Ren'Py Abandoned The DeLuca Family [Season 1] [HopesGaming]

[TimHawk]

It his hobby at the current time. He try to change that and is preparing a Steam release for the game, that is my understanding.

Yes, with the mix of some "big time" devs as well as other smaller "underated" devs.

Being alone or have a team affect the speed of development, but is not the one and only factor. Some single dev have done biweekly update with a adequate size, although very few can hold that speed. Other single dev do 3 to 4 updates a year with also adequate size (in this case means >> 1 h gameplay for every path). And some of the devs tend to do the absolute minimum so they can max. their profit.

For hope, I think he does his best. It is a pitty that we don't have more Delucas with that, than the few updates we get.

It being a hobby for him sure doesn't help with development times but it also makes it pretty impressive what he has accomplished so far.

Its kinda funny you say that, I posted in the BaD thread today and as you probably know updates take longer and longer, we've kinda gone from 3 months to 6 months to now 8 months but thats not the only thing you have to consider. It always has to be development time vs content delivered and so far, DPC always gave me 10h-15h, sometimes 20h hours of play and then I don't mind. Like with the time I have to actually play games, thats like a week for me and I always thoroughly enjoy going through all the paths and see the differences.

Would I like it to go faster ? Sure, but that's kinda where we're at at the moment and when I play other games I get like 2h per 3 months and those kinda anoy me, because you just got into the game again and then its over and you have the "end of episode" screen. Now having said all that DPC sure has the support and ressources to run multiple rendering pc's and a seperate one just for animations. And a lot if not most of the other developers just dont have the same ressources.

Maybe in the far future some developers get together rent a server farm that runs DAZ and Blender and stuff and the development times actually go down for a change, but thats prob in the far future.

 

[Ayhsel]

Up to the 0.06.x updates the release time was OK. Not fast, but we had a average of 3-4 updates per year. After that we only have 1 or 2 updates per year and more like 1 updates per year. I don't blame hope for it, he always was upfront on this with us.

But for a game to have success it would need a faster and more constant update cycle. Also for that few updates per year, they are to small. Again nothing against hope, only stating my opinion why the game isn't such a success instead of all the goods it has.

So, going for a major release, I have this numbers:

Game Version​	Date​	Time between updates [d]​	Time between updates [M]​	Average time between updates [M]​
0.02​	09.09.18​	​	​	​
0.03​	15.11.18​	67​	2.23​	2.23​
0.04​	18.03.19​	123​	4.10​	3.17​
0.05​	28.09.19​	194​	6.47​	4.35​
0.06.1​	22.03.20​	176​	5.87​	4.05​
0.06.5​	19.06.20​	89​	2.97​	2.60​
0.06.6​	24.07.20​	35​	1.17​	1.70​
0.07.2​	08.04.21​	258​	8.60​	5.42​
0.08.0.3​	06.07.22​	454​	15.13​	8.68​

That is very detailed information...

Only an evil mastermind would keep track of things like that!

 

[whichone]

You, or hope for that matter, will never be able to please everyone.

As the old expression goes: "All of the people, some of the time. Some of the people, all of the time. Not all of the people, all of the time."

 

[Hahn1900]

I have not got the first clue what Hopes' RL schedule is like, so I cannot possibly offer anything on how difficult it is, for him.
Equally, I don't think you can say "it's not hard", without knowing how busy he is outside of the game.
Other things can & do take priority.
Take a busy schedule with work, throw in some personal commitments & you're already talking about not having much free time available.
Probably worn out, too. The last thing on your mind is going online to post an update that says you've not had time to do anything.

Yeah that can be true... its maybe an issue to overcome that hurdle to make a posting which shows that not much work on the game is done... but regardless, even bad news are still news, and many supporters appreciate an honest and active DEV, i sure do... even if he needs a lot of time for development. Overall, i dont think it can make any harm and to be radio silent is much worse. But well, yeah... to say its "easy" to post a weekly DEV-report was maybe a bit too far.

 

[whichone]

Yeah that can be true... its maybe an issue to overcome that hurdle to make a posting which shows that not much work on the game is done... but regardless, even bad news are still news, and many supporters appreciate an honest and active DEV, i sure do... even if he needs a lot of time for development. Overall, i dont think it can make any harm and to be radio silent is much worse. But well, yeah... to say its "easy" to post a weekly DEV-report was maybe a bit too far.

I do not disagree with you. I totally agree (& I'm sure Hopes would) that comms is a crucial part of a business' success.
But, context matters.
As I said, if he was trying to run a business, then absolutely.
If he's just doing it as a hobby & has other things taking up his time, so has nothing to report, then no need to & possibly no desire to.

If you came home after a long day at work, then had to deal with some personal stuff for a couple of hours, would you really be thinking "Oh, I must go online and post an update to tell everyone I've not done anything with my hobby"?
Honestly, it would be the last thing on my mind.

Personally, I'd prefer that the author use that time towards creating something, than use it to tell people they've not had time to create something.

 

[Jimayo]

Well if thats so, why does Gracie whispered that Luna is adopted?

Because that's what siblings do, being an ass to your bro/sis is fucking normal? It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't have to mean anything more than I hate you right now so you don't really belong in this family.

 

[HornyyPussy]

Talothral is perhaps the only dev, that I know that can keep up his speed. Another one dev I know that have done weekly updates was BD (dev of WVM), yet he doesn't do that anymore.

MoonBox (Grandma's House) as well, 2 updates per month

 

[whichone]

MoonBox (Grandma's House) as well, 2 updates per month

With Faerin & Talothral, that's 3, out of hundreds.
I think we can definitely agree that it's an exception.

 

[JJJ84]

Is he calling JJJ84?

As from my memory and understanding Lucian (I think) is the father of Gracie and Luna, as well is Lady Cordia her mother. For Antonio, Cordia is his mother, but he could have another father than Gracie and Luna, although no proof for either are given yet.

Luna & Gracie's father's name is Lucan.
As for the rest, I agree.

Only Antonio, there's question marks as to who his father is (given Angelo's remarks about his father in the Straffan mission).

 

[JJJ84]

Well, Hopes did say goal (but not set ETA) for the upcoming update will be 9th this month (couple of days remaining).
Let's just hope that he can meet this goal and nothing impedes him from it.

 

[TimHawk]

AFAIK, family connection, bloodline, does strengthen a claim to be Capo di tuti i capi, or capomandamento, but the most important thing is support from other family members, or other cosa nostra members, outside the family.
But you need to have a legitimate claim, e.g. you were underboss, or consigliere & the son of the don doesn't want it.
If more than one high ranking party has a legitimate claim, it can be fought out, or negotiated.

That's really interessting, so if Antonio were to die, Luna wouldnt auto inherit the position like let's say in the John Wick universe, if her mother were to pass away ? And from how I read it, it would even be possible for a non Deluca to be the Don/Donna of the Deluca family, even though there still is a legit Deluca of age in the family ?

 

[TimHawk]

If Cordia & Antonio died, then the next in line would probably be Wilfred, due to seniority in the organisation & experience, with an agreement that he'd groom Luna or Gracie to take over eventually.
Of course, whether he would or not, is another story. Absolute power corrupts absolutely...

He did mentor Cordia, didn't he ? So maybe he has already passed the test of not grabbing or holding on to power at any costs. And my memory might be playing tricks on me, but to me it seems in that last episode that Wilfred wants less responsibilities and actually solely focus on grooming the younglings, I think that's how he's called them.

My mistake was prob that whenever someone speaks to Luna and Gracie, even though one is a capo ? and the other one is nothing, they both get treated with the same respect, so I just always figured people dont wanna piss of their potential future bosses.

 

[whichone]

He did mentor Cordia, didn't he ? So maybe he has already passed the test of not grabbing or holding on to power at any costs. And my memory might be playing tricks on me, but to me it seems in that last episode that Wilfred wants less responsibilities and actually solely focus on grooming the younglings, I think that's how he's called them.

My mistake was prob that whenever someone speaks to Luna and Gracie, even though one is a capo ? and the other one is nothing, they both get treated with the same respect, so I just always figured people dont wanna piss of their potential future bosses.

He did, indeed. That's a fair point, but perhaps he had no desire for the power back then, or thought Cordia would be better suited for it, than him.
Now, with time & age, he could feel as if he's owed.
More importantly, I don't think he believes that Luna or Gracie are ready for the role.
IDK, personally I don't think Wilfred wants to be the don, but I cannot rule it out, either.

If Cordia & Antonio both died, there would be no-one higher ranked than Wilfred.
Consigliere is generally 3rd in power - 1. Boss (capomandamento), 2. Underboss (sottocapo), 3. Consigliere, 4. Serpent, 5. Capo, 6. Soldato.
Luna is a low-tier capo. See here.
She has less claim than the Serpents, in terms of experience & rank.
Only her position as daughter of the donna raises her claim. Which also accounts for what you noticed, with people treating them both with respect.
Gracie is not a Family member, so has no rank, yet.

 

[Jimayo]

With Faerin & Talothral, that's 3, out of hundreds.
I think we can definitely agree that it's an exception.

Dude who did Now & Then and now The Interim is monthly like clockwork. So is Ataegina and The Seven Realms.

 

[TimHawk]

First thank you for taking the time to explain all of that to me, I really appreciate it.

Luna's rank is; daughter of the Don.
Skill-wise- low tier capo rank. (as an example Caterina, the rollerskate capo, is mid-tier.)

Now this confuses the hell out of me, doesn't that suggest that Luna's rank is 'daughter of the don" and that it supercedes any personal achieved rank on her own merit like her capo title ?

From what you explained to me I understood the ranking system, but where does 'daughter of the don' rank ? Is it just below Wilfred, because other than Cordia, Antonio and Wilfred even the Serpents seem to stand at attention whenever one of the girls is around. Is that one of those "only Hope knows" thingies ? Damnit now im really curious if a Serpent could order Luna around or vice versa...this is gonna drive me mad...

 

[virracocha]

last post i do here

Maybe I facepalmed you because your post is "girls are ugly so I wont play". - If that is not enough reason to not play a porn game then i dont know what it is...

Also you expecting me to play a grind sandbox hotless game with what i assume it wil be countless of repeating the same action 100 times to get +1 Heart shit only to get a sex scene with an orc of mordor, fk off

The models aren't aesthetically pleasing to your taste?!?!? Surprising!! Do you like furries per chance?

 

[whichone]

First thank you for taking the time to explain all of that to me, I really appreciate it.



Now this confuses the hell out of me, doesn't that suggest that Luna's rank is 'daughter of the don" and that it supercedes any personal achieved rank on her own merit like her capo title ?

From what you explained to me I understood the ranking system, but where does 'daughter of the don' rank ? Is it just below Wilfred, because other than Cordia, Antonio and Wilfred even the Serpents seem to stand at attention whenever one of the girls is around. Is that one of those "only Hope knows" thingies ? Damnit now im really curious if a Serpent could order Luna around or vice versa...this is gonna drive me mad...

Pleasure mate. Glad it helped!

Her official position is daughter of the don, same as Gracie's (despite her not being ranked in the Family hierarchy), which commands respect from her Mother's position.
Her own Family rank is Capo (low-tier), but she is not as highly ranked in that regard as Caterina (mid-tier), the rollerskate capo.
So she is underneath Serpents, in the Family hierarchy, she's underneath Caterina, too.
But, because she's daughter of the donna, no-one is going to treat her with disrespect, as that would also be disrespectful towards Cordia.
Officially, a Serpent has the superiority of rank to order her around.
But, because of her being the daughter of the Donna, I expect that they would only pull rank to protect her, or their mission (if they thought she was jeopardising it, or something).

 

[TimHawk]

Pleasure mate. Glad it helped!

Her official position is daughter of the don, same as Gracie's (despite her not being ranked in the Family hierarchy), which commands respect from her Mother's position.
Her own Family rank is Capo (low-tier), but she is not as highly ranked in that regard as Caterina (mid-tier), the rollerskate capo.
So she is underneath Serpents, in the Family hierarchy, she's underneath Caterina, too.
But, because she's daughter of the donna, no-one is going to treat her with disrespect, as that would also be disrespectful towards Cordia.
Officially, a Serpent has the superiority of rank to order her around.
But, because of her being the daughter of the Donna, I expect that they would only pull rank to protect her.

You know we should force developers to have a working wiki page with all kind of background info before they are allowed to post a game here Just like the Mass Effect codex or something. Thank you again !

 

[whichone]

You know we should force developers to have a working wiki page with all kind of background info before they are allowed to post a game here Just like the Mass Effect codex or something. Thank you again !

Not official, but:

You must be registered to see the links

 

[TimHawk]

Not official, but:

You must be registered to see the links

That's a start ! But there is no secret info on there, right ? Like Hope should totally take a day and add some nice background info, after all character building is in my opinion his biggest strength.

When I played the last update I literally said to myself "Man, I wish the update would have one less gracie sex scene and instead Antonio with a sixpack in his hand, knocking on the door of the MC's room and say 'let's go outside, have a few beers and get to know eachother' ". Like that doesnt take many renders, right ? 5-6 tops and then Antonio could talk about the pressures of being the heir apparent and how it is to grow up in this environment and how it felt to deal with the fallout of what happened to Luna and his dad and so on and on. Hope could totally knock that shit out of the park !!!

Or Wilfred knocking in the MC's door saying "come with me, we have to pick something up" and then he could talk about how he got started in the buisness and stuff during the drive.

But nooooooo, all Hope cares about is Pussy ... sigh ...