• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS
This page is for discussion of the artistic side of content creation, such as writing and characterization, as well as for the posting of incomplete content for the purpose of receiving feedback from each other.

Feel free to discuss characters and stories you are working on.
The old Custom Content thread can be found here. The first archived artistic discussion thread can be found here.

Posts

NOTE: my routes are EXTENSIONS to sidestories already IN the game.

So, if you really want to play them you would have to find the two girls you are interested in in the normal way.

Cheatbot is just a shortcut to avoid having to play 30 or 40 days of built-in content before getting to the start of my content - she will NOT be part of the finished content.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
So, I saw the Tsubasa/Shikoho extension. The game reported that the combined ending was unlocked, but, I think I got a standard generic ending with Tsubasa instead? I seem to recall seeing something in the Cheatbot's story about either this, or if it was correcting an error from a different story. Another thing I noticed was a few out-of-place sentences and grammar. A few examples follow, with red-and-crossed-out text being suggested removals, while blue text are suggested additions:

author=Story 3404
ID = 0
(There are Shihoko and Tsubasa)
Heyy...

# Later in the story...

ID = 3
NEUTRAL
Well, Shihoko and I were discussing, whether further research on that matter is in order.


author=Story 3604, Branch B
ID = 4
LIKE
SHOW RIGHT
I knew you would recognize me, <player>.
author=Marrend
So, I saw the Tsubasa/Shikoho extension. The game reported that the combined ending was unlocked, but, I think I got a standard generic ending with Tsubasa instead? I seem to recall seeing something in the Cheatbot's story about either this, or if it was correcting an error from a different story.
When I started testing my stories I normally played them front-to-end - normally resulting in getting at least Tsubasa's or Riho's normal ending as side effect of being nice to any girl I met ... using chatbot I noticed the same problem as you: if the ONLY ending available is one with more then just a single girl, the "I leave you to your girl" scene with Miki seems to break the story. Only one of your girls appear and the ENDING itself is cut out. I think this is a bug in the game itself :(

Only way around that I found is: finish at least one other route. (Cheatbot offers Miki)

author=Marrend
Another thing I noticed was a few out-of-place sentences and grammar. A few examples follow, with red-and-crossed-out text being suggested removals, while blue text are suggested additions:
author=Story 3404
ID = 0
(There are Shihoko and Tsubasa)
Heyy...

# Later in the story...

ID = 3
NEUTRAL
Well, Shihoko and I were discussing, whether further research on that matter is in order.


author=Story 3604, Branch B
ID = 4
LIKE
SHOW RIGHT
I knew you would recognize me, <player>.

The "Hey" with additional y's is intentional misspelling. And I thought I was not the only one using this. But I fixed it (did not like it too much myself).

Placing comata is one of my weakest points. I make enough mistakes in my own language - which isn't english.

Thank you for your feedback (I fixed all places you mentioned, but I think I should not reupload for that small changes).

BTW: If you wondered why Shihoko/Tsubasa and Shihoko/Riho are so short: they rely on CONDITIONS that are hard enough to meet anyways.

That was my original motivation to do this - I enjoyed the built-in stories about Riho and Shihoko so much and started to imagine what would happen if ....

And then Mr. Help File told me that it is possible to have ENDINGs with more then one girl. And I realized that noone seems to ever have implemented one.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
To be fair, I'm not sure how much playtesting the multiple-charcter-ENDING method got. If I'm reading things right, it was implemented in version 2.0. I remember wanting to try doing a multiple-character-INTRODUCE in regards to Uchioniko, but that never really surfaced.

*Edit: Or, now that I think on it, maybe I did actually try a multi-INTRODUCE, but got error messages? I'd have to do a post-search for that.

*Edit: Found this post. A few posts later, flowerthief thanks me for the bug-report, then there was a comment about Junko's content not working, and another comment from Big Boss concerning that.
author=Marrend
To be fair, I'm not sure how much playtesting the multiple-charcter-ENDING method got. If I'm reading things right, it was implemented in version 2.0. I remember wanting to try doing a multiple-character-INTRODUCE in regards to Uchioniko, but that never really surfaced.

Well - as for the current version 2.5 introducing two chars with one STORY seems to work just fine (ask Ms. Cheatbot - she does this!).
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I felt a little experimental, and decided to break up the ENDINGs for Tsubasa and Shihoko into two separate events that JUMPs into the one you wrote, as thus:

STORY 3407
CONDITION = 3406 DONE
ENDING = 3
JUMP 3409

STORY 3408
CONDITION = 3406 DONE
ENDING = 4
JUMP 3409

STORY 3409
CONDITION = 3407 DONE OR 3408 DONE
#<insert text that was formerly STORY 3407>

That seemed to work as far as getting the ending was concerned (for full disclosure, much cheatation was applied to make this check). Though, the game gave me the option to choose between the two, and the one I chose was in the heart at the very end. Which might not be the intention of your stories. However, as far as I can tell, this is the best fix that can be applied.
Might work for some storylines - does not really work if there are "normal" endings for the same char available (you'll get to choose between Riho Kaneishiro and Riho Kaneishiro).

Work around: have <player> autoachieve an ending with any other char, too.

That seemed to work just fine. At least the times I played the whole story thru (I normally get Riho and/or Tsubasa without even really trying anyway - just because I can't say "no" to them ;) )

Another sidenote: ENDINGs with 4 girls seem to be bugged no matter what.
(The heart shows only two of them and an almost-hidden third one in the back, you are offered the 4 girl STORY twice, and - unless the names are really short - the choice does not even fit the screen width)

I never tried a three-girl-ENDING.

There seems to be not enough room for more then two faces in the heart, anyway.

Plus: the more girls you add the less likely a "happy ending" feels.

EDIT: if all else fails there is a emulative workaround:
Create a dummy profile with a tachie made up of both/all the girls involved (designed to fit the heart just right), STATE = LOVE (or LOVESICK), LOCK the char, no PHONE, no ENCOUNTERS name "her" as you like.

INTRODUCE this char when the ENDING gets available - it should not show up in the phone call list.

Make the ENDING use this "girl". You might not even need a CONDITION.

Only trouble I see is: if the name is KNOWN then "she" will appear in the phone list, right? If the name is not KNOWN ... what will show up if there is a choice offered?

And ... you should definetly use a CUSTOM ENDING in this case - the game would not recognize this as a "double girl" ENDING and the text will be a bit off. On the other hand ... Miki always says something like "I will leave you to your girl" anyway.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I'm pretty sure you're right in the thinking that that NAME KNOWN would make a character appear on the phone list. As for what name it would list at the end of the game when <player> needs to make a choice, and the name is not known, my best guess is that it would display "?" (the text that is displayed in a dialog box when the name is not known).

*Edit: Technically speaking, couldn't you use the dummy character and do a regular ENDING through her/his ID? My belief/theory is it that it would boil down to the CONDITIONs that were met for the various ENDINGs. I mean, it would still be weird/awkward in regards to the meeting with Miki, but, for example...

STORY 1
CONDITION = 4508 DONE IN multiending\continued_stories.txt
# Achieved Shihoko's and Riho's combined ending.
ENDING = 666
# I'm temporarily borrowing Ms Cheatbot's ID for this example.
#<insert text from STORY 4509 in multiending\continued_stories.txt>

STORY 2
CONDITION = 3406 DONE IN multiending\continued_stories.txt
# Achieved Tsubasa's and Shihoko's combined ending.
ENDING = 666
#<insert text from STORY 3407 in multiending\continued_stories.txt>

...this?
author=Marrend
Technically speaking, couldn't you use the dummy character and do a regular ENDING through her/his ID? My belief/theory is it that it would boil down to the CONDITIONs that were met for the various ENDINGs. I mean, it would still be weird/awkward in regards to the meeting with Miki, but, for example...
My idea was pretty much along that line ... but I thought the dummy had to be introduced first ... Oh, well - I'll just try it. ...

And you'd need a differnt dummy per girl-combo - since the dummy defines the tachie to be used in the final heart picture (and of course, the dummy will be seen in the final meeting with Miki).

If "she" has to be introduced I'd end up in my original dilema: it would look strange if something like "Tsubasa and Riho" is listed in the phone book, but it would be worse if you get offered an ENDING with "a girl" named "?".

My best current shot in this scenarion would be a HIGH PRIO Bedroom STORY with DAY 101 (which would not help much in 151 mode).

Why Bedroom? Because I'd need to make sure that it is hit, and Front A / Front B on the last DAY are used by the game itself. (Enabeling the dummy before the last day might make "her" show up in the phone book).
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
If it's true that each combo needs it's own dummy because of the tachie display at the end, you could INTRODUCE the dummy (dummies?) with the initial STORY for each combo. So, like...

# Riho + Shihoko story
STORY 4501
CONDITION = 70 DONE IN Built-in/game_stories_5.txt
PLACE = Courtyard
INTRODUCE = 666
#<text as normal>

#<later in the file>

# Tsubasa + Shihoko.
STORY 3404
CONDITION = 58 DONE IN Built-in/game_stories_3.txt
CONDITION = 3 LOVE
CONDITION = 4 LOVE
PLACE = Hall A
INTRODUCE = 667
#<story as normal>

...that? Maybe?

*Edit: You're probably right about needing a high-priority event to set up the text display properly in regards to the end-of-game-list. Though... isn't the FRONT B event on DAY 101 (or 151, as the case may be) the one where endings actually happen? I could very well be mistaken on this point, but, if my thinking is correct, players wouldn't get to the bedroom that day.

*Edit2: I still had my save-file on DAY 101 to be able to check this, and my thinking seems to be correct. The FRONT B event on the last day of the game is the final meeting with Miki, and would be when the list would appear.

Though... wait. Couldn't the name-changing event in question occur in "Bedroom" on the previous day? I vaguely recall getting a text from Tsubasa during my initial play of her combined route with Shihoko, and I'm 90% sure the event occurred after the save-screen. The next day fired shortly after that. I did a cross-reference to the appropriate story-file, and that text-event was a "Bedroom" event. Though, it might behoove you to do a test-event with a CONDITION = DAY 10 line and PLACE = Bedroom, just to see the exact timing of a "Bedroom" event. Also try PLACE = Bedroom (Morning) to see what the timing is on that.
author=Marrend
If it's true that each combo needs it's own dummy because of the tachie display at the end, you could INTRODUCE the dummy (dummies?) with the initial STORY for each combo.
That would lead to the initial dilema: how can I have a named char for the "chose your girl" dialog that is not listed in the phone list ...

author=Marrend
Though... wait. Couldn't the name-changing event in question occur in "Bedroom" on the previous day? I vaguely recall getting a text from Tsubasa during my initial play of her combined route with Shihoko, and I'm 90% sure the event occurred after the save-screen. The next day fired shortly after that. I did a cross-reference to the appropriate story-file, and that text-event was a "Bedroom" event. Though, it might behoove you to do a test-event with a CONDITION = DAY 10 line and PLACE = Bedroom, just to see the exact timing of a "Bedroom" event. Also try PLACE = Bedroom (Morning) to see what the timing is on that.

Sorry. Of course I meant the day before the last day ...
author=Mr. Help File
If the location as indicated by the PLACE command is Bedroom, the story will play at the very end of the day, after the status screen and before the next day's daily horoscope.
So the sequence would be (unless Mr. Help File lied to us): Bedroom of last night (i.e. DAY 100/150), Horoscope = start-of-day, Front A, School events, Front B, ENDING (in case of DAY 101/151)

DARN. A Bedroom scene on THAT day would probably not work if the player used a ring of sleep ... maybe I am wrong ... somehow there seem to be TWO bedroom screens (just flashing and closing) after using a ring-of-sleep

I don't think that a Bedroom (Morning) scene would autoplay.
According to Flourthief's post here Bedroom (Night) is the Location for "I got a text message" type STORYs since v2.0.

Bedroom (Morning) seems to be just another non standard location like Beach (Sunset).
Long story short: I just have to check all this.
This here seems to work - mostly at least.
Even if I use the "ring of sleep" by the way.
But there seem to be spurious events whithout any girls in them (like you normally only get if you have CLEAN MODE ON and no other STORY that can play in this mode). I am not sure about this ... I'll have to run additional tests.

# INTRODUCE Story - to make the ending available.
STORY 3434
CONDITION = 3406 DONE
CONDITION = DAY 100
PLACE = Bedroom
INTRODUCE = 3434
PRIORITY = High
ID = 3434
ID = 0
There is a message on my phone from Miki:
"Today is the moment of truth!"

STORY 3407
CONDITION = 3406 DONE
CONDITION = 3 LOVE
CONDITION = 4 LOVE
ENDING = 3434
#ENDING = 3,4

Main problem that remains: there can't be more then one Bedroom STORY on DAY 101 - so this will interfer with any other route using the same trick, that's no issue for my own stuff, since I can integrate the different DAY 101 hacks into one ...

The other issue is of course, that there seems no way to tell whether 151 mode is on or not. Oh, well. Guess I can hide the name on DAY 101 Front A (which should not trigger in 151 mode off) and reenable it on DAY 151 Bedroom.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I'm feeling a bit queasy about the events where nobody shows up as well. Though, if the players achieve the ending(s?) they are supposed to, I'd say that should be enough. Maybe that's just me talking, though?

*Edit: I can understand that this whole thing with unlocking endings for multiple characters at a time is pretty frustrating. The feature released with version 2.0, but, it was never really playtested. I feel partly to blame for that, as I was a beta-tester for this game long before I was promoted to... general manager? I suppose that's what I am now.
I abandoned the idea with that hidden fake emulated two person "character".

This just doesn't work out too well. It feels kludgy. I would have to dance around that 151 dilemma (which I am not too sure whether it would really work).

And things would just get crazy if some other content used a DAY 100 Bedroom STORY for something else.

Currently I am planing to offer alternative single girl ENDINGs when ever he earns a "double feature" but did not score the normal ENDINGs for the girls involved.

This should feel much more natural. And it might offer an opportunity to tell some interesting story variations (What would become of Riho's plans if <player> did not help her thru? Especially when he played her against her sister and decided for her in the very last moment?)
Here is an update for mutliending and here the corresponding version of cheatbot.

Main change is that I implemented bug preventing alternative endings for the case where you score a double-girl-ending and don't have any ohter options.

The easiest solution has been to provide at least one alternative single-girl-ending - I opted to provide one ending for each girl in any open double-girl-finale.

Cheatbot is focused on debuging the endgame ... since that was MY focus for the last few days.

Aside of this, I fixed about three million speelling misdages and grammar erors.
(And rephrased a few sentences).

Riho / Shihoko is a bit special since you would normally need to complete Riho's solo route anyways just to start my extention to this sidepath.

The other STORYs are designed to show alternative developments in the lives of Shihoko, Riho or Tsubasa if <player> fails their main routes and they somehow still fall for them.

Other then my STORY for Riho these should clearly seem less desirable then finishing their built-in routes (<player> failed them!). Tsubasa or Shihoko somehow finds her own way. And she wants to see <player> again - but the final outcome is less then certain.

Riho's alternative to Riho/Tsubasa is about a Riho who fails her great dream of finishing a very reknown university. But the result is anything but a failed life.


EDIT (2016-03-19): Important bugfix. Please redownload the .ZIP.
(Or change the JUMP 3517 in STORY 3517 to JUMP 3518)
So. Here is my hopefully finished (aka "release candidate 1") of my multiending stories: multiending-rc1.zip

It should feel finished - but certainly not 100% bugfree.

If it were to be published as "finished content", this is the picture I'd recommend as a "teaser":

It requires "clean mode off" (obviously), contains stories and a back ground pic, but no own profile, no music and no tachie.

For those having trouble to find the starts of my content:
Riho / Tsubasa
You need to find Riho and Tsubasa in game. Then you need to follow Tsubasa's route at least to the point where she asks about whom to belief


Riho / Shihoko
Find Riho and Shihoko in game. You need to finish Riho's route completely. You need to get Shihoko to "love" you. The built-in stories about them end with a scene in which Riho forces the player to swear her he won't go to a locker with Shihoko ... my first content starts after this.


Tsubasa / Shihoko
Find them both in game. Make them "love" you. Try to get Shihoko to "LOVE" before Tsubasa is ready to try "skillful techniques" with you.


Edit: for those having trouble meeting those girls ... PM me please ... I don't want to post to much spoilers openly.
Edit²: the background pic has been taken from the "SOSC Pack" published by Kevincalanor on the second post of this thread (I had to edit out the girl, alas).
Here is a first extremly early fragment of my new project.

Profiles are incomplete, the story has not really begun ... spelling errors are irrelevant right now ...

But.

I would really appreciate any feedback on TWO topics:

  • What do you think of the tachies?
  • The twins start a guess-the-twin game with player ... Is it to hard or is it to easy? Is it plain stupid?

This guessing game starts after just 2 or 3 introductory events. Everyone willing to play them for just a few minutes (clean mode ON!) is very much welcome. (Just don't expect anykind of storyline or completeness).
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I gave Garage's "Winggirl" pack a quick look-see. Mostly looking at the tachie at this point. The hair on the twins seems really awkward. It reminds me of... wait, where's the post/image...

....This post though, this image, more specifically. It's the same problem where the hair looks "buried" very unnaturally. I recommend moving that hair-layer to below the clothing layer(s). Unless, of course, you have the graphical prowess to do otherwise?

As a side-note, what is most irksome about this is that because they are twins, both sets of tachie have this issue.
author=Marrend
Unless, of course, you have the graphical prowess to do otherwise?

Who? me? That's a good one ...

Hmm - I thought the "tachie generator" had perfectly delt with clipping things that should not be above other things ...

Thank you very much for your feedback ... I'll look into it.