Chapter 6 update & some thoughts about where things are going

Hi all, and thank you for your patience.

I've given Chapter 6 a lot of thought, and decided to revise general plans & rewrite parts of it to create a more exciting experience.

So I thought I'd write a post about

• systems & mechanics 
• where the story is going
• my quest to turn this into a profitable venture so it can grow!

SYSTEMS & MECHANICS

Mostly the ones I mentioned in this post.
It should have been obvious to me I was trying to do too many things at once.

Recruiting

I've decided to scrap the plan to buy "intel packs" that would reveal cards that then turn into story characters.
You will still do some recruitment, but it will remain in the VN format.

Crafting

Again, trying to do too much.
There will only be one resource: dilithium, which you will use to make/repair everything.
You will assign crafting tasks do Lizzy, who will have a chance of success/failure.
This will allow you to reward/punish her.

Exploration

This will add a sense of wonder to the game.
The DS69 quadrant is a recent addition to the Federation.
It is vast, and mostly unexplored. No one knows what you'll run into!

You will need to travel between systems, and scan various planets.
Some of them will just be empty rocks. Some will have surprises...
Every once in a while, you will find something so interesting you'll need to build an outpost there so a team can study it.

This serves a several purposes:

• You get to experience the day-to-day of deep space exploration
• The outpost structure allows me to experiment more, without impacting the main story. 
• A really cool perk for high-tier patrons: being able to visit your custom character, on a system named after you.

WHERE THE STORY IS GOING

I was too ambitious and tried to go in too many directions.

This is why I'm revising my plans for Chapter 6.
I'm scrapping 4 scenes that I've already written, and revising my plans for the outposts I had designed, replacing it all with scenes that keep the story more focused.

This is a good thing, and I'm a lot more excited by Chap 6 since I made that decision!
It delays Chapter 6, but I'm slowly learning how to improve the experience, and I want to apply the learnings right now, rather than keep going in the wrong direction for a whole chapter.

To summarize, here are the main story threads going on. You are not directly involved in all of them:

The war 

It's happening on the other side of Federation space, but it impacts what's going on in this sector. It's the reason why there are so few men in this sector: they have been sent to the front.

The parasites 

You will learn more about them in Chapter 6.
The research into their biology and tech will happen off-screen on the station, while you explore space with your crew.
The discoveries you make on your travels will help shape a strategy against this mysterious enemy...

House Droghorn

I initially meant for the slave girl to just be a side quest! And wow did you guys love her.
Even though she's bald!! (so far)
House Droghorn is here to stay.
In Chapter 6, you will consummate the bond! Her behavior will evolve, and you might have to teach her some manners...
The story will continue, and Karyss will scheme to grow your House.

Life as a StarCommand officer

Relationships with the other crew members, and day-to-day duties, including exploration & building outposts.
I will be more strategic about which characters I focus the story on, and pay more attention to the relationships. I believe this leads to scenes that are waaaay more exciting.

Tags

I like the corrupting influence of House Droghorn. As you've seen, there's a lot of male dominated scenes, and a few female dominated. Scenes where the MC dominates are at the core of the story, and as he raises through the ranks & increases his confidence, there will be more and more of it!
At times a woman will try to control him, and it will be an important plot device. I will either keep that very light, or make it skippable.
At other times, it will be given to you as a choice. This will allow me to make some optional scenes. Do you run House Droghorn for your own benefit? Or are you doing it to please Ambassador Choi?

GROWING AS XCENTRIC

Like anyone who starts a new adventure, I had very high hopes.
I thought revenue would grow faster and that I'd be able to dedicate a lot more time to it.

I'm lucky enough to have a lot of control over my time, but given the effort this project represents, I really need to grow revenue!

Of course, the first priority is to increase the quality of the story. That alone will help a whole lot.

I will be doing tiered releases from now on. It's only fair that the people who support me financially get the content first. It also allows me to get their feedback first, as it is the one that matters most.

The idea of a poll at the end of each chapter, to bring you to my patreon page, didn't work great. I'll scrap that.
Future polls will be patron-only.

I will be adding more requests to become a patron in the game. Yes, that means ads.
Of course, patrons will enter a code to never see the ads.
I already know some people will complain about it. I will send Lizzy to spank them.

I am tempted to make some outposts patron-only. Not sure about that one yet.

But most importantly, I'm thinking about writing & selling mini-stories as bonus content (text only, no renders). Sold on Amazon. Free for patrons.
More on that in a patron-only post in a few days!

Let me know what you think!
XCentric