Ren'Py Sexbot II: Recalibrated [v2.00 Beta2] [LlamaMann Games]

[Onslaught8]

I haven't even opened it yet but I am already excited to see how this plays out - the first game was a masterpiece imo.

 

[Beardedsmith]

You can tell who only played Sexbot for the sex scenes by how many people are questioning what this is and how Sexbot could need a sequel.

I remember having conversations literal years ago with Llamaman about this being his plan and how excited he was for it. Very cool to see it actually happening. Love that for him

 

[finnhinn3]

Anyone know what artist made these phone posters/photos?

Hi. That was me, I made them. I hope people get to enjoy them as just a bit of extra content in the game.

 

[Dude137]

His mind is wiped but alexa still remembers and has begun moving to change things, also he recovers some of his memories in this. I would say Melvin trying to enslave the women the mc cared about in previous versions or the mysterious women destroying the MC's life and also enslaving the women he cares about as meaningful competition. Also, the plot of the story and it's lead up to the mysterious woman taking control was always built up throughout the first game, there are several scenes showing her and her schemes in the first game.

"His mind is wiped but alexa still remembers and has begun moving to change things, also he recovers some of his memories in this."

Yeah, I understood this. I'd only hope he doesn't stay in an ignorant state for too long, or that Alexa brings him up to speed fast.

"I would say Melvin trying to enslave the women the mc cared about in previous versions or the mysterious women destroying the MC's life and also enslaving the women he cares about as meaningful competition."

And I'd agree with you. But as I mentioned in my earlier posts, the story elements are there--just not heavily focused on or developed all that much in Sexbot. For example, the opposition between Melvin and MC never really goes down a new route; neither of the characters never really come up with a new plan. Heck, MC usually forgets everything. At the end of each cycle, it's always "Oh no! Melvin has taken over [insert female character]! We have to go back in time to prevent this!" So the MC goes back in time ad infinitum, only to reach essentially the same conclusion each time, because he forgets. So, ultimately, the time travelling ends up being more about banging the girls.

"Also, the plot of the story and it's lead up to the mysterious woman taking control was always built up throughout the first game, there are several scenes showing her and her schemes in the first game."

Sure, this character does give snippets of information. But far as I remember, she doesn't affect MC directly. She's just a shadow character offscreen for the time being. Does the MC ever go back in time to thwart her in some way? But all this is why I question the reset of the MC. The mysterious lady and Melvin are fine opponents, but at some point the MC needs to finally see who his opponents truly are, so that the story can develop. But, of course, I could be wrong. Maybe the MC won't stay too ignorant for too long and will learn what he needs to for the story to progress.

 

[finnhinn3]

Well, I like them. I prefer the real Sexbot characters of the game, but these posters are cool

Hey thanks man! I'm glad at least some people like them for just being a bit of extra flair in the background. It was a fun project talking with Llama about who would be each guys favorite girls to be included and designing new characters.

 

[Dude137]

The relationships clearly aren't reset to the beginning of the first game though and retreading areas is quite literally a core part of the first game as part of the time traveling story and the content. The tech update expands well past "hey, here's a new phone.". llamamann wanted to create phase 2 to avoid too many file sizes and too large of a download and worked on the coding to develop a game that would run even smoother then the first game. Rather than talking shit about it I think they deserves some praise for putting in effort and actually taking time to try to smooth out and improve things while continuing his story instead of what many other developers do and just milk patrons with extremely delayed or slow updates or by remaking the exact same thing with hardly any changes while reusing most assets. it wasn't even that big of a delay to set this one up compared to content releases from before.

"The relationships clearly aren't reset to the beginning of the first game."

Yeah, you can say that about the relationships for maybe Emily and Sam, but for the group of girls at school, it's much more unclear. But as I said, I might be wrong.

"Retreading areas is quite literally a core part of the first game as part of the time traveling story and the content."

Yeah, but in time travel stories in general, when the characters go back, they always learn knew things and do other stuff, and the plot advances. And yeah, retreading areas was the part of the first game--but would you be happy with Recalibrated if all it did was repeat the same formula as the first game and with the same girls? For example, on the first few cycles, MC focuses on a series of events with Jessica to break her down all over again. Then on the second series of cycles, the MC focuses on Bailey again and breaks her down. Next, Sam. After her, Ashley. My point is that sure, retreading old ground is part of the story world, but doing so ad infinitum would eventually bore players from repetition.

"The tech update expands well past 'hey, here's a new phone.'"

Not in any meaningful way that will affect my game experience. Okay, maybe it'll help the player navigate all the character arcs--but will they add to the tension between the characters and the MC? Probably not. In my opinion, he's fixing menus and galleries that felt fine to me. I care about the present inside, not the wrapping paper. Be honest, what would you have preferred to see: fancy new menus and a phone so you can send texts or updates/reworks to the graphical designs of the characters? The girls are hot--but they could be wayyyyy hot if reworked.

"Rather than talking shit about it I think they deserves some praise for putting in effort and actually taking time to try to smooth out and improve things."

First of all, I'm not "talking shit." I highly respect Llamaman's work, so much so that it's one of the very few games I bother to even give feedback. Second, I know all that programming is hard work, but I question it in the order of importance. If something's not broke, don't waste your time fixing it.

Anyways, I appreciate your detailed response.

 

[tytus123]

Hopefully more Femdom content!

 

[allanl9020142]

As one of my favorite games, I'm feeling a bit "meh" about the implied trajectory.

First, I question the importance of all these tech updates. I don't really care about receiving text messages and photos. Instead of wasting time on all that, I'd rather see more focus on quality scene construction. However, if the phone ends up helping the player to navigate the content more easily, then it's good. But as a means to build tension between the MC and other characters . . . *shrugs.*

To me, it's always more about content over the tech stuff (assuming the tech stuff isn't overly broken), and this update makes me question the content to come. First, several of the characters' stories seem to be reset (Ashley's, Bailey's, Jessica's, etc.). If months of updates focus on regrinding the relationships between the MC and these characters, only to get those relationships to where they had been at the end of the first game, then I'd probably stop bothering to play. Why retread old ground? Why not just make a new cast of characters to play around with? At the very least, if this game restarts most of the relationships, then the graphic design for the characters should be updated--that is, the characters should be polished. I would have been delighted to see a lot of the characters redesigned/upgraded; Llamaman's characters are hot--but they're not the best in the industry by far.

But, hey, here's a new phone.

Speaking of characters, I'll give credit for Xel--awesome character. The new Lexx is decent, but the Mai character is the weakest Llamaman's ever produced. Jessica's new outfit is crap when compared with her old one. Of course, these are my opinions.

As for the story of Sexbot, I was somewhat interested in it. In the first game, the game ended up focusing much more on building up relationships and taking girls to the prom, and it only hinted at a larger story at play. I would expect and hope that story be expanded upon from the start and that Recalibrated is not, in essence, a reset.

Of course, I realize this is the first update. I could easily end up being wrong, because I know Llamaman is a smart dude and knows his bizness.

I don't know about that, I think there's a difference between "tech updates" and "focusing on building a foundation from the beginning".

The difference being that the former is a dev halting content production almost completely to focus on fixing fuck-ups and the other is a dev first starting on building a good foundation to prevent possible (not all) future fuck-ups.

In the case of SexBot, it gets a little complicated but the concept still applies since the first game was cleanly finished, cliffhanger or not. Whereas most games with "tech updates" are just going to make you feel like any progression on story or characters are just in development limbo, just unceremoniously cut in the middle. No progression at all and more like regression. Like pinching off a turd, mid-dump.

 

[Dude137]

If you don't think Sexbot is story driven you've been using the skip function and not reading the dialogue. If you had been reading the dialogue you'd come to understand its a story of growth intrigue and deeper meaning.

The stakes are higher in part two. Treat it like all the stats have started out at max from part one.

Part one was the growth of MC from clueless loveable dope to more confident studly nerd.
Or if having gone corruption route girls are more willing to experiment with other characters.

The actual main story is MC turning hero to fight Emperess Amazon with his amazingly resourceful sexbot sidekick Alexa and Emperess Amazon's take over of the corporation and galaxy.

For those confused part two is a stand alone and current tech update, because Llama wanted to streamline and improve the coding to make it more stable and updating more efficient. Hence the statement about now being able to concentrate on future updates and content.

So basically expect part two to be more of what you saw in part one and a continuation of the main story and MC's further development into either hero or zero just with better coding and tech. You might also ser a couple of new characters.
So don't lose your shit in an autistic rage of fear of change. I know how you fuckers are lol

This also part two of a trilogy. Unless Llama feels like expanding on the story in the future. Which I bet he will.

"If you had been reading the dialogue you'd come to understand its a story of growth intrigue and deeper meaning."

I did read the dialogue, and it's not a story of significant growth and deeper meaning. But by all means, feel free to enlighten me on the "deeper meaning" of the game. I'll grant you there is some intrigue; I do find the basic story world and basic plot points interesting. The whole foundation of the game is a very unique one. But as I said, there are story elements--but what they constitute is an introduction. I only hope Recalibrated doesn't backtrack much.

"Part one was the growth of MC from clueless loveable dope to more confident studly nerd."

That's not all that profound in terms of character development, self-revelation, theme, etc.

"Llama wanted to streamline and improve the coding to make it more stable and updating more efficient."

This is part of the tech update I'd wholeheartedly agree with. If Llama did a lot to make it easier for him to update the game faster and more efficiently, that's definitely time well spent. It's all the other bells and whistles I'm indifferent toward.

"So don't lose your shit in an autistic rage of fear of change. I know how you fuckers are lol."

Is this in any way aimed at me, since you're responding to my post? If you're going to call people autistic, you might want to double check your grammar and punctuation first . . . What's more, if anything, my posts are more about being worried that the game is just going to be the same thing repackaged in slightly different wrapping paper. I'm worried that it won't change.

 

[thatoneguy256]

That scene on Sam's tv...hopefully we can see more. Models are always top notch!

 

[Norkainesq]

I hope will be in the game pantyhose/nylon content

 

[Dude137]

I don't know about that, I think there's a difference between "tech updates" and "focusing on building a foundation from the beginning".

The difference being that the former is a dev halting content production almost completely to focus on fixing fuck-ups and the other is a dev first starting on building a good foundation to prevent possible (not all) future fuck-ups.

In the case of SexBot, it gets a little complicated but the concept still applies since the first game was cleanly finished, cliffhanger or not. Whereas most games with "tech updates" are just going to make you feel like any progression on story or characters are just in development limbo, just unceremoniously cut in the middle. No progression at all and more like regression. Like pinching off a turd, mid-dump.

Well said. And I get the distinction you point out, and I certainly don't think Llama falls into the category where the tech updates are more like #fuckarounditis. In another response to another post, I did mention that any time a developer spends building a solid foundation, so that he or she can produce updates faster and cleaner, is time well spent. It's all the other bells and whistles I don't find all that interesting. Like the phone and other menu revamps. Like I said in my post: it's about content over tech updates--assuming the tech stuff isn't broken.

All the tech updates in the world won't make up for weak content, but good content will by far make up for weak tech. In my eyes, I'm thinking "Okay, wow, a lot of tech updates," but then when I do a playthrough, it looks like he's resetting most of the relationships, which is a bad sign in my opinion, making it look the character arcs are just going to be repeated. All the tech updates in the world wouldn't really make such repetition that much more interesting (unless the girls graphical designs were much more polished/refined, as I mentioned). That was essentially my point. Okay, you updated the foundation of the game . . . but it looks like you're just repeating the story.

 

[Adrian Salguero]

ok, for everyone asking or mentioning reboot or redo or whatever- THIS IS THE SEQUEL TO "SEXBOT" aka "Sexbot 2" aka Phase 2 out of 3.......play the firstt game, EVERYTHING i've seen so far matches up to the end of the first game. EVERYTHING......except Xel.....she's new.....and this is basically the first iteration of the game. it's cool that Lammamann built up ALOT of the foundations so he can focus on content from here on out.

 

[dongz69420]

This Dev is making a GOAT run.

my only complaint is i already miss ashley's jeans. but that's so minor.

I love Xel already goddamn that's gonna be something. poor steve though, we bang his landlady, study buddy AND now his sexbot? are we really his friend?

 

[Requiem131]

poor steve though, we bang his landlady, study buddy AND now his sexbot? are we really his friend?

Well, he did use mind control to capture and rape all the girls in his evil plans that lead to the world's destruction, so I don't think he was our friend back in the original timeline.

Oh, and in general, a great beginning for this "second season". Looking forward to seeing how it all plays out but I find it strage that for some reason we've moved from the last week before prom to the first weeks in uni, I guess it is policy to make sure all are adults or something?

 

[duddytuddy1222]

My biggest problem with the new game is the terrible quality of the renders.

Holy shit, what happened Llama? You went from crisp, clean, beautiful renders to something that looks like it was rendered on a toaster!

The sprite portraits look clean but the scene renders look freaking awful! Let them cook longer!

 

[Soggy Bread]

Optional ntr when?
WHEN?

 

[Adrian Salguero]

poor steve though, we bang his landlady, study buddy AND now his sexbot? are we really his friend?

uh, he gave MC the enthusiastic go ahead to hook up with his "study buddy" in the 1st game (

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) so HE'LL probably give us the go ahead for Xel too!.......his "landlady" he doesn't know about though (

Spoiler

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).......so yeah.....

 

[Adrian Salguero]

Well, he did use mind control to capture and rape all the girls in his evil plans that lead to the world's destruction, so I don't think he was our friend back in the original timeline.

uh.....that was MELVIN....Steve's the other one.....

 

[Vishal326]

uh.....that was MELVIN....Steve's the other one.....

yeah