Recovering the lost Steve Irson scene

[irioth]

After reading Steve Irson's PoD segments, I got eager for more material of hers. After reading she once had a face-to-face scene with the PC in Myrellion that was removed out of controversy, I dearly regretted it was lost, and I got rather curious to read it nevertheless, self-censorship be damned. The controversy happened before I got myself involved with TiTS, I assume I broadly understand the reasons why several people found the scene distasteful or controversial, but according to my own views, tastes, and fetishes I am honestly driven to disagree with or disregard pretty much all of them. I do not mean to restart what I understand was a rather troublesome and vicious argument (but please don't try to change my opinion on this issue) but I'd really appreciate if it were possible for me to read/play the 'lost' Steph Irson scene in some form. I understand Savin was the creator of this material, but unfortunately it seems it cannot be found among the stuff Savin made available, either free or for Patreon supporters (and the latter was rather disappointing, since this is the kind of stuff I expected to get for my $15)). However I reason out at some point an update with this material must have existed, and the way Patreon updates work, it should still be available from that avenue, even if the game's authors removed it elsewhere. However I have no idea about the period when this material was temporarily made available. Could anyone kindly tell me about it ? And the update number, if at all possible ? Would it break the code if I attempt to run such an older build with my more recent saves (I tentatively mean to use a save of mine when the PC had just got on Myrellion) ? As much as my curiosity to read this scene is considerable, it is not probably enough to replay TiTS from the beginning once again.

 

[Psyside]

Its basically this. A lot of people bitched about the forced bimbofication and it got removed. This is because in New Texas she is forcefully Treated. I also loved the scene and Savin said that Fen also loved it a lot, but too many people complained so RIP. I don't think it will be returning so sorry man i loved it too. The possibilities for that story branching out were amazing

 

[Savin]

I made the decision to cut the scene because it ultimately didn't serve the game in the way I'd wanted. It's going to stay cut. Don't turn this into a discussion; it will not end well for you.


If someone has a copy for OP, they're welcome to post it. But I deleted it from Steph's documents, and the code was removed from the game itself. 

 

[irioth]

I made the decision to cut the scene because it ultimately didn't serve the game in the way I'd wanted. It's going to stay cut. Don't turn this into a discussion; it will not end well for you.


If someone has a copy for OP, they're welcome to post it. But I deleted it from Steph's documents, and the code was removed from the game itself. 

Well, I'm a Patreon subscriber, and the way Patreon updates seem to work, I assume the old, original game update(s) with this material should still be available in their site's log for me to find and download, even if it was deleted elsewhere. Unfortunately, I have no idea when they were posted, To manually search for them by checking every update's changelog really looks like a chore, and this issue seems to have occurred before this forum was created.  What period and approximate version number are we talking about ?

 

[Psyside]

Well, I'm a Patreon subscriber, and the way Patreon updates seem to work, I assume the old, original game update(s) with this material should still be available in their site's log for me to find and download, even if it was deleted elsewhere. Unfortunately, I have no idea when they were posted, To manually search for them by checking every update's changelog really looks like a chore, and this issue seems to have occurred before this forum was created.  What period and approximate version number are we talking about ?

just look for when Myrelon came out around that time

 

[PyrateHyena]

Well, I'm a Patreon subscriber, and the way Patreon updates seem to work, I assume the old, original game update(s) with this material should still be available in their site's log for me to find and download, even if it was deleted elsewhere. Unfortunately, I have no idea when they were posted, To manually search for them by checking every update's changelog really looks like a chore, and this issue seems to have occurred before this forum was created.  What period and approximate version number are we talking about ?

Sorry to disagree with you here, but that is not how Patreon is used. You use it to support a project AKA the creation of a product with money. Nothing more. Everything you get extra for being a supporter depends on the creators and if they decide (after long and bloody conflict) that something has got to be axed, it SHOULD in my opinion stay axed. Primarily because there usually and in this case were and are good reasons for that decision. Not being willing to check the changelogs is just lazy. Sorry to say that, but that really is no considerable amount of work. If something is important enough to make a forum post about it, it should be worth ten to twenty minutes of your time to sort it out yourself. I apologize for being a bitch, but stuff like this makes me bitchy (not that I never post stuff like this...). Please remember the magic word OPINION .

 

[Noob Salad]

Try the August 2015 build.


@Nonesuch: I think Savin's saying he deleted it from his original doc. Not sure how Google handles file history though.

 

[Nonesuch]

I think the guy just wants to look at it, which is fine. Could link him the original doc.

 

[Savin]

I think the guy just wants to look at it, which is fine. Could link him the original doc.

I would, if I hadn't deleted it.

 

[Krynh]

@irioth  Heres  an older version https://e621.net/post/show/688886/abdominal_bulge-aliss_-tits-all_the_way_through-an I'm not sure its the right one but the only others are an older and latest build.

 

[irioth]

Ok, I've read two years' worth of changelogs from updates for Patreon subscribers (it took me rather more than 10 to 20 minutes, o bitchy one) and the only entry related to the Steph inrson encounter is in 0.5.34, where Fenoxo tells "Geddy assures me that Steph Irson is encounterable on Myrellion.". I assume the encounter was removed at some unspecified moment after that, and added sometime after 0.5.19 (when No Myr's Land was unlocked). I was unable to find other references, either of addition or of deletion for this encounter, but maybe they were in the public updates' changelogs which I've been unable to retrieve. So I suppose I should use 0.5.34 to try and read the 'lost' Steph Irson encounter. I can only hope more recent saves of mine are compatible, and the encounter unlocks with a decent chance (that entry is not too encouraging...). Thanks to everybody who offered constructive and helpful advice. Too bad the wiki doesn't tell which area of Myrellion the encounter is supposed to happen in, but judging from the related video, I assume it should be either the Deep Caves or (less likely) No Myr's Land.


EDIT: Unfortunately, it seems my saves are incompatible with this older version. At the moment, I don't have the time, energy, and dedication to replay a whole playthrough from scratch just to try and unlock this scene. Oh well. But I'll keep the old version, just in case. Unfortunately, I don't even begin to have the necessary IT skills to extract the relevant code from the game (even if I've gotten fairly good at save editing).

 

[Jacques00]

Too bad the wiki doesn't tell which area of Myrellion the encounter is supposed to happen in, but judging from the related video, I assume it should be either the Deep Caves or (less likely) No Myr's Land.

It was indeed in No Man's Land--inside a small cave ("A Cavern", now empty and potentially hazardous in the later versions).

 

[Noob Salad]

You don't need to do a whole playthrough. If you just want to see the scene, trigger her shows, and then use the Marco Polo cheat to find her at Myrellion.


Also, her code wasn't removed from the game; only the stephCampEncounter function was deleted from the room she was in. I attached her file so you can simply read through the scene if you'd prefer.


View attachment steph.as

 

[irioth]

Thank you a lot. To read the scene was pleasant. After doing so, I have satisfied my curiosity, but I also have to state, controversial or not, for the life of me I don't really 'get' or sympathize with what complaining people found so distasteful in it as to force its removal. To me it looks like a fairly heartwarming scene of one adventurer/ess helping a fellow soul who met a frustrating, abusive dead end in her career to turn a new leaf, two options out of three. The scene feels to me more or less the same way as the final part of the encounter with Grey Prime, with Steele potentially playing the part of corporate fairy godmother in both cases. If anything, now I regret even more it shall never be possible to have Steph Irson as a recurrent NPC, or even a follower, in the foreseeable future. I would have liked her as a recurrent NPC or follower more than several other canon options. Oh well, people are weird.

 

[Noob Salad]

In a previous Steph episode, she was raped and given the Treatment against her will. Similar things have happened and will continue to happen in Fengames (at least to the PC), but having something done to this extent (and to an NPC who couldn't fight back) were deemed too much (which I agree with). So that scene was changed and her followup scene was removed.


Anyway, this wasn't a last minute or whimsical decision. There was a ton of forum backlash and controversy. Don't worry, Steph will still be around and she'll have more content in the future, just different.


TL;DR: Our brain was creeped out and our hearts fell in love with Steph. This caused an electrical signal to be sent to our penises, softening them enough to hit the Veto button down below.

 

[Woider]

TL;DR: Our brain was creeped out and our hearts fell in love with Steph. This caused an electrical signal to be sent to our penises, softening them enough to hit the Veto button down below.

And when it all comes down to it, TiTS is about giving people boners and lady-boners.

 

[irioth]

In a previous Steph episode, she was raped and given the Treatment against her will. Similar things have happened and will continue to happen in Fengames (at least to the PC), but having something done to this extent (and to an NPC who couldn't fight back) was deemed too much (which I agree with). So it was changed and her followup scene was removed.


Anyway, this wasn't a last minute or whimsical decision. There was a ton of forum backlash and controversy. Don't worry, Steph will still be around and she'll have more content in the future, just something different.


TL;DR: Our penises fell in love with Steph and went soft, thus hitting the Veto button down below.

Well, given the PC can potentially make similar rape-y encounters every other step she makes in the wilderness of several planets, and several of them can end in her being brainwashed or enslaved as a sex slave for the foreseeable future, I don't really get what people found so controversial in comparison with what happened to Irson, which seems to have a fairly similar dangerous calling. I suppose a video recording of Steele losing a few of her combat encounters in the wilds of M'henga, Tarkus, or Myrellion would look a lot similar to what is showed for Irson in her segments.


To me, the only really questionable aspect of it seems that Irson was potentially set up by her abusive network for unwilling rape-y defeat after rape-y defeat, and if anything the cave encounter was giving her a good chance to break out of that trap. As it concerns the NT segment, what puzzles me even more is why forced Treatment would look so unacceptable, but forced Bovinium is not. We can all easily agree in either case forced administration was an abuse and misrepresentation of NT culture by a local thug, but I fail to see what meaningful difference the specific drug makes. It may be I am strongly driven to emphasize the libido enhancement and hypersexualizing style/body TF aspects of the bimbo fetish in my headcanon rather than the IQ loss and submission ones, but I don't perceive much difference between the Treatment and all the other many bimbofying/sluttyfing treatments (and parasitical lifeforms) available in the TiTS universe (Dumbfuck, Gush, ClearYu, Buttslutinator, Bovinium, mimbranes, Cerespirin, that Halloween costume, etc.) under every rock, neither taken voluntarily nor administered by force or trickery.


Last but not least, the PC eloquently shows in this universe badass adventurer people can happily guzzle truckloads of such bimbofying/sluttyfing drugs and still keep more than enough competence, agency, and smarts to stay a badass adventuress and CEO-to-be of a megacorporation. In her cave encounter Irson reads to me pretty much the same way, and much more a professional frustrated with the state of her career, which meeting Steele may help with, than a broken victim of rape or brainwashing. The fact she was at some point forced to take some kind of bimbofying/sluttifying drug seems fairly unimportant to me in her arc. I think it is much more important that her asshole bosses are exploiting her by setting her up to make a lot of unwilling furry porn.  

 

[Nonesuch]

*snip*

The difference is that the Treatment is permanent. This mostly-human goon permanently melts Irson's brains and then rapes her live on air. It's not just upsetting (particularly when you actually meet her), it doesn't make sense on any level. Irson could morph out of bovinium if she chose to, that's the safe word that puts her silly adventures on the light side of grey.


It would be greatly appreciated if a line could be drawn under this now. This has been gone over a dozen times in the past, the exact points you raise have already been answered, it would be a fucking pleasure to leave it in the past.

 

[Noob Salad]

The PC is the player controlled by a real human. Steph is an NPC written and controlled by another human. The Treatment is irreversible lobotomization which is hot when it's not called that.


Actually I don't really care about the reasoning behind it anymore. Basically a lot of players including me thought it was creepy and complained until Savin changed it. Everything anyone's mentioned or will mention in this thread has already been said and Savin needs to get back to work on puppysluts.

 

[Woider]

stuff

Maybe because the Treatment causes irreversible mental degradation and increase in sexual libido, whilst Bovinium is a purely cosmetic mod which can be overriden by another.

 

[Noob Salad]

This has also been said before but New Texans would never force an outsider to take the Treatment. Seduce or persuade, sure, but brute force goes against their MO. Besides, no Treated person in the galaxy regrets being Treated.


A shame Savin threw out the interactions. I liked the network angle and Steele Jr. swooping in.


@Misty: Pssh, my PC is a brilliant Treated Tech with max int. She swallows cum and spits out PhDs.

 

[irioth]

Honestly, I strongly disagree the Treatment is that kind of a permanent special case in comparison to all the other non-cosmetic TF events in the TiTS universe. Let's take Steph Irson aside and take the PC as case in point instead, since the topic has interest to me nevertheless. First of all, the dumbing effects of the Treatment, Gush, or Dumbfuck, aren't really that permanent, since with a little effort, the PC can take them and rebuild her brainpower up to genius levels. Admittedly, it cannot be done instantly with a brain-enhancing pill (which I assume happens for game balance reasons more than anything else), but it takes a series of encounters with appropriate NPCs, which take no more time and effort than an equivalent series or trips to the gym to build up physical stats. I balk at qualifying anything that can be reversed with a few days to months of a regular reading or chess-playing lifestyle as irreversible, brain-destroying lobotomization. On the other hand, yes, Willpower is somewhat more difficult to build up than the other stats, and the libido-enhancing perks and status-effects are effectively impossible to remove by normal means, but this is equally true for the vast majority of all the TFs that provide non-cosmetic features: e.g. once you have got it, Fertile Figure stays with you even if you TF away from looking like a goblin. The perks with potentially negative or unwanted features that can be removed once gotten by normal means are in the minority, whether they resemble the effects of the Treatment or not. So the Treatment does not really seem any special in this regard.

 

[Woider]

*snip*

Ludonarrative Dissonance. The PC is a Mary/Gary Stu with exceptional abilities and limitless potential for growth. If the Treatment's gameplay effects were congruent with it's description, there would be a hard-cap of 1 Int for Treated characters. But there isn't, hence the dissonance. Your perspective is all too focuses on the numbers of the game, rather than the world in which those actions occur in.

 

[Couch]

New Texas is in no small part tolerated as a visiting site, and not cordoned off with signs reading Here Be Dragons, because offworlders being Treated is purely voluntary and no citizen will force it on anyone.  The instant people are being forcibly Treated, it stops being a fun vacation spot and becomes somewhere to never, ever go if you value your mind.  If a famous celebrity is being forcibly Treated on live television, that goes thoroughly beyond the pale.


The PC isn't disqualified from adventuring or being a CEO by being Treated, and can raise their Intelligence and Willpower back up afterward, because to do otherwise would make it a Game Over or be enormously punishing just because you want to indulge in a certain fetish, one that the lead developer personally enjoys.  Captain Steele is an action hero who runs around banging aliens with no consequences and picking up credits off the ground in such quantities that they're never, ever going to be in anything resembling the financial straits that half of Savin's characters are, despite having no job to speak of.  They're a ridiculous Mary Sue for the audience to self-insert into.  The rules do not apply to them.

 

[Savin]

Don't turn this into a discussion; it will not end well for you.

What the fuck did I say.