After playing more - i discovered that there are in fact, some sort of alternate solutions to the murder quest.
You really can have Esmeralda arrested, or even Robert the Mortician.
You can even accuse Aurues of being involved - although that doesnt have any specific consequence except a single angry reply - after which everything is ok again.
Then later on, it turns out Jake murder isnt that simple at all anyway.
Also, ive managed to see the main story of the game and the main narrative plot correctly for the first time. Previously i would go and visit dr. Thelyrons secret hut before finding out about Evelyn through other means or visiting her secret lab - which would completely ruin the main quest line.
Jake wouldnt appear at Evelyns lab in that case, and Aureus would display various dialogues in wrong ways, before or after he should have, which makes the whole deal look very confusing.
Now i went as the main plot would demand, in order and then all these things reveal themselves correctly.
Which altogether - is pretty good stuff.
I really, really like how all that is imagined and conceptualized and written.
I also should mention that i really love the short small dialogue overhead blurbs that many NPCs have. I often stop doing whatever i was onto, just to be able to read them properly.
Those are really great.
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I would maybe suggest that dr. Thelyron sentences should be slightly adjusted, so that they reflect a bit better his real motivations, of the current problem and of his own personal motivations - which we discover later on.
Not in any way that would be revealing at all. But, in hindsight, knowing what we know about him, he should talk a bit differently, to better reflect these things.
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I would suggest the same for Evelyn too. just a bit different style to her sentences, just some smaller adjustment of her ... tone, should do it.
When addressing the player characters and when explaining her relation with dr. Thelyron.
I would also suggest and argue that - knowing what we know - she would not just let you take her Star stone, no matter what. While she surely would not so simply disregard what happens when you touch it, and your sudden disappearance.
I think it would be much better if that was removed as a possibility in that situation altogether.
So the doctor would not need to reveal it to us in the way he does ... which is quite unbelievable considering what we find out later on.
And she would not be forced just to meekly accept that we are just going to take her stone, make it "die" and even teleport - disappear right infront of her - without any explanation or further reaction from her.
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I know that her and the doctor are supposedly pretending and acting and that they wouldnt just reveal themselves easily. I agree with that. They shouldnt.
But currently, their dialogues before their involvement is revealed - make them look as if they are completely out of character.
- Their tone of talking should be slightly different - considering their involvement in the case.
- Their personal relations should be different, considering what we find out about their roles and positions in the Conduit hierarchy later on.
The good doctor should be more negative towards her, even provide hints about her malpractices - because he would probably try to set her up and remove her - by getting Source Hunters on her. He already does so to some extent, but that could be written better - with more doubt and suspicion and resentment, hinted at.
While she should be more brusque and dismissing of the "old backward ways" of the doctor and in general, while being more cagey about her secrets and much less revealing about the Stone - or not revealing at all. While she should try to cast doubt more on the doctor, Esmeralda and others too.
She should not willingly give up the stone to you at all.
Which would remove the very unconvincing scene of Hunters affecting the Stone and disappearing and then reappearing later without anyone reacting to it at all.
I think it would be best if there was only one Stone at the start. The one in the Inn in the room where murder happened. that is very hard to miss and if any further push needs to be made to make sure most of the players get it - then the companions and Source hunters themselves can be made to repeatedly remind the players about needing to go and investigate the room of the murder.
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Additionally, i dont really see why Zixzax would give us only one Pyramid and not two...?
Or why the other would be where it is. At all.
That should be left to the players themselves to discover, with the current RPS minigame firing off as it does now, regardless if you come to that room using the pyramids or lockpicking.
As to how to use the pyramids - well Zixzax can surely set up a small demonstration in the Homestead, right? I think that would be mush more appropriate.
