I'm glad you recognized the whole issue with not being with the main girls. I only played the first couple of updates and quickly realized the format you were doing and haven't really touched it sense. Each update felt like I would meet one of the main girls, spend about five minutes with them catching up and then the rest of the update with whatever side chick you saddled us with, and it made the game overall incredibly dissatisfying. I bought Alliances because I assumed we would continue connecting and spending time with the main girls, and it felt like one heck of a bait and switch to not really do that. I also very firmly agree with the other criticism you brought up and am kind of annoyed about the whole Josie situation. You positioned her as a main villain and then sidestepped that and made her more or less the main secondary focus of the game and putting someone that is nearly wholly universally hated in that position I doubt will end particularly well, but if that is something you want to commit to, then so be it. I suppose I should count my blessings that I didn't spend more money that I did on this game.
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Yeah, I think it will be fine. It's difficult to drip feed the story, right? I have in mind what the full picture looks like, but I'll try to at least be more mindful of the player's automony. More choices in terms of reactions seems to be the way to go. So I'll try to give the Josie haters more autonomy. But also SPOILERS FOR ALLIANCE:
Josie's intentional or unintentional mindmeld IS intended to be fucking with the MC's perception some. So while we might be thinking, "why wouldn't he react more violently", that feeling of attachment to her is playing a part. I think I failed to get that feeling accross, so I will likely add some lines to that effect. A kindda brain fog for the MC until our pivot point. Which will give some of you catharsis later.
Most of the big pay off is meant to be later when I give the player significantly more automony. So I'll be getting there sooner, rather than later. No more "bait and switch".