Hello.
First off: Amazing game. Keep up the great work.
Secondly (**SPOILERS**):
I have a few comments on the weapon blueprints that are supposed to be sent to the elves. Specifically, I want to make clear that the Elves will never pose any threat to humans, no matter how many blueprints they get. Also, I would like to quickly analyze the military situation and add some ways that the Elves can actually hold their own.
I definitely take this sex game way too seriously ;) but since you have managed to write such a great story so far, and since I am studying to be an engineer and stuff like this bothers me (and I see a chance for a great story), here I go:
There is a misconception that giving somebody the blueprints to some technology enables them to perfectly copy it. This could not be further from the truth.
Let’s say that the elves have the blueprints for the guns. How will they build them?
They need to overcome several hurdles:
How do they get the ores necessary to create steel that is strong enough to make guns? They live on a small island and are completely isolated from the rest of the world. How will they gain access to iron mines containing ores of high enough quality to make good steel? I don’t know much about steel in modern weapons, but apparently an alloy of steel with chromium and molybdenum is very common – and it only gets more complicated for more specialized weapons that need to withstand higher heat and mechanical stress. Are all of those materials really available on a small island in sufficient quantities and concentration to properly mine them? Even if they are, do the Elves have the technology to mine and refine them?
I can only conclude that at best, the Elves only have access to the materials necessary to produce very low-quality steel, barely enough to build low-quality small-caliber arms with low precision and a short lifespan.
That doesn’t sound good, but let’s go on: how are they supposed to refine the materials? Iron ore is never without impurities such as oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, silicon, phosphorus and an excess of carbon (steel has below 2% carbon). It is very hard and extremely energy-intensive to properly get rid of these impurities to a degree sufficient to produce modern steels. The is no way that the Elves can do that with the equipment they have. And they cannot build better equipment, because that is often much more complicated and relies on a much larger supply chain that the guns themselves do. And you really need to know what you are doing with that equipment, not an easy job.
And then the Elves have to add the above-mentioned elements, chromium and molybdenum. First off: I don’t know how hard it is to refine those, but from their price I cannot imagine that it is super easy. Secondly: there is a good reason why China couldn’t produce the balls of ball-point-pens up until a few years ago, and when they could, it was big news in US military circles: the metallurgy needed for those highly reliable, tiny pieces of metal is very advanced, and it is the same metallurgy needed for many military applications. And even ignoring these alloys, it is almost inconceivable that the Elves could produce the steel for even barely functional 18th-century guns.
Speaking of ball-point-pens: Have you ever wondered how absolutely incredible it is that it is so cheap to produce such incredibly precise, tiny pieces of machinery? It took centuries for tens or hundreds of thousands of absolutely brilliant people to invent the measurement and production machinery necessary to produce even something as simple as that (they didn’t invent that stuff just to make ballpoint pens, but their inventions were necessary to do so.) And it takes a giant global network of government and company efforts to produce and run the factories and machinery to produce even the simplest products of our daily lives that we take for granted (this doesn’t even touch on computer chips…) and to train the engineers and scientists to run all of that (not to mention all of the banks, investment firms, accountants, lawyers, managers, and so on, necessary to coordinate it. And even that ignores so, so much…)
Speaking of engineers, how exactly do the Elves intend to train the necessary personnel to design, build and run the factories? This takes decades of training, and also years of practical experience which the isolationist Elves have no access to. And with the low numbers that a people living on a small island have to consist of, there are almost certainly not even enough Elves with the necessary predisposition to become an engineer.
And on top of all of that, most of the knowledge necessary to really produce these weapons exists in the heads of engineers (which the Elves don’t have). Even with access to the internet and every book in the world, it would take a team of hundreds of trained engineers many years to work out all the kinks and really get the production process going.
By the way, I completely ignored the production of the ammunition. This takes complex chemicals (smokeless powder), and more metallurgy. And ammunition really, really has to be mass-manufactured (which is completely impossible for a society of the size and sophistication of the Elves), especially if you want to train with your guns.
In conclusion, there is no way for the Elves to build functional guns or anything like that.
And even if they could, it would be pointless. They are outnumbered probably ten thousand to one if we are being generous, they have no chance against all the other weapons humans possess (artillery, the biggest killer on the battlefield; ships made of steel; rockets; fighter-jets and drones; in your universe androids that can be mass-manufactured and are incredibly strong and good with weapons, better than the Elves could ever be, even with a lot of training which they don’t have; nukes; and so on) and they could never hope to match the humans tactics (learned over a long time), specialization, and logistics.
And no, the ferries clearly are not a threat: there are only very few of them (how else could they be undiscovered when there are androids all around that can see them?), and they can easily be exterminated by androids. Every powerful person could easily have a few androids to protect them from the ferries.
So what could the Elves do should they be uncovered?
First off, they could play humans against each other. Plead to their conscience, partner with anti-slavery-movements, partner with nations that oppose Elve-slavery (conflict with the Capitol would be interesting), and so on.
Secondly, they could try to stir up the enslaved elves. This is unlikely to work too well, as it is unlikely that their enslavement of other Elves and ferries will stay secret for long, which isn’t a good look. The elves that are with the humans also don’t seem united or well-coordinated, which puts them in a weak position. They can also be controlled with androids, if necessary. On the other hand, they could target human sympathizers like Kali’s dad and the Player to prevent the humans from attacking them. This could lead to conflict with the Queen, because of course it would be hypocritical of them to keep enslaving the ferries and low-land elves if they want mercy for themselves. It could also make the Player a hero among elve-slaves and other human elve-sympathizers, which could lead to lots of sex.
Thirdly, they could trade their valuable magic stones. This seems like an excellent tactic, but the bitchy Queen probably wouldn’t like it. Great potential for personal conflict with the Queen.
And, lastly: deterrence a la North Korea. This doesn’t mean nukes; it means something similar to thousands of giant artillery-guns dug deep into the mountains on the border to the South, likely capable of shelling Seoul with tens of thousands of bombs every minute for hours until they run out of ammunition or are destroyed. If the Elves had some sleeping beast or something, they could use that as a threat.
Take from this what you will (if you have even read this far :D).
Again, I love the Game and just want to make it even better :)
PS: It would be hilarious if the Elve-Queen got the Blueprints, realized how useless they are, got greedy and just bought guns from smugglers. This would lead to the humans learning of the high-Elves existence and a lot of interesting story.