spoil us with these weekly updates)

Sometimes the updates take longer than a week...


The Meta Bordello scenes are a bit trickier, so those need to be coded individually for each girl - unlike the Glamour Slam scenes that use the same backgrounds. And I'm trying to get things working smoothly in the meantime...

Thanks to xMendoza tackling the Joker and Harley intro, I'm working on porting those over to SU ReImagined atm. The LayeredImage code for Harley was being a bit obstinate, but I manged to get it to work... at some point in the future when Harley (#1's) costume picker is working, you'll be able to do things like this...

That can be accomplished in the background now, but yeah players will need a costume picker to pick Harley's head style... and I need to create a few more sprites for Harley's 'gun' arm for a couple of the other costumes like I did here for the suit.

Harley (#2?) with her hammer arm sprites would also be nice, but that's up to the more artistic types here on the team...

The associated "Star Labs" heist will also be activated. It's actually easy for me to 'enable' heists, it's the delivering the goods part that requires extra dialogue thing that takes extra time, as the associated scenes need to be transcribed...

Most of the other stuff that I've been tackling in the last week, besides the 'Assignments' screen, is bug related. I pretty much wrote the entire backbone from scratch, scenes and basic choice menus are relatively easy and hence mostly not a problem, but mechanics related stuff requires a lot more work, and I'm still learning here...

I suppose that I should update the 'to do' list on page 1 of this thread at some point. The short form:

1) Get at least one 'talk to Roulette/Tala about some girl a couple of times, activate a heist, deliver the goods from said heist and THEN add that girl to your target list' example working. This should be one of the 'early' girls, i.e. Stargirl/Vixen/Zatanna/Hawkgirl/Supergirl/Wonder Woman, and it'd be great if someone could transcribe the associated scenes...

2) Implement the talked about 'skill system'. Several people seem to want this, as it's more 'trainer game' style, so it's better to build the mechanics and set up the associated variables now before a bunch more girls get added, as each girl's .rpy file will need to incorporate this concept.

3) Lois Lane content. Cult of Ape already set up her initial cell scenes for me, but we need the 'Lois gets nosy' dialogues transcribed, so that I can set up the threat level triggers and such. My idea here is that 'throwing Lois off of your trail for a bit' will help drop your threat level temporarily, but of course it'll start climbing again if you've been a busy Lex...

4) Start tackling the Lexcorp Labs stuff. The devices are already covered, and the Assignments screen actually 'covers' an idea I had where you'd be able to see everyone's device level at once glance, but as for cloning, etc. yeah that needs to be worked on, and the associated scenes transcribed. I'll probably rework the cloning interface like I've reworked everything else. It'll look closer to the 'original' but won't be nearly as clunky to use. The associated heists are amost ready to go, I just need to set up the 'which piece did you actually acquire from the heist' routines...

5) Add Tala's items, and also Lex's wardrobe. Both provide bonuses that need to be implemented. The 'backbone' for the Favored coin is already in place, but you can't buy it yet... on that note... see below.

6) A bunch of other stuff, more girlpack content, etc.. The above items are priorities though...


Sooo, let's talk about Lex's items.

So Lex's wardrobe provides different bonuses depending on which outfit he is wearing. One of these isn't very clear (enhances Villain bonuses, but this isn't described in detail), the other two (bonus to income, cheaper upgrades) can be implemented once Lex's costume picker is online.

As for the Favored Coin/Anti-Threat amulet/Leash, it always seemed clunky to me to have to 'choose' between these. The Coin vs Amulet I suppose I could see Lex having to choose just one at the end of the night, as for the Leash, well rotating it in and out of your inventory each night just to do leash scenes while not losing the bonuses from one of the other two items... yeah that's just annoying.

I had an idea for the leash, and I think others have suggested this too, that the Leash should have 'upgrades', which allow you to take more women on walks, etc.. Lex taking six girls at the same time for a walk on the street as an example. Leash scenes get repetitive, and it'd be fun seeing a larger nekkid Giganta walking along with a bunch of other Heroines down the street. That's one possible upgrade.

Other Leash upgrades could be arranging trysts at the Meta Bordello or something along those lines. The 'Lexcorp orgy room' I've suggested earlier wouldn't really doesn't require a leash once the girls are in the room, as the relevant 'mind control supressors' are built into the room, but the Leash mechanic could act as a 'control', i.e. which girls can be paired with which other girls (i.e. what fanart do we have available for such pairings...).

Of course, my ultimate dream doesn't involve the leash at all, that's full corruption of ALL the gals, that at some point all decide that being in Lex's harem has it's benefits...

I mean, aren't all Villainesses and Heroine types closet lesbians that want to bang each other anyways? With some bi thrown in of course... You KNOW they want to!!!

Yeah coding this particular scene with gals moving about would be an absolute nightmare, but stills we can do! But I'm getting off track...

What are your thoughts about Lex's items? Should they just work, should lex have to pick between the Coin or the Amulet, or should he still have to run back to his quarters every time he wants to equip the leash as well? Also the Lex outfits thing...

 

[joepe]

I stumbled upon this thread yesterday. Things seem to be chugging along nicely! Great to see! I started doing something similar months ago (if not years) but never really got anywhere. What I did do though, is write a scene scraper. So if you guys need the dialogue for a particular scene, let me know and I can have it ready in a couple of minutes.

 

[OhWee]

I stumbled upon this thread yesterday. Things seem to be chugging along nicely! Great to see! I started doing something similar months ago (if not years) but never really got anywhere. What I did do though, is write a scene scraper. So if you guys need the dialogue for a particular scene, let me know and I can have it ready in a couple of minutes.

Can I ask for ALL OF THEM?


j/k! As of right now, it'd be nice to have the associated dialogues for Lois Lane, Batgirl, Supergirl, Zatanna (for the rest of the scenes), Stargirl (again for the rest of the scenes), Harley #1 (cell scenes and later LH dialogues), and the Tala/Roulette conversations about each heroine and their associated heists.

That's a pretty long list, so just get us what you can when you can. Attaching them here (text files are pretty tiny) should be fine for now, others can use these as starting points.

This won't help much with setting up the layeredimage stuff, but that's another issue that is slowly being tackled one girl/guy at a time...

Thanks for the offer to help! This is a community project thing, so any help is most appreciated!