In hopes of not coming off as an asshole, many of the issues you have are explained in game, which I hope I did a good job of doing, you may have just needed to have paid attention a bit more. There are also many cases of your questions being purposefully unanswered until they are written in the story. For example, there are cases of why Cornwall is a bad person, especially with his remade intro, but you haven't seen him at his worst. You've barely even met the dude.
Zexian has it mostly right, so I won't parrot what he said.
Cornwall is a morally dark grey character you haven't seen much of. He was never intended to be a good guy, he's a greedy power hungry politician.
The reason MC got mad at him is because Cornwall is slavery incarnate, he makes the laws regarding slavery, he controls the markets, and he can even take your slave away if he wanted to. Of course, he's not as important as the seat he sits on. Meaning the people need to change their way of thinking to stop electing a minister of slavery.
While you and others may have pieced things together, many also didn't. When you call MC stupid, you're calling many players stupid. If you caught it before the story told you, you should feel proud about that.
This is also explained in the story quite often - slaves are treated as pets. And these doctors really want to keep human genetics intact. In fact, if there are ANY unclaimed elves ANYWHERE, you can pick it up and register it. That's essentially what the doctors did, they stole Her because you never registered her as a slave.
Why Nia was able to do what she did was also explained in game, and she was actually caught if you remember. It wasn't a total success.
Trenero doesn't own his wife, there is no proper slavery outside of Syl'anar. Trenero also doesn't owe you anything and is trying to profit off of slavery. Cornwall is his friend. Trenero is also a fairly bad person for profiting off forced labor. This hasn't been shown off too much in game, but you may be able to piece it together with all that's already in.
I will point out, once more, that you did a fine job in making Cornwall an uncaring asshole. Nobody thinks he is a good guy (I believe), we know he is a greedy man who is only interested in his own personal gain. It's just not clear, at least to me, why the MC should hate him personally.
"Not helping" is the resting state of mankind. We are debating the finer points of a videogame while there are actual real live people in concentration camps, right now, being "reeducated" into a differnent culture and way of thinking. I am not going to call myself a good person, for I am aware of that and yet here I am, debating the finer points of a videogame, but i am also not going to hate myself for it.
And if I am not going to hate myself for it, I have a hard time figuring out why the MC would hate Cornwall for essentially doing the same thing.
Edit: Also, I know I have an advantage over the MC because of conservation of detail (if an author takes the time to spell something out in a story, it means something, whereas in real life a detail can, in fact, be meaningless), so just because something is obviious to me it doesn't have to be obvious to the MC (and vice versa), and I will say that making stupid choices doesn't necessarily mean that one is, in fact stupid.
However, some choices (and lack thereof) take on a different hue when subjected to fridge logic.
Andy the Android seemed genuinely upset that Ashley had tried to kill her, and Ashley seemed genuinely upset that it hadn't worked.
I like Ashley, she's proobably my favorite character after Lin, but the fact that she breaks into your room multiple times, effectively rapes you (asking forgiveness rather than permission, when talking about sex, is called rape), multiple times even, tries to roofie you, and even (ostensibly) tries to murder Andy the Android... It's too much.
Mostly because you don't have the option to call her out on each instance, and at least receive an apology. In particular, in the case of the attempted murder, she should make it clear that she knows Androids don't die to logic bombs, and it was, in fact, just a joke.
I myself have pointed out that the MC is a bit TOO MUCH of a bland character at times in the execution of the game, but I also understand why it's made that way, something that I'd say Runey has been very open about. I would however agree that there should be an OPTION for some sort of personality in his character, maybe by a bit more dialogue options or ways to alter his reactions to certain things so I will give you that. However, the part about him being stupid for not figuring out certain things or not doing what we might consider the "smart" option might be annoying but understandable from the perspective of trying to write the story. Since he, according to the dev, is supposed to be whoever the player imagines him to be, then he can't canonically figure things out until it's guaranteed that the player has, and since some players will take longer than others to piece it together, the safest bet is to just have him be out of the loop until the reveal happens in-game.
I didn't say he's stupid though, I said he seems to miss some obvious clues. Again, I realize that I have the advantage of conservation of detail working in my favor, and that the MC has actually spent days living and working and fucking his harem between one clue and the next, so they will not be as clear in his mind as they may be in mine.
The Fairy thing is a pretty strong example of conservation of detail: the author introduced this out-of-the-blue group of tiny people, and made sure we could get a lot of details about them, thus it must mean something important. The MC is being bombarded by the 24/7 news cycle, so what is and what isn't important may escape him.
However, the sheer risk of any part-elf whose parents are unknown turning out to be a half.elf (and therefore a roomba) should be pretty clear in his mind when he is so worried about his own child (with Lin) becoming somebody's roomba.
Blondie had a pretty strong opinion that Maria should not look into her parenthood. He should at least have had a vague sense of unease, and perhaps tried to convince Maria to wait a couple of days, while he teased some more details out of Blondie, who may very well answer vaguely that she heard stories about orphans turning out to be half-elves and being sold into slavery on the spot.
I can make up *some* excuses for this, but the fewer excuses I have to make up or the MC's behavior the better the story flows. Light SoD is pretty cheap, so handwaving some things is fine, but there is such a thing as the straw that broke the camel's back.
Take Lin's complete lack of cooking skills, for instance: she has *amazing* memory, and close to 300 years of either living on her own in the wild or working for human masters under her belt. How has she never learned how to cook?
That is actually lampshaded by the MC at the very beginning: 300 years and she never learned how to cook?!
We learn why later on: it was a sort of rebellion, possibly unconscious. When she says that she learned to cook because now she had good motivation, it implies that in the past she either had no motivation to learn or actually had some motivation NOT to learn.
Though frankly the entire thing with Lin going from "burns water" to "master chef" in three months or less makes me think that the entire "elves learn slowly" thing is blown way out of proportion. Maybe elves learn differently from humans, and human training doesn't work well on them, or perhaps the people who are trying to teach them treat them like slightly smarter monkeys and don't actually provide good training, or maybe Lin is just that exceptional.
But that is a thing I can easily make up excuses for - I just did after all. It can also be flipped into an additional example of unfounded prejudice, which is always good as part of worldbuilding.
The point is, having to make up *some* excuses is fine, you literally CANNOT explain EVERYTHING in a story. A main plot point depending on the MC missing a clue that was clearly laid out for the players to see, however, is pretty bad, because the players are now feeling railroaded.
Oh, and BTW, I keep saying "roomba" and "fridge", but let's not kid ourself: the actual corret words would be "realdoll" and "onahole". That Lin didn't get raped *once* in 300 years of slavery strains my SoD more than the drones theft. But sure, the author wanted Lin to be "pure" for us, so I'll take that as a gift from God (i.e., Runey) and not question it.
Do not get me wrong. I dont call MC stupid. He is just normal. Too normal to be MC if I can say so. Yes, he represents player, but when you are playing a game you expect to be a little more special than other characters in game. For now I feel that MC is absolutely powerless at everything. Or indifirent sometimes. If he is not great phisicaly and he is not smarter than everyone else I expected him to at least to have so called "the power of money". Even in situation with Maria - he didnt even bother to monitor the slavemarket by himself, he left it to Ellen and didnt even used his own money (I already had a lot of money at this moment and could pay any price, but MC just didnt even tryed to do this very small part by himself). It is like MC do not care at all. Most problems in this game girls solving on theyr own, MC is just somewhere around and do not do anything at all.
This is my only doubt about your game. Too powerless MC. It could be great if he could have a little more action, as when he encouraged Lin after fail with Syliath.
Personally, I think the fact that the MC didn't have to monitor the slave market and buy her was just a gameplay and story segregation mechanic, like Lin locking herself in her room while *also* loitering around in the lounge.
The story is that Maria gets home in a reasonable time frame, so having to wait a month to collect the funds breaks immersion worse than having Ellen do all the work. There may be other ways around this, but this seems like the easiest one. It should also be noted that the final Maria event is forced on you, and you cannot delay it, so having to find the money to buy Maria may seem like the game is punishing the player for no reason, if they are not in a good financial spot at the time.
Of course, we do have a ridiculously rich man on speed dial, and it would probably feel somewhat more empowering for the MC is we could call and ask him for help - as his potential son-in-law, or just because a friiend of his dauhter is now being sold as a slave.
Granted it wouldn't be us doing the work, but at least it would be us finding the solution.
It's also a cheap fix, since it doesn't really require any additional images, and it can even work to make Cornwell more of a villain (Trenero offers him money to forcibly take Maria from a bad master, Cornwell refuses because he actually thinks half-elves are worse than animals and should have no rights, so we have to wait uuntil maria is actually sold by her new mistress).
I hope Runey will consider it.
No, asking Trenero for help is not what I talked about. I want to see MC as more "usefull" man, not just decoration. I want to see Him as someone who actualy have a possibility to solve problems by himself. Not depanding on a rich father of his girlfriend or anything like this. To tell honestly, I absolutely do not like the idea to ask help from someone, specialy the guy like Trenero. And again, honestly, if there was a possibility to refuse to take this "10000$" from him in Kali's event I would definetely refuse.
Err.... You are basically describing a power fantasy, which is... Pretty much the opposite of what this game is about. The MC is a hotel manager, and has the money and power of a hotel manager - which is to say, somewhere between zilch and bupkis.
That is pretty much the entire premise, that you are a small man in a big world, trying to carve out a tiny slice of it for yourself and your girls. You are not going to be the next Trenero, I'll tell you that for nothing.
There is nothing wrong with wanting what you want, mind, it's just that it goes against the premise of *this* game. I wouldn't mind it either, of course, but I don't think it's ever going to happen. And I'm frankly not sure if it *should* happen, story-wise. It's like reading LotR and finding out midway through that Frodo can shoot lightning from his eyes. Cool as that would be, it doesn't make sense in context.
You work with the assets you have. Manager's assets are his slaves, his girls, and the connections that he and his girls have.
Trenero is a billionaire, and he still doesn't quite outright own even the city he's the Mayor of, let alone an entire continent. How much power can a hotel manager with less than 100k to his name really exert?
My take on the MC freeing Maria is: get on your knees and start begging. Because she's about to end up somebody's realdoll, and they are not going to sell her until she's properly "broken in".
Also: the story is that Maria gets home. Given the world Runey built, I guarantee that there are more than a few guys out there trawling the slave markets and looking for exactly the kind of merchandise Maria is: a human-looking half-elf who only found out about her heritage as an adult. And they are not looking to give her a cushy job as a receptionist.
Within 24 hours of finding herself on the open Market, Maria will be waking up to dick, and going to sleep to dick, with a smattering of beatings in-between, depending on how much time her master has. And he's sure to make some time, just to "teach it its place in the world".
Waiting for the player to put together the money is not a good idea, especially if we are being told that she doesn't get to designate a preferred home.
Ah, I see. Lets end this disscusion. I made it just as example of situation where MC had to do something by himself and you are telling why he couldnt. Ok. Im just realizing that Im talking with myself.
Lucky, we definetely have very different opinions about everything, so there is no point to continue. Lets just leave it for Runey. It is his story and he is creating what he thinks is right. We can like something or not, it is only our own problem.
You aren't talking to yourself, you are expressing certain opinions in an open forum.
Opinions that I largely happen to agree with, but that nonetheless may run into certain obstacles at times. I simply pointed out what I believe to be some rather large obstacles to the way you would like the story to go
As i happens, I do enjoy an open discussion, even with people I disagree with. Especially with people I disagree with: if all you hear are comments from inside your own bubble, you'll never have any reason to change your mind, and one should alwas be ready to give up an idea in exchange for a better one.
For instance: I would love to kick the shit out of the assholes who took Maria, and break their asshole droids for good measure, but that is not really the premise of the story: the premise of the story is that we are nobody, just a random hotel manager, and we are doing our best to help our girls in a world that is pretty much custom-made to not let us.
If you disagree with that assessment, I would like to know why.