No update today.
Deadline for current update: Complete Stillwater one night stand in early May(explicit stuff included)
Deadline for the rest in this segment: Mouse and Carrington sometime in May.
As above.
12 Likes
No update today.
Deadline for current update: Complete Stillwater one night stand in early May(explicit stuff included)
Deadline for the rest in this segment: Mouse and Carrington sometime in May.
Filler post.
9 Likes
No update today.
Deadline for current update: Complete Stillwater one night stand in early May(explicit stuff included)
Deadline for the rest in this segment: Mouse and Carrington sometime in May.
Still busy with my real life.
10 Likes
No update today.
Deadline for current update: Complete Stillwater one night stand in early May(explicit stuff included)
Deadline for the rest in this segment: Mouse and Carrington sometime in May.
Less than a week until we enter productive phase(I hope).
15 Likes
No update today.
Deadline for current update: Complete Stillwater one night stand in early May(explicit stuff included)
Deadline for the rest in this segment: Mouse and Carrington sometime in May.
Routine posting. Not spam, I promise. 
9 Likes
No update today.
Deadline for current update: Complete Stillwater one night stand in early May(explicit stuff included)
Deadline for the rest in this segment: Mouse and Carrington sometime in May.
As above.
9 Likes
No update today.
Deadline for current update: Complete Stillwater one night stand in early May(explicit stuff included)
Deadline for the rest in this segment: Mouse and Carrington sometime in May.
Filler post.
14 Likes
No update today.
Deadline for current update: Complete Stillwater one night stand in early May(explicit stuff included)
Deadline for the rest in this segment: Mouse and Carrington sometime in May.
Work on CyberPolice continues very soon. 
15 Likes
No update today.
Deadline for current update: Complete Stillwater one night stand in early May(explicit stuff included)
Deadline for the rest in this segment: Mouse and Carrington sometime in May.
Only tomorrow left.
11 Likes
No update today.
Deadline for current update: Complete Stillwater one night stand: Soon(explicit stuff included)
Deadline for the rest in this segment: Mouse and Carrington sometime in May.
And Iām done!
Starting tomorrow: Finishing the Stillwater version, then polishing it. If I donāt get it done this week, it aināt a great sign, but usually I need some time to escalate my work-routine so Iāll be generous to myself for now(probably canāt start 8h a day from the first day forwards, but weāll see!).
Anyway, plan of action is to finish all the one night stands this month, then move to the sub-plots while also rewriting the game from the start to make it more cohesive overall. Will it happen? I certainly hope so and will do my best to that end. Itās about time I get some real progress into CyberPolice again.
24 Likes
No update today.
Deadline for current update: Complete Stillwater one night stand: Soon(explicit stuff included)
Deadline for the rest in this segment: Mouse and Carrington sometime in May.
Acceptable amount done today. The scene should be ādoneā tomorrow, although Iāll be polishing it and possibly adding a few minor things so itāll take a few days, depending on my work rate.
Supposing I manage to increase my work amount by half an hour a day, I should be at a good rate by next week. Sounds manageable.
19 Likes
No update today.
Deadline for current update: Complete Stillwater one night stand: Soon(explicit stuff included)
Deadline for the rest in this segment: Mouse and Carrington sometime in May.
Done with the scene and did some polishing already.
I will be adding some parts to the romance section of the scene, though, since I fear it might be a bit āmidā, as the kids say. I already have a pretty clear vision as to what Iāll be adding, so I doubt itāll take much time in the end, and Iām hoping to still complete it this week.
Not to worry though, even though I want it to be in as good a shape as possible, it shouldnāt be like with the Mari Badr scene where I didnāt want to upload it until it was āperfectā. This romance stuff is definitely much harder to write in many ways, but my confidence is also a lot higher at the moment too. I think itāll be fine, once I add a few minor segments.
Of course, I do dread the reception since this is much more romantic than the Mari scene, but the only way to improve is to try new things, I suppose. The original version of this scene is a bit āgenericā, and the new parts are intended to make it more personalized for Stillwater, which I think is very important. Youāll see what I mean soon enough. 
21 Likes
No update today.
Deadline for current update: Complete Stillwater one night stand: Soon(explicit stuff included)
Deadline for the rest in this segment: Mouse and Carrington sometime in May.
A bit more work done than yesterday, not quite half an hour more, but as long as itās more every day itās good. Still at under 4 hours per day.
The new changes Iāll be implementing will make the context of the scene much more āstrictā, which means itāll rely on the player having made certain choices before accessing the romance.
Spoiler for what it is: You need to teach Stillwater that the world isnāt necessarily a place where thereās a simple, clear answer for everything, and sometimes one might need to bend rules or break them. This can be done in many ways, like through actions or argumentation or in dialogue, etc, at various points in the game.
What this means is that these choices will act as the pre-requisite for the romance itself, in the final version. For now itās assumed youāve made those choices, so everyone can try the scene out, and so I can see how everyone will feel about it.
Theyāre mostly based on one choice-variable Iāve been keeping track of in the game already(albeit very lazily), which Iāll be expanding on with the eventual rewrite of the earlier scenes. Also, youāll need to show some romantic interest or such in earlier scenes as well, so thereās technically two pre-requisites.
Unfortunately the first pre-requisite might end up being non-negotiable, since itās the only real way anything makes sense from my point of view. The problem with this is that itās not really something that the player can know beforehand, which is really annoying. And the player might disagree with it, which makes it a bit awkward a thing to gate the romance behind of. Both are problems Iād rather not have.
In any case, Iāll ask for more feedback on this once I post the update. Maybe Iāll find an alternative way to offer the romance(so thereāll be two different contexts for it, the other being much easier to fulfill ācasuallyā). Thatād make everything much nicer, but I might not be able to find one. Weāll see, as usual.
tl;dr Stlilwater romance will probably require you to have made certain choices in the game(in the final version). In the soon to be posted update, itās assumed youāve made those choices. This means the ācurrentā scene may be somewhat inconsistent with your previous for your own playthrough. Iāll ask for feedback once itās ready, so please give it at that point especially if you disagree with the āassumptionsā that are made.
Iām sure my post was a bit confusing, but it canāt be helped. Things will hopefully make more sense once I post the update.
23 Likes
Just my two cents on this but imo itās more important for certain things to make sense in the story/for the character than implementing/making access easier just for the sake of experiencing it (tho itās fine if itās for play testing of course)
So personally I like it more if certain choices lead to something specific as long as it makes sense in your eyes (not mine lol).
So if you want to āgatekeepā Stillwaterās romance behind certain actions I think thatās very valid, if that fits his personality more.
Uhm, Iām really bad at explaining things, so I hope I got across what I wanted to sayš
17 Likes
I agree. But perhaps an indicator (toggle on and off) can be added to guide people who want to romance Stillwater without having to guess which choice/action will lead to the romance or doom 
This way, people wouldnāt be gatekeep-ed and the romance will still go the way the author intend it to be.
Win-win! 
6 Likes
I definitely agree, but itās still a complicated issue.
Wish-fulfillment doesnāt generally lead to great storytelling, but neither does a strict linear storyline(and if something, even a romance, requires only a strict set of events to happen, then itās linear and has an annoying taste of āthis is what the author thinks is correct and rightā, which Iām not a fan of. More on that in the reply below).
That said, having something like a romance be too hard to access is unfortunate, especially since the only reason Iām even doing it in the first place is due to popular demand. 
Since that is the origin of the whole romance, itād be idiotic to deny it from most people. Itād be different if that was the plan from the beginning due to a clever web of narrative decisions, but in this case the starting point is sort of fan-pandering, soā¦
There are a few planned things that are extremely fringe(non-romance), and the result of specific choice groups, where I donāt expect more than 10% of players to even see them, and theyāre a huge change from the normal events. However, for those things itās more a case of variable outcomes for storylines and characters, rather than an obvious āsubplotā like romance. Much like if there was a āgenericā version of the romance, and the āspecialā version of the romance, where the special one is the one that Iām currently talking about. Funnily enough, the problem is the opposite now: I canāt think of a way for the generic version to make sense.
And the special version definitely makes more sense for Stillwater, from my point of view. But that doesnāt mean I wonāt think of other ways for a romance to make sense. But that may have to wait for a later time where I get inspiration from somewhere else and something in my mind clicks like āOf course! Thatās the perfect way to do the ānormalā version of it!ā (it happens all the time, so itās not all that unlikely in the end).
Anyway, point is, Iāll give it more thought in the coming months, but for now Iāll likely be content with only the special version, so to speak. (unless in the process of polishing and adding the content I already come up with a solution)
I do have some reservations doing it like that. Iād hate to have one character as a special case, and if it was an overall āignore all conditions for romanceā, the romances are a special case compared to every other choice, which I donāt like either. At that point it becomes a question of āwhy canāt you put XYZ as a special caseā, and so on. (and it drains much of the strength of the narrative if I allow even a single special case, even if itās the playerās responsibility. By giving the option of ignoring them, it creates a sort of notion that itās āfineā and should work. I suppose I could add it as a clear ācheatā option that specifically mentions itās a cheat and makes things make less sense. Hmmā¦)
Iād much prefer to do it in an in-world type of way if I can. If I canātā¦ well, Iāll have to think about it heavily.
The fact is, even if itās the way I āintendā it to go, this is still interactive fiction. If it isnāt interactive, then thereās no point, from my point of view. (if only one set of choices leads to an outcome, and itās the only ārightā way to do it, it becomes too much of an authorial mandate from my point of view. The logical flow of events is what matters, certainly, but I also dislike having things strictly behind the ācorrectā choices).
Anyway, Iāll see if I can come up with a solution that pleases me by the time CyberPolice is done.
(My replies are a bit rambling, I guess, but oh well. )
18 Likes
I kinda like this concept, it makes sense (fraternisation is probably banned by rules, so having relationship with you will be rule-breaking by Stillwater), and in seems familiar to some ideas of personality changes by players actions in other games which I liked (for example, Iron Bull story/relationship in DA: Inquisition),
But I think this should be telegraphed to players really well. Because when you set some flags leading to unfavoured outcome for you and you had no idea you actually did this - this just sucks 
3 Likes
No update today.
Deadline for current update: Complete Stillwater one night stand: Soon(explicit stuff included)
Deadline for the rest in this segment: Mouse and Carrington sometime in May.
Wonāt be ready this week, it seems. Sometime next week, not sure when. Probably not before Thursday. Which makes it tough to get the Mouse and Carrington parts out this month, I suppose. Still, itāll take what time it takes, no use rushing.
I do agree with the sentiment. Iāll figure out something for it. For a shorter game itād be fine, but for one as long as this one itās rather annoying since replaying is much more time consuming.
In any case, Iāll deal with it later, for now itās more important to get the update out and see if the romance content is even any good in the first place. If no one likes it, it doesnāt matter if itās hard to reach.
15 Likes
Truthfully, it doesnāt seem all that archaic to catch Stillās attention. Like a previous post of mine notes about catching him so off guard he chokes on his lunch, there seem to be a lot of little ways the reader might āarrestā his focus. If nothing else, heās never acted like he was glazed over bored in just general conversation. That much could be part of him being ābuilt differentā but unlike his sister, he does show certain emotions about his likes and dislikes, is curious about where MC is from regardless of the relevance, and participates in a back and forth dialogue about how law should be handled. To the letter of the law which may be morally dubious, or something more intrinsic? He seems very interested in that subject, even if the rest outside these points is completely platonic.
8 Likes
Iām really sorry, but Iām having a hard time understanding what youāre trying to say here exactly. 
What I mean is, I understand your points and agree with them, but I donāt quite understand the context here? Is it meant to support one point or another that was discussed above? I get that itās related to the romance stuff, but I donāt really grasp how exactly.
Maybe itās because Iām not a native English speaker, or maybe itās because Iām not a romance-enthusiast, but Iām a bit confused here. 
6 Likes