Rant number one billion

The last public release started with a scene in which you kinda have a little bit of a moment of confidence loss.

It probably feels like it comes out of nowhere and I must apologize, there is actually an explanation for that.

You see, this is because I cut a chunk of story here that would have lead to that particular situation.
Basically, the way it was gonna go, some bad guys would show up earlier in the day, and at some point one of them would sneak up on Natalya, giving you two options: Pull out your gun and shoot, or don't.
Shooting would cause you to graze him, though it would get her attention and she would finish him off, afterwards you would get two affection raises.
Not shooting would cause her to take a small hit, but no big deal.
After the scene you would feel kinda bad about not being able to do anything, leading into the start of the scene in the game, this is what was meant to set up the whole "asking for training" bit. Apologies if in the final game it just comes across as you being some kind of pathetic individual.

Now, if you wanna know the exact reasons I decided to cut that section:

1. It would mean making yet another action scene, and I'm sure nobody wants to sit through any more of those than necessary. Furthermore it would take some time to do and slow things down, which I don't think is really worth it when its only purpose was to set up something that doesn't really need that much setup. Also I just can't imagine Natalya getting caught off guard THAT easily (though it will happen).
2. I want the moments where you use your gun to actually be feel a little more important. Plus, in the scene above the differences in outcome for either choice are extremely minor, and that's just lame. And if the first time you get to fire your gun, something that you can only use six times in the entire game, it just leads to a "nothing happens lmao" well then that just sends the message of "Oh, so it doesn't matter if I use it or not, got it".
3. I don't want to impose: it doesn't take a genius to figure out this is a game where you're meant to self-insert into the main character position. For all I know you've been hitting the shooting range since you were 5 and wouldn't miss a shot. To force you to miss in this instance, with no reasonable excuse or explanation, would be to essentially craft a character that doesn't reflect the player (this is why in the training scene you can choose between just being bad at it or actually having an excuse for missing).

Thank you very much for listening to my rambling :D
I'm still working on things so expect an update relatively soon(ish).