Ok, I sorta, maybe, accidentally skipped last month’s update post, kind of. As a result, I’ve got lots to write about here as it’s been a good while since I’d done one of these. To quickly explain the gap (which, I know, I probably don’t need to but the story is interesting? Maybe?) I was transitioning to doing the posts near the beginning of the month instead of the end as it would be easier to be more flexible with the release, since I could still have it be within the month even if it went over a couple days. I originally planned to write about data structures and stuff I’ve been working on for a game project, but instead of actually getting the update post out I spent time just, well, actually working on the project itself!~ Aaand next thing you know, it’s been 10 days, 20 days, a month… Yeah, just didn’t feel like writing I guess! (I was also trying to decide exactly what to do about a couple of other things, but I’ll talk about that later in the post)

Before we continue, just wanted to say Happy Pride Month! (I always forget when June comes around so no special plans X.x). Now let's color the streets as we stroll over this months update post with 2 months of talk! (Sorry in advance for the length... =^.-=)

A long while back I said I'd like to start working on a smaller side game project for a while and after making that announcement I came up with a concept, released an overview of what would be included, then promptly ditched everything I wrote because I came up with more ideas and better direction. Yeah, common theme with me, I know, but now I've started DEV on what will be the 'actually released' version of this small project!

The original small project was called "Crystal Grimoire: Soulless Evolution" which was suppose to be a test bed for concepts I was working on for my main large game project, currently labeled "Crystal Grimoire : Project Soul". However, as I worked on some concepts for it I felt doing something too similar to the main project was not only boring conceptually (who wants to build the same thing twice?) but also just uninteresting as a release plan. So, I merged those concepts back into the main project as I expanded writing on it and instead started taking small side-concepts that didn't work in the main game and started this new small concept.
(Note: Some docs and files that release may reference "Project AI Cards" which was the working title for Data:EnCryptic)

I'm not quite ready to show anything as I'm transitioning to start sharing assets between the 2 titles, to which I have a LOT of polishing to do, and I want to re-build my prototype and actually make a proper early version for supporters to try. But I did feel it was important to announce it here since this will be my primary focus this month with most of my available time sinking into it. The new project will be built using Godot 4.2 with plans to transition to Godot 4.3 when it's ready. Although I've been working with prototyping and learning in Godot 4.x for a good while now, my main project is still in godot 3.5 as many aspects break in the transition. So, with this transition I'm looking to also restart my main project build in 4.3 when that becomes available and use this as a chance to make something 'real' in Godot 4.x. (As a note, I've been using Beta builds for Godot for these experiments and finding bugs/issues a plenty, but since I plan to actually release something here I need to use a stable version which does make me a bit sad inside... Q.Q)

Real quick though, what even IS "Data:EnCryptic" exactly? Here's a quick run-down, though I'm intentionally leaving out details since the game is suppose to be a bit mysterious in its execution.

(Editor note, the original write calls this AI Ult.Clarity, but Clarity AI is an actual company I didn't know about at the time, so I probably need a new name Q.Q)

 > Palworld Mods (Project Sugar Cake) <

I discussed a lot about my plans with SCake and what I want to try to create along side it in the last update post for 0.3 DEV, so I'll keep this relatively short. Made some major progress since the last monthly update post with a ton of game-breaking research going on. I feel like I've torn Palworld inside-out by this point and have a lot of surface level knowledge for nearly every system which has been rather helpful, not just for my own work but also in helping direct others in places to look and suggestions on best practices. There's been a major slowdown in most areas for Palworld modding with everyone seemingly waiting for major updates, but in The Broken Chatbox we've been seeing more people join into the naughty side!

The last major updates to SCake have been focused on feature requests and I've now made the TODO public which I also use as my internal requests tracker (I don't know how interesting my internal doc systems are to read about so I'll skip that for now >.<). We now have animation switching, gender preferences, some cool new API features... Actually, that last bit is the most exciting! Or it's related at least... Because the biggest feature is more modders joining the fray and making content! Aside from models and animations, I've also talked to modders about creating a combat submission mod, a 'fluids' collection mod, a futa mod, and more! We have some exciting stuff in the works! If you're more curious on my personal plans for naughty Palworld mods, I recommend checking out the last SCake update post! - https://subscribestar.adult/posts/1280485

> Skyrim Mods (Succubus Heart) <

I've been ironing out some issues here and there to work on finally getting another Stable Release build out, this time with 'proper' OStim Standalone support! If I remember correctly, I reported in the last major Dev update post that with the help of the community most of the major OStim issues have been solved and I can happily say it's now in a spot where I'm comfortable putting it into a proper Stable release! That said, it's still incomplete with some features that simply won't ever be possible because of OStim's self-imposed limitations. Stuff like creature support and non-con wont ever be working 'officially' through OStim, though there's some reworking for combat submission at least.

But if stuff's ready why haven't I released a new version? That's because I've still got standing bug reports with some being pretty major, but I've not heard back in quite a while from those I was speaking to on the issue and few have responded to my request for additional details. So I'm stuck in a bit of a limbo state. The 3 major issues I'm concerned about potentially missing are... 1 ) The sudden serge in reports that the MCM isn't showing up on all version, no idea what caused this but I've got no meaningful data on this issue, 2 ) Some crashes/lockups are being reported relating to the Sexual Enrage spell, I suspect this is caused by some sort of mod conflict or UI mod (It's confirmed that this spell causes crashes on OStim, so a work-around was put in place but it doesn't always work), and 3 ) I received some reports that Succubus Heart can fail to start properly and scripts can lock up or stop functioning properly, just today I got a report that Orgasms were not being accounted for properly.

All these issues are rather confusing and I haven't been able to find solutions no matter how deep I dive, and given the limited return in bug reports I may just have to let them go for now and push a new release version with hopes that they are caused either by user error or the influx of potential users will give us the details required to fix them.

Either way, I've dedicated to a new release version this month, so that should be out soon!

> Phantasy Star Portable 2i Mod? <

I got a bit burnt out while working on my usual projects (it also didn't help that I basically scrapped that prototype I talked about earlier and started anew, which always has a bit of a moral hit) so I wanted to work on something unorthodox and different. That's where PSoP2i comes in! I enjoy going back to the PSU style games quite often, and Infinity has been one I go back to regularly. In-fact it's my most played game on my ROG Ally at the moment.. that thing has basically become an oversized PSP at this point... >.>

Either way, I decided to do some texture modding and research! I wasn't initially sure if I'd release anything but my research ended up being rather conclusive and I have some working 'lewd' texture mods I may release as an R18+ mod! The initial mod I just called "Anti-Skirt" as it just removes skirts from some NPCs as a texture mod test, but I also worked on trying to get a working nude mod and replacing other textures. Now, to be clear, my goal wasn't originally to make a lewd mod but it just happened to be something worth trying since the skirt removal was a very easy start (just like re-colors are) but nude textures tackles some of the most difficult challenges in texture modding this specific game.

So... yeah, that'll be releasing once I package stuff up and maybe work a bit more on it to polish up the nude mod aspect. There's some major limitations and a lot of details I'll discuss when I do release the mod as I plan to do a write up about my research. To summarize though, PSoP2i does some really unique things on the PSP because it's the same engine used for PSU, but adapted to work with the PSP's hardware. This create some really interesting problems but honestly it was really cool breaking into the data of the game back when I was making a 60fps patch for PSoP2, so this is a fun prospect for me, honestly! Just don't expect major updates to this mod, it's really just an "I need a distraction" kind of project.

In the future I'd like to attempt a 'graphics restoration' project since it shares many assets from PSU, but most have not been gracefully down-scaled for the PSP. There's already a started restoration texture pack but it never got finished, so I'd love to step in and do a bit more work while also applying some AI+Manual upscale work as more texturing practice.

> Website Redesign (michaelpstanich.com) <

Been a bit slow on this front as I’ve been focusing on other projects since I hit a bit of a road block. Essentially the tools I was using and have been using for my own web stuff for years has really fallen short for me as I try to transition to using new tools and frameworks, which has technically been true for a while but since I did so little web-deb for so long it wasn’t a huge issue. But, that is why my website was so out of date since things were difficult to manage and update, which needs to be fixed. So, I’ve been transitioning to new tools and figuring out better solutions for managing stuff. The most notable transition is that instead of using Brackets for my web coding I’m moving to VS Code while making a set of custom scripts to translate things over quickly and easily. My transition to VS Code has been rather nice but I’m still getting use to the workflow and figuring out more tools which has taken some time (especially since I’m trying to transition the majority of my coding/docs work to VS Code). 

One of the challenges I have is figuring out ways to make translating articles over quick and painless so that I don’t have to spend a bunch of time re-formatting stuff for each platform. Although now I’m transitioning to just releasing my write-ups on 2 platforms instead of 3, I do want to make it simple so I can write things once and be done. To help with this, I’ve started experimenting with various text scanning/replacement scripts and methods while also trying out a really awesome bit of software called “Pandoc”. Pandoc is a universal text file translator which allows you to quickly and automatically translate certain doc types from one file type to another, although it’s not perfect it’s been really useful! Currently my workflow has me writing in .docx as usual, then I run it through Pandoc to translate it into markdown, then using a visual markdown editor I clean up any errors before I translate it directly to HTML which then gets the header/footer stripped and replaced and a few div tags are re-formatted specifically for my site. This is obviously much better than having to either manually edit in tags or translating manually to Markdown, but the process is still rough and requires manual work.

To help with this I’ll most likely start transitioning to markdown for the initial write, which ‘should’ allow me to directly paste to platforms like SubscribeStar, or at the very least ensure that translating the doc type to something else is smooth and doesn’t require additional editing since I can make my own scripts to fill in the gaps. Doing so also means I can just make my own arguments and replacement scripts as well, removing the need for Pandoc in the long-term. The issue is portability and just my own consistency, I’m not use to markdown so it’s going to take a while for me to get use to it, and even this update post still isn’t written in markdown so… yeah… ya know what? Fine. The rest of this doc is being written in markdown on VS Code!

(Note : This doc started being written on June 6th, 2024. If it releases later than that you know I struggled X.x)

(Back from transitioning to VS Code, I have 30 pages of documentation and 14 json files open. Halp Mee!!! =X.x=)

Oh, I almost forgot to add a somewhat important note. I will most likely be releasing a partial site update soon which moves the current site to /old and having a place holder home page so I can start putting up hosting pages for content to DL/preview as well as give easy access to tutorials, updates, and guides I release.

> AI Related Stuffs <

Got a few projects going on in the AI space, but first just wanted to note I've been learning about local LLMs, not just translation LLMs like before but also using LLMs for potential role-play RPG prospects and creative writing assistance to help break writers block and create interesting problems to solve through. I played around with the idea of starting an experimental bot for our Discord - The Broken Chatbox - to play around with as a fun side project, but it's not currently viable with my set-up.

On the image generation front, I've started testing and merging for a follow up release to SpiritMix - Soft and Cutesy, which has been requested for quite a while. The new version will focus on trying to make scenes and body forms more consistent while updating some models in the mix with those found within SpiritMix - Poly Cube to help with anatomy and clarity. I'd also like to expand the NSFW capabilities as some had requested, since multi-character generation with the model in particular poses is really terrible in its current iteration, but that's secondary to actually reducing the 'default' lewdness of adult characters on the model (it really likes to show boobies >.<)

Finally, I've been testing training a new SD1.5 base model with our new "Neuma Source" dataset (WIP Name), a new curated dataset featuring 3.6m anime/toon/3D style images covering several non-real domains. There's a massive amount of work to be done here and I've become the only one working on the dataset for now (previous team disbanded after being threatened by CivitAI) but the goal is to build a future-looking dataset of curated images which removes undesired images/concepts, trims duplicates to ensure only high-quality versions are used, weights validated images more highly in training, and purging images which fall below an aesthetic quality threshold. Currently the process still requires a lot of manual work, so the process is very slow at the moment (given I don't have funding to continue I just work on it between other things when I have low energy.). I plan to release an article after a few months of testing/training on whatever methods we find and hopefully release a usable model.

Also worth noting, I have been paying attention to both SDXL and SD3 advancements, and also looked into other non-SAI models. However, SD1.5 has a lot of research with a lower bar to entry so it's a good testing ground for this sort of thing to start on. Depending on how difficult SD3 ends up being to train, I 'may' jump in if effective methods are found early, but for now it's on the back burner.

> Palworld Mods <
Project Sugar Cake 0.3 DEV

GDrive : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vYfgMom7UJs2OmJ5B4FGQTMYEOR0n9Vr
Mega : https://mega.nz/folder/9hZQ2IIR#Ou77tq4qQxw9UBQsozh6zg
Lover's Lab : https://www.loverslab.com/files/file/33158-project-sugar-cake-animation-and-stat-framework/

GDrive : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yqt2P0fu2JRsjOIcuD7kAa03JuQ3rvZw
Mega : https://mega.nz/folder/xgBQDJRQ#4ucsQDMkY1thmkfM6sjy5g
Lover's Lab : https://www.loverslab.com/files/file/6350-succubus-heart-se/

Statement : You're awesome, you're amazing, a true legend, "goated"?
Response : I don't even know what that last one is suppose to mean, but ok, I guess? Honestly I've been getting a lot of really positive feedback over the last few months and I'm really grateful for that. However, I also want to make a quick statement here as it is something I'm always concerned about. I don't want people to blindly follow what I do/say or just 'accept' anything I do. When I make changes or judgement you disagree with, I want everyone to know you can speak about your reasoning for disagreeing and we can have a discussion! One of my greatest fears in these kinds of situations is someone saying something like, "Oh, so-and-so is perfect" right before reality hits, none of us are perfect and I am prone to error just like anyone else.

Probably feels a bit weird for me to bring this up, but recently I had someone 'defending' some design decisions and some long-standing bugs within Succubus Heart. I never want to see people shut down other people's reasoning, instead I want us to all grow through discussion and reasoning, talk it through, think about what each person is saying, then make judgement based on that reasoning while keeping our responses within reason. I'll be the first to admit there are some failures in Succubus Heart that I wish I was able to fix, and while these kinds of things should never justify attacks or harassment toward creatives, that doesn't mean we should ignore the given issues. More importantly, if we start shutting down discussion that could be considered hostile by a few overly sensitive individuals, it could mean that an increasing number of people become afraid to speak up which acts to the detriment of not only that single project and the community, but to communication in general.

So in short, don't be afraid to speak up about potential issues you may have or see while displaying your reasoning. Always try to be civil and always try to be kind of course (which I know is difficult, we all falter in this aspect at times, especially if an issue goes on for too long and starts to extend beyond reason). But also acknowledge that not all disagreements are between 'right' and 'wrong', and sometimes it's just a difference in perspective. There are certainly harmful disagreements, especially when you start talking about ethics and social issues, but you won't dissuade people in a positive way by being hostile and refusing to even reason.

Sorry, end of my little rant I guess. Kind of became a bit of a soap box for a moment. >.<  

Just know, I don't want us to argue and hate one another, there's just so much of that in this world that we don't need it to infect every aspect of our lives. Instead, let's try to prop each-other up, not just by being kind but also by helping each other improve, and these kinds of discussions can help with that!

Question : Do you have a manager/organizer?
Answer : I felt like it was obvious with how often I fail to do releases properly or miss simple blog release schedules, but it was asked quite a few times. I suppose I must look much more organized from the outside looking in than internally where I'm constantly trying to wade through self-lit flames in the cramped space I call a brain. For real, I've struggled with maintaining organization for a long time but that also means I have a LOT of practice! So no, I don't have a manager/organizer/assistant/whatever.

I mean, firstly, I'm freakin' broke, so paying someone to do my sorting wouldn't really be viable, but also I'm a bit of a weirdo when it comes to self management. I have preferences to how I do things and when I work on projects I like having my own isolated systems to help since I know the ins and outs of said system. There's this issue I have where I really like to fully understand systems I work with, and if I had someone else managing things I would be missing those things, which I would really struggle with! That's not to say I haven't or can't work in teams, but it's so much different when you work in a team where you have specific aspects and duties you focus on and projects where you are the sole creative.

Another aspect is probably the writing stuffs? I was also asked by someone who asked if I had an assistant if I also wrote these articles. I've been practicing writing for a pretty long while, especially as I've done script writing for videos and technical papers, so yeah, I write these! ^-^  

For real though, I think that was a hidden compliment, even though it really just made me confused. I don't feel my writing is particularly good (especially these 1 shot blog write-ups which go out without any major editing, just spell check '@.@) but maybe it's just the quantity? In that regard, the quantity is because I just don't do editing most of the time and throw caution to the wind! (I get bitten by pigeons a lot, like a bread bit thrown off a roof >.>)

(Also available on my website : https://www.michaelpstanich.com/blogpost/2024-03-31_MarchMonthlyUpdate.html)

After 31 days of eating nothing but sugar cake, I can say that this certainly isn’t a sustainable diet! I’m been shaking non-stop, I can’t sleep, and I can see into the 9tth dimension! I’m definitely ok though, I’m sure this will all play out well into the future, just look, I can shake up a smoothy REALLY well now!~ No more tired arms, I just… shake… endlessly… (I my have a sugar overdose). BUT I MUST PREVAIL, THE POST MUST GO ON! The keys, so close together, but I have a backspace key, let’s get this going!!!

> The project of goodness that is a sugary Cake <
Project Sugar Cake 0.0.3DEV (Latest Release Links) :
GDrive : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vYfgMom7UJs2OmJ5B4FGQTMYEOR0n9Vr?usp=drive_link
LoversLab Dev Thread : https://www.loverslab.com/topic/225549-project-sugar-cake-sex-and-stat-framework-gameplay-mod/

I just couldn’t help myself spending nearly all my time on Project Sugar Cake! Well, ok, ‘most’ of my time on Sugar Cake, but still, some major progress this month! SCake saw the release of 0.0.3DEV this month which not only has the multi-actor animations from 0.0.2DEV (also new this month) but also a custom JSON parser to make importing animations easier than ever! Huge changes under the hood but finally SCake is at a point now where I can make smaller additions and fixes and after the UI base gets implemented then I can move to the smaller updates with quicker output rather than the longer drawn out update cycle we’ve had since the initial launch. Bigger news however, since SCake now has all the animation systems in place and easier importing quite a few animators (and people hoping to get into animating) have gained interest in making stuff for the project, and many of us have been collaborating over in the Discord to make it all happen! This is effectively the starting point for SCake where we’re seen animator support and the framework is properly usable, however that’s not to say SCake is even remotely close to ‘done’ as there’s still a lot of work to be done. Systems to finish, methods to polish, and an API to expand, there’s more work but now development can focus a bit more on extra features and polish since we’re past the ‘minimum viable product’ phase. Overall really excited!

(Also a huge shout out to everyone that’s been collaborating and being supportive over in our Discord! I hope we can continue to inspire more people to be creative and friendly!)

> How to make your sugar cake even more delicious <
How to set up and import animations for SCake guide) :
Website Link : https://www.michaelpstanich.com/article/SCake_HowToMakeAnimsGuide.html
GDrive Link : https://docs.google.com/document/d/19lh8IooHKKpmVTixP2scgWIVfZboUedNf2JDmJp5hsA/edit?usp=drive_link
LoversLab Link : https://www.loverslab.com/topic/228416-guide-scake-how-to-set-up-animating-and-import-animations-for-project-sugar-cake/

Although the method for importing animations for SCake has been vastly simplified with the introduction of the JSON parser (you just import your animations and montages in UE5 then use JSON to configure them, no scripting or blueprints required now!) getting everything set up and understanding how things work is still a bit of a learning curve. As such, to ensure we have a great resource to point people to (and so people that don’t want to communicate still have a resource to look to for help) I’ve created an in-depth tutorial starting from knowing nothing about Palworld modding, to importing animations for SCake and getting them going in-game! The guide in total is pretty long, however if you’re already experienced with Palworld modding a decent amount of the getting started stuff can be skipped or skimmed over. It may look long and demanding, but the processes are relatively simple, so if you’re interested I recommend giving it a look!
Additionally, this is the first article publishing to my site with the new formatting! I haven’t the generic stuff like the nav and footer, but this gives an idea of what articles will look like on the site going forward. If you get the chance to check it out on my site, please let me know your thoughts!

https://www.michaelpstanich.com/
I did a lot of research and internal development for the website (and a potential second web project, but I won’t bother talking more about that till I have something to show since it may never actually exist at this stage). Development on the site redesign for michaelpstanich.com has been a bit slower than I would have liked since I’ve been spending so much time on Project Sugar Cake, but I’m slowly nailing things down. One major leap this month was setting up format translation layers so that uploading, updating, and general maintenance of blog posts and articles is much simpler. With these new systems in place it should be a lot quicker and easier for me to start posting updates and articles over on the site without huge time investments. I still need to set up proper template systems, but I’m focusing on the main page and navigation for now. I will most likely be overhauling the main page with a temporary landing page that has links to all my modern stuffs and features a list for posts, while hosting the old site at michaelpstanich.com/old so it’s still accessible while I refresh everything and migrate any content I see desire-able. (I really want to get things set up enough that I can use my own site as a distribution source, Project Sugar Cake, several articles, and image posts do not currently meet my goal of 3 distribution platforms.)

I’ve fallen a bit behind on AI stuff lately given I’ve had my focus on much more creative projects lately, but I haven’t abandoned anything! This month I experimented more with how to continue with a custom trained model as I build a custom database for images. I.. can’t remember if I announced that project? Basically I’m still working on making AI models! Despite CivitAI staff trying to harass me and intimidate me into leaving the industry, I’ve not given into their vile behavior and still have ambitious goals! (seriously, I’ve had to block at least 30 Discord accounts from them constantly trying to harass me, it’s getting REALLY pathetic at this point.) I’ve also been making some moves to updating some existing AI models, although SD1.5 has been slowly falling out of favor with many moving to PonyXL and Animagine 3.1, many SD1.5 models still offer some incredible quality with unique styles and concepts not seen in XL models, and with my own models focusing on trying to be very different in style this holds especially true. SpiritMix - Soft and Cutesy will most likely be the next update in this regard as I’ve refined a lot of my systems since releasing that model, and have some additional mix knowledge/resources I think will improve the overall model to put it more in-line with my other output. Additionally I will be hosting my models on my own site as well, I have some concepts in my head but I’m currently investigating how to implement them before really refining the design.

Just wanted to leave a little note here about Succubus Heart! I had been planning to make some updates to Succubus Heart for a few weeks now, but I keep getting distracted and focusing on Project Sugar Cake, probably a bit too much in-fact. Just wanted to leave a note here that I’ll be pushing for an update soon and didn’t intend to go without one for so long, I know people are waiting! I’m really sorry about that! Although I do try to gauge interest for what projects I should focus on (with SCake having a huge amount of interest, especially when compared to Succubus Heart) I don’t do this with the intention of ignoring other projects. It’s really just that SCake is in early development and has a lot of fundamental features that need to be implemented, while Succubus Heart is, arguably, a fully featured mod that doesn’t ‘need’ updates to be usable. Either way, I still feel bad! >.<

> Palworld Mod : Project Sugar Cake <
Project Sugar Cake 0.0.3DEV :
 GDrive : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iAm8sPZO1t2aO2pKcBlWvxUNY1A2HsmU?usp=drive_link
LoversLab Dev Thread : https://www.loverslab.com/topic/225549-project-sugar-cake-sex-and-stat-framework-gameplay-mod

> Article : “SCake Guide : How to set up animating and import animations for Project Sugar Cake” <
Website Link : https://www.michaelpstanich.com/article/SCake_HowToMakeAnimsGuide.html
GDrive Link : https://docs.google.com/document/d/19lh8IooHKKpmVTixP2scgWIVfZboUedNf2JDmJp5hsA/edit?usp=drive_link
LoversLab Link : https://www.loverslab.com/topic/228416-guide-scake-how-to-set-up-animating-and-import-animations-for-project-sugar-cake/

Statement : Project Sugar Cake Related : “See you all in ‘5/10/15’ years when all this is actually released!”
Response : So this has been a re-occurring sentiment I’ve been seeing related to Project Sugar Cake, and it’s a bit disheartening. Now I’m not telling people to not expect long development time for stuff like this in a usual sense, and it’ll take a while to get animations rolling for all the combinations people may want, but to say we’ve made so little progress that it’ll take another 5+ years feels a bit mean spirited. SCake is released AND usable in its current form as is, and it’s been 2 months! We’re speeding through all this stuff in a VERY quick (and honestly kind of impressive) pace, and I’m very proud of the work I’ve been able to put in! I feel a lot of this feeling probably comes from people not realizing SCake is actually out however, I see a lot of comments about ‘when it releases’ or ‘whenever they finally put up the download’ but SCake has been downloadable since February? I’m wondering if people just assume it’s not available or if they’re getting projects confused? Either way, not really an ‘answer’ but more of a response so something I’ve found a bit puzzling, hopefully it’ll clear up eventually as currently it seems to be causing a lot of confusion, which could impact our appeal to animators since if they don’t think it’s available they may not be interested, when in reality SCake is functional and ready for animations!

Question : Project Sugar Cake Related : “Are you being paid to develop Project Sugar Cake?”
Answer : This question caught me off guard as I thought I was very upfront about the costs of the project, but let me re-iterate, Project Sugar Cake is supported entirely through donations (https://subscribestar.adult/michaelpstanich ^.-) and my own desire to develop the mod. I personally like taking on interesting projects and I saw Palworld as a potential candidate with “PSC” receiving the most interest out of all the projects I proposed. I also had a personal bias toward making Project Sugar Cake because I’ve been in the modding space a long time and have seen a very concerning pattern over the last couple of years where teams with ill intentions (or maybe those who are misguided) end up starting these kinds of projects but do so in a very closed off manner and end up shutting out other creatives from making similar content. The early Palworld modding scene was a disaster, quite honestly, and I saw that it was very likely the potential of Palworld modding in this category was going to be completely squandered by teams working in such a closed off and hostile manner. As such, a large part of my motivation is to offer a more open and community focused alternative, to show people that the modding scene doesn’t have to die off as some closed-off hostile wasteland, but instead we can encourage more collaboration and prop each other up to new heights!

Now, to be clear, it’s not like I wouldn’t like to receive more donations (making this kind of work my full-time job is a dream I’d love to accomplish) but I won’t push it on anyone. I put in the work to try and offer as much value as possible with the hopes that some day it may pay off, but if it doesn’t it’s not all that big of a deal. Life moves on, ya know? And if nothing else, I get some sick portfolio pieces!

Yep, switching things up again, just trying to figure out exactly what works and what I can manage!

Update Post Changes and Introducing Project Posts

So, it’s been 2 months of trying the ‘weekly announcement’ style posts and while it’s been an enlightening journey, I’m not sure it’s the best route going forward. So, I’m switching to doing individual posts for releases and project updates whenever there’s something significant and having larger monthly update posts that talk about direction and the like. I believe this ‘should’ be a better experience for both me and anyone following my work, but remember I’m always looking for feedback so if you have any thoughts or ideas let me know! Let’s get into the actual new post structure (as well as how I’ll release content on here more quickly/regularly) then we’ll get into reasoning.

Update Posts are now going to be monthly instead of weekly, these posts will be slightly different however as I’m switching how I handle ‘blog’ style entries, which will post on their own instead of with the update posts. The purpose is to give a general overview of what’s being worked on and what project are planned to be worked on over the following month, and will post near the end of the month as a bit of a reflective piece. Sections will include the ‘project overview’ section which covers changes in whatever projects were updated that month, followed by a releases section similar to weekly update posts that will link to the new project posts related to the latest release of that month, then finally I’ll include a quick section answering some questions I saw over the last month I think people may find interesting (or ones that I get a lot X.x). Currently I don’t get a ‘massive’ amount of feedback or questions so this section will probably be fairly tame, but maybe if I actually grow in following it’ll become a more interesting segment? The weekly update system I had going failed to really give substantial information every week and I was regularly delaying update posts to finish something ‘interesting’ to fit into the post, while this was a strong motivational factor, it also was leading to burn out and self-doubt since I always felt I was lagging behind, which is never good. I also saw bundling everything into a single post making it more difficult to find updates on specific content, for example if you only cared about the Succubus Heart mod it was difficult to filter and find posts relevant specifically to said content. By splitting these posts and making these collective posts less frequently it should not only make it easier to find the content people are looking for, but also allow me more freedom in how I make these posts. The one fear I do have is that weekly posts was designed to help give me an extra ‘push’ and ensure I stay productive, but hopefully with the practice and methods I’ve developed over the last few years this won’t be an issue… (if I find I start lagging behind I’ll think of something to replace it ^-^)

Project Posts are going to be how I do ‘release posts’ from now on, instead of bundling them into a weekly update post every week now releases will get their own post with update information and links similar to how we handle it on Discord! I’ve gotten into the flow of these posts and I’m confident that adding these posts here should be relatively easy to do. These posts may also provide additional details that don’t normally feel fitting on Discord style posts, such as updates on what I’m currently working on or what I have planned next. Not all Project Posts will have a release either, if I feel I have a substantial update to a project to post about I’ll also be using this format to talk about it while linking to the latest release and any relevant information. I know a lot of creators just do periodic posts with updates, but given I tend to work on various projects spanning different genres even, I figure this would be a much better way to handle things and make things easier to find specific releases! ^-^

Blog Posts will be now separated from weekly posts and be their own thing, I may also reduce the amount of ‘blog’ style posting I do and instead direct some of them into full Articles with proper attention and editing. I will mostly use Blog Posts to talk about quick relevant topics or maybe answer a specific question/feedback I receive that may require an in-depth answer. One such blog posts that’s being turned into an Article is the extremist article I mentioned last week, while writing it I noticed I could go so much deeper and really the format would have flooded the regular blog entry, by splitting these off I don’t have to fear scaring people away from the Update Posts or Project Posts people may be interested in, and instead offer the article/blog entry specifically for those that wish to read it.

So yeah, this will most likely be the last post in this format, I posted the last few posts behind schedule and don’t have much to post, but let’s just pretend this first explainer bit doesn’t exist and show the new format! (In the future these will be trimmed down a lot more since I'll have proper progress updates as I do release posts ^-^)

February was a bit of a dramatic month for me personally, but it didn’t get in the way of progress! Let’s go over what progress we had for this month!

> Announcement - Website Redesign ( michaelpstanich.com ) <
Last month I looked into some potential new hosts for my website, one that would allow Adult content and would support more tools I’d like to use to create a proper blogging/updates platform as well as a links/downloads hub. This month I cleared up some goals about what I wanted the site to contain and exactly what needed to be done. While I’m still not sure exactly on what concepts I’m going to go with, I’ve got a much clearer vision in my head for what I ‘expect’ to have. Once I have a functioning version of the new site it’ll start hosting all these update posts and release announcements (as long as I can set up a proper posting system properly… we’ll see).

> Palworld Mod – Project Sugar Cake <
Project Sugar Cake 0.0.1DEV (Latest Release Links) :
GDrive : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iAm8sPZO1t2aO2pKcBlWvxUNY1A2HsmU?usp=drive_link
LoversLab Dev Thread : https://www.loverslab.com/topic/225549-project-sugar-cake-sex-and-stat-framework-gameplay-mod

Tons of progress here this month, though I didn’t get as much done in this last week as I wanted to as I had some other projects take precedent and needed a bit of time to chill out to prevent burn out (I went a bit TOO hard with working on this project for a few weeks and was really starting to feel burn out). This month saw the first release version! Project Sugar Cake 0.0.1DEV features solo player animations fully importable and playable in-game with the full metadata system implemented! The next goal is getting multi-actor animations working correctly, technically you can already have any character play solo animations but for multi-actor animations to work properly I need to finish implementing the positioning and AI related code. I’m ‘mostly’ done with that at the time of writing, then I’ll need to do some additional validation checks, but after that I really need to focus on creating a tutorial and proper SDK. I’m also thinking of focusing on getting the string/json importer working properly next so that animations can be ported into the game easier and won’t require logic mods to work, I think this would make the process easier for animators since even blueprints can feel intimidating if you’re not familiar with them.

Current Road Map…
1 ) Finish position correction and AI systems to implement Pal x Pal and Pal x Player
2 ) Release simple pal animation tutorial with SDK
3 ) Implement basic UI with settings control
4 ) Work on string/json parser
5 ) Implement basics for the stats system
6 ) Enable persistence and mod saving (save registered animations as well?)
7 ) undetermined...

> Skyrim Mod – Succubus Heart <
Succubus Heart 5.3.3DEV (Latest Release Links) :
GDrive : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yqt2P0fu2JRsjOIcuD7kAa03JuQ3rvZw?usp=drive_link
Lover’s Lab : https://www.loverslab.com/files/file/6350-succubus-heart-se/
Nexus Mods : https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/92433

Not much progress here other than reading and interacting with bug reports, but there are some key advancements in this regard. (I can’t remember when the last release was, so it may have been this month? Don’t remember >.< if it was released this month then we got OStim support added, which is huge news! But I’ll pretend it didn’t for the rest of this post… Q.Q) OStim support is very sporadic depending on what version and mods players are running, and I don’t know exactly how to fix this, but it seems like it’s from OStim not properly calling mod events, which means I may not be able to fully fix those issues yet. If you’ve tried it with OStim please let me know about your experience! Even if you’ve found no bugs, knowing how many have had no issue vs how many have is very useful data since we can try to figure out what’s different between the different installs! Additionally, a strange bug causing players to die after any act finally got some leads, it may be caused by a specific passive? I haven’t had the time to test with my focus on Project Sugar Cake, but given how rare the issue seems it would make sense if it was a very specific combination of mods and passives. I also have a method for supporting both SL and OStim at the same time, just need to take the time to implement it .(Is an important change to get done soon since more people are using both at the same time than I originally expected, was really just an oversight on my end really. Sorry about that! >.<)

> AI Related <
Over the last few months I’ve been trying to figure out better solutions and refining ethics in how to release AI related content and how to best handle various platforms and the like. This month I made changes to how I display models on various platforms and hope my model releases will be easier to find and acquire than ever before, with one minor exception that I’ll get into in a moment (wasn’t my choice, but one I’m indifferent to.).

The future of Image Releases :
I’m changing Demi-God AI packs, originally the idea was to release AI images as part of these collections to ensure the content couldn’t be taken down forever/censored by available platforms, since I saw them as volatile and inconsistent, but I’ve found a couple of solutions that would ensure these packs can exist in a better place without the need for any ‘exclusivity’ specifically. Well, mostly, I’ve started releasing AI images on both Pixiv and Deviant Art, for Pixiv I’ll only release touch-ups and polished images while I may start releasing raw gens that go over the quality barrier onto DeviantArt along with the polished up ones. I’m going to make a greater effort in only ‘officially’ releasing higher quality gens and have started to ‘archive’ older gens, even ditching the old releases system. There’s a problem however, both Pixiv and DeviantArt have restrictions on R18+ content (Pixiv requires genitals to be censored to comply with Japan’s censorship laws, DeviantArt paywalls R18+ content with sexual contexts though nudity is allowed it seems?). So, my solution? I’m going to host stuff… yeah, seems crazy, but I’ve done the math and as long as I only ‘officially’ release more polished content then I should be able to stay low enough in data usage that it won’t matter. This will be part of my new website re-design and integrate into michaelpstanich.com, though I may make it part of a new domain (which would include some other AI related stuff). I think for raw and in-progress stuff this will be posted over in our Discord – The Broken Chatbox - https://discord.gg/h3vB7S4FEw – but I may also include WIP stuff in the new packs system just as a small preview perk with what I’m doing. Still finalizing stuff here, but hopefully it works out better and I won’t have that constant nagging feeling of ‘ethics’ regarding AI. It sucks I won’t be able to fully implement solutions to R18+ content yet, but we’re making progress one step at a time!

Model Release Changes :
Part of my website re-design will also include model preview pages with alt. download links, this should ensure there’s always a place to view the models and how to use them with whatever formatting/content I see fit and also avoid having to play around each platform’s specific rules. I’m also going to be making a better effort to update other platforms where I’ve uploaded my models, one major change is all preview images from now on will exclude R18+ content and instead have that separated to better comply with various platforms and avoid associations between the NSFW and cute portions of the models. I covered why better in a previous post - https://subscribestar.adult/posts/1176446 - if you’re interested in reading about it. Sadly, there will be an exception here and that is CivitAI, which I will no longer be uploading or interacting with in any way. If you’ve spoken to me recently about it over the last few months, you’d know CivitAI was sending me a large amount of harassment and threats, even from CivitAI staff themselves. Unfortunately, the CivitAI staff decided to ban me for speaking out about the platform not only allowing targeted harassment, but outright encouraging and engaging in it. I tried my best over the last few months to try and make a positive change, but it’s clear that CivitAI does not have any respect for creators and actively wants people to target others they do not like on the platform. I had already expressed my plans to potentially leave the platform before, so really this just makes those plans concrete, but it’s still sad to see that CivitAI has made such massive regressions while the rest of the industry has been making huge positive changes. Thankfully CivitAI is the only platform and community around that’s been hostile, all the other communities have made huge strides in improving how they treat users and creators, and while many still have huge ethical concerns and their own slew of issues, they’ve shown willingness to improve while CivitAI has explicitly shown intent to do the opposite. I can now see why so many creators do not view CivitAI as a safe platform and often have so little respect for the site, because CivitAI has no respect for its users or creators and wishes us harm. It pains me to agree after trying to improve things for so long, but it is what it is. I use to think their toxic actions were born from incompetence, but once ‘accidents’ become patterns, it’s clearly intentional. (Can still find my models and Articles elsewhere, like here or hosted on my new website redesign when it’s up! ^-^ Also, with the changes other platforms have made I can now safely enable downloads on those platforms, so, just like on HuggingFace, PixAI / TensorArt / SeaArt all have downloads for my models enabled! Plenty of choices! ^-^)

> Palworld Mod – Project Sugar Cake <
Project Sugar Cake 0.0.1DEV :
 GDrive : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iAm8sPZO1t2aO2pKcBlWvxUNY1A2HsmU?usp=drive_link
LoversLab Dev Thread : https://www.loverslab.com/topic/225549-project-sugar-cake-sex-and-stat-framework-gameplay-mod

> Skyrim Mod – Succubus Heart <
Succubus Heart 5.3.3DEV :
GDrive : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yqt2P0fu2JRsjOIcuD7kAa03JuQ3rvZw?usp=drive_link
Lover’s Lab : https://www.loverslab.com/files/file/6350-succubus-heart-se/
Nexus Mods : https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/92433

> Demi-God AI Pack 2 <
SubscribeStar Post - https://subscribestar.adult/posts/1187632

> New AI Image Posts <
Pixiv - https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/54955969
DeviantArt (Not caught up to Pixiv yet) - https://www.deviantart.com/michaelstanich

Got a few questions around that may be worth outlining here, hopefully I remember to keep things brief!

Question : Succubus Heart Related – “Will you be dropping SexLab when OStim support is finished?”
Answer : NO, absolutely NOT! OStim support is just an optional framework choice since many requested I make a version to support it, however main development is still fully focused on SexLab. This doesn’t mean I don’t want to fully support OStim either, I would prefer both to work with the same level of functionality so people can choose whatever framework they prefer (if you hadn’t noticed, I like giving users options ^-^) and I have no intention dropping either one as long as they remain functional. SexLab also has a lot more features than OStim and allows content (like creatures) which OStim does not; because of this SexLab will still be the preferred way to experience Succubus Heart. Choices, however, I never a bad thing! If you’re a player that never uses those specific features SexLab enables, then I hope to make it so you would lose nothing by using OStim, it’s just going to take some time to get there! ^-^

Question : Project Sugar Cake Related – “Are you concerned with people stealing your work?” “Will you be releasing source code?”
Answer : This is tricky to answer and I still don’t have a solid answer on either of these really. I have received concerns that if I share to many specifics about how SCake works then others could steal that work and try to gate it off and use it for monetary gain. This DOES concern me, and it’s why I’ve certainly been a bit more quiet about some of my methods and not directly sharing a lot of code with the project. However it does eat away at me a little bit since I am generally open to sharing methods and even direct code snippets (all my mods so far have been completely open). Even with that said though, the modding community for Palworld has been a really mixed bag with a lot of really shady figures and practices, so I think for now I’m going to work ‘mostly’ closed source style while sharing methods used for official release versions if it feels appropriate, such as if a modder is trying to get something working and I know a method to get it working. Methods I get from other sources will also be shared freely, I’m not trying to ‘acquire and hide’ information, I will share what I get and then some, I just have to be very careful of malicious actors for now. (I also don’t really know a proper way to release ‘source code’ since it’s all in blueprints and blend files, and releasing those full stop is basically distributing my full dev environment, which I’ve never done before and don’t feel comfortable doing, so I’d need a different method similar to Skyrim where I just include the source to the mod itself without the rest.)

Question : Project Sugar Cake Related – “Will Project Sugar Cake support [insert fetish here]?”
Answer : The hope is that the framework is open enough that anyone could implement any type of content they desire. There are limits to my own interest and content I may not personally put as high priority, but if you would like to make a module or you would like to ensure the framework supports something specific, let me know so I can integrate whatever is required into the framework! Keep in mind, the framework is a large project and it may take time to get things integrated, so just because it’s not in or supported yet doesn’t mean it won’t be in the future!

Question : AI Related – “Do you plan on making more tutorials or guides?”
Answer : Yes, I’ve just been very distracted by projects lately. Production on those sorts of things can take a ton of time and with how quickly AI is moving it’s hard for me to keep up with all the changes, so some guides and projects get stuck in limbo for a bit. Part of my website redesign would help work around this issue a bit, where I can create guides and update them over time in a much easier fashion without having to worry about platform specific formatting or discoverability. Videos however are still difficult since I can’t just go back and re-edit them, so we’ll see what happens on that front. I may just start doing basic chill and AI streams where we cover specific topic or experiment with things and see how those go.