Community College Hero (for all post-release feedback)

Hosted Games
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Mid-afternoon check-in!

@Azael, Thanks for the kind words! Did you try to romance someone else? She’s not romanceable but there is a reason for that…however, you have to stumble on the right scene to figure it out

And I’ll have to look into the fight you’re talking about. Did you mean Combat Wombat instead of Stunner maybe?

@Snoe, your “minor league” comment is EXACTLY what I was always going for. That’s an excellent way to put it.

@kitkat, I am getting more excited about writing Part 2 as I read these comments. I am going to double down on my writing time and really start trying to push it forward. And Crook, Origami, Jacob were all super important characters to me for some of the reasons you described. Some people are close to perfect, and others are very very far from that.

Quick answers to some of your other questions: your prediction about Crook might be pretty accurate…you’ll like the first big scene of Part 2! And yes Hedonist will be back as a pretty big character! Another “far from perfect” person. And I haven’t decided about potential ROs for Part 2. Obviously Uni and Stunner leave, so we’re down to 4, but Stunner might (probably will) make an appearance, so I was considering keeping the long-distance thing an option. But we’ll see. A couple of other people in the private Part 2 thread had mentioned the good Captain as a possible RO).

I’ll check the Stunner paragraph issue. Thanks for finding that!

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Yes you’re right, it’s Combat Wombat and not Stunner.

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Heres a screenshot of the repeating Stunner paragraph:

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also, how are you able to get Crook’s secret? Im never able to advance very far with him, romantically.

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I found a bug, if you choose to study for Secrets (the second time) you dont gain a Shhh point, even if the game tells you did.

For Crook secret: when you go to the bar, you need to choose the Uni/DG/Crook group, refuse DG’s drugs and keep drinking with Crook, he will tell you his secret but you will reveal yours

Someone got Origami’s group? I think its on the hospital, but I couldnt get it.

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Did anyone play it on Steam??

There is a review on Steam that says, “Just bought it because I can relate. Other than that it wont load.”

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It’s loading fine for me. Windows 8, and Steam is updated to the current version.

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I bought both this and Pendragon Rising on Steam. I’ve been playing through Pendragon Rising first, so I don’t know if there are any other errors. But it does load for me. I checked before I posted to make sure, and it loaded up with no trouble on my Windows 7. I’m pretty sure my Steam is updated to the current version too. Not sure what other factors matter.

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Thanks guys, I guess I’ll assume it was either user error for now. I’ll keep a watch on Steam reviews.

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My friend picked it up on Steam and said it works just fine. Also, congrats!!! I can’t wait to pick it up tomorrow. :tada: :tada::tada:
(PS. I’m loving all the Crook appreciation going on in this thread so far.)

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[spoiler] Please tell me we get Peter Parker’d in part two.

Yknow field trip sciency stuff whoops. Not necessarily a spider maybe an experiment with a Zenith field power cell or something. You play the hero take the brunt of tje blast.

Strange illness sets in MC struggles with keeping up courses and eventually abilities start popping up at the worst possible moments [/spoiler]

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This is a good start right?

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I saw that review too, but it worked fine for me.

Just finished my first run through the story. I’ll be sure to post a review later.

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When presented with the choice of going to lunch with Mob or not, I chose to go with him. Then in the second paragraph, he whispers to me that it was t supposed to be a fight, but an exercise training, which sounds a lot like the answer to the first choice if I chose it. Was that supposed to happen and I’m just overreacting or is it a bug?

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Definitely enjoyed it. Biggest complaint I have is I want part 2 now :wink: (I mean this playfully…)

There is one correction you might want to make. You have a sentence/choice
I smirk and say, “I’d be a shame to deprive everyone of seeing that beautiful face of yours.”

For that part before the ‘be’…I think you meant It’d (contraction of It and would) to get “It’d be a shame to deprive…”

Second question:

For the romances which leave in Part 1 (like Uni), will you have further contact in later things? Even if it is done by say Skype/Email)

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I certainly did enjoy the writing. I think it portrayed well the idea of individuals who do have powers but are not so radically different from regular people because of them. I think the characterization is reasonably solid with the time you had to introduce so many characters and do world building on the side.

I think the facet I would praise the most is the diversity of classes that the characters must undertake. Its perfectly logical that a more “street level” training regimen would be best for heroes just starting out. Most super schools in fiction tend to focus on controlling and maximizing the hero’s powers as opposed to say, legal and tactical training.

Downfall’s classes did strike me as rather useless as she assumes that just letting the students beat on each other is a useful or even practical means of teaching combat ability. It definately is not, and this is coming from someone who has had both unarmed combat training and military training. Thus I was not surprised that she can be let go. Her classes are probably the worst possible thing for inexperienced heroes; they barely know how far they can press their partner or how to effectively constrain their own powers. One mistake could mean a trip to ICU… or the morgue. Case in point, you can shoot Combat Wombat in the face and he goes down from a ball bearing. If this happens during a test, why has it not happened during regular training? I think it does, often. Realistically a lot of students are probably sporting bruises and injuries after her classes. I think narratively it fits. Downfall is meant to be a “tough love” kind of teacher but as far as effectiveness goes, I think Nix is far and away better. His methods, although unorthodox, apparently work. She does seem a little too savage for a teaching position and despite her best efforts, she lacks the patience to be a good mentor or at least that is my read on her character.

The part I feel is weakest is the grading. after the first playthrough, getting As in HELL and Secrets is a matter of picking the right choices in conversation or remembering facts. The other two is more a matter of stat checks which makes playing anything but a bruiser less than optimal in that sense. While I can appreciate that writing balanced uses for so many abilities can be hard, I do believe that this balance can stand some improvement.

The personal quibble is that sometimes I can feel a certain lack of player agency. Don’t get me wrong, I can fully understand why it happens the way it does but it can still feel a little disappointing that no matter what I do, certain events must occur. After all among other things, there is not very much a half-trained regular human can do against someone who is at bare minimum a regional level threat. However I think this first part is a solid jumping off point for the next “issue” of the series.

Also out of curiousity, why are some options for costumes greyed out? It is at the beginning of the game so I was frankly surprised that there were already options unavailable to the player.

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One more App Store update - I know the window is short…#3 for RPG, #39 for all Games and #59 for all Apps. Suck it, Call of Duty Zombes!

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@Wire, Crook has a few likes on the FB contest thread, and I think some of my law school peeps will gravitate towards him as well. It’s hard for me to expect busy lawyers with families to devote 3 to 4 hours this weekend to a story they’ve never heard of, but I expect at least a couple of them to tell me they like Crook.

@Snoe, I can’t promise a Peter Parker scenario, but you could probably tell there’s a hint of the MC possibly gaining a power, maybe even his/her “dream power” from childhood. You might see more hints dropped as Part 2 starts.

@lightdrago3, Hmmm I honestly don’t remember that dialogue.I’ll put it on my list of things to look at though! Thanks!

@Lys, well as long as it’s said playfully! :smirk: Wait…this is more of a smirk than a playful face. Oh well, I’m going with it. And yes that’s a typo! It’s going on the typo fix list. Answer to your question: I honestly don’t know at this point, but it might happen, especially with Stunner

@Gary, Many thanks for the thorough feedback and yes, you make good points about Downfall’s classes. I think even many of the characters, including McCormick, some of the students, and finally Tolly, would agree with your points. But perhaps Downfall was the only combat specialist even interested in the job? Come to think of it, why would she have possibly been interested in the job anyway? Hmm

I readily acknowledge that some combat balance issues, which do affect grades, are one of my biggest areas needing improvement. I was more focused on dialogue, character development, plot, those sorts of things. But I DO plan to heavily tweak Part 1 (mostly the mechanics…the story itself should have only minor changes) before Part 2 is published. I’m reducing the archetypes from 4 to 3, eliminating overlapping equipment, and using the more tried and true division of specialties…brawler (pow and thud)…sharpshooter (whoosh and zap)…and detective (hmm and shhh) and I’m trying to give the player more “flavor” with their character. This will also make it easier to balance combat situations

And certain events must occur for many reasons: It’s part 1 of a trilogy and I can’t start part 2 with multiple different jumping-off points. I would never finish the project. This took almost 2 years as it is. And the second reason is that I always planned the trilogy to be a slowly developing “coming of age” type of story where you get kicked around…and kicked around some more, but then towards the end, perhaps you don’t get kicked around anymore? (depending on your choices/stats). I feel that is more satisfying than winning fights right off the bat, which seems unrealistic and leaves no room to grow. Plus, I tossed the biggest baddest villains in the world into the fray at the very start. Perhaps the most unrealistic event in the whole story is the MC not getting killed in the hospital scene.

So I guess even if everyone arrives at the same destination in Part 1, at least everyone’s journey can be different. Upon a second reading, if the reader chooses different study sessions, a different romantic option, and different “side adventures” in the first and second halves of the story, you can get up to 20% or so totally new content, which I think adds enough to make a second reading fun even if the ending won’t change.

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Here’s one possible speculation on my part on why Downfall was so interested in the job. Mob is her son. After all their powers work on similar mechanics. Mob gets stronger as more people are in the vicinity while its strongly implied that Downfall copies the powers of the people facing her. The more the better since she can apparently use multiple power sets at once. The life of a vigilante is difficult and dangerous so when she got pregnant (possibly as a teen), she gave her baby up for adoption. She’s been keeping tabs and when Mob decided to become a Hero, she signed up in the hopes of helping him indirectly as a mentor. It would explain why Downfall was interested in a teaching job when she seemingly lacks the temperament for it. The irony is that she’s so unsuitable because of her powerset. Downfall generally matches or overpowers any given set of enemies so she never had to “punch up” as it were. Thus she has come to think of combat as largely a matter of mentality rather than skill. Of course there could be a suitably tragic reason. Mob might not have a (biological) father because a certain young heroine hesitated at the wrong moment and did not do everything she could have to stop a threat because she was afraid of killing her opponent. Another reason to give up her (possibly unborn) baby for adoption and a touch of survivor’s guilt that reinforces her worldview that its either kill or be killed out there.

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39

Hey all. How do I romance Tress?

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Attolia,

When she invites you to eat in her room, accept but no flirt for now. Then speak with her to romance her but don’t go too hard, just speak with her all the night (flirt) and she will ask to you if you want to date.

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