VN Ren'Py The Nature of Magic [Ch.2 Part 1] [Slate Interactive]

[Donettes]

Requesting clarity and less vagueness?!

Watch out man

I mean, for all I've read, you've been wondering how a character in a frigging porn game/AVN is good at performing some sex acts, regardless of being a virgin or not. The question should answer itself, don't you think? A blowjob scene is made to be hot, not to watch how the girl chokes and vomits while trying to go deeper, or hurt the MC with a misuse of her teeth, the MC finishing way too fast due to his first fellatio... And same thing happens with how a virgin MC always has a more than average cock size, eats pussies like a pro and plows like Johnny Sins. But the controversy always falls on the female characters.

And then the whole statement about promiscuity and other projections for just a couple of words. They met when she was 22. If the game universe works the same as our, Cerys already had her hormones revved up ~ten years before they met. What's the big deal if in her adolescence she had a partner or two with whom she fooled around a bit but never went further. It's not like they were childhood friends with the usual 'fated for each other' story. I understand that might arouse some animosity in some minds that want their perfect fantasy in someone else's work, but from there to promiscuity? What a way to speed up from 0 to 100.

 

[Ka1tzer]

I mean, for all I've read, you've been wondering how a character in a frigging porn game/AVN is good at performing some sex acts, regardless of being a virgin or not. The question should answer itself, don't you think? A blowjob scene is made to be hot, not to watch how the girl chokes and vomits while trying to go deeper, or hurt the MC with a misuse of her teeth, the MC finishing way too fast due to his first fellatio... And same thing happens with how a virgin MC always has a more than average cock size, eats pussies like a pro and plows like Johnny Sins. But the controversy always falls on the female characters.

And then the whole statement about promiscuity and other projections for just a couple of words. They met when she was 22. If the game universe works the same as our, Cerys already had her hormones revved up ~ten years before they met. What's the big deal if in her adolescence she had a partner or two with whom she fooled around a bit but never went further. It's not like they were childhood friends with the usual 'fated for each other' story. I understand that might arouse some animosity in some minds that want their perfect fantasy in someone else's work, but from there to promiscuity? What a way to speed up from 0 to 100.

...thanks for proving my point.

 

[Donettes]

...thanks for proving my point.

The only point here is that characters in H scenes will always present themselves as porn stars, regardless of their body count, because this is a porn game/AVN. There's no need to elaborate further or look for deeper meanings.

Oh, and that this controversy only arises when the character is female. You wrote about Cerys' blowjob and titfuck skills, but we also have Rane sucking nipples as a pro and performing an A+ cunnilingus on his first try, even getting creative. But no problem here, he's a champ! Not like that promiscuous Cerys, who's been passing around from cock to cock to be so skillful.

 

[Ka1tzer]

The only point here is that characters in H scenes will always present themselves as porn stars, regardless of their body count, because this is a porn game/AVN. There's no need to elaborate further or look for deeper meanings.

Oh, and that this controversy only arises when the character is female. You wrote about Cerys' blowjob and titfuck skills, but we also have Rane sucking nipples as a pro and performing an A+ cunnilingus on his first try, even getting creative. But no problem here, he's a champ! Not like that promiscuous Cerys, who's been passing around from cock to cock to be so skillful.

You know what? I'll concede that point there about the MC also being a pro. I admit it's one of those things that kinda just get glossed over on account of him being the MC and us players playing as him. It falls within the "it's porn logic" argument that I dislike, but it's also applicable in that case.

Having said that, Idk how it is in fem-protag games since I just don't play them, but I'd assume that if there was a situation in which the FMC gets the lickety-split treatment from a male virgin and he rocked her world and made her see stars with his performance, it wouldn't be out of place for her to ask him how the fuck he learned to do that shit, would it? I think I'd even expect a question like "How the fuck did you learn to eat pussy like that?! Holy shit!!".

So I'll say that it wouldn't be out of place for Cerys to ask the MC where he learned that either, nor would I mind if she had asked the question or wanted clarification.

Then again, we don't play as Cerys, so at least in this story that can be justified as "she doesn't care". We don't have agency over her or how she acts, or what she cares about. In this particular case the difference lies in the fact that we play as the MC, which means (implicitly or otherwise) that we, at least partially, get to shape his beliefs, behavior and etc (up to a point ofc, cause the story has it's own narrative needs as well).

And players come in all flavors - some self insert strongly, others distance themselves from the story. And some of them do care and pay special attention to those matters. When making a decision, no matter which one that is, ideally you'd want as much information as you possibly could get, right? And the decision regarding Cerys, especially considering she's locked in to be the wife and main LI, is a pretty big one (even if we can ultimately skip her as an LI if the player so chooses).

The purpose of the clarity requests ultimately boils down to not needing a reason to use "porn logic" or have to "stretch the suspension of disbelief", so I still think it's a valid want.

But I think I can, at least partially, see where you're coming from.

 

[prpa]

You know what? I'll concede that point there about the MC also being a pro. I admit it's one of those things that kinda just get glossed over on account of him being the MC and us players playing as him. It falls within the "it's porn logic" argument that I dislike, but it's also applicable in that case.

Having said that, Idk how it is in fem-protag games since I just don't play them, but I'd assume that if there was a situation in which the FMC gets the lickety-split treatment from a male virgin and he rocked her world and made her see stars with his performance, it wouldn't be out of place for her to ask him how the fuck he learned to do that shit, would it? I think I'd even expect a question like "How the fuck did you learn to eat pussy like that?! Holy shit!!".

So I'll say that it wouldn't be out of place for Cerys to ask the MC where he learned that either, nor would I mind if she had asked the question or wanted clarification.

Then again, we don't play as Cerys, so at least in this story that can be justified as "she doesn't care". We don't have agency over her or how she acts, or what she cares about. In this particular case the difference lies in the fact that we play as the MC, which means (implicitly or otherwise) that we, at least partially, get to shape his beliefs, behavior and etc (up to a point ofc, cause the story has it's own narrative needs as well).

And players come in all flavors - some self insert strongly, others distance themselves from the story. And some of them do care and pay special attention to those matters. When making a decision, no matter which one that is, ideally you'd want as much information as you possibly could get, right? And the decision regarding Cerys, especially considering she's locked in to be the wife and main LI, is a pretty big one (even if we can ultimately skip her as an LI if the player so chooses).

The purpose of the clarity requests ultimately boils down to not needing a reason to use "porn logic" or have to "stretch the suspension of disbelief", so I still think it's a valid want.

But I think I can, at least partially, see where you're coming from.

Sorry, man, you said yourself that you'd stop with this, so please take your own advice. You're just repeating the same points, and we're ruining the thread with this pointless discussion.

 

[Ka1tzer]

Sorry, man, you said yourself that you'd stop with this, so please take your own advice. You're just repeating the same points, and we're ruining the thread with this pointless discussion.

I know, and I will. Just felt that last post was relevant enough to warrant a "brief revival" because he brought up a point that never came up during our previous discussions, and that I felt was better to not gloss over. A pretty good point too, I'll begrudgingly admit, heh.

Hopefully the future discussions in here will focus more on the story and theorycrafting.

 

[ciberma7865]

Chapter Two, Part Two Development


That's a wrap on Part One! There was one noteworthy issue reported on Discord recently that apparently affects only a very small number of players: clicking on different views during Scrying scenes causes the dialogue window to disappear, which prevents the scene from progressing. Both rollback and saving/loading bring the window back, so it's a recoverable issue. I have a general idea about what's happening, although I'm not familiar enough with the underlying code yet to hazard a guess as to why it would only occur on certain machines. I'll revisit the issue with fresh eyes after completing a couple other tasks.
On to the development plan for Part Two. First things first, I'll be making additions and adjustments to the script through the end of this week and into next. After that, I'll be setting up the 'quality time' scenes to determine which parts I'd like to take a stab at animating and then send the rest off for commission work while I continue with development. I might revisit the Scrying issue noted above around here before moving on. Once I do move on, I'll be taking a different approach to preparing the scenes than I did with Chapter One and Part One. In both of those dev cycles, I did all the major scene development in waves: rendering, adding sound/music, etc. Worked fine, but it didn't feel like it lended itself well to regular progress updates, which obviously wasn't a concern with Chapter One. This go through I'll be progressing scene by scene so each is completely put together (rendered, scored, etc.) before starting on the next. This should give me a much more accurate idea of how much is left to do when progress update time comes around. And hopefully it will make finding/adding sound more bearable since the monotony will be split into smaller parts.
There have been a number of suggestions for things folks would like to see in-game. I'm not sure how many I'll have time to get to as part of this update. I'd like to release Part One around October/November, so I'll be holding off on any new tasking until after everything else is ready for proofreading/testing. I'll get to as much as I can without pushing the release back. I'll add a poll in the coming days with a list of these potential tasks so I can prioritize them based off which ones you all would like to see the most.
As always, thanks for the support and stay safe!

 

[ChubbyFatBoy]

First ones on offer.

Spoiler: Red hair, green eyes, freckles, with a dab orange.

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It's like the dev looked deep into my very soul and asked what I liked. And once it was revealed to him, he said "I got you."

We are truly kindred spirits.

 

[Meiri]

First ones on offer.

Spoiler: Red hair, green eyes, freckles, with a dab orange.

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It's like the dev looked deep into my very soul and asked what I liked. And once it was revealed to him, he said "I got you."

We are truly kindred spirits.
View attachment 5023162

That right there is known as the redhead holy trinity

 

[Tyrranus]

It's like the dev looked deep into my very soul and asked what I liked. And once it was revealed to him, he said "I got you."

We are truly kindred spirits.
View attachment 5023162

I feel ya brother

That right there is known as the redhead holy trinity

preach

 

[Pixillin']

Still playing through this, but I like it so far. At least I like the setup and the possibilities - though the first chapter is pretty lore heavy, it's a little tiring at times. Also, having finally met all of the wards - I might be into Orliath, depending on how she is when she lets her guard down but other than her it's a complete miss I'm afraid. The sisters are all pretty but the wards - either their personality bugs me, I don't like the way they look or both. I'm glad they're all optional (at least it sounds like it but so far Cerys has offered a lot of opinions but hasn't asked for any in a way the player can respond to.)

 

[ChubbyFatBoy]

So I'm slowly making my way through this game. Enjoying it quite a bit overall. That combat bit with Cerys was rather cool and well done. Hoping for a whole lotta of that. I've made it to where we're finally getting to meet all the girls.

When all of a sudden...

Spoiler: Well, well, well. Tall, Dark, Muscular, and Tasty.

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Now this is not to besmirch the honor of the other lovely Bael ladies! I just have a few destinations I must absolutely visit 1st. Also just realized that my only two contributions to this thread. Are pure horni posting...... and I have no regrets!

 

[Pixillin']

Ok, finished what there is so longer version. I should preface this by saying I'm one of those annoying people who likes a good story with some porn in it, rather than a lot of porn that kindof has a story attached. The story here is interesting but the MC is in a tough spot.

He's all about his independence, and about not being just a tool for the families to use but at the same time, he's one of two people with "affinity" and the only one that exists outside the families limited gene pools. So, every woman of child bearing age in the six families is going to want a piece. And, at least in many cases, if MC says no he's condemning them to breeding with the old, ambitious, somewhat psychotic dude.

At the same time, MC and Cerys having been pining for each other for 7 years - she had devoted her educational career to just trying to find him. So none of the others, who MC is considering being a sperm donor for, would be on the same level - not even close - not even in the same league. That includes her sisters, her school friends and anyone else who may come knocking. The engagement/marriage, as far as I'm concerned, is between MC and Cerys. There's no "and" after that.

I also understand that the family's power and the women's status is impacted by whether or not they get sperm from the MC. I might be willing to do a few pity fucks for some of them (even the one who looks like she should be playing in the NFL) but it would have to be separate from marriage and if it means sharing Cerys with anyone (women included) then I'm doing a solo path and the families, and genetic diversity etc can all fuck right off.

That's my .02 so far anyway. (Good story by the way, I wouldn't be saying any of this if it wasn't.)

 

[DrSoong]

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Just now

Here's the development priorities poll I mentioned in the Chapter Two, Part Two development post: six tasks, some from suggestions on the Discord and others are from me. Brief descriptions of the tasks below:

Adjust Android build: the current Android build just uses a "lossier" compression for the images, which might work again for the next release. The difference in image quality is pretty much indiscernible, even in the main 1920x1080 resolution. It's not a permanent solution though, as eventually the framework and videos will take up enough space that it won't matter how compressed the images are. This task will be figuring out what exactly needs doing to skirt the 2GB size limit on apks. I have a general idea on that, but need to take the time to delve into it (and any other potential solutions).

Support for translations: I'd like to make it easy for folks to add fan translations. I haven't looked into what it takes to add/create translations for Ren'Py yet, so this tasking will delve into that and make whatever tweaks are needed to support adding translations. Note that I don't foresee adding 'official' translations any time soon.

Continue updating old Chapter One renders: as part of Chapter Two, Part One, I updated a few hundred of the rougher renders from Chapter One. This task is to continue that process and update a few more scenes. Wouldn't be quite as many as I did in Part Two, but one I would like to update is the big ol' pool scene, and that's a fairly large one.

Update animations in "Hey", Cerys's first "quality time" scene: in the same vein as the previous task, this one would be updating the animations to the same quality as those in Chapter Two. This one might depend on animator availability as the Part Two animations are the priority as far as commissions go.

Add preference to toggle always showing pronunciation text: self-explanatory, just a preference folks can use to enable/disable 'permanent' display of the in-line pronunciations.

Add ability to change the outfit romanced love interests are displayed in on the character detail menu: clicking on a character icon in the menu memory opens the character detail menu, which shows a profile picture of said character. This tasking would allow the player to cycle through a romanced character's outfits for that screen. Note that this would have no impact on the character's appearance in-game.

Patreon only allows single-voting or 'as many options as you want' multiple-choice, so I'm leaving the voting as single. Vote for the option that you'd most like completed as part of the upcoming release. The end results will influence the order in which I tackle the tasking once the release reaches proofreading/testing time. Poll ends October 1st 11:59 PM EDT.

• Adjust Android build
• Support for translations
• Continue updating old Chapter One renders
• Update animations in "Hey", Cerys's first "quality time" scene
• Add preference to toggle always showing pronunciation text
• Add ability to change the outfit romanced love interests are displayed in on the character detail menu

 

[Tyrranus]

honestly Id rather most of these be put on the back burner or just forgotten if Im honest but Im also not a backer right at the moment. suppose if they have to be done Id say outfits, ch1 renders, translations, pronunciation, android, animation

 

[SoraGG]

well for me the render is good enough
I prefer to continue with the story rather than remake from ch 1 again with better render
good story with decent "action" it's much better for my opinion

 

[ModernDegenerate]

well for me the render is good enough
I prefer to continue with the story rather than remake from ch 1 again with better render
good story with decent "action" it's much better for my opinion

I was a bit dismayed to see this report.

It's only been live for 8 months. I don't like to second guess other devs, but reworking renders and animations after such a short period is not a great use of time unless you're trying to launch on Steam and need to attract non-enthusiasts of the genre. That's not happening with an HS2-based game.

I don't even recall any renders that looked bad compared to other images.

 

[SoraGG]

I was a bit dismayed to see this report.

It's only been live for 8 months. I don't like to second guess other devs, but reworking renders and animations after such a short period is not a great use of time unless you're trying to launch on Steam and need to attract non-enthusiasts of the genre. That's not happening with an HS2-based game.

I don't even recall any renders that looked bad compared to other images.

yeah i see some dev going on reworking render route just end up getting abandoned coz the dev is got burned out or something.
i know that for game with HS engine is either gonna sell really good render or really good story, it's hard to achieve both but some dev nailed it.
i dunno i can mention other game from other dev on this thread, but there is 1 game that i know that have "mid" render quality (i think because he using HS1 engine) but that game have really interesting story, so most ppl like that game from the story

 

[Pixillin']

yeah i see some dev going on reworking render route just end up getting abandoned coz the dev is got burned out or something.
i know that for game with HS engine is either gonna sell really good render or really good story, it's hard to achieve both but some dev nailed it.
i dunno i can mention other game from other dev on this thread, but there is 1 game that i know that have "mid" render quality (i think because he using HS1 engine) but that game have really interesting story, so most ppl like that game from the story

I agree, reworks this early are bad for everyone. If it bugs you, as a dev, there will come a time to redo it, but halfway through chapter 2 is not that time. You need to get deeper into the story and get the audience (players) hooked before you go back and spend a lot of time reworking things. Plus if you start second guessing yourself this early you're going to end up re-working things constantly. I know that personally, I can't go back and re-read things I wrote even a year ago because I'll find a thousand things I want to change, fix, re-word etc. At some point you have to let it go so you can focus on creating new things.

 

[Daermon420]

I was a bit dismayed to see this report.

It's only been live for 8 months. I don't like to second guess other devs, but reworking renders and animations after such a short period is not a great use of time unless you're trying to launch on Steam and need to attract non-enthusiasts of the genre. That's not happening with an HS2-based game.

I don't even recall any renders that looked bad compared to other images.

This isn't a new development, the most recent update included a lot of upgraded renders in chapter 1 as well. And they look noticeably better, with much better lighting and shadows. And even then there was still a ton of new content in chapter 2.

They even mention in the above post that they won't be reworking as many renders from chapter 1 in this update as they did in this recent one. So there'll be even less time spent on that than with the chapter 2 update.

You probably don't recall any renders that looked bad compared to chapter 2 because the dev already reworked a lot of them. They said that they prioritized updating the rougher ones in chapter 1 first.