VN Ren'Py The Art of Diplomacy and... Love [v0.11] [DS23Games]

[DS23G]

The public release of version 0.1 is now available:

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[FookU2]

I don't see the same renders as in the dev's last game, and that's a good start, to me. Most of the time, devs like to use the exact same looking characters in every game and it gets old after a while.
I'll be watching this one.

 

[giqui]

 

[Ragnar]

Well it's good for a first release and the story is interesting enough to follow. But where's the baron's hot daughter?
Not a fan of the goblin girl blackmail tho, I would stab her in the back for that shit.

 

[DS23G]

But where's the baron's hot daughter?

I assume you mean the count. Well, him not having an heir will be a big plot point later in the game and will also influence the relationship between the MC and the countesss.

 

[Anaktorness]

Will there be any incest or do you have no plans?

 

[DS23G]

Will there be any incest or do you have no plans?

No, no plans for incest.

 

[Punto]

Seems good, keep it up.

 

[Liam the Handyman]

I am here to demand harem or death, or both...

 

[Pgsurprise]

I love the idea of competing with others to get or keep my girls. Makes it more of a game than novel. I'm generally not into NTR, but sometimes using it to humiliate or a tool for submission can be fun. So, regardless of technical definitions, I'm looking forward to this, even if the dev keeps calling me a sleazebag sexiest . But, the devs writing it, soooo...

 

[Justaflynn]

Good start! I'm enjoying the plot so far. Just a heads up though, there seems to be a mistake in the variables for the decision in the pleasure house. When you're at the bar being asked if you're interested in a dance or not, both choices give "mc_chivalrous_libertine -=1". It seems like the decision to get a dance should be "mc_chivalrous_libertine +=1" instead, as the decision should move the bar toward the libertine side.

Other than that, the game seems like it's in a good state. I'm really not a big sandbox fan, so I'm not super excited for the game to turn into one in the next update. I'll give it a try when it's released, though.

 

[DS23G]

Good start! I'm enjoying the plot so far. Just a heads up though, there seems to be a mistake in the variables for the decision in the pleasure house. When you're at the bar being asked if you're interested in a dance or not, both choices give "mc_chivalrous_libertine -=1". It seems like the decision to get a dance should be "mc_chivalrous_libertine +=1" instead, as the decision should move the bar toward the libertine side.

Thanks, good catch.

Other than that, the game seems like it's in a good state. I'm really not a big sandbox fan, so I'm not super excited for the game to turn into one in the next update. I'll give it a try when it's released, though.

Well, it's more of a limited "sandbox", if that helps. Outside the more rail-roaded main story segments, you'll be able to free-roam and choose, which love interests to romance and which NPCs to interact with in general. But there should be enough new content each day and I'll try to avoid any kind of repeated stats grind mechanic.

 

[DS23G]

I posted character priority polls on Patreon, to determine which love interest(s) will get the most content in the next update. Links are in the publicly available

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.

Also, some spicy renders for the love interests (click on the thumbnails for the full view, didn't want to clutter the post with giant pics):

 

[HUNUTAN]

Well, the start is generally not bad, although the absence of H-scenes, at least one as an example, was an unpleasant surprise.
Well, perhaps of all the female characters, only Asiya can be called truly beautiful. The rest are somewhere below average in appearance, but this really sucks, since they didn’t even reach the average level of attractiveness. And I don’t think that their different skin colors will help here.)

 

[DevinHesi]

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Hey again, time for this month's news update.

Version 0.1 of "Private Eyes & Secret Desires" is now available to all patrons. So, now that that's done, the release priority polls, to determine which project will get development priority next month, will go up soon after this post, one for each tier. They will run for a week, till the 5th of July, so be quick to vote.

Speaking of tiers, the updated tier benefits, which I introduced last month, will be in effect from today on. Here's the overview again:

Tier 5 (35$): Gets access to new game versions first (Together with Tier 4), Gets to vote in every poll, including bonus content polls (Votes count 6 times), Gets to suggest bonus content scenarios, Gets access to bonus content

Tier 4 (20$): Gets access to new game versions first (Together with Tier 5), Gets to vote in every poll, including bonus content polls (Votes count 4 times), Gets to suggest bonus content scenarios, Gets access to bonus content

Tier 3 (10$): Gets access to new game versions 5 days after Tier 4 + 5, Gets to vote in every poll, including bonus content polls (Votes count 3 times), Gets to suggest bonus content scenarios, Gets access to bonus content

Tier 2 (5$): Gets access to new game versions 5 days after Tier 3, Gets to vote in every poll, including bonus content polls (Votes count 2 times), Gets access to bonus content

Tier 1 (2$): Gets access to new versions of the game 5 days after Tier 2, Gets to vote in game related polls, not including bonus content polls (Votes count 1 time), Gets access to bonus content

In development related news, the next versions, of both Diplomacy and Private Eyes, will include some UI related add-ons, based on feedback I've recently received.

You'll get the option to toggle hints on or off. So during decisions, you may now get shown the actual stat changes, which each decision will trigger. You can also keep it off, of course, for more immersive gameplay.



This is where you'll find the option in Private Eyes.



And this is what it'll look like during a decision.



Diplomacy also adds another option, next to the decision hints. Since Netorare scenes, specifically, scenes where a Love Interest gets intimate with another man, behind the MC's back, are not everyone's cup of tea, these scenes will be able to be turned off. Those kinda scenes are not supposed to be a big part of the story anyway, but since NTR is a controversial topic, I've decided to implement this option. Netori, aka, the player character stealing another man's lover, and the player character willingly sharing a Love Interest, will not be effected by this option, as those kinda scenes will only get triggered by concrete player approval anyway.

So that's it for now. As always, feeback is appreciated. See you next time.

 

[chicken head]

Classic NTR aka, where you have a healthy relationship that gets destroyed by some other guy snooping in, who corrupts the girl and makes her his own: If the player really fucks up, the MC may permanently lose a Love Interest, but it'll be a one and done and not a focus of the story

 

[DevinHesi]

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Hey again, time for this month's news update.

The release of version 0.11 of "The Art Of Diplomacy...And Love" is getting closer, so let's talk about it for a little bit. In this update, the MC will get some sort of interaction with every Love Interest and learn about all the available locations at court, which will be a set-up for future free-roam sections. A big share of the LI interactions, this time around, will be with Alycia. This is, of course, based on the poll results. There will be a bath scene involving her and some of the more "spicy" (aka, the MC can get involved with them) side-characters. How much content the other LI's get is not completely set in stone, as it depends on how much rendering I get to finish during this next week, as I intent to release the new update at the end of the month. However, there's a slight chance it ends up the beginning of August instead, if I choose to make the update a little bit bigger than originally planned. Check the discord for future updates on that.

Also, the previously mentioned UI upgrades are done and will be added with this update. Those include the new character stats menu and the options to toggle decision hints and NTR scenes on or off. I already went over those in more detail during the last news update.

So that's it for now. As always, feeback is appreciated. See you next time.

 

[BlasKyau]

All of the LI's have set personalties which will be represented by stats, visualized via sliders in the UI. Over time, certain interactions with the LI's can slowly change their personalities, for better or worse. Now, the two sliders relevant for NTR and sharing content are "Prude <-> Lewd" and "Free-Spirited <-> Submissive", in addition to their affection for the MC.

Between "free spirited" and "submissive", I guess I don't really like either option.

From what I read the only thing I'm really interested in increasing is affection for the MC.

Basically, if you really wanna go down the manipulative sleazebag sexpest path with the MC, you gotta make sure to max out those submissive and affection levels for your LI(s), before lewding her up too much and creating a turboslut, who might go for other guys. Just don't have that slider go all out to the right. Similiarly, if you want to pimp her out to other guys for personal gain, she needs to be lewd and submissive enough.

Ok, I'm not interested in the sleazebag sexpest path, nor turning LIs into sluts who fuck anyone, nor prostituting them for the benefit of the MC.

All of that means, that if you keep things somewhat vanilla, NTR and sharing won't even be an option down the road. Also, influencing their personality will take some time and while some LI's start more on the prude side (Alycia f.e.) than others, who are more open-minded (Neela f.e.), none of them are even close to turboslut territory at the beginning.
So, don't be a sleazebag and NTR won't be an issue. But if you wanna go down that route, keep your girls in line.

Keeping things vanilla sounds good to me.

If we aren't interested in a LI, can we reject her without having NTR? In any case, my preferred way to avoid NTR (netorare and/or netorase) is by having an option to disable it at game start.

 

[DS23G]

Between "free spirited" and "submissive", I guess I don't really like either option.

It's on a scale, so the LI personalities don't need to hit either extreme.

If we aren't interested in a LI, can we reject her without having NTR? In any case, my preferred way to avoid NTR (netorare and/or netorase) is by having an option to disable it at game start.

You can just ignore to engage with them, without NTR scenes triggering. The upcoming update will also add an option, that lets you disable the rare planned content, where LI's fall for other guys.

 

[BlasKyau]

It's on a scale, so the LI personalities don't need to hit either extreme.

Well, that's what I understood, and with my comment I wanted to say that my intention is to stay more or less in the middle, without leaning to one side or the other.

You can just ignore to engage with them, without NTR scenes triggering. The upcoming update will also add an option, that lets you disable the rare planned content, where LI's fall for other guys.

Ok, I'm glad to hear that.