ccxvidonaferens

Active Member
May 25, 2022
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"Development Update 57

22. Juli

Hey guys, We are less than three weeks away from the release date I set for the beta release. So, I am sure you are all wondering how we are..."


I hope this will be true...
Lets temper expectations though by reminding ourselves and others that, that is the date for the Beta release which is quite likely to feature a few bugs and issues which may break your saves. Could be better to wait the additional month for the fixed release and save yourselves the heartache.
 

clownmeat

Newbie
Nov 11, 2017
22
51
Lets temper expectations though by reminding ourselves and others that, that is the date for the Beta release which is quite likely to feature a few bugs and issues which may break your saves. Could be better to wait the additional month for the fixed release and save yourselves the heartache.
ive played every beta release for this game since it came out and have literally never had this happen to me
 
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ccxvidonaferens

Active Member
May 25, 2022
728
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ive played every beta release for this game since it came out and have literally never had this happen to me
You're lucky then. You look through this thread at each release and you will see a number of complaints about broken quests or things not working as they should. It happens. Not to everyone but it does happen. The most memorable one for me was the issue with the 'bikini' flag and not being able to visit the lake on a saturday afternoon, though that was two or three updates ago, but there have been others.
 

GamerDaddy

Engaged Member
Feb 6, 2023
2,299
1,384
You're lucky then. You look through this thread at each release and you will see a number of complaints about broken quests or things not working as they should. It happens. Not to everyone but it does happen. The most memorable one for me was the issue with the 'bikini' flag and not being able to visit the lake on a saturday afternoon, though that was two or three updates ago, but there have been others.
i remember that one i got hit with that one also.. and then i had the issue with the twins punishment
 
Mar 29, 2023
68
116
is the android ver of 12.3.1 the equivalent of the pc 15.3.1? or thats not the case?
My understanding is that android has limits on apk size so the HM build for android is no longer updated. To get around this you need to use joiplay. That will let you run the windows version of HM on your android device. There is a guide on the headmaster discord (I've also heard the joiplay discord can be helpful)
 

Paul3312

New Member
Dec 1, 2018
6
3
My understanding is that android has limits on apk size so the HM build for android is no longer updated. To get around this you need to use joiplay. That will let you run the windows version of HM on your android device. There is a guide on the headmaster discord (I've also heard the joiplay discord can be helpful)
Estrada777 does an android port that is fully up to date so no need to use joiplay.
 
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raven54

Newbie
Sep 12, 2022
62
135
Guys the beta breaking your saves is a very real thing don't be stupid.
Breaking savegames is actually surprisingly easy. All it takes is a typo when setting a flag in a scene. It's easily fixable, but all savegames, which has seen that scene have now failed to set that flag correctly and worst case they are all beyond repair. That is unless you "hack" the game as in using the console to set the flag. Ren'py's savegame system is good for a released game, but maybe not so much for a game, which is updated. Actually that's not really the fault of ren'py, it's more like a general issue with visual novel engines or games in general.

Given how much and how easy things can go wrong, I'm actually more surprised that it doesn't happen more often.
 
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Cartageno

Devoted Member
Dec 1, 2019
8,903
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Breaking savegames is actually surprisingly easy. All it takes is a typo when setting a flag in a scene. It's easily fixable, but all savegames, which has seen that scene have now failed to set that flag correctly and worst case they are all beyond repair. That is unless you "hack" the game as in using the console to set the flag. Ren'py's savegame system is good for a released game, but maybe not so much for a game, which is updated. Actually that's not really the fault of ren'py, it's more like a general issue with visual novel engines or games in general.

Given how much and how easy things can go wrong, I'm actually more surprised that it doesn't happen more often.
Should be in most cases fixable through the game as well. E. g. when loading, have a check whether "wrongly_spelled_flag" is set then set "correct_spelling" and delete the other. However, that adds some code which will rarely be needed and may cause problems of its own down the way when you forget about it.
 

raven54

Newbie
Sep 12, 2022
62
135
Should be in most cases fixable through the game as well. E. g. when loading, have a check whether "wrongly_spelled_flag" is set then set "correct_spelling" and delete the other. However, that adds some code which will rarely be needed and may cause problems of its own down the way when you forget about it.
I didn't mention error correcting code as my goal was to give a simple example of how easy it is to break savegames if you aren't careful. It was a response to questioning the risk of savegames being broken in the first place and that risk is indeed real.

The issue can easily be more complex than that. Say flag A failed to increase from 4 to 5. You can't correct it by just looking for A being 4 as that is a valid value. You would have to do something like if A is 4, B greater than 7 and C greater than 3, then set A to 5. That should fix it, but what if the scene setting A to 5 also sets C to 4. Is it possible to save between setting C and setting A? Setting A to 5 when it is 5 should be fine, but what if the code says "A = A + 1". Now A is suddenly 6 when it should be 5. To get around this issue, we can run the correction code on new day event rather than on savegame load. That way we know it's not in the middle of the scene, but then....

My point is that broken savegames can likely be fixed given enough effort, but it requires development time and somebody to think through what can go wrong and counter it. This time is taken from creating new content so it might not be the best use of the time. That is unless somebody will do it and wouldn't do anything else either way.

There is also the risk that something changes and instead of C greater than 3, it should become C greater than 4, but the correction code isn't updated and then A is incorrect again. In this scenario the error correcting code broke an otherwise working savegame. This is a strong argument for not making complex error fixes and just accept that beta releases comes with some risk and players should make savegame backups or accept that they might break their save and have to start over.

It should be added that this is not strictly a beta only issue. It's just more likely with the beta as it's less tested.
 
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Unregustered

New Member
May 25, 2018
5
19
new as of when?
There hasn't really been anything substantially new in a few years now really. The Dev gets kinda stuck in a cycle of overcomplicating things and writing elaborate things that are very hard to execute, then apologising for taking a very long time on patreon.

He kinda needs to stop advancing and focus on catching up at least the core group of characters with small neat updates. That will make the game feel great and allow players to do pathfinding for what/who interests them, whereas currently if you're lucky and like one of the girls or storlyines he has tons of content for you're pleased but if you liked something that was hinted at and is likely to never be completed you'll be dissapointed no matter how far the game advances.

I'm saying this as a former sub and an experienced game developer.

The biggest content updates have been a massively elaborate side quest for the president of the students, and promises of some canteen shenanigans, and some weird side trip to someone who sponsors the school's house.

Imagine instead if the more boring but more important tidying up of stage one-two with each of the characters had been completed?
 
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