In The Current Route Of After Dark There Are Four ROs, Two With Fixed Gender, And Two With Variable M/f

In the current route of After Dark there are four ROs, two with fixed gender, and two with variable m/f gender. However, I'm thinking of changing one of them so that they could be nonbinary. So...

I've read the After Dark thread on the forum and I saw that you talk about the 'autonomy' of the characters...wdym with autonomy? can you give an example please

Man, this is a tough question to answer!

First thing, I want to point out that autonomy can be turned off. When it's on, characters (especially the ROs) behave a bit differently, potentially developing feelings that are different from MC's and taking the initiative in certain situations. Let me give you a couple of examples.

MC can be straight, gay, bi, pan, or asexual. However, if autonomy is on, depending on how MC acts around others, the ROs can still develop a crush on them (even if MC doesn't do anything romantic to encourage it but is just really kind, protective, or things like that). Once MC notices, they can then choose to encourage or discourage this crush. If the RO isn't dissuaded, MC can set clear boundaries later on (even, for example, by declaring a sexual orientation that isn't compatible with the other character's). In any case, if a character is infatuated enough (reciprocated or not), with autonomy on they might even confess their feelings before the MC does!

Another practical example is jealousy. Basically, characters can be jealous of MC if they're developing a crush on them and MC's attention is elsewhere. If autonomy is on, they might voice this jealousy beyond a certain level of infatuation.

So, basically you have a bit less control over the other characters, and their relations feel a bit more alive and realistic :-)

Patreon’s fees, coupled with a whole heap of taxes, mean that over half of what our patrons generously pledge vanishes before it even reaches us creators. Now they're adding new fees for iOS users, that coupled with their increasingly restrictive rules, are making the financial pressure unbearable. Being an artist or digital creator is already a struggle, there's no need for all this harassment to squeeze as much as possible out of our hard work. Shame on you, Patreon.

Hey, so, Patreon is lying to you about Apple forcing their hand.

Patreon is getting rid of 1st-of-the-month/per-creation billing, claiming a new decision by Apple has forced their hand. This will hurt a lot of creatives, and their excuse is bullshit. Allow me to explain.

In 2018, Patreon tried to impose a new ill-considered fee structure on everyone that would have cost creators a lot of smaller pledges. They ended up apologizing for this profusely; they have now deleted this apology from their website and unfortunately I was unable to find it on the Internet Archive. This was shameful, but to their credit they backed off quickly when things got ugly.

Back in 2021, Patreon discussed plans to force all creators into a rolling bill structure and get rid of first-of-the-month/pay-up-front billing. The community once again very decisively shouted them down, and they had to walk it back again. This whole fiasco damaged the already shaky trust between Patreon creators and staff.

This week, Patreon announced that, along with extra fees, Apple's policies were supposedly forcing them to move everyone over to the rolling fee structure that they first tried to get us to agree to in 2021. Patreon will tell you they are not happy about this. As a person who spent a long time watching Patreon make terrible decisions, I can tell you-- they are probably very happy about this, because it's exactly the smokescreen they needed to do what they've been trying to do for years, which is pull ALL Patreon creators away from 1st-of-the-month and per-creation billing.

The spin in the news I've seen so far is "Apple bullies Patreon, boo hoo hoo poor Patreon". This is very obviously not what's happening. Mind you: Apple does suck, and they are doing something bad here. Fuck apple. But Patreon and Apple are BOTH the asshole in this situation; Everyone Sucks Here. Patreon has options: they can make the iOS app a reader app and do billing through the browser to avoid the restrictions and the extra fees (Netflix and Amazon, notably, both do this), or they can allow creators to opt-out of iOS billing if they want to use billing models that don't work with it.

It seems most likely to me that the Apple situation is a real fire that Patreon has chosen to use as a convenient smokescreen to do what they've been wanting to do since at least 2021, and maybe since 2018.

What do we do?:

They have a feedback form specifically about this.

They also have a creator discord.

And they have lots of social media pages where they probably really, really hope that this doesn't blow up again, because they never learn. The incidents I've described here aren't the only two other times Patreon has pissed off their creators. They know if they don't contain the noise it'll be harder to get away with it, so make some noise. They've done a lot of work to spin this cleverly so you'll have sympathy for them and they won't get the kind of backlash they know they deserve.

Please don't misuse these links and make threats or spam or something. All you have to do is give well-reasoned feedback. Patreon hates feedback. Make sure they get a nice heaping helping of their least favorite vegetable.

Chapters 7 and 8 are now free to read for everyone!

Click on "Public Demo" to read them! ♥

The new update is on Patreon in early access!

Chapters 7 and 8 contribute 6k words, for a total of about 24k words!

Go check out what is happening to MC, their friends, and their... not-so-friends? 👀

[ Patreon ][ Discord ][ Public Demo ]

I just have one question...... On the scale of a baseball bat with a nail in it to a 50 cal rifle, how hard are these monsters to kill?

Interesting question but tricky to answer. Being an interactive story, I'm forced to answer: it depends.

Let me start by saying that it isn't even mandatory to fight them, at least most of the time. For instance, if your main priority is to just survive, then you may prefer to hide and avoid any direct confrontation.

However, back to the point. If you get on the verge of a fight, and you do decide to fight, it depends on a few factors:

Your physique. The customization of the main character isn't just flavor text, but has real impacts on the whole game, from the weight of your backpack to the noise you make when you walk.

Your behavior up to that point. If your character behaved cowardly until the end of the game, it's unlikely that they will suddenly prove fearless!

Your secondary skills. These are traits you can earn through exploration or certain choices.

Your relationship with others. Needless to say, there is strength in numbers!

Your insight into what is going on. Understanding the enemy (who, what, how, why…) gives you an obvious advantage over it.

Last but not least, your choices! Choosing the most appropriate behavior for the character will make your life much easier, as will maintaining consistency throughout the game, and (of course) making sensible choices during combats ☺

I know it may not have been the answer you wanted, but I hope you can find it interesting nonetheless!

I would have liked to sleep, but at 3:37 a.m. my brain decided to wake me up to implement some restrictions to the encounters in relation to MC malus, and who am I to resist it?