Weekly News #168
So, another week and a half has passed since the release of the previous weekly news. During this time, many different and pleasant changes have arrived, although it is not to say that this is always something significant in terms of development. However, as has already been said - we clearly have something to tell about. However, first things first.
The first point is randomized NPCs. Well, here we can talk about the recently made scene again - in the previous news we wrote that it was ready, and by this week it was inserted into the game. This is a kissing scene between two girls - a great addition to the ability to play for the female gender, which increases the pool of various kinds of pleasant activities.
In addition, a fairly important change that is worth knowing about, but there will be no visual delights in the form of screenshots for it - the pace of how your character has sexual intercourse with randomized NPCs has been increased: the pace and speed itself have been increased almost twice, and at the same time, how quickly the ejaculation/orgasm scales fill up. This was done to make the scene more dynamic.
Here is another pleasant innovation concerning scenes - dynamic shadows. What was added to the game in one of the major updates for sprites - now all this is available in scenes, which makes the scenes themselves more pleasant to look at, and an example can be seen in one of the screenshots:
Another important change is improving the game's performance. Why wasn't it included in a separate item? It's simple - this only concerns systems related to the RNPC: the system for displaying dynamic shadows, shadows on backgrounds, caching appearance has been slightly redesigned - many changes that brought bug fixes, and most importantly - improving the game's performance due to a slightly freer IMG cache of the engine and the transition to more sparing systems in the long term, when it comes to performance as such. What does this mean? Fewer crashes, less twitching of interfaces where the sprite is displayed. In general, it's a significant push forward in terms of the system.
Here is another important change: the interface of how RNPC interact with each other has been changed: now it matches the style of the general interface, is more understandable and pleasant to look at. And most importantly, it looks like a single whole with the general interface, without unnecessary deviations from the style. You can see how it looks below.
Well, we also present you with five new hairstyles for male RNPC. More precisely, a small part of them:
There are quite important words that describe our game - life simulation. Literally the entire game is based on this, from beginning to end. Another thing is that the relationship simulation is still somewhat... Incorrect. It lacks complexity and zest. This should be resolved with literally one new, but very important event for female RNPC: now they can leave you. If they consider your established relationship to be wrong, they will offer your character to break up, which will slightly, but improve the complexity of social relationships. All this is built on internal grievances, and if you do not notice strange changes in your girlfriend, she will try to leave you. This event is relevant for medium and high difficulty levels of the game.
The second and quite important point of our news is plot changes. And here... We can summarize the results of redrawing all the content with the plot character Ayano Yoshida - there is nothing from the old Ayano in the game now. All CG, sprite variations - everything with her was redrawn. Although this change seems unimportant and controversial, it is the cornerstone for the release on Steam and other platforms. Well, besides Ayano Yoshida, there is another plot character - Yuki Oota. And here... Changes are also underway.
And yes, as you can understand, work is underway on drawing this sprite. Of what will be - support for different breast sizes, different sets of clothes. Other things - for the next weekly news. In the meantime - just an announcement of a new sprite for Yuki.
Third - system changes and innovations. In principle - here, as usual, there are not many things to mention. But there is one extremely ordinary one - the game's weight has been reduced by 200 megabytes due to the removal of rudimentary files, as well as better use of existing files without unnecessary repetitions/other problems. Mainly - due to the cutting of 13 unnecessary hair colors for the first five basic hairstyles. At the moment, the game works with RGB recoloring, and objectively 16 hair colors for five hairstyles were unnecessary, considering that due to such a useless choice, five hairstyles took up as much weight as 40 different hairstyles, but with three regular colors.
In addition, the methods of earning in the game are ambiguous. There are few options, and most of them involve exploits. However, pickpocketing remains the least relevant way to earn money in the game, which should be changed from now on. A separate mini-game was created specifically for this mechanic. In it, literally everything depends on the attributes of your character, so you should be careful, and most importantly, the earnings correspond to the current economic situation in the game, and not exactly 200 credits.
Fourth, but not least - fixed bugs and code refactoring. Here, as always, we'll get by with the simplest and most understandable list of changes:
New content:
A new full-fledged scene with randomized female NPCs has been added to the game - a kiss, but not for your male character, but a woman. In other words, now if you play as a girl, you can kiss other girls - this is a separate scene, different from the same one with men, and also drawn practically from scratch due to the impossibility of its adaptation through existing materials and complicating work with it, which is why it was previously impossible to introduce it. To see the necessary scene, just select the interaction "Kiss" in the corresponding menu of interaction with the RNPC. A new, but very important event for female RNPCs has been added: now they can leave you. If they consider your established relationship wrong, they will offer your character to break up, which insignificantly, but will improve the complexity of social relationships. All this is built on internal grievances, and if you do not notice strange changes in your girlfriend, she will try to leave you. This event is relevant for medium and high difficulty levels of the game.
A new mini-game was added during the attempt to “take money” from RNPC of any gender: this mini-game now has more dependencies, your character can get much more money from one RNPC. Everything in it depends on luck and dexterity, which adds reasons to pump these attributes, and in general - the mechanics themselves are quite interesting.
The interface of how RNPC are active with each other was changed: now it matches the style of the general interface, more understandable and pleasant to look at. And most importantly - it looks like a single whole with the general interface, without unnecessary knocking out of the style.
For male RNPC/your character, if he is male, 5 new hairstyles were added, available from the editors or generation at the beginning of the game session.
A global rework of shadows and the shadow system in scenes with RNPC was carried out: instead of the usual cached shadows, dynamic shadows are now displayed in scenes. They depend on lighting, time of day, hairstyle and many other things, making the picture itself more realistic and pleasant to look at, and most importantly - it allows you to develop certain details of the game much faster due to the fact that artists do not have to spend time on this now.
The weight of the game was significantly reduced (by 200 megabytes) by removing rudimentary files, as well as better use of existing files without unnecessary repetitions / problems of other kinds. Mainly - by cutting out 13 unnecessary hair colors for the first five basic hairstyles. At the moment, the game works with RGB recoloring, and objectively 16 hair colors for five hairstyles were unnecessary, considering that due to such a useless choice, five hairstyles took up as much weight as 40 different hairstyles, but with three regular colors.
The pace of how your character has sex with randomized NPCs has been significantly increased: the pace and speed itself has been increased almost twice, and along with it, the speed of how fast the ejaculation/orgasm scales fill. This was done to make the scene more dynamic.
The gender identifier and the positioning of the RNPC/your character in scenes with him/her have been significantly improved, which fixes many unpleasant errors, exceptions and other problems associated with all this: including because of this, playing as a female character becomes more workable and less “breaking” for various scenes with RNPCs.
The systems responsible for displaying the RNPC on the screen were refactored: the system for displaying dynamic shadows, shadows on backgrounds, and appearance caching were slightly redesigned - many changes that brought bug fixes, and most importantly - improved game performance due to a slightly freer IMG cache of the engine and the transition to more sparing systems in the long term, when it comes to performance as such.
The RNPC caching system was improved: this allows it to work much better, load the system less often and clicks, and instead of working in every frame, as it was before, it will unload everything necessary into the cache only as needed. Because of this, the game should work more stably, the game engine itself begins to work faster, and errors and shortcomings associated with this system become significantly less.
Improved system that creates dynamic shadows based on PNG/JPEG inside the game itself - due to this, the game's weight can be significantly reduced by removing already cached shadows, and also allows using a more modular system - due to its operation, it can be in scenes and in any other game visual moments, creating the necessary volume, and not overloading the device too much.
The Chinese translation of the game was updated: some untranslated sections of the game were translated, the translation in other places was improved, and in general it became better.
Absolutely all scenes with the plot character Ayano Yoshida were redrawn and are available in the game right now: they support breast swapping, have a higher resolution and are more modular than before, which makes them a priority in all this.
The amount of authority for each fight with RNPC was increased, so that its changes were more noticeable than before.
Fixed bugs:
Fixed a bug where the thumbnail in the phone interface was missing any image of the RNPC, which is why the interface itself did not work as it should - instead of this thumbnail there was a blank screen with nothing.
Fixed a bug where even with NSFW content turned off, the game could still show rare glimpses of NSFW in scenes, although this did not happen often.
Fixed a bug where in the scene in which your character holds the hand of a female RNPC, your character could be naked if there was clothing that was not currently supported by the scene because it was made recently.
Fixed a bug where the eyes could quickly change their shape for no reason in the 18+ scene of the “Missionary” position, when the girl initially had her eyes closed.
Fixed a bug where the female RNPC eye shape in the 18+ Missionary scene could overlap the Redness and Embarrassment on the girl's face. Fixed a bug where in the 18+ Girl Masturbation scene, if she had the second base type and second length hairstyle, this could cause problems. Because of them, instead of the hairstyle on the sprite, it would hang in the air.
Fixed a bug where the shadow on the ground from the RNPC could constantly appear and disappear when you moved the cursor around the screen or generally interacted with him/her in any way, even if there should not have been excessive changes to the sprite (and this error mainly occurred because of this).
Fixed a bug due to which, when hovering the mouse/finger cursor over the screen while the RNPC as such were displayed, the game could throw them across the screen several pixels every second, which did not look very pleasant.
Fixed a bug due to which the pupils of the RNPC could be extremely strange: they could go beyond the eyelids and generally look very strange due to animations, unnatural.
Fixed a bug due to which, when playing as a girl with randomized male NPCs, the “Kiss” interaction was repeated twice in the interaction interface with him.
Fixed a bug due to which, in the “Hold hands” scene with a female RNPC, your male character’s genitals could be visible through the texture of his clothes.
Fixed a bug due to which the RNPC sprite and its parts could be located pixel by pixel where they should have been in some frames, due to which it all looked not very good. Not as it should have looked.
Fixed a bug due to which the group sex scene with two girls and your character would not hide after it ends, in some very rare game cases.
Fixed a bug due to which the RNPC sprite of any gender could be excessively distorted in appearance during pressing Shift + O, in some other specific moments of the gameplay - now everything works as expected.
Fixed a bug due to which the RNPC sprite could change its gender in some rare game situations, due to which the entire sprite simply broke - from female to male, having parts of different genders.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw exceptions when trying to open the history menu, where the history of existing and read by you and your character dialogues of the plot or RNPC type was displayed.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw an exception when trying to load saves of certain specific types with some very rare chance.
Fixed a bug due to which, when creating your character/male RNPC in the “Hair Length Setting” setting, the currently existing hair length on the RNPC could be displayed as “length1” instead of the usual ID.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could hide the hairstyles of male RNPCs in the RNPC/your character editor in some rare game moments.
Fixed a bug due to which the number of action points in the interface of fights with randomized NPCs always showed the same values, despite the player's actions - [5/5].
Fixed a bug due to which the bars showing your character's HP and RNPC could simply not work properly in the interface of fights with a randomized NPC.
Fixed a bug due to which, during interaction with your roommate Ayano Yoshida, interacting with her in your apartment at night could cause certain problems, due to which you were kicked out of your own apartment by the “Guard from the academy."
Fixed a bug due to which the game would throw exceptions when trying to play certain types of events with scenes. This happened rarely and often resulted in sprites being deformed as a result.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw exceptions in rare cases after scrolling time by 60 minutes or more.
Fixed a bug due to which the interface of randomized NPCs' activity with each other, in the notification window itself, could contain incorrect information about their current activity, and use the old/activity of another RNPC.
Fixed a bug due to which the game would crash when entering the interaction menu with a randomized NPC in some rare cases of gameplay.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw certain exceptions in the RNPC appearance editing interface when the player changed the appearance data for a male RNPC/his character.
Fixed a bug due to which in some cases of gameplay the game could constantly turn on the sound of rain, even if it was finished.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could freeze when opening the interface for interacting with the RNPC due to calculating the cache every tick/frame.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw rare exceptions after minimizing/maximizing the game. This did not happen often and was due to errors in the game engine.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw exceptions during attempts to calculate movement and some RNPC models every game hour.
Fixed a bug due to which in some rare game cases the AI could work incorrectly and throw out that it cannot process an existing request.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw exceptions during/after communicating with the RNPC if it broke during generation. This could happen with certain generation filters.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could give rare exceptions during/after opening the diary and the perk category for levels - this happened rarely.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could give the wrong name/surname in the "say" screen during playback of some specific events.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could give exceptions during attempts to calculate the events that drop out for each tick/transition to the location.
Fixed a bug due to which the biography menu in rare cases could contain the wrong statistics, irrelevant and old.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw exceptions in some cases of the game process with some performance settings enabled.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw exceptions for no particular reason during the display of RNPC sprites.
Fixed a bug due to which the game would throw exceptions during an attempt to make a cloud save on Android-type devices.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw exceptions during attempts to save the game normally with some rare chance of doing so after a long game session.
Fixed a bug due to which some Patreon subscriber privileges did not work, even if they should have been opened to the donor.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw exceptions in rare cases of the game process during the transition to game locations with a large number of RNPC on especially weak Android devices.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw exceptions during some location interactions with scenes inside them. This did not happen often and only happened with certain appearance settings.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw exceptions during attempts to find a certain RNPC using location interactions.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw an exception during issuance of any RNPC tasks from the Occultism Club when your character is its leader.
Fixed a bug due to which the game would freeze during an attempt to take a perk in the Occultism Club upgrade menu in some rare cases of gameplay.
Fixed a bug due to which the game could throw rare exceptions in cases of reading RNPC activities between each other with maximum stimulation settings of the game world.
Fixed a bug where the game could not work properly when playing certain tracks, sounds and music, making them choppy and incorrect.
As you can see, quite a lot has been done in these ten days. Important, controversial and pleasant innovations, depending on your point of view. However, this does not change the fact that with each update the game is moving towards release on Steam and other platforms, and in the near future - there will be even more different kinds of content, pleasant innovations, and the game itself will become more stable and interesting. We are actively striving for this. Well, for the upcoming update, obviously, we will try in the short term and make more content. On August 27, a full-fledged new version of the game will be released, so there is not much time left to wait.