MattShizzle

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That will probably be a while as this one just came out a day or so ago. Just got this then and still not 100% through, but suspect I'm close, so I'm not sure how often they come out. Some devs do very little new content and every 2 weeks, others it's months with a whole lot of content. The one in my sig is every 2 weeks but pretty much content.
 

Zoey Raven

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That will probably be a while as this one just came out a day or so ago. Just got this then and still not 100% through, but suspect I'm close, so I'm not sure how often they come out. Some devs do very little new content and every 2 weeks, others it's months with a whole lot of content. The one in my sig is every 2 weeks but pretty much content.
She hasn't played Ch. 3 yet Tess is a friend I gave her an early copy. Updates as stated on Patreon are 2 months, however I've been getting them out in 6 weeks, and in terms of what many devs release in that time this update was massive.. I will be taking a week or so off like last update.
 

UncleFredo

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Hello again Zoey:
First thanks for an excellent update! It's impressive you can produce this much content of such high quality in so short a time. This chapter raises a topic that I hope you'll explore. I am very interested in how the timelines of Barb's time with the MC and her time with the father of her children (husband?) mesh. Was she with the MC while still in a relationship with her children's father? The comment about attending school at the same time suggests that she knew the MC before she became a mother. We'd learn a great deal about their relationship if you reveal this part of their lives. Also how does his break up with Barb relate to his meeting and entering a relationship with Lydia?

On a side note, decades ago when I used to attend AA meetings with my spouse, AA was just coming to grips with the impact of dual addiction. Typically cocaine and alcohol. NA existed of course but the majority of "younger" alcoholics were also cocaine addicts. Those in AA who were solely alcoholics found difficulty relating to those who were addicted to drugs as well. These days it's so common that there is no distinction (addiction is addiction), but there was a period where AA's very existence was somewhat imperilled.
 
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Zoey Raven

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Hello again Zoey:
First thanks for an excellent update! It's impressive you can produce this much content of such high quality in so short a time. This chapter raises a topic that I hope you'll explore. I am very interested in how the timelines of Barb's time with the MC and her time with the father of her children (husband?) mesh. Was she with the MC while still in a relationship with her children's father? The comment about attending school at the same time suggests that she knew the MC before she became a mother. We'd learn a great deal about their relationship if you reveal this part of their lives. Also how does his break up with Barb relate to his meeting and entering a relationship with Lydia?

On a side note, decades ago when I used to attend AA meetings with my spouse, AA was just coming to grips with the impact of dual addiction. Typically cocaine and alcohol. NA existed of course but the majority of "younger" alcoholics were also cocaine addicts. Those in AA who were solely alcoholics found difficulty relating to those who were addicted to drugs as well. These days it's so common that there is no distinction (addiction is addiction), but there was a period where AA's very existence was somewhat imperilled.
If you read closely Barb was a few years ahead of him in high school, it states this very early in chapter one. So the time w the father would have in my mind happened earlier in that 6 year window as the game takes place roughly 4 years after MC graduated. As far as when Barb broke up with him I always thought in my mind it was in the year after she graduated in order to try and get sober, maybe she didn't right away, but got knocked up by the father, this is how I saw it, not that she ever had a meaningful relationship w the father. So, doubt I will involve the father in this as he is out of sight out of mind as he lives on the east coast and this game takes place on the west.
 
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Cmann

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I agree with ALMOST everything you say and very often there are co-morbid conditions. As far as the last bit. I 've been sober 12 years, they've been the best 12 years of my life.
If I understood you correctly I did a poor job of communicating the meaning of the the last bit, apologies for that.

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Zoey Raven

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Hello again Zoey:
First thanks for an excellent update! It's impressive you can produce this much content of such high quality in so short a time. This chapter raises a topic that I hope you'll explore. I am very interested in how the timelines of Barb's time with the MC and her time with the father of her children (husband?) mesh. Was she with the MC while still in a relationship with her children's father? The comment about attending school at the same time suggests that she knew the MC before she became a mother. We'd learn a great deal about their relationship if you reveal this part of their lives. Also how does his break up with Barb relate to his meeting and entering a relationship with Lydia?

On a side note, decades ago when I used to attend AA meetings with my spouse, AA was just coming to grips with the impact of dual addiction. Typically cocaine and alcohol. NA existed of course but the majority of "younger" alcoholics were also cocaine addicts. Those in AA who were solely alcoholics found difficulty relating to those who were addicted to drugs as well. These days it's so common that there is no distinction (addiction is addiction), but there was a period where AA's very existence was somewhat imperilled.
I'm well aware, there are still some old timers in AA which I go to not in NA, that hold to this. But, It's starting to dissipate almost completely at this point.
 
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UncleFredo

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If you read closely Barb was a few years ahead of him in high school, it states this very early in chapter one. So the time w the father would have in my mind happened earlier in that 6 year window as the game takes place roughly 4 years after MC graduated. As far as when Barb broke up with him I always thought in my mind it was in the year after she graduated in order to get sober. Doublt I will involve the husband in this as he is out of sight out of mind as he lives in the east coast and this game take place in the west.
I didn't expect you to involve her husband at all. As you point out he's across the continent. I was curious about the timeline only to understand the pressures on their relationship. I have no interest in influencing your storyline, only suggesting that revealing a bit of their back story would be interesting.

From the story itself and your comments here it's clear that you have fully mapped out the course of the stories you plan to present (given that you've created the junkie path and the path to sobriety you have at least two stories to tell). Given your work to date, I'm looking forward to an excellent story and one hell of a ride as you tell it.

Barb is a "different" character in the MC's life. Older and seemingly predating his relationships with the other women that surround him. Perhaps a "formative" relationship? Please tell the story as you choose. I was just a bit curious.

Thanks again for your excellent work.
 

Zoey Raven

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I didn't expect you to involve her husband at all. As you point out he's across the continent. I was curious about the timeline only to understand the pressures on their relationship. I have no interest in influencing your storyline, only suggesting that revealing a bit of their back story would be interesting.

From the story itself and your comments here it's clear that you have fully mapped out the course of the stories you plan to present (given that you've created the junkie path and the path to sobriety you have at least two stories to tell). Given your work to date, I'm looking forward to an excellent story and one hell of a ride as you tell it.

Barb is a "different" character in the MC's life. Older and seemingly predating his relationships with the other women that surround him. Perhaps a "formative" relationship? Please tell the story as you choose. I was just a bit curious.

Thanks again for your excellent work.
They were never actually married I never used the word husband in the script just checked :), as far as I see it she just got knocked up, but he got the kids cause she had yet to get or maintain sobriety. As you well know, not everyone gets it the first time. I will certainly explore more of the the backstory with MC and Barb in reminiscent moments as I did before the end of Chapter 3, as for flashbacks or something like that, I don't really see my game as one that does those sort of things. This game is about the moment. The timeline is as I said in the previous post, a 6 year window from the time she graduated until now, because he graduated 2 years later than her. Hope that helps.
 
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MattShizzle

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Most of the addicts in the facility I worked, especially when they started taking people directly from prison, were dual diagnosis - meaning besides addiction there were serious mental disorders - in some cases even schizophrenia. With the alcoholics (part of the unit was for 2nd time DUI offenders, who weren't necessarily actually alcoholics) it seemed much less common. I was also voluntarily given the duty to review files to make sure everything was there as I have a Bachelors in Psychology.
 

botc76

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Didn't know anything about the movie 'chasing amy' so i read the plot to better understand what they were talking about.

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See i get it that some people are fine with someone regardless of their past but since you know there are people who ain't fine with someone's adventurous sexual past you should have respected their views as well. MC goes on saying "I never identified with why he cared about the stuff that happened before so much. It would seem it made him feel inadequate, and that was not her fault,it was his". A better choice of words would be "I don't have problem with someone's past but there are guys for whom past matters and i should also respect their views or opinions. everyone is entitled to have different opinions" or something similar.

Yeah, no. Lots of people have a problem with lots of unimportant things, a character in a game doesn't have to take into account anybody who might be offended over something the character says.
You as a player can agree or disagree with what the character (again, we are talking about a CHARACTER IN A BLOODY VIDEOGAME) says, but that's about the extent of it.

I mean, we are not even talking about anything offensive at all, not like the character insulted somebodies race, gender, sexuality or religion. I could kind of understand pointing that out as offensive and perhaps suggesting the dev dials it down a bit, if it is the MC acting like that.

Honestly, this is such a minor and unimportant thing, do you even realize how entitled and snowflake-y your post is?
It's literally nothing but whining, because you don't like an opinion of a character in a game. Again, not a character being offensive about a certain group, but a fictional character saying one single sentence about another fictional character in a film they watch in the game.

I'm not saying you don't have the right to point out you don't like it personally, but you got to be prepared to just get told not to play the game then, because there's almost certainly no creator who would accept something like your demand as constructive criticism.
 
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botc76

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I am not telling anyone what to do as much as any other commentator, but you reacted pure negatively. I only give advice based on my experience as we all do. Like any novel over filling is not good. A bit is okay.
It's perfectly understandable to want to defend something you like, I think we all do that from time to time, but there's definitely nothing wrong with pointing out you didn't enjoy something as much as you could have and suggesting it could be changed to appeal to more people.
Like you wrote yourself, you gave advice, you didn't demand change or found offence with something. NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT.

What the writer/author/dev makes of it is completely his or her choice of course, but we all know there are many devs who are fine with criticism, whether they ever change anything over it or not.

The problem is, if you treat every creative work as if there's nothing at all to improve, no creator would ever improve, considering that there's a whole career centred around doing exactly that (pointing out parts where creative work could be improved or editing them, as we call it), I'm fairly certain that is an absurd approach to things.
There is a difference between having an opinion or trying to force said opinion on everybody as the only acceptable course.

In this case, I don't think I agree with you, there are many VNs that are without a doubt too verbose and lose themselves in describing trivial or unimportant things to a crazy extent, but not in this one.
The game is wordy, but it needs to be, because a) it is a heavy topic that needs to be shown and explained properly and b) this is something that is a very personal work, drawing deeply from the devs own perspective and experience as ZoeyRaven shared here.
The story is important for Zoey and so every word is.

Personally, I was mostly completely fine with the writing and when something didn't interest me quite as much, I skimmed the text for a bit, like with the meeting, I didn't feel the need to know what the speaker said in every detail.
Not like I had to do that more than once or twice.
(again, that's just me, no general statement about whether it was too long or not)
 
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Zoey Raven

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Please put a spoiler on this if you are going to say it, I don't mind just put a spoiler so people can't see who haven't played.

Looks like the mods took care of it, just in the future if you want to talk about major plot points please put a spoiler, and they you for your comment I appreciate it.
 
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MattShizzle

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OK. Half the other people I worked with were in recovery for drugs or alcohol. I drink but not to excess IMO but never touched illegal drugs. I saw more than enough working there. I saw someone almost die from OD. We had to 911 on him and they gave him Narcan. He did 90 days in D & A and 60 in the Halfway House/DUI unit I worked at the time. He was going home successful discharge the next morning. He went out and got Heroin while going to an NA meeting and brought it back (2nd shift didn't catch on patdown - I was 3rd) and he fucking used. Not only almost died, but he would have gone home but instead went to jail for fucking up. It was at least 90 days when someone got kicked like that. Such a shame. Heroin fucking sucks what it does to people. I also remember seeing in the newspaper people who had been there dying from OD, including because of that damn fentanyl towards the end. When I had minor surgery I made sure to say I absolutely did NOT want to be given oxycontin due to how crazy it is. My grandmother got it and took too much - she couldn't remember when she took and ended up accusing doctors and a cousin of being aliens. They had to detox her and she was mad they gave it. Where I worked converted to a corrections halfway house and later the state shut it down so they could run it themselves. Tried to get a job but I am on the Autism spectrum and have major depression (MANY suicide attempts under my belt - since age 8) they said that was enough I was disabled to get Social Security but noted I have a shit ton of physical problems.
 

MattShizzle

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The GF is still hot AF. I'd honestly be her slave but not if it meant using. Never did and know that is a losing proposition.
 

d_pedestrian

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If you read closely Barb was a few years ahead of him in high school, it states this very early in chapter one. So the time w the father would have in my mind happened earlier in that 6 year window as the game takes place roughly 4 years after MC graduated. As far as when Barb broke up with him I always thought in my mind it was in the year after she graduated in order to try and get sober, maybe she didn't right away, but got knocked up by the father, this is how I saw it, not that she ever had a meaningful relationship w the father. So, doubt I will involve the father in this as he is out of sight out of mind as he lives on the east coast and this game takes place on the west.
and there goes my theory of MC being the father of her kids and she never told him in order to keep him away from kids until he is out of addiction.

Barb broke up with MC when she decided to give up drugs...right? and barb couldn't get the kids because she was still taking things. did barb cheat on MC or they had something like open relationship kind of arrangement? since MC fucked jewellery owner's wife and bard had no problem with it so i just thought.
 
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