Sep 18, 2022
187
680
Am I honestly the only person that was really disappointed with the Chapter 5 Update??
I thought 4.5 had a decent amount of content, AND some storyline choices with everyone's favourite ginger Waifu!
Chapter 5 felt rushed, even though Ocean had a whole YEAR to come up with something longer than around 20 minutes of play time with little action.
Heck, even the recent Being a DIK episode had around an hour and a half of play time, and a really good side-story.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Summer's Gone, I was even a Patreon, but this update was a deal-breaker for me.
I've just turned 47. If Ocean carries on at this rate, I'm going to be 80 by the time Summer's Gone is finished!!!
I think this is more of an issue with your game choices than a reflection of the update overall. If you reject Bella and refuse to meet Nia, your experience with CH5 will be significantly shorter than otherwise. While I personally enjoyed CH4.5 more, CH5 had more substance.
 

ShaggyDave76

New Member
Feb 8, 2019
11
23
I think this is more of an issue with your game choices than a reflection of the update overall. If you reject Bella and refuse to meet Nia, your experience with CH5 will be significantly shorter than otherwise. While I personally enjoyed CH4.5 more, CH5 had more substance.
Well, that's the thing. I hadn't rejected Bella, and went round to Nia's, but the whole thing still felt short - especially so with a lack of any major MC choices.
As someone else said to me, I think it was rushed just to complete Season 1, so Ocean could get it on Steam.

On a different, programming note, why are these AVN's so damn Large?
Back in the day, games on the old 16-bit (or even 32-bit) computers like the Atari and Amiga, and even Consoles like the Megadrive and SNES were just as big and offered hours of gameplay - Graphics weren't all that different then either (Just look at something like Dungeon Master on the Atari ST - beautiful!), so how come modern day PC games are so memory and RAM intensive?
 

jock1a

Newbie
Sep 1, 2022
97
61
Well, that's the thing. I hadn't rejected Bella, and went round to Nia's, but the whole thing still felt short - especially so with a lack of any major MC choices.
As someone else said to me, I think it was rushed just to complete Season 1, so Ocean could get it on Steam.

On a different, programming note, why are these AVN's so damn Large?
Back in the day, games on the old 16-bit (or even 32-bit) computers like the Atari and Amiga, and even Consoles like the Megadrive and SNES were just as big and offered hours of gameplay - Graphics weren't all that different then either (Just look at something like Dungeon Master on the Atari ST - beautiful!), so how come modern day PC games are so memory and RAM intensive?
animation would be my first choice for that answer. Your question involves graphics, animation and textures far superior to what you are comparing them too. The line is much smaller than you think. I have car that register's 150 mph have i ever drove it 150 no. Will i ever no. But if the manufacturer didn't make it someone else will. Thus driving up the profit for greedy corporations. The same has happened with computer Graphics (and everything related to them)If nividia don't make a new one someone else will and raise the price. The previous portion of my statement obviously has nothing to do with the AVN problem you are eluding too as i am sure you are already aware. I will leave you with this thought. There AVN developers that put out a chapter a month and make mods in thier render times. This developer also has more than one project. I find myself personally disinterested in any AVN that takes to long to continue the story. There is so many new developers putting out awesome content. And last but not least they are doing it primarily because it pays good.
 

yossa999

Well-Known Member
Dec 5, 2020
1,848
12,077
Am I honestly the only person that was really disappointed with the Chapter 5 Update??
I thought 4.5 had a decent amount of content, AND some storyline choices with everyone's favourite ginger Waifu!
Chapter 5 felt rushed, even though Ocean had a whole YEAR to come up with something longer than around 20 minutes of play time with little action.
Heck, even the recent Being a DIK episode had around an hour and a half of play time, and a really good side-story.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Summer's Gone, I was even a Patreon, but this update was a deal-breaker for me.
I've just turned 47. If Ocean carries on at this rate, I'm going to be 80 by the time Summer's Gone is finished!!!
Of course you're not the only one, just count the latest 1 and 2 star reviews. I'm glad that the Chapter 5 became a kind of filter that finally pushed away those who expected their typical dating sim or a fuckfest from this game. Nah, it's going to be a long, vague, confusing story, and if it's not your thing, that's totally fine.

I'm really surprised you only had 20 minutes of content. Chapter 5 contains 2155 static renders (assuming you didn't replayed the old chapters where another 250 static renders were added). Most images are accompanied by text, some images are shown several times because all the text does not fit in one screen textbox and is divided into several screens with the same image or a few lines of dialogue spoken by different characters but illustrated by the same image. Although some images do not contain text. With all this in mind, it's safe to assume that on average each static screen takes at least 2 seconds to read and watch. I fail to see how one can read and watch it faster than you say "and-one-and-two" and enjoy it.

Let’s say that during your playthrough you only saw 70% of the content, which gives ~1500 screens (images with text). 2 seconds per screen x 1500 screens = 3000 seconds = 50 minutes of content. Unless you gave up on most of the possible events in the previous chapters: no date with Bella, no kiss from Nami, no promise to visit Nia, and I don't know what else is missing from your playthrough.

As for the long development time, well, yeah, there are downsides of Ocean being a solo developer creating a long, twisted, multi-season story-based game.

I once counted the actual total number of images for all the chapters in the Summer's Gone CH5-beta version of the game, there are more than 10,000. The classic completed DPC's game Acting Lessons contains about 5,000 images. I'm not comparing image quality because the games were developed at different times. People may hate AL and DPC for their cheap story tricks :HideThePain: but it is still a very popular and, what's relevant, a completed game. Thus, the unfinished Summer's Gone is already twice as long as Acting Lessons in terms of lines of text and, which is more important for VN, in visual content. JFYI.

But if you can call yourself a "completionist" of sorts, then it's probably really best to quit and forget this game. The final is still very far away unless the dev changes his vision.
 

ShaggyDave76

New Member
Feb 8, 2019
11
23
The previous posters do make good points.
I'm guess I got spoiled jumping into AVN's a lot later than some, and had hours of content to play through that was already published in games such as Being a DIK. I realise that not all content creators are alike or work at the same pace (Some even have jobs..Shock!!)
I'm currently on my first playthrough of Leap of Faith, which is pretty deep plot-wise, but I'm only on chapter 6 of that one and taking my time, as I can see plenty of scope for numerous playthroughs there!
 

faramata

Active Member
Mar 13, 2022
533
659
On a different, programming note, why are these AVN's so damn Large?
Back in the day, games on the old 16-bit (or even 32-bit) computers like the Atari and Amiga, and even Consoles like the Megadrive and SNES were just as big and offered hours of gameplay - Graphics weren't all that different then either (Just look at something like Dungeon Master on the Atari ST - beautiful!), so how come modern day PC games are so memory and RAM intensive?
Umm...because the images are big? And as for actual games. Videos, 3d models, textures (a lot of them in high resolutions or space consuming formats like dds, like in the case of Starcraft 2, character dialog audio, music. Clearly you've never unpacked a game to see how much stuff goes into it (thousands upon thousands of files). Back in the old days it was mostly just a bunch of low resolution sprites.
 

rismael

New Member
Dec 19, 2022
8
2
Happy New Year everyone, I just noticed that there is a very strong expression from Nojiko towards Nami when the MC tells them that he is going to the book club and the way Nami is not so impressed by the environment and the people around them in the book club, which makes me understand that Nami possibly knows a lot more about the past than the MC does And she's hiding it from him, let's remember that Nami is a year older than the MC
 

Penfold Mole

Engaged Member
Respected User
May 22, 2017
2,951
6,841
10,000 images in 5 years of development - CUTE :love:
5 year old images are already mostly replaced and the last ones will be replaced in the final version of chapter 5.
The oldest ones made by Ocean then would be like 3 years old or something? Since Ocean took over the development, that is. Correct me, whoever remembers or can find from the old posts, when it happened.
 

John972

Active Member
Apr 24, 2018
882
2,987
The previous posters do make good points.
I'm guess I got spoiled jumping into AVN's a lot later than some, and had hours of content to play through that was already published in games such as Being a DIK. I realise that not all content creators are alike or work at the same pace (Some even have jobs..Shock!!)
I'm currently on my first playthrough of Leap of Faith, which is pretty deep plot-wise, but I'm only on chapter 6 of that one and taking my time, as I can see plenty of scope for numerous playthroughs there!
One of the biggest differences I've seen with AVNs on F95 between now and several years ago is that the development cycles between updates/releases have increased significantly. What used to be six months is now a year, what used to be 2-3 months is now six months. It's worth pointing out that render quality has increased in that time too.

With the latest releases of SG and WIAB, I didn't feel so much that they were short (and the SG book club scene seemed to take ages) but rather I felt disappointed when the new chapters ended. I put this down to roughly knowing the length of time I'll have to wait until the next chapters drop (a lot games I like dropped over the last three months. I kinda SMH that I've now gotta wait until Sept-Oct 2024 until the majority of these games release a new update).

Another nameless game (the most popular on F95 and mentioned in your post) also recently dropped. It has a lot of content, but the playing time is significantly drawn out by multiple freeroam and minigame events per episode. I really like that about that game, but that's not the format of SG/WIAB.

As already pointed out, several scenes in SG Ch 5 were only available on certain routes. I see this as a challenge Ocean faces going forward because of the mechanics he has chosen - more and more scenes needed per update for specific routes, meaning an update could be huge but only so much of that content is available on any given route.
 

turbojoe

Forum Fanatic
Sep 27, 2021
4,322
4,607
With the latest releases of SG and WIAB, I didn't feel so much that they were short (and the SG book club scene seemed to take ages) but rather I felt disappointed when the new chapters ended. I put this down to roughly knowing the length of time I'll have to wait until the next chapters drop
Agree with this - imo the main problem is, that so far so many questions and started branches have piled up and last updates didn´t solve them but instead opened new ones.
So we still stay lost in uncertainty, the curiosity is encreasing...............
 
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John972

Active Member
Apr 24, 2018
882
2,987
Agree with this - imo the main problem is, that so far so many questions and started branches have piled up and last updates didn´t solve them but instead opened new ones.
So we still stay lost in uncertainty, the curiosity is encreasing...............
I never thought SG would solve all the initial mysteries in one sudden expositional dump.

If there's one thing Ocean can be accused of it's simply producing a slow-burn/slow-update AVN with way too many alluring LIs. The only way I seeing this being resolved within the next couple of years is if the MC engages a drunken and depraved orgy with a bevy of the LIs after they all go to The Barn to play board games. Now, that would be one hell-of-an update! /s
 

Meushi

Well-Known Member
Aug 4, 2017
1,146
12,721
5 year old images are already mostly replaced and the last ones will be replaced in the final version of chapter 5.
The oldest ones made by Ocean then would be like 3 years old or something? Since Ocean took over the development, that is. Correct me, whoever remembers or can find from the old posts, when it happened.
Ocean was doing renders for SG during 0.2 development. Initially just helping out (29 Sep 2019), then 50/50 partnership (14 Nov 2019).

In the 0.2b release notes Ocean says he reworked ~1300 renders (1230 renders were added in Ch2, likely reworked some Ch1 renders too). So a significant number of his renders were in the initial 0.2 release (31 Dec 2019).

Regium wasn't involved in SG after 0.2 (20 Jan 2020).
 
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Cabin Fever

Engaged Member
Nov 23, 2018
3,130
5,170
On a different, programming note, why are these AVN's so damn Large?
Back in the day, games on the old 16-bit (or even 32-bit) computers like the Atari and Amiga, and even Consoles like the Megadrive and SNES were just as big and offered hours of gameplay - Graphics weren't all that different then either (Just look at something like Dungeon Master on the Atari ST - beautiful!), so how come modern day PC games are so memory and RAM intensive?
Dungeon Master on Atari ST? Either there's a joke in there that completely flew over my head, or I'm blind.
1704165737294.png
 
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John972

Active Member
Apr 24, 2018
882
2,987
Ocean was doing renders for SG during 0.2 development. Initially just helping out (29 Sep 2019), then 50/50 partnership (14 Nov 2019).

In the 0.2b release notes Ocean says he reworked 1300 of the 1230 renders added for Ch2, so a significant number of his renders were in the initial 0.2 release (31 Dec 2019).

Regium wasn't involved in SG after 0.2 (20 Jan 2020).
Thanks for taking the time to hunt down the posts.

So, the 10k renders by Ocean currently in the game equate to 13-15k renders made by Ocean for SG in five years, if discarded/replaced renders are included.
 

John972

Active Member
Apr 24, 2018
882
2,987
Damn, I think you just won all the theories in those two sentences. Amazing :)
It may seem profound and poetic, but, in truth, it's the sort of revelation one would make while either stoned or drunk with friends.

As for Summer's fate... it's up in the air. She could be dead or she could be absconded somewhere. The only clue I've ever seen is in a conversation between Nika and Nami (from Ch 3). I can only take Nika's inference at face value.

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Ottoeight

Forum Fanatic
Mar 13, 2021
4,796
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Happy New Year everyone, I just noticed that there is a very strong expression from Nojiko towards Nami when the MC tells them that he is going to the book club and the way Nami is not so impressed by the environment and the people around them in the book club, which makes me understand that Nami possibly knows a lot more about the past than the MC does And she's hiding it from him, let's remember that Nami is a year older than the MC
Nojiko is angry with Nami because she disobeyed her by telling Nika about the book club. That's it.

No, bro, you definitely misinterpreted Nami, because she's literally unable to grasp people's intentions.




It may seem profound and poetic, but, in truth, it's the sort of revelation one would make while either stoned or drunk with friends.

As for Summer's fate... it's up in the air. She could be dead or she could be absconded somewhere. The only clue I've ever seen is in a conversation between Nika and Nami (from Ch 3). I can only take Nika's inference at face value.

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He was simply teasing Nami.
 
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BobTheDuck

Well-Known Member
Dec 24, 2018
1,108
5,733
It may seem profound and poetic, but, in truth, it's the sort of revelation one would make while either stoned or drunk with friends.

As for Summer's fate... it's up in the air. She could be dead or she could be absconded somewhere. The only clue I've ever seen is in a conversation between Nika and Nami (from Ch 3). I can only take Nika's inference at face value.

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We know Nika saw Summer after the incident. So if the incident was traumatic, seeing Summer after it brought no closure and didn't cause further trauma. Seeing her again is almost mentioned as an after thought. He didn't see her body in a morgue, or he wouldn't be seeking to use Emilio's services to find her. So what we know is Nika didn't see Summer's corpse at any point that his mind consciously accepted. So it's his attempt to shock Nami, like the earlier joke to Vic about penguins, or the way he jokes about her porn habits publically to shame her. Completely part of their unique tension/affection.

Regarding drunken epiphanies, it's pretty damn good to simplify the stories to that angle. Viewing the bitchiness and drama through those lens's might simplify the reasons for some actions - to some extent we're expecting everyone to be playing games to save the future of their dynasty, or *gasp* Wollust. To have petty goals for some elaborate plans actually makes sense, especially after the spider scene. Parallel ways to read events, not just the objective reasons, but the embarrassingly subjective.
 
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