Speaking of characters’ opinions of the player, I noticed at least Stillwater’s doesn’t actually change if you play the game normally (instead of jumping to the newest content), is that something you’re adding in later, or just something you forgot to add in?
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I’m adding that later.
When I originally wrote the stuff I wasn’t sure what sort of relationship system I was going to use.
Now I know(which I started implementing at some point, not sure when. I added the “choose the relationship” thing since after some point I started including variability based on it, etc).
I’ll be adding the opinion metrics to the characters once I’m done with the “big batch” that’s currently going on, since I need to go through all the text at that point to make sure the story is consistent to what I’ve written.
Doing it separately seems like a waste of time honestly, if I’m going to go through it all anyway relatively soon(I hope), since it’s a novel’s worth of text already(if not twice or thrice that, currently it’s over 300,000 words including comments, I believe).
9 Likes
Updated with next file. (Next update Wednesday or Thursday).
Includes combat variant of Carrington-Mouse slums Mean Spheres scene.
Current average playthrough:
- Carrington-Mouse path: 81,000
- Stillwater path: 78,000
- Total average: 79,000
Alright, finally done with this scene.
A whoppping 500 word increase to the average, it seems.(No surprise really given that it’s a variant of a variant rather than “new” text).
How many words did I have to write for this 500 increase to appear?
21,000 words all in all, comments included. Just for this minor variant of the scene.
I think “It wasn’t worth it” is the appropriate way to describe it. 
Now:
Please, please, please!
Try the scene out, force yourself into the combat situation if you have to!
I really need to see someone try it out and post the numbers about it.
(would be nice if you could save your game before the equipping section(so you can test different gear) and the talk-section, so you can test the different ways to get into the fight(you ambush her, she ambushes you, she attacks you from a variety of locations, etc), and how the different choices pan out.)
I fear that the scene isn’t super interesting from the player’s point of view since most of the stuff is automated based on your equipment, cybernetics, situation, etc. There’s only like 1-4 choices overall for the entire length of the fight segment for each different path, I think, so it’s deceptively short. Still, since I put so much effort in it, I’d love to hear some thoughts on it.
Anyway, I’m never going to do anything like that again. It was the biggest waste of time in the project so far.
Whew, but it’s now finally over.
PS due to how massive and complicated the scene is, it’s bound to be full of inconsistencies I didn’t catch since I couldn’t realistically go through every alternative. Sorry in advance if you run into any…
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Forgot what day it was today, didn’t get any work done. 
Thus, tomorrow, probably.
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Made good progress, but there wasn’t a good cutting off point so it’d be silly to post it now, since it’s in the middle of a conversation. Should be done tomorrow.
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I might as well finish the slums part entirely before I post the update. It’s just one more scene beside this one and it isn’t particularly long either(it’s common to both of the sub-paths). Depending on how busy I am it’ll be done either tomorrow or on Monday, I believe.
Also, I need some time to re-think whether the timing/placement of one thing in the current scene makes sense or if it’s super inconsistent with the rest of the game/story and should happen later on instead(it’s related to the “wrap up scene” I mentioned above, and I had previously made a draft of the scene where one character is present that maybe shouldn’t be at this point. I’ll probably either need to rewrite it, or recycle it into a later scene). It would be kinda awkward to retcon later on so I’d prefer to do it properly now rather than later.
After that it’ll be the return to the NTPD, potential interrogations if there were any, potential press conference, and so on. Meaning: Lots of variable stuff. I’ll probably do them one at a time rather than in bulk, to get things done. I don’t expect them to be super complicated, so they shouldn’t take long, probably a day each.
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Had some computer problems yesterday and today, hence I didn’t post anything. It’s all fixed now(or so it seems anyway).
Good news is that it wasn’t actually anything. I had managed to dislocate some parts in the computer when I moved it around and it smacked against the ground outside in the rain. At first I thought my power source was busted, then that my motherboard was, but once I unplugged everything and put it in again(and managed to get things running since I had forgotten some very basic hardware truths), I realized that nothing was broken. Instead stuff was just jostled inside so that nothing worked. Now that everything’s reorganized, there isn’t a problem so far.
It was pretty frustrating for sure and took hell of a lot longer than it should’ve(considering nothing was broken), and I naturally couldn’t get anything done since my computer was busted until just now. Thus, update probably tomororw, but this time the “delay” is due to outside reasons aka life. 
Just thought to keep you updated since I did say I’d probably release it on Monday, but coudln’t even post about what was going on.
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I hope you keep backups
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I second that, I’ve seen way to many Wip’s that were forced to start over or given up because the original choice script files were lost and they didn’t have a back up
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I went for talk a bit and then attacked Zoe when it first came up. It was a fresh game and skipped to Mean Sphere section?
Like the post up there, I think I chose myself as tall and muscular (as well as 0 cybernetics), soo when Zoe did the chain i think thats why i didnt lose it (nornally i dont pick muscular).
Slightly different choices,
1 Like
It’s so fun having choices that cater towards a character with morbid tastes and a sunny disposition. I haven’t seen that before, and actually played the game again after a week to relive it and have a laugh. Thank you for posting your work. It’s such a fun idea with exquisite execution. I couldn’t put my phone down for an entire hour.
2 Likes
Alright, finally got back to work, and indeed, there’s nothing wrong with my computer and no permanent damage was done despite me fiddling with the hardware inside the case and so on. 
Should be able to post the update tomorrow(as always 
).
(Also, thanks for the concern and likes everyone, it’s nice to know people care about my troubles. 
)
I do keep a backup on my separate hard-drive that I update pretty much every time I get a fair deal of work done.
I sometimes make a backup on my email too. Probably should do it more frequently.
For me to lose more than a few days of progress would require quite an unlikely set of events, like my email-address being hacked, my computer’s hard-drive breaking, and my separate hard-drive breaking at the same time before I can make another backup just in case. So, pretty unlikely.
Thanks! That’s very helpful!
As for the spoilered text, yup, that’s exactly why it happened, I’m guessing. There are a few different reasons why it might be, but that’s one of them anyway.
Heh, thanks for the praise! It means a lot to me to hear that people enjoy what I write.
I try to include all kinds of choices, so it’s nice to know that you readers like them too. I’d love to have some sort of data-sheet that showed me how many % of people choose which option. It’d be interesting to see if there are any options that have never been chosen by anyone.
6 Likes
Pretty much done, but I’ll go through the segment again tomorrow to make sure there’s nothing strange in it, since I decided to rewrite the small part I mentioned some days ago. It really didn’t make any sense for it to be in the scene as it currently is, so I’m putting it in later in a slightly different form. It’s interesting how much things can change as the story becomes finalized. What seemed completely fine and natural a few months ago is nonsensical right now.
6 Likes
Updated with next file. (Next update on Saturday, or on Monday. Or Wednesday worst case scenario. See below for reason)
Includes shopping mall scene beginning.
Current average playthrough:
- Carrington-Mouse path: 84,500
- Stillwater path: 78,000
- Total average: 81,500
Good thing I went through the file, since I noticed something kinda annoying. There isn’t all that much variance in the entire scene, like much at all really(as in, it doesn’t matter what the player chooses, at least outcome wise). As such, I feel like I kinda have to add more variance and more importantly player agency to it. Thus, I’m tuning the scene a bit more. I promise not to go overboard crazy like before, though(If I’m not done by Wednesday, I’m just ignoring the problem).
Nonetheless, the delays have been too much lately, so I’m uploading the part that’s not going to change even with my tuning. This is before the entire conversation(you’ll see what I mean if you play through it), so it’s kinda a sort-okay stopping point, but not really. Ends mid-scene in a sense, so keep that in mind if you want to go through it.
Funnily enough, it’s still a whopping 3,500 words increase compared to before. Or rather, it’s obviously such an increase due to the low variability since it’s largely descriptions and characters other than the player talking so it’s naturally a lot of text.
Comparatively speaking the entire new stuff is some 6,000 words, so less than half of it is variable text based on player choice. Thus, an 3,500 average increase(of which something like 500 words are unique per playthrough).
Anyway, enjoy, or if not, please tell me why you didn’t enjoy it. There’s at least one part that’s particularly strange(on purpose) so it’s entirely possible that it’s a bit too weird for it to be enjoyable to read(one particular character speaks in a really tedious to read way). If you think it’s fine, great, if not, please tell me so I can think of a smoother way to do it while still retaining the point. 
PS It’s kinda weird how much more bloated the Carrington-Mouse path is compared to the Stillwater path. Lots of more words. Originally I envisioned it to be the opposite, strangely enough. Then again, I guess the Stillwater path continues much more in the interrogation stage than the Carr-Mouse path does, but that’s after the slums are wrapped up back at the NTPD aka soon.
8 Likes
That depends on the character and the exact circumstances. If you’re polite and cooperative I’d say you’d probably be in good relations with Stillwater and/or Mouse but not necessarily Carrington. On the other hand, it’s possible you might just be at neutral with all of them depending on the exact answers.
In any case there’s no real official answer for it since it hasn’t been implemented in early game anyway. For now just go with how you feel based on how the characters would usually react to the answers you’ve given.
5 Likes
Stats
You had this many wounds left: 2
Your small item count was: 3
You had the pepperspray.
You had the baton.
You had the first aid kit.
Zoe’s anger level was at: 2
Zoe’s confidence level was at: 8
Zoe’s anger level in the middle of the talk was: Low
You chose the “cop” path during the conversation.
The Mean Spheres shared their info with you.
This many Mean Spheres members were arrested during the operation: 0
This many Mean Spheres members were injured during the operation: 0
This many Mean Spheres members were seriously injured during the operation: 0
I had a suggestion. In the rookie route, could we have scene for when we kill for the first time? And having a moment when either mouse, carrington or Stillwater depending on our relationship try to talk to us?
Thanks!
Sure. So far you can’t kill anyone, so there’s no such scene. Though I suppose seriously injuring someone would warrant it too. In any case, that’s the reason why I changed the “killed” to seriously injured in the first place, since it was pretty insane story-wise if you would kill people “casually” during a murder investigation.
When you do potentially kill someone, there will be a scene like that for everyone, where you can naturally choose what you think about it and so on, and potentially some of the characters will talk you about it. Definitely going to do it, since it’s only sensible.
6 Likes
Oh, by kill someone I dind’t mean casually.Maybe during a mission there is a chance where you kill a henchman/gang member without intention, maybe during a panic attack or something. I mean you could be even a rookie with nerve of steel and nothing goes wrong.
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