Ren'Py WTM Academy [v0.353] [Ninoss]

[AnHorse]

So I'm one week in and I can fuck half of the avaliable girls.
Is there anything more to the game that I'll unlock by playing besides photoshoots? I can see the PTA rules but most of them are just "win easier" buttons

 

[Canadian_sausage]

I have an error where the game is seemingly trying to load specific vids (rather than just any vid with the correct tags) even though I removed them from the vids folder bc I didn't like them, this has never happened with the previous versions so does anyone know how that could be fixed?

The vids are called by specific functions. Code like this:

$ renpy.movie_start_displayable(webmFinder.get("facial",_girl = selectedGirl),loops=-1)

will send the webmFinder off to get the right type of video, based on what is in quotes, in this case, facial-videos. If there is nothing that matches what it's looking for, you should get the 404.webm.
If you didn't like the movies and deleted them, but still use whatever function it was (since it's looking for them), you'll need to find or make replacements, and name them appropriately. Or stop doing whatever was calling for those specific vids. You could also go into the code, and change the target that the webmFinder is looking for.

So I'm one week in and I can fuck half of the avaliable girls.
Is there anything more to the game that I'll unlock by playing besides photoshoots? I can see the PTA rules but most of them are just "win easier" buttons

You have the power to make the game as easy or as hard as you want it to be. Download more girls for greater variety at the start. In my game, I use about a hundred, and I'm sometimes lucky if I can get a pair of panties in the first week, but I like the challenge. Go into the girls and make edits to their girlConfig.ini files.
In the /game folder, Ninoss was nice enough to include a text file called HOW_TO_MOD which gives you a solid base to start from. Little Caprice is the girl with all of the tags for things listed in her .ini files. Make your game as challenging as you want.
On the Google Docs, you can find hundreds of new girls to play with, as well as mods to add actions. The tools are there, it's up to you to use them.

 

[davemanster]

If it's anything like adding girls or more stuff to the existing girls, it's very easy to add more clothing options. Find pictures of the clothes you want to add, then just add them to the game/images/exam folder, ideally named in a similar manner as one of the closest already existing items, just with a higher number. So like, adding a new pair of panties as "string6" for example.



Tbh I kind of agree, it's why I use the console command to just give my academy $100K immediately at the start of every run so I can ignore the sponsors entirely. Photoshoots are still somewhat decent since it's extra porn and it affects the stats of the girls, but sponsors are just there to make the game harder and more tedious imo.

As far as I can tell, this works with panties but not any other pieces of clothing. At least I was not able to get it to work by following your example. Has anyone else?

 

[Canadian_sausage]

As far as I can tell, this works with panties but not any other pieces of clothing. At least I was not able to get it to work by following your example. Has anyone else?

The game's focus is more on the panties, so I can see greater variety there being something intended to be scalable. I can see two folders in images/ that have clothing: images/clothing & images/exam , and of course there's images/panties. So it may need to be placed in more than one folder. the images may also need to be specific dimensions (some have 2:1 ratios while others are 1:1) to properly display.
I think they may also need to be referenced in the DB.rpy file if the name assigned is not the same as what it has for clothing items to use.
For example:

Clothing parameters : (name, corruption, armor, type, coversPussy, coversAss, coversBoobs, coversBra, coversPanty, seethrough, isOuter, baseImgInfo, price)
    DB_lower = [
        noLower,
        Clothing("Uniform Skirt", 3, 10, "lower", False, False, False, False, True, False, False, "skirt",20),
        Clothing("Jeans", -2, 15, "lower", True, True, False, False, True, False, False, "jeans",28),
        Clothing("Denim shorts", 8, 7, "lower", True, True, False, False, True, False, False, "denimshorts",21),
        Clothing("Casual shorts", 11, 5, "lower", True, True, False, False, True, False, False, "casualshorts",13),
        Clothing("Hot shorts", 25, 5, "lower", True, True, False, False, True, False, False, "hotpants",15),
        Clothing("Leggings", 15, 3, "lower", True, True, False, False, True, False, False, "leggings",11),
        Clothing("Micro skirt", 35, 4, "lower", False, False, False, False, True, False, False, "microskirt",8),
        Clothing("Sports shorts", 22, 3, "lower", True, True, False, False, True, False, False, "sportsshorts",10)
    ]

This designates the clothing items for the lower, along with all of the attributes of that item. Adding completely new items would require adding lines for the new items, say "Crotchless Jeans", and then assigning its attributes. If you tried using just images called "Crotchless_Jeans.webp", they won't show up because they aren't referenced to be used anywhere.

Now, with all that said, if you just want some more pictures of clothing items, and they don't show up, try backing up the original images, then see if you can just replace the default image. When that works, put the original default back in the folder, giving it a number like an array. That means the first image would croptop.webp, the second would be croptop1.webp and so on. Don't use 0 in this instance, and don't leave any holes. I'm not actually sure it's possible to add additional clothing items, like as pictures, I've never tried. I'm pretty sure I could add it in through the DB, but that is a sort of last-ditch solution to directly modify that file. I suspect that something like one of the action mods to build a script to append the DB.rpy when the game starts, and insert the required information as well.

 

[Ninoss]

screen2gif to make the initial capture, HandBrake to convert to .webm after.

ScreenToGif can natively export to .webm

What's happening with the saves of this game, right now I have a save file at 33MB

You're probably saving in a busy state, like with UI on screen where RenPy needs a bunch of crap. Try saving at your appartment, it's way more light and safe and should be 2-4Mo/save (except when RenPy sometimes decides it's not)
As the game is almost generating everything of the fly and have low hardcoded static ressources, that's why it uses some memory.
Above that, if you have 200+ modded girls and big save files, explanation is quite obvious ^^

As far as I can tell, this works with panties but not any other pieces of clothing. At least I was not able to get it to work by following your example. Has anyone else?

1) Look for the related folder.
ex : H:\Games\WTM_Academy_PREVIEW\game\images\exam\upper for tops

2) Put your numbered images in it.
ex: mymoddedtop.wepb, mymoddedtop1.webp

3) In game\scripts\DB.rpy, go to DB_upper and add your clothing obj.
ex: Clothing("Incredible top", 10, 6, "upper", False, False, True, True, False, False, False, "mymoddedtop",16)
Parameters are given in the file as :
# Clothing parameters : (name, corruption, armor, type, coversPussy, coversAss, coversBoobs, coversBra, coversPanty, seethrough, isOuter, baseImgInfo, price)

4) Start a new game as clothing will not auto-reload.

 

[MattCooper]

Bro the mods on Gofile are so slow, like 150kb/s slow, is there any way to increase this speed? Or maybe upload the mods to Gdrive/mediafire/Pixeldrain? (plus its like 17gb to download)

 

[qaze09]

Love this, can't wait to see where it goes!

 

[HypnoKitten]

Love seeing updates for this game! Though I think I'll be skipping this one, sounds like its just photoshoots. Which are an ok minigame but not the most fun / interactive one, and I can google photosets easy enough. I'll be more excited with updates that keep working up the gameplay, the interaction, the classroom stuff, maybe making the characters really feel more unique, more stuff to do.. etc.

 

[TFurguson69]

There are so many lost chances with this game.
Why are there no porno jobs as the jobs? Why are there no snippets of them getting boned doing these jobs. Why is there not a single vanilla porn photo shoot?
Why are there no vanilla(Included with the game, no mods) Professional adult actresses and consistent usage of their content in the scenes?
Give me some Piper Peri, Kinzie Reeves, insert name here.

 

[Spenser4]

If you don’t mind the setup, photoshoots are pretty avoidable. Sponsorships can give you requests for hostesses and panties, so what I do first week is ring up every sponsor and ask for more sponsor opportunities when available. You can choose which type to get, so by doing hostesses each time I can get the happiness of the sponsors up before asking them all for a weekly deal. Later on I only minmax the sponsors who like me the most, but with the amount of sponsors in the game you can use them all to be financially stable without photoshoots.

Great that's good to hear! It just i have impression there is not much variety in terms of money making in general and company that provide hostess contracts still give me photoshoots sometimes. Still, it kind of annoying what dev focusing so much on that thing, instead of developing school management and other kinky stuff in depth. I mean, just look at last changelog for example, it basically just photoshoots.

 

[Canadian_sausage]

Love seeing updates for this game! Though I think I'll be skipping this one, sounds like its just photoshoots. Which are an ok minigame but not the most fun / interactive one, and I can google photosets easy enough. I'll be more excited with updates that keep working up the gameplay, the interaction, the classroom stuff, maybe making the characters really feel more unique, more stuff to do.. etc.

There is a lot more than just photoshoots... the boot-time for the game is much faster, and there are other "under the hood" improvements.

There are so many lost chances with this game.
Why are there no porno jobs as the jobs? Why are there no snippets of them getting boned doing these jobs. Why is there not a single vanilla porn photo shoot?
Why are there no vanilla(Included with the game, no mods) Professional adult actresses and consistent usage of their content in the scenes?
Give me some Piper Peri, Kinzie Reeves, insert name here.

I would think that lines need to be drawn somewhere, especially when you're one guy doing all the work. If you want to see certain actresses all the time, or more consistent content from specific actresses, tools are available to help you make them. I wanted titfucking, but I didn't complain that it wasn't there, I built a mod that introduces it. The game can be massively modded. Make yours what you want it to be.

Great that's good to hear! It just i have impression there is not much variety in terms of money making in general and company that provide hostess contracts still give me photoshoots sometimes. Still, it kind of annoying what dev focusing so much on that thing, instead of developing school management and other kinky stuff in depth. I mean, just look at last changelog for example, it basically just photoshoots.

You can add as many sponsors as you want, or you can edit existing sponsors to not require pictures as often. I only use 6 sponsors, I just find it more manageable, and they provide more than enough income.

 

[WarblGarbl]

Great that's good to hear! It just i have impression there is not much variety in terms of money making in general and company that provide hostess contracts still give me photoshoots sometimes. Still, it kind of annoying what dev focusing so much on that thing, instead of developing school management and other kinky stuff in depth. I mean, just look at last changelog for example, it basically just photoshoots.

Photoshoots are just simply easier to add in. Doing some mods for Proxent, I learned that finding big collections of photoshoots is (usually) pretty simple. Scrubbing through hours of porn finding the scenes you want, not so much. Thankfully modability is a big aspect of this game, so the in class content is varied with the inclusion of mod girls.

I could imagine the inclusion of a porno job, or the brothel that Canadian_sausage modded. It could be way late game stuff, as I’d imagine convincing a PTA to do that would be pretty tough.

 

[6ft3btw]

There are so many lost chances with this game.
Why are there no porno jobs as the jobs? Why are there no snippets of them getting boned doing these jobs. Why is there not a single vanilla porn photo shoot?
Why are there no vanilla(Included with the game, no mods) Professional adult actresses and consistent usage of their content in the scenes?
Give me some Piper Peri, Kinzie Reeves, insert name here.

As Canadian_sausage said, this can be added with mods. Some of the mods linked on the main page contain more "hardcore" photoshoots, and I believe some may contain videos, but I personally haven't used them very much. I find being able to pimp the students out after a couple of weeks of fondling to be too unimmersive.

 

[Canadian_sausage]

It would be possible to add a "Porn"-type job to the sponsors, it's just one more elif argument in the sponsor.rpy file. And I think it would also be possible to bury the brothel behind a PTA rule. I'm still looking at that as a possibility, or adding requirements to the girls before you can call them at the brothel, like corruption over 80 or having the nympho trait. I'm going to look at a PTA rule for it first, though it might be easier to require certain traits or conditions be met before you can hire them. I'm also looking at maybe giving the school a chunk of the money paid at the brothel. I'm thinking the girls gets 75% and the school 25%, I'm just not sure if I can add a revenue source to the budget screen. And I'm always open to suggestions, so if you think something is too easy, too hard, whatever, don't be afraid to let me know. I can't get better if I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

 

[HypnoKitten]

There is a lot more than just photoshoots... the boot-time for the game is much faster, and there are other "under the hood" improvements.

Yea.. sometimes gotta have that tech dept cleared away, no shade on that. It can get really bad if it builds up. But the game ran fine for my machine and I don't see the under-the-hood stuff, so ok to wait for the 'meatier' content

It would be possible to add a "Porn"-type job to the sponsors, it's just one more elif argument in the sponsor.rpy file. And I think it would also be possible to bury the brothel behind a PTA rule. I'm still looking at that as a possibility, or adding requirements to the girls before you can call them at the brothel, like corruption over 80 or having the nympho trait. ... so if you think something is too easy, too hard, whatever, don't be afraid to let me know.

So just my thoughts here.. I think a porn-type job is totally fine and hot. Doesn't break immersion for me - I mean the whole premise is that you're going in and molesting students in class and the parents are fine with that, until they all become free-use nudists. I'm already suspending disbelief just fine and loving it. The risk of this just being an elif I think comes down to the overall.. issue? for me anyway? of the photoshoots. They're just photos. For the side jobs they're not even that, you click the names and get some money. None of it is immersive, not in the way the class stuff and PTA stuff and home visits (repetition aside) are.

The way most games solve this is to
* have random events each time ('at job A the following events can happen') - easy mode, not very immersive, but at least 'something' in the game is happening beyond a number going up/down
* character specific random events - more time intensive but technically easy and still straight forward
* choices about what happens ('X is happening, encourage student to do Y, and Z happens') - more time intensive, a bit harder technically, good immersion
* mini games that result in win/loss screens - probably way more then this game needs

Having any of those would make those if/else jobs way more fun and interesting, including the photoshoots. I think if you're doing backend work on the game... that may be worth targeting before going too deep into images. Otherwise half the game will soon become an image gallery with a money counter before too long.

 

[J_M]

Having any of those would make those if/else jobs way more fun and interesting, including the photoshoots. I think if you're doing backend work on the game... that may be worth targeting before going too deep into images. Otherwise half the game will soon become an image gallery with a money counter before too long.

Solid point! School Management would be a good start...

 

[Canadian_sausage]

Yea.. sometimes gotta have that tech dept cleared away, no shade on that. It can get really bad if it builds up. But the game ran fine for my machine and I don't see the under-the-hood stuff, so ok to wait for the 'meatier' content

My nearly sixteen year-old laptop likes the new version more than the old ones. About 40% more, give or take, start time went from about 40 seconds to about 25 seconds. I don't know what to do with my extra free-time yet, but I do appreciate it.

The risk of this just being an elif I think comes down to the overall.. issue? for me anyway? of the photoshoots. They're just photos. For the side jobs they're not even that, you click the names and get some money. None of it is immersive, not in the way the class stuff and PTA stuff and home visits (repetition aside) are.

I am slightly oversimplifying adding a job-type, but the elif statements determine if the job is available from the sponsor by checking the tags for the jobs the sponsor will ask for. Currently that's photo, photo_private, girl, and panty, the more often each appears determines the likelihood that job will be selected for.
The point is, the new 'jobs' wouldn't be any different than the jobs that already exist. the 'girl' tag can be used for Hostesses, or Escorts, or whatever else you want the sponsor to ask for when they are looking for girls. The sponsors are just a way to make enough money to keep the school afloat, they aren't a focus of the game in the same way as doing the exams in class or at their home, or messing with mom and dealing with the PTA. If you're really careful with your money, you don't even need to pay attention to them, but you might need to kick some of your money back into the school.
Now personally, I would like to see the girls get some payment from being sent to sponsor-jobs as Hostesses. Which would be especially useful for girls with a low wealthModifier, since I don't think they do right now. That way the brothel becomes less important in late-game when you're having trouble getting panties for sponsor requests. But it depends on how you like to play, and again, economics aren't really a major focus of the game. I'm not super-worried about it, though, since I've already provided a means to drop some extra cash on them. Improving that has a higher priority than building another means of doing the same thing, ya know?

And quite a few of the "aftermarket" girls already have character-specific events in addition to photoshoots. My extended panty-raid has a type of win/loss, with prestige loss for the school being among penalties that can be incurred at the beginning and lots more at the really bad endings. Plus the elevated fear takes some work to reduce, for both mom and daughter.
If you have an idea for mini-games or things like the panty-raid, don't be afraid to try and build it. I started by editing some existing files, modding some of the girls, then making a few for myself, and then larger mods starting at the end of December. There is a ton of resources out there, and you can also ask here. That's worked for me a couple of times.

 

[Ninoss]

Yea.. sometimes gotta have that tech dept cleared away, no shade on that. It can get really bad if it builds up. But the game ran fine for my machine and I don't see the under-the-hood stuff, so ok to wait for the 'meatier' content

To be honest, I prefer taking the time to do some optimization/refactoring almost at each update instead of letting the crap piling up and bloat the game. Notably when my game is about loading external assets and mods
It won't be really noticeable (except for old machine like Canadian_sausage said, whith mods you could take more than a whole minute to load or reload content) but the goal isn't to be noticeable. It's actually the opposite, if I'm still adding features but performance remains the same, I've done the ghost job well.

To do a retrospective, I've found some stats I've done about load times like 6month ago.
On my computer for 0.29:

and 0.29a:

On an old laptop for 0.29:

for 0.29a:

The photoshoots value is an average for 1 photoshoot, it's not the actual load time.

Girls have let's say 5 photoshoots, so to load the 30 vanilla girls in 0.29 it would have taken:
32sec on the laptop. (~1050ms/girl)
8sec on a modern desktop. (~272ms/girl)

For 0.29a with 5 optimized photoshoots:
20sec on the laptop. (~674ms/girl) => -12sec => x1.6 faster
3sec on a modern desktop. ~109ms/girl) => -5sec => x2.7 faster

First thing we see is that processors are really not born equal and the scalling is not linear, optimization makes you win on low end computer in absolute but in fact it scales better on good computers.

For 0.325 (that's my actual dev version), Nikki Hill (who has 5 photoshoots) loads in ~108ms on my computer:
Timings are different tho, momPortrait loads in 8ms (have been optimized even tho there is x4 more portraits than in 0.29a), a single photoshoot loads in ~17ms (that's not much but 3ms won x5 times is quite good), wardrobe+outfit loads in 5ms to 10ms (I've complicated the algorythm to be more realistic).

So yeah basically nothing has changed in terms of timings but the optimizations tanked the additions time for more mom portraits and a better algo t o choose clothes.
The real addition of 0.323 is that the game doesn't reload everything on SHIFT+R (notably usefull for modders while testing) or when you update your save.


For the content/gameplay debate, idk ^^
Content was voted by 23% of players last time, so I guess 1/4 players are interested in those pics.

Everyone has it's opinion, but some of the girls where unplayable with sponsors due to a lack of photoshoots, it had to be fixed as players where just skipping those girls so that's spoiled content.
There is also an additional question: Should I just focus on gameplay and let the modders feel the content?
I want the game to be like a Brothel King for school-sim, so I'd say yes? But some ppl in the thread or the 23% of players are not favorable to that so, what's the good answer then?

I quite like the sponsors gameplay personnaly, maintaining a very high relationshionship with 1-2 sponsors, even if it's true that it gets quite repetitive.
At some point those photos will be used as world building assets, sponsors will have a role in helping with the graduation outcomes of girls and u'll be able to semi-automate their tasks so in my head it's more than fine.

I'm a big fan of management games so yeah it will tend to be a kinda school management game in the long run.


The only thing I can recommand to everyone is to vote in-game for the next updates focus, I've specially made this poll to get some guidance from players:

Go on the PC, and click the vote icon, you can vote here:

 

[Canadian_sausage]

I love what you have planned, I love management games too. I went and voted, really liked all three options, so I had to throw my non-Euclidian three-sided coin to decide on the first option.

 

[megaera]

not a bug per se, but if you get a touch bored in the middle of a game and add a girl through mod pack, the game resets and you'll only be able to see the default vids.