Unfortunately I use a lighting plugin which does eat into resources quite a bit. RPGMaker MV isn't super efficient on its own (compared to older ones like Ace), and layering that plugin on means there's a lot to process. I have tried to improve this a BIT by cutting down the Center Path map to JUST the area you explore, but this only does so much. I hate this too: I'm not doing anything super fancy, so it SHOULD be smooth and quick even on old hardware. But the problem is MV isn't really a compiled program, it's just a bunch of javascript running in a browser. This makes it easy to shuffle from one platform to another, but wildly inefficient. Unfortunately, people prioritize the convenience because most modern systems can just chew through all the inefficient code like it's nothing. But a 20 year old laptop isn't going to go so well, no. I don't know if you're in the US, but you can get a basic Optiplex tower for like $80 on Ebay that'll blow that laptop away, and should have no problem running the game. If you don't have access to Ebay though, fair enough.

HOWEVER, there is a workaround I just tested. Go to www\js in the game folder. Make a backup copy of plugins.js, then open the original file. Search for the chunk starting with "{"name":"OcRam_Lights"". Delete that entire chunk, down to ""false"}},". Save, and start the game. This will kill ALL lighting effects, and it'll look pretty crap. But it should run much faster. Maybe use this version of the file while you're in this area, then switch back to the original for the rest of the game.

As for gameplay: Alley bars are just flavor, you never go into them. The dobermans accept or reject on a 50/50 coin flip. You just have to keep finding them and asking.

That's very kind of you, thank you. I try to be realistic about what I'm making here, I know I'm not some master writer and I'm certainly not a master artist. But I try as best I can to make something I would want to play, something I DO want to play, at least for the first dozen bugtest runs. And more than that, something I can enjoy MAKING, that I can actually be excited about in the creative process. That means putting effort into the filthy bits, but also into the story, the setting, the characters. That's entirely selfish: it's just more fun, and genuinely EASIER for me to make this stuff if there's a little bit of depth to everything.

I've said a few times that so many people in the west makes porn games like they're a constant joke, like they're afraid to take anything seriously. And there IS a certain absurdity to the genre, like any genre it's somewhat artificial, and there's nothing wrong with having a little fun with that. But constantly being afraid to commit, to actually care about what you're making is disrespectful, to yourself and your audience. If something is worth doing, it's worth doing all the way, or at least as far as you can manage. But again, it's entirely selfish and self-serving. I try to write a little characterization because I NEED it for the explicit parts, it's what makes them hot. You know why the stereo-typical 90s porno sucks? Well, a lot of reasons, but one of them is that it's all fake. TOO fake. Movies are fake too, but they pull you in. They make you care. They make you forget it's just makeup and lighting and emotionally manipulative music because you're INTO it. And it doesn't take much to get there. The thinnest, most pathetic little story or bit of personality looks like Tolstoy next to most porn. Just a little bit and you're there.

When I discovered Japanese eroge many, many years ago, it was  revelation. Yes, it was goofy, there was humor, there were many, many cliches. But these people were taking what they did seriously, sometimes VERY seriously. I'd crack open some game looking to get off, and discover some wild eldritch horror story, or murder mystery, or sci-fi adventure. Sometimes so much so that the porn was almost incidental, but other times perfectly integrated together.

So I try to re-capture that, a little, in my own humble way. I'm not a game dev begrudgingly shoving some sex into things to draw attention, these games are about the explicit content, front and center. But that content needs characters, it needs setting, it needs gameplay. It needs INVESTMENT. I don't want to tell a story about a pizza guy who takes tips paid in sex, or a slut who's really slutty and she finds herself in all these situations which she resolves by being a huge slut and all the guys are like "wow, look at those knockers!" etc etc. I want my stuff to be less like a dirty joke and more like an actual fantasy someone with a working imagination might have. A whole bunch of fantasies, strung together in a semi-coherent setting. That's what I enjoy, so that's what I try to make. And so far, it seems like it clicks with people. 

I should also say, more specifically to your point, I do try to be a BIT lighthearted, I don't want to be super intense or cruel with this stuff. But uh...*taps the name*, yunno. These games are about Bad Ends, about being defeated and losing control and being ground up and spit out as a pathetic parody of what you were. Because that's hot. I soften it a bit by putting it through the cartoon lens, like an old adventure cartoon. But there are still stakes, and that's what makes it enjoyable. And yeah, that vulnerability is a really, really fun part of the brain to tease. If you like it, and you haven't poked around Japanese games yet, I highly recommend it, especially the old stuff (pre 2012 or so). Whole lot of that. Like Goldilocks slamming shots, you will find some too strong, and some too weak, but there's some good ones out there for sure.

Not sure I follow. Would you mind rephrasing?

You mean just with this second pack? Nope, not until you get to Mahir.

No, that's definitely a glitch. You should be able to lead them back to the alleys. Double-checked and it seems to be working fine on my end. To be clear, are they following you back to the alley and then disappearing, or disappearing as soon as they nod? Very odd that this hasn't surfaced until now.

It works on the same logic as other situations in the game: you lower Mezz's resistance via losses first.

Before you save in-game, the save folder doesn't exist. Theoretically if you create it, name it right, and copy BOTH files from the starter save folder, that should work. But starting up the game and creating an initial save to make sure it's set, THEN copying the save files over works too.

Not sure I get what you're asking. You can take a save file from your previous version and play it in this one, yes, as long as it's before meeting Mahir for the first time.