I do understand that, which is why I am not doing anything to modify the OP. While releasing something for free is good for marketing, which is why I have always done it so far, releasing absolutely everything, leaving little insentive to pledge, isn't really. It has been made clear after the leaks on HC1, when the amount of new patrons after the leak was close to inexistant.Well it honestly surprised me it took this long, I actually was praising your patrons for not posting anything sooner. This is very rare on this site. I am still planning to pledge at least 20 dollars this or the next update, as I did with the last game, even as kind of feeling of "buying" the game. I think others will too.
Also the first few months being dry... well I may be also to blame, but with these games, you kind of know it will be a slow burner, so the first few updates you are worried about getting blueballed. On the other hand, having this kind of game go faster would kind of beat the point so yeah...
Understand that you are not the only one. Pretty much every developer here has these pirated copies losses. On the other hand, having your game here is sort of a free advertisement. So if you chalk up the pirated copies losses as marketing costs, it is not that extremely bad. Without this site and others like it, most of the games here would not get any traction I feel.
Also, I think there was a slight misunderstanding. I was actually quite happy with the steady progress I made in the first few months, either on HC1 or HC2. I have absolutely no complaints about that