Thank you for your feedback ! I'm glad you liked my story !
Considering your points of worry, I try to make it less frequent to be stuck and not knowing who to talk to, I've improved the quest log and all, but I'll be first to admit it just keep happening, even when I play test the game myself. I have to look up to the code to see what I'm missing. I don't want to have a "!" showing next to a place ou need to visit, as it could lead the player to just follow the quest marker without thought, but I may be fored to do so. Maybe on a few, rare events?
Allow me to give an example. In the early points of Abbendis route, the quest log says more or less this:
"I can sleep in Abbendis room now! Perhaps I should do more?"
Without giving any hints about what this "more" could possibly entail. I stumbled at that aphrodisiac candles pretty much at random. Perhaps the questlog could say something in the lines of:
"I can sleep in Abbendis room now! But shes's still tense. Perhaps I could find a way/something to help her relax?"
That way, an attentive player (as in, one who is NOT skipping the game's text) would read the candles description and be able to deduce that this is his next step in the route, without getting the sensation that he is being held by the nose.
Same goes for the Hearthglen quest where you need to "ally with the Forsaken", and a few others.
Concerning the story, I guess I lack a red line to follow but the idea is to slowly accumulate ally among different factions (Argent Dawn, Quel'Thalas, Amani, Dalaran, etc.) and to explore each Scarlet Town as you expand, discovering what is going on in the other place of the Crusade and how it can be different without Abbendis standing against Dathrohan. Had to go to the Western Plaguelands, let's check out Hearthglen! When we'll go to Tirisfal Glades, we'll check what's happening in the Scarlet Monastery.
If I understand correctly, the game's story is being written one step (should I say story arc?) at a time. Fair enough.
The reason I worry is because thats basically what the WoW developers did for their game, and lets face it: WoW's current lore is a tangled mess of retcons, contradictions and plot holes.
My suggestion? You already have the game's premise (namely, a "what if" story in which the Scarlet Crusade becomes a force for good). But while the general layout of the story has a beginning, and it seems that the middle point is the Crusade's redemption, I can see nothing pointing towards what could possibly become the end point after that.
Raid on Naxxramas? Working with the Earthen Ring and the Cenarion Circle to purify the Plaguelands? Merging with the Argent dawn to reform the Silver Hand? Assault Northrend as the Scarlet Onslaught? Any combination of those? It doesn´t matter, as long as the writer knows where the story's destination is at, so he can prepare the story arcs and threads for a satisfying payoff.
In a way, you grow your side, even draining the Crimson Legion of a key element, to do the Scarlet Crusade's job in spite of itself. Take Corin's Crossing, Andorhal, Argent Dawn's quests. I hope to slowly change the world around the player, like you can remove the Ziggurat from Plaguewood if you do the quest, to give the impression you're not just adventuring, you're fixing stuff. But I am taker of any opinions or suggestions on my story !
And so far, the development of the story is working. In particular, I am thinking about the scene in which you take Lady Alistra to Tyr's Hand.
As a reader, I appreciated how it highlighted Abbendis character development: She is STILL a undead-hating Scarlet Crusader, but has grown enough see that there is an actual person under a Death Knight's skin, and even recognize (albeit relutanctly) that the other isn´t so much a monster, but a victim.
And as a player, I felt rewarded, in the sense that that same character development I described above is the result of the MC's actions in game. The characters, and the world, are in a better place, because what he did.
Sooo, TL;DR?
Came for the porn, stayed for the story.
