Ren'Py Seeds of Chaos [v0.4.07] [Vénus Noire]

[AngryBob2]

Scene Replay Mod

How to use
Download one of the following depending on which version of the game you are using:

0.4.01: SoC0401-windows.zip
0.3.13: SoC0313-windows.zip

Both are attached to this post.

• Unzip to the "game" folder.
• Launch the game and go to "Bonus" -> "Scene Replay"
• Use the "Unlock" button in the bottom left corner to unlock all the scenes.
• Scenes will naturally unlock as you play the game anyway.
• To apply filters, press "Scene Filters" in the bottom left corner.

If you find any bugs, please let me know.

Spoiler: Screenshot

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Spoiler: 0.4.01 Changes

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Spoiler: Old Changes

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¿Update?

 

[projenkostarlic]

The same for the reminder of act 1.

Act 2 will see a lot of trimming of excess fat. Does Alexia really need 5 jobs? Were Wineries a necessary addition to the map? Did it have to be that large? Were spies a necessary mechanic? What about the Forge? Was it really necessary to have so many castle NPCs basicaly detached from the main plot? And so on, and so on.

For act 1, we're neck deep in sunk costs and removing certain elements would be more time consuming than simply seeing them properly implemented.

I haven't done a full play through in quite a while. I'm pretty much just waiting for you guys to call the game done to go through it all again and actually read the content. Every time I try to pick it up (which is like maybe every 4 months) I'm just amazed at how much random content and branching storylines there are. It's too much lol. One thing I also hate personally is the dice rolling stat aspect of choices. Like.. If I'm going for a certain choice I'm just gonna save right before I make the choice anyway. It's just a hassle to make me jump through that hoop to make the choice I want to make.
When i first played the game years ago I thought the map exploration was cool. Now I just see it as another cumbersome aspect as well. I love the game overall and the world that was built, but if you guys are looking to trim the fat then.. these are my thoughts.

 

[Jynx_lucky_j]

I haven't done a full play through in quite a while. I'm pretty much just waiting for you guys to call the game done to go through it all again and actually read the content. Every time I try to pick it up (which is like maybe every 4 months) I'm just amazed at how much random content and branching storylines there are. It's too much lol. One thing I also hate personally is the dice rolling stat aspect of choices. Like.. If I'm going for a certain choice I'm just gonna save right before I make the choice anyway. It's just a hassle to make me jump through that hoop to make the choice I want to make.
When i first played the game years ago I thought the map exploration was cool. Now I just see it as another cumbersome aspect as well. I love the game overall and the world that was built, but if you guys are looking to trim the fat then.. these are my thoughts.

I'm in a similar boat. I'd probably played through the game at least a couple dozen times in the past. But it has been a good while since I last played (I'm too lazy to look up how long but it was around the start of the goblin arc). But now I'm content to wait for it to finish, while lightly keeping abreast of the development and discussions.

For the random mechanic, I'm kind of two minds on it. When I have a low or medium skill in something I don't really care if I fail. Like I tried, but I knew there was a decent chance of failure. But when I have a high skill, failing a check feels extra shitty. Like this is THE thing that my character is good at, wtf!? So I'll almost always save scrum those failures.

I remember reading a post mortum on XCOM. In XCOM they show you the percentage chance of an attack succeeding. But they said that during play testing they regularly received complaints about the displayed percentages being wrong. So the devs looked into it and they found that it was working properly, yet they still received complaints about it. What they came to realize was that it was the player's perception that was off. If the game said you had an 85% chance to hit, then the character would hit 85% of the time, but it didn't FEEL like 85% of the time to the players. So what the Devs did is they just had the game lie to the player, so if the game said you had a 85% chance you would actually have something like a 95% chance. And just like that the complaints disapeared, now it felt right.

I'm not saying that I think this game should do the same or anything. But randomness does have a risk of leaving players feeling cheated when they fail what "should have been a sure thing." Personally in story based games I'm more of a fan of threshhold checks. As in if you meet or pass the threashold number you pass the check and if you are under the threshold number you fail. It saves you from feeling like you got screwed over by a bad roll, and removes the temptation to waste time save scrumming till you pass.

But it is probably too late to change the central resolution mechanic of the game at this point. Though I wouldn't mind if they at least made how excactly the mechanic works a more tranparent to the player.

 

[dkatryl]

I'm in a similar boat. I'd probably played through the game at least a couple dozen times in the past. But it has been a good while since I last played (I'm too lazy to look up how long but it was around the start of the goblin arc). But now I'm content to wait for it to finish, while lightly keeping abreast of the development and discussions.

For the random mechanic, I'm kind of two minds on it. When I have a low or medium skill in something I don't really care if I fail. Like I tried, but I knew there was a decent chance of failure. But when I have a high skill, failing a check feels extra shitty. Like this is THE thing that my character is good at, wtf!? So I'll almost always save scrum those failures.

I remember reading a post mortum on XCOM. In XCOM they show you the percentage chance of an attack succeeding. But they said that during play testing they regularly received complaints about the displayed percentages being wrong. So the devs looked into it and they found that it was working properly, yet they still received complaints about it. What they came to realize was that it was the player's perception that was off. If the game said you had an 85% chance to hit, then the character would hit 85% of the time, but it didn't FEEL like 85% of the time to the players. So what the Devs did is they just had the game lie to the player, so if the game said you had a 85% chance you would actually have something like a 95% chance. And just like that the complaints disapeared, now it felt right.

I'm not saying that I think this game should do the same or anything. But randomness does have a risk of leaving players feeling cheated when they fail what "should have been a sure thing." Personally in story based games I'm more of a fan of threshhold checks. As in if you meet or pass the threashold number you pass the check and if you are under the threshold number you fail. It saves you from feeling like you got screwed over by a bad roll, and removes the temptation to waste time save scrumming till you pass.

But it is probably too late to change the central resolution mechanic of the game at this point. Though I wouldn't mind if they at least made how excactly the mechanic works a more tranparent to the player.

This again is why repeatable events would work better.

RNG based outcomes are fine in a TTRPG, because the DM can always pull another one out of their ass if the party did poorly on the previous one.

But in SoC, where there are *finite* events, failing one because of shitty RNG means you dont get to see it again when you increase your stats and/or roll better RNG.

Which just leads to save-scumming.

 

[Jaceo013]

I think that has been my biggest issue with the game and trying to spread out development to hit so many varied kinks.

Great if you like all of the kinks, but leads to feeling a bit thin if you only care about a smaller subset of them.

So incorporating 'repeat' events would definitely give more bang for the buck, especially if you can then leverage in the stat checks to trigger different versions, so that, for example, as Rowan/Alexia get more corrupted, they would trigger progressively more in each event.

Oh well, food for thought from a dirty pirate.

True. I'm only really for AlexiaxAndras, so I haven't downloaded updates in quite a while. Repeat events would definitely serve a bigger purpose as long as it adds to the corruption system and affects the story later down the line. They can also do this for other pairings that people like, not just for AlexiaxAndras.

 

[MasterBlaxter]

The same for the reminder of act 1.

Act 2 will see a lot of trimming of excess fat. Does Alexia really need 5 jobs? Were Wineries a necessary addition to the map? Did it have to be that large? Were spies a necessary mechanic? What about the Forge? Was it really necessary to have so many castle NPCs basicaly detached from the main plot? And so on, and so on.

For act 1, we're neck deep in sunk costs and removing certain elements would be more time consuming than simply seeing them properly implemented.

That's understandable, but out of question, why did you decide to rework the Astarte sequence so late into development? Not just with a rewrite, but adding an entire new mechanic with the retinue system for Rowan. Seems like an entirely new cost added in for little gain when you're trying to wrap everything up. Wouldn't it have been easier to introduce that in part 2 instead of shoehorning it in now?

 

[Jean7788]

Any change logs for v4.01 and v4.02 ?

 

[Filipis]

The same for the reminder of act 1.

Act 2 will see a lot of trimming of excess fat. Does Alexia really need 5 jobs? Were Wineries a necessary addition to the map? Did it have to be that large? Were spies a necessary mechanic? What about the Forge? Was it really necessary to have so many castle NPCs basicaly detached from the main plot? And so on, and so on.

For act 1, we're neck deep in sunk costs and removing certain elements would be more time consuming than simply seeing them properly implemented.

As I said, I respect the decision to "weather the storm" so to speak, and I do love what you've done with the game so far. But there absolutely needs to be some cruel fat-slimming for Act II.

 

[SpoiledPrince]

Here goes nothing: It could be nice to see one of the surviving members of Rowan's party learning about his current exploits and facing him in battle during ACT II. They could even make the Twins' forces retreat a couple of times before victory. Then after that hero/ine's fall, the rest of them would leave their retirement and unite against the new demonic menace.

Maybe they could get their own allied deadly fantasy races, just as Rowan managed to do.

 

[Bmagada]

Here goes nothing: It could be nice to see one of the surviving members of Rowan's party learning about his current exploits and facing him in battle during ACT II. They could even make the Twins' forces retreat a couple of times before victory. Then after that hero/ine's fall, the rest of them would leave their retirement and unite against the new demonic menace.

Maybe they could get their own allied deadly fantasy races, just as Rowan managed to do.

and then he could fuck his way through them......brilliant!

 

[Lavinotinto]

What storylines get axed, and which are finished, as you move the plot to act 2?

Cut:

- The Dryad and Minotaur girl plot.
- Goblin Alliance.
- Ophelia, basically all Tavern plot.
- Brothel plot.

Keep:

Helayna, Xtlara, Liurial, Goblin mommy, Heartsong, Rastedel girls and all the interactions with Andras and Jezzera anything else it's just fill.

 

[kaspqz]

Cut:

- The Dryad and Minotaur girl plot.
- Goblin Alliance.
- Ophelia, basically all Tavern plot.
- Brothel plot.

Keep:

Helayna, Xtlara, Liurial, Goblin mommy, Heartsong, Rastedel girls and all the interactions with Andras and Jezzera anything else it's just fill.

Oi, don't touch Ophelia

 

[vandal.h]

Oi, don't touch Ophelia

Really? Ophelia? She is written like a fuckboy with tits. No offense to the writers but some of her dialogue and pick up lines give me second hand embarrassment.

 

[kaspqz]

Really? Ophelia? She is written like a fuckboy with tits. No offense to the writers but some of her dialogue and pick up lines give me second hand embarrassment.

I like how she looks and her part in the Tavern, she has her function and i'm fine with it. I don't need every character to be as complex as rocket science

 

[Nym85]

Really? Ophelia? She is written like a fuckboy with tits. No offense to the writers but some of her dialogue and pick up lines give me second hand embarrassment.

Also, does it advance the plot in any way?

 

[Jynx_lucky_j]

Cut:

- The Dryad and Minotaur girl plot.
- Goblin Alliance.
- Ophelia, basically all Tavern plot.
- Brothel plot.

Keep:

Helayna, Xtlara, Liurial, Goblin mommy, Heartsong, Rastedel girls and all the interactions with Andras and Jezzera anything else it's just fill.

Oi, don't touch Ophelia

Really? Ophelia? She is written like a fuckboy with tits. No offense to the writers but some of her dialogue and pick up lines give me second hand embarrassment.

Also, does it advance the plot in any way?

That's the thing though, isn't it? Pretty much any character with a unique portrait is going to be somebodies favorite. Hell, some characters without portraits get a decent amount of people asking for them to receive more content.

The devs would have better information than any of us on what characters their patreons care about, and at at the end of the day the patreon is what will be the the real determining factor. So even if that character doesn't have a lot of plot relevance, if they have a decent number of fans, you can't really cut them with out potentially hurting the patreon.

Pretty much as long as the patreon remains healthy, rocking the boat is likely a bad idea, no matter how much us leechers might complain. Now if the patreon were to take a significant dip, that would be another matter.

 

[Nym85]

That's the thing though, isn't it? Pretty much any character with a unique portrait is going to be somebodies favorite. Hell, some characters without portraits get a decent amount of people asking for them to receive more content.

The devs would have better information than any of us on what characters their patreons care about, and at at the end of the day the patreon is what will be the the real determining factor. So even if that character doesn't have a lot of plot relevance, if they have a decent number of fans, you can't really cut them with out potentially hurting the patreon.

Pretty much as long as the patreon remains healthy, rocking the boat is likely a bad idea, no matter how much us leechers might complain. Now if the patreon were to take a significant dip, that would be another matter.

I mean, I am a patreon? And I'll say Ophelia has gotten great CGs so I get why someone would be into her. And I'm somewhat OK in that it is actual lesbian content. But the tavern has so much content and most of it is not even advancing the AndrasXAlexia story, let alone the actual plot of the game. It is entirely superfluous. Does it even help worldbuilding?

 

[mehGusta]

I mean, I am a patreon? And I'll say Ophelia has gotten great CGs so I get why someone would be into her. And I'm somewhat OK in that it is actual lesbian content. But the tavern has so much content and most of it is not even advancing the AndrasXAlexia story, let alone the actual plot of the game. It is entirely superfluous. Does it even help worldbuilding?

if you have to go this far, then you could also ask if alexia working has any benefit at all. her work is never important for the story as everything she does is optional.
the library gives a bit history on the chaos side of things.
the forge is mainly just greyhide backstory and a little bit castle upkeep.
the maid job is jezera and her politics.
the breeding pit is monster lore.
so there is really nothing of "importance" going on. especially since even if alexia would learn something of value for the plot, like as a maid for jezera, we don't even see her instructing things to rowan in that regard. we hardly see them interact outside of romantic/sexy stuff in general.
but do you play games like SoC for the main plot only? maybe it really captivated you. who knows? but i doubt that even 10% of players think like that. most want to see their favorite character in scenes. the more the better.

and in regards of worldbuilding: of course the tavern helps with that. with rowan we mostly get to see the heart of the military might of the twins. it's interesting to see how the forces of chaos deal with the outliers of the kingdoms.
generally speaking every character addition to a story allows for worldbuilding.

 

[Nym85]

Cut:

- The Dryad and Minotaur girl plot.
- Goblin Alliance.
- Ophelia, basically all Tavern plot.
- Brothel plot.

Keep:

Helayna, Xtlara, Liurial, Goblin mommy, Heartsong, Rastedel girls and all the interactions with Andras and Jezzera anything else it's just fill.

On the Brothel, the thing is that it helps a bit with worldbuilding and I can see it being a part of the next act and definitely important if you ever hope to take down the Twins.

On Goblin Alliance, it does make sense to have more than one route for that part. It does annoy me that there is so much sex in the goblin route and far less in the orc route.

For the Tavern, keep the parts that are Andras X Alexia (though as I said, I don't think the Alexia as deuteragonist was ever needed).

 

[Nym85]

if you have to go this far, then you could also ask if alexia working has any benefit at all. her work is never important for the story as everything she does is optional.
the library gives a bit history on the chaos side of things.
the forge is mainly just greyhide backstory and a little bit castle upkeep.
the maid job is jezera and her politics.
the breeding pit is monster lore.
so there is really nothing of "importance" going on. especially since even if alexia would learn something of value for the plot, like as a maid for jezera, we don't even see her instructing things to rowan in that regard. we hardly see them interact outside of romantic/sexy stuff in general.
but do you play games like SoC for the main plot only? maybe it really captivated you. who knows? but i doubt that even 10% of players think like that. most want to see their favorite character in scenes. the more the better.

and in regards of worldbuilding: of course the tavern helps with that. with rowan we mostly get to see the heart of the military might of the twins. it's interesting to see how the forces of chaos deal with the outliers of the kingdoms.
generally speaking every character addition to a story allows for worldbuilding.

I already said that above. (and got a few facepalms for it). Alexia doesn't help advance the plot and if it wasn't for the Alexia deuteragonist part, the game would be in Act 3.

Would the game be as successful? Probably not. But the plot would be moving.