I have played this once more to get a better feel, and i have reached an ultimate truth; The chief is ultimately adorable
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Its been a while since i read through this one but everytime i do iâm impressed by the writing quality and character depth.
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No update today.
Chances are I wonât be able to do much writing until next week, sadly.
In retrospect Iâm not sure those kind of decisions are all that good for the game, since it does take a lot of effort that couldâve gone elsewhere(or sped up completion!). I can only hope itâs worth it in the end. 
Who knows, maybe Iâm a Designer Writer. 
And by that extension, Iâm adorable as well since Iâm like the chief, right?
Your revelation may in part be due to the magic of interactive fiction, where each playthrough is different and thus you get a broader scope of the character(unless you made identical choices, of course). Good for you, in other words, makes me happy. 
Excellent. Itâs always nice to see comments like these, since otherwise how am I to know that the quality has remained good? (or even was good in the first place)
One of the biggest enemies in a long project like this is complacency. If I get too accustomed to thinking that whatever I write is magically amazing, it just might turn out that it no longer will be after that.
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IKR!, I hadda ask how to get the car scene cause i just couldnt get it on my own 
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wow i love your writing and the choices,detials are just prefect 
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Wouldnât mind more âprobingâ of Still for either of my mcâs. 
The cutie does seem like the most tragic character currentlyâŚso many dreams and ambitions and yet even the simplest the skiing holiday seems so far out of reach. Poor boy! 
2 Likes
No update today.
Alright, back to work again. Wonât take much more for the final segment from what I can tell. Tomorrow, maybe? (though knowing my gross misestimations, Wednesday is a safer bet 
)
Thank you. I aim to deliver only the best. 
Any alternative probings will have to wait a while longer. 
Everyone has a bit of tragedy and a bit of comedy in them. Your own interpretations of whatâs the most tragic and what isnât is subjectively correct for your playthrough, since youâll only catch a glimpse of each due to your choices. Itâs not wrong for two readers to have totally opposite opinions of the same character, since both can be true at the same time simply due to the differences in perspective and interpretation. 
As for myself, Iâm the type of author who hates giving out âofficialâ answers on stuff like this. I merely deliver the âobjective factsâ as they are, and the reader has to complete the puzzle with the pieces I deliver. Of course I do have my own opinions on everything, but Iâll never tell them as thatâd corrupt and ruin the experience of the reader. Maybe I think Stillwater is super tragic, maybe I think thereâs not an ounce of tragedy to him. Who knows, since I most certainly wonât tell which it is, or indeed if itâs something entirely different. 
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No update today.
Didnât get super much done. Tomorrow, I hope.
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No worries!!!
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No update today.
As was the case yesterday, didnât get much done. There really isnât all that much to do in the first place for the final segment, which makes it extra annoying that I get so little done.
(partially the reason for the lack of progress is the fact that Iâm fighting with myself whether to cut out certain options from it or not, and I most certainly will have to do it, but it ainât easy for me to do mentally, which makes it tougher than usual. Editing out stuff Iâve already written and partially rewriting the segment is super annoying, as expected 
)
Thatâs my line to say!
Itâs just a habit of mine to post every day whether I get anything done or not, and to complain and lament about it. Itâs just how I like doing things, since I need a constant pressure to keep myself going and what better way to do it than to post every day about not getting anything done until I do?
Whenever a real update is available, I edit the topicâs title with a new date, so anyone who prefers to only see new content should keep an eye on that.
But I do always appreciate encouragement, so thanks!
5 Likes
No update today.
Very nearly done with the last segment, managed to do a good chunk of the painful rewriting today(wasnât really all that much that needed to be rewritten, Iâm mainly just hiding away the stuff that wonât be used for now, hopefully I can add it during the second polishing pass. Still, I did need to add some stuff too, which technically doesnât count as a rewrite, but it was work nonetheless).
Almost certainly ready tomorrow.
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No update today.
I said ALMOST certainly. 
Was busy again. Probably canât work tomorrow. So Sunday. Hopefully next week will be more productive.
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I wish you luck with whatever you are busy with!!!
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I suppose that is true. Still both of my mcâs want to take Still on that winter-sports holiday now. Poor kid deserves a real holiday for once in his lifeâŚbut he seems unlikely to get even that as heâs not legally a full person. 
Also both in and out of universe it always seems dumb not to give (sexy) life forms who are as smart or smarter than us ordinary humans full âhumanâ rights as that always seems to lead to trouble somewhere down the line.
I mean if Still wants to run for Senate both of my mcâs would say let him. No way he can be worse than any of the other 99 Senators.
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No update today.
Surprisingly I couldnât work today either. Which is obviously really frustrating.
Thanks!
Who knows, perhaps one of the endings is one where you take him on a vacation? 
Well, sometimes itâs a question of politics. There may be more pressing matters, general political apathy, a system where changing vital laws or the constitution is extremely difficult, on-going debates on scientific/ethical/religious/legal definitions of personhood, discussions on potential reparations to be paid for said creatures if theyâve been abused for years, and a slew of other reasons why it isnât possible in a short time frame. Perhaps it may even be a question of the intellectual property rights of a certain corporation that has monopolized said personhood as part of their business strategy? 
The ultimate question is, of course, whether the author finds it interesting to deal with such issues and themes or not.
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Will there be anymore combat/chase scenes ?
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Probably, the life of a police agent is never easy. Especially now with the âDecelebratorâ on the loose.
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Well the thing is, for example, an alien race arrive at our planet, they are an intelligent life form, but they are not human, you canât give them human right, you can give them something similar (if you want) to human right. The same is probably for the Design Soldier that are not real âhumanâ but made in the image of them, and probably people are scared that since they are contructed to be superior to the average human they could overthrow the ânatural orderâ of thing. Not that not treating them as human will help them in the long term, since probably more and more Design Soldier will develop more self awareness and remember how they were treated.
Well that how I image what will happen, Maybe something worse or something less drastic could happen, who really know. (Except⌠well you know, the creator).
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No update today.
Sheesh, itâs like circumstances are conspiring against me.
(start of rant)
I mean, I have no excuse in that I certainly could work an hour or even half an hour a day and get this segment done, but I prefer to work for a few hours at least so I need that few hour segment to get my mind in the âtime to workâ setting. I probably should try to alter my workflow in case stuff like this happens in the future. Wasted time is wasted time.
Also, seems to be the anniversary of me posting this thread. A year since I started and it ainât finished yet, perhaps not even close. Definitely didnât plan for this to take this long, but what can you do.
(end of rant)
The point is: Tomorrow? 
Depends on your path. I donât think there are any âdefaultâ chases or combat scenes, but there are at least 3 combat scenes and 2 chase scenes that I remember off the top of my head, but each is dependent on branching and choices and so on. Meaning, you might not run into them depending on your choices. Three of these are relatively soon, I believe, at least in the timeline, though some of them are sub-plot dependent and as such wonât be implemented until the âsecond passâ Iâll be doing at some point.
But one of them is available regardless(supposing you make certain choices), and weâll be getting to it relatively soon(exactly because weâll be skipping a lot of sub-plot stuff in the near future). Itâs on the default path in the sense that anyone can potentially run into it(I think), but it requires you to consciously make that choice(or be without other options, those depend on a few things based on whether you did the Stillwater path on the slums or the Carrington-Mouse path).
Of course, given my new âmost basic version possibleâ strategy, it might end up being the case that youâll be forced into the combat variant of the scene no matter what, but itâll just be âseasonedâ with the choices youâve made and options youâve uncovered, rather than them spawning entirely new scenes and paths to tread. (Meaning: Thereâll be cool stuff that changes the scene itself in minor or major ways rather than me making a variant of the scene, in order to save time and effort)
Thereâs also at least one scene thatâs sort of a combat/chase scene that doesnât as such fit either description IMO, but I wonât be saying anything about that.
Vague spoilers if you want to know more specifics(no names or plot details to make sure the spoilers donât actually spoil anything except the âconceptâ)
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One is a chase that takes place partially on the monorail.
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One is a car chase where youâre in the APC.
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One is a large building thatâs been taken over Die Hard the movie style(albeit in a much smaller scope). Iâve actually written this almost entirely already and itâs something like 100,000 words. It used to be very early on in my first draft but I had to put it in a very different place and change a bunch of things to make it fit, sadly. But it was probably for the best, since it wouldâve made for a drastically different feeling to the story had it happened when I originally planned(it was before you visited the crime scene even!).
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One is a large scale confrontation within a building between two non-police groups that youâre forced to blunder into.
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One is a police raid into a building.
Looks like youâre invested in your chosen nickname for the perpetrator.
One could imagine that you might bump into the âDecerebratorâ at some point in some potentially non-peaceful way, yes?
Perhaps weâll see an inkling of that during the story, perhaps not. Perhaps it will depend on what choices youâve made and thus what branches youâll access. One storyâs conclusion might have nothing to do with them in any real sense, while another might be deeply associated with them. Who is to say?
6 Likes
Updated with next file.
Contains: Final segment of Fun Tuesday added, aka the pool/billiards game with Carrington and the others.
Current average playthrough:
- Total average: 120,000(vague estimate) (This segment is currently around 75,000 words compared to the 65,000 words it was previously, so 10,000 added to this, I think? Unless my previous estimate was off, which is possible since I donât think it was quite 10,000 that I added? Hard to say, maybe it was.)
Alright, Fun Tuesday is officially done now. Please give it a try if you havenât, and if you have, give it a try to see whether the added stuff is good enough in your opinion.
Since I want some data on it, itâd be nice if you could answer the following two polls below:
Is there a sub-scene that needs more work in the current segment?
- No, theyâre all good.
- The poker game needs work.
- The pool game needs work.
- The TV watching needs work.
- The arcade game needs work.
0 voters
Should I let the player go through all four options, or is just two a good balance?
- All four please.
- Two is a good balance.
0 voters
Anyway, starting tomorrow weâll move on to other stuff.
Depending on what youâve chosen previously, it might include a visit to the hospital or other such things.
Weâre also at the part of the story where Iâll be skipping forward a bit due to the as-of-yet-not-implemented subplots, so donât be shocked if the third day is over in a flash(since itâs mostly subplot related).
The fourth day will consist of a relatively hefty set of scenes, and weâll be spending a bunch of time there.
After that weâre almost done with the âbasicâ stuff, meaning weâll be skipping forward a day or two again due to sub-plots, and Iâll implement the âcut-off-pointâ, which is a party of sorts. It signifies that Iâll be doing the much talked about âsecond polishing runâ to make sure everything makes sense before we continue. Essentially Iâll implement the subplots as well as some other relatively minor but as of yet missing âbasicâ scenes, and other such things, which may very well take a while. After that thereâs a bunch of more stuff before the finales, but itâs hard to estimate how much it actually is since things can change a lot compared to my original plans.
5 Likes