It would be nice to have a name editor available in the game. Is this a planned feature for public release, a Patreon-exclusive feature, or is it not feasible?
arden_arteles
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A member registered Dec 22, 2021
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I have used the built in itch.io update button, and see the new shell script in the files, but am not getting any new items. Is there something I need to do to get these?
EDIT: Looking at the patch notes and seeing that I got saw on a first round with 2 health, it's not the update. Don't trust the update button!
The problem with this train of thought, as I alluded to, is that the person who also came up with the idea of the Redd Manor, if they are Roddio, is someone I don't think they'd want to associate with, hence the lack of a link to back it up directly. Dorking is a skill that can be learned, but also used responsibly. It's entirely possible to uncover confidential information with it.
As for file digging, I've mentioned before -- it's given me information as to who the "traitor" was. And, well... I think I finally get it.
The traitor is Nerus, and here lies my argument.
When Alessia gets a strange dream, she sees a ring of fire. What else looked like a ring of fire? His eyes.
What's the name of the thing that is taunting the traitor? Pyr. That is a pretty close resemblance to the word root "pyro", which is related to fire (as in pyromanic, pyromancer, etc.)
What was the traitor's skin like? Charred.
And who had the power to engulf themselves in flames? Nerus, again, when he burned away his body to fully use his prowess.
The last part is the one you don't have access to without digging through files, usually. In it, the 5th dream (with later context) can be interpreted to mean that someone was meeting void creatures (like Noch) once again ("we all meld together out here" being similar to how Noch describes the feeling to Aloys). Who do we know that's relatively recently been introduced to the void? Nerus.
Even the timeline itself lines up with this. If the objective, as the traitor has proposed, is to help them get back their memories -- why is it happening? My thoughts are so Nerus is caught up on what is going on in the world at the time Obli manages to bring him back, which is presumably the event that occurs at the end of the timeline. Thus, this is all happening in the blink of an eye. Nerus's past before Obli was less important to either of them than afterwards -- for that matter, it might be easier if it was entirely forgotten. Therefore, the timeline starts with Nerus's memories, and everything afterwards is helping him catch up on current events.
This opens the question as to why Pyr wants to keep the traitor guessing, and my theory is once the traitor remembers who they are, they are restored to their reality. Pyr probably gains something in keeping them there, which justifies his goals and actions.
As for the new character -- that was a random surprise. I guess it makes sense that we'd get another shifter working with Ren, but I wonder if this is the same one that contacted Obli with the plan.
I also wonder if Obli continues to talk to Samael at all. It doesn't look like we'll get to see his POV for a little while, but I think that Obli's talks with Samael were in the top moments of the novel, and I took a lot of great lines from there, guidance for myself.
Actually, Fanatic, if you want to get in contact, I was thinking of getting into video essays recently. We could try to set up something to work together, I might not have as much time in the future but I'd be happy to work with you on it. To be honest, I want to do a full rundown of how I got all of the evidence in here, but some of it takes way too long to explain (as you might guess from the length of this).
Here's something that hit me by surprise while I was doing some light google dorking on this.
The main mention of the Redd Manor is the development in the Philipines. Given the nature of the project, a "condotel" (condominium/hotel) it's pretty easy to dismiss this as being relevant.
I did some digging, and found one other example. However, given the nature of the controversy surrounding said person, as well as the apparent maturity they show in posts, I'll be willing to believe candidate one is... at minimum, 23 by now. This would also mean that the person in question underwent some sharp changes in ideology and behavior, leading me to believe that option one is out of the question.
The second option is from DeviantArt, but is also far-fetched. After some searching, I found no unusual activity that can connect anything to here. That leaves The Redd Manor as almost definitely being a creation of the author.
Seeing how far you currently are in the story, I won't post too many spoilers here. However, I don't think it's likely the Redd Manor is the location in question.
My reason? A pseudonym used later on in the story by an unrelated character is "Mr. Redd." This is content that is new to 0.11, which I missed as I was out of the loop on this novel for a while.
That was the reason I started that googling again, and how I found the additional results for "Redd Manor".
Found a minor language bug in 1.6.2 that has me playing on 1.6.1 right now, out of preference. A particular end-of-day scene with the wolf (one of the common ones) frequently uses the term "Wolf he/she" to refer to the character. While I appreciate the term, it's a break with the flow of the writing. If nobody else thinks it's an issue, don't worry about it tbh
I did work out it's not difficult to play with right-hand only, and made a little easier if you're willing to use software like SharpKeys to map right-control to Escape (it's the only missing "control" on the right side of the keyboard). You can also map a similarly uncommon key within close reach to it.
Pretty fun game! Dealer is somewhat exploitable, as I will describe, but still fun. Spoilers to those who don't want them-
- Will always use handcuffs if at least 2 bullets left, exploitable when all bullets left are blanks.
- Will (frequently) use beer if it's guaranteed the next bullet is a blank, provided it's not the last bullet.
- If dealer uses beer, Dealer appears to not account for ejected bullets in their decision making, unless only 2 bullets are left.
- If the dealer uses glass, then beer, they will use all beer at once.
Exploits generally make the AI fun to play around, if a little formulaic at times. The new mode is very enjoyable, due to having plenty of random items on round 1, which can be a game killer in round 1. Above exploits combined with the ability to go first make this mode much more consistent.
AL 48
In my opinion, you might be reading a little too much into it, and the intention behind the choice "tree" was to give the reader a feeling that they are participating in the investigation. Nothing of import is different between the different orders, and it's used to make the reader double-take when the surprise option is given to them, since they thought it was over.
In my honest opinion, the only character who has shown meta-narrative powers is Nerus -- unless the nun was breaking the fourth wall in the dream. That doesn't however, explain the conversation, and I think the nun was talking to someone we couldn't see. (I'm talking about the dream that the meta-character thinks they recognize.)
Your note about Alessia having a very similar appearance to Nerus is very interesting, however, and does make me wonder about their relation. I don't believe that the brothel is relevant; due to the different nature of mortals and shapeshifters, I think their method of reproduction is also non-compatible in some form.
I never remembered reading about the Chimera -- was that in Chapter 2? I haven't started reading again since I last left off. Seems really interesting.
That last part of the theory for "witch" could also be a passing jab at her albinism, which was seen as unnatural at some points in time, hers even more so.
The idea of Alessia judging people truly logically and then becoming a sacrifice of some sort is actually something I don't think she'd have a problem with, as she'd be filling a role nobody else could fill.
E43
That's a fairly interesting observation, I must admit.
Hehe, you finally found the key for Pyre's messages in the prologue. Although, it's not the only time that he injects his thoughts -- the one scene near the end of the prologue really set (them?) up as an enigmatic character, and is part of the curiosity they hold for me. They seemed to be trying to be disruptive.
E44
Nerus is one of the Great Shapeshifters, and given that I don't think he necessarily had problems with his parents -- otherwise Nomino has executed a massive deception (not like he hasn't done it before) about the nature of the Great Shapeshifters. I do think that it might be reading a little bit too deep, but I don't think it's impossible you're onto something there.
E45
I'm a bit surprised you haven't picked up on the entirety of Pyre's dialogue surrounding the Prologue -- he's trying to mock Nerus for not having noticed Shax's illness here. I'm 85% sure that's what it is, otherwise a lot of Pyre's dialogue might lose its meaning.
E46
I didn't think about the possibility of the descendants using one of the Aeon Wars to cripple humanity before, that's a pretty interesting theory.
E47
If you were re-reading this, I think that the second quote you posted was actually foreshadowing towards the fact that Bernardo and Bitey end up in a relationship as we see in Chapter 2. There's plenty of information dropped beforehand to indicate that Bitey is interested in men, and as a person who has been spending more time with non-heterosexual people I can say that it definitely strengthens your ability to pick up on others who might be interested.
Weirdly enough, I succeeded on my first attempt against Julian, and on all three checks so far to extort the thief you can find while exploring the storefronts in town (all are C+ checks)
I'm fairly sure not all checks are rated the same though (having wayyyy too much trouble gathering materials in the forest despite literally never failing on the leopard encounter, and both being normal P or W checks), so it's worth considering.
From what I saw while messing with the data, you only get one dream in the second sequence each time. It's weird, but I don't think I remember any of the sequences from my previous playthrough, but that might be due to the story just being so intriguing. The first dream sequence is always the same if I remember correctly.
The one that implies Noch/other archons are listening in is the "fifth" one, in which the meta-character thinks that they recognized some characters in the dream, leading me to believe that it's actually not Nerus due to issues that Nerus never met Noch. (Coincidentally, the three with the "plan" to open the portal were the only three that new Noch existed, so it also plays well into that theory.)
The traitor being the meta-character is something I'm somewhat in support of, as I didn't find any evidence against it. It just seems... strange that Noch might be it, regarding Noch's position of power as an archon; how would anyone manage to manipulate them to such a degree?
Going out on a limb, my theory on who among those three would be Aloys, due to the comment about the "black fur on my skin" when first regarding their condition. Aloys is the only one among those three who ever had skin, or fur. Obli had scales and feathers, and Noch had a membrane, but Aloys became a werewolf through training, after being a human, resulting in their experiencing both skin and fur. But the comment about burned skin being unusual also strikes me as a bit odd. I'm left to wonder if the meta-character is actually in their original body or not.
I don't think that the meta-character removed their own memory. I used to be an avid reader of SCP (which led to a minor shock when I saw the Time Egg backgrounds had the word 'scp' in their file names, and I still don't know how to interpret that information), and whenever there was a breach in information in Series 1 incident files the Foundation would almost always use amnestics to force people to forget what happened. There are also anomalies that can make you forget certain things, and it's not out of the question that their entire memory was wiped through the power of someone/something else. I doubt that it was actually Pyr who made them forget, since they seem to mostly be jeering the lack of memory rather than exploiting it.
If the theory about Pyr having some sort of time-travel ability through the use of the Time Egg is true, though, then it might actually be Pyr exploiting the meta-character's lack of memory in order to interact with the past in some way. The Time Egg is still the pause screen for the Prologue, implying that we did watch that as the meta-character, but with a confused sense of self, or a level of immersion that surpassed that of Chapter 1, due to an only-partial torpor.
This also brings back into focus the facility -- how many people are in it? One facility for one traitor seems somewhat excessive, and what exactly is it that was chasing the meta-character was running from in Chapter 1?
Also, why did the Prologue use first-person pronouns instead of third-person like Chapters 1 and 2, despite Pyr's ability to interject, and again, what are the nature of those interjections?
A final tip, this one on datamining -- it's somewhat similar to installing Minecraft mods, if you've ever done that manually. Just click on what seems like it might be right after starting from the same place, and you'll find your way there eventually. The files you want have the extension .rpy.
Happy mining!
Thanks for spotting the typo on "Seed of Hate", didn't notice it before!
I did some datamining on Chapter 1, and as it turns out, you can have up to 5 randomly generated dreams, each of which discuss a mysterious figure in some detail. The dream you get is picked randomly, but in case you don't wan't spoilers, I'm spacing this out by like 10 lines.
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Ok, since you're still here, spoilers it is.
- The meta-character, from what I gathered looking at the chapter 1 file, is possibly a mysterious "Traitor" figure.
- Alessia, or possibly the meta-character, ends the world.
The introduction of the word "traitor" narrows it down... a little, until the indistinction about who ends the world arises. We're back to square one on who it could be, but we now have a single word we might be able to associate with them.
If you've already read the story and are waiting, you have the same file if you know where to find it. No hints though! :)
But anyways, back to our new question for theorycrafting: "Who is the traitor?"
- Theory 1: The Traitor was Nerus/Obli, from originally not dealing with each other before the first Battle of the Aeon.
Makes sense, but it's not really existence- or personality-defying, regardless of how well it'd fit with the above theories. - Theory 2: The Traitor is someone who listened in on the fifth dream. (Pyr, Alessia, the meta-character)
This is my preferred theory, and it'd be a simple solution, but the way in which the interaction took place (from my guess, two archons communicating with each other) there could be a third party. - Theory 3: The Traitor is someone who we know to be involved in the plot to get Nerus back. (Obli, Noch, Aloys)
This assumes the plot to open the portal succeeds, but the world ends as a result of it. It's not implausible that the blame would fall on one of them, whichever one survives. It's hard to say which one to put my money on in terms of who it would be, though. - Theory 4: Going off of the above two theories, the Traitor is Noch.
Noch is a common thread between theories 2 and 3. A second archon was listening in, possibly being the one who the first archon was talking to, and they responded. The main part that doesn't line up is the human-like psychology of the meta-character, but if Noch did risk the end of the world, mortality might have been seen as a punishment, and a strange psychology to go to it. Also, the meta-character was somewhat interested in what was going on, so...
Plus, rodrod's profile picture is of Noch, although that's just cherry-picking; we don't know exactly who was listening in.
I know someone else did a major lore analysis on this already but because I'm rereading this after my computer crashed, I have to reread the intro, and there are still some parts I don't think I ever understood, and yet some things became so clear to me in strange ways. Plus large blocks of text are hard to read so I'll be trying to keep these short.
First, what is Nerus even doing talking back to Pyr in the prologue?
- Theory 1: Nerus has meta-narrative powers. This doesn't necessarily fit in with the structure of the story, but both Pyr and Nerus have a connection to fire. Nerus's is in his shifting, whereas Pyr's is in the name being possibly a reference to Prometheus (as it is in Pyr, a publisher), being the Titan who delivered mortals fire, and allowed them to start technological growth. The idea of these being the same doesn't necessarily make sense seeing Nerus's distressed response to Pyr's verbal lashings.
- Theory 2: Nerus is the meta-narrative character. This has some very interesting implications, starting with Nerus's issue with his memory possibly having wiped away his physical form after that long time in a coma. The purpose of the story being shown to him was potentially to help him create another body. This also leads neatly into another theory I have about Nomino's true intentions.
- Theory 3 [brought up by E.Fanatic]: Pyr has time travel powers. Not improbable given how this story relies upon non-chronological storytelling in Chapter 2 (showing we can jump around the timeline), but it doesn't explain why Shax's responses didn't change in that exchange.
Speaking of Nomino's true intentions, let's talk about that for a little.
- Theory 1: Nomino's plans were as stated, and he only intended to kill an aeon in order to get them to stop harrassing the world, or know it's possible to kill them. Boring, and honestly for Nomino, kind of under-done.
- Theory 2: Nomino planned for Obli to open the gate the second time. This one has some interesting points to it, and makes one start to wonder how far in advance he plans.
- Theory 3: Nomino planned for Nerus to rocket into the portal, and for Obli's rescue attempt to fail in some way or another. In the event it goes wrong, then at least one being (with admittedly spotty memory) would have escaped the onslaught of the aeons upon the universe.
- Theory 4 [brought up by E.Fanatic]: Nomino only wants to protect Samael, and will do anything to protect (pronoun unknown -- them?) from harm; protecting the universe's creator, who is bound within the universe. It seems somewhat reasonable, but Nomino's lack of apparent action after Nerus is sent away towards Obli, again, clouds this entire debate.
The last theory here seems the most appealing, as it's in line with Pyr's apparent wish to turn bad endings into bright futures. Were Nerus to actually be able to find his way to the archive eventually, he'd end up in the archive. Shax's out-of-time reflection on the "vessel" Nomino mentioned when he first brought up the war makes me think that it's critical to the story, and seeing we only have one thing that could be seen as a vessel at the moment (the archive) I think that Nomino had the most absolutely wild idea to save a shapeshifter by banishing them. After floating through the void, slowly forgetting, they'd be able to remember the entire world at the archive, and in that way potentially save it from death.
All of this hinges on a question we have no hints on the answers for: how much does Nomino actually know? If he knew about the archive, the plan actually seems to sound somewhat reasonable, if risky. It'd also explain why the novel is named after Nerus and not another character, since Nerus would in some form have a large impact on the meta-character who we can't identify.
I'm still in the prologue at the moment, but I will update as I finish each chapter.
(Ended up being a little longer than I thought, but theorycrafting and lore discussion is fun)
======== Prologue Completed
Alright, so in reflection there are a few more things I didn't realize at first that I'm now starting to wonder about.
I did a little bit of datamining and found some interesting stuff in the files about the dialogue and went through and read it at the same time, hence how I had that information a little earlier than might be expected.
Fortunately for me, I picked up on about 5 points of interest, let's just run down them.
- Shax poses the question of "Would we be the same if our bodies were different?" implying a negative in response to it. This supports the theory that the meta-character is someone who we'll end up meeting in the story who ended up inside the archive, and who needs to remember themselves. Or maybe it's too late to remember themselves...
- Nerus's meta-narrative powers. The closest thing I can analogize this to is the Homestuck Epilogues, Meat route, with Terezi. They can comment on the state of the story and talk about the narration having been shouted in their ear.
- Pyr's sniping at Nerus. This definitely seems like someone that Nerus wronged in the past, and that Nerus has forgotten about... except where Nerus says "You weren't present for this story". This one line makes me doubt Nerus's claims that he entirely forgot Pyr.
- What was that commentary about Seed of Fate being unfinished relating to? This is the only hole I have so far, but it's one that bothers me. I'll be watching like a hawk for any other unfinished business coming up.
Nice way to wrap up act 1! The character building done really makes the characters feel more multi-dimensional, and the foreshadowing has me almost disappointed I learned this build came out so quickly since now I know it's going to be a while before I see any of it delivered on q_q
Rene's portion at the end was particularly insightful and pretty humble, pointing out mistakes that aren't too common but might be pitfalls for others trying to follow in your footsteps. It's honestly made me less worried about getting started with hobby writing again more than anything else that's happened in the past few years.
Project: Furry Apocalypse community · Replied to SexyfishInteractive in Can you make one where you are the furries?
I probably can't describe it any further than "concerning" without breaking ToS or some law out there. I ignore it the best I can, as I do most things that upset me. Of course, I can lose temper, and then rants like that one happen. I'm just sick of people ignoring the most basic rule of the internet, Wheaton's Law.
The password in the old Beyond the Harbor wasn't obvious, I was able to find it out regardless though. And now I think I know a lot more about the story than I used to...
Great writing for being able to set up this VN to follow straight off of the previous one.
I refuse to spoil anything for anyone else. I was expecting the result on some level, but I can't say it wasn't incredibly well executed. The best kind of horror/scare is one that the user themselves walks into, and doesn't have a way out until it's too late.
Project: Furry Apocalypse community · Replied to GeorgeWashingmachine in Can you make one where you are the furries?
Have you considered that people are allowed to like unusual things? Sure, there's a bad reputation for being very forward and horny, but I've had a lot more...concerning hentai sent to me than porn of any other kind. A reply thread isn't terribly conducive to a conversation, so I'll be happy to exchange another form of communication with you so you can make me realize I'm wrong.