Update 24 march
Okay, my brain is tired and I can’t remember what I have fixed because it’s been so manythings.
458593 including command lines
420528 excluding command lines
39700 words in an average playthrough
@malinryden love the new update, especially the auction. It’s getting so much closer to the beta stage. Also the second encounter with Steel at the dog park; Spoon, Soo and Steel would swap gender pronouns throughout the majority of it. Like almost every paragraph. Here is one example:
I think is just that Spoon is a male dog? So they refer to the dog as he/him?
Ohhhhhhh, I read the rest of the text, and I see that in the preview paragraph they refer to Spoon as she.
Now I am confused too.
Alright, so Spoon is a boy for sure, so the previous paragraph in which they refer to Spoon as a she is the wrong one.
I’ve never contributed before so, sorry if this is wrong! In the first fight of the game, on the bridge, if you choose to use your telepathy on Argent it always assumes that you used the ace in the hole before even if you choose the did nothing weird option, I’m assuming the ace is always the sword of damocles option from the first game and not referencing something else?
I expected Chen to be a lot of things, him being, like, THAT. Was not one of them xD
Yeah, Spoon is a he, the pronoun change to her is a residue from a mishap I had a while ago with mass replacement. Apparently I missed fixing this scene! Hopefully I have caught some of them now.
Edit: Also, the character creator doesn’t take into consideration all things from book one, your ace in the hole is considered used.
Inspiration, and creativity are two very different things… That said, I ended up making another fanfic, this time dedicated to Lady Argent.
Title: The kindness of Lady Argent
Small warning to note–definitely has a couple spoilers for Retribution tucked into it.
Blue-steps unite?
“I don’t get it. Why are you so kind?” Lady Argent frowns, standing back from your latest bout of trading blows as hero vs villain. If you hadn’t gone out of your way to stop a large piece of wreckage from crushing a small child just before this merciful lull… She could easily have finished the job of dismantling you since the collapsed wall had done most of the hard work of bringing you down prematurely, if your seemingly inexplicable actions leading to this hadn’t given her pause. If your trust to let her walk away with the Regenerator after helping her claim it from the auction hadn’t made her hope soar with the freedom of a light at the end of a dark tunnel of suffering.
On the heels of her conflicted thoughts piercing through to your awareness, you inwardly grimace at yourself for being as soft as you have been lately. You sigh through the vocal distorter of your armor before replying, “Many people like to throw around the phrase ‘kindness doesn’t cost a thing’, but that just isn’t true.”
Seeing the silver woman was not inclined to interrupt, you continue, “It costs many things in varying degrees of expense. Kindness can cost hope, patience, trust… It costs time, and worst of all it can cost someone their very life. I might be the ‘worst villain of Los Diablos’ in the other sense those words can evoke, but I don’t want to ever take more than I need to get by. To survive on my borrowed time until whichever end meant for me arrives.”
“This isn’t the first time you’ve helped civilians…” she frowns, internally debating whether she should pry the wall away from your back somehow to let you free to get away this once
“As long as these conflicts continue in places where bystanders can be dragged into the fray, jerks like me have a choice,” you glare up at her from inside your helmet, “Let everything that happens take place unchallenged, or throw down with fate to see which is stronger—high handed heroes, or villains at the epicenter of their own sown chaos? I don’t give a damn what this makes me seem! I choose to not kill because I won’t become what others wanted me to be!”
You know you’re carrying on a corny villain’s monologue to perhaps the most uncaring of the current LD Rangers, but you can’t help yourself; through all the things that led up to this point, an undeniable bond of trust had begun to form between you, and Lady Argent.
In her own mind she knows what she chooses is tantamount to betrayal of the system that employs her unique disposition and talents, but still she steps closer to start cutting away chunks of the crushing debris to shift it off your prone form. She does this not knowing you had been trying to set yourself free using the nanovores in a subtle way that you hoped wouldn’t be noticed until it was too late, but this was an unexpected turn around. All the nanovores were called back to their housing chamber before she finished her work, and you allow Argent to pull you up onto your feet with a muttered thank you.
Staring each other down, you find yourself at a loss before the shrill sounds of police sirens wake you from your ponderous mutual reverie. No words needed to be said as you both part ways–one headed for the lights to meet with the other Rangers that had finally decided to show up, the other for the darkest alleyways that would lead them back into shadowed obscurity.
What was added to the Auction? Can’t find anything different.
@Phoenix_Wolf I think the new section is the revelations about what Shroud is, but I haven’t played the auction section or the demo in a while so I’m not 100% sure?
In other words, boyyyy did I love that update. Oh boyyyyyyyyyyyy. I’m assuming the stuff about Steel’s crush is new? Because wow no wonder his relationship with Sidesteo used to be so tense. My MC is NB, so Ortega finally shows interest in someone who isn’t a woman… and it’s the incredibly suspicious vigilante who Steel suspects of being a government spy? I agree with the MC when they say Steel isn’t a petty man, since I’m not sure who wouldn’t be a bit jealous, angry and protective in that situation.
On top of that, it reminded me of something that was mentioned back when Book 1 was being developed. I’m not sure if a polyamorous route is still on the table, but I had been wondering for a while if it was gonna be Ortega and Chen. And now I’m definitely wondering if it’s going to be Ortega and Chen. I mean, there’s definitely other possibilities, but I always figured it would be two people you could romance as the same ‘person’ (the MC or Eden). And since the options have been increasingly allowing the MC to develop a crush on Chen and Chen used to have a crush on Ortega (though I’m not entirely sure past tense is completely accurate), it’s definitely something I’m thinking about. I’m also really curious about how Chen doesn’t seem to give a straight answer (pun intended) when asked about his interest in non-binary people compared to his pretty strong ‘no’ towards women, so I’m curious if Steel’s romance would be locked to just male MCs or not, regardless of whether he ends up as one of the poly options.
But yeah, this update reminded me of how much I love this series. Everyone’s complicated in some way or another, mental health issues are portrayed in a wonderfully realistic way, and the story itself (ignoring the fact those other two things are a vital part of the plot) is fantastically written in a way other subversive superhero stories don’t quite manage.
I mean, I’m just really loving the story…so far it is masterfully done and I love the characters, and while I’m not the most descriptive person about why I love these characters, I can say with all honestly and love for each one yes even you little Jeffery I can say even if this took four decades, I am willing to wait for I know it would be the best story…
Malin said the poly route has been written. It’s Sidestep/M!Ortega/Steel. Like in they share Ortega; not sure if there will be something between Sidestep and Chen. And all ROs are romanceable by any gender, some are just inclined to like certain genders more.
Malin said there will only be a comment they make on the gender. There not like an easier time for certain genders, besides Steel of course.
Still some persistent continuity errors.
Right now the code assumes that if the MC went in uninvited and blew up the power then they automatically know about the regenerator machine.
For Boss! MCs who went to the auction purely to mess with HG, and MCs who only went there for the gun, they need a chance to learn about the regenerator or leave without it.
These paths all go through label:gettoauction → label:elevatordown → label:attackelevator, which automatically jumps to label:stealmachine.
There should be a crossroads after label:attackelevator depending on what the MC is here for.
MCs who go in as customers have the dampeners turned off when they are already at the auction hall.
The alarm is only audible inside your helmet, but it makes you jump all the same. The timer is running down, time to get ready.
MCs who sneaked in only for the regenerator have only the dampeners turned off before they enter the casino. When they get there, someone else (Argent? Shroud?) shuts off the power.
An intention. A surge of will and focus strong enough to cut across the room like a beacon.
And then the room is plunged into darkness and chaos.
However, both paths go through label:mcdarkness, in which it is implied both the power and the dampeners are cut at that moment.
And with a ‘pop’, your mind is freed from your constraints.
people are still more confused by the lack of power than frightened.
The sneaked in MCs could probably be redirected to label:elementsurprise instead, which skips the part about the dampeners going off.
The subsequent choice “Oh no, I’m getting out of here now.” should only be possible for MCs already got the gun, don’t know about the machine and aren’t here to snub HG.
If the MC sneaked in and got the gun via label:stealgunfrombyer, the code automatically assumes they don’t know about the regenerator,
While stealing the gun, we get this option:
#I’ll follow her outside, no need to risk anything in here.
Which ends in the MC straight up leaving the auction. This should not be possible for MCs who also want the machine.
After stealing the gun inside the auction hall, we get:
You have what you got for, now it is time to…
#Leave now, before something happens.
#I’ll stick around a while and see what else is up for grabs.
Which is also not quite right for MCs who want the machine.
After the ‘telespot’ check, before “You have what you got for”, there should be a check to see if the MC knows about the regenerator.
Still going through the other paths.
You have my utmost respect for weaving this maze.
If you tell Ortega that you want the rest of the rangers to help in their quest against Hollow Ground, when you’re friends with them you get this. The two expertly annotated paragraphs always stick out as pretty awkward to me, they sound really similar and say mostly the same thing
omg wow how did you get that Steel having a crush on Ortega? I replayed the game and didn’t get it
I always chose the friendliest options with Steel, including backing down and apologising when it was an option, plus my MC is romancing Ortega. Then after the therapy session, I choose to phone Steel to meet up with him and Spoon - at one point after the MC asks why he was so suspicious about them, he says he used to think you were spying for the government on the Rangers. Part of that is how close the MC would stick to Ortega - if you pick the option “he was seducing me”, then Chen will flinch and the MC will realise Chen had/has a crush on Ortega. Then they have a nice long discussion about that, and Steel’s general love life. Honestly, it was one of my favourite moments in the update, even if it means you miss out on making out with Ortega.
You only get that if Ortega is male, btw. If you play with Julia, Chen doesn’t get a crush.
you suuuuuure? cose I always play with Julia…and Steel did…
though I picked the friendship path…he also was gay in my story 
now you made me doubt…gonna make another run and see for myself 
Yeah, if Ortega is male, then you get Chen crushing on him, if you play with f!Ortega, then he didn’t crush on her, instead, he talks to you about his boyfriend back at the army.
