OS-tan Visual Novel!

[Aurora Borealis]

Homeo will appear later. Homeko would actually be eager to see the Macs come over to visit, so she can pair Homeo and OS9-kun together for yaoi! Knowing how awkward that would be, XP tries to stop her plans. But by trying to stop Homeko from enforcing yaoi pairings; she will end up causing chaos which must be kept under control so 2k and NT can rehearse!

I'd like to add some cameos too.

At this point, I should make a roadmap of the planned options so far.

[Chocofreak13]

go for it aurora, i'm looking forward to what you come up with. :3

also, i'm going to be having good dreams tonight after hearing about yaoi parings. -w-

[Aurora Borealis]

@Choco: Thanks! Now I've thought about adding an option where XP-tan, Nanami, or 2k (let's just say she was at least somewhat prepared for this!) buys Homeko some yaoi manga to keep her distracted!



Here's what we have so far for a roadmap:

XP Scenario (story):

*Who XP-tan wakes up first:
-Homeko: Hard to wake up; ends up antagonistic later. Will be crankier than usual if you wake her up now.
-Vistan: Also antagonistic when she finds out that XP is doing the arrangements.
-Nanami: Safest choice!

*When and where XP first meets 95-tan:
-In the kitchen in the morning
-At the dojo in the morning
-In the kitchen in the afternoon (if she was in the dojo in the morning, but XP didn't visit.)
**These decisions influence what role 95-tan will take. She doesn't easily concede, and wants to do something leader-like.

*Where is ME-tan in the morning?
-In the kitchen helping 95-tan cook.
   -How does 95-tan feel about this? ^^;
-In the kitchen cooking on her own (if 95 is in the dojo)
   -XP can choose whether or not to help ME with cooking.
-Watching TV with 3.1 and DOS.
**ME's role will be influenced by these decisions.
**Another factor is if XP mentions that she's leading the arrangements or not.
   -if XP tells her, ME will tag along!

*Homeko shows up at some point causing trouble for Homeo.
-Haven't decided at what point this happens.

*At some point, 3.1 and DOS will help XP if the house is quiet enough.

=========

When doing the programming for the first in-game choices, I included a few new gameplay mechanics:
1. An in-game clock with a deadline; a bad ending will happen if the event isn't well-organized on time.
2. Character's mood. Some characters start in a good or bad mood, changes in a character's mood can change outcomes and choices available.
3. How chaotic the household is at a given point can also change outcomes and choices available. It also affects the character's moods.

[Chocofreak13]

mmm, those mechanics sound nice. :3 while ME-tan might like the chaos, the Vintage-tans would hate it. xD

that said, it might help to decide the scenarios if we come up with a list of what needs to be done to prepare for the Macs' arrival. i imagine that the room would have to be cleaned, the food made, the house kept quiet, the door greeted, and other things as well. ^^;

also, what would you think of this? if there's 6 tasks then if 5-6 of them get done, a favourable ending, 3-4, a mid-grade ending, and 0-2 would result in a poor ending.

[Aurora Borealis]

Okay. I haven't yet put much thought into the tasks themselves, instead I've been focusing on the character interactions.

The tasks are not only what you described, but also preventing them from getting undone!

If the tasks not completed on time are fairly minor, everyone could work together and get it done. Maybe the two families will learn the value of teamwork!

[Chocofreak13]

that'd be nice. ^^

any thoughts on what else is going on? the sequence, i mean. so far we had xp waking up to 2k, then visting the vintage-tans, thn waking up the others, then seeing 95 or ME?

[Aurora Borealis]

That's mostly what I have so far. I came up with a few more things, but there are still some gaps that need to be filled.

I think Homeko would get up at around noon, she'd get a snack from the kitchen, where she overhears that XP-tan is making the arrangements for the meeting. If ME-tan knows about it and has been tagging along with XP-tan, it is ME-tan who outright tells Homeko. Homeko doesn't mind that and doesn't cause trouble at first, but she becomes antagonistic when XP confronts her about bothering Homeo!

Though in between XP visiting ME or 95 in the morning, and Homeko and Homeo at around noon, I can hardly think of anything. x_x

I know that 95-tan will show up multiple times, first in the morning if XP visits her, then around lunch time, then in the afternoon.

At noon or the afternoon, 3.1 and DOS will be in the garden. They also invited DOS/V to be with them.
   -If they're in a good mood and the household is quiet, they decided to go outside to contemplate the meaning of life or something like that. If XP talks with them, they will volunteer to help her.
  -If they're in a bad mood because the household is chaotic, they went outside to try and get away from it, and they won't help XP.
-Inu-T will also be outside playing without bothering 3.1 and DOS. If ME-tan is tagging along with XP, it's Nanami who'se playing with her. If ME-tan isn't tagging along, she'd be here with Inu-T. If XP talks with them and goes back indoors, they will too, and try to help someone.

Vistan would show up sometime after the morning, after exercising outside. She's actually more competitive against Nanami than the against the XP-tans. Still, she'd be antagonistic because she's in a bad mood.

[Chocofreak13]

xp wakes up ➞
visits vintage-tans ➞
investigates kitchen ➞
wakes up others ➞
visits 95/ME (depending on who was in the kitchen) ➞

maybe after this XP could look at her goals for the day? the player would see what needs to be done and then could seek out people to do it by exploring the house.
maybe after getting 2 of those tasks laid out (or, alternately, 1 in game hour passes), it would cut to the part with the Vintage-tans in the garden. After talking to them (and possibly Inu-T and whoever she's playing with), XP could come inside and either meet up with 95 or Homeko. (if nanami was playing with Inu-T and XP talked to them, maybe Vistan would be there as well, offering hauty remarks because of Nanami.)

after talking to whoever she met up with, XP could go back to looking for people to fill in the tasks, with the people she saw before being in different rooms now. after 2 tasks are filled in (or one in-game hour passes), something similar would happen.

[Aurora Borealis]

To keep track of what we have so far, just that roadmap isn't enough, and I needed to start sort of a time table to keep track of the events and options that can happen in each time frame. Adding the time mechanic made this more complicated. There are also some events that result in losing valuable time, one of them being if XP gets in an escalated argument with 95, 95 may lash out and incapacitate XP for hours! Also if XP needs to clean up ME-tan's mess if ME was (trying to) cook breakfast, an hour would be wasted.

-if XP gets injured due to an escalated argument, the player will come dangerously close to a bad ending if it's not resolved quickly, especially if the argument happened in the afternoon! When this happens, XP, who would be bed-ridden at the time, will need someone to calm down the household, and make amends while she can't.

-if 95 is in a good mood and helps ME cook breakfast after ME messed up, that might not be a bad thing. Some of the OS-tans will be happier because that way they didn't miss breakfast!

When planning out events such as XP meeting 3.1 and DOS in the garden, I decided to plan them out by time passed instead of tasks completed since that was more manageable.

Among the tasks XP needs to do, or coordinate:
-cleaning up messes (i.e: laundry on the floor)
-do the laundry
-cooking supper, finding someone or two to help her with cooking
-assign someone to greet guests at the door
-assign someone to make tea
-set the table (and wash the dishes if they're dirty)
-make the decorations
-coordinate these tasks while keeping the household quiet, this includes avoiding or breaking up conflicts.

I thought up a few more events for the XP scenario:

1. 98-tan and 98 SE-tan are seen playing together, but at noon, 98-tan needs to run an errand, SE is bored so she starts tormenting Homeo when he wakes up.
   -what the errand is depends on some choices earlier in the game.
   -in one of the outcomes, 98 needs SE's help; SE is happy to have something to do!

2. 3.2-tan visiting because 3.1 and DOS invited her over.
   -she plans on visiting at 2 pm, and only will if the household is quiet enough at the time.
   -what she does varies on what 3.1's mood was earlier.
   -one outcome is that she quietly watches TV with DOS, DOS/V and 3.1.
  -another outcome is a prank on the family with 3.2 to dress just like 3.1 but 'act out of character' while 3.1 is nearby.

Most Windows-tans who see her in either outcome will freak out and think 3.1 has a clone or stunt double, or thing they're seeing double! Depending on who sees her, the prank may either be taken well or backfire.

[Chocofreak13]

i'm liking all of this so far. ^^

in terms of XP being incapacitated, while this would make the game ALOT harder, it could result in a hard-to-get alternate ending in where one of the other characters takes over as the playable character.

i think mood would be an important factor in this game (though this was already obvious). depending on choices made earlier in the game (like whether or not XP seeked out 95 in the morning), 95 would either be cheerful enough to help clean up ME's mess or cranky enough to leave her to her own devices.

i imagine that breaking up conflict would also involve keeping everyone in a good mood (as in keeping Homeo from being tormented and MSDOS from being upset, we don't want to see the poor girl cry!!) as well as keeping those hostile towards one another apart (as in keeping Vistan and Nanami in separate rooms).

you really think letting XP cook dinner is a good idea? i guess that would be a test of her willpower, but me thinks it'd be better offered to someone else, like 95. ^^; (in this case, Inu-T would probably make a great helper, since she probably helps NT do it all the time.)

i like the 98 scenario, but maybe the 3.2 scenario could be an extra one depending on the player's course of action over the day? (nothing against 3.2, but i just don't want us to get ahead of ourselves.)

[Aurora Borealis]

Thanks!

That sounds good having another character take over while XP is incapacitated. I'll include that if it's not too difficult to do so.

If XP cooks dinner, she will need someone to help her so she doesn't end up eating it. That will be a deliberate pitfall in the game. If XP is depressed enough and goes to the kitchen in the afternoon, there is the option of raiding the fridge for comfort food, and ending up eating the ingredients needed for supper!

3.2-tan's scenario in the story is an extra one. The first condition that needs to be met for it to happen is if XP sees 3.1-tan talking on the phone between 9 and 10 am. The kitchen-related pitfalls may prevent this from being met.

I was also thinking of having other visitors show up if 3.2 doesn't as an alternative, maybe like Linspire-tan, whose a Windows famgirl? Or how about Linux XP, the professional XP-tan impersonator?

[Chocofreak13]

god help us if barbie linux shows up. ^^;


i like the idea of having a bonus character show up, but having a different one if different requirements. (i like the idea of one of those characters being 2k-kun coming home from the office. ^^)
(btw, before i forget, the person who breaks up the conflict might also want to put people who get along together, for example ME-tan/kun, Homeo, Kyourou, and potentially Nanao.
i think that this task should fall to XP anyway, since that would be another challenge to the player. :3)

i like the idea of that pitfall. xD though, if the scenario has ME still following XP around, that could be a way to avoid XP scarfing down the ingredients. :3

in a way, one of the best tasks for ME might just be to follow XP around and help with the various tasks that she has to perform, like relegating the tasks to other people. i think that whenever XP has a task to assign, if ME is with her, she should have the option to give the task to ME, but secretly have the best ending come from keeping ME around. :3

[Aurora Borealis]

Those all good ideas! I think that if 2k-kun is one of the extras, he'd be especially helpful in some way.

=====

Right now, I'm also trying to piece together a story for the Tiger-tan scenario before I forgot, but I'm just having the hardest time right now. It's like I spent all of my mental energy just planning the XP scenario, that I didn't leave any left over for this one, let alone the other two! x_x

[Chocofreak13]

we could make it similar to the XP scenario, with some differences, like one of tiger's tasks being that she has to get everyone ready and keep 7.5 calm. one of her conflicts could be the Catboys' choice of attire; wearing speedos and eye patches is hardly formal attire! xD

[Aurora Borealis]

I don't think I'm going to include 7.5 as a main character, but I can see her as being one of the extras who may visit, and a particularly challenging one at that.

Good call on the OSX-kuns' choice of attire being a conflict. Cheetah-tan would want them to wear speedos and eye patches, which would put her at odds with.. uhh... most of the others. But considering what Tiger wears as her main attire, I think her idea of a dress code would be pretty lenient!

Before I get to the other stuff with Tiger-tan's scenario, I need to come up with an introduction. One I had in mind was everyone being woken up early in the morning because Puma was trying to cook breakfast, and she set the smoke alarm off.