OS-tan Visual Novel!

[Chocofreak13]

that sounds good. nothing makes a better alarm that the smoke alarm. :3

so after tiger wakes up (and makes sure puma isn't going to torch the Mac Complex), what should be done after that? i'd assume she'd eat and get ready while talking to the other macs about the day. maybe here she'd learn of her tasks?

[Aurora Borealis]

After quite a bit of brainstorming and improvising, here's what I have for the beginning.

A new gameplay mechanic for this scenario is motivation. Tiger-tan must prove to her rival, OSX-tan that she's motivated enough to lead the arrangements! If Tiger gets too complacent, a bad ending may happen, or at least there'd be a difficulty spike. OSX and her perversion-fighting comrades are motivated enough to lead the arrangements, but their motivation needs some guidance, so they don't too distracted fighting the OSX-kuns, or end up fighting each other instead!


The scenario starts at 5:30 AM, with Puma-tan trying to cook breakfast, but sets the smoke alarm off. It turns out that System 3.4-tan was helping her, but one of her pigtails got caught on fire! (she's okay, it was only the tip of her pigtails that she lost, she even points out that's not the first time that happened)
-Puma-tan is cooking to practice for arranging the event; she chose to do this out of a sense of learned helplessness- she thinks that OSX and Cheetah will force her to do the cooking anyways, so she might as well choose to do so before they order her to!


*When this happens, Tiger-tan can choose whether to get out of bed to see what's going on or not.
   a. If she does:
   -Tiger talks with Puma, who explains that she was up in the morning because she thought she'd have to do the arrangements anyways. When Tiger sees OSX later in the morning, Tiger confronts her saying she's going too far and been too bossy towards Puma. She learns from Puma that today is the day the Windows Family visits for a meeting, and there's work to be done.
   -Tiger is motivated, and accepts the challenges.

   b. If she doesn't:
   -She tries to go to sleep. A few minutes after dozing off, she gets a text message from Snow Leopard-tan who tells her about the meeting that will be at the house. Snow Leopard reveals that she's at a Linux/Unix Consortium meeting this early in the morning because sleeping in fosters complacency, she also reveals that A/UX is at the meeting too.

   **There is a second choice: Prepare now, or sleep in.

   b1: She goes to the kitchen and talks with Puma, who offers her some food. Not wanting to be rude, Tiger tries some, but passes out for a few hours because her cooking was that bad! She wakes up to some chaos, with OSX and her comrades chasing the OSX-kuns for spying on Mac OS9-tan. She must resolve this conflict, but to do so puts her at odds with OSX-tan!
   -Rhapsody and Panther show up, to politely tell them to keep quiet because Rhapsody needs to rehearse for the family meeting. Because they're busy, Tiger is entrusted with keeping everyone else in check.
   -Tiger intervening makes her motivated, and willingly accepts the challenges.
   -OSX and Cheetah state that keeping the household quiet is what they want to do, but to do that, they need to subdue the OSX-kuns first, fight chaos with chaos if necessary!

   b2: If Tiger sleeps in.
   -She wakes up at 6:15 to the sounds of machines running. She runs downstairs and sees that System 6-tan is running some machines that are cleaning the house. Leopard also shows up, very excited to see the machines, and she wants to see how they work by operating them herself! It's hinted at (or maybe said outright) that System 6-tan got up before everyone else so she could work while it's quiet, even admitting that she struggled to work on that when her allies (OSX,OS8 and Cheetah) are awake and causing chaos!
      -If Tiger ignores them, Leopard gets a hold of the remote and accidentally presses the self-destruct button. System 6-tan does not take that well, losing the head-start she had with leading the arrangements!
      **This is the first major pitfall in the scenario, which can happen at different time frames depending on your earliest choices. Like with the XP's and 95's interactions in the XP scenario, this pitfall has worse consequences the later in the day it happens!
      -to add insult to injury, it's right after that incident that Snow Leopard sends a text message to Tiger warning her about Leopard's curiousity and how she needs to stay away from machinery if the house is to be prepared for a meeting!
   -Tiger reluctantly accepts the challenges of leading the arrangements. Trying to sleep in took away some of her initiative.

[Chocofreak13]

i like this dude. it seems like a perfect fit for them in that its similar, but not a clone of the XP scenario. ^^

(maybe we should organize the windows scenario into something like this. this is so concise i can't think of anything to say. xD

[Aurora Borealis]

Thanks! It's strange that I had an easier time thinking about the XP scenario overall, but had an easier time writing out the Tiger scenario more concisely although all I have is the beginning for it.

When I get back to the XP scenario, I'll try to elaborate on it like I somehow managed to with this one.

I'm still struggling with what happens after these beginning events, labeled "a", "b1" and "b2", but I wonder if giving some hints about the characters involved will generate some event ideas?

[Chocofreak13]

knowing what characters to expect might help us plan the scenarios better, since then we can come up with situations tailor-made to them, rather than speculating.

so tell me, who did you have in mind? (and you mentioned the other arcs involving the other two main characters; i'm curious to know if these characters would be included in the first two stories the way XP is going to be represented in Tiger's story and vice versa.

[Dr. Kraus]

Why haven't I been in this discussion until now?

Been looking for a good game project to start up on recently and I think (if its ok with you all) I would like to code all this out and make it happen.

Luckily, VN's are pretty easy to code out depending on what language is used (C++, C#, Python, XNA, Java, etc.) so if all the story is set out (haven't taken a deep look in the previous posts) and the art is in place, I could start developing this game in my free time [1-2 days a week, 4 hours] and get a crude Alpha release out there.

Let me know what you all think about this, I'm more than happy to put some time in a project like this.

[Chocofreak13]

take that up with aurora. pretty sure she was thinking of doing it in ren'py, but i imagine that she would love the extra support. :3

that said, we're still working out plot, so we're in the alpha stage of the alpha. stick around if you want, it's always nice to have multiple people to bounce ideas off of. ^^

[Aurora Borealis]

@Kraus: I'm using Ren'py to program this. I have the basic framework planned out, and I can implement the story branches and some of the gameplay mechanics, but I could use your help with the advanced stuff and possibly also refining the code to be more efficient. 

For now, we're just working with the story. If you have any suggestions, feel free to post them!

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In the Tiger-tan scenario, OSX-tan, Cheetah-tan, OS8-tan and System 6-tan are teaming up to lead the arrangements. They will somehow because they don't like to concede, in particular, OSX-tan is very stubborn! As a team, they are very determined, but are prone to getting carried away with their ambitions. It's OSX-tan that Tiger is rivals with though.

-Puma-tan wants to be helpful. She doesn't mind being the maid of the Mac House as long as whoever needs her to do something is polite about it. She likes that Tiger asks her politely, unlike OSX and Cheetah, who seem to bully her; she sides with Tiger, which angers OSX.
   -Puma-tan isn't good at socializing, and is bad at cooking, but is good at other tasks.

-Leopard-tan is very curious and will try to snoop around in various places for something to do, especially if it's technology-related. She isn't interested in the power struggles, or attaining leadership for that matter, but may still cause trouble. She can be very helpful if she allies with the right characters.

-OSX-tan is the leader of this group and doesn't like when any of her comrades stray from her ideals and start favoring neutrality, or worse yet, her rival because as a group divided, they would be less efficient! Aside from their power struggle, she sees Tiger as a threat to her plans' efficiency.
   -OS9-tan, Rhapsody-tan and System 7-tan have the ability to easily calm her down.

-Cheetah-tan is hot-blooded, and mischievous, but she isn't as nearly as confident as she appears to be, so to try and make up for that, she is the most sadistic of her perversion-fighting comrades. She is also one of the least stable Mac-tans.

-System 6-tan has a sense of loyalty to her comrades. She may however contribute to leading the arrangements independently if it means getting things done without conflict (as shown in one of the beginning choices), but that may backfire because of her own boisterousness. She's also a softy at heart who can't stand the power struggle, but she can't possibly admit that or act as such when around OSX, Cheetah, or most others for that matter.

-Mac OS8-tan is a cheerful and foolhardy fighter who admires OSX-tan, and is more likely to side with her, but she is level-headed and the main tactician of the group, and the easiest to reason with.

-System 7-tan is a practicing katana-wielder. She's not swing-happy as 95-tan, actually she's very non-chalant and doesn't want to instigate any conflict, but may still wield it in a way that will get her point across if push comes to shove. She'll want to be helpful to both sides, is a big-sister figure to the Macs, and is good at resolving conflicts (as long as she doesn't emotionally freeze up).

-Mac OS9-tan being another big-sister figure, is generally helpful to everyone. She'll help with tasks in what ever way she can, but is too busy to help with resolving conflicts.

-Panther-tan is neutral, and is helping Rhapsody-tan rehearse.

-Jaguar-tan might show up, if she does, she'd be a cheerful comedy relief character. 

-System 3.4-tan is there at the beginning, but may leave early on (she doesn't live at the Mac House), or possibly be one of Tiger's allies. Either that or be a freeloader. She wouldn't be a good ally though, since the goal is to achieve order and harmony between clashing individuals; concepts that she struggles to comprehend, she's better at comprehending chaos!

-The other early Mac-tans are at the Binteeji Renmei at the start of the scenario, Snow Leopard, A/UX and possibly Lion are at the Linux/Unix Consortium meeting. (In the A/UX-tan scenario, she's trying to avoid going to the meeting!) Depending on choices made, certain characters will visit and may help out.

[Chocofreak13]

in this case it seems like the logical step for tiger is to get everyone on her side as fast as possible. i'd say the easiest route to this is to first talk to the characters she's friendly with, then work up to the more neutral characters, finishing with the more hardcore characters. i doubt OSX could be reasoned with, unless she's the only one left on her side.

as with the XP scenario, this would likely be a timed thing, as well as having to weigh this responsibility with all the other tasks she's been charged with. ^^; it feels like it would be a great undertaking, but since it's less of an "official" task, i doubt it would be formally mentioned like the other tasks.

[Chocofreak13]

since puma's already on tiger's side, i'd imagine that she'd serve the same purpose that ME does to XP-tan in her scenario. having someone with her might help convince others to join (group mentality).

the tactics for getting them on her side might have to be tweaked depending on the character. for instance, OS9 would likely be persuaded if she could be convinced that everyone wants the same goal, just that tiger is going for a more peaceful route towards it; the OSX-kuns would likely help her if she was willing to be a little flexible with the dress code. xD

[Dr. Kraus]

@Kraus: I'm using Ren'py to program this. I have the basic framework planned out, and I can implement the story branches and some of the gameplay mechanics, but I could use your help with the advanced stuff and possibly also refining the code to be more efficient. 

Sounds good, I'll poke my head in here every once and a while to see how its going and to see if I can add to the story a bit.

Taim to work on a Windows Phone App!

[Chocofreak13]

good luck man. post in the computer section when it's done, i'm curious. ^^

[Aurora Borealis]

@Choco: Yeah, that's essentially the strategy, and different tactics would have to be used. There may also be some curveballs in the way. Can't let this get too easy. XD

For example, if Tiger and Puma are working together and Puma is happy, that may encourage OS9 to want to join her, but for OS9 to be an ally, she'll also need to hear the other side's story in a way she's convinced that both sides are trying to work towards the same goal. Similar thing for System 7, but Tiger (and her allies) need to find her first because she's more introverted, whole OS9 is more extroverted.

Jaguar will side with whoever seems to be more fun to be around (once again this depends on the player's choices that were made). She doesn't take the conflict or the meeting very seriously, which could unfortunately make her more of a liability than an asset, or maybe her cheerfulness can give Tiger some more of the motivation she needs. She could be considered either depending on characters' moods and Tiger's level of motivation.

Leopard is a tricky character. She's sorta antagonistic towards both sides because they don't like when she's snooping around. I think that at first she'd side with the other team if System 6 lets her work on the machines she is/was using to automate tasks. (It's also worth mentioning that Tiger probably has some skills like that too, referencing the 'widgets' that Tiger introduced) For Tiger to ally her, will she have to out-stubborn Leopard, or surprise her by being diplomatic, and even forgiving? Or maybe bribe her with electronic gadgets to work on?

[Chocofreak13]

all of those options on how to get the character could impact story. out-stubborning leopard seems like the worst option, as this could breed more conflict and potentially scare away the more pacifist members.  i imagine a bribe would be semi-neutral, though if it got out that tiger bribed leopard to be on her side, that might reflect negatively on tiger's character, making the story lean more towards a bad end. the third option seems best, since peace and diplomacy is the goal of everyone, isn't it?

[Aurora Borealis]

Those will all be choices, each having their trade-offs.

Peace and diplomacy are the goal, but going the diplomatic route all the time won't be the fastest...

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I'm coding what we have of the XP scenario so far to test if all the story options work, and test if each time and condition-specific event is obtainable.