Halforums Academy 2 Story Commentary Thread

GasBandit

Staff member
Can someone please explain to me why Mindy keeps getting her ass kicked? It's hilarious, but she doesn't seem that unlikeable.
She's got both the schemer trait and the class president trait. This means she tries to spread more rumors, which usually leads to hurt feelings (if you try and fail to spread a rumor, it hurts your standing with the person to whom you tried to tell the rumor), and she also interrupts/stops any public displays of affections she sees, which also gets people mad at her.
 
There are reasons, good reasons, why my husband likes it if I don't stray too far into HF on a regular basis.
You can stray anytime you want, but someone else better feed you.

I don't know what the problem is. I've been trying to get the wife to join for years.

--Patrick
She's just being silly; I've told her to go check out one thing or another at different times. Really I think she's here sparsely so that no one gets used to her. Then she can pop in every two or three months, say something snarky, and get a million positive ratings before she vanishes again.
 
I didn't die!!!!


Meanwhile.... Shakey, noooooooooo!!!! And dammit, Celt Z, stop doing that in public! Or not with Rendar, anyway!

And our ex-teacher is a Terminator? Makes so much sense.
 
That was almost Whedonian in its pacing!

Pretty funny through most of it with an abrupt, shocking ending that changes everything
 
Not sure what counts as spoilers considering the episode length, so I'll just post it all under spoilers.

HAHAHA. Cheesy's not so tough when he can't one-shot people! Mindy fucked him up!

And damn, poor Shakey. She did nothing wrong, but the teacher kept hounding her and hounding her, and then murdered her. That's just wrong.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Not sure what counts as spoilers considering the episode length, so I'll just post it all under spoilers.

HAHAHA. Cheesy's not so tough when he can't one-shot people! Mindy fucked him up!

And damn, poor Shakey. She did nothing wrong, but the teacher kept hounding her and hounding her, and then murdered her. That's just wrong.
Because of how early in the day the murder brought the premature end to the day, Day 9 will also be from Cheesy's POV, seeing as how he basically only got a single morning in. Day 9 is already filmed since I basically had to play it immediately after 8 - the murder kicks you directly to the next day with no chance to save. Thus, new transfers will begin coming in on day 10.

There was a chance that someone else could have been murdered. Shakey was doomed by an unfortunate chain of events - the teacher's low regard for her, her otherwise relative isolation from the other students, etc. Really, the teacher WANTED to kill her on friday, but I've learned there's some bizarre part of the "evil" trait AI code that makes it so murderers generally don't want to commit murders on weekends (fri-sat-sun). If the teacher had actually witnessed Rendar and Celt Z gettin' busy (or even just making out) during that time, it would have been even money one of them might have gotten stabbed. Also, Cheesy inadvertently contributed to the situation by dragging so much of the student body with him to lunch, leaving the teacher an opening. Although, if Shakey had decided to join in on lunch instead of go off by herself, who knows how the rest of the day might have gone. I'm not saying the teacher wouldn't have killed her in front of the whole class, but when an evil character decides "I'm going to do the murder now" they walk to their target very slowly, which gives lots of opportunity for the target to evade or for someone else to distract/intercept the murderer. It's not unlikely someone might have intercepted Ms. Dieb on her way to the cafeteria, thus postponing the crime, or perhaps even changing the target.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Well, hopefully the next teacher will stab Rendar instead of fucking him.
Ironically, the only way to trigger a murder is through romance. Evil characters only flip to TOGETHER FOREVER mode by experiencing something that would make a well-adjusted person simply want to break up.
 
Ironically, the only way to trigger a murder is through romance. Evil characters only flip to TOGETHER FOREVER mode by experiencing something that would make a well-adjusted person simply want to break up.
Given Rendar's Lothario nature, that probably won't take long.
 
I am enjoying the rage boner you guys have for FR so much.
Well, yeah, I mean it's not like he got someone killed by not being able to keep it in his pants, except for totally getting someone killed by not keeping it in his pants.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
It is not like FR forced himself on anybody. But come on,you guys love the drama he brings to the table.
It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.

Besides, who's the real karma houdini here.. you, who can't help that women find you attractive, or me, who threw a grenade in a schoolroom in the form of a rule 63'd version of myself? Everybody's blaming YOU for something I did ;) Granted, my double now gets to rot in a dark cell for the rest of time.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Ok, once everyone's had a bit to digest today's WHAM episode,

I'm looking for feedback. I'm trying to improve my craft, so to speak, when it comes to video editing. Is there stuff I do you like in particular? Is there stuff you think I should handle differently, or stop doing altogether? What do you see as areas where the episodes need improvement?

There's probably going to be a larger-than-normal pause between days 8 and 9 as I retool some processes and try to freshen up some of the presentation. I've got a new intro-sequence rolling around in my head and have picked out some potential new themes, and this is as good a time as any to go fishing for input on other ways to change or improve the videos. Just bear in mind I don't actually get to pick who lives, dies, or has sex ;) so there's not much I can do about things like "I don't like that so-and-so got killed off," etc.
 
I like the sounds and shapes pointing out what is going on in the background. I like the humorous use of Krusty the Clown. It does go a little fast sometimes, but not so much that I am put off by it. I think some things need to be fast, and others you can slow and dwell on a bit. I also like that you've started doing more than just cheering up those that are down but trying to stick to a character's traits. I guess I'd like to see more of that, in order to try and inflate existing relationships, as a general rule. Generally, thumbs up!
 
The only suggestion I could give would be additional scene-appropriate ramping, to speed through the tedium and pay more attention to the relevant parts. The selective zoom is good (calling out the announcements in the corner), much better than zooming the entire scene into the corner and cropping whatever else is happening on the screen.

--Patrick
 

GasBandit

Staff member
The only suggestion I could give would be additional scene-appropriate ramping, to speed through the tedium and pay more attention to the relevant parts. The selective zoom is good (calling out the announcements in the corner), much better than zooming the entire scene into the corner and cropping whatever else is happening on the screen.

--Patrick
Yeah, I try to do that already, but I mostly "fit" the ramping to the dialog/narration, usually. I find the more I do this, the more allergic I am to "dead air," though perhaps that's not the best way to go about it.
 
I'm alive!

And Shakey's dead.... wasn't she one of AnimePoe's Waifu's? :(

I feel like Ms Dieb just targeted Shakey because she was an easy target. Everything going on was pissing her off, and she just vented it all on her.

I'm also glad that someone in the school is a bigger slut than AniPoe this time around (I'm talking of course about Fei Rendar!) Fei's sleeping with all the girls, at least AniPoe plays catch and release.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Oh, and I meant to post this afterwards, too. The post-day-8 updated roster.


Naturally, it'll be updated again when the new student and teacher transfer in on day 10.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Alright, here's what I spent the last 5 hours making :p



I'm officially calling days 1-8 "season 1" and season 2 starts with day 9. Unfortunately, day 9, as I mentioned, will be slightly delayed due to a number of factors - not only my own increasing standards and desires for production value but also the next 5 days are my radio station's big annual charity christmas toy drive which will take up a lot of my time as well - so my available time to work on this project will be curtailed. Hopefully though I'll still get some done on it, but I'm also hoping the delay will afford for more feedback from you guys as to what's been produced so far, and let me recharge my creative batteries a bit - because let me tell you... the last 8 episodes of HFA2 have been as mentally exhausting as all 23 "days" of HFA1, even though I don't have to come up with filename jokes any more :p

So in any case, right now I'm tenatively hoping day 9 will come out sometime early next week, possibly sooner but don't hold me to it. Meantime, I'm still interested in hearing what you guys think should be changed or improved going forward, and keep the energy up. I think I'll also toss the above season 2 trailer around on the forum to see if we can drum up a larger audience for it, too ;)
 
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