Ren'Py Seeds of Chaos [v0.4.10] [Vénus Noire]

[aqd]

I was talking about the survey since it was brought up earlier. In regards to the team's questions, I searched your Patreon just now and reloaded the survey but could not get past the first page. I would "retake" the survey to provide specific examples, but of course it would not change what I said. (It might be cookie or IP related that's preventing me from getting past that first page.) Regardless, you'd have access to the questions in front of you and knowing that you all are an intelligent lot (and I do mean that--I don't always agree with you guys but I think y'all are intelligent folks), I'm sure once you take a critical eye to the survey in consideration to what I said I'm positive you can discover at least several of those questions where they can be interpreted differently than what your team may have intended. Don't get me wrong though, I do not believe the results of the survey should be disregarded off-hand. Just be weary of what conclusions your team might draw from it is all; and be more concise on how you go about asking certain questions--especially those of the ever versus which choices do you typically choose or typically enjoy the most variety. For instance if I recall correctly (and bear in mind that I do not know exactly how these questions were asked as I do not have the survey in front of me), one or more of the questions had asked something along the lines of "have you ever seen/encountered/pursue such and such content?" (and at least one that included a list, I believe). How would I answer this question? I most likely answered these types of questions in the affirmative. And respectively speaking (and not to kink shame anyone), it doesn't mean I enjoy or even ever want to see certain content. Then there were questions like "what choice did you pick from among these in your playthrough?". What does that suppose mean? My first encounter for that, the choice I usually pick, what would I prefer, or what did I pick from the last time I ran across those choices in my last playthrough? I'm assuming your team was asking about the preference of what the player had chosen and enjoyed while also making the assumption that the player knows the results/consequences of that choice; however, I think I answered it in the way of the results from the last/current playthrough. For instance, the Orcaid stuff--it asked something along the lines of who did you back, if any? I answered without knowing how all of it would turn out (but also reflecting on choices that I would never even pick due to what I have heard of the content that I do not want to see from people around the web and not from the game itself). Rein above brought up an interesting result about which "Alexia narratives interest people [the] most". It "concluded" with Corrupting Alexia Yourself at 27.6% and Keeping Alexia Pure with 1.6%. Now, I do not recall how this one question or these series of questions were asked, but here might be case of drawing an erroneous conclusion from the result. I prefer keeping Rowan and Alexia faithful to one another and would likely take that path when and if the game is ever get to a more completed state. I like taking "pure" paths in games. However, I more than likely answered the in the former for the survey because one, it might be one of those ever questions, and if not, then because it had more content, or simply, I was curious to see it. It doesn't mean that's my preferred path in the game. Another was something like "did you kill your father-figure home village elder when Andras threatened to kill more people?". Perhaps somehow asking why the player did so or not would yield a better result. I certainly would have taken a different route to keep as many villagers alive which includes the elder had that option be available, y'know? Perhaps that last example wasn't fair, but the point is just be a little more thoughtful with the survey questions. I know I was probably rambling a bit, but I'm actually pressed for time (RL stuff so apologies for the block of text without formatting). I wanted to punch a post out since you guys asked and I didn't want to ignore it nor give you guys a copout answer of "I can't answer you since I can't load the survey" bullshit. Hopefully, this helps or satisfies to y'all's questions or provide insight to some of the sampling errors within the survey. Alright, stay awesome! +1 to everyone that read and made it through this post. Cheers!

Yes, all polls are imperfect. [Also, the writers may be weary after reading your post, and that may make them wary of your future posts...] I think 'Pure Alexia' v. 'Andras/Jezera corrupts Alexia' v. 'you (Rowan) corrupts Alexia' is pretty unambiguous as questions go. It seems like there's a very large plurality interested in a corrupted path, and a very small minority interested in keeping her 'pure'. And that's about the level of fidelity you expect in a poll from which it's reasonably easy to reduce the data. A more problematic question may be, 'who is your least favorite character?' As a poll-taker do I take that to mean which character is the most evil and despicable, or which I want to see less of in the game? For instance, Andras is terrible, but some of the best scenes are ones where he's corrupting Alexia and I want more of that.

 

[Back]

The writers may be weary after reading your post, and that may make them wary of your future posts.

Yeah, fair enough; I didn't mean to insult or offend anyone. I just recall that the survey's questions were "ambiguous" so caution is advised when trying to draw conclusions from the resulting data.

I think 'Pure Alexia' v. 'Andras/Jezera corrupts Alexia' v. 'you (Rowan) corrupts Alexia' is pretty unambiguous as questions go.

I'm not sure about that. But, I do not have the survey in front of me. How were these questions asked? Is it a preference thing? It that what really the choice the player wanted? Is that what they did on their last playthrough? Is this something that player enjoys the most or wants to see more of? See? Even between you and I, we're seeing that line of questioning differently. Admittedly, again, I'm not sure if that's the case since I do not have the survey in front of me.

The rest of your post is exactly what I mean. It's open to many interpretations, and respectfully speaking, some of those questions were "loaded" if I recall correctly. Do you hate the guy and want to see more of it or what? All I was saying is that the original survey's questions themselves should have been more concise and took into consideration of possible multiple playthroughs by the players using different playstyles. I know for a fact as a poll-taker of this survey, I answered questions for the most part on what was asked and generally not what was intended due to the confusion on how the question(s) were worded.

Regardless, the survey should still offer the general "pulse" of the audience and how the team is doing. Again, I wasn't trying to be disparaging or critical of gameplay choices (thus not mentioning kinks above), I just wanted them to more aware of how things could be interpreted and see how things could go from there. Be concise and try to remove ambiguity and be careful not to color certain aspects due to how close one is to the project. A dev might play and see things in a certain way (since they are on the inside track) and intends to let them play out in a particular way which might be counter to how a player perceives things thus affecting how they play to see how certain plotlines might play out versus what was intended or planned.

There will be ambiguity in the results because there were ambiguity on how questions were worded. The above post is an example of such. However, I want to reiterate that the results are not without merit. Just be careful with what conclusions one may or want to see in the results. Okay, I have to gracefully bow out right now as RL beckons once again. Be cool, every one; be happy and have fun!

 

[diebesgrab]

My main problem is that there were only three “what’s your favorite fetishes” questions. I have way more than three.

 

[T51bwinterized]

My main problem is that there were only three “what’s your favorite fetishes” questions. I have way more than three.

I think that one was an issue of the poll client. We can probably run an independent kink poll.

 

[T51bwinterized]

Back too much to reply to in detail. We'll keep in mind the feedback to tighten up word choice in the poll.

 

[HaiRen]

Guys, can you give me tips and/or resources to play the game as a normal rpg. How you gain gold and recruit an army for the twins? Any other tips? All I do is wander aimlessly in the wild until thrown into the dungeon again.

 

[Back]

Guys, can you give me tips and/or resources to play the game as a normal rpg. How you gain gold and recruit an army for the twins? Any other tips? All I do is wander aimlessly in the wild until thrown into the dungeon again.

Without spoiling things too much for you, there's two game ending events that you'll need to avoid once you agree to work with the Twins. They occur around week 22 and week 60 (or thereabouts; going by memory here). However, what you'll need to do is establish a good revenue stream from taking over villages and mines (found by exploring the map), and building certain improvements at Bloodmeen (such as the Tavern). Also, you should try to keep your research going at good rate by building the appropriate structures, taking over Abbeys, and recruiting Succubi (?). These units are a force multiplier that add to your overall military strength as well as providing research bonuses.

To avoid the first gameover event, you'll need to fulfill the objectives the Twins placed upon you--capturing Raeve Keep. It's just east (right) of the starting portal immediately pass the bridge across the river. Do this after you've explored a bit and got a few villages under your influence. (Many of the starting villages are near and along the "circular" road next to the starting portal.) Bear in mind that you'll also need to have 500 gold crowns in the treasury as well to satisfy this win condition. Your personal wealth is NOT taken into account.

After gaining control of Raeve Keep, you'll have to figure out a way to gain an army to march upon the capitol in this region to avoid the second game over event around week 60. From the starting portal, if you follow along the trade road going north and then west along the river you'll eventually see a bridge going north that has an Abbey immediately on the next hex up. Just northeast of that is the "second" portal for this region; however, you'll find a hex that looks like an orc village to the northwest a few hexes away.

Starting on the bridge hex here, it's three hexes up, one hex NW, and finally one hex to the SW (or Abbey, Road, Road up, then Road and finally Orc Village hex). This orc village is actually an orc encampment. You can find an army to recruit from here but you'll need several weeks to influence events (and there are many ways to do it) to get them into your fold.

Rastedel is found along the trade roads to the Northeast region of this map; it's large and impossible to miss. Good luck and have fun, HaiRen!

 

[z_means_z]

Does anybody know some games like this one?

 

[360 Danny DeVitos Later]

Does anybody know some games like this one?

Probably not the most helpful answer but tbh there's nothing quite like it or at least if there is I haven't found it yet. The closest I can think of are the Last Sovereign, Legend of Queen Opala Origins and Roundscape. All of which are in RPG maker rather than Ren'py though.

LOQOO has a serious amount of downtime in between scenes even for an rpgm game. Last Sovereign has no art for the sex scenes it's all text based which isn't for everyone. So be aware of that if you want to try them, I gave up on LOQO myself.

 

[aesir150]

Does anybody know some games like this one?

I second Roundscape, that game is probably the most similar to this one. Though it actually has combat mechanics and working items.

Another one that is pretty decent is Claire's Quest, through from what I can tell its pretty simplistic where you play as a girl name Claire and you basically get to decide if she becomes a slut / get constantly harassed or raped.

 

[T51bwinterized]

Does anybody know some games like this one?

Venus Noire is working on two other games. The first is The Eternal Feast. The second is Jessika's Curse. Jessika's Curse is actually getting its first ever public demo relatively soon. You can check out the Patreon pages for the game bellow:

You must be registered to see the links

- Jessika's Curse

You must be registered to see the links

- The Eternal Feast

 

[LittleBigYaoi]

From where you first start go right 2-4 spaces. You'll see a bridge and the castle.

I tried to get there but it wouldn't let me.

 

[diebesgrab]

This might be a dumb question, but what week are you on?

 

[shanarc]

I tried to get there but it wouldn't let me.

You need to first clear your own village which is north of the starting point.

 

[aesir150]

After gaining control of Raeve Keep, you'll have to figure out a way to gain an army to march upon the capitol in this region to avoid the second game over event around week 60. From the starting portal, if you follow along the trade road going north and then west along the river you'll eventually see a bridge going north that has an Abbey immediately on the next hex up. Just northeast of that is the "second" portal for this region; however, you'll find a hex that looks like an orc village to the northwest a few hexes away.

How what is the army strength required? And how much money do you need?

Cause I have over 1K gold and 525 army strength?

 

[RedPillBlues]

Venus Noire is working on two other games. The first is The Eternal Feast. The second is Jessika's Curse. Jessika's Curse is actually getting its first ever public demo relatively soon. You can check out the Patreon pages for the game bellow:

You must be registered to see the links

- Jessika's Curse

You must be registered to see the links

- The Eternal Feast

Is Eternal feat a Male MC or Female MC game?

 

[T51bwinterized]

Female PC

 

[RedPillBlues]

Female PC

Oof, I hope your fourth game when it comes around is a Male MC then, because this one is basically both anyway. Does Venus just have no desire to make Male MC games anymore, or is this just the way it ended up?

 

[Back]

How what is the army strength required? And how much money do you need?

Cause I have over 1K gold and 525 army strength?

If you mean Reave Keep, you only need *rubs temple* 150+ Military strength (and 500 crowns in the treasury), or you can infiltrate it and bring it down using a spy. If you go there, the game will proceed along its plotline but afterwards you get to control when to actually attempt the takeover. The game will let you know if you'll be able to or not.

If on the other hand, you meant Rastedel, then it's not just about your army--you'll need another army to join with Bloodmeen's.

This orc village is actually an orc encampment. You can find an army to recruit from here but you'll need several weeks to influence events (and there are many ways to do it) to get them into your fold.

I don't want to spoil things for you. Gaining this Horde is a pretty big deal and there are many ways to accomplish that; and it's actually pretty fun to do. Again, this orc encampment currently has the only unaffiliated army so far in the game and is found near the upper, second portal to this region. It's west (left) of this second portal--just follow the road west from the portal. Specifically, from this second portal it's one road hex north, three road hexes west, and orc village hex. Easy-peasy.

You'll be fine. Just play the game; you're not going to blow it. Have fun getting that Orc Horde Army to follow you! Just remember, you'll need several weeks to get them in line; so take that into account.

 

[T51bwinterized]

Oof, I hope your fourth game when it comes around is a Male MC then, because this one is basically both anyway. Does Venus just have no desire to make Male MC games anymore, or is this just the way it ended up?

We believe in good stories. We think that focusing too much on Male MC or Female MC is reflective of the kind of game we're not interested in making. Good stories can exist with different combinations of protagonists. Ideas for other games floated at the studio include Male MC, Female MC, Male and Female MC, Shape shifter MC, pick your gender, and everything in between. Whatever lets us make the best content.

Part of this is the concept of abstraction. Lots of games, including Seeds of Chaos, allow some degree of identification with the protagonist. But, often times requires hollowing out a character. Sometimes, a game like Mass Effect, might make heavy use of Identification. But, this is where abstraction comes in. Many of the best pieces of erotica are derived from being able to view them as erotic stories happening in of itself. As powerful as identification is, it is limiting and requires balancing or sometimes subordination to abstraction.

You don't have to worry. You can play Jessika's Curse and still enjoy it as a straight male. We are designing it in a way where you can abstract if you do not personally wish to identify.