Ren'Py Seeds of Chaos [v0.4.11a Patreon] [Vénus Noire]
In defense of their content output... how many members of the team are there? Depending on what SoC pulls in across its crowd funding it might not be pulling in enough to pay a livable wage thus forcing the members of the team to keep their day jobs.
I don't want to make assumptions but probably most of them have a full time job outside of this.
Most likely. I can see Patreon and similar income options working for someone that lives somewhere with a fairly low cost of living but not for everyone. Chance that you can make a living if you live somewhere expensive in US or Northern Europe is slim, you'd need to be making crazy cash.
They have a weird situation were more than half the team seems to not be contributing at the moment for personal reasons?
I think that only applies to the gobbo plotline. Everyone who starts writing for that arc, stops working on it after a scene or two. It must be cursed or something.
From what Rein said about it last time this came up, it seems the issue is more that the goblin arc is the lowest priority for them. It was supposed to be for the new writers to cut their teeth on, but the writers ended up doing a scene or two and got reassigned to more popular arcs like Andras or Helayna so the team can finish out the crowd favorites faster. So the goblin arcs progressed at a snails pace for basically all of 2024 and what's looking to be a good chunk of 2025 as well.
Can I ask a few questions about the lore of the world?I think the thing that most often is overlooked is the difference in priorities which, while it might have not been the primary reason why Rowan did not ask Daenara for help, is also a factor.
Rowan wants to save his wife. However, if you tell fantasy pope with tits that the literal children of the devil are trying to conquer the world, and if said fantasy pope with tits believes you - well their main concern will not be saving your wife, but murdering said literal children of the devil.
The Church tends to focus on the big picture. Individual lives are collateral.
Says you.
Sure he has friends, but mobilizing an army to march half the continent:
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Is a big favour to ask for, particularly when you get stonewalled by Werden.
If Rowan kills Jezera right there, he can save Alexia basically without any opposition.
If Rowan ignore Jezera, he may find Alexia, and he may even get her out of the castle - but getting to safety from there? That's a much harder task.
High risk, high reward. It didn't work out, because the game needs to happen
Gobbos have their fanatics but I doubt they have that many. We already had a very extensive gobbo arc with Cla-min. And I am not sure why it needed so many paths with so many CGs compared to orcs; orcs had a far faster recruitment scenario with minimal CGs. Granted there are some orc erotic scenes when you recruit in map events.
Also once again have to reiterate the lack of Rowan taking orc dick! He has multiple chances with orc ladies. There should have been at least one camp event that went "wrong" with male orcs (there is one with females after all). Or at least make the BatriXAndrasXRowan scene more than one CG . . .
Aenys_Faelin
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- May 13, 2018
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Yeah I forgot about that fact. We have the entire civilized Goblin arc to give shortstack fans food, then they do the fucking Dalish Goblins on top of that while the main plot has been frozen for literal years.
It makes it look like its more important to them to farm patreon than it is to finish the story.
I think the entirety of Arc 1 is problematic in this regard. TWO YEARS of the Twins controlling major parts of Rosaria and no one finds out until near the end. And in order to cover the weekly events every castle arc progresses far too much. Cla-Min's arc is done. How would it develop in Act 2? She is ready to betray the Twins at this point already. Same with the Mino, the drow, the fey, the elf and the omnibus and everyone except maybe Shaya and Cliohna.
Meanwhile our relation with Jezera and Andras which is THE CENTRAL PLOT OF THE GAME (imo the main routes of the game are Alexia, Andras and Jezera) is nowhere near as advanced. Our Allies are in place for a takeover but the plot is just not there yet. Imo the current conclusion of the castle routes should be the state they were near the end of Act 2 with maybe 1 or more events each to guarantee their allegiance to Rowan over the Twins (and again most of them are already at that point).
So if they had done HALF the events for those arcs for Act 1 and saved the other half for Act 2, then we'd probably be into Act 2 by now. Btw this would also have helped gameplay; many events take place outside Rosaria. But the map is not used at all to get there. Why? That's the premise of your game yet you switch to a VN structure. I get they are fully switching in Act 2 but if they had saved content for it they would be able to keep a similar structure. It is just bad planning and I am unsure they managed to get proper feedback at any point (e.g. their entire skill system is just pointlessly complicated for what it is trying to and could be slashed into Combat/Exploration/Social with a feat system for each instead of having so many skills).
And I'll go back to the fact that Rowan's arcs with Jezera and Andras are just not as satisfying. Jezera's arc is OK with the favour system and with Rowan having options to be increasingly dominant with her. But with Andras the arc is just flat. yes you get more comfortable around him. But sexually the entire arc goes nowhere. Perhaps it is because it starts so intense (dude throatfucks you and rapes you anally in the first hour of the game if you choose his path) that it has nowhere to go unless they were willing to go kinkier which they are not. Maybe in 2026 when they are probably doing Rastedel we will get some conclusion.
Gicoo
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- Feb 18, 2018
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I greatly enjoy the Goblin arc's concept and generally like the four way structure in many subplots (Goblins, Orc Camp, Rastedel), but I differentiate between what I like and whats good for the games development. In that regard, it is weirdly placed (they have almost no role in part 1, why not put them in part 2 and have them a bigger connectin to the main plot) and getting the weddings in these fragments with long waiting time between them is very unpleasant to play.
I also don't see why from a gameplay perspective you would pick up the Goblins over the Orcs. Orc camp is FAR more accessible early on when you have limited movement and is resolved much faster. And I'd assume it is worth more military power, especially if you go for Ulcro/Batri?
Gicoo
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- Feb 18, 2018
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You can't pick them over the orcs. You have to recruit the orcs, because they are the first allies that provide significant numbers. Rowan dies if he fails that. The Goblins are optional for Rastedel and don't do much aside from a variant battle scene.
Adding how late the Goblins were added to part 1, they really could've been saved for part 2.
I am very certain you are supposed to be able to skip the orcs and pick the goblins instead. heck the goblins are the default path even with Jezera and ANdras both surprised you tried for the orcs. It's just that they designed the orcs first.
Aenys_Faelin
Member
- May 13, 2018
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Me going back in time to beg and plead the devs to just delete the fucking overworld and castle to just make a normal Visual Novel (they would do this anyway after 7 years)
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FluffyBunnyCarrotStick
Newbie
- Nov 22, 2021
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Well, I don't frequent this thread, nor have I looked at their Patreon in years. I played the game several YEARS ago and am just surprised at the lack of main story progress. Bloating your game with multiple side stories and quests, reworks and rewriting to try and please everyone is why it's taking them so long. There comes a point in time where you either need to crap or get off the pot. They've already missed their deadline to finish ACT1 this year, so I'll take their 'roadmap' with a HUGE bucket of salt.
Aenys_Faelin
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- May 13, 2018
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Genuinely I imagine trying to format and code that fucking civilization 6 hex tile piece of shit map must be half the reason this game takes so long. Having to link variables to specific points, potential overlaps, retriggered events due to errors...
And this is all in fucking Ren'py. I imagine making actual rpg elements in a visual novel python engine is like translating an uncontacted indonesian tribes language while they're trying to stab you. The stories haven't been overly complex so I doubt it's writers block.
Would anyone even be mad if say, the Andras NTR events were just scattered through linear plot rather than tied to a variable that triggers on choices in an RNG dice roll of various events? You could change the jobs to something you permanently select, which would then add variety to each run since the wife would be doing different things, rather than just working every job over a long period, with the characters confined to that job never to interact with the wider plot.
How and where the Andras events would be scattered still hinges on the length of the overall story arc. SoC is a three act play, which means that Alexia a balloon titted slut whoring her way through a party along with Andras as the finale of her act one NTR storyline is a third of her fall into depravity. You could spread that across RNG event generation or across a planned out series of events and it would still feel way too far of a fall for the first act. Pacing is one of SoC's biggest problems, both in and out of development.