Cyberpolice (Minor Update: 19th of March 2024) (WIP)

No update today.

Work proceeds. Not much more to say at this point. :smiley:

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I just realized that I used up all my saves and since this is a pretty long demo for me I ask for more saves. (The day to day formatting is a bit strange to me since it kinda made the time with the characters feel shorter then I expected but the scenes themselves can be lengthy and having to go through the whole day and then go home to and sleep and doing it again makes it feel like an unending cycle. Personally the morning and evening commutes may not even be needed. I also think the the day to day format may contribute to it feeling railroady. IDK. Itā€™s like the day ended for the MC but it doesnā€™t for the reader. So far the demo is 3 days (correct me if Iā€™m wrong) into the story and with how lengthy it is with many interactions itā€™s a lot to digest.)

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Hi so partially donā€™t know what Iā€™m doing seeing as I made this account all of ā€¦ five minutes ago so apologies for anything there!

I know it isnā€™t particularly constructive and may not be seen but good vibes are helpful in their own way I hope! Iā€™d just like to say that not only is this one of the best pieces of sci-fi or detective Iā€™ve read in a long while (Which, in complete fairness I donā€™t read too much of either genre) that I am totally in love with - but the fact that you take the time to give daily updates to your audience when many authors are (understandably instead focused on their work) very quiet for months at a time is incredibly encouraging and that combination meant I just had to try and show some small amount of appreciation. Anyway apologies for rambling, hope was enjoyed and not peculiar, good luck on your project!

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What I mean by railroading is option a. The story is moving in a singular direction and that I rarely take paths based on what I pick. Maybe its not a bad thing since our MC is just an outsider observing things?

So far there is no negative railroading yet which is why I brought that up now then in the future. Now that we have more autonomy maybe our Mcs can explore options not open before because Stillwater is showing you around. Especially with my spy MC who needs to do some investigating to appease the IA gods. Regarding that path I think you havent thrown us a bone that points to fishy information regarding the NTPD or Iā€™m not looking hard enough. Hmmmm.

All in all, the way the plot is moving now is fine. I just hope that in the future we get some freedom and give our MCs agency to pursue whatever their motivations are.

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No update today.

Again, things proceed decently, which is great.

Sure, I can do that. At least I think I can, Iā€™m not sure if thereā€™s a maximum amount of saves I can set.

I get your point about the day-to-day format. Iā€™ll definitely be keeping it to some degree, but Iā€™ll probably spread the time out a bit. At present weā€™re technically at day 3, but as far as my ā€œroadmapā€ is concerned, itā€™s more like day 6 or maybe 8. The pacing could certainly use a bit looking into.

As for the morning-evening stuff, weā€™ll be having way less of those from now on. I wanted to establish it as early as possible to provide a certain atmosphere, which is now done so thereā€™s no need to continue with it. But I do think itā€™s critical for the first two or three days.

Anyway, consider your concern noted.

The fact that you made an account just to say that means a lot to me. :blush:

Good vibes are definitely helpful. It really doesnā€™t take that much time for me to write the ā€œNo update todayā€ thing, like a minute at most. Itā€™s really helpful for me to keep up my mental routine of work. Iā€™m generally the unmotivated kind of person(in a practical sense, I want to do much more than I end up doing). Nice to hear that people like seeing it, you certainly arenā€™t the first to say it. I feared it might be annoying to just post pointless posts, but itā€™s definitely nice that people see it in a positive light. :slight_smile:

Ah, I see. Thatā€™ll be different in the final version, I hope. The idea was(from the beginning), that the stuff Iā€™m writing is indeed the default/basic/simple version with only a bit of branching and free paths. With the Major update come the three subplots, which might help with that. Although, I suppose, you could see them as just three separate railroads with little branching.

Iā€™ll also be adding some ā€œfreeā€ scenes which are additional to the main branch, optional in a sense, and not related to the subplots either. Those should at the very least satisfy your need for less railroading, I suspect.

Plus, the ending is also relatively nonrailroady(planned at least). The idea is to have 2-4 different finales, where each can go in around three different ways depending on what youā€™ve chosen so far in the game and so on, and within the finales themselves(I suppose each of the different ways to go also have their own variations).

Well, thatā€™s the plan anyway, weā€™ll see how it goes in practiceā€¦

The fact is that the more I want player choices to matter, the later they have to be made, since otherwise the game will bloat to an astronomical degree and thus be impossible to actually create. A choice made early on canā€™t affect the branching much at all(unless it only takes effect later on).

That isnā€™t to say, however, that ā€œside contentā€ isnā€™t a valuable thing in itself. Self-contained scenes that have little or no effect on other things are pretty easy to make, and also might make it feel less railroady. Still, it always feels awkward to me when I make ā€œunrelatedā€ content like that, kinda feels weird.

Anyway, weā€™ll see how it pans out. I do appreciate that youā€™re discussing your concerns like this, since that way Iā€™m aware of them. If you just kept your mouth shut and hoped for the best Iā€™d never be able to address any problems, so thank you for sharing them!

Yeah, the idea of the ā€œStillwater no longer babysits youā€ is indeed to give the player more freedom and agency. This should include, but not be limited to, the background plots like what you just mentioned. And indeed, I havenā€™t touched on the matter too much yet. Gotta set all the subplots in stone before I can do that so I donā€™t promise stuff I canā€™t deliver, so to speak. :slight_smile:

However, I doubt youā€™ll be seeing too much stuff like that before the Major Update is done, since the next segment is the last Iā€™ll do before Iā€™ll work on the Major Update. (after which Iā€™ll start with the subplots, and once those are done Iā€™ll add the additional content, and then wrap it all together in a cohesive whole so that it makes sense pacing wise etc. A lot of work)

The plan is that once the Major Update is done, the game will be actually complete up until the finales. Although, if Iā€™m making the major update only up to the point thatā€™s coming up in the next segment, thereā€™s still quite a bit left until weā€™re at the finales. Weā€™ll see.

I hope so too. Sometimes what I want to deliver isnā€™t quite what I end up delivering, but Iā€™ll certainly do my best to give the player freedom and agency too. Itā€™s kinda the point of interactive fiction in the first place, isnā€™t it? If I just wanted to make a single railroaded story, I wouldnā€™t write IF, Iā€™d write a book. :smiley:

If things still arenā€™t to your liking once the Major Update drops, then we might have a problem, but as I said, thatā€™s quite some time in the future. In any case, consider your issues noted, Iā€™ll address them as best I can.

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No update today.

Work continues.

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No update today.

Progress is being made.

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No update today.

Stuff is being made.

Also:

I added six more save slots. Figured I might as well do it now instead of waiting for the update since who knows when I get it done.

I had a faint memory there was a maximum amount of save slots I could add, and fearing that it might break I didnā€™t want to add an outrageous amount.

Hope it helps.

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No update today.

Looking good so far. Probably wonā€™t be able to work during the weekend. Weā€™ll see if I have the capacity to post a ā€œno updateā€. :slight_smile:

Thank you!

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No update today.

Alright, relative related obligations done now, back to work. :smiley:

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No update today.

Decent progress. Iā€™ll probably post some details this week as to what Iā€™ve done and whatā€™s left for this update to give you folks some idea of where we are.

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No update today.

Things went pretty well. Not much more to say. :smiley:

Guess I should be more specific about my comments. I sure used to do that at some point, didnā€™t I? Maybe at some point. :slight_smile:

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No update today.

A bit less progress today than usual, but itā€™s still progress.

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I feel like i should have done this before but anyway i finished the new update lol

I donā€™t think i really have a lot to add but i really liked the conversations in the new update, especially with Ambrose which i am definitely sure is trying to manipulate us in some way but i definitely like him much more now and i am definitely allowing him in the investigation to see what he does

I gotta say, Great job on his rant about Idealism and Realism! It was pretty fun to read and i canā€™t imagine how much time that took to write so congrats!

One small thing i would like to ask is why couldnā€™t we tell the Internal Affairs guy (in the corruption investigation background) about Mari Badr deal, the burecrats would have a godamn blast realising they found gold while they were searching for cooper

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No update today.

Good enough progress today. Things have been rolling pretty well overall this week, Iā€™d say.

Heh, thanks. Good to hear I didnā€™t waste my time writing that stuff. You never know until you hear an opinion or two. :slight_smile: (doubly true for rarely seen characters like Ambrose)

Characters trying to manipulate you in Cyberpolice? Whaat? Never! :smiley:

As I recall I wrote his rant in a few separate sessions and had to shuffle his particular points among a variety of conversation topics. Originally it was absurdly long and I figured I had to tone it down by at least half. Even so it remains a pretty lengthy monologue, so itā€™s especially nice to hear that you liked it. :slight_smile:

An excellent point. Iā€™ll make a note of it. As it currently is in the game, the corruption investigation background is pretty barebones and is definitely one of the things Iā€™ll be paying extra attention on during the upcoming rewrites. The ā€œbasicā€ stuff Iā€™ve planned for the player to report on are easy to remember, but stuff like this that happens more ā€œorganicallyā€ is easy to miss.

At this point of the writing process(as far as the background plots are concerned) Iā€™m mainly tossing around ā€œideasā€ whenever I remember to and whenever itā€™s convenient, rather than doing so with any great structure or organization(that comes later once the main plot pieces are in place and the ā€œrealā€ structure of the story is set to stone).

In any case, the Mari Badr stuff is definitely a topic worth mentioning to him for sure. :smiley:

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Iā€™m gonna give a random shot in the dark and say he is trying to make us go after Janice, almost everything about her is just commenting how she would definitely kill a person if it went good for her and he says that she is on a high position to do that and he seems to hold a bit of his idealism albeit with strong pragmatism so taking her out is removing a potential threat to people overall

Buuuut she is the whole person behind THAT town project so doesnā€™t really make sense for her to try and risk her position again by killing a financial advisor even though it could be a very big secret for her

Mari Badr can think for herself and she has a lot of freedom, he has a point on her being dangerous and especially since that she decided to make a mole deal

He also hardly comented on Balthazar so that guy is probably hiding something, Ambrose doesnā€™t mind saying private details from the others even his ā€œfavorite/unfavorite sonā€ but he hides things about Balthazar? Something ainā€™t right even if it isnā€™t from the investigation

Now i am curious what was in the original script lol, but yeah the whole part of the designer soldiers seemed to be one big part that was trimed into other options but still looks great!

Also there is the issue that the Internal Auddit backgrounds seems to be a more complex substory to write, like the rookie substory can basicaly just make the MC seem more like a fool and more underestimated while inverse goes to the retirement background which is described as a police bloodhound by itā€™s peers at their old station, the complaint is more known as a troublemaker, burecracy is jus there by likely accident, and the report one is basicaly a review of how they work

Internal Audits Guy looked at you and said ā€œGo nuts, see this bribe money boah? Get these surveilance cameras and go git the bad guys, Cā€™MON GIT!ā€ And sent you to go on and fish some salmons while you accidentaly fished a swordfish

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No update today.

Tolerable progress today.

No comment. :grin:

Pretty much, yeah. Good to hear that it works despite that being the origin. I was afraid it might be incredibly awkward.

True enough. Itā€™s certainly the most work-intensive of the possibilities. In general Iā€™d like for each of the options to feel different and unique, even if the amount of content per se isnā€™t the same. Not everything needs to be in symmetrical balance, but all of them should feel rewarding and cool to play/read through. Currently Iā€™m planning that all of them will have at least one ā€œdefiningā€ scene in the story, but hopefully also one or two ā€œsupportingā€ scenes to them, so theyā€™ll feel relevant. But weā€™ll see how it ends up. Itā€™d be awkward if one of the backgrounds felt like the ā€œbestā€ choice, so to speak.

Thanks!

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Honestly the only way the origins feel to have a ā€œthis one sucks while this one is betterā€ feeling is only with roleplaying

Say if you want to roleplay as a naive cop then the newbie origin would be the best, a more cynical could be with the retirement cop, and so goes forth.

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