VN Ren'Py Hillside [v0.16.1] [DarkBlue]

[EvilMonkey]

Ok, so I've only just started playing this but I can see I'm going to get annoyed by dumb characters from the get go. The police tell the mum that they suspect it's a stalker, over the phone? No personal visit and advice on how to protect themselves? Don't tell the person who's being stalked that she's being stalked? Aunt doesn't tell anyone that the daughter is being cyber bullied when she knows she has a stalker? The MC is a security specialist but agrees to not let on to the protectee why she's being protected? And he just rocks up to the house and doesn't do a security assessment or bring any cameras he could hook up? No walk around the exterior of the property to check if there is any evidence of tampering or visitation? It just screams 'dumb' to me.

 

[Dessolos]

Ok, so I've only just started playing this but I can see I'm going to get annoyed by dumb characters from the get go. The police tell the mum that the suspect it's a stalker, over the phone? No personal visit and advice on how to protect themselves? Don't tell the person who's being stalked that she's being stalked? Aunt doesn't tell anyone that the daughter is being cyber bullied when she knows she has a stalker? The MC is a security specialist but agrees to not let on to the protectee why she's being protected? And he just rocks up to the house and doesn't do a security assessment or bring any cameras he could hook up? No walk around the exterior of the property to check if there is any evidence of tampering or visitation? It just screams 'dumb' to me.

if you just dont think about stuff that should be happening if it was real / get past nick picks or how childish Emma can come off as despite being 18 it's honestly a good story / game. I personally able to disconnect myself easily and just play / watch whatever type of entertainment it is and enjoy it.

 

[armond]

if you just dont think about stuff that should be happening if it was real / get past nick picks or how childish Emma can come off as despite being 18 it's honestly a good story / game. I personally able to disconnect myself easily and just play / watch whatever type of entertainment it is and enjoy it.

So, if you ignore everything wrong with it, it's pretty good.

 

[fotogaik]

So, if you ignore everything wrong with it, it's pretty good.

It's a common theme. You're drawn to the game specifically because of the premise, but then you realize the author has pretty good writing and is able to get you to care for the characters, but has no idea how the premise works and how it should play out, so you get annoyed with the very thing that drew you to the game in the first place.
Glaring plot holes ruin your enjoyment and you realize it's not possible to get past them.

(I had similar reality checks in the thread about "Home Prisoner", post 80 and 110, people pretty much ignored them, I couldn't get past them.)

 

[Dessolos]

So, if you ignore everything wrong with it, it's pretty good.

that's up to a matter of personal opinion realism issues aside. As when I first played i never once thought of any of the stuff wrong with it so i didnt really ignore it just never occurred to me in the first play since i just played it and enjoyed it for what it is.

 

[Talmadge]

I don't personally see anything wrong. Emma is the way she is because she is coddled. Even though she's not a spoiled brat, she's too innocent because her mom has hidden so much from her. And Lucy promised her not to mention the texts, and she keeps her promises. And the MC would lose his job if he went behind the back of his boss and told Emma why he was there. So there's that.

 

[Dessolos]

I don't personally see anything wrong. Emma is the way she is because she is coddled. Even though she's not a spoiled brat, she's too innocent because her mom has hidden so much from her. And Lucy promised her not to mention the texts, and she keeps her promises. And the MC would lose his job if he went behind the back of his boss and told Emma why he was there. So there's that.

Agreed I was just lazy to point that out to the guy having an issue cause of "realism" seemed like to me he was looking to much into things with a realism pov and didnt think about the story reasons for not doing some of those things like you just pointed out. Yeah Emma is great while I wont peruse her as a LI only reason I can see someone having an issue with how she acts is if they want to go after her as a LI as it make it feel weird for them.

 

[fotogaik]

Agreed I was just lazy to point that out to the guy having an issue cause of "realism" seemed like to me he was looking to much into things with a realism pov and didnt think about the story reasons for not doing some of those things like you just pointed out. Yeah Emma is great while I wont peruse her as a LI only reason I can see someone having an issue with how she acts is if they want to go after her as a LI as it make it feel weird for them.

Holy straw man argument there, Batman!

EvilMonkey only pointed out actual flaws in the plot. Then you piled on Emma being childish, and now you say you pointed it out to EvilMonkey because of "story reasons" and you suggest it's his argument? Whoa there!

The argument about the realism is extremely pertinent. The MC is supposed to be a specialist, but goofs up in ways that show incompetence in a spectacular way.

Unless maybe — that — is the premise of the game and we'll find out later that the MC is a complete amateur, that he is the stalker, and that he pretended to be a security specialist and fudged his credentials to gain access to the household and the whole game will take on a very dark tone with Charlotte growing paranoid and developing mental issues?
And the dev will say that proof was always out in the open with how the MC screwed up everything.

 

[Dessolos]

Holy straw man argument there, Batman!

EvilMonkey only pointed out actual flaws in the plot. Then you piled on Emma being childish, and now you say you pointed it out to EvilMonkey because of "story reasons" and you suggest it's his argument? Whoa there!

The argument about the realism is extremely pertinent. The MC is supposed to be a specialist, but goofs up in ways that show incompetence in a spectacular way.

Unless maybe — that — is the premise of the game and we'll find out later that the MC is a complete amateur, that he is the stalker, and that he pretended to be a security specialist and fudged his credentials to gain access to the household and the whole game will take on a very dark tone with Charlotte growing paranoid and developing mental issues?
And the dev will say that proof was always out in the open with how the MC screwed up everything.

I admit how I worded what I said to him about Emma came out wrong as I never truly thought that but ive seen others say that alot. While it's fair to not like things cause off realism or w/e not everyone likes the same things or thinks of stuff in the same way. Which was part of the reasons I never really pointed out the story reasons and just agreed with someone else that replied to him that did point them out to him+ I was feeling lazy. But I felt like about 1/2 of the realism issues he had was explained early on in the game to me it make sense to me even if some people think some of those reasons are dumb. Even if there were dumb I felt they were valid reasons in the context of the story. But that's just my opinion again nothing wrong with him not liking or agreeing with it.

 

[Talmadge]

Agreed I was just lazy to point that out to the guy having an issue cause of "realism" seemed like to me he was looking to much into things with a realism pov and didnt think about the story reasons for not doing some of those things like you just pointed out. Yeah Emma is great while I wont peruse her as a LI only reason I can see someone having an issue with how she acts is if they want to go after her as a LI as it make it feel weird for them.

Can you even make her an LI? I mean, I've only got to where Charlotte asks the MC to be her bodyguard after they ran on the beach. But I have yet to have any choices regarding Emma that pointed to an LI scenario.

 

[fotogaik]

I admit how I worded what I said to him about Emma came out wrong as I never truly thought that but ive seen others say that alot. While it's fair to not like things cause off realism or w/e not everyone likes the same things or thinks of stuff in the same way. Which was part of the reasons I never really pointed out the story reasons and just agreed with someone else that replied to him that did point them out to him+ I was feeling lazy. But I felt like about 1/2 of the realism issues he had was explained early on in the game to me it make sense to me even if some people think some of those reasons are dumb. Even if there were dumb I felt they were valid reasons in the context of the story. But that's just my opinion again nothing wrong with him not liking or agreeing with it.

That's fine. I know people like to repeat the argument that Emma is childish, but it never bothered me. She was sheltered by an overly protective mother, she was spared the graphic details of the industry, and she apparently has no natural curiosity to cross boundaries. Couple that with a propensity to cling on to childhood and you think Emma is actually quite well adjusted.

What EvilMonkey bring up are actually very valid arguments that you cannot simply overlook because they break the premise completely.
It's like that when you're intimately familiar with a certain aspect of a profession, but the author is completely out of their depth. It's bad enough when it happens in some scene in a movie where it's not critical for the plot, but when somebody bases a game (or a movie, or a book) on security, spying, military, photography, mountaineering, music, legal procedures, pretty much anything, but their entire knowledge of the topic is based on a bad scene in a movie and they never researched the topic in any depth, it bothers you, breaks your immersion and makes suspension of disbelief impossible.

Can you even make her an LI? I mean, I've only got to where Charlotte asks the MC to be her bodyguard after they ran on the beach. But I have yet to have any choices regarding Emma that pointed to an LI scenario.

It was stated that she is a prospective LI. If not yet, she will be in the future.

 

[Raminita]

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Hi, guys.
I just wanted to update you on a couple of things, but first I'd like to thank everyone for the messages and comments of support after my previous post about my sister. I appreciate it and am sorry I couldn't reply to them all.
I've been back working all week, but I'm sure there are going to be some ups and downs over the next few weeks, so I'm sorry if there is any further disruption to the schedule. They are preparing to operate on my sister and remove the tumor, but there are complications and no date has been set yet.
And, finally, regarding the rework I have been working on, I still have a lot of work to do on it and don't want to delay the release of v0.14 any further. Therefore, I'm going to get v0.14 done as soon as possible and then finish the rework afterwards.

Thank you for your support.
DB​

 

[Tulrek]

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Hi, guys.
I just wanted to update you on a couple of things, but first I'd like to thank everyone for the messages and comments of support after my previous post about my sister. I appreciate it and am sorry I couldn't reply to them all.
I've been back working all week, but I'm sure there are going to be some ups and downs over the next few weeks, so I'm sorry if there is any further disruption to the schedule. They are preparing to operate on my sister and remove the tumor, but there are complications and no date has been set yet.
And, finally, regarding the rework I have been working on, I still have a lot of work to do on it and don't want to delay the release of v0.14 any further. Therefore, I'm going to get v0.14 done as soon as possible and then finish the rework afterwards.

Thank you for your support.
DB​

 

[Talmadge]

Just an observation. But I'm thinking that Charlotte was not her name before the attack. I'm thinking it was Emma. And I'm thinking that she is the one that the MC thought was killed before. I could be way off base. But that is really what I'm thinking. I hope this isn't any kind of spoiler or anything.

 

[Penfold Mole]

Just an observation. But I'm thinking that Charlotte was not her name before the attack. I'm thinking it was Emma. And I'm thinking that she is the one that the MC thought was killed before. I could be way off base. But that is really what I'm thinking. I hope this isn't any kind of spoiler or anything.

It's quite obvious to anyone who actually did read the story that you skipped most of it and are now just making it all up.

And you're thinking wrong - just making sure you understand how far off your theory is from it. In a galaxy far far away.
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Or maybe you just started the game just recently and are somewhere halfway through with it. I didn't really thought of it when I quoted you. It's not like you've said anything yourself about not being finished yet, so I assumed that you are.
I hope I didn't spoil it for you if this is the case.

 

[Talmadge]

It's quite obvious to anyone who actually did read the story that you skipped most of it and are now just making it all up.

And you're thinking wrong - just making sure you understand how far off your theory is from it. In a galaxy far far away.
__________________________________________________
Or maybe you just started the game just recently and are somewhere halfway through with it. I didn't really thought of it when I quoted you. It's not like you've said anything yourself about not being finished yet, so I assumed that you are.
I hope I didn't spoil it for you if this is the case.

Nope. You didn't spoil anything for me. I did play a while back, but I will play a game for a bit, go to another game, and do that as I have several games I play. Last time I played, I had gotten to the spa weekend. I've gotten now where Zak tells who he is trying to bang next. I'm going to play this until the end of the current update before I go to another, as, like I've said, it is one of my new favorites.

 

[Chrisdarock19]

Can we make history by being "bad" ?

 

[cxx]

Can we make history by being "bad" ?

what? well you can make bad choices but can't be bad itself.

 

[Talmadge]

Well, I just hit the end of this update. I gotta say. Great story. And left on a bit of a cliffhanger. Also, I'm thinking that the dad didn't abandon them. I'm thinking he was murdered. Just a feeling I'm having. Can't wait for the next update to drop! If DarkBlue is on here, keep up the great work!

 

[HillsideVN]

Well, I just hit the end of this update. I gotta say. Great story. And left on a bit of a cliffhanger. Also, I'm thinking that the dad didn't abandon them. I'm thinking he was murdered. Just a feeling I'm having. Can't wait for the next update to drop! If DarkBlue is on here, keep up the great work!

Thanks, Talmadge. Glad you're enjoying it.