Ren'Py Completed Toro 7 [Ep. 7] [Tora Productions]

[Dysphorika]

I'm not sure what Tlaero means by going too far so I'm not sure if I'm giving the kind of feedback she is after but I'll try anyway.

I don't mind a trans character in a game. Pre/post, M->F, F->M, stories should have all kinds of characters and reflect real life. Especially a scifi world where the transition presumably is more advanced it would probably be more wide spread. I didn't feel like my face was being rubbed with it. It wasn't a big thing that screams at the player every minute. Only criticism I would give is that it felt like it came up too fast. People usually don't just blurt out intimate information about themselves the first time you shake their hand. But the station clearly has different social norms which is explained in the game so it fits with the world. So I can think on an intellectual level that the problem is with me and the social norms I've learned in my life and the game is just being true to it's "lore". But still on the other hand I can't help it, the first interaction took me out of the game a bit until I spent some time thinking about it.

It's probably a bit of a compromise depending on what you think is more important. I presume the way it is now is how you would like it to be, let's say your artistic vision. But even artists probably need to think about what the customer thinks (I don't know, I'm very far from an artist) so it might be good to give the information a bit later so it wouldn't be so jarring.

But now that I've thought it even more I'm kinda coming full circle around and thinking that the jarringness in itself might be a good thing. In a way it gave me a crash course into the game's world and made me think about my reactions in general. But then again, many people don't want to think... especially with their erotica. Tough choice. Anywho, hope my stream-of-consciousness rambling was of any value.

Best opinion ever

 

[Tlaero]

Thanks! I tried the test. I won't dispute the results you got. I totally agree many people can't tell the difference. However, the images you used for the test are some of the least affected by the compression. Noise - the busier the image is, the less noticeable it is. Most samples here are in the rain or have a good amount of noise and detail to avoid artifact (marbles, wood patterns, moving water). What the compression really affects are smooth gradients. Things like shadows or blurred surfaces (usually from depth of field) are especially bad. That's basically most renders.

Obviously, it was immediately noticed by me, which is why I asked. But if others are fine with it, then all good

The real question is whether the artifacts you're seeing are a result of compression or the render. If they're in the original render, then compressing won't necessarily make them worse. If you'd like to try it with some of your own images, I can give you a tool that makes doing the conversion and compression fast and painless. No worries if not.

Tlaero

 

[BGRW2020]

Now that you folks have had a chance to play Ep2, I'd like to ask for some feedback. With Aisha I'm trying to be true to her experience without rubbing your face in it too much. In other words, I'm trying to thread the needle between people who feel that I went too far with it and people who feel that I didn't go far enough. How am I doing with that?

Tlaero

thats easy just make sure we have a choice to avoid her if we want

 

[Marco6661]

Don't choose to talk to her, and you won't have to put up with her. Very easy ;-)

 

[Gallant Trombe]

The real question is whether the artifacts you're seeing are a result of compression or the render. If they're in the original render, then compressing won't necessarily make them worse. If you'd like to try it with some of your own images, I can give you a tool that makes doing the conversion and compression fast and painless. No worries if not.

Tlaero

I'm unsure what you mean. Do you mean the original renders have artifacts? I don't understand how this could be the case. If Mortze used denoiser on the renders, then there would be colour banding on smooth gradients. Otherwise, there shouldn't be any artifacts... But this doesn't seem to be the case here. The clarity of the images is lost as jpeg is a lossy compression format. Some info will be lost and much of the detail is simplified into bigger blocks. The compressed image will always appear blocky. How much compression is worth it is of course up to someone's specific needs for their game. I realise this is probably more of a question for Mortze.

I agree most people won't notice, but I was just curious about how you handled compression. Thanks for letting me know!

Thanks for offering the tool, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my renders so I handpick formats for different renders. High-quality images are really important for my project.

 

[cxx]

well it was nice update and had content too but ended too quickly.

 

[1337Bob]

Reina Vasquez is the exact same name as a character in Artemis. I have got to ask: reference/homage or happy coincidence?

 

[Tlaero]

Neither of us have played Artemis. Reina is an homage to the movie Aliens. It's possible that Artemis is making the same reference, or maybe it's just a coincidence.

Mortze is a big fan of The Abyss and the Alien franchise and chose to have us do some references from those places. I'm a big fan of Mass Effect and the band Amon Amarth and chose some references from those places.

Tlaero

 

[snakeplisskin]

Neither of us have played Artemis. Reina is an homage to the movie Aliens. It's possible that Artemis is making the same reference, or maybe it's just a coincidence.

Mortze is a big fan of The Abyss and the Alien franchise and chose to have us do some references from those places. I'm a big fan of Mass Effect and the band Amon Amarth and chose some references from those places.

Tlaero

I though of Mass effect the second i read the name Miranda Lawson.

I loved the new update can't wait to learn more. Steph also lost her pkace as my love interest with this update.

 

[bingolebongo]

I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favourite Toro on Europa.

 

[bingolebongo]

Actually, I should have made the connection between Johan Hegg + Jocke Wallgren in Amon Amarth = Johan Wallgren as well.

 

[Myown]

Hi, there is no android port for ep2 ?

 

[JohnF95zone]

Hi, there is no android port for ep2 ?

There is no official android port for this game, the previous one was made by cebs. You can make a request or ask directly, or you can also make a request at this thread by the66 (not sure if they are affliated or not). But I guess, it is good to check with cebs first before requesting at the66.

Edit: It turns out you don't really need an android port. The game can be played using joiplay on android. Thanks snakeplisskin for the info.

 

[snakeplisskin]

Hi, there is no android port for ep2 ?

I can confirm game works with joiplay. Its how i play it

 

[Myown]

Thanks a lot for this precious piece of advice !
Will give it a shot

 

[ClockworkGnome]

thats easy just make sure we have a choice to avoid her if we want

I feel like this should be the #1 rule for any game with romance/LI mechanics. Players should have the option to reject potential LIs without impacting others. It's annoying when you wind up having to pursue a character you dislike because you need them for the harem ending (or because the game just treats them as a mandatory LI you have no real choice in).

The best games with multiple LI options are the ones that have a bit of modularity, where you can completely reject or pursue whoever you want without feeling like you're being forced into anything.

That being said, it's different if a story absolutely requires you to be with a specific person for narrative reasons (in which case the choice the player can make is to just stop playing the game), or if the game wants you to choose one specific LI rather than trying to "catch them all" in a would-be harem. But if a game wants you to be able to pursue multiple LIs, it's nice to feel completely free to reject ones you don't like for personality reasons or aesthetic reasons or narrative reasons.

 

[0liver]

How many episodes will there be in total?

 

[cxx]

How many episodes will there be in total?

21.

 

[Tlaero]

It'll be far fewer than 21 episodes! Doing that many would drag the story on too long. It'll be more like 6 or 7.

Tlaero

 

[JohnF95zone]

It'll be far fewer than 21 episodes! Doing that many would drag the story on too long. It'll be more like 6 or 7.

Tlaero

Shhhh.. don't tell them that. Just split the 7 episodes into 21 episodes and give it to cxx so that he can give it to Oliver