Surpass lucked out then decided to train which makes her annoying
Ranger got shot and was in a PT (which he needs more of it if you broke his legs on camera lol)
Catalyst has been on the Juice for longer than you, and therefore is more able to use it properly but earlier compounds were less volatile and the project was a baby at that point. So like technically you are better than him? But only because your compound is fucked
Yay! That, is.
Idk how to feel about that yet.
RE Self-care: itâs going to have an effect on a couple things! I could maybe have implemented a couple of them a bit sooner but at minimum itâs going to increment suspicion from some parties if youâre still a hot mess.
This is an oversight! Good catch, Iâll get that fixed.
He has had a difficult time. but he also makes that everyone elseâs problem, especially Dime.
For Cannibal and Ranger, theyâre scenarios where good technique can substitute for raw strength. Ranger is, bluntly, not that good of a fighter, while Cannibal is overly reliant on their augments and gets caught out by Dime going toe-to-toe.
In the case of Catalyst, heâs trained in the same stuff as Dime, so hand to hand kind of neutralises, especially since his power relies entirely on effective striking. The text in question is guts-only because itâs him being taken off guard by Dime being that strong. Plus, itâs not exactly a check, just different flavour (though I know one is more satisfying than the other). Mostly, I donât want any of the fighting styles to overlap entirely with any of the skills. Thereâs a few instances peppered throughout where a fighting style can ring in, though.
Just finished the WIP today, Itâs definitely one of the best stories Iâve read so far. Great character heavy and backstory heavy writing. Emotionally engaging and interesting.
The action scenes were nice although the romance was a bit lacking. The themes of losing oneâs loved ones was definitely resonating. The story was very unique and engaging although pacing was a bit slow but it was never boring.
romance is not fully implemented yet (most ros actually have kinda nothing right now, which teddie is getting smoething soon actuallyâŚ) so if it feels lacking, its because it is since it kinda not the main focus of the story, in a sense!
thanks for the feedback! if you have any examples of game sections being slow, feel free to share 
Thanks for the response, yeah this WIP despite its very goofy name is a very dark and mature story, top 3 on my WIP list so far for sure. Keep up the good work, Im a huge fan already.
But yes the story has a very strong MC backstory related past, great writing main character wise but romance wise its kind of lacking. The romance interests are not really unique and they arenât integrated into the story well, I didnât know much about them and their presence isnt that important story or character wise. Also it feels like some characters behave very similarly, quirky, snarky and quippy. Wyrd, Ghoul and CG kinda feels the same to me. Meanwhile Beth, Teddy and Kay are more distinct and unique.
Also I definitely feel the game is a bit slow because thereâs no main motivation for the story, like the back story is great but whatâs the main emphasis on the story?
Is the MC doing this for the juice and without it they will die painfully? or is the MC searching for something? revenge? What is the main motivator? Story and character based motivators would make the story better. I think maybe thats one of the reasons it feels slow sometimes to me.
Thereâs also a lack of conflict story wise between characters despite the opportunities to do so. So the MC works for one group and is undercover inside another group and while undercover the MC fights the heroes once in a while. So thereâs a total of 3 sides but not that many conflict. I donât remember MC fighting Phalanx for example before the big reveal
I think the lack of meaningful character with the team and enemies makes it feel a bit slow at times, the action scenes were nice but it was mostly fighting a team I donât know much about and I have no personal connection off.
For a bonus point it would be nice if there were gender selectable romance options for all of the characters.
But yeah thats my thoughts on it, all in all I enjoyed the story and hope for more conflict, drama thriller elements with superhero action and romance. Keep up the good work.
Hey now, being a hot mess is a personal choice! Thatâs my Dimeâs aesthetic, donât judge 
More seriously though â Iâm strongly hoping for a route where a particular part of your past can get ferreted out based on your choices (Kay and a not-so-innocent comment about labs springs to mindâŚ) âŚand ignoring self-care is my way of hinting that my Dime expects to either melt into that puddle of goo or go down swinging; which does not necessarily mean that they have any interest in betraying anyone who doesnât richly deserve it.
While Iâm talking suspicion mechanics, Iâm also really hoping for a âreliableâ metric: yes, you may be suspicious â or just keeping things close to the chest, or asking a lot of questions because you are a villain with trust issues, which⌠probably doesnât translate to âsuspiciousâ so much as âpotentially concerningâ for Mal & Dion â but if youâve historically had your teamâs back, one would think that should factor into the calculation.
Maybe theyâll test your loyalty to figure out which side of the scale you balance on if youâre being too much of an enigma, who knows. (The author. The author knows.)
I think the relationship stat will server as that looking at the code when later chapter suspicion checks happens
I have also most definitely noticed the sameness of characters and their style of interaction. The âsnippy banterâ seems to be the go-to standard characterization, which leads to a lack of uniqueness/differentiation among characters, and can often feel like conversing with several of them is just more of the same one person.
This is where the author is giving leeway to choose your own motivation: do you want revenge against the Coven? Do you want a cure? Do you just want to escape? Do you love your new powers? Do you love them enough you donât care what you have to do in order to hang onto them? Do you love them so much you donât care what you turn into if you indulge in them? Thereâs various choices that come up where you can set Dimeâs attitude/perception toward certain things/people/situations, which influence the narrative delivered (if the game isnât letting you play toward your motivations, definitely put that in feedback) â I expect weâll be given a branch at some upcoming point which sets our direction more firmly. So far, this has been playing out fairly organically with âdo you lie to the Coven / pass information on/to people you maybe shouldnât / squabble with your handler/etc.â and is doing a bit of tracking on that in the background.
Overall, Iâve found this one of the better IFs for being reactive towards your choices (so long as those choices are provided), and Izzilyâs been pretty good about being receptive to feedback so if youâre finding yourself adrift without an option to choose a specific motivation, you could maybe drop a line about a part of the story where youâd really like to have one?
Ah, see no, I donât like that â Iâm apparently a strange specimen of creature in that I believe you donât have to like someone to treat them right, and you donât have to have a snuggly relationship in order to work together. A lot of IFs do work this way; I just donât find it satisfactory.
It feels pretty cheap when a character goes âno, I donât trust you and wonât work with you â because of that one time you said (honestly) I look fat in my outfitâ
interactive fiction means we are limited in how qe can create a verisimilitude of real life relationship. We can achieve a partial one without putting too many hours into it - which in interactive fiction itâs kinda a game of how many hours do you want to put into a project to complete it.
A complete verisimilitude where characters are able to is a large amount of data to react in nuance ways. For example: âyou said Im fat but later you said I lost weight so now Iâm confusedâ is a lot of work (you can see some of it in DYVJ with the humour choice , hehe). It probably takes hours to set and correctly code one of these choices.
In regards to trust (and doubt) meters, DYVJ has both with CG, Dion, etc; but they canât really emulate the nuance of realness because this is largely a 1.5 person project lawl
Anyways thank for the comments! Will look over for things we can put into the stories (like characters feeling same-y 
) so if you have examples of it feel free to share!
Actually looking at the code again CG has a trust stat separate from her relationship stat but just her so far, the others just have a suspicion stat
Yeah, thatâs more of what I was getting at. Some of the things that tick the suspicion meter up are also not so much âyouâre a suspicious personâ as they are âoh no, youâre observant and that makes my own job harderâ rather than you actually doing anything that would reasonably give you away.
Oh no, certainly wasnât complaining â I definitely wouldnât be here participating if I didnât see promise in the project, and I love how DYVJ makes good use of variables; itâs probably the best Iâve encountered. Rest assured, I am well aware of how much work is evidenced here and am duly impressed.
Your problem is that youâve spoiled me 
â I see a doubt tracker and Iâm instantly like âokay, but what about all the times Iâve gone above and beyond for you (even at great risk to Dimeâs health and continued existence) regardless of whether I shared my personal secrets â to which you would certainly not be entitled if I was on the level â does that not earn any consideration?â
The relationship status I perceive more as âhow well do you get alongâ, a sort of temperature gauge for how interactions might go â all you need do is imagine those couples who are constantly squabbling yet continue to stick together. Clearly, thereâs something there, even if their personalities seem to get on each othersâ nerves.
Not that people donât screw others over simply because âI donât like you;â but as far as mechanics go, in a game thatâs building pretty heavily on them to determine how it plays out (being less than transparent with Hypothesis, for example), it would be dissatisfying to claim that what blows your cover is some petty personality clash.
Mhmhmhm, this feels like this is grounded in an assumption on how things will work versus how things are working right now, which goes back to the limited ability to portray relationships within coding.
Which by the way we didnât take if as like as negative critique, I think itâs an important one, it is just not what is happening right now or later.
In regards to trust and other similar meters, it is not there because if it was, people get more upset about it being visible. And itâs not spoiling anything in relationship to what you brought up because of paragraph 1. Again like you are not being like rude or bad, but itâs not lined up with what is happening, so like itâs fine
Edit: got the hidden meters backward hehe, edited for clarity
Patreon Update
Chapter 11, part two, is now up on patreon! It will be available publically two weeks from now. I couldnât squeeze the Teddie relationship stuff into this in a satisfactory way, so the next update will be similar to the CG one on the Coven chapter. However, as mentioned, Iâm going to be working on something a little different for the month of December, so donât expect to see that just yet. Itâs going to be more involved than CGâs scene, for sure.
Plus 32k words from the rest of the chapter, putting the total at a beefy 62k (second longest in the story!) and the overall at 418k. Hot damn.
Two branches, depending on how well the rest of the fight went. Fight Rocket on her home turf, or try and chase her down.
Numerous choices for taking her on.
The first instances where you can reach the health limit and go down!
Getting out of dodge, getting dragged out of dodge, or waking up out of dodge!
A nice (or less nice) chat with Teddie. Digest the ramifications of your actions.
Bond with him. You know you want to.