VN Ren'Py Summer's Gone [S1 Steam + DLC] [Oceanlab]

[John972]

True, but now they're back in dodge, going to the uni run by ZPR (maybe some strings pulled?) and Nojis been hanging out with the ZPR royalty Emilia, clearly knows lots about the Zanes, hanging out at a bookclub Katie and Sasha goes to is hardly hiding. Maybe it's safe now, and has been for a while, but why would Noji uproot and go back? The only reason I can assume is because where they lived Nika couldn't get the kind of care required, as he went to the hospital in Wollust with the collapsed lung/violent incident - the implication is he didn't attend all of school because of that, and now is at college - so at some point they had to commute to out west or to visit him at the hospital. Which makes me wonder - how long did Noji work at the hospital? A six hour commute is just not feasible. But if she moved to get out of attention, but kept her job, Nika and Nami would've basically been fending for themselves most of the time with such a long commute. Does this mean her current hospital job is only since moving back? So the Scarlet theory wouldn't work in that case.

We assume the cabin was near where they lived, but what if Summer and Nika had run away? My guess is the cabin is further away than the 'out west' school mentioned. The dream sequence doesn't really give clues in that sense ie things mentioned in dreams aren't necessarily true. Clearly the flowers didn't happen - unless they were the plants we saw in WiaB and the spiders might now be a memory but a weird conflation of the bug bois in the games they used to play. Dreams are montages at best.

So maybe they didn't get out of dodge but went to the outskirts.

It's inferred Nika and Summer would walk home from the cabin but it got too dark and they didn't want to walk through the woods at night (assuming Nika's dream is a fair representation of what really happened). He dreams about their conversations, where Summer was going on holiday with her family the following day. Everything in the dream points to them spending time together within walking distance of their homes, rather than eloping to some random place six hours away.

Spoiler: Dialogue in the Dream Sequence

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Spoiler: Present day conversations about the Cabin

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[BobTheDuck]

It's inferred Nika and Summer would walk home from the cabin but it got too dark and they didn't want to walk through the woods at night (assuming Nika's dream is a fair representation of what really happened). He dreams about their conversations, where Summer was going on holiday with her family the following day. Everything in the dream points to them spending time together within walking distance of their homes, rather than eloping to some random place six hours away.

Spoiler: Dialogue in the Dream Sequence

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I'm taking that dialogue as being dream sequence stuff, like when you dream you can jump and suddenly your taking strides athat are kilometers long, or you turn a corner and are on the next street, which in real life is in a different city. We already know that dream Summer doesn't talk with Nika honestly - the immersion gets broken when Nika realises things don't make sense.

If the cabin is 6 hours away, either Noji commutes for 6 hours to work at the hospital while they're in school, or Noji doesn't work at the hospital at that time, or the cabin is not in actual walking distance - it's just the way the dream worked, or they lived halfway between the cabin and Wollust. I don't remeber there being a sense of Noji having a different job before working at the hospital though, and it's a position requiring training. Noji talks about wishing she'd tried to start her own practice, but feels it's too late now - so I assume she got the job with the hospital as a career.

Also, the violent incident took Nika to the hospital - Nami mentions he's been there before. It's be strange not to take him to a closer hospital.

The timelines of when these things happen will help us make sense of it - we're still making guesses.

 

[RobNorthman]

So I take it that Chapter 5 full won't be coming in December?

 

[Doomyk]

There is also a small point about the theory of Zoe as the possible mother of Nami and/or Nika.Dev mentioned that the plot of SG is less criminal than Wiab. Zoe mentions more than once that she wants to start a porn studio. Don't you think that the porn empire, as a legacy, although in the gray area,but is many times better than the main business of the Zanes.
As for Holgerson, it seems he left the family business and may have started working with Katie Zane in the fashion business and at the same time running shady schemes.
But it’s too early to build theories about what’s where and how. In Wiab, Uncle Tony and Aunt Jenny have already been mentioned, their children and seemingly different uncles and aunts. Plus *fucking grandma*, the ups and downs of Helen and Dylan’s relationship
(I wouldn’t be surprised at Dylan’s bastards on side). I wouldn't be very surprised if they were all Petrovas and Reveras(uncles and aunts). Well, the most important thing that 23-24 years passed between Wiab and Sg. From the beginning of the events of Wiab to the birth of many of the SG heroes, 2-4 years passed. Everything could still change 100 times. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dana still breaks up with Martin and ends up becoming the mother of Vanessa and Zara.

 

[BobTheDuck]

There is also a small point about the theory of Zoe as the possible mother of Nami and/or Nika.Dev mentioned that the plot of SG is less criminal than Wiab. Zoe mentions more than once that she wants to start a porn studio. Don't you think that the porn empire, as a legacy, although in the gray area,but is many times better than the main business of the Zanes.
As for Holgerson, it seems he left the family business and may have started working with Katie Zane in the fashion business and at the same time running shady schemes.
But it’s too early to build theories about what’s where and how. In Wiab, Uncle Tony and Aunt Jenny have already been mentioned, their children and seemingly different uncles and aunts. Plus *fucking grandma*, the ups and downs of Helen and Dylan’s relationship
(I wouldn’t be surprised at Dylan’s bastards on side). I wouldn't be very surprised if they were all Petrovas and Reveras(uncles and aunts). Well, the most important thing that 23-24 years passed between Wiab and Sg. From the beginning of the events of Wiab to the birth of many of the SG heroes, 2-4 years passed. Everything could still change 100 times. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dana still breaks up with Martin and ends up becoming the mother of Vanessa and Zara.

I'm hoping the expanded heist scene will drop a few juicy hints, currently the Holgersons and the Cerils seem to be the main vectors for antagonism.

Maybe Zoey's dialogue changes based on what you chose - in my playthrough she kept telling Willi she wanted to make cuddly toys, that kinda seems wholesome enough

 

[John972]

I'm taking that dialogue as being dream sequence stuff, like when you dream you can jump and suddenly your taking strides athat are kilometers long, or you turn a corner and are on the next street, which in real life is in a different city. We already know that dream Summer doesn't talk with Nika honestly - the immersion gets broken when Nika realises things don't make sense.

If the cabin is 6 hours away, either Noji commutes for 6 hours to work at the hospital while they're in school, or Noji doesn't work at the hospital at that time, or the cabin is not in actual walking distance - it's just the way the dream worked, or they lived halfway between the cabin and Wollust. I don't remeber there being a sense of Noji having a different job before working at the hospital though, and it's a position requiring training. Noji talks about wishing she'd tried to start her own practice, but feels it's too late now - so I assume she got the job with the hospital as a career.

Also, the violent incident took Nika to the hospital - Nami mentions he's been there before. It's be strange not to take him to a closer hospital.

The timelines of when these things happen will help us make sense of it - we're still making guesses.

Yeah, we only have fragments, so constructing a reliable and comprehensible timeline is still next in impossible.

Outside of the dream sequence, we can be sure that: 1. Nika saw Summer for the second-to-last time at a Cabin in the woods. 2. Nami reported them missing to Officer Laverne. 3. Officer Laverne likely went to the Cabin to collect them. 4. The Cabin is six hours drive from where they all live now. 4. Nika intimates that it's five years since the Cabin incident/Summer's disappearance. These are things all confirmed outside of dream sequences.

We know Nojiko used to have a boss at her hospital called Scarlet and that Nojiko hasn't enjoyed her work since Scarlet left (with Scarlet likely being the Scarlet also in WIAB). We know that Nojiko was the doctor who saved Nick's leg from amputation. We don't know the timelines for either of these things yet. Do they go back five or more years?

I do know that Nika's room from when he first met Summer is NOT the room he occupies from Ch 1 to Ch 5. They are structurally different. I am assuming Ocean did this deliberately.

PS - we don't yet know if the violent incident is linked to the cabin incident/summer's disappearance. They could be entirely unrelated events years apart.

 

[BobTheDuck]

Yeah, we only have fragments, so constructing a reliable and comprehensible timeline is still next in impossible.

Outside of the dream sequence, we can be sure that: 1. Nika saw Summer for the second-to-last time at a Cabin in the woods. 2. Nami reported them missing to Officer Laverne. 3. Officer Laverne likely went to the Cabin to collect them. 4. The Cabin is six hours drive from where they all live now. 4. Nika intimates that it's five years since the Cabin incident/Summer's disappearance. These are things all confirmed outside of dream sequences.

We know Nojiko used to have a boss at her hospital called Scarlet and that Nojiko hasn't enjoyed her work since Scarlet left (with Scarlet likely being the Scarlet also in WIAB). We know that Nojiko was the doctor who saved Nick's leg from amputation. We don't know the timelines for either of these things yet. Do they go back five or more years?

I do know that Nika's room from when he first met Summer is NOT the room he occupies from Ch 1 to Ch 5. They are structurally different. I am assuming Ocean did this deliberately.

All agreed with the fixed points, obviously Things that occur to me - Laverne could be an adult Nami knew, rather than just the officer for the area, the fact they refer to her by her first name suggests more than just the first available officer.

Agreed that they lived somewhere different to now. I can't remember if Nami finished at the highschool out west, I'm assuming so as both of them are outsiders at the uni. Presumably that means that Nami has been going to that school some time in the last 5 years before college. It's suggested that the three of them have been a tight unit living together. If the school was 3 hours away, that'd mean 6 hours of the day spent on buses. Maybe that's why they're poor

My point is the house in the flashbacks either has to be close enough (~ 2 hours or so) that the commute to the hospital is realistic for someone who works with people in accidents (sure, as a specialist, maybe not directly in ER, but close enough to it to stop the ER people from amputating), OR Noji didn't work at the hospital while out west because it was too far. That would mean Scarlet was working with her once Noji returned to Wollust. I'm assuming Noji was working at the hospital the whole time though, it's not a often a career you start into late, and given she feels trapped in a rut that it's too late for her to advance further than the hospital - not the kind of thought you'd have about a job you've been in for 5 years or less.

The distance makes me think either the old house was between where they are now and the cabin close enough to be plausible, or Noji wan't working in the hospital until they moved back. Nika's accident was treated in Wollust though and there's the bus ride early on where they talk about a local spot they used to know at (Obama's Kebab) that has been closed for more than a year - presumably Nika remembers it from before his accident. Also, the lake is seen as a place they used to hang out a lot at, several years ago (again presumably from before his accident). These things make me think more like they did live in outer suburbs, and the cabin being so far away is the oddity. The cabin could easily be a holiday cabin of someone they knew.

Anyway, I'm wasting your time over a very pedantic point that's most likely a continuity error, I'll stop now

 

[yossa999]

I'm taking that dialogue as being dream sequence stuff, like when you dream you can jump and suddenly your taking strides athat are kilometers long, or you turn a corner and are on the next street, which in real life is in a different city. We already know that dream Summer doesn't talk with Nika honestly - the immersion gets broken when Nika realises things don't make sense.

If the cabin is 6 hours away, either Noji commutes for 6 hours to work at the hospital while they're in school, or Noji doesn't work at the hospital at that time, or the cabin is not in actual walking distance - it's just the way the dream worked, or they lived halfway between the cabin and Wollust. I don't remeber there being a sense of Noji having a different job before working at the hospital though, and it's a position requiring training. Noji talks about wishing she'd tried to start her own practice, but feels it's too late now - so I assume she got the job with the hospital as a career.

Also, the violent incident took Nika to the hospital - Nami mentions he's been there before. It's be strange not to take him to a closer hospital.

The timelines of when these things happen will help us make sense of it - we're still making guesses.

To me it looks like Noji hid the "roommates" for a long time until it was safe for them to show up and claim their heritage. They lived on the west, went to "Tropical something" school, and now they've moved here to Wollust. And I don’t remember exactly if there was any mention of why they chose ZPR among all the possible colleges? I suspect Noji did it. Although Nia is also here and studied at the same school as Nika, Nami and Summer. So perhaps it was just a coincidence that they all ended up in the ZPR.

 

[Maviarab]

So I take it that Chapter 5 full won't be coming in December?

Sometime end of January I believe once everything done for the Steam release.

 

[BobTheDuck]

To me it looks like Noji hid the "roommates" for a long time until it was safe for them to show up and claim their heritage. They lived on the west, went to "Tropical something" school, and now they've moved here to Wollust. And I don’t remember exactly if there was any mention of why they chose ZPR among all the possible colleges? I suspect Noji did it. Although Nia is also here and studied at the same school as Nika, Nami and Summer. So perhaps it was just a coincidence that they all ended up in the ZPR.

Yeah, except they've been in Wollust long enough before college for businesses Nika remembers to have shut down a year or more ago - check out the bus trip to the hospital where they encounter Dave. And Nika was treated for the accident in Wollust. I also suspect Noji pushed them towards ZPR, but given the other college is elite, there might not have been a choice. Also, for Noji to push them towards their heritage (if that's the case) she still keeps them in the dark and prefers to hide them from Katie.
My guess is that they moved back because Nika's accident needed them to be close to the hopsital while he was recovering.

But also, Noji can't really be hiding them from the Zanes while also hanging out with their mutual friends to the point that it's an open secret at the book club.


For Nia to be in the same year, she also must've taken time off between school and college - maybe earning enough to make the fees.

 

[Doomyk]

To me it looks like Noji hid the "roommates" for a long time until it was safe for them to show up and claim their heritage. They lived on the west, went to "Tropical something" school, and now they've moved here to Wollust. And I don’t remember exactly if there was any mention of why they chose ZPR among all the possible colleges? I suspect Noji did it. Although Nia is also here and studied at the same school as Nika, Nami and Summer. So perhaps it was just a coincidence that they all ended up in the ZPR.

Robin's mom also clearly knows more than she says. In the scene where Katie meets Nika, it is Charlie who holds Najiko back. Well, it seems to me that it was not without reason that she had such a negative attitude towards Nika all the time.
However, it seems to me that there is one underrated character who has a much more important role than we can imagine: Miss Marla. There is too little information to make assumptions yet, but one thing I am sure of is that she is one of the key characters in the story. There is a not a small chance that she knew Najiko before meeting Amber, Marla directly says that Nika is part of her problems, there is a possibility that she goes to Amber and cries because of Nika,when Nika was locked up by Zara and Nadya, either Bella or for some reason Marla freed him. Sasha (one of the key characters) turns not even to Nami, but specifically to Marla. She somehow knows that it is Marla who will drop everything and run to save Nika.But it’s too early to connect dots. The only other interesting thing is that she has known Bella since she was 12 years old (the approximate time of Summer’s disappearance).

 

[John972]

All agreed with the fixed points, obviously Things that occur to me - Laverne could be an adult Nami knew, rather than just the officer for the area, the fact they refer to her by her first name suggests more than just the first available officer.

Agreed that they lived somewhere different to now. I can't remember if Nami finished at the highschool out west, I'm assuming so as both of them are outsiders at the uni. Presumably that means that Nami has been going to that school some time in the last 5 years before college. It's suggested that the three of them have been a tight unit living together. If the school was 3 hours away, that'd mean 6 hours of the day spent on buses. Maybe that's why they're poor

My point is the house in the flashbacks either has to be close enough (~ 2 hours or so) that the commute to the hospital is realistic for someone who works with people in accidents (sure, as a specialist, maybe not directly in ER, but close enough to it to stop the ER people from amputating), OR Noji didn't work at the hospital while out west because it was too far. That would mean Scarlet was working with her once Noji returned to Wollust. I'm assuming Noji was working at the hospital the whole time though, it's not a often a career you start into late, and given she feels trapped in a rut that it's too late for her to advance further than the hospital - not the kind of thought you'd have about a job you've been in for 5 years or less.

The distance makes me think either the old house was between where they are now and the cabin close enough to be plausible, or Noji wan't working in the hospital until they moved back. Nika's accident was treated in Wollust though and there's the bus ride early on where they talk about a local spot they used to know at (Obama's Kebab) that has been closed for more than a year - presumably Nika remembers it from before his accident. Also, the lake is seen as a place they used to hang out a lot at, several years ago (again presumably from before his accident). These things make me think more like they did live in outer suburbs, and the cabin being so far away is the oddity. The cabin could easily be a holiday cabin of someone they knew.

Anyway, I'm wasting your time over a very pedantic point that's most likely a continuity error, I'll stop now

Regarding Officer Laverne - I thought she was a Police Officer known to Nami/Nika/Nojiko, hence the use of her first name (but that could be the original, pre-rework SG talking). Nika also mentions her to Bella: "Then Jane drove us home... and I can't remember more... I must've suppressed it."

Well, there's still many things that either don't make sense yet or don't add up. Time will tell how well they get resolved.

I have no idea how Nojiko's employment reconciles with her possibly living six hours away from their current city.

To me it looks like Noji hid the "roommates" for a long time until it was safe for them to show up and claim their heritage. They lived on the west, went to "Tropical something" school, and now they've moved here to Wollust. And I don’t remember exactly if there was any mention of why they chose ZPR among all the possible colleges? I suspect Noji did it. Although Nia is also here and studied at the same school as Nika, Nami and Summer. So perhaps it was just a coincidence that they all ended up in the ZPR.

Yeah, Nia, Nika, and Nami all attended Tropics High School in the west, along with Summer.

Thus, they're the odd fish at ZPR since all the other major ZPR student characters attended more local schools together.

There is no mention of Nika or Nami choosing ZPR, but dialogues infer it wasn't their choice, so you're likely right, Nojiko selected it for them.

(Nika: "Do you know anything about the college?" Nami: "Except that we didn't even get the chance to look around for other colleges, no. But I checked some forums and it's a really good college... Even though most of them were complaining about not getting accepted.")

I don't know why Nojiko is still trying so f--king hard to shield them from their past rather than just telling them?

Robin's mom also clearly knows more than she says. In the scene where Katie meets Nika, it is Charlie who holds Najiko back. Well, it seems to me that it was not without reason that she had such a negative attitude towards Nika all the time.
However, it seems to me that there is one underrated character who has a much more important role than we can imagine: Miss Marla. There is too little information to make assumptions yet, but one thing I am sure of is that she is one of the key characters in the story. There is a not a small chance that she knew Najiko before meeting Amber, Marla directly says that Nika is part of her problems, there is a possibility that she goes to Amber and cries because of Nika,when Nika was locked up by Zara and Nadya, either Bella or for some reason Marla freed him. Sasha (one of the key characters) turns not even to Nami, but specifically to Marla. She somehow knows that it is Marla who will drop everything and run to save Nika.But it’s too early to connect dots. The only other interesting thing is that she has known Bella since she was 12 years old (the approximate time of Summer’s disappearance).

There seems to be several characters who know what's going on with Nika and Nami, just not Nika and Nami themselves. It's annoying

 

[Ottoeight]

To me it looks like Noji hid the "roommates" for a long time until it was safe for them to show up and claim their heritage. They lived on the west, went to "Tropical something" school, and now they've moved here to Wollust. And I don’t remember exactly if there was any mention of why they chose ZPR among all the possible colleges? I suspect Noji did it. Although Nia is also here and studied at the same school as Nika, Nami and Summer. So perhaps it was just a coincidence that they all ended up in the ZPR.

Bro, Nojiko, Nika & Nami went "west" after the Summer incident: what happened that day between Nika, Summer and whoelse is the reason why they moved away: Nika just needed it. Whatever happened.

Heritage, real parents... this is a pile of crazy speculations. We have no damn clue because the game didn't give us any.

 

[John972]

Bro, Nojiko, Nika & Nami went "west" after the Summer incident: what happened that day between Nika, Summer and whoelse is the reason why they moved away: Nika just needed it. Whatever happened.

Oh, and Nia was so distraught that she also went "west" after Summer's incident?

Spoiler: Nia...

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There's so much about the backstory that's currently incomprehensible because it's being drip-fed to the Player piece-by-piece in almost cryptic terms. I don't mind, as long as Ocean pulls it off convincingly. Anyone who's ever watched the original British miniseries, 'The Singing Detective,' will understand a seemingly incomprehensible plot that's made up of many disparate jigsaw pieces, all of which coalesce to form a coherent whole by the end.

 

[Kakasan]

Are Nami and Nika blood brothers?

 

[F.L.HX99X]

S2 - Chapter 1 - Dev Log #2.5
Hello,



So, this Dev Log is a few days late because I visited my family during the holidays.

And it only adds half a Devlog because there's no Season 2 focus.



While I was away, and during my free time, I began translating Season 1 into German. SG will be released in two languages at first.

I finished translating Chapter 1 and Chapter 3. (I'm waiting with Chapter 2 until it's actually done to prevent rewriting it.)



Good DAZ news for once... (DAZ is the software I use to create my renders and animations.)

So, one rule as a Developer is... Don't fucking update DAZ mid-update. It will break everything, including your soul.

So I was reading up on the latest DAZ news and I went in there with the thought "It can't possibly offer me anything to update."

But then I saw this...

"Faster asset loading speed for characters with a lot of morphs."

I have been complaining about the loading times for a very long time... So I had to try it out.

Daz 4.22 is the newest DAZ with the apparently improved Loading speed. So I took three tests.



DAZ 4.21 (old) vs DAZ 4.22 (new) loading times:

Scene with 2 Characters.

4.21: 3:16 minutes

4.22: 2:12 minutes

(1:04 seconds faster)

That's decent, okay... But the real improvements show with more Characters.

Scene with 5 Characters:

4.21: 18:30 minutes

4.22: 11:44 minutes

(6:46 minutes faster.)

Okay, that's quite a bit...

Now for a book club scene with 20+ characters.

4.21: 46:06 minutes.

4.22: 30:45 minutes.

(15:21 minutes faster)

Sure, it still takes half an hour to open the scene... And then you gotta render it... But 15 minutes is amazing.

Chapter 5 has around 620 book club renders. With 4.22 I would've saved 157 hours of just opening scenes.

So yeah, great news on that front!



WiAB was released last week and now I'm back to my usual work routine.

WiAB's Full will be released in around two weeks and will be available for certain tiers here.



So let's talk about another scene in Chapter 2's rework.

Those Nami renders are kind of iconic... They were the first real "lewdy" ones I think. But yeah, the scene has been changed dramatically.

The scene I'm talking about

The new scene:

The old scene started with something serious... MC not meeting up with Bella... And they talk for about 15 lines, but then the scene becomes full "Lewd Game" out of nowhere where Nami indulges the MC with her porn preferences.

I think it didn't help Nami's build-up, and undermined some deeper aspects of the Cheeto that were introduced later.

While Nami and MC's porn talk will return at some point, it was too early for that. In Season 2, the Cheeto's story will start too, and... Well, you'll see.

The new scene is much more serious, but also more romantic if you choose to have it that way.

The internal struggle of the MC and his decision to not see Bella has a special focus here.

More info about the MC and Nami as well.





Anyway, back to work, and I wish you all a Happy New Year!

May you and your family be healthy and safe.



- Ocean

 

[Gregorio.Carreras]

This is amazing. Best NV I have seen. Thanks for your work

 

[John972]

Are Nami and Nika blood brothers?

I hope not! I know Trans content is optional, but I don't wanna see Nami with a cock swinging between her legs.

 

[Mamaragan]

I don't get Ocean and his cigarettes. I thought he took thatv away with Mila, but he reintroduced it chapter 5...

 

[yossa999]

I don't get Ocean and his cigarettes. I thought he took thatv away with Mila, but he reintroduced it chapter 5...

Ocean — Today at 8:16 AM
He does from time to time
A bad habit when he's very stressed