- Dec 1, 2021
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- 3,235
If he gets that many holes (180) he will die of STD'sIf none of those holes belong to Nojiko, then nothing else matters
If he gets that many holes (180) he will die of STD'sIf none of those holes belong to Nojiko, then nothing else matters
Agreed. I appreciate SG the way it is (story, story pacing, visuals, audio/soundtrack), and accept that slow progress is the penalty to be paid at this time.I believe that Ocean is creating Sumers Gone as he envisions it. We know from a few of his comments that some of his vision was not achievable, particularly a few years ago, due to hardware and software constraints (budget as well).
As his capabilities to craft SG grow, coupled with hardware and software improvements through time, he is better able to capture and share this vision with us.
AVNs are a relatively new horizon for artists to use to showcase their visions.
Imagine if GOT was a visual novel and then imagine it as the creation of one man with limited funding. How much of the writer's vision would have to be sacrificed just to get the AVN started?
How much would it evolve (quality, animations, and VA for example) as the writer made a name for himself, including the increased resourcing from early success?
I'm not advocating that Ocean slow development to a crawl to get to some magical 99.99% level of quality, but I do want him to feel the artistic freedom to tell us this story his way.
I recognize, as well, that others feel differently.
I'll support Ocean with whatever choices he makes right now based on what he has delivered so far and his commitment to consistent communication with his supporters.
Cheers!!![]()
As Ayhsel has pointed out with the Cost & Benefit analysis, there should be a point where he should be saying "it looks good enough" in terms of visuals, and move onto other aspects of the game that really needs more attention - such as speed and more content (for various LIs of the game).I believe that Ocean is creating Sumers Gone as he envisions it. We know from a few of his comments that some of his vision was not achievable, particularly a few years ago, due to hardware and software constraints (budget as well).
As his capabilities to craft SG grow, coupled with hardware and software improvements through time, he is better able to capture and share this vision with us.
AVNs are a relatively new horizon for artists to use to showcase their visions.
Imagine if GOT was a visual novel and then imagine it as the creation of one man with limited funding. How much of the writer's vision would have to be sacrificed just to get the AVN started?
How much would it evolve (quality, animations, and VA for example) as the writer made a name for himself, including the increased resourcing from early success?
I'm not advocating that Ocean slow development to a crawl to get to some magical 99.99% level of quality, but I do want him to feel the artistic freedom to tell us this story his way.
I recognize, as well, that others feel differently.
I'll support Ocean with whatever choices he makes right now based on what he has delivered so far and his commitment to consistent communication with his supporters.
Cheers!!![]()
This is why I'm excited for the steam release - very hard to go back and change content on a public release - once people own it, I'm sure Steam have rules to prevent reworking content - or making it difficult to quickly change, otherwise people could change the content after approval which would be a nightmare for their legal duties to buyers.As Ayhsel has pointed out with the Cost & Benefit analysis, there should be a point where he should be saying "it looks good enough" in terms of visuals, and move onto other aspects of the game that really needs more attention - such as speed and more content (for various LIs of the game).
There's also the fact that the this game (and WIAB, given that's going through rework as well) leaves vast majority of other VNs on this site in dust in terms of visuals.
The game already looks gorgeous; just how much more is he willing to push with the new hardware and visuals when resources spent on that could have been actually spent on something else?
So unless he puts his foot down on visuals at some point, he's gonna be in perpetual cycle of the following (please note, I didn't actually make the following diagram, a mutual of mine did);
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And while I would like to praise Ocean for being a quality focused, the more the above cycle gets repeated, I'd say his state of being a quality junkie becomes more of a detriment than a boon, or as Ayhsel put it more aptly than me, diminishing returns.
I should clarify: I'm not suggesting that anyone plan a project on uncertain mythical advances. Work should always be scheduled based on what you have, estimates should be on current practices, but the trend is that computers improve far more rapidly than my finances can keep up. It would be foolish to think Ocean will still be on the same CPU in 10 years. In that time, computing will be vastly different to what it is now. I'm currently writing from a 10 year old laptop (it's become my throw around) that cries looking at what my main work machine can do. My current computer is a beast, and I expect to replace it roughly every three years so I have to plan for that financially, mainly because new software runs terribly on old CPU instructions. Cost of computing power is decreasing as a trend. If people work in any computer field and expect their computer to be cutting edge for more than 6 months, they're fooling themselves.I really liked this message, there are some things I agree with and some things I don't agree with. However, I only respond for one reason, statistically, at least one of those who read your message will not be alive at the end of SG.
I agree more with Pax's initial position, you cannot project on what you do not have. Today, as things stand, I subscribe to the time he indicates. If things change, it will be at that time that it should be corrected, not today.
Because if we stick to the facts, the year 2022 was much more productive for Ocean than 2023. And that's with what he has on hand today, the improvements he has already purchased.
Oh bro, costs & benefiets, my ass...I agree with most of what you said.
But, like with everything, there are cost a d benefit analysis.
I want him to do his vision. But he also said at some point he has 5 stories to do. I want them to do those too.
In the end, this is a production exercise. You have input, essentially time and effort. You have a production process, his workflow and his machines. And you have output: writing, scenes, choices, renders.
Say, for example, his vision requires him to put more resources on render quality. In particular time. His budget is 24 hours (cant buy time), less 10 between sleep and eating. So 14. Also, productivity decreases over the day as you get tired, so say effective 10 hours per day. Should he focus on addinf anothe freckle to Nami or should he focus on writing another path?
In the end, you can have a vision but by definition, you can only do what you can do given your resources and production pricess. Better hardware would improve production pricess for same inputs, but better hardware is developed over time. So at some point, you need to say "this render is good enougha" and move on.
Optimizarion exercise. Given his budget on resources (all type of resources) and current and expected production process, he maximizes the output.
I am of the view that rhe quality dimension os already way more than is needed. Extra focus should be directed to increasing quantity, while trying not to lower quality too much.
That's simply not true? Ocean has already made many compromises around things he thought important over the course of the development of this game. Any game dev has to, otherwise they'd never release anything. The question is what & how far to compromise without hurting the game aesthetically or financially.But you are talking about a compromise in favor of the plot development at the expense of things the author considers important. Therefore, he should not strive for perfect graphics, narrow the plot, reduce the number of characters, and so on. Eventually the game will lose its unique features this way.
If that weren't the true, you'd already be able to fuck half the girls in the game, something the crowd has been clamoring for since the first releases. If that weren't the case, you'd have six or seven chapters, with the first two being ugly, instead of five, two of which are the old chapters re-rendered from scratch. He wouldn't have remade WiaB if it wasn't true (he probably put it off after SG). We wouldn't have seen character-heavy scenes like the reworked first day of college or the basketball game in Chapter 4.That's simply not true? Ocean has already made many compromises in the course of the development of this game. Any game dev has to, otherwise they'd never release anything. The question is what & how far to compromise without hurting the game aesthetically or financially.
What he was initially willing to accept he no longer does with better hardware. Hence rerendering large portions of the game to meet his new standard.
Will it actually increase sales enough to justify all the time spent on the reworks? We'll never know, but I don't think the long delays & slow development have helped grow Patreon support.
Though you're right in one sense. There's no use going on about how better project management might improve productivity and reduce dev cycles because Ocean isn't going to do that. If he were capable of it he'd be doing so already.
Instead we just have to accept Ocean's games are going to remain slow output, and amuse ourselves elsewhere between releases.
None of that has anything to do with the cost management you were debating?If that weren't the true, you'd already be able to fuck half the girls in the game, something the crowd has been clamoring for since the first releases. If that weren't the case, you'd have six or seven chapters, with the first two being ugly, instead of five, two of which are the old chapters re-rendered from scratch. He wouldn't have remade WiaB if it wasn't true (he probably put it off after SG). We wouldn't have seen character-heavy scenes like the reworked first day of college or the basketball game in Chapter 4.
Of course, he has to make some compromises because he is not an idiot. But what Aysel proposes is a shift in emphasis from creativity to factory assembly. This would probably bring him more money and subscribers, especially if he added more kinks and fetishes, sex scenes and finally allowed them to fuck Nojiko. But I'm not sure it would still be the game I love.
Scenes already looking good is a matter of opinion. The values aren't tangible other than what you're personally willing to wait for. I personally feel that the difference between old and new WiaB is more clear, as essentially it was start from scratch. The change between render styles in the pre remake was jarring. In SG the change is jarring, but there is an interim step with his earliest 'better' style (the Relucia scense with Bella). I can tell the difference, but he's not remaking those, so he's got a compromise to perfection there. I wish he wouldn't compromise on Mila and sort out her model definitively, but he's being pragmatic there as well, not redoing everything of her, just the ones that stick out too far. And by the time she's in the lime light, chances are he'll have just let the past variations go to the keeper (ie Ch1 Mila and Ch4-5 Mila feel pretty different still).None of that has anything to do with the cost management you were debating?
Neither Ayhsel or I said anything about changing the direction of the game to a fuck-fest or cow-towing to player preferences?
It's about tailoring dev effort to develop the same game in a reasonable time frame. Which Ocean has done at times, like reducing the number of characters in a scene because he couldn't render it, or leaving placeholder galleries etc.
Ocean can compromise, he just doesn't unless he has to. Better hardware is spent reworking scenes that already looked good instead of increasing development speed. They look better with more background characters etc., but is it worth the time spent? If you're interested in the game ever progressing to a conclusion, then the answer is no.
None of that has anything to do with the cost management you were debating?![]()
You may not know this, but Ocean himself said it a long time ago, when he started his "process" to become more efficient.The one thing Ayhsel is graciously omited here is the release schedule.This quote impying the dev should deliver updates at reasonable time, otherwise why should the dev need to say at some point "this render is good enougha" and move on? Why not keep playing with this render while it's fun? I guess it's because he need to deliver the updates, right? Right!
This. I'm not sure you understand what cost/benefit/compromise means in the context we've been discussing it.Or maybe I really don’t understand what kind of compromise you’re talking about?
As Ayhsel has pointed out with the Cost & Benefit analysis, there should be a point where he should be saying "it looks good enough" in terms of visuals, and move onto other aspects of the game that really needs more attention - such as speed and more content (for various LIs of the game).
There's also the fact that the this game (and WIAB, given that's going through rework as well) leaves vast majority of other VNs on this site in dust in terms of visuals.
The game already looks gorgeous; just how much more is he willing to push with the new hardware and visuals when resources spent on that could have been actually spent on something else?
So unless he puts his foot down on visuals at some point, he's gonna be in perpetual cycle of the following (please note, I didn't actually make the following diagram, a mutual of mine did);
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And while I would like to praise Ocean for being a quality focused, the more the above cycle gets repeated, I'd say his state of being a quality junkie becomes more of a detriment than a boon, or as Ayhsel put it more aptly than me, diminishing returns.
When I look at the rework, mainly starting with the release of Ch 4, and Ocean's plan to release on Stream, then the rework makes perfect sense. The reworked product is worthy of wider release.This is why I'm excited for the steam release - very hard to go back and change content on a public release - once people own it, I'm sure Steam have rules to prevent reworking content - or making it difficult to quickly change, otherwise people could change the content after approval which would be a nightmare for their legal duties to buyers.
I didn't talk about rework. If he believes some things need to be redone, that is totally ok with me.When I look at the rework, mainly starting with the release of Ch 4, and Ocean's plan to release on Stream, then the rework makes perfect sense. The reworked product is worthy of wider release.
Contrast that with the steaming pile of excrement that was the original SG Chs 1 & 2 - no one in their right mind (outside of a small pull-wings-off-flies brigade who pine the loss of a grossly malignant and psycho MC) would consider it acceptable for Steam release - especially in terms of visual quality.
When I look at the state of SG going into the Ch 5 full release, I think there's even a lot of intermediate quality renders from Ch 3 that could potentially be replaced to preserve a consistent render quality resulting from the rework.
I honestly don't understand people claiming Ocean is stuck in a perpetual rework cycle. Having played SG since Ch 1, for example, I simply see that Ocean has drip-fed a single rework since the release of Ch 3.5 - 4. That rework should finally be complete at the time of Steam release. The same applies to WIAB - the difference there being that Ocean decided to release a reworked WIAB from scratch (currently at Ch 2, pending Ch 3), rather than release a higher quality Ch 7 onward and slowly rework previous chapters 1-6.
Exactly this. And guess what folks...all the reworks are pretty much done.When I look at the rework, mainly starting with the release of Ch 4, and Ocean's plan to release on Stream, then the rework makes perfect sense. The reworked product is worthy of wider release.
Contrast that with the steaming pile of excrement that was the original SG Chs 1 & 2 - no one in their right mind (outside of a small pull-wings-off-flies brigade who pine the loss of a grossly malignant and psycho MC) would consider it acceptable for Steam release - especially in terms of visual quality.
When I look at the state of SG going into the Ch 5 full release, I think there's even a lot of intermediate quality renders from Ch 3 that could potentially be replaced to preserve a consistent render quality resulting from the rework.
I honestly don't understand people claiming Ocean is stuck in a perpetual rework cycle. Having played SG since Ch 1, for example, I simply see that Ocean has drip-fed a single rework since the release of Ch 3.5 - 4. That rework should finally be complete at the time of Steam release. The same applies to WIAB - the difference there being that Ocean decided to release a reworked WIAB from scratch (currently at Ch 2, pending Ch 3), rather than release a higher quality Ch 7 onward and slowly rework previous chapters 1-6.
Okay, I define efficiency as the ability to make more money with the same amount of effort. Creating a harem game in this case is a more efficient than a slow-burn story-based saga. And yeah, this was written just for the sake of argument.[...] Mixing harem with being efficient is directly ridiculous, and there you dropped the ball.
If you promises me that, then I'm happy. Although mutating part sounds scary.[...] To conclude, none of the opinions will change anything, Ocean will continue to do things as he does, and will mutate as he goes along.