whichone

Forum Fanatic
Jan 3, 2018
4,915
10,316
Well this update was a bit disappointing after such a long wait
That's a shame. Why do you think so?

I thought us gaining our first soldier was pretty cool (even if it's not official).
I also enjoyed the introduction to The Scorpion Princess, the Sisters, discovering High Five's connection to Eiza.
The new contract system was early days, but 1/5 tells a good story and takes you on a developing journey.
The others are vehicles to earn cash.
 
Last edited:

mr.rooter

Newbie
Jun 3, 2017
94
53
That's a shame. Why do you think so?

I thought us gaining our first soldier was pretty cool (even if it's not official).
I also enjoyed the introduction to The Scorpion Princess, the Sisters, discovering High Five's connection to Eiza.
The new contract system was early days, but 1/5 tells a good story and takes you on a journey.
The others are vehicles to earn cash.
Dont get me wrong, it still think its a great game, i just felt for the extremely long gap between last update and this, not much content was added.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Game Bond

whichone

Forum Fanatic
Jan 3, 2018
4,915
10,316
Dont get me wrong, it still think its a great game, i just felt for the extremely long gap between last update and this, not much content was added.
tbf that was widely communicated.
It took a lot longer because the whole thing was re-written.
The contract system and also a move to updated version of renpy meant it took a while, without much new story added.
Don't worry, now that the foundation is built, updates can be quicker moving forward.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mr.rooter

JJJ84

Engaged Member
Dec 24, 2018
3,032
6,308
tbf that was widely communicated.
It took a lot longer because the whole thing was re-written.
The contract system and also a move to updated version of renpy meant it took a while, without much new story added.
Don't worry, now that the foundation is built, updates can be quicker moving forward.
To be honest, I think "not much content" is pretty subjective, but hey everyone's millage differs I guess :LOL:
 

Wisblade

Member
Jul 2, 2019
295
323
Look I'm not saying DeLuca's gameplay system is perfect, but doing it only once and getting everything in that one try would make no sense for MC to have stats at all.
<...>
I mean why even bother with the gameplay at all in that case? The player's MC is meant to grow stronger after initial failures in these contracts and do better in their retries of them with better equipment or stats at the shop (as I said before, and saying it again lol).
Because it's not a 90's RPG, maybe? And fiction is not equivalent to MedFan, too... And since you don't care about logic when doing a contract several times, then you can't use this argument to say that getting all stuff/stats required to do the next mission isn't logic... Once you gave up about logic, you can't choose to apply it only on the parts that suits you.

If you only look at above example with logic, it won't make sense, but all players accept it because it's part of the game's structure, not because it's something logical.
That's the major difference between "realistic" fictions and heroic fantasy or other magical universes...

I'm no expert in coding, or even ren'py but what Hopes said was pretty clear (and this was at least 3 months or so ago): there is too much change of code with the overhaul with these Contracts and previous saves are just NOT compatible at all to continue, and everyone will need to start again. And sure there were few people disappointed with it but everyone basically accepted it and moved on (perhaps you should have asked Hopes himself this question back then).
I like this game, but I'm not a fanboy however. I can't check, discuss about and follow ALL games. Period. But I'm a coding expert - not with Ren'Py, neither with Python, true, but it's now 35 years since my first code line, on dozens of OSes and languages. Code porting is even one of my specialties.

BTW, it's possible however... Several games I play NEVER broke the savefiles during the WHOLE development process, up to the "Completed" status... Both with RPGM or Ren'Py.

I repeat again, I'm annoyed to restart the game, and annoyed that devs NEVER take this into account - but as a professional, I also know that devs are rarely aware of what end user really want, I have to deal with that daily. That's why I expressed my opinion here, and to be honest and near rude, the only person I want to listen to is the developer. Everything else is sterile: you're a fanboy, that's OK and I don't mind, but obviously you can't accept criticism about this game - even if constructive - and this discussion won't have any effect but wasting time.

Cause if I drop the game just cause I get a even a bit annoyed with it, well I'd imagine there would be whole bunch of great games out there in this site that I'd be missing out on just because I got impatient with them.
Or you may wait until they're completed. If they are completed one day... But currently, on the around 60 games I follow, only a dozen are completed, at least the same amount are abandonned (or not updated since six months or more). A majority are under development: I'm happy for you if you're able to fully follow 30+ games. I can't, and I don't even WANT to. I have too much things to do IRL for that.

However, you should not forget that, since the game is currently under development, we all are de facto beta-testers. I believe it's normal to let know what is bad: bugs, of course, but also continuity problems, mispellings, ergonomic issues, mechanics issues, and so on. At least, that's why I expect from my own beta-testers: tell me EVERYTHING that is/seems wrong, then we'll sort them with priorities and maybe give a budget to solve some of them.

There are things that I do wish improved with the DeLucas contracts (Which I already posted about to Hopes), but I just don't think "making them once 100% playthroughs" or "save import" would be any of them. For me, they just feel like waste of Hopes time and resources that could be better spent elsewhere.
Considering the awful amount of people asking for "last full saves" on each update for each game, I think that a quick jump to new parts and save imports are on the contrary very importants - as external modules of course, since these tools don't really need to be in the final version, so they don't need to be included in the main source code.

You have your old saves. Start this master editing. Share them here when you are done.
I'm not the dev. I don't have enough spare time to enter within the code of both versions and compare them - that's an easy thing when you write both, it's just painful when you didn't. That was not a really clever remark... Excepted if you pay me my usual price to do it, of course.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Epicuren

jaw1986baby

Chasing Redhead sm0ls
Donor
Jun 2, 2017
2,333
7,130
I'm not the dev. I don't have enough spare time to enter within the code of both versions and compare them - that's an easy thing when you write both, it's just painful when you didn't. That was not a really clever remark... Excepted if you pay me my usual price to do it, of course.
You said easy, just going by your words.

I have played like 200 of the games on here and major changes causing save breaks are not unusual particularly with the change in Ren'Py recently. In this instance he reworked the contracts, changed the numeric system for attributes (used to be 50 stealth was good now it is 7), and added content that could not even be obtained with the old pass/fail contracts. So when yet one more person whines about how "easy" this or that thing is to do because they just "don't wanna" all I hear is a toddler with a need for a change.

My clever remarked amused me. That was more important than any other possible outcome but I did get at least 3 people to react with laughter so.......
 

Cartageno

Devoted Member
Dec 1, 2019
8,571
14,565
I'm sorry if this has been answered a thousand times, I tried looking for an answer back in the thread though I couldn't find one (though it could be I just didn't look hard enough, wouldn't be the first time lol) but what are the requirements to peak on Luna and Gracie? I remember in the old version there were multiple versions, each getting progressively more lewd as you progressed, but after the first one in this replay, I've only been getting an option to "leave" when trying to peak on them.
To add to what has been said before: There's also a bug which will prevent you from peeking with too high stats. Stormfly83 posted a repaired rpy in this post.
 

c3p0

Forum Fanatic
Respected User
Nov 20, 2017
4,694
11,503
That's why I expressed my opinion here, and to be honest and near rude, the only person I want to listen to is the developer. Everything else is sterile: you're a fanboy, that's OK and I don't mind, but obviously you can't accept criticism about this game - even if constructive - and this discussion won't have any effect but wasting time.
So, you are saying our opinion doesn't matter to you and you only value hopes opinion?
Then your whole post is about replay to other users, well I'm now confused.
 
Last edited:

HornyyPussy

Message Maven
Apr 26, 2020
12,548
29,236
So, you are saying our opinion doesn't matter to you and you only value hopes opinion?
Then your whole post is about replay to other users, well I'm now confused.
Come now my dear golden droid, logic? Really? ......you should know better :)
 

Cartageno

Devoted Member
Dec 1, 2019
8,571
14,565
Because it's not a 90's RPG, maybe?
Isn't it though? I mean, a game can be what the dev wants it to be. Pure VN, 90's RPG, space shooter, NFL managing simulator - whatever you, or more precisely devs, want can be done or tried to approach. Of course not everybody does like every type of gameplay (I loathe side scrollers with a passion) and not every style of gameplay suits the target audience of this forum (I cannot think how the NFL simulator would work on a lewd game), and if too many people who you want to target don't like it, the more problems you will have sustaining the project. Which isn't as much of an issue here as in other games since Hopes has stated that this is more a work of passion, in his free time, so he is not dependent on its success.

I get your approach about "completionism" though, that you don't want to switch to VN mode for FOMO (although we all, me included, need to treat our FOMO. In today's world we will miss out on stuff, always, everywhere, there's just too much going on and only smart decisions can solve our problems). And maybe a CYOA style gameplay level with full gameplay but every stat check succeeding would be a viable fourth option if Hopes wants to implement it (there would be some kinks in this system but I'm sure they could be overcome). That wouldn't be for me though, completionism again, I'd miss out on the satisfying advancement of stats. But options are never bad - except that they will take away ever so much time from the main project.

As for the "save game import": we seem to have two diametrically different approaches to the games on this site. I see it as "witnessing a game being created" and everything I see may be subject to change later on. Mechanics change, characters will be written out or suddenly appear, the whole side story with the echidna juggling chainsaws will be taken out, UI can change. We've seen it and heard about it from many an AAA game, too, not to mention all the games on here which got a restart once the dev figured out technical stuff but also what he wants to do. What I will judge is the finished product, so any hiccups like save games not working anymore do not bother me as much (I will skip more updates if they regularily do to avoid having to redo everything too often though) and I like replaying a good game.

Your approach seems to me more like the TV series kind - a new episode is out, let's watch it and I know what happened before so I don't need any "previously on The DeLuca Family" kind of prologue, much less a complete one. (Although I gotta admit that I rediscovered or first time discovered a lot while replaying the old content and enjoyed it a lot here - there is so much you forget and so much that is funny to see already knowing later developments or discoveries) That of course is not inherently wrong but I think it limits devs in what they can do because everything they did is set in stone, a story rework (which of course may always upset "fans") to make everything go smoother would be out.

As for the technical aspect of being able to import older saves, that goes along with it. We have completely new stats here, so they must be assigned certain values. Of course you can use the player progression as an indicator what charisma he would approximately be likely to have, i. e. what equipment he should be given. Can be done. But then again (I am using a logical fallacy of "slippery slope" intentionally here) I could import a save game from Mass Effect 2 and somehow check for story progression percentage and translate it into DeLuca values. So there is limits to how far you could go sensibly with that approach. And - again my different general feel about the games here - every minute spent on implementing a save game transfer is one not spent on other stuff of the game, meaning less content or a later release, and this "save game transfer" is a one time thing for this update only and will be of no use to players coming later to this game or who will replay content regularily anyway. So while it wouldn't be a bad idea as such, it comes at a cost.
 

Wisblade

Member
Jul 2, 2019
295
323
So, you are saying our opinion doesn't matter to you and you only value hopes opinion?
Then your whole post is about replay to other users, well I'm now confused.
You're right, let me rephrase by changing "opinion" to "quibbles", if you prefer. And quibbles it was on last messages.
 

Wisblade

Member
Jul 2, 2019
295
323
You said easy, just going by your words.
Easy for the dev. Not for others - maybe you missed some text above...

I have played like 200 of the games on here and major changes causing save breaks are not unusual particularly with the change in Ren'Py recently. In this instance he reworked the contracts, changed the numeric system for attributes (used to be 50 stealth was good now it is 7), and added content that could not even be obtained with the old pass/fail contracts. So when yet one more person whines about how "easy" this or that thing is to do because they just "don't wanna" all I hear is a toddler with a need for a change.
So... Getting 7 from 50 by using something like "new=round(old/7)" is impossible? Can you explain me in which weird algebra system you obtained this statement?
New parts: have to be done in new version, simple, no magic trick here. Otherwise you give the nearest suitable thing - for example I had the best full stealth equipment, I get the new "equivalent". Go on, there was, what... 25-30 stuff items? We're not speaking about the same number of items as in World of Warcraft, be honest...

My clever remarked amused me. That was more important than any other possible outcome but I did get at least 3 people to react with laughter so.......
I had 5 likes on my first message... But if it comfort you to use the argumentum ad populum fallacy, go for it: I don't want to deprive you of your small pleasures.
 

crabsinthekitchen

Well-Known Member
Apr 28, 2020
1,549
8,734
So,

You're unhappy that you're having to repeat these Contracts more than once?
You don't like it that there's no import data system from your old saves?

I mean if repeating Contracts annoys you that much, i don't really know what to say to be honest.

Hopes' said from very early on when he was giving these Contracts an overhaul, those who don't like the gameplay can just opt for VN mode.
But saying these Contracts should be played just once (which I'm guessing what you're implying in your post with your examples), that would just contradict the core structure of the way these contracts are set up as (i.e. the whole point of them).

I mean I was like you when I first began these contracts, I thought everything can be unlocked or 100% all in one go. But that is not the case at all nor the way it's meant to be played with DeLucas Contracts structure.
The player is not supposed to be all strong enough (in terms of stats of his attributes) to be able to go through everything unlocking it all in their first try.
The game encourages replay with better equipment (through contract's reward or from shops), increased stats (from the main game's events etc).
So what you're wanting is not really a plausible option lol.

It feels like you're saying you don't want to repeat these contracts on one hand, yet you don't want to miss out on the gameplay either. Well, sorry to say, you're out of luck there.
Whichever way it goes. you're bound to be disappointed in your case (guess best thing you can do is fast ctrl skip through everything in the contracts repeats? But if you do that, you miss out on reading some of the good contract stories such as the True Ending of "The Painter" contract).

And as I've said in my previous reply, even if there is solutions to import data (if somehow it even is possible with Ren'py), I just don't see it being worth it from the Devs' side. A lot of hassle for them, yes, yet very little to gain in terms of benefiting the game itself.
I get why repeating contracts might be weird. Old Ombra Soldato from "The Painter" contract must be undead or something the way he's being shot every day and is back at the tavern next morning
 

Niv-Mizzet the Firemind

Active Member
Mar 15, 2020
571
1,109
I got an error when trying to give Isabel the first bottle of wine. I don't know if this was just me or not so I figured I'd post the error in case it can help in any way.

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
Are you playing the 7.0 version of the game? This particular bug was solved iirc in 7.1


I am way into the game. I am doing "The Magic Touch" part in Gracie, It says to check the video. I do not have the cameras, I do not see purchase cameras on my laptop. Is there a way to buy the cameras?

Thanks
If you advance the main story you'll get to bug the house with either microphones or cameras.
 

Lord Verminaard

Active Member
Mar 14, 2018
609
524
HopesGaming , is there any chance about putting rescuing Eizas sister mission in to the gallery on one of next updates? I love Amatas and Caterina fights between themselves and between Ombra Capos but there are no replay of that in the replay room, so as MCs mission report after that.

And Is "... we have been waiting you ..." part between Serpent and MC a typo or intentional?
You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
 

Wisblade

Member
Jul 2, 2019
295
323
Isn't it though? I mean, a game can be what the dev wants it to be. <...>
Right. But honestly, if I come on F95zone, it's not for the grinding or puzzle games, but for the VN or the (very...) light RPG, with or without sexual content. For other kind of games, I have other providers... I don't expect something like FF, Zelda or Dragon Quest here, neither I expect an X-COM, a Dark Souls or an Elder Scrolls. It's indeed possible to find VN on Steam or itch.io, but honestly, they're quite rare and often not adult enough - meaning, for me, that they're boring.

<...> That wouldn't be for me though, completionism again, I'd miss out on the satisfying advancement of stats. But options are never bad - except that they will take away ever so much time from the main project.
Usually, when I play a game, I like a 100% finish - all success, all unlocked, all stuff, etc. Of course it's not always possible, but usually I try... But it's another subject: here, it's ONLY a matter of seing the new parts of an UNFINISHED game, without having to restart from scratch. Nothing more, nothing less: I won't try to complete a game to 100% until it's finished anyway, but if I can start this process during the development phase, I'm happy.

As for the "save game import": we seem to have two diametrically different approaches to the games on this site. <...> and I like replaying a good game.
True, but anyway, we're also beta-testers - that's a fact, not a point of view.
My life: I don't mind replaying a good game too, IF FINISHED. I've done Skyrim two times (all missions, all stuff, all perks, all leads obtained), FF7 two times (all materias maxed out and duplicated for each character), Zelda (SNES) dozen of times (the challenge was to finish it as quickly as possible), and I even done Secret of Mana three times (including grinding to the max ALL weapons/magics for ALL characters), including one time on iPhone. Just to say, I can grind... When grinding is the core of the game.
On the other side, I always HATED building a new character/class in WoW, because game was evolving too quickly to allow ALL my characters to be high-end - game, in fact, will never be "finished", until it stops for good.

Here, while game is unfinished, shortcuts CAN be provided to jump to new parts - new players will beta-test anyway the rewritten parts, and some "old" players like you too. It's so evident that - to use the WoW example again - you can buy this power-leveling "officially" in some games (Blizzard sells an instant max-level of any WoW character to bypass this leveling phase).

Your approach seems to me more like the TV series kind <...>
You're right. That's why I keep all my games installed, and even have some batches to allow fast updating of a given game - extremely useful for a game like "Treasure of Nadia", which is updated every two weeks. I play on a high-end PC, with several terabytes of disk space and an optic fiber connection - I don't mind keeping 60+ games installed and all corresponding archives. Exactly like my Prime Video screen shows me all what I'm currently following until I choose to unfollow them. I highly doubt that I'm the only one to follow games this way... And I highly doubt that YOU restart a TV series from the beginning, first season, on each new episode! :giggle: Because these updates aren't "new seasons", where it could be pertinent to restart (because story is forgotten)... The playtime of each update is really equivalent to a "new episode", no more, and stories aren't complex enough to justify a whole memory refresh - or maybe I have a superior memory, but at least it's not a real problem for me to remember what happened in 50+ games and as many TV series.

As for the technical aspect of being able to import older saves, that goes along with it. We have completely new stats here, so they must be assigned certain values. Of course you can use the player progression as an indicator what charisma he would approximately be likely to have, i. e. what equipment he should be given. Can be done.
Please note: I didn't say anything else... It's TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE, whatever rewrite had impacted.

But then again (I am using a logical fallacy of "slippery slope" intentionally here) I could import a save game from Mass Effect 2 and somehow check for story progression percentage and translate it into DeLuca values. So there is limits to how far you could go sensibly with that approach. And - again my different general feel about the games here - every minute spent on implementing a save game transfer is one not spent on other stuff of the game, meaning less content or a later release, and this "save game transfer" is a one time thing for this update only and will be of no use to players coming later to this game or who will replay content regularily anyway. So while it wouldn't be a bad idea as such, it comes at a cost.
But that's a fallacy... :devilish: Unless Hopes also developped Mass Effect 2, of course!

More seriously: we speak about the same game, from a version to the immediately next version. A lot of games, HERE, do it by allowing a "conversion" from version N (last "old" structure) to N+1 (first "new" structure), THEN forbid the import for versions N+2 and more. Or you have some questions at the beginning to complete missing data (see DMD between chapters, for example, or A Mother's Love, and many others...). It's possible, it's not an ultra-rare thing, even if it SHOULD be the norm instead of the exception.

Let be honest here: we speak about a ROUGH import - remember: beta-testing... Some elements cannot be converted and must be "guessed", through questions and/or progression. Some elements must be created (like a new stat), for example to a mean value. New elements must NOT be converted - otherwise you'll miss new content. It's a matter of some code and some questions, in ONE version of the game, as an external tool or built in game. The character won't be EXACTLY in the same state it was in previous version - maybe it will be mandatory to save again with old version in a particular place, for example.

Of course, it costs development time... But how much? One day? One week? One month? It's probably a matter of a day, spread across the whole rewrite... Neglectible when updates are separated by several months, roughly nine months: it's roughly 0.37% of this time, so is it really a significant part of the delay between two updates?
 
4.40 star(s) 494 Votes