Community College Hero (for all post-release feedback)

[spoiler]for the mid-terms

HELL is just getting the answers right
Defense either have a high thud or just flirt to get your A
Breaking, high hmm to lure C-Wom into a trap and then tie up Stoic
Secrets. promise 3.

finals

Hell, get the answers right once again
Secrets, have 3 secrets and turn em over to savior :worried:
Def+Break go in with stunner and tress, have a high hmm, analyze the situation. and then get hedonist out of there.

(noted sometimes this gives a b in one or the other. but if you’re on their good side this SHOULD give you A’s. play along in hedonist’s class and win the fight vs mob/don’t take a fall for uni in downfall’s classes)
what i wrote was for the detective. i’m positive there are other options for the other classes.[/spoiler]

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I’m sure if you give 3 Secrets to Captain California, you will get a
B, I could only get an A of I give him 4 or more secret.

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Im becoming bruce wayne in this game
 I like it alot. I wish there are more customization options i never like the oversize shoulderpad or not have one at all.

Hmm, so i guess you decided to ignore my questions @HornHeadFan :disappointed: You did said that you welcome criticism, so i thought we can have decent conversations also about some negative things i found.

But anyway if you bother to read it i will write a bit more of my opinion on the game (that is not entirely Hedonist-based :stuck_out_tongue: )

Overall it wasn’t a bad game. Defnatelly in the top half of the choice games here.
Writing was good, few to many repetitions, but it’s normal and i’m sure it will improve along the way. There were some satisfying story twists and characters are mostly well portrayed, with lots of casual interactions between them to know them better.
I like it very much where in games there are more casual moments and its not only about going on with the plot. It really makes the experience more relatable.

One of the biggest issues i found (one that is tied also to Hedonist) is the progress of the story in some instances. Usual way i think to push the narrative forward in choice games is to present an event and let player’s character respond to it. That also includes even if outcome of that event is predetermined regardless of player actions, like always loosing fight with contrarian no matter what, bcause she is just too powerfull for someone without special powers like you, but you have option how you try to oppose her . But in some instances you are also introducing another way to push the narrative, which i think is not a good thing for a choice game. I’m talking about taking the control of MC away from the player, and make them do something, not giving a possibility of any choice. Like agreeing to go with Origami to the hospital to push the narration of her story so all playthroughs will include getting close to her, or the Hedonist case, when MC is brushing off his sexual harrasment, no matter the player’s choice or opinion MC doesnt concern themselves with doing anything about it for long time after event, implemented for reasons to me unknown :stuck_out_tongue: . It’s not about lack of player agency in the event that must occur, but about taking away that agency from the player and making them do something influencing the story. In this cases if a player would do the thing the same way, it’s not that bothering, but as soon as player’s character would behave differently, then it is really breaking immersion and joy from the game. The similar efect on events that must occur in the story could be done without taking player’s control of their character.
Similar type of pushing the narration forward was used in Silent Gear, and it was brought up by players too. Like MC always falling for a certain character, because it was critical to the plot. That kind of narrative is better suited for novels, not choice games.

Some of the world building choices also so far are a mystery to me, but i think some of them may be explained more in part 2.

Speck certainly is a peculiar school. Most of the teacher’s actions look like to be aimed to make students less prepared to the world or they are pushing their own agenda in the first place.
Nil is just spying for Prestige school and their classes are mainly aimed at getting informations from students for Prestige gain. There are other, more effective, methods to teach someone investigative work, but they chooses the one that will benefit them most, not their students.
Hedonist claim to want Speck to succeed, his actuall defense classes do seem to look rather normal and benefiting for students. But then we have his criminal sexual harassment. For the people who play flirty with him it wont be so notcable, it looks like he is responding to MC advances, but when you play someone not interested, then his true face is showing more. I doubt that telling students they get better grades for giving him sexual pleasure can be counted as any kind of defense teaching. If only he didn’t come out to students with that option, it would be different, but just the fact he said it, even with possibility of refusuing him, already is incriminating him. And he looks to be somewhat mentally impaired. He gets iritated when someone doesnt laugh at his joke, like some ten year old. And he claims that his sexual harrasment was to build more intimate bond of mutual respect, which is totally delusional, because if anything, his actuall actions create something absolutely opposite, a sexual dependency and abuse of power.
And Downfall do look to genuinly want to help Speck students, but her lack of any idea what teaching is, is working rather bad for them. She tries with the “tough love” approach but she implements it in a way that will not wok and wont really help her students succeed in real world outside of school. Some students seem to be better qualified to teach offensive classes with better benefiting all of them. Culminating of hers misguided desire to make them tougher comes with breaking Tress arm when the exam already ended and everyone is unonscious.

So those are mine interpretations of Speck’s teachers. I admit i don’t really understand yet why they are the ones teaching there? Why is it so hard in Speck universe to find heroes that would be willing to pass on their knowledge to help the community (something i think to be very hero-like) or just powered people that would desire to be teachers, because that’s something the like to do in their life. Does Savior and Prestige really monopolised everyone that could want to be teacher from powered people? Will it be more explained as the story unfold? I wonder who will be the new teachers in next part. Does Prestige step in more involved similar to Savior’s loaning Hedonist? Or will they find more independent heroes that ae willing to help.

So far we have seen more of Savior and they came out as rather villainous, choosing a sexual criminal to send as teacher (with their “hands on” approach to their staff i think they would know how he’ll behave) and after removing Nil from the picture stealing all the secrets themselves. I think their way is even worse, because they get it no matter you want to share it o not. If you refuse, they just mind-rape you and got your secrets anyway (at least that’s what is heavily implied, as if you refuse they incapacitate you and later leaving you are in the same shape as if using the memoy extractor. For my MC it wasn’t hard to add 2+2 and came with this conclusion, which was the point to decide they are enemies.
Is prestige going to be presented as the “good guys” or they’ll be just as unappealing as Savior?

On another note, when i first speak with Crook and he asks me who i think is the most powerfull i don’t have an option to pick Stoic, is this a bug?

Anyway, congratulations on realeasing your game. Despite my concerns i think it is a good game and certainly look proffessional for the first release.
It’s a pity you don’t want to disscuss the presentation of sexual harassment in your game, but it doesn’t look like i will change your mind about talking about it.
Very sorry for the wall of text :worried:

Think you shouldn’t take it personally. Our author friend has alot of people tugging at his sleeve at the moment and thats just online I can’t imagine what direction RL concerns are tugging him. So if you have say 1000 people asking questions in 10 different places withing the space of twenty four fours, how much time can you spend with ONE of them. (just a little kindly perspective)

In my opinion for the on the rail moments. Its fairly difficult to create a solid narrative without a few conscessions not to mention even in real life there are moments where we as people have no Real choice and the only thing that we have power over is how we feel about it. Perhaps that’s what @HornHeadFan was trying to impart upon us along with the imperfect personalities of the teachers. (add to the fact that it grows exponentially more difficult to write when more deviating paths are created to write, and with the plan of sequels the difficulty grows, so please don’t hold it against him for trying to limit some of the chaos)

Teachers are people too with their own thoughts and agenda’s not all of them are going to be in it for the greater good, they have lives and goals and personality flaws, we’re being shown this reality in the narrative, though its a bit more pronounced as fiction should be.

All’n’all we all have our opinions, don’t feel ignored Eric is likely a very busy dude.

Well, maybe my big post would catch his attention then :slight_smile:

About the on the rail moments, yes there are moments where we have no real choice what to do, but in the game it still would be considered a narration progressed by an event, becuase of giving player possibility to choose how we think about it. What i was refering to was the moments where you do not have even that option presented. That both actions and feelings of MC are suddenly hijacked by author from the player. I should have said that i was refering to feelings too. Implementing just a “how you feel about it” option, whith explanation why you dont have any other choice of action isn’t as much restricting, especially as when we have many situations with them already, the few where w don’t feel even more out of place.

Well some of those teachers have quite a sizeable personality flaws. Interesting is that teachers at Speck seem to be more flawed than the students. And if their lives and goals interfere with yours and actively hinder yours, then that basically means they are your rivals , if not enemies. So basically, what i was saying: they are bad teachers :slight_smile: A good teacher could still have their life and goals that would not oppose their students, and help them (or atleast dont make it worse). Especially if they would believe in thiss pioneering big project of new school for powered people.
As i understand Speck’s teachers are not actually qualified by anybody to teach students, like in our world teachers are. They are just bunch of people almost literlly taken from the street.
I imagined now Tolly walking along some big city and asking every powered person she sees “would you like to be a teacher” :smiley:

Got to start somewhere, and I know teachers in real life that shouldn’t be either. Some that play their part like reading a script
 badly
 others that don’t really care to be where they are. And that’s just Highschool and public school where one mistep can make you public enemy number one. They’re very withheld socially when dealing with children.

Community college is like a poorman’s college to begin with so if you’re looking for Harvard or MIT standards then you’re missing the point.

Keep in mind that teachers in different areas are very different breeds, the subtle difference between the first years of school all the way to grade 12 and then there’s the College and University level the professors are VERY different, there’s no coddling, they don’t chase after you to get your work done they provide the tools and its up you you to get results, its very hands off, all they do is provide an understanding and set up some challenges and direction.

But that’s how I see it.

Oh did have seen maaany kinds of teachers in my life, and there are a lot of differences. I did had some bad teachers in my college too.
But Speck’s teachers seem to be rather on the worse side anyway (possibly because of their lack of any training).

I admit i don’t know what exactly the term “Community College” in USA entails, but in the game i got the impression that Speck is still rather prestigious school. It’s only 3rd school for powered heroes ever (don’t know the exact numbers of zeniths around, but i imagine the demand can raise) I know that basically it’s a school for the ones that couldn’t get to better ones, so it’s standing go wond because of that, but still, the demand to get even there seemed good enough.

@Ponku and everyone else:
As far as we know, Nil is nonbinary.They do not ever say they are male, and as far as I can tell they are not once referred to with the pronouns “he/him,” so please just refer to them as “they/them” unless the story otherwise says, okay?
We get characters like this so rarely so I would like it if they are respected.

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@RedRoses Oh, ok. I’m sorry. I thought it was stated somewhere that they are “he”. My mistake. I changed my former post with better pronouns ( i think, the non-binary pronouns doesn’t translate well into my language)

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I’ve gave this a go and ten minutes in my first thoughts were “YES. FINALLY I CAN BE A BROODY BADASS ANTI-HERO.” And that’s exactly what I became and I relished in it, became a part of Crook’s friend group, broke into a church for clues, romanced D.G and stopped her bad trip before it happened at honkytonk (second play through I realised accepting D.G’s drug offer a second time results in bad trips and a near overdose), I fell in love with Jacob, became ruthless and earned Downfall’s approval, McCormick became my lawyer, got my advanced detective upgrades, punched Contrarian in the face (which resulted in several tables piled on top of me. Worth it.) I held onto the last piece of Origami and vowed vengeance against the Diabolical Dozen by working towards Crook’s ideals.

What I loved about this game the most is I got to be an Anti-Hero without feeling like my decision made me a total jerk, I held onto my ideals of taking down the villain by any means and still had the respect of most of my classmates and although I was broody I could still connect with many NPCs and made a lot of friendships last.

Two clichĂ©s mashed together of traditional superheros and stereotypical high school worked surprisingly well. Everybody suited their role well. (D.G as the rebel, Tress as the golden girl, Wombat as the nerdy outcast etc.) I loved how you could get up to typical college kid shenanigans like the parties, girly nights, playing games (paintball test and ‘death ray’ game should happen more often.) it was really enjoyable.

One thing I didn’t like was that penultimate moment dammit Origami, why did you have to play hero? sniff it really hit me hard in the emotions because of the bond that was created.

I’m wondering a few things all relating to the next parts’. will we start to develop our own powers or is that permanent? I don’t mind, personally I prefer Captain Powerless becoming a bigger hero than everyone else with their fancyass gadgets. I’m simply curious.

will we have the chance to help our heroes with their secrets? Such as D.G’s drug addiction, helping Mob with his guilt and Crook managing a hero career and a family at the same time. I hope so, most of these secrets are teasing me with great stories for each character.

one last thing, will we see our professors again? Although I scored a reward McCormick I’m wondering if we could get personal training from Downfall and Hedonist to beef ourselves up for the diabolical dozen.

I’m going to explore every path I can with this game. I absolutely love it and I seriously can’t wait for the other parts.

Favourite characters:
D.G, how the hell could you not love her?
Combat Wombat, the indestructible turtle boy was a babbling boffin and it was entertaining.
Origami, for many many reasons.
Stoic, I DON’T CARE, WHY ARE WE DOING THIS? DO WHATEVER YOU WANT I’M NOT BOTHERED.

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I’m having a bit of trouble getting the You Make Me Horny achievement
o love the game. Detective is my favorite. Lots of replay value. So excited for part two!

if you want to get the You Make Me Horny achievement you have to

start romancing Uni by not taking a stance on the contrarian issue and then ask her out on a date, tell her your real name. and when you go on your second date at the concert with her, remark something along the lines of “i miss your horn”, after the date go back to her place, tell her your last name and have an awesome time with her involving her horn and a cowboy hat.

that should be how to get that if i recall everything correctly.

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If your approval with Downfall if high, she will invite you to train with her in NY.

Your character remembers my character, if you say he is a detective named Urban Ghost it will be crepes :stuck_out_tongue:

I just finished my first playthrough finally. There was one section where there was an odd jump to a page that seemed like it was about spending time at Combat Wombat’s place and learning that he calls himself K-Pow (or something like that), just randomly out of the blue, and being asked about whether you look at his boxes- after you already learn that secret in the study group. But otherwise, 'twas great. Question: Was Origami Crook’s wife or child? There’s a lot of seeming like it going on there.

Hey just wanted to pop in!

I saw some discussion earlier about me not answering some questions in the thread. As another poster guessed, my life is pretty busy right now. So today looked like this


8AM-1PM Go into my law office to get (somewhat) caught up
1:30PM-4PM Coach my daughter’s basketball game
4:30PM - present Household chores (cleaning, cooking dinner, helping kiddos with weekend homework, etc)

Plus, you folks are more familiar with the story than the folks on Steam, Facebook, etc. and therefore I figure you’re a bit more self sufficient as a group. Almost everyone will jump in to answer other folks’ questions. But I do try to read this thread as much as humanly possible and I’ll try to stop by tonight after the kids go to bed.

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How do you get the heels in the unique costume item?

I think you need to play either as a Detective or as a Soldier.

WARNING: THE SPOILERED PARTS TALK ABOUT THE NEXT INSTALLMENT, IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED ABOUT IT DO NOT READ.

@Shawn_Patrick_Reed That is a spoiler. Not even the betatesters know it. But seeing Crook’s words at her funeral should give you a hint.

@Nathan_Faxon That will be a possible path in Part 2, yes. Telling you more would be a spoiler

Regarding your second question, IIRC, @HornHeadFan confirmed that you will be able to help certain characters with their problems. You can even make a comment to
Dirty Girl about hers.

Now I see why Paul is so tempted by our questions, he has to greatly restrain himself or else he spoils the whole plot.

Hey, so I don’t know if you actually know about upcoming parts of the game or what not, but it kinda sounds like you do, so if it’s alright could you maybe warn for spoilers in future installments? I’d thought that the spoilered sections of your post was going to refer to the part of the game everyone’s already played.
Ignore this if you’re just guessing though :blush: