I have some work/life balance again, and my oldest is in college. So, here I am.
I suspect virtually all players have moved on from CCH (I wouldn’t blame them at all) and the new AI age has me worried about how people will value creative works made entirely by human brains/fingers/mouths, but leaving this series unfinished has gnawed at me for the last two years. I have let people down, people who supported me in so many ways from 2013 to 2023. And so yes, I feel guilty for letting them down. But I also feel defeated for letting myself down. I have worked in a variety of fields in my life, and I’ve had some very meaningful moments, but for whatever reason, I’m most proud of writing CCH as compared to other professional endeavors.
For years, I overextended myself, I think because I adore the creative CoG/HG ecosystem and the wonderful people who make it what it is. I think interacting with younger folks also made me younger, more creatively energetic. But this all meant that I spent way too much time on the forums, social media, and side projects instead of focusing on the main goal.
If I get permission from the mods, I would prefer to create a new thread for Part 3, free of outdated links and discussions, but we’ll see if that is allowed.
My goal is to have a fresh demo posted by Halloween. I need to reacquaint myself with ChoiceScript and figure out the new hosting site. My time on the forums will be limited (by choice) and I’m pretty much off social media these days, and happier for it.
Hmm…the idea has a lot of potential for conflict, which is always a good thing, but I won’t have any room to add any new characters. It’s incredibly crowded as it is. Perhaps an idea for another project, though!
I understand completely. I mean there were a lot of characters that could be romanced in the books and then more that you can’t. Like the chevalier and many others. I like the direction though in all that it’s going even if I didn’t like little details which to me makes a story great.
You already mentioned my big one; a few more romance/friendship scenes. I mean, I loved the dinner parts with Tress/Dirty girl, but a few more would be nice.
Sort of along those lines, I think it could be amusing if someone is in a romance, and your mom meets them formally.
Also, if you are going the Dr. Stink path, I hope we can change that name. I mean, I could imagine Tress breaking up with the MC for that alone
Instead of a romance, you could do something where the MC is concerned that they might be related to a villain. The stronger this possibility, based on evidence or research, etc., the more the MC goes into a reflective mood and wonders why they and the villain are so different, and where things went wrong. This could be a neat little philosophical vehicle used to explore the nature of “evil” and its causes, with the potential to offer the villain a chance to (partially) redeem themselves by defending the MC in a critical time.
Either that, or the villain-relative ends up dying and the pain of loss felt in the MC causes their Zenith powers to manifest dangerously; temporarily without any control or limits. Under the right circumstances, the burst of energy could even open an unstable portal to the Zone. If you do it that way, then you could create some lore like Zenith powers exist because they are actually drawing from the other-dimensional energy of the Zone. And if that’s the case, and the MC is drawing on Zone energy without limit, then they themselves become the biggest threat to the city. I wonder if this was a villain plot all along…?
Where have I hears this before? Time and time again?..
Okay, snark aside, but personally I’d say that approach would do more harm than good to the story, as it is, honestly, one of the most overdone and clichéd plottwisty climaxes in fiction.
Maybe a more ‘Vigilante’ path ? given the less than lawful good decision you can make in that knowledge is power
a bit more info on the ‘wider setting’ and situation ?
an updated ‘power level’ list (one that maybe take our character into account) ? since they don’t really seems in line with what we saw of ‘the Dozen’ level villains IMO
that’s pretty much all i can think of, most of the stuff i though could be improved in trial by fire were already done in knowledge is power, except maybe the ability to change your hero name once you get ‘upgraded’ ? i just find the idea to call my no-kill hero ‘WarCrime’ once he get his ‘Dr Stench’ thingy extremly funny
for the idea of a villain romance, i agree it has a lot of conflict potential but it has also a lot of humour potential if you romance some try hard innefectual villain, with all the heros basicaly seeing you as very weird for it but not actualy caring enough to hold it against you, i think it would be a funny situation
