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Hi Crockmonster,

I don't think you look like a dick. I think you look like someone who is feeling let down, and I can understand that.

In fact, I think I’ll take the opportunity while responding to your message to talk about something I believe some people don't understand.

As I believe you’ve already read, in the past, we were very inclined to find artists to draw our sprites, and we even had a studio working with us. But for better or worse, we had to continue with AI as our main tool for producing images.
That being said, for this upcoming visual update (which hasn't been released to the public yet), we actually had an artist helping us manually with the art. Even I have learned a lot about drawing specific parts, like eyes and shading, as well as recoloring—which, in itself, makes me feel quite proud.
But yes, the use of AI brings major disadvantages: some people will be disappointed, others will devalue us as creative individuals because we use AI to generate our visual base, and still others bring us pure hate just for the sake of it. But it was a decision we made, and having made it, we decided we were going to do the best we could with this tool and explore its capabilities to do something different, to innovate and to bring a better experience to everyone who plays TC.

One thing that does let me a bit down me is the misinformation or the lack of awareness regarding the work involved. People see AI and assume it's something that required 0 effort - And I do realise why, we just need to take a look at some images or games that use AI and we will understand that.- But it actually turns dismissive of the work and sweat that is put into it. 
I do often spend 8 hours a day doing something that some beleive that just appears instantaneously. Or, they assume image generation is simple and requires no creativity, no Photoshop, no lighting edits, etc.
I actually think we might get to this point someday (although since taste is subjective maybe not), but that is simply not true today. I think people can realize this by picking up an AI, trying to create a unique style of their own (because TC doesn't use a standard AI style), and trying to reproduce it at the quality we’ve been achieving.

Regarding the writing, honestly, it would be boring, generic, and full of inconsistencies if it were written by AI. At least for now, I’m aware of that, even though I know that in the future, I myself might be replaced for AI.
But that doesn’t stop me from continuing to be a creative, from continuing to write my own things and moving forward. I do TC because it truly makes me happy, and because I know it makes many other people happy too. And that is what matters.

If you go online, take any random AI, and ask it to write something, you will see the pattern; you’ll see how boring it gets and how quickly inconsistencies arise. I mean, when I tried to hire artists for the sprites this last time, 95% of the messages we received were identical because they were actually using AI—curiously, the studio I went with felt different because they only used it for the translation.

But does AI help? Of course it does. It allows me to focus more on writting than coding and it’s what allows me to assemble a large ammount of images to do storytelling in a different way with new systems we as a team have come up with (these will become more obvious with the new patch). But not without extreme work behind the scenes. Patreons have access to the combat; each "critical moment" there is about 500+ words, and I spent a week on each one due to all the lightning animations that were made by hand, the transitions animations, the sprite animations, etc. (to give you a better idea, if I focus only on writing, I can write a maximum of 2,000 words a day, assuming it was only writing and nothing else).

In short, Monster, and because I don't want to turn this into a monstrous message (pun intended) I understand you can feel sad about it. I understand the hate and devaluation we will face from some.
But if you'll allow me just this once: I know the work, effort, and sweat I put into this (and now the team as well). The choices, the systems, and the writing we put together. The love we have for the project and the emotions and positivity we want to transmit to you all. Even the images—they have a lot of me in them and the men behind the machine. And that is TrueClash. Not the AI itself, as I beleive that is the reason it can feel magical in itself. 

I hope that something I wrote helps you get a sense of the work and the soul behind this.
We will keep doing our best to make the best possible visual novel out there—one that can touch you in some way and bring you fun whenever you have it open.

Feel free to speak your mind a little more if you need to. I may not respond because I am a bit busy with all the things I need to get ready for next week launch but I will read it.

Without futher ado, 
Zak