Dear Murray,
Thank you for quick response (post #11) to my query from last month (post #10). Please accept my apologies for the tardiness of this reply.
In the immortal words of Strother Martin, "What we have here is failure to communicate." More appropriately, my failure to make clear what I was asking you in my post #10. The real question is whether the script.rpy file included in your mod benefitted from the 'alleged' proofreading touted by the developer, Berkili4. I did not accuse you of making any dialogue changes to the script.rpy file, which was apparently not made clear in my original post. It seems I was less clear than I had intended. Allow me to introduce a couple of possible scenarios by which your script.rpy file might not reflect whatever proofreading the developer had (hopefully) purchased.
1) The developer's script was proofread, but only for his (Berkili4's) native language. Let's say Berkili4 is a native speaker of Serbo-Croatian, more specifically Montenegrin. Given the fact that the language exists and has been in existence for some unspecified, but lengthy period of time, I assume it is a perfectly suitable language for inhabitants of Montenegro and other southern Slavic areas. It does not, however, lend itself to worldwide marketing. The same could be said of many other languages. I have to assume that someone smart enough to put together a game in a scripting language would not make so many excruciating errors in his native language therefore, he must be a non-native user of English. Chances are, he is not a user of English at all. If this is the scenario of the 'alleged' proofreading, then it stands to reason that the English script.rpy file would not show any benefit of having been proofread by anyone as cleaning up the Montenegrin script wouldn't likely be appreciatively reflected in the GoogleTranslate English version.
2) The developer is being scammed by his proofreader and the script.rpy has not been proofread by anyone in any language. While it might sound farfetched for this to the cause of the problem, I also suppose there are still people who are waiting to hear back from the "Nigerian Prince".
3) The script.rpy file is being proofread, but only after publication here on F95, or Patreon or whatever site provides financial support to the developer. I think I alluded to this scenario in my prior post (#10), undoubtedly too vaguely. In this scenario, let's say the first four chapters of "Companion of Darkness" have been released to the world at large and some enterprising would-be proofreader contacts the developer and offers to provide proofreading for a nominal or more than nominal fee. He then proceeds to clean up the English grammar, spelling, and usage to an acceptable degree. The proofreader need not make any changes to actual operation of the script.rpy file. The only changes would be in the dialogue - no changes to variable increments or values. There wouldn't even be changes to the line numbers, if you're old enough to remember when program files always had line numbers (Hint: there was a time when every line of a program or data file was on its own Hollerith Card). So, under this scenario, chapters 1-4 have been proofread, and then chapter five is completed. The developer tacks the chapter five additions on the end of the proofread chapters 1-4. The proofreader, having renegotiated with the developer, takes the previously published chapter five and does his work and appends the cleaned-up version of chapter five to his existing (cleaned-up) version of chapters 1-4, resulting in a clean version of those chapters. The clean file is then provided to the developer. Meanwhile, MurrayMods (presumably still a member in good standing of M&M) has kindly provided to the general public a walkthrough mod of chapters 1-4. Since, operationally, when chapter five is provided to him there is no reason to change what he has already edited for the preceding chapters. Murray, in an act of human kindness, applies his magic to the chapter five script.rpy additions and appends it to his previously completed script.rpy file and generously provides that file to the rest of us lazy slobs who can't be bothered to open the existing script.rpy file from the developer and follow along in the script to determine what is the better or best choice to make when actually going through the VN. The result is that we lazy slobs don't benefit from the proofreading that has been applied to chapters 1-4. Under this scenario, the proofread (and presumably cleaned-up) dialogues would be one installment behind the actual script when released. When chapter six was released, then, chapters 1-5 would reflect the benefits of having been edited by the proofreader while chapter six would still be in an excruciating state. MurrayMods, being the generous and kindhearted soul we all know him to be, would get the chapter six additions marked in green and red, append his revised chapter six to his existing chapters 1-5 script.rpy file and post it to the lazy slobs (us!) as quickly as humanely possible. Once again, none of the six chapters Murray has provided the lazy slobs would benefit from the developer's attempt to provide proofreading services to the users of MurrayMods' useful walkthrough.
My personal opinion, based upon my own life experience, is that scenario three is the most likely. One might ask, "Why would the developer only obtain proofreading services after he has already released his excruciating English script.rpy file to his supporters and the lazy slobs on F95?" Well, there are a couple of reasons. The first is that the developer wants to really cash-in on his creation by getting it completed and released via Steam. While Valve is known for taking a healthy chunk of the proceeds from each sale, even the remainder provided to the developer could possibly result in a life changing amount of money. Since Berkili4 isn't likely to approach Steam with his product until completed, or nearly completed, the one installment behind proofreading schedule isn't a big deal in terms of reaching the goal of getting Steam to pick up the distribution of the game. The developer has no pressing need to get the script.rpy file proofread before the latest installment is provided to his supporters and the lazy slobs on F95. The real pot of gold is waiting for him at the rainbow's end; the release of the VN on Steam. The second is that the developer is constrained by either his own finances or time, or both simultaneously. Picture Berkili4 as barely getting along in a dead-end job, living a hand-to-mouth existence. He needs to collect/earn the pittance provided by his supporters on Patreon or SubscribeStar to fund such expenditures as maintaining and improving his computer(s), purchasing assets used in the renders of his VN, and paying that gouging proofreader. Of course he is going to release each installment as quickly as he possibly can! That's the only way he has to fund the investments needed to progress towards the end of the rainbow!
Since you made the admission that your first language is Spanish, I wonder if you could answer a Spanish language usage question for me. I have noticed, in VN's that I assume are written by Spanish language users, that young MC's invariably refer to their middle-aged female acquaintances as Mrs. Maria, ie. the title or honorific and the given name of the woman concerned - in Spanish, I suppose this would be Senora Maria (with a tilde ~ over the n). In English usage, we would refer to her as Mrs. Rodriguez, the title or honorific with surname of the individual. In English usage, using the given name denotes a level of familiarity which conflicts with the more formal use of the title or honorific. My experience, aside from English, is in my nearly faded schoolboy French. In French, one wouldn't say Madame Marie, instead it would be Madame duPont, or whatever the surname is. I seem to recall formality being more important in French than English, but as previously stated, my knowledge is limited by being only classroom instruction instead of actual real-world experience. So, do Spanish speaking high school students routinely refer to their best friends' mothers as Mrs. Maria?
Once again, I want to make perfectly clear that I found your Walkthrough Mod very useful and evidence of your kind and generous heart in providing it to us lazy slobs of F95. I repeat, I did not intend to accuse you or even imply that you have made any changes to the dialogue in creating your walkthrough mod. If anything, it could be that you have simply failed to update the dialogue in your versions of the script.rpy file to the proofread versions possibly being released by the developer.
- sj
