VN Ren'Py The Theater of Sinners [v0.3 ALPHA 1] [JustXThings]

[JustXThings]

there's no demanding. I'm expressing my issues with the game and voicing my opinions. There's no lesbian route tag so when I see the lesbian and female protagonist tags I assume I'll be able to avoid men. With one character down the road you'll be able to but with that character idk if they'll be involved with guys up until that point. If that's the case I'd prefer if with that character I could avoid men. And with there being multiple female characters the player will be in control of I don't understand why the one who will at some point be a lesbian can just already be one and be able to pursue relations with other females only. And if you're in control of a character and have the option to turn down one guy to me it makes no sense to not be able to with other guys or a different guy. Playing as a female mc who can't reject guys or can only reject certain guys and not all guys is something I don't get. Doesn't make sense to me and is something I personally don't like. The dev can do what they want and I understand that maybe they don't have the time and resources to make everything optional. I'm just speaking on how I feel and what I think and would hope at some point the dev could maybe take that into consideration and make changes. If avoiding all men was optional I think more people would take interest in the game and personally I'd appreciate if they did and I think other people would too. Had to do it over. Messed up the first time. But yeah. Also with a lesbian route tag being implemented that would really be a time saver and good for people who are looking for that and want that in a game.

I'm sure if you ask about Lesbian only games you will find a bunch of them here on this board. The developer does not have a Patreon and takes this game and his characters in the direction he wants them to go simply for the love of creating a game and the characters he wants to share. if it doesn't suit you then find a game that does. I highly doubt a majority of people in this thread is hoping for a pure lesbian route.

I usually don't like the "dev doesn't have patreon" argument. If some children offer me cookies for free and they taste like shit, I am definitely not thumbing them up, recommending them to my friends or picking more =D

Said so, Speedfeed is looking for something that thought this VN could provide, which incidentally might happen but has never been the focus and is likely to keep feeling disappointed as the dom in this VN doesn't consider sex with men a taboo and most of her scenes as a dom are linked to events where men are used (literally). Feelings wise is different, but no one plays a porn game for the feelings =D (in this statement I am not that confident, I have been in too many vanilla forums and things there are wild =D).

I like this game I really do. But the whole "choose your own play order" thing really doesn't work imo.

If the game is supposed to feel like a play, why not structure the game into linear scenes & acts like an actual play? I feel like as the game progresses it's gonna turn into a convoluted mess. The story itself is linear but its like someone tore the scenes out of the script and shuffled them like a deck of cards.

From a narrative point its a bit disjointed. If you wanna hit all the story beats you need to play the scenes in a very specific order with no way of knowing which order is the correct order unless you use a walkthrough or a bunch of trial and error. If you don't play each scene in the exact right order, you will miss things that you cant go back to later so there is really only a thin illusion of choice. It's unneeded complexity.

There is not really a specific order, but yeah I'd prefer to play it in the order the dev decided. I don't see much value in choosing, because you still have to do some events before the others.

TL/DR: This was a critic I heard often before and I sort of created a system to address it. The system just went live with alpha, might change slightly but it is definitely something I am aware and working on.

Extended...

Incidentally this version includes an act / sub-group mechanic that allows me grouping certain events as conditions for others to open. I included that to address this particular issue, that some people mentioned before. People who played the 0.2.final might have noticed, but it was so long ago that it might have passed unnoticed. Now some events are blurred until the player has played all events in the active group (that didn't exist before).

So, the issue is taken care of. It can't go worse or uncontrolled. The events are grouped exactly how I felt they should be. This is of course a new feature and the story telling will likely evolve and benefit from it, but right now just having the mechanic in place was enough for me.

My "vision" has always been to group events by theme and letting the player explore them in any order. The initial idea was to make something similar to what happens in the tube scene, that Paula is either sitting or standing up depending on your previous choice. So, choosing events in a different order shall bring always new content, variance, reveals instead of just locking it as it happens now in a couple of places. I want them by theme because many times is better from a narrative perspective to explain all events related to Agnes / Rebeca before jumping to Paula or vice-versa. I can still reduce each group to one event and have a linear story progression but right now I feel it is 'fine' as it is.

---

The feature explained... sometimes is easier that way =D

The act_events.rpy file is called every time the event selection screen is shown.

So, for instance... this initial part defines in which "group" are we.

# labels for new acts depending on act number
$ var_update('act_label_0', 'act_3', 'act_labels') # label 0, opens act_3 label when completed
$ var_update('act_label_1', 'evt_grp_1', 'act_labels') # label 1, requires all events in evt_grp_1 to advance

# requirements for an act (which events should have been played)
$ var_update('act_3', ['paula_agnes_rich_101', 'agnes_erika_101'], 'act_req_evts', False)
$ var_update('evt_grp_1', ['paula_jogging_102', 'paula_anton_101', 'agnes_rebeca_101', 'agnes_rebeca_102'], 'act_req_evts', False)

Briefing. In the first event selection screen only dinner related events and the first jogging event are available because it comes from before. Once those two have been played the scene where Agnes and Paula meet plays (act_3), then all events marked as green open and are available in the next batch of playable things. And so on. This feature is also meant for players to make their own story in the end once there are enough events (everyone can edit this file order), as well as to hide content people dislike.

But right now it is just for flow control.

 

[Take The Red Pill]

Thanks a lot. Drop my job ? I like my job but that would be nice =D Anyway it is impossible this game will bring me some money. It's just a expensive hobby. It will cost me thousands of dollars w/o even counting effort. Maybe when I release the first season to steam I might get something back, but I doubt even it will be accepted. It's the way it is, I already came to terms with it after releasing Clara Bittersweet.


Thanks. I'll check into that.


Care to provide me some save. That would help me tracking the thing down.
Just saw the edit. Yeah, old saves are dead due to the story now being grouped in acts so that it is easier to follow.
Hmmm... the edit wasn't yours. Try deleting the persistence data under %Appdata%/renpy/<theater folder> or simply starting a new game. Old saves don't work. If it is from a fresh start, care providing me with the save to track the error down.

I had actually already started a new game but something must have gone south. But I, stubborn, started again and everything is fine. Anyway, thank you for your kind assistance.

By the way, your game is cruel as reality can be but it is awfully good, despite the fact that I am not a fan of lesbianism.

And poor Agnes, she makes me a tenderness because of that bastard husband she has.

But that's enough, I'm becoming human.

 

[Maviarab]

Never plaued 0.2 so started straight with the current version. Quirky but I liked it and as you say, opens up different ways of seeing things. Keep doing what you're doing.

Edit: Also ust finished Clara, love that too. Can't wait to see the continuation of this world and the characters.

 

[wildride69]

I usually don't like the "dev doesn't have patreon" argument. If some children offer me cookies for free and they taste like shit, I am definitely not thumbing them up, recommending them to my friends or picking more =D

Said so, Speedfeed is looking for something that thought this VN could provide, which incidentally might happen but has never been the focus and is likely to keep feeling disappointed as the dom in this VN doesn't consider sex with men a taboo and most of her scenes as a dom are linked to events where men are used (literally). Feelings wise is different, but no one plays a porn game for the feelings =D (in this statement I am not that confident, I have been in too many vanilla forums and things there are wild =D).




TL/DR: This was a critic I heard often before and I sort of created a system to address it. The system just went live with alpha, might change slightly but it is definitely something I am aware and working on.

Extended...

Incidentally this version includes an act / sub-group mechanic that allows me grouping certain events as conditions for others to open. I included that to address this particular issue, that some people mentioned before. People who played the 0.2.final might have noticed, but it was so long ago that it might have passed unnoticed. Now some events are blurred until the player has played all events in the active group (that didn't exist before).

So, the issue is taken care of. It can't go worse or uncontrolled. The events are grouped exactly how I felt they should be. This is of course a new feature and the story telling will likely evolve and benefit from it, but right now just having the mechanic in place was enough for me.

My "vision" has always been to group events by theme and letting the player explore them in any order. The initial idea was to make something similar to what happens in the tube scene, that Paula is either sitting or standing up depending on your previous choice. So, choosing events in a different order shall bring always new content, variance, reveals instead of just locking it as it happens now in a couple of places. I want them by theme because many times is better from a narrative perspective to explain all events related to Agnes / Rebeca before jumping to Paula or vice-versa. I can still reduce each group to one event and have a linear story progression but right now I feel it is 'fine' as it is.

---

The feature explained... sometimes is easier that way =D

The act_events.rpy file is called every time the event selection screen is shown.

So, for instance... this initial part defines in which "group" are we.

# labels for new acts depending on act number
$ var_update('act_label_0', 'act_3', 'act_labels') # label 0, opens act_3 label when completed
$ var_update('act_label_1', 'evt_grp_1', 'act_labels') # label 1, requires all events in evt_grp_1 to advance

# requirements for an act (which events should have been played)
$ var_update('act_3', ['paula_agnes_rich_101', 'agnes_erika_101'], 'act_req_evts', False)
$ var_update('evt_grp_1', ['paula_jogging_102', 'paula_anton_101', 'agnes_rebeca_101', 'agnes_rebeca_102'], 'act_req_evts', False)

Briefing. In the first event selection screen only dinner related events and the first jogging event are available because it comes from before. Once those two have been played the scene where Agnes and Paula meet plays (act_3), then all events marked as green open and are available in the next batch of playable things. And so on. This feature is also meant for players to make their own story in the end once there are enough events (everyone can edit this file order), as well as to hide content people dislike.

But right now it is just for flow control.

To a degree you have a point on the other hand using your cookie reference, if I'm walking down the street and the girl scouts are handing out free Oatmeal Raisin cookies and I prefer Chocolate Chip, I don't get upset that they are only handing out oatmeal raisin. I can make do an accept the cookie, I can politely refuse and move on, but I wont go an badger them to give me a Chocolate chip cookie because Oatmeal Raisin isn't my favorite and so many people only want chocolate chip.

(Now if it was a Coconut cookie I would badger them since those are just an abomination nobody should eat! )

 

[TimoF965]

there's no demanding. I'm expressing my issues

I don't get upset that they are only handing out oatmeal raisin. I can make do an accept the cookie, I can politely refuse and move on,

I think, it is all about the tone (at least for me), as Wildride points out. I like being critical (with other, not so "perfect" games), but I try to tell my points politely.
You, Speedfeed, did that. You are reasonable, polite, without being offensive - thanks for your opinion .
There were others that sounded not so polite - it's them I was referring to.

 

[TimoF965]

The story itself is linear but its like someone tore the scenes out of the script and shuffled them like a deck of cards.

I really like the aspect of at first not understanding an innuendo (reference) in the game and than later seeing this scene in a new light with my new background-knowledge. It gives real replay value to a otherwise quite linear story.
With JustXThings influencing the pathing not only by in-game-decisions but also by the order you played the scene, this is a refreshing new dimension.
For example in Chapter 1, how often you did went jogging decides how she will react in another scene you play before or after this.
A little like a "mind-fucker"-movie that you only really understand after the second or third pass.

I sort of created a system to address it

The feature explained... sometimes is easier that way =D

Confess it, you studied IT, didn't you ? Takes a humorful nerd to put a smilie after your second sentence . But nice concept, simple, but seemingly effective. But I am glad not being the one having to enter each control structure in the main script.

It's difficult to compete with high end VN(s) when they render with one to many high end GPU(s).

What card are you rendering on? You said something about it somewhere - your old gaming laptop was relatively slow, but your main-rig?

By the way: Do you want spelling-corrections of your game-text here, or elswere, or do you not really care? (Don't want to impose it on you, just offering "help").

 

[majdaddin]

Wow this is definitely too much for my delicate, innocent sensibility. This forum must be phd worthy subject matter for psychologists.

 

[JustXThings]

... Confess it, you studied IT, didn't you ? Takes a humorful nerd to put a smilie after your second sentence . But nice concept, simple, but seemingly effective. But I am glad not being the one having to enter each control structure in the main script.

Years ago, just for fun.

What card are you rendering on? You said something about it somewhere - your old gaming laptop was relatively slow, but your main-rig?

By the way: Do you want spelling-corrections of your game-text here, or elswere, or do you not really care? (Don't want to impose it on you, just offering "help").

3080. But I have it so under clocked that it looks like a 3060. If my desktop goes up 58 degrees it resets, so I usually "optimize" the scenes to finish in under 15 minutes.

I appreciate the offer and I do really care about "quality". My work process is too chaotic to benefit from any help in current releases or work in process since the dialog changes continuously during scene building. I only know what I want to achieve in that scene, but not really how I will achieve it. But any spell corrections / help that land in this thread will eventually make it into the game.

 

[slavegal]

3080. But I have it so under clocked that it looks like a 3060

Why would you do that?

 

[nisse02]

Why would you do that?

If my desktop goes up 58 degrees it resets.

im guessing thats the reason. seems that he has some kind of cooling issue

 

[slavegal]

If my desktop goes up 58 degrees it resets.

im guessing thats the reason. seems that he has some kind of cooling issue

over 58 degrees and reset? wondering what kind of desktops reset at 58 degrees

 

[JustXThings]

If my desktop goes up 58 degrees it resets.

im guessing thats the reason. seems that he has some kind of cooling issue

over 58 degrees and reset? wondering what kind of desktops reset at 58 degrees

Some component of my build has a defect. I don't know which one and I don't have spares to check everything separately, plus I am not IT, so my knowledge is limited. If the temperature goes higher than 58 degrees there is a high chance that I get a blue screen and the CPU just resets. With 59° the chance is almost certain.

So, I have the case open, the window as well and the GPU limited to 775 mW (1000+ standard) which incidentally tacks at 1400-1600Mhz (2000 standard) depending on the outside temperature. During Summer is almost impossible to render unless at night when the temperature drops under 18 degrees, if it doesn't, like some weeks this Summer then bad luck and no rendering.

On the other hand, these limitations have taught me how to set up the lighting in Daz to optimize the render times. I can't use fogs, blooms, god rays or other cool stuff like that for the life of me*, which usually make renders prettier. But overall I am happy with the result.

* I actually use them when I want a particular render to look prettier, but then each render might take 30 min+, even one hour. For instance, the camping render between Sophia/Andrew and Paula has blooms to make the car front light more realistic. The one in game is different to the one I posted here https://f95zone.to/threads/the-thea...s.117916/page-19#lg=attachment2827670&slide=0. The car front lights shine more realistically in game. Another example is the storm + rain renders that took FOREVER to render. But I really, really, really wanted that scene to look pretty and I was lucky nights were pretty cold by then. Now I have found a better framing for the whole Paula / Beca interaction but I am not re-rendering that madness until autumn.

So, all in all. A pain in the ass but it's the way it is.

 

[slavegal]

Some component of my build has a defect. I don't know which one and I don't have spares to check everything separately, plus I am not IT, so my knowledge is limited. If the temperature goes higher than 58 degrees there is a high chance that I get a blue screen and the CPU just resets. With 59° the chance is almost certain.

So, I have the case open, the window as well and the GPU limited to 775 mW (1000+ standard) which incidentally tacks at 1400-1600Mhz (2000 standard) depending on the outside temperature. During Summer is almost impossible to render unless at night when the temperature drops under 18 degrees, if it doesn't, like some weeks this Summer then bad luck and no rendering.

On the other hand, these limitations have taught me how to set up the lighting in Daz to optimize the render times. I can't use fogs, blooms, god rays or other cool stuff like that for the life of me*, which usually make renders prettier. But overall I am happy with the result.

* I actually use them when I want a particular render to look prettier, but then each render might take 30 min+, even one hour. For instance, the camping render between Sophia/Andrew and Paula has blooms to make the car front light more realistic. The one in game is different to the one I posted here https://f95zone.to/threads/the-thea...s.117916/page-19#lg=attachment2827670&slide=0. The car front lights shine more realistically in game. Another example is the storm + rain renders that took FOREVER to render. But I really, really, really wanted that scene to look pretty and I was lucky nights were pretty cold by then. Now I have found a better framing for the whole Paula / Beca interaction but I am not re-rendering that madness until autumn.

So, all in all. A pain in the ass but it's the way it is.

I'm sorry to hear that; I would be devastated if it happened to me at work. You could download a monitoring app to find abnormally hot parts on the motherboard, such as NZXTcam and Corsair's ICUE. If you know the make of your motherboard, you can download the related app to monitor every corner of your case. Thus you could have a good idea of the heat spots in your PC case. Empirically, 58 is far far far away from the chipset heat wall that usually shuts down your computer at around 100 degrees. I guess one of your motherboard's heat sensors is broken, and it gives the CPU a false alert about temperature. On the other hand, it could be the other way around: the temperature is above 100, but the sensor reads 58.

 

[TimoF965]

This sound very annoying. You are also loosing your warranty when not finding out what the problem is. Too bad you have good reason to stay anonymous - otherwise some fan from here could have lend you spare parts to check.

So, I have the case open, the window as well and the GPU limited to 775 mW

Another thing my father, who had a similar problem, used: If you have a big standing fan (for your living-room), you can direct the flow directly into your pc-case. This should cool it down like hell... well maybe this word is not really fitting . Much more efficient than an open window (but the open window transports the warmth out of your room which makes living in it more bearable).

If you want to do more, here are some suggestions. Not imposing, simply offering . Not unselfish, though: The better your rig works, the faster we get to play the next chapter .
By the way, the night scenes at the beach were visually great. And I love it how you let things and people that are next to act still in the picture some frames before, beeing un-sharp. One of the few visual novels I try to look very carefully on each frame being afraid to miss something .

Heat might not be the primary problem. Hardware tends to use more power if it gets warm. Also, signals tend to becom a little instable. So maybe, along with aging of the components, your rig was not that stable before and the heat is nudging it over the edge. If you wanted to, you coud check some things without spare parts, though:

• Dedusted you CPU-cooler, your power-supply and fan-inlets? Sorry to ask, but better safe than sorry.
• Try to deconnect and reconnect your GPU-Powercable (if possible on the vard-side and on the power-supply site. Warmth stretches and so, some contacts might not be very good.
• Try to use only one RAM-bar instead of two or two instead of four. Note down the position of your RAM-bars on the mainboard.Simply switch the PC off and remove it - you don't have to setup anything in BIOS because of this. Do you have 4 or 2 RAM-bars to start with? Some systems get a little instable when working with 4 bars.
• If you have less than 4 bars: Try to use other slots than the ones used now. In general, the ones the most away from the CPU should be the most stable due to termination reasons (if you have 1, 2, 3 and 4, with 1 being next to the CPU, then 2 and 4 should be the most stable), but if there is a bad contact (temperatur-related) then using different slots could help.
• Try to remove the power from any unneccesary hardware your pc. Pull the plug from the DVD-drive, additional hard drives, every RAM-bar but one. Remove unneeded USB-connections. If the cause is in the power supply, this might relieve it a little.
• If you are familar with your BIOS, try to lower the RAM-frequencies and seperatly the CPU-frequencies a little. Lowering RAM might do the trick.

If the temperature goes higher than 58 degrees there is a high chance that I get a blue screen and the CPU just resets.

Try to open the windows "event viewer" (in your OS's language) - System category and sorting for critial errors could leave a hint. You are searching for a long number beginning with 0x..... . This is the blue-screen error-code and might lead to something.

I appreciate the offer and I do really care about "quality". My work process is too chaotic to benefit from any help in current releases or work in process since the dialog changes continuously during scene building. I only know what I want to achieve in that scene, but not really how I will achieve it. But any spell corrections / help that land in this thread will eventually make it into the game.

Ok, thanks for explaining. Did not think you really mean that much alpha when you say alpha. You are abolutely right about this, but most use alpha simply for the first of two rounds of spell-checking. But your game feels quite good - I have absolutely no "complaints" or "suggestions" that would justify it being alpha. But that is the magic - you have an eye for the even better scenes.
So I will try to watch out for the spelling mistakes, but will not be frustrated if you re-word the whole part completely making my "help" worthless . Thanks for the warning, though.

 

[JeanPaul]

I don`t know if i`m doing right, but i can`t complete the first encounter with Mr. Smith, when came the first check up for the submission it tells me that it failed, and i only get the moan and the butt touch.

Only i do previously its not touch herself.

 

[Mograx]

To a degree you have a point on the other hand using your cookie reference, if I'm walking down the street and the girl scouts are handing out free Oatmeal Raisin cookies and I prefer Chocolate Chip, I don't get upset that they are only handing out oatmeal raisin.

You're a better man than I. Oatmeal raisin cookies should not exist. They are a monument to man's arrogance.

 

[doob420]

You're a better man than I. Oatmeal raisin cookies should not exist. They are a monument to man's arrogance.

Oatmeal raisin sounds like something my food should eat, and I am not in favour of giving my food cookies.

 

[slavegal]

finally completed this update, I love your game, but I hate to say: see you next year

 

[JustXThings]

I don`t know if i`m doing right, but i can`t complete the first encounter with Mr. Smith, when came the first check up for the submission it tells me that it failed, and i only get the moan and the butt touch.

Only i do previously its not touch herself.

That particular check can't succeed at that point in the game but you will pick up where you left it, when able to select going jogging again after the prologue.

In order to do the event fully w/o interruptions, you can masturbate and raise Paula's submission in other events then it will automatically pass all checks when you do the jogging event in the selection phase.

finally completed this update, I love your game, but I hate to say: see you next year

There should be a couple of updates before next year. I have around 500 renders from events that didn't fit the narrative and didn't release in alpha.1 but should release either in alpha.2, or the final 0.3. The other events except the 0.3 closing one should be pretty "fast" to do since they are just meant to show very specific things. I'll specify that probably next week.

Unless you meant something else of course.

 

[soldano]

Have scenes been deleted? I say this because in my previous game, I remember that there was a scene on the park bench where the old man (I don't remember the name, sorry) was with a friend and forced the redhead (Paula, I think) to ask for permission to make him a blowjob. Has that scene been removed?