Stalkers Season 3 Post-Game Discussion and Feedback

[Neo Emolga]

I will admit that Yandil admitting he was a Stalker felt outright impossible, like a contradiction, given the last two times Pokemon admitted to being Stalkers up front, there were... Noticeable side-effects. That he just up and did it clean was quite frankly one of the best covers ever, ironic as it must be. And 'probably' is not 'definitely,' though nevertheless, I just thought of one more problem.

I'll be honest, I never thought it would go so far, but hey, it happened! It was a good experiment to try, because it shows there's different ways to design Stalkers and what reveals them.

Basically; the system of having gene-testing for Stalkers... Really simplifies things. Especially since most of the samples were unique; thus, we could practically cross off quite a few Pokemon just depending on which samples weren't Stalker samples, had we really paid mind to it. That seems too powerful for me, especially as that's a side effect of finding the pieces of the puzzle.

For some, yeah, but for others... not so much. Such as ruling out a White Fur for example. Well, plenty of Pokémon have white fur, but they have other colors for fur as well. Now a White Feather getting ruled out would probably make it safe to say a Swanna is innocent, but how about a Staraptor? Or a Delibird? They have white feathers, but they also have feathers of other colors as well. So yeah, you could do that to some degree, but not entirely without risking the chance you rule out a Stalker.

Extensive length aside, Season 2's sin purge ritual actually seems extremely well-designed, with sufficient perils and a lot of legwork in exchange for eliminating the guesswork of Stalkers-a rightfully powerful reward for all the trouble, though also slower and more dangerous compared to assassination/Exorcism.

Yeah, it would have taken forever and a day. I like the style of Season 2's Sin Purge, but it's so dang long and big. A more condensed version I think would be a good idea. The other thing is there were eleven Stalkers in Season 2. The Sin Purge in there had to be just as challenging as taking everything that made up all eleven Stalkers and putting it into one package. That's why it's so long, because if it was much easier and shorter, there's no way people would try to work through which Pokémon were Stalkers.

Yeah, I show you guys who the Stalkers were in Season 2 and what their routes were like. They were WAY more difficult than what was done for this season.

If it hadn't been for the Beige fur, I would've been really sure it was actually Jeddi the Bewear. I thought Jeddi was actually the stalker, and was purposefully messing with Yandil's head (Both in the obvious open way and in a more sinister way) as a cover up. I mean, that's the trope: Someone is acting weird and someone is messing with him because he's being weird. Except that in reality its the messing with him that's making him weird, making the second person have some kind of underlying plot. (Usually to push suspicion onto someone else)

I'll admit, Jeddi's connection with Yandil was something I developed over the course of the game. There was no initial planning for something like that but it worked really well when I played around with the idea. It was fun to make these two characters irritate each other, though Yandil looked like more of the victim.

As for trusting the towns people, season 1 and two didn't exactly have the best track record on that. I know the positive/negative Relationship system worked differently, but pretty much every time someone claimed someone else was a stalker, it was just a personal bias against that individual. I just assumed You'd stretched that a bit into the "Guy who no one in the town likes" thing. Clearly a lesson learned for next round.

I'll admit, Season 1 was really a Beta for the whole thing. The interview system was messy, there was no exorcism, there were no cycles, no Health or Sanity stats, and it was a bit of bedlam with people making dozens of actions while others weren't able to get too much in, but it still had plenty of qualities for being a completely new thing. I think if issues get nipped in the bud, the whole game will keep getting better, and the issues that came up in Season 3 will definitely be addressed in future releases.

As for season 2, clearly you just need to be hired by Nintendo and turn it into an actual videogame people could play in their own time and not have to worry that the people running it behind the scenes get ground into the dust.

Well, some of that was also Xanthe's (Suicune's Fire) work too! And she did some amazing things for that. You're not the first person who has said I should go into game design, but that's a really competitive field to get into! XD

@Neo Emolga

::crawls out from the mountain of info::

Wow...we barely made a dent in any of that!

You don't mind if I borrow this idea (albeit expanded a little) for my own writings (and possibly another round of the Jeweled Adventurers, since the first round fizzled out?)

Oh, that's fine, have at it! Yeah, I'll admit there's a lot to read in there. Xanthe and I were really ambitious little buggers during that whole development. XD

Ooh, I like season 2 Sin Purge! Flavorful like Bless here!
Hey, I'm not just flavor anymore! You got me a new body, so *Bleh*
Oh, fine. But if that purge wasn't quite so complex, it'd be great! I love a good universe. And also, we need to bleed more, not merely go coocoo-clock insane. I can understand darkness fiddling with our heads, but sometimes it goes a more direct route.

Oh, an idea though... Covert Ops!
In this game, all the townies knew we were Seekers. Taking Covert Ops as a thing at the beginning makes you look like a member if the town... Even to Stalkers. Your actions get limited somewhat (No direct "breaking and entering", no assassinating, ect. Only normal, but Stalker concerned, people stuff), but Stalkers have a chance of trying to off YOU which is very bad for them, because you survive to tell the tale.

Yep, I agree that aiming for something that's more like Season 2's Sin Purge would be the way to go. I felt what Season 3 did for Sin Purge wasn't bad, but there's ways to make it better and yeah, I wouldn't reuse the same old candle/sample/bowl thing again. Something different definitely needs to show up. And yeah, I agree that more Health-damaging stuff needs to show up, though you guys did dodge some of the major Health-damaging traps out there!

That Covert Ops thing a possible idea, yeah. I'll think that one over because that might have some interesting results, also. :3

Looking over that list of Yandil clues it pretty funny. I didn't put together the markers and sledgehammer etc. at all. XD There was SO MUCH evidence that it seemed like it could have been a trap either way. If we'd only had one or two pieces of evidence plus the beige fur then I would have believed it more haha! Definitely an interesting exercise in psychology.

It was a bit of an easy thing to skip over, but I think if you guys had gone back and read through anything that mentioned Yandil, someone might have been able to build the storyline behind what he was doing.

It was fun and I need to think of more creative ideas in future releases. :3