Post by Nanoff in Hinterlands Expansion (Build 0.6.2) Q&A Session

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Hi M3tav0X, that is a valid concern! I'm with you there that Pedro's story should be able to have a happy ending regardless of the nature of his and Oscar's relationship, so worry not. Seconding what Minoanon said, you will still be able to get Pedro to join the hotel after chapter 18 even if he and Storm don't end up in a romantic relationship. Spending time together during Hinterlands III is one of the factors that nudges him in that direction but it's not the only one, your performance in the other quests also has an effect on this.

In fact Pedro joining instead of Nikos will be the most likely outcome (I expect most players to not have Nikos join on their first playthrough since the method to get him is a lot more complicated).

M3tav0X2 years ago(+1)

I'm still not really clear on something.

Will the determining factor for how P and Storm's relationship develops be the amount of time P spends interacting with and doing nice things for Storm (buying Storm clothes, going to P's grandfather's home, visiting Storm's mother, etc)? Or will there be another, more specific factor(s) that determines P and Storm's relationship?

I guess what I'm really trying to ask is -

Will I be able to explore P and Storm's various plot threads on the Hinterlands - and thus, the resulting scenes and interactions between them - without locking them into a romantic relationship?

Will I be able to see P buying Storm clothes, exploring the town with Storm, sharing a cigar with Storm on his grandfather's porch, taking Storm to visit his mother and all those meaningful scenes and interactions without Storm and P becoming romantic? Or will I still need to avoid letting P and Storm have too many of those interactions for them to be familial?

Despite being completely optional, a lot of those scenes and interactions are really good at developing P and Storm's characters and their dynamic; they really help the player to build a clearer picture of these characters. But despite how very few - if any - of these scenes and interactions appear to have any distinctly romantic connotations, up to this point seeing too many of them always locked P and Storm into a romantic relationship; after a certain point, if the player wants P and Storm to have a non-romantic relationship, they have to stop pursuing these interactions between P and Storm regardless of whatever else they have to do in the Hinterlands...

Nanoff2 years ago(+2)

We discussed this with the team and it's a really good point, in hindsight it would have been a good idea to add a choice for Pedro to make where even if he meets the requirements, he doesn't pursue a romantic relationship with Oscar.

Unfortunately we put a lot of work into writing dialogue variations that apply depending on how much time Pedro and Storm hung out together and we'd have to go over all of them to account for this, we planned the rest of the game around this, and there's the matter that people with old saves won't have these options set up... it's a good idea, but to be honest we would prefer the time and effort that would go into course correcting and implementing it to instead go into chapters 19 and 20. We have a game to finish, I think we've spent too much time tinkering with the Hinterlands chapter alone, wouldn't you agree?

We will keep this in mind for the rest of the game though, so thank you for bringing it up.

M3tav0X2 years ago(+1)

Yeah, I get it; you have to draw a line somewhere with this sort of thing and unfortunately, not every idea can get included all the time. It's just kinda disappointing to think that such valuable content as the interactions between P and Storm is essentially exclusive to a romantic relationship between them.

I don't personally know how difficult it would be to rework this stuff to accommodate that choice - I imagine it can be quite difficult and time consuming, depending on how in-depth it went - but I do imagine it would be easier to implement that sort of thing now, while the Hinterlands are still something of a chief focus, than later on when there would be even more content to recode and whatnot. Not to mention that, as I imagine, most people will be either starting new saves or at least restarting from saves before Hinterlands III for the new content.

In the end, however, I'll trust the judgment of you guys that are actually making the game; if you think there's been too much focus on refining Hinterlands III and you just want to move on, you guys should go with what you think is best...

... That said, I can't imagine anyone would be upset with you guys for trading more time to provide more options for your players to explore the story in a way that's satisfying for them... I definitely wouldn't, at least...

But as I said, I'll defer to your judgement about this. I'm just one person who's suddenly voicing an arbitrary complaint; I understand that the wants of one person can't - and likely shouldn't - be allowed to completely shift your priorities or plans. In the end, all I want is see Minotaur Hotel become the best possible story that it can. All I can ever hope for is that my words be seen as the helpful and well-intentioned input I intended them to be; and if they have some positive impact on the trajectory of development, all the better.

Whatever you decide is the best course of action, I and every other fan of this project will still be here to experience this wonderful story you guys are creating! Keep up the great work you guys do with this project!

TrinexxSlayer2 years ago(+1)

Is it too late to implement this split in Ch19? They could have a moment to talk about if they really want to pursue a romantic relationship over a familial one now that they completed the goal of finding the hotel, it could be a reasonable time for them to rethink what they want to do. I don't fully remember the dialogues they had by the end of it, but it's still possible for people to realize that they can have romantic feelings for one another and decide that's best for them to not be in a relationship.

M3tav0X2 years ago

I know it's been almost three weeks but I just thought of something.

While the Hinterlands chapter - and by extension, P and Storm - is still fresh in everyone's minds and there's a minimum amount of implemented content you guys would have to rework, why not reach out to the fanbase on the matter? Like what you guys did with getting the fans' ideas and such regarding Asterion r18 content, it even just a poll on Twitter?

I understand that you guys probably just want to move on with the project by this point, but if bringing this up to you guys was enough that you'd actively keep it in mind for the rest of the project, as you said, shouldn't it be important enough to see what the fanbase thinks about it, too?

You guys have put a lot of time and effort into the Hinterlands already, I get it. But all the same, there's bound to be people who are strictly opposed to P and Storm being romantic or are only interested in them being familial; such players are then forced to completely pass-up on a not-insignificant about of content from the Hinterlands in the form of P and Storm hanging out together. Likewise, assuming that "course correcting" means anything like "giving the player a choice later for P to take back what he says to Storm in Chapter 18" if P and Storm end up romantic, such a scene would likely come across as needlessly cruel to Storm regardless of how it was written.

Getting an idea of what the fans would want might be a good idea here. But at the end of the day, it'd be your choice as the devs. I'm not saying that this has to or even necessarily should be what you guys do, just that it wouldn't hurt to consider doing it while it's not unreasonably difficult to handle...

Again, it's your choice, though. Just wanted to bring this up.

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