I’m going to (try to) fix everything reported up to this point and upload a new build tonight. I’m very surprised at the reports of incorrect pronouns. I avoided using pronouns at all as much as possible, and I have a variable for them where I had to, but I must have slipped up somewhere. Everything else is pretty straightforward. Thanks again, everyone!
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Okay, uploading a new version in a few minutes. I believe everything reported up to this post is now fixed.
Fixed
- You now only get one shot at love, and it occurs in chapter 5. Choosing a romance path (or no romance path at all) will lock you out of the other choices for the remainder of the game.
- One pronoun. I couldn’t find other instances where the pronoun was wrong. If you do see one, please let me know. A screenshot or string of text to search for would be extremely helpful.
- De-cringed Goose’s romance (a bit)
- De-Schrodingered Linus
- Increased stat gains across the board. I don’t want the player to fail stat checks in general, unless they’re trying to or made some really weird choices. If still seems difficult, or if it now seems too easy, please let me know.
- Improved hunting/climbing/cave sequence
- Addie will no longer teleport into the Advocate’s room
- Addie will also no longer insist that you join her for the night; you can refuse without consequence
- BOOPABLE SNOOT (you can pet the dog)
- A peaceful solution with the Advocate is now possible as intended
- Various typos and small continuity issues
Still At Large
- Stat increases have been boosted across the board. If it seems off, please let me know.
- I’ve had reports of incorrect pronouns, but could only find one. If your MC is female or nonbinary and you spot anyone calling them “he”, please let me know where.
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New version is up, so save games are invalidated, and there are so many less bugs. So many.
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Awesome work! Loved it.
During the finale, I’m not sure how ‘revert to status quo’ is an option? The aliens have found us, or are about to. Even if WE didn’t remember a thing, they would still be coming. It’s like an ostrich sticking its head into the sand.
About relocation. If we can’t have anything better than steam engines, then won’t the enemy find the super high-tech spaceships easily?
If we do have a window of time before they come, can’t we use it to develop cloaking technology?
Found bugs:
Summary
Lots of misalignment bugs. Example:
*fake_choice
\tab #“Doctor? No. We’re here to work the mine.”
#“Yes, I am. What happened here?”
Only the first choice shows up because the second is missing a tab.
Chap 2:
“I did, truly,” says Adelia from your other side. “Don’t be such a grump, you great hairy beast!”
“Hmph,” mutters Dmytro. “Fine.” Addie and Dmytro are right where you left them.
Also, they’re both quite angry with you.
(Helped Addie, but game jumped to the ‘help neither’ text.)
Chap 4:
Got a visitor’s badge, but Mervin from the copier’s office doesn’t recognize it.
*if (winfield_chaos)
*goto low_escape_end
*else
*goto high_escape_end
I think this is flipped?
I’m not sure if this is intentional, but there is currently no possibility of getting caught by Cornell in the winfield job.
Ch 5
“The incident at my offices!” Coburg says
Should be Winfield?
*if rel_addie >20
I don’t think it’s ever possible to get it that high. The max is 4? For anyone?
The latter chapters also have a lot of >7,>5 relationship checks, for various characters.
Ch6
The MC thinks about dragon bones despite not going down the path that mentioned them (allow us to ask all questions for each round?)
Cornell calling in a favor despite me never owing him one.
Ch 7
and he’d do the same for you in a heartbeat
wrong pronoun
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Thank you for the bug reports! Very much appreciated!
It should be possible to be caught by Cornell during the heist, if unlikely for a thorough player. I’ll look into that. I have a really cool interrogation scene that I would like someone to see.
Ending stuff (and I’ll double check to make sure this is all working and written as intended):
The ‘status quo’ endings have the Empress and Metro (or the Empress taking over Metro, if she’s been hacked) flying off in Metro’s ship as bait. The Enemy veers off to chase her, assuming she’s carrying everyone. So, not really status quo, there is no more Empire.
Relocation: Ehhhhh she found a planet inside a nebula where you won’t be found. Yep, you found a plot hole there, I’ll fill it 
Those two societies (the version where your DNA is altered, and the version where you remain human) are both designed from the ground up by the Empress to avoid detection and never advance technologically, unlike the City, which she found already established and had to work to take over.
Cloaking technology wouldn’t work, since the Enemy already knows you’re there and is coming. It’s just going to take them a long time to arrive.
… well, I wouldn’t have been looking for a way to get caught if I didn’t know it was there…
The status quo ending was referring to this: ‘#We’ll allow her to stay, and make things as they were.’ *goto stay_end. Where Metro is non-evil, but the enemy has still caught our scent.
(Frantically brainstorming ways to let my MC and her people make it out alright)
(Because being too afraid to reach for a weapon when a murderer is hunting you is not a working strategy, Metro.)
(It’s not like you could call the police.)
Summary
The aliens want our blood, yes? And because of the scout party, they already know our general location. So even if we booted Metro and Empress off-planet, we will still be in their crosshairs, and only postponed our execution somewhat. And we’ve given up our only chance to even the board.
This option is delayed suicide.
Unless we can re-program the scout party and make them report back that they saw nuthin. Would that work? As a temporary fix, at least?
What about a combination of cloaking tech and space travel, developed underground?
Also could we be brought in onto the tech development? Metro and Empress are very advanced, with all due respect, but they seem a bit … lacking … in creativity and tactical flexibility. In short, not good at inventing things.
Perhaps get them to teach us the tech of the previous civilization (maybe takes a generation or three, if we can set up a good public education system (completely underground, of course)), and then the human engineers can start improving on existing designs? Or new AIs could be written for this purpose? Is there enough time for that?
Do the aliens actually locate us through radio waves, or was that a euphemism Metro used to try to explain to my poor primitive MC? Is it radio waves specifically, or any kind of electromagnetic emission? Assuming somehow we manage to make them lose our scent (quantum teleportation! worm holes! I have no idea what I’m talking about), could we try to develop completely landline-based technology when we get to our new planet?
Metro’s info on the aliens being omnicidal nihilists was obtained from back when they were organic, with all of the instincts and needs thereof. Now that they have possibly became fully synthetic, has their behavioral pattern / survival strategy as a species changed? Do they still want to murder us all, or will enslaving us be acceptable? Should all else fail, how would we go about attempting diplomacy (or more realistically, surrender) in order to continue our survival.
(Terrible idea, I know.)
This is probably too late to make any major changes, but I humbly request at least one ending where Metro/Empress secretly help us develop technology in hope of resistance in the far future. Either on this planet or the next. Even if it will probably get us all killed.
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I am playing a female character and I saw a few, but my phone sucks and copying/pasting stuff highlights the entire page. It takes my unnecessarily long to wrangle the little bars back into place, so I ended up just not bothering the few times I saw it. Here’s one I got:
I’m not sure the mechanics you guys use to find the issues, but one of the scenes I remembered having lots of pronoun swiches was in the freezer with Merritt. I remember being called “sir” a few times at other points as well. Since I haven’t finished playing yet (and my saves are still there) I’ll definitely keep an eye out for more and be sure to wrangle in my shiddy highlight bar lol. Afterwards I’ll run through again so I can PET.THE.DOG 
I also wanted to say that I’m enjoying this game which is why it’s taking me so long to play and why I found so much stuff!
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Even just generally what’s going on when you spot one is plenty. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a way to systematically find incorrect pronouns. When the pronoun is done correctly, it’s in the code as ${pronoun}, which is pretty distinctive and easy to search for. When it’s wrong, it’s just “he”, which appears thousands of times, and includes places where it’s part of another word, like “the”.
I’m going through the freezer scene now, thanks for that!
I’m gonna take a break, here’s what I’ve got right now:
• When we make our way to Dr. Grant’s quarters deeper into the mine, we have three options. Talk to them, attack immediately, or wait and see. If we choose to talk or wait, there is further interaction in which Dr. Grant opens his box and covers Linus in the gold powder. Linus is then incapacitated and we face off with Grant. If we choose to attack, Dr. Grant never opens his box but somehow Linus is still incapacitated by the powder. It looks like we’re missing the box opening scene here.
• After dealing with Grant, Linus takes us through the tunnels and we have a chat. At one point we can ask him three things: why he’s collapsing his own mine, how he knows our names, or what’s going on/if he’s gone mad. The first two options both have an answer from him, the third doesn’t. The story just continues as if you hadn’t said a thing.
• While following Linus out of the mine, we have to figure out how to get past the mining bots. One option is to climb out using rope. I pass the stat check and help Addie up, but then when I go to the next page it plays the scene again as if I had failed. Is this a bug or are we making two climbs, because the next page button says “another hard climb”?
• When we arrive in the metal chamber with Linus, he starts acting weird. We have three options, we can stop him, kill him, or watch him. If we choose to kill him or let him proceed, the next scenes play out and then we move on to chapter 8. If we choose to stop him there is no follow-up scene, it immediately skips to chapter 8.
• If I decide to kill Linus when we arrive in the chamber, he somehow comes back to life and tries to attack her. Before this the text even acknowledges that he’s dead (“Last, she looks down to where Linus Winfield lies.”)
• When Metro asks who we are, I only tell her my name and that I live in the city. The others seemingly do the same (“They take your lead, providing only what information you deem necessary.”). If Linus is still alive at this point, he tells her he’s the heir to house Winfield but doesn’t mention anything about the rest of us. Afterwards, Metro asks us what a Coburg and a Winfield is. How would she know we were from house Coburg if nobody brought it up?
• If we let Linus attack Metro (with the “stand and watch” choice), he gets hurt and Dmytro helps me carry him towards the door. The text says: “As you make your way back to the door, you glance down at the bomb.” There was no previous mention of a bomb before this.
• I haven’t found a way to NOT kill Linus if I decide to intervene in his attack on Metro. Later on, when it’s time to leave, we have options to leave a bomb. If we pick that it’d be wrong to leave a bomb, he’s still alive: “Linus follows, jogging a little to catch up to you.” If we’re bold enough to leave a bomb in the middle of Metro’s chamber, he is also alive: “Making your way to the door, you bow your head low to whisper to Linus.”
Even if we stand and watch while Linus attacks Metro, he will fall unconscious but alive. If we intervene, we always seem to kill him by stabbing him through the ribs (or maybe it’s just me?). Since watching and intervening are our only options, Linus should be either unconscious or dead the rest of the time we’re in the chamber. If he’s alive, but unconscious, why would he suddenly be up talking to us? Even after we leave the chamber in the instances he resurrects and we are able to speak to him, he’s unconscious and being carried again afterwards.
• Once we exit the mine, regardless of whether Linus is unconscious or dead, Dmytro is carrying him (“Dmytro asks, swinging Linus’ foot at you.”). There is no scene in which we pick him up and leave with him, I actually assumed we left him in the chamber up until this point.
• After we leave the mine and are confronted by the workers, Dmytro tells us that we’re all out of bombs. I hadn’t used any bombs the entire time I was in the mine, how are we out?
• While in the steamcar back to the city, we take the time to write in our journal. If we write about our next moves, it’s assumed we trust Metro (“The Empress, and this strange creature Metro, have apparently protected us from the Enemy for centuries. I wish them all the best in continuing to do so.”) If we write about what we just learned, it’s assumed we don’t trust Metro ("I don’t trust this Metro, this creature in the mines. And I cannot trust the Empress, who was born of her.). This confused me a little bit because neither choice seems connected to either trusting or mistrusting Metro. There’s also never a point where we can decide how we feel about her. What if before we sit down to write there’s a quick paragraph where we go over what we’ve just learned, and then we can decide how we feel about it? Then the following journal entry will change as to whether we trust or mistrust her and the empress.
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Awesome! Thank you so much for digging through this in such detail.
Found a bug:
After inviting Goose to a date I can’t open the stats screen. Instead, I get this message:
choicescript_stats line 100: it is illegal to fall in to an *else statement; you must *goto or *finish before the end of the indented block.
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Thank you! Easy fix, it will go out in tomorrow’s update.
Hi, I found something. I didn’t kill the advocate, but then it is as if I did
And then, he says something like he would have listened to me if I had not killed him before.
Also during the mountain climb, i chose “she is a strong girl” or something, but Dmytro scolds me for disobeying anyway. And then Addi says something like “he saved my life” but mc Is female.
Hope this is usefull feedback.
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• Small typo I found. This is where you have Hawthorne drop you at the constabulary and choose to go to the armory, it’s one of the choices: “Are you all right? Are there otheres?”
• If I have Hawthorne drop me off at the constabulary and come back with Cornell, it skips where we actually get back in the car. Cornell tells Clyde to gtfo, then suddenly the scene moves to: “At long last, the gates of Coburg Manor swing open”. When did we get into the car?
• If I have Hawthorne take me to the constabulary and make it out with Cornell, it ends in a game breaking bug destroying the world. I thought that was because I’m using save files from before you updated, but so far I am able to continue the story if I have Hawthorne take me back home or to Goose instead.
• I think this is a typo or a missed word: “Carefully, lean forward and peek out the window. Merritt is on the other side, watching you.” I’m assuming it should say “carefully, YOU lean forward”?
• When trying to get the the autogyros to attack Piper, I have a rock but it says: “You take aim with your nothing, picking your target.” Also, shout out to Piper for being hella cool.
• Another typo, if I decide to keep the bots away from Goose: “Goose!” you shout. “How long to et I that thing working?”
That’s all I have right now. I want to keep going but I’m tired AF! I haven’t even finished the game yet 
I’ll be back later!
Woo! I’ll have another update out tonight to fix all of this. I think we have to be getting to the end of it.
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Played through again, this time with the Goose romance and thoroughly enjoyed it. Specifically, the first date has so many choices. It really struck home how much work you put in to this, so thanks again!
On another note: I remember not having much in the way of physical descriptions for the Empress, the Advocate and Goose but I caught some on my second playthrough. I recall the Empress being beautiful with golden but graying hair and the Advocate being rather plain, with sandy hair. I was happy to find those were in the main text and not choice dependent.
A physical description of Goose still eludes me though. I remember she’s around 19 and shorter with overalls and goggles. Other than that, I didn’t catch anything else but I could have just missed it. I’m more than happy and able to imagine on my own but I also like sharing the author’s vision to an extent.
I was very appreciative of the adjusted stats but feel it is almost too generous. Sorry for that. After hearing it wasn’t enough, this has got to be frustrating but balance seems to be the hardest part of any game. Not that I didn’t enjoy playing god mode 
I had all three stats above 80, I believe. If it could be adjusted to only getting 2 over 70? Or one over 80 and one over 70? That might be more rewarding. That was just the strength/steam/intelligence though. I really think the manners and honesty are balanced as they are.
Finally, I caught something else this time around. When speaking to Lady Cogburg, I examined the gift box and caught the qoute ‘ROB—A-LY’. I remember that from the first time but it never came up again. I had imagined it to be 'Why labor?" backwards as an allusion to the machines handling all of our concerns. I was wondering if it should be built on. When running through the options at the end, the Empress did keep saying: “You won’t have to lift a finger!” and "It’ll all be done for you! and “Do you really want to get rid of all your technology?”
I don’t know if this was a big plot point with the box but maybe she could add in something like: “After all, why labor?” and then wink at the MC. The only thing is that “ROB—A-LY” was choice-dependent so it might not work…
I don’t know, just my thoughts. As before, thank you again for your hard work! I’m very tempted to play again and probably will, just so I can see Metro switch sides 
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Wrong pronunciations are used:
“Now hold on a minute, you little troll,” Addie starts. “Riya saved my life, and he’d do the same for you in a heartbeat. Are you saying you wouldn’t do the same for us?”
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Thank you! I’m really, really amazed and touched that people like the story.
Goose is practical above all else. She probably keeps her hair short or under a cap, and doesn’t bother to wash the machine grease off her face until the end of the day. She is 19 and dresses very “steampunky”.
I had considered making her genderqueer, but I didn’t want to get anything wrong there and accidentally give offense. None of the ROs care what gender you are, anyway.
Metro switching sides doesn’t change much. A couple of scenes or lines. There is one ending that is only available if she does, and one ending that is only available if she doesn’t. The Empress isn’t affected when Metro gets hacked.
Fixed 6/23
- The Advocate won’t reference you “killing” him earlier if you didn’t do so
- Improved journal-writing scene on the trip home
- Linus’s inert body will no longer teleport outside the mine
- Further de-Schrodingered Linus, he is very troublesome
- Improved and fixed minor errors relating to the Metro and Linus scene
- If you are slow to reach Linus and Dr. Grant, Linus will now get Dusted each time, as intended
- Improved “status quo” ending
- Improved “Plan A” ending
- Another pronoun or two
To-Do
- Another pass at stat balancing.
- I may have figured out a way to systematically search for incorrect pronouns, but it will take a couple days.
- Cover art is in the works with a due date of 7/15.
- Hopefully that’s about it, I can’t imagine there’s much left to fix (knock on wood).
Thank you again! It really does mean the world to me, both that people are taking time to look for errors, and that people are enjoying the game in general. It is unironically heart-touching and special, and not something I’ve experienced before.
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Sooo save system crashed. I can’t save, load or delete saves
It works in other games but not in this one.
Error text when trying to load a save file:
Uncaught Error: SaveMod: Unable to *load before *init_savemod
Error text when trying to delete a save file:
Uncaught Error: SaveMod: Unable to use *sm_delete before *sm_init
Error text when trying to save:
Uncaught Error: SaveMod: Unable to *sm_save before *sm_init
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