August 3rd 2024: Progress Report

Hello everyone, Rem here!

This will be kind of an unwieldy post but the tl;dr for anyone who only needs to know when the P Cup DLC is releasing can ignore the rest of this post because the DLC will hopefully come out by the end of this month.

Now for everyone else, sit tight! We are going to dive into some personal happening and details.

First, essentially all the necessary artwork for the P Cup DLC has been completed since around the second week of July. Sachinama worked like a beast to finish the rest, and I assume that his intentions was to push through and finish all the artwork by the time I got back from Kansas City.

Unfortunately, I never got to go to Kansas City because for those who were unaware and didn't follow us on Twitter/Discord, I got Covid on July 1st. I suppose my symptoms started showing the day before so really I got it on June 30th but July 1st was when I tested positive so let's go with that. I was suppose to fly to Kansas City on July 2nd and be back on the 8th, but I had to cancel all that.

So I got Paxlovid on the 2nd and started taking it for five days. My fever actually started and broke on the 1st so I didn't even have any fever before I had started taking Paxlovid but I also had a lot of other symptoms like lost of taste, stuffy nose, sore throat and nose, blah blah. A few days after Paxlovid's effects wore off, I think around 8th or so, I got another bad fever for a day and some of the other symptoms returned with a vengeance for a few days and then went away. By the end of the second week, essentially I only had annoying coughs left and technically I tested negative for Covid.

To make a long story short, while I was coughing and especially while I had the other symptoms, I did not feel like working so I mostly didn't. On the last week of July, I don't know if this a chicken or egg situation but I started cautiously going back to the gym because I read that exercising and working your Covid damaged lungs would help it heal faster so I went to the gym. Initially I was only planning to do very light exercises because I was worried that I might have a coughing fit in the middle of the gym, but I actually didn't cough or feel like coughing at all while working out so I just did my normal workouts and I felt great during it. And then my coughing rapidly started recovering during the last week of July and as of today, I get maybe like one or two cough a day now so I'm pretty much at full recovery from Covid finally. So who knew if working out and exercising helped my body recover or if my body was already going to recover and that was why I had the energy to exercise.

But anyway with my energy back, I've recently started pounding on the P Cup DLC. The artwork is already done! What else is left?? Well... actually......

I decided to be sneaky sneaky and sneak in something extra for the P Cup DLC. This was actually something I had thought about adding into the game years back. Very very eagle eyed fans might have remember that when the Karryn's Prison initially got put up on remtairy.com before the full release, under the Difficulties section there was actually a mysterious encrypted fourth difficulty listed. But I ultimately decided to not design and make it for the full release because the game was already hard enough and I wasn't sure if anyone would even attempt it in the first place and so I rather have it as potentially part of a future DLC instead of something as a core part of the game that someone might feel that they must complete to truly finish Karryn's Prison.

This new difficulty mode has evolved quite a bit in my head this year compared to my initial concept years ago, so I like it much better now.

And I dub this new difficulty mode, DESCENSION MODE.

After you've beat the game at least once in your current save file, if you have the P Cup DLC then you select to play in Descension Mode. The original idea was that this was an exclusive difficulty setting from Secretary/Warden/Prisoner but now you can select to play in Descension from your choice of Secretary/Warden/Prisoner. However you can't play in Descension and do a Challenge Run at the same time.

What Descension is, is basically there's five (or maybe four, I want five and probably ultimately there will be five but who knows) scenarios, and you pick one of those scenarios. Each scenario has a unique scenario effect during that scenario, and some bonus/penalties. After you beat a scenario, you have to choice of continuing on with Descension Mode. If you do continue, you get to choose from the remaining scenarios you haven't beat this time. And when you do, the new scenario's unique scenario effect and its bonus/penalities, as well as ALL bonus/penalties you have acquired from the scenarios you have beaten in your current Descension Run will be active

So let's say there's Scenario A B C D E If you've beaten Scenario A and decide to go for Scenario C next, Scenario C's scenario effect and bonus/penalties will be active alongside Scenario A's bonus penalties. And after you beat Scenario C, if you go for Scenario D next, Scenario D's scenario effect and bonus/penalties will be active alongside both Scenario A AND Scenario C's bonus/penalties.

So what order you decide to tackle the scenarios in for a Descension Run could change how the run would feel. Playing Scenario A by itself could feel very different from playing Scenario A while under the effects of Scenario D's stuff, and could also feel very different from playing Scenario A while under the effects of Scenario B D and E. But if you play Scenario A first then that means the rest of the run will be affected by the stuff in Scenario A, so what will you do?!

So yeah, I've been stewing a bit for the last few weeks, and now I've been cooking and having fun again working. The plan is once the Descension Mode stuff have been coded and ready, we'll throw up the P Cup DLC beta up here on SubscribeStar for $10+ subscribers as thanks for their continued and selfless support. Like all the other betas, this does NOT mean you will get a key or a free copy of the retail release of the P Cup DLC. This is really meant as a bonus for existing supporters as a thank you. Please do not suddenly throw $10 at us here just for the P Cup DLC. It will most likely retail around $4 or $5 price range once it is finished (which is hopefully by the end of the month but we thought the DLC would be finished in July)

Sachinama's PC actually broke down several days and few days ago we realized that it was because the Intel CPU. If you're not aware and you have an Intel 13th or 14th Gen CPU, you probably should start doing some Googling and preparing for the worst. In hindsight, I think it was like two or three months ago? When Sachinama's PC had this weird issue where a lot of file suddenly turned into junk, we should've been more worry but I had backups and it didn't happen again so we forgot about it. But Sachinama's PC then started issues a few weeks back and finally it stopped working several days ago. Thankfully, all the P Cup artwork have already been completed but until Intel ships that replacement CPU in 20 days or whatever their estimate was, there might be some delays for the retail release of the P Cup DLC when it is time for Sachinama to localize the Descension Mode stuff into Japanese and what not as well as uploading it to the Japanese stores. Which is why the end of August is the hopeful target right now.

Finally, before I end things off for this report, a small sneak peek at some of the scenarios in Descension Mode! After all, if it's a question of just the P Cup stuff then the DLC is already more then ready, so REM!!!!!!! WHAT'S THE DELAY FOR????

Well, let me preface that Descension Mode is really meant for hardcore players that want to squeeze a lil bit more out of KP and is not meant for everyone to consume. It is why I hesitated at including something similar into the base (btw back then, my idea was to name the fourth difficulty Corruption Mode or Corrupted Mode and it was mainly based around the under utilized Corruption stat) But I like the current version vastly better so I'm glad I didn't add my original idea into the game.

And without further ado, here's a sneak peek at two of the five (or four) scenarios I'm planning! Note some stuff and details are subject to change between now and beta and between beta and release.

Scenario "Failed State"

Scenario Effect: Start the game with most prison related Edicts already enacted, and more will be enacted with each Level subjugated.

Bonus/Penalties: All growth +100%, Warden level limit +10; All enemies can now spawn everywhere, Wanted enemies get added, show up and level up much much more, Corruption decreases all growth

Scenario "Warden Quest"

Scenario Effect: All income/subsidies/expenses except for Jobs and Blackmail are reduced to 1/8th. Enemies now drop gold and accessories after being defeated. Each worn toy increases gold and item drop rate.

Bonus/Penalties: Each worn toy increases all growth by 33%, new Accessories; Toys stay on after battle if not removed, toys can only be removed by Karryn, Goblin, Rogue and Guard type enemies may now also have toys

And a smaller partial sneak peek at the Bonus/Penalties for the Scenario "Big Brother": The Nerd Problem aka Nerd Blackmail is active from the start of the game, Edicts that increase Corruption including Accessories Edicts now increases Corruption by one more.

Big honking flopping titty lovers, please wait a bit longer for the P Cup DLC! Hardcore fans who love the gameplay, I hope you will enjoy how Descension Mode twists the game you've been familiar with and have fun!