Ren'Py The Fixer [v0.3.3.17] [Sam_Tail]

[Highland_Hunter]

Hey there, Sam_Tail !

It's been awhile since I last posted here, though, I've been 'watching', via Watch List .

I did a search, for anything relating to the "Sammie & Emile Love Relationship", but nothing 'new', (just a few 'old' posts from 2021 ), came to the 'surface'.

So I'm here now asking, What's happened/happening, in relation to "their-story?" . . . ?
(sorry, I really didn't want to read 500+ posts,, to see if I could 'glean' anything 'new', on the subject ).

 

[Random Number Generator]

With regards to the stats, initially I wanted them to not be a main focus for players so I only gave a rough colour coded idea. Since there is a fair amount of RNG when it comes to if you can do something or not, like agree to sex, I felt that giving exact numbers was not really necessary.

Additionally I wanted to discourage hardcore grinding out for max stats by making them more easy to gain, easy to lose type things. So if you hadn't been working out for a while your fitness would drop. I wanted to try and make it so players knew that unless they focused heavily on a stat, they would never get it near max.

Unfortunately other games has trained us and set an expectation of how these things should work and I was not following the rules. So a lot of players assume (and I guess rightly so) that max numbers are achievable and they set it as their target. Max stats always = best or so players think, when in fact that is not the case with the fixer. I get a lot of complaints from people who cheated their stats max and are upset that haven for example was sexless and easy to clear. Or that they never met Viktor because they always cheated mood up.

I think I need to accept that this is probably wrong and adjust the stat gains and degradation to the point where max stats are achievable. And let players chase their goal of 100 fitness/intelligence.

For the record, it never bothered me, and while I wouldn't call the stats as they are a brilliant idea, that's primarily because I never paid any attention to them beyond a brief burst of grinding fitness to become attractive at the beginning.

Frankly, a brief notice in an in-game guide (menu) and leaving everything as is should suffice. I don't know, is there already one present? I never looked closely enough.

There may be some tweakable things (high confidence leading to higher risk behaviour which could also lead to non-consent encounters? High confidence can get annoyingly in the way. Maybe non-consent encounters with different dialogue, more annoyance and resistance rather than panic and fear), but by and large the concept's fine.

And do remember all the people who aren't saying anything because they're fine with it as it is. Beyond the bugs, at any rate.

 

[Gibberish666]

And do remember all the people who aren't saying anything because they're fine with it as it is. Beyond the bugs, at any rate.

I've seen people make that point dozens of times and it just doesn't sit right with me. It assumes there is a "silent majority," to which is not inherently true.

People can also be content out of ignorance. They aren't aware of how good a change could be until after it has been made. Like, once upon a time, you couldn't save your progress in a video game. It was okay during the era of Space Invaders, but could you imagine being forced to play any VN from the very beginning each time you launched the program? Fortunately, there is no harm in experimenting with a few tweaks every couple of builds as long as the feedback remains constructive.

 

[Challenge]

And some would just prefer to let the developer build their own vision. I've seen any number of games here that end up crap partially, if not completely, because the dev is so busy trying to build the game others want them to build. I understand pointing out bugs, typos and even plot inconsistencies. Constructive criticism doesn't include comments such as: "it would be better if you put this thing in" or "take this out." Nor does it include, "If you do/don't do this, I'm not playing your game any more! -- which means nothing anyway.

A lot of games end up abandoned not because the dev burned out, but because they lost the plot thread after adding things the story didn't need at the request of others; perhaps because they didn't care about it since it didn't feel like theirs anymore.

 

[rb813]

I think I need to accept that this is probably wrong and adjust the stat gains and degradation to the point where max stats are achievable. And let players chase their goal of 100 fitness/intelligence.

I won't presume to know how hard this would be to code, but it might be worth considering to offer players the choice of two modes. The mode that you already have, where stats degrade over time and achieving perfection is basically impossible, or the mode that most other games like this have, where there's just a linear progression and maxing out the stats is almost inevitable. If it's possible to put them both in the game and let players decide which way to go, it'll be the best of both worlds. You can please both the people who want it easy or are used to other adult stat-grinding games, and also the people who want something a little harder and more realistic, or have gotten used to the way you did it previous versions. (I definitely fall into the category of someone who was used to other adult stat-grinding games, but I did eventually warm up to the more realistic, less controllable way of doing things in this game.)

For confidence I have already made a change for the next build where you can semi grind it up. Every 2 hours the game will check the past 10 hours of your happiness and rolls a dice to see if you will gain or lose confidence. Basically happy Sammy = confident, sad Sammy = unconfident. Keep her happy over days and you will see a big increase in confidence gains.

I don't know how I feel about this if confidence is still the thing that regulates bully events at school; it's not like bullies only pick on unhappy people. I personally enjoy those events coming along unexpectedly.

For fitness and intelligence I will just tone down the degradation at high levels and remove or reduce the critical fail chance.

Back before I started digging into the script, there was a time when I had the mistaken impression that repeatedly grinding in the same location causes the workouts to be less effective. Maybe you could do something like that, where there's only a chance of a critical fail if you do the same workout five times on the same day or something like that. Thematically, it would represent the kind of injury you might get from overworking the same muscle group, but it would make critical fails something that players could easily avoid if they put in a little effort. I don't know, just thinking out loud.

 

[Gibberish666]

And some would just prefer to let the developer build their own vision. I've seen any number of games here that end up crap partially, if not completely, because the dev is so busy trying to build the game others want them to build. I understand pointing out bugs, typos and even plot inconsistencies. Constructive criticism doesn't include comments such as: "it would be better if you put this thing in" or "take this out." Nor does it include, "If you do/don't do this, I'm not playing your game any more! -- which means nothing anyway.

A lot of games end up abandoned not because the dev burned out, but because they lost the plot thread after adding things the story didn't need at the request of others; perhaps because they didn't care about it since it didn't feel like theirs anymore.

And I have seen plenty of games developed behind closed doors and the final product is a complete train wreck.

It boils down to what the dev's wants to do regardless of what you or I or anyone else has to say. There is also a very clear line between between providing suggestions amicably vs making demands and futile attempts at emotional blackmail. If you're insinuating I have deliberately been antagonistic, you are mistaken.

 

[Challenge]

I was not implying anything concerning you, except that a lot of players/readers here actually do stay very quiet. I was simply pointing out that many players and readers of this forum are silent, and many that aren't should be; that the pressure on a dev to make changes to keep players' happy is more often than not detrimental to the game. The surprise is how many of these games turn out well in spite of that. It's tough to ignore pressure and turn out what you want even though the majority of feedback is not very constructive or positive.

Why comment on a bug or proofing, since a dozen or two have already said the same thing. I for one do not feel qualified to tell any other artist how to do or present their work; to criticize tag choices or how they build the images. If I don't like something about it I don't DL, or I delete it when I decide not to play. I don't need to come on here and rant about what I didn't like.

On the other hand, I usually compliment those I feel who are doing this well.

Did not mean to give the impression I was attacking you; simply disagreeing that a large silent group -- probably not a majority, but possibly -- does exist and present my personal view on the subject.

 

[Sam_Tail]

Let's talk about the future of The Fixer

First of all, I couldn't title this post in a way that didn't sound ominous. There is no bad news in this post. I want to talk about where The Fixer is heading and put in brief the results of the votes over the past two months.

TL;DR, more boobs, 3 new flatmates and new world events will be worked on.

First of all, development will be slightly different than it has been over the past year. Previously I focused entirely on one specific area, first the Haven storyline and then the school. I did this because I needed to use these areas as a testbed and close to final example of how the future of the game will play and how I will work on it. The most obvious examples are the random events at school and how they trigger as well as the events involving characters. In the school you have 3 different character examples. The bully events are run purely by the random event's picker, the soccer boys are more of a dating sim style "grind love to unlock more" while the dance troupe pushes a more linear, story based event chain. I needed to learn from developing this content so I could push forward on events for the rest of the game.

With all that said, work in future will no longer be focused in one location but spread out much more across the entire game. Initially I will prioritise events that have a much more wide ranging impact such as street prostitution, the gloryhole event chain, city random events and other event's that are possible to trigger all over Blaston.
So, onto the conclusion of the votes.

Breast size customisation. In short, adding new breast sizes while keeping breasts getting larger the more heavily pregnant you are is too much work. So the vote was keep the current system of one size that gets larger the more pregnant you are or 3 choosable sizes that stay the same size throughout pregnancy. The crutch of the vote was that it would take time to transition over to the new system. The result was about 20% in favour of adding new breasts. A victory for more breasts, but not a decisive one. So with that in mind, new breast sizes will be added, but at a slower pace so events and other parts of the game can still be worked on.



Breast sizes are not decided on yet and this image is for illustration purposes only.

Story and event focus. The choice was given on what players would prefer to see more of in the world. The options were main storyline, character events/storylines or world events/storylines. The results were heavily in favour of world events. This will include things such as street prostitution, gloryhole event chain, expanded pub job, random street events and places/events to improve your stats.

Flatmates. 6 possible flatmate

You must be registered to see the links

and there could be 3 winners (plus Emile for a total of 4 flatmates). The Diva and the Nerd struggled to pick up votes while the Chad came in a close 4th. The winners were the Trap in 3rd, the Outcast in 2nd with the Tomboy taking the top spot. With the issue of flatmates decided, work can progress on Sammy's home life.

Game navigation. I asked for feedback on peoples experiences navigating the town and offered an alternative, much more simplified layout and way for getting around.
Current layout



Proposed layout



The responses were fairly consistent. Current layout is fine, but work needs to be done to improve it all and make everything more understandable. Plus add a map.

And that brings us to the now. Work on the school is close to being done and and we will see beta builds being pushed soon in preparation for a public release. While there are still plenty of stories that can be added to the school, it can wait a bit for now and let other areas see some love.

Once the update is released, work will begin on what you just read about above. There are some other aspects I will be working on that I haven't talked about yet, but I will leave that for another post.

 

[Sam_Tail]

With the stats, things change as development progressed. I didn't mention it in my recent post but did talk about it in the older posts linked. But I set up the stats with the intention to have a money sink improved version you could do. For fitness that would be a personal trainer and for intelligence that would be a tutor. But as more of the game developed and more of the lore became clear, this idea started to fall by the wayside. Gyms for example don't really fit the lore, and even if they did, would a gym be more fun than playing beach volleyball?

So basically getting to really high stats were initially intended, just not with park running and the like. So it's not like any of the original vision is being lost. More just a different way to achieve it. But we will see soon with the trainer/tutor if they remain or not.

You're probably aware of this already, but pregnancy doesn't show up in all of the scenes. Most notably the pub scenes. Also at the end of the bad Haven outcome, there's a line "You fat bitch, take it all the way," but the MC is still thin. It's probably not important, but it was still awkward.

I just realised I didn't respond to this part. The pub scenes lacking pregnancy is because I originally blocked you working there while pregnant. But locking off content while pregnant means pregnancy is undesirable or a punishment, so I unlocked it without updating the art for it yet. The end of Haven one though she should be pregnant. I'll have to look into it and see if there was a bug. Are you sure you didn't have the cant get pregnant cheat enabled?

 

[Gibberish666]

I just realised I didn't respond to this part. The pub scenes lacking pregnancy is because I originally blocked you working there while pregnant. But locking off content while pregnant means pregnancy is undesirable or a punishment, so I unlocked it without updating the art for it yet. The end of Haven one though she should be pregnant. I'll have to look into it and see if there was a bug. Are you sure you didn't have the cant get pregnant cheat enabled?

Pregnancy is active, and she was being treated as pregnant. The following image does show the belly.


Edit:
I went back and decided to see if this was still the case after using the cheat to advance pregnancy. I'm guessing it's simply you have the minimum number of images necessary to get the point across, but idk.

 

[drenai1]

Thanks for the status update Sam_Tail!

On the whole, I'd say that the approach to further development that you've laid out should work well for the world you've created with the fixer.

I love the images you've presented showing possible breast size options! I'm a fan of smaller breasts and am happy to see that I may have some options to go smaller down the road. Even the larger end of what you've shown here falls within human norms. That has consistently been one of the things I've always enjoyed about this game. Sammy's proportions have always been consistently human rather than the ever so common amazonian woman with boobs bigger than her head that seems entirely too prevalent in porn.

Whether or not I'll enjoy the new flatmate characters remains to be seen. Some of the descriptions sound like characters I might enjoy interacting with, some do not. That having been said, I'm sure you'll keep the development of these new characters to your usual, excellent standards.

I do hope that you leave the cheat menu intact though. It provides a welcome bit of extra freedom that many games do not allow their players. Just being able to adjust Smmy's confidence level on the fly has allowed me to tailor the game to suit my tastes better whether I'm roaming the school halls, interacting with the bullies, hanging out with the soccer boys or working at the bar.

I greatly enjoy playing "The Fixer" and look forward to seeing how the world you've created develops.

 

[sas2000as]

Is there're any guide how to get each Haven ending?

maybe it was already posted before but I haven't found any info

 

[Ravenger6660]

Let's talk about the future of The Fixer

Flatmates. 6 possible flatmate

You must be registered to see the links

and there could be 3 winners (plus Emile for a total of 4 flatmates). The Diva and the Nerd struggled to pick up votes while the Chad came in a close 4th. The winners were the Trap in 3rd, the Outcast in 2nd with the Tomboy taking the top spot. With the issue of flatmates decided, work can progress on Sammy's home life.

I apparently missed my chances at casting a vote, O-Well. But do like what you got going for it none the less.

Maybe you could add to option to switch out flatmates for the other ones later. Offer more options for player as game evolves. (Just something later.)

 

[Phanko]

Hello, Excuse me. I have a problem, the MC Model is all white. Is there any solution for this? Thank you!

 

[GoldOwO]

First, I just want to say I really enjoy the game and how immersive it is. I literally created a routine that makes sense both in game and in real life and I find that enjoyable especially managing activities and time. How Sammy interacts with people is also very realistic like her hesitation of giving away her virginity and how her mood plummets after being bullied. I actually feel bad for her when she is in tears. It really does feel like a sandbox that you play for hours if the mood strikes and I hope you expand this even more.

Are there any plans for a more wholesome content like romance? I know this is a sex game but you can also have some warm and fuzzy kind of sex to cater to certain audiences alongside with the current ones. Judging how the poll went and people hated negative characters being her flatmates, I am sure quite a lot of people would want that kind of content. I also noticed that Sammy seems to be the one at the bottom most of the time so I am thinking maybe there are ways that Sammy is the boss especially if she has high confidence. She can have the soccer boys as her reverse harem and make them do things for her and even help certain quests.

Is there also a way for you to make it so you navigate the world like those old school flash games where you click on certain parts of map to proceed to another? If you click on the door, you would enter the building. If you click on the right arrow, it would take you somewhere else. I find this a more natural way of navigating after playing a lot of flash games and it also adds to the immersion in a way. In fact, it feels like a flash game for me.

 

[Sam_Tail]

Whether or not I'll enjoy the new flatmate characters remains to be seen. Some of the descriptions sound like characters I might enjoy interacting with, some do not. That having been said, I'm sure you'll keep the development of these new characters to your usual, excellent standards.

With four of them in the house, there should be something for everyone to be able to enjoy.

I do hope that you leave the cheat menu intact though. It provides a welcome bit of extra freedom that many games do not allow their players. Just being able to adjust Smmy's confidence level on the fly has allowed me to tailor the game to suit my tastes better whether I'm roaming the school halls, interacting with the bullies, hanging out with the soccer boys or working at the bar.

I see no reason to remove the cheat menu. If I don't add it, someone else will.

Maybe you could add to option to switch out flatmates for the other ones later. Offer more options for player as game evolves. (Just something later.)

No reason to switch them out. There is room for everyone so be packed in like sardines.

Hello, Excuse me. I have a problem, the MC Model is all white. Is there any solution for this? Thank you!

I haven't managed to find the cause to this or a solution for it. The only thing I can suggest is to change the render settings of your game. Hold shift while launching the game and a menu will show. Change the settings there.

Are there any plans for a more wholesome content like romance? I know this is a sex game but you can also have some warm and fuzzy kind of sex to cater to certain audiences alongside with the current ones. Judging how the poll went and people hated negative characters being her flatmates, I am sure quite a lot of people would want that kind of content. I also noticed that Sammy seems to be the one at the bottom most of the time so I am thinking maybe there are ways that Sammy is the boss especially if she has high confidence. She can have the soccer boys as her reverse harem and make them do things for her and even help certain quests.

Is there also a way for you to make it so you navigate the world like those old school flash games where you click on certain parts of map to proceed to another? If you click on the door, you would enter the building. If you click on the right arrow, it would take you somewhere else. I find this a more natural way of navigating after playing a lot of flash games and it also adds to the immersion in a way. In fact, it feels like a flash game for me.

Not sure negative characters were hated when one of the winners is someone who will go fill yandere and eventually try to kill Sammy

But yes I am trying to maintain a balance of wholesome and dark. I fell the dark stuff has a whole lot more impact when it is contrasted against the more wholesome content. That said, I doubt there will be any full blown romances since once you reach that point, there isn't really anywhere left for that story/event to go.

For the navigation, I tried early on to have the interactable map and decided against it for a variety of reasons. Main one being that with things changing so frequently during development, it made it harder for me to change where locations are and hampered development a bit. But as you can see from the post above, I will work towards making navigation better on the whole.

 

[GoldOwO]

Not sure negative characters were hated when one of the winners is someone who will go fill yandere and eventually try to kill Sammy

But yes I am trying to maintain a balance of wholesome and dark. I fell the dark stuff has a whole lot more impact when it is contrasted against the more wholesome content. That said, I doubt there will be any full blown romances since once you reach that point, there isn't really anywhere left for that story/event to go.

For the navigation, I tried early on to have the interactable map and decided against it for a variety of reasons. Main one being that with things changing so frequently during development, it made it harder for me to change where locations are and hampered development a bit. But as you can see from the post above, I will work towards making navigation better on the whole.

There are six characters and the three that were voted for are the least negative out of the six. I think the yandere character only becomes yandere if you push him far enough unless I am mistaken and this attitude is unavoidable. Either way it shows people also like light hearted content and it's never bad to sprinkle some of it in this game.

You could always make multiple routes considering the name of the game is "The Fixer" so you can be flexible in how Sam fixes problems and not just put her in depressing situations at all times to fix problems. There would be routes where Sam is basically a full blown whore while some route not so much while others is in a more wholesome note. I understand if you are focused more on the whore route at the moment but please consider the more wholesome route somewhere in the future. Catering to a wide audience while still fitting in to the concept of the game is always good.

Ah I understand your point about navigation. Would you consider that style of navigation once everything settles down and you don't have to change the map as often?

 

[JennaJJ]

69 ... another 69 to claim

 

[Ravenger6660]

No reason to switch them out. There is room for everyone so be packed in like sardines.

I was meaning to ones that did not make the cut.
You have Trap, Outcast, and Tomboy as the winners.
I was more suggesting that, in a future update, you could switch some or all of them out for other ones based on player preference or as the game evolves.
Like switching out Tomboy for Diva, or switching out Outcast for another Trap.

 

[valaid]

someone knows how to fix the skin bug