VN Ren'Py The Roommate [v0.11.11] [togs]

[Vleder]

Audio is a significant undertaking and I'm undecided about how to go with that. Maybe just incidental music and the odd sound effect, I don't know so maybe people can let me know what they think.

I would advise extreme caution when considering the use of audio!
First, because you'd have to be sure you would be using truly free tracks and sounds to avoid some messy situation.
Second, because, even if you could guarantee the first condition, you should know the use of audio would change drastically users experience of The Roommate.

Music is a funny thing. It varies according to different ears, places and time. So, If you were to add music to The Roommate, I would really think about the following:

- IF you decide to add music and sounds, select a distinctive style to illustrate the whole game. The last thing you want is your work to be lessened by the same overused free tracks that pester the internet and particularly AVNs;

- Once you have selected your style, choose characters and moments to illustrate with music. Being at home, arriving at work, travelling, thinking or having coffee can have their distinctive music. But, more important, each relevant character must have their own song, within the style you have chosen;

- IF you decide to do that, make the names of said tracks and sounds, as well of the directory structure available to players, so that it is possible for users to change the existing files and replace them with their own;

- You should also consider coding the use of music and sounds in a way that allows users to "dump" tracks in selected folders and the game would just use those folders' existing content when illustrating the moments previously defined. Master of Puppets addressed this issue recently in the WVM thread and I agree with most of what he said, the only issue being users or players knowing in advance the moment music and sounds are used in. As usual, I'm sure he can give useful help;

- Finally, and more important than it seems, be sure to normalize all audio. Tracks and sounds from different origins have distinct equalization and other sound engineering characteristics. Tracks can be easily normalized with a quality free software like Audacity that also allows batch processing. Non normalized tracks are one of the easiest ways to ruin a game experience. Again, there's no shortage of that here and it another reason many players just mute the game.

One more thing. IF you decide to use audio, please be sure to configure the sliders to 20% or 30% as RenPy is well known to shatter eardrums. I'm sure there are other issues I'm forgetting now, but this should give you something to think about.
And don't forget that this will also take some considerable time to do the proper way.

 

[togs-games]

I always thought it would be fun to have some basic sound effects - the car door closing when MC drops Kari off at the office, for example, or running water when someone's in the shower. But, while I have found some music I like and I feel would fit, I'm very wary of committing to a full soundtrack and (as I said) getting into voices would be prohibitive.

Right now, I'm wondering about starting out gently with a basic theme tune at the menu screen, and seeing how it goes.

 

[Master of Puppets]

I always thought it would be fun to have some basic sound effects - the car door closing when MC drops Kari off at the office, for example, or running water when someone's in the shower. But, while I have found some music I like and I feel would fit, I'm very wary of committing to a full soundtrack and (as I said) getting into voices would be prohibitive.

Right now, I'm wondering about starting out gently with a basic theme tune at the menu screen, and seeing how it goes.

I would say that one-off sound effects in an otherwise quiet game is just about the worst way to do sound that there is. Music or ambient background sound appropriate for the location is probably the best way to go about it.

 

[Spatenklopper]

Since my savegames were no longer usable after each update, I downloaded 6.3 yesterday and started again without the mod installed.

What I noticed is that from the content of the last update, the selected player name is no longer displayed in the text box, only "Player" is there. However, all characters will address you by your chosen name.

Another point where I don't know why I don't get the option is when you meet Mallory in the penthouse.
She tells you that you can either use the machine or "do it yourself", but the option doesn't appear anymore .
The machine is used automatically.

Anyone have an idea what it could be?

 

[NewTricks]

Since my savegames were no longer usable after each update, I downloaded 6.3 yesterday and started again without the mod installed.

What I noticed is that from the content of the last update, the selected player name is no longer displayed in the text box, only "Player" is there. However, all characters will address you by your chosen name.

Another point where I don't know why I don't get the option is when you meet Mallory in the penthouse.
She tells you that you can either use the machine or "do it yourself", but the option doesn't appear anymore .
The machine is used automatically.

Anyone have an idea what it could be?

What was that about save games not being usable? I manually ported over the old saves and have had quite a few renpy errors but I can skip them. Some of the content seems to be incongruous, like the coffee shop girl still asking me to be her sugar daddy after I already hired her as a legal assistant. Is it recommended that we do a full restart?

 

[Spatenklopper]

What was that about save games not being usable?

I can't say why it is, only a few have these problems. (can't find a place to stop rolling back, or savegame loads and after one click you are back in the main menu.)
But I've been playing with the Jokerleader mod so far and after really every update the safegames were broken, so I've now decided to start over again without the mod.

The only thing I'm missing right now is the option to take care of Mallory myself and I don't know why.

 

[MikeyUK]

I posted in this thread awhile ago regarding my problems with previous saves from 0407 into 0502 or 0601. I have tried the remedies suggested but none worked.

I decided to try something different - i.e. inserting the update files the images and scripts from 0601 into 0407 along with the Joker WT Mod for 0601.

I have played the game upto end of v0601 and I haven't accounted any problems, except for an error regarding a misnamed image for Mallory - the SlidingDoorsWipe - named as PNG instead of WEBP. Also all my previous saves were loadable and play continues.

I hope this method will prove to be successful when I complete the current gameplay. If so, then it would appear to be method for those still having problems with reloading saves.

 

[togs-games]

Since my savegames were no longer usable after each update, I downloaded 6.3 yesterday and started again without the mod installed.

What I noticed is that from the content of the last update, the selected player name is no longer displayed in the text box, only "Player" is there. However, all characters will address you by your chosen name.

Another point where I don't know why I don't get the option is when you meet Mallory in the penthouse.
She tells you that you can either use the machine or "do it yourself", but the option doesn't appear anymore .
The machine is used automatically.

Anyone have an idea what it could be?

I think with MoP's help I've tracked down the source of the "Player" problem, although I'm unable to reproduce it.

I will check the thing with Mallory, but wondering if maybe MC is either too tired or isn't horny enough to want to do it?

 

[togs-games]

I posted in this thread awhile ago regarding my problems with previous saves from 0407 into 0502 or 0601. I have tried the remedies suggested but none worked.

I decided to try something different - i.e. inserting the update files the images and scripts from 0601 into 0407 along with the Joker WT Mod for 0601.

I have played the game upto end of v0601 and I haven't accounted any problems, except for an error regarding a misnamed image for Mallory - the SlidingDoorsWipe - named as PNG instead of WEBP. Also all my previous saves were loadable and play continues.

I hope this method will prove to be successful when I complete the current gameplay. If so, then it would appear to be method for those still having problems with reloading saves.

Maybe this is why I don't experience these issues, I'm obviously always working from the same directory.

 

[Master of Puppets]

I think with MoP's help I've tracked down the source of the "Player" problem, although I'm unable to reproduce it.

Yeah, I would personally restore the default say screen and change the player's name after it's set and in the after_load label. Then it can't go wrong even if someone does manage to get the wrong screens file (though how the hell anyone manages that without installing a mod I have no idea, even Joiplay shouldn't do that!). Interestingly, you don't actually need a separate variable for character names, since when character objects are coerced to strings they just give the name. k "Hello [pname]!" and k "Hello [p]!" actually do the exact same thing, if the name of the 'p' character is the player's name.

Also I played with the last couple of days in the new version:

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[Franz Bonaparta]

Excellent game in all aspects. Nothing I would like to add except that if we could get exclusive custom wallpapers for few Leads as Main Menu Background in certain costumes. You can also make some paywalled but Main Menu needs a little overhaul to reflect the great game it is part of.

 

[Spfjolietjake]

Best update so far... loved seeing my buttercup again lol.

Thank you for this fun vn, best of luck.

My two cents:

Fuck adding audio or changing things up, wait for your next vn. This one ain't broke don't risk it trying to "fix it"

 

[Gorse]

Indeed one of the best updates so far, both regarding some lewd stuff and in particular Lois (loved that!).
Looking forward to the further events as well as what Kara may reveal...
...

togs-games, in addition I want to inform you & all "users" of my SIGNATURE GIFs for "The Roommate"
that I've updated my original FAN SIGNATURE GIF post:

​

This "update" was necessary due to the huge file size of my "old" GIFs particularly​

causing some avoidable additional traffic on our forum's servers.​

Now I've managed to reduce the file size of these GIFs considerably and updated their links.​

All my fan sigs for "The Roommate"are now ...

• hosted on F95 (not on Imgur anymore),
• reduced to the appropriate file size of ~1 MB only (according to the forum rules for signatures),
• available with the F95 label and updated links.

PLEASE use the "new" sigs instead and - if you're already using one of the "old" sigs of mine - update the link...

(as I'm going to remove the former "old" GIFS & their links at the end of May 2022).​

My apologizes for the inconvenience caused & thanks for your cooperation and understanding!

___________
P.S.: togs, feel free to add a link to the OP for now it's "save" to share these sigs with all fans of your game .

 

[Spatenklopper]

I will check the thing with Mallory, but wondering if maybe MC is either too tired or isn't horny enough to want to do it?

Ok that might be a possibility or the reason.
Don't know if I jerked off in the shower that day before I went to Mallory's.
Didn't know that horniness was a trigger for it.

On which ingame day is the scene with Mallory?

 

[togs-games]

Ok that might be a possibility or the reason.
Don't know if I jerked off in the shower that day before I went to Mallory's.
Didn't know that horniness was a trigger for it.

On which ingame day is the scene with Mallory?

The first time you go to Mallory's is Day 23.

Then on Day 29 there's a thing where you're deciding when to go back, and it's usually the next day, Day 30.

Looking at it again, it ought to be flagged better on Day 23, and I will adjust that for the next build.

Also, you do have to be reasonably lustful and I have lowered the threshold for that.

 

[togs-games]

I am thinking it would be useful to have a mechanism for getting MC's initial reaction to any new female characters he meets, perhaps as simple as giving each girl a score out of ten or a star rating or something similar

That way, the game knows your interest in a character from the first time you meet them. That could form the basis of a modifier to the available choices, like the personality type at the start of the game.

Would that take people "out of the moment"? Thoughts are welcome.

 

[satirious]

I am thinking it would be useful to have a mechanism for getting MC's initial reaction to any new female characters he meets, perhaps as simple as giving each girl a score out of ten or a star rating or something similar

That way, the game knows your interest in a character from the first time you meet them. That could form the basis of a modifier to the available choices, like the personality type at the start of the game.

Would that take people "out of the moment"? Thoughts are welcome.

8 out of 10 stars for a adding a priority scale

 

[gregers]

I am thinking it would be useful to have a mechanism for getting MC's initial reaction to any new female characters he meets, perhaps as simple as giving each girl a score out of ten or a star rating or something similar

That way, the game knows your interest in a character from the first time you meet them. That could form the basis of a modifier to the available choices, like the personality type at the start of the game.

Would that take people "out of the moment"? Thoughts are welcome.

Gut reaction is that this seems like a lot of busywork for an unclear gain. The player is already being asked to make decisions about some characters on very limited information (e.g. when picking receptionists/interns), and I'm not sure how such a system would be helpful:
"Hello, here is a new character. Is she a) a potential lifepartner, b) physically attractive but not romantically compatible with the MC, c) nice but dull, d) hot but a bitch, e) ...?" If a new character is eminently fuckable but an evil cunt, is that a 2 or a 9?

Speaking only for myself, I think that it would take me immediately out of the story and into a "metagame" consideration of trying to work out which option might lead to the best outcome.

Obviously this is your design, and if you see something valuable to be gained by it by all means go ahead. The goal of having the game adapt itself to the player's/MC's interests is certainly a laudable one, I'd just worry you're adding a new layer of complications to the system without getting that much closer to the goal.


As for sound, I never play with sound on so wouldn't notice or care either way (and unsurprisingly, I'd much rather you spent your time developing the things I'm interested in ...). But there are certainly some people on this forum who are very vocal about wanting sound in their games, so maybe it'd help draw in some of those.

 

[Master of Puppets]

I am thinking it would be useful to have a mechanism for getting MC's initial reaction to any new female characters he meets, perhaps as simple as giving each girl a score out of ten or a star rating or something similar

That way, the game knows your interest in a character from the first time you meet them. That could form the basis of a modifier to the available choices, like the personality type at the start of the game.

Would that take people "out of the moment"? Thoughts are welcome.

Score out of ten seems a bit much, though a simple choice 'She's hot/she's not my type' might work OK. It really depends on if you think it's necessary, since so far I think things have worked out fine with all the other girls without anything like that. What do you feel is missing with the previous girls that this would add?

 

[Vleder]

I am thinking it would be useful to have a mechanism for getting MC's initial reaction to any new female characters he meets, perhaps as simple as giving each girl a score out of ten or a star rating or something similar

That way, the game knows your interest in a character from the first time you meet them. That could form the basis of a modifier to the available choices, like the personality type at the start of the game.

That would push a choice system out of first impressions and those impressions might simply "just change" or change because of other factors. There's a first visual impact and then you get to know the girl...
So I don't think it's necessary or that it will accomplish much.
You're doing fine the way things are. The system works great so far and I think it's enough to go through the whole story.