Community College Hero: Releasing Soon

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@Samuel_H_Young, oh so THAT’S how you can basically code “which of these variables has the highest value?” I never understood how to code that.

But in your code above, what happens if your high stats are stealth and cunning, but they are tied in value? Did you mean to put the = sign in each possibility?

So what effects do your personality stats have in TofDH other than different text?

I’m pretty sure I want to give the slight boosts to romance, friends, secrets and yay, but I also think I want to have different characters react differently to certain personas. I’d hope it would add replay value with someone realizing they could create a jokester acrobat (Spidey) or a brooding detective (Bats) or a charming sharpshooter (Green Arrow) or even a traditionalist solider (Cap).

@StarWarsMaster, it will be pushed back a bit because of all these changes to the mechanics, but hopefully that means the beta testing will be smoother because all the improvements will have been made, leaving beta to deal mostly with typos and continuity of combat choices and character interactions.

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@HornHeadFan
Many of the options are only available to people with high cunning/resolve/stealthiness/charisma (depending on the situation) and, for example, a stealthy character may be able to dodge things during a battle that others can’t.

And oh, yeah, I hadn’t thought about that. What’s tricky is that if someone’s stats were all the same (this is extremely unlikely, but still) then they’d end up seeing all the amounts. And even if two were equal, you’d end up seeing both. So I just went with what I have now, and hoped that no one would have exactly equal stats.

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@Samuel_H_Young, no I think you can make it work just using the >= sign for each and then using *goto. You basically give preference to the charisma stat by listing it first, so that another stat’s value, like cunning, ties charisma, the player is still exclusively getting the charisma result and then you *goto the next scene.

Doing it like that, if the character had high stats of cunning and resolve, with each of them at 11 for example, then the character would get the cunning result because you listed it before the resolve option. That seems perfectly workable to me and you’d never have to worry about tied variable values making a mess of things.

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go for that persona variable i like the idea, cant want to see how it all comes together

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@HornHead
Oh, yeah! Thanks.

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I don’t dislike the idea, as long as it doesn’t block us from making choices that go against our current persona… some characters may want to act one way in public and another in private, for example.

edit: And turns out you answered my question in the last bit of your post! I blame lack of sleep.

I dunno, I’d say this is the best time to try those kind of things. You can always change it later if you’re not satisfied with it.

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If there’s minimal rail roading, we’re able to divert from our personas occasionally, not be outright punished for doing it and also, that I wouldn’t just become rudimentary pond scum to Tress or whoever on the get go for choosing a certain persona, I think I’m on board.

I’d love it if let’s say once in awhile, the Brooder is able to make a joke out of the blue or the Jokester has a serious moment that scares the shit out of everybody without being terribly penalized for it and made to feel like I made the “wrong” choice. It’d definitely make for more replayability with the different interactions you’d have with the characters.

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@trinne and @Wire, I’ll be sure not to railroad the player/reader.

I plan to keep the effects and bonuses fairly small. Mostly it will be a stat to help the player/reader create a more robust character and give the MC a distinct personality rather than being so dull (and maybe enjoy a few unique dialogue options!)

And @Wire, you make a great point that this gives the MC the opportunity to impress everyone with an “wow!” moment that is out of line with how they generally act. Spidey getting serious against a ruthless baddie grabs the reader’s attention because you know, “Oh crap he’s serious now! It’s on!”

And Tress would never treat anyone as rudimentary pond scum. Well, maybe if you dump her for Dirty Girl, breaking up with Tress on the phone with DG taunting her in the background. I’ve always wondered how many of you all have made that choice?

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@HornHeadFan
That’s a choice? You can do that to Tress? That’s pretty brutal.

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So i just played the game recently and skimmed through the forum, and those are some of my thoughts.

I think that the idea with personas is not the best. Choosing a personality is much different than choosing a class. People’s personalities vary too much for players to totally fall in one of the categories you established. Player may decide to be for ex. a jokester but something that would be a good idea of fun for you may not be the same for someone else and they would be displeased about pushing them to choose action they dont want. Or others may just think that none of the possible personas suits them. It’s more open for players to just have few options to choose of how to respond to certain situation than limiting their response to a personality archetype they choose at the start. It would be just unnecessary limiting people from playing the game the way they want, and based on some comments from other released games, people wouldnt enjoy the idea. I think the system that adjust itself by player choices and then limiting some responses by your “stats” or something is much more flexible and will please a lot more people. Also i think that more players would want to make their characters less “dull” by giving them their own personalities or inventing ones themselves than choosing from few predetermined ones.

On another note i was surprised by the lack of possible actions against Hedonist. Only one half-hearted attempt at reporting him to the dean seems awfully small against someone who is essentialy drugging (the effects of his powers looks similar to drug-like haze), sexually abusing and possibly raping MC’s classmates (If he is extending his “offer” to other students during his personal meetings while he is mind controlling/influencing them). Shouldn’t it be more pressing concern to the MC to report him to the dean or to the police or even take some actions of their own?

But i liked that the are many varied characters and you can choose with whom to hang out and choose how to deal with other issues along with them. Also i’m very curious how the story will go forth and to learn why the school is so strange and how the things will add up.

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line 78: invalid ${} variable substitution at letter 20

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@CaballeroDeAndromeda, what Chapter?

@Pendrew, yeah. I mean, I’ve included it as a choice that appears if: A) you are dating Tress, B) you are in Crook’s “What do do about Contarian?” group and C) you heated up the dance floor with DG back in Chapter 3. DG will remind you of that night and you get the option to dump Tress and date DG, but DG wants you do go ahead and dump Tress now. You should get options to do it by phone, or by text, or in person the next time you see her, which is the next morning before HELL. I assume it is accessible. I’m not sure I’ve ever played it out myself.

@Ponku, welcome to the thread. You make some interesting points. I know some folks like a totally blank slate MC because they imagine themselves as the MC and they probably (either consciously or subconsciously) just superimpose their own personality onto the character, so in the reader’s mind, the MC has plenty of personality!

And yes, personalities are complicated. I’m not the master of small, nuanced character interactions like @jeantown is with Guen, but I’m doing my best to make the interactions more complicated while still keeping the light (and hopefully fun). I recognize no one is “purely” a jokester or brooder, etc., but superheroes in comics do have “brands,” so to speak that allow you to describe the essence of the character.

The whole “persona” addition would require a good amount of additional work to type a lot of additional dialogue and reactions, as well as to figure out the mechanics behind it all, so I’m definitely considering all feedback I get.

And I’m surprised you still get the “rapey” vibe from Hedonist, considering that the MC has total control over how the “assessment” turns out. I mean, there’s not even an inference that the Hedonist is controlling the MC’s actions, thoughts, anything. Does he act inappropriately? No question about it. But is he committing any crimes or forcing anyone to do anything? Again, there’s not even an inference of that.

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@HornHeadFan

You got me there. I don’t remember the chapter. :frowning: I apologize. ^:)^

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On the topic of Hedonist, I don’t feel like he rapes the MC or physically molest them. I feel as though he is mentally feeling up the character, drawing them in with good looks, a silver tongue, and the possibility of going to a better hero school. Then he puts his hands on their shoulders in the interview before finally moving in to get the pleasure he has been seeking. It is very creepy, but totally legal as he forces nothing on the MC.

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So, aside from the mechanical bonuses, what effect would the persona have? Would it “grey out” certain dialogue options? Provide extra dialogue options? Alter the tone of the stuff the protagonist says during dialogues where you don’t have a specific choice of response? Would the mechanical bonus be based on how closely we stick to the persona in question? I would hate hate hate the first of those, be okay with the second, be entirely on board with the third, and I’m not sure how I’d feel about the last.

Also, for the brooder, how would the secret bonus even work? At least as secrets are now, it’s pretty much a binary thing, unlike everything else which is points based and easily subject to linear increases.

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@HornHeadFan That’s why i never said that he rapes the MC, but MC’s friends. I remember i saw a comment somewhere here that his powers don’t affect unpowered people, i don’t know if it’s “official” but it certainly make sense, since while MC can choose the option to resist his temptation, all of the other students seems enthralled by him. And even if MC during the personal interview can oppose Hedonist advances, it looks like other students do not have that possibility, and by that he is raping them if he extends his “offer” to them while they are unable to consciously resist him. If that’s the case he is essentially drugging them to have sex with them = rape.
And even if MC can resist his advances, Hedonist attempts to sexually harass MC, and i think it should require more actions from the MC to at least report it.

@God_of_Demonz He tries to use his position of power (as a teacher and savior recruiter) on his student to have sex with him. From what i know it is illegal, it don’t have to be physicall force for it to be sexual abuse or rape attempt. Also, his comment that he is a recruiter for Savior can be interpreted as only giving a possibility, but can also be interpreted as a threat, that without his good favor you wont be accepted into better school, and then he is blackmailing you to have sex with him and it is a rape attempt. (not to look far, fragment from wikipedia about rape: “The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or against a person who is incapable of valid consent, such as one who is unconscious, incapacitated, or below the legal age of consent”)

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Yeah, “have sex with me or get a permanent bad mark on your school record” is definitely “rapey” and definitely a crime.

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The Hedonist’s shtick is illegal no matter how you look at it. If the school knows about it and doesn’t do anything because ~it’s a secret test of character~, that’s actually more fodder to milk them dry in the court room.

So yeah, give me an option to set him on fire, kthxbye.

edit:

That said, I’d like to add that his secretary’s comments imply that the other students haven’t, actually, accepted Hedonist’s offer. She either tells you that the door won’t last long (if you punch him, I believe) or she sarcastically congratulates you for “being the first to get an A” (if you accept his offer.)

So I don’t believe he’s using his powers to coerce the other students, although only @HornHeadFan can confirm this. Still illegal though.

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I’m not sure it’s actually criminal in the sense that he could go to jail, especially since he never comes straight out and offers tit for tat, and it’s still possible to get a passing grade without actually engaging in anything untoward.

That said, it’s clearly harassment, predatory all get out, and a massive civil suit waiting to happen. I wouldn’t be surprised if Savior has him out “on loan” just to get him out from under their roof. Of course, the whole theme of the instruction at Speck is that, HELL instructor aside, nothing any of the teachers are doing would be considered even remotely acceptable anywhere else. Getting a B for hinting to Hedonist you might be willing to put out at some point down the line is probably still less ethically dubious than getting a B for giving a fellow student massive head trauma.

Either the faculty is all secretly supervillains trying to corrupt a bunch of impressionable youth, or the school is just a nightmare of mismanagement. Not that my character isn’t just going to play along anyway for those sweet sweet equipment upgrades.

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Hedonist was always designed to be the familiar “charming yet leacherous” professor who was inappropriate with students but wouldn’t do anything illegal. I wanted a controversial character to mix things up.

A few quick points

  1. as @trinnie pointed out, the secretary’s comments do imply that other students rejected Hedonist.

  2. I probably need to revisit the first Defense class scene and switch out a few words. I never meant for it to come across as mind control, although I was probably purposely vague when I wrote the scene to give myself some options down the road. if a word like “swayed” causes people to think “mind control,” I can change that.

  3. I have never written anything about the Hedonist’s powers, which are still rather undefined, only working on powered people.

  4. Basically I want Hedonist to come across as a creep but not an outright criminal so maybe I will tone him down and phrase his comments and questions more ambiguously to give him an automatic “I dont know what you’re talking about!” out if he is later confronted about it.

  5. and motivations should always be considered. Why do you think he took the crappy assignment in the first place? Maybe he has slept with everyone as Savior already? Maybe he really does want to help but cant resist all the good looking heroes and heroines in training at Speck? Maye he always picks a “favorite” student each year and gives them special privileges and mentoring? We just don’t know yet.

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