burbero

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Jun 18, 2022
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Will all of Chapter 5 full contain new content other than reworking? If there will be new content, is the amount certain?
 

Mortarion

Well-Known Member
Donor
Oct 22, 2017
1,859
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Will all of Chapter 5 full contain new content other than reworking? If there will be new content, is the amount certain?
A few new scenes in the first reworked chapters, IIRC mostly on the Bella path - not sure about this.

We will see, 'cause we are forced to a fresh restart forSeason 1 because of the massive changes to the script/variables.
 

Tairnel

Member
Apr 25, 2020
450
802
So I've been thinking about the development speed for a while now. Throughout Season 1, Ocean has given various reasons to explain the frequent delays, slow development cycles and why the overall progress of the game has been hindered. A large number come to mind, and they've all mostly been resolved:

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These were some of the main reasons that Season 1 development was as slow as it was (I am not going comment on the impossibly large amount of natural disasters and acts of God that occur to Ocean). Thus, with them out of the picture, Season 2 releases should conceivably be released in much shorter time periods, or have an even larger amount of content.

Thus, I believe that this next S2CH1/ Chapter 6 release should be the turning point in the development of SG; in that it will become obvious whether or not this game is going to be seriously developed and some day in the near-distant future, completed. Seeing how the general argument against the naysayers/ trolls who do claim that it'll never be finished is that there are circumstances because of which SG's development has been greatly, slowed, and that it will pick up soon once XYZ is complete (see above list).

If we do see a change in the release cycles, it will be an immediate proof as to the above and serve to convince those still on the fence regarding Summer's Gone for these reasons. We've all seen the posts, ranging from the innocent and mostly valid "This game has 5 story updates/1 week progress in five years, should I invest in it?" to the not so innocent "30 years for 30 chapters, my grandkids will be able to play this game xd, this is never getting finished" In terms of how this affects Summer's Gone, we would probably see a bump in SG following, which indirectly translates to popularity, patreons, funding, and thus quality.

Whichever way it goes, I think the future of Summer's Gone can be judged from what happens next.

But I admit I could be vastly overestimating the amount of people on this thread to whom these things genuinely matter (and underestimating the number of trolls), as it could be that I'm the only one cares so much about something so small and irrelevant. In which case, sorry you read tens of lines of nonsensical ramblings for no major reason lol.
 
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PaxHadrian17

Engaged Member
Sep 8, 2020
2,409
11,785
So I've been thinking about the development speed for a while now. Throughout Season 1, Ocean has given various reasons to explain the frequent delays, slow development cycles and why the overall progress of the game has been hindered. A large number come to mind, and they've all mostly been resolved:

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

These were some of the main reasons that Season 1 development was as slow as it was (I am not going comment on the impossibly large amount of natural disasters and acts of God that occur to Ocean). Thus, with them out of the picture, Season 2 releases should conceivably be released in much shorter time periods, or have an even larger amount of content.

Thus, I believe that this next S2CH1/ Chapter 6 release should be the turning point in the development of SG; in that it will become obvious whether or not this game is going to be seriously developed and some day in the near-distant future, completed. Seeing how the general argument against the naysayers/ trolls who do claim that it'll never be finished is that there are circumstances because of which SG's development has been greatly, slowed, and that it will pick up soon once XYZ is complete (see above list).

If we do see a change in the release cycles, it will be an immediate proof as to the above and serve to convince those still on the fence regarding Summer's Gone for these reasons. We've all seen the posts, ranging from the innocent and mostly valid "This game has 5 story updates/1 week progress in five years, should I invest in it?" to the not so innocent "30 years for 30 chapters, my grandkids will be able to play this game xd, this is never getting finished" In terms of how this affects Summer's Gone, we would probably see a bump in SG following, which indirectly translates to popularity, patreons, funding, and thus quality.

Whichever way it goes, I think the future of Summer's Gone can be judged from what happens next.

But I admit I could be vastly overestimating the amount of people on this thread to whom these things genuinely matter (and underestimating the number of trolls), as it could be that I'm the only one cares so much about something so small and irrelevant. In which case, sorry you read tens of lines of nonsensical ramblings for no major reason lol.
I think one thing that gets missed about Ocean versus a number of other devs I follow is Ocean has (up until Very recently) gone with weekly updates where he is very transparent about what is happening re: his workflow and other things impacting his AVNs.

To your points above, I think many devs don't share as much about the things impacting their dev cycle (or at least it feels that way when Ocean gives us weekly updates and many other devs stick to monthly updates, for example).

Some other considerations include:

For those devs who don't buy music and only use more generically available, royalty-free, music - they will not encounter Ocean's issues with depreciation of the value of music licenses getting stretched over 10 years or some of the companies holding the licenses changing the terms of the agreements forcing Ocean to give up songs he literally built animations around (or setting aside the 'don't use my music with adult content' issue).

For those who are not pushing the graphics envelope so hard, they will not worry about the NV link issue with NVIDIA or pushing for such dramatic improvements in the 'look' of early scenes.

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The old renders are perfectly legit for 95% of the other AVNs I enjoy as I don't expect HD level renders for those AVNs (and some would Really benefit from the treatment.)

We have, per Ocean's last count, 27 more chapters to go.

While I think Ocean's 'speed of production' will increase, the proof will be where we are at this time in 2025 and 2026, for example.

How much faster will he create with new equipment and no reworks?

If Steam is a Big success, I anticipate we will get more great music because Ocean will be able to afford it.

The search for this music and, where Ocean decides to build animations around specific songs (like the great animation build around Humble Hey's What My Mama Said) will take time but how much?

My point is just that I trust Ocean to tell us this great story his way, making great use of the $ from supporters on Patreon and SS and Hopefully Many new Steam fans.

Season 1 is Steaming towards us and will hopefully make port Very soon (Apologies for that pun but... I had to :p)

I have already set my sights on Season 2 and am looking forward to our first official Season 2 dev log post Steam submission.

Cheers!! :coffee:
 

Dessolos

Message Maven
Jul 25, 2017
13,994
18,446
Robin is the most wholesome girl after Vic.
I cant get myself to forgive Robin personally she crossed a line. Which is why I put her at the bottom next to Vanessa as the 2 LI i hate / dislike from this game. Will only play their path after everyone else. I get it wasn't her idea and Nadia and Zara was in on it and was Zara's idea to begin with. But the way she used Nami to lure the MC was crossing a line for me.
 
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BobTheDuck

Engaged Member
Dec 24, 2018
2,231
13,277
I cant get myself to forgive Robin personally she crossed a line. Which is why I put her at the bottom next to Vanessa as the 2 LI i hate / dislike from this game. Will only play their path after everyone else. I get it wasn't her idea and Nadia and Zara was in on it and was Zara's idea to begin with. But the way she used Nami to lure the MC was crossing a line for me. At least Nadia called Bella that's makes up for it more than apologizing , at least to me.
It's a strange situation there - Zara and Nadia pressured Robing into it, but who knows what leverage they had? I can't imagine that it was considered anything but a prank by all three. But it appears to be Robin's idea to use Nami as bait, and also Robin who either calls Bella or Marla. But it's at Sasha's request, and Sasha thinks Nika deserves it.

I potentially feel that Robin is very unconfident, and other people take advantage of her. You have the option to take advantage of her and she owes you a favour, but we see Sasha watching to see what we decide. At the moment I only think we see the real Robin at the book club where she's on home ground and feels safe.

I'm also reminded of the gym and how Robin tries to find out about Bella because they drifted apart. Again Sasha is there being mysterious.

A little earlier, she's the one trying to calm him down from the eraser incident.

So I'm not ready to condemn her just yet. You're right though, it's a shitty thing to have done to scare him about family.
 

AlexFXR

Member
Sep 24, 2023
462
737
Well, yeah, but i think the rework was necessary, i mean, if we compare the old version renders and the new... It´s incredible the good work Ocean is doing.
You are right, SG was developed with the old Genesis, then a new Genesis appeared and the image improved noticeably. After this, Ocean decided to do a rework so that all the pictures would be of the same quality.

It’s just not clear why he made the rework now, and not after the game’s release? New version of Genesis with more realistic skin and hair textures, etc. comes out approximately once every 3-4 years. When it comes out, Ocean will again want to revamp the entire game?
 
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jllkfsdj

Active Member
Apr 19, 2019
568
841
Responding together as you both make the same point. I'm not a Bella fan. Bella being deceptive does not make Vanessa's deception any less deceptive. Vanessa could have been honest and still called Bella out, Vanessa could have just not engaged with Bella, there are so many options to not be deceptive. Vanessa leads Bella on because she love mind games. It's not about tit for tat, responding to fire with fire or anything. Ethics is an independant status that we should hold to regardless of anyone else's two-faced antics. All Vanessa's behaviour towards Bella shows is that she like to play deceitful, manipulative games, which is 100% her character throughout the game. At the point that Vanessa meets Bella, how does she know why? We know why, but Vanessa defaults to ...something because she thinks Bella's someone she can leverage, without even knowing (at that point) why Bella's approaching her. If she does know, is she storing the information for future blackmail/leverage? She is not being transparent or sincere in her first interaction with Bella, regardless of Bella's intentions.

Similarly, there is no ethical way to justify how she exploits Mario's affection for her own purposes. She is blueballing him into wearing a buttplug, doesn't matter that she justifies it to herslef by also wearing one. She is manipulating him into doing something he would unlikely choose for himself by withholding sex, implying that if he submits to her antics, he'll get a reward. She's grooming him for her own amusement, while looking down on him. Is that the basis for a healthy, loving relationship? Sure, hold off sex if you're inclinded to treat it as something special, but leveraging it like that, knowing he would be ashamed if it got out (while telling people she's just met, please let it get out she thinks) while dangling a carrot of a reward - she actually cheapens their relationship. Sex becomes transactional, and a reward for how much he endures. And the first moment she meets Nika, she's attempting to seduce him and cheat on weak, faithful Mario, further abusing him. So she dumps Mario to be sincere? Or does she continue being manipulative and deceitful?

Even throwing out the knowledge of Mario's buttplug is a double game. She can test Nika and Nami's integrity to find out what kind of people they are - if rumours spread about Mario, she knows from where. She's a pretty stand up girlfriend :rolleyes: Nika would be wise to notice how she treates Mario as being her default mode of behaviour.

The fact that she is friendly is another misdirection. She knows Noji is important to Nick, so she is the dutiful host. Don't forget that she knows about Bella and Nika, but says "I don't think we share the same social circles" when Nika says he thinks he's seen her before. More misdirection. She triggers Zara to be more competitive towards Nika, then actively bets (the driver's license) against her while knowing what their mom did to Zara, belittling her own sister for the sake of a stranger she's just met - playing games with her sister's mental health.

She applies social darwinism to ther ethics, and that ubermensch mentality is something I despise. Weak people shouldn't be exploited even if we don't like them - or should Vic be exploited like Mario too? Or Damian? How does Nika respond as someone with crippled emotions? He supports Damian to further his own goals (well, baskets), and he has many choices to be kind to Vic, and it seems cruel to me not to take the chance to be supportive.

On the social darwinism, her "I'll never need to work, I'll see where life takes me" attitude also shows she's really entitled, and she's into Mario as a gold digger. Zara still has goals, Vanessa plans to float through life amusing herself at other's expense. If she doesn't go for Mario, does she just sponge of daddy Nick? Her plan for her future is to manipulate people so she can be indolent in her lifestyle.

Nika also doesn't judge Vanessa by what Bella's seen, which is why he calls her to call off interacting with Vanessa, because he realises how manipulative Vanessa is. But I still love this to describe her:

I am literally am too old for that kind of gag, even if I was born yesterday apparently....
Well, I AM a Bella fan and I fully agree with your analysis!
 
Aug 26, 2018
224
353
Well, yeah, but i think the rework was necessary, i mean, if we compare the old version renders and the new... It´s incredible the good work Ocean is doing.
It's nice to have for sure but I'd have preferred it if they started on the rework after they finished the game. It definitely wasn't *necessary*.
 

Don Sucio

Well-Known Member
Jan 17, 2021
1,224
2,114
You are right, SG was developed with the old Genesis, then a new Genesis appeared and the image improved noticeably. After this, Ocean decided to do a rework so that all the pictures would be of the same quality.

It’s just not clear why he made the rework now, and not after the game’s release? New version of Genesis with more realistic skin and hair textures, etc. comes out approximately once every 3-4 years. When it comes out, Ocean will again want to revamp the entire game?
Ocean said he won´t make more reworks after this, i believe his word and at least i hope he won´t do that after he finish SG.

It's nice to have for sure but I'd have preferred it if they started on the rework after they finished the game. It definitely wasn't *necessary*.
Could be good too, but i think is better this way. We have to keep in mind that Ocean has changed his view of the game, i´m talking about the strong dark theme in the old version and some changes in scenes too. I haven´t played the old version so i can´t speak too much but i think Ocean started this rework for more consistency in the story, so is good in the end, and the earlier the better.
 

Niuul

Active Member
Jun 25, 2022
892
2,176
I think one thing that gets missed about Ocean versus a number of other devs I follow is Ocean has (up until Very recently) gone with weekly updates where he is very transparent about what is happening re: his workflow and other things impacting his AVNs.

To your points above, I think many devs don't share as much about the things impacting their dev cycle (or at least it feels that way when Ocean gives us weekly updates and many other devs stick to monthly updates, for example).

Some other considerations include:

For those devs who don't buy music and only use more generically available, royalty-free, music - they will not encounter Ocean's issues with depreciation of the value of music licenses getting stretched over 10 years or some of the companies holding the licenses changing the terms of the agreements forcing Ocean to give up songs he literally built animations around (or setting aside the 'don't use my music with adult content' issue).

For those who are not pushing the graphics envelope so hard, they will not worry about the NV link issue with NVIDIA or pushing for such dramatic improvements in the 'look' of early scenes.

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

The old renders are perfectly legit for 95% of the other AVNs I enjoy as I don't expect HD level renders for those AVNs (and some would Really benefit from the treatment.)

We have, per Ocean's last count, 27 more chapters to go.

While I think Ocean's 'speed of production' will increase, the proof will be where we are at this time in 2025 and 2026, for example.

How much faster will he create with new equipment and no reworks?

If Steam is a Big success, I anticipate we will get more great music because Ocean will be able to afford it.

The search for this music and, where Ocean decides to build animations around specific songs (like the great animation build around Humble Hey's What My Mama Said) will take time but how much?

My point is just that I trust Ocean to tell us this great story his way, making great use of the $ from supporters on Patreon and SS and Hopefully Many new Steam fans.

Season 1 is Steaming towards us and will hopefully make port Very soon (Apologies for that pun but... I had to :p)

I have already set my sights on Season 2 and am looking forward to our first official Season 2 dev log post Steam submission.

Cheers!! :coffee:
Like I said in a prior post, I'll just be happy when updates are all entirely new story. Updates being split 50/50 between reworks and new scenes felt bad. Need to find out where Summer is before I go missing when I lose my mind due to old age and wander off somewhere never to be seen again.
 

Niuul

Active Member
Jun 25, 2022
892
2,176
Why? who is she to you? what will you do once you find out? be like "ah, okay, time to move on" ? she is dead, married or a whore, you get to decide.

You should have your hands busy with Nami and the rest of the LI's the game is throwing at you or will you say "fuck them" and just wait for Summer?
B-because it's the namesake of the game. I'd like to know lmao. Wasn't that deep.
 

N1ghtcrawler

Member
May 29, 2023
151
4,016
We can say Bella is a sociopath (poor impulse control, acting in anger, showing open disdain for social norms even more than Venessa) while Vanessa is a psychopath (cold, more calculating, lies easily). They both have antisocial personality disorder, which is not the same as asocial btw.
All the traits you attribute to sociopaths can be attributed to psychopaths and vice versa. Moreover, coldness and calculating are not necessary traits of psychopaths, they are cliche from the popular media.

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Now, I'm not a psychiatrist, so you can take anything I say with skepticism. But as far as I know, there is no established distinction between psychopath and sociopath. Both are synonymous with antisocial personality disorder, yes. But what is now called APD used to be explicitly called psychopathy. Sociopath is not a formal term. Sorry if you think I'm trying to act smart-ass here, but both words have been used differently so many times that their meanings is completely blurred now.

From an average point of view, I think it would be accurate to say that the stereoptypical serial killer is a psychopath, but the person who calmly steps over a dying body to get to his car is a sociopath.

There's no way Bella has APD. Given her feelings, which she shows to Nika and her sister, this is simply impossible. If you want to see how a person with APD really interacts with people, I highly recommend you to watch Nightcrawler. This is the most realistic depiction of a sociopath/psychopath who is not a typical serial killer. It's also a great movie. Or just watch these scenes , , , . Judging by them, Vanessa could be in this guy's place. I didn't think so at first, but after you mentioned it, I can see Vanessa has APD, easily. But it's too early to judge for sure.
It’s the opposite really, her behavior changes accordingly with whom she’s talking to. If the situation requires to be socially appropriate or pretend to get ahead she will. That’s how she fooled Bella.
The situation requires is the key here. She changed her behavior because she suspected Bella is one thing, she changed her behavior because she views Bella as upper/lower class is different thing.

No, I realise this. This is actually what I expect, it's like the entry level of society. Someone who believes in the norms of decency when they meet new people. It's the default setting for 95% of people (in the context of their culture), and Vanessa shows how selfish she is by ignoring such things. I'm not arguing for conformity, but even Nika who is considered rude and antagonistic, knows how to bite his tongue. How you achieve something is as important as why and what :)

People who don't believe in normal social interactions tend to end up isolated. Try to make up your own language in order to communicate and see how many people understand you; it's the same thing. All interaction is a dialogue, and requires both expression and reception. Dismissing how people percieve/recieve you puts you at a disadvantage. Nika understands this when he's manipulative, and uses people's expectations or thoughts as his guide to be subversive.



Mila's complicated though - she's been accused of the Holgerson theft, or at least was untile we see how that scene plays out in full. I guess I should try playing a few different paths to see how Vanessa changes if your pursuing Vic or Mila instead of Bella. I've defaulted to Bella's path as it has the most content currently.
Here I was writing an epic reply. "What the hell are you talking about?" "We were arguing about whether Vanessa was intentionally hostile to Nika" blah blah blah. Then I opened the dialog file.

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Bruh. :rolleyes:

So yes, you were right and I was right, she was intentionally hostile to him, but because of the way he looked at her.
The longer we wait for the final version, the more we forget and the more pointless debates we have.
But hey, now you can lower your Vanessa is evil rating at least 80%. 85% considering you were half right.
I'm not arguing for conformity, but even Nika who is considered rude and antagonistic, knows how to bite his tongue.
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Yeah he sure does. :devilish:


However, I noticed something when I was reading the dialogs. Bella mentioned that Stefan lusts after her mother. When I remembered how weird Amber was acting with Nika, and I was like :unsure:. I mean, during my playthrough her behavior didn't seem odd to mee because this is an adult VN. But maybe in the context of Bella's hatred towards Stefan, the problem is actually Amber?
 
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