@Havenstone, I checked out your stats screen code. Very nice! I’m going to incorporate some of that for the CCH character status info. I find Stoic saying to the reader, “Uh, you’re okay I guess?” to be 100 times more entertaining than just staring at a Stoic relationship bar that says 88%.
Other misc comments, now I know what a neko is! Yay! And yes, I’ve been calling it a “dumbphone” (all one word) in the entire story and I’ll probably keep doing that.
And @trinnie, I’m glad you liked Uni’s rather overdramatic comment. I thought it would make for a good cutaway scene.
And @Samuel_H_Young, I’m using Kepler for now but assuming CCH is published this fall, I might edit that scene and insert Demon Hunter or something. It probably makes more sense to use a Hosted Game that’s actually published. And I’m working through all your comments and typo spotting, don’t worry. It just takes a while, as you know.
@lisaburlew,
fixed the Mob typo
This is how I see the study group benefits - the Secrets group can give you increased Shhh, which I plan to be implemented a bit more into combat scenes, so it’s possible it could help you win a round or two in Breaking People’s examination and ultimate help your grade there. Also, the Secrets study group gives you access to two extra secret steals, so it will help your Secrets grade.
The HELL study group is similar. The intent is that you can raise your Hmm, which can help you in combat situations, and that the group also gives you substantive content for the HELL exam. So again, it’s designed to give a double benefit like the others.
I think Defense (Whoosh and Thud) and Breaking People (Zap and Pow) study groups have obvious benefits as you said.
Finally, you make an interesting point with “Are stats even necessary?”
I suppose I would eliminate them entirely and just focus on equipment, but equipment upgrades are only available based on grades. I inserted the study group sessions (there will be another batch of them later in the story) to give the reader a bit more customization power, meaning they could either shore up a weakness or build on a strength. In my mind, the player’s abilities are a combination of natural abilities and equipment. Plus, I admit to loving the onomatopoeia and I think most CoG/HG readers are used to seeing some sort of “stats.”
Now would it make life easier for me to just code battles and encounters by equipment only? Hell yes it would. But then I might as well just ditch the study group scenes.
My plan is to mostly focus on the equipment in battles (and perhaps even exclusively focus on equipment and weaknesses in the first three chapters, since that addresses the 3s and 1s, meaning I know the only other option is 2 anyway) but throw in a few codes based on the stat numbers, meaning that…
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maybe a Brawler who gets all equipment upgrades and also successfully studies Breaking People and gets Zap and Pow upgrades might have a chance for an “EPIC WIN!” type finish where they actually do something impressive at the end… OR
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maybe there’s an important part of the story…perhaps in the climax…where your weakness might bite you in the ass unless you’ve shored up that weakness by studying in the corresponding study group.
yeah, I don’t think Kepler would be published by then. 
(I’m only like 1/3 of the way through it right now.)
I absolutely love the new update! I have an idea tho what I can do for the actual app and beta itself: Let us play what u have now as your rough drafts and then once u have the kinks worked out do a completely different version to throw us readers off or if not keep with what u have! Anyway have a great night!!