Hello there !
It's something I mentioned on discord a while back, but I began working or actually, REworking the first chapter of the game for multiple reasons.
1 : Obscelete content, Chapter 1 sets up a story that goes way too fast and doesn't take the time to flourish it's characters and romances.
That is mostly due to the nature of the game that requires H content fast to keep the player interested, unfortunately, while it may have been good back then, it is now needed for me to patch things up to feel more organic and real !
2 : Poor render quality, over 3 years I Improved my renders quality, lighting, camera angles, filters, reworking the game allows me to freshen up the first part of the game.
3 : Poor model quality, every model in ToU is handmade, but for most of them are awfully basic, to make up for it I reworked most character to give them a new and proper appearance for Chapter 1 of course, these changes remain minor and characters that recieved a proper change like Lou won't change imagine going through chapter 1 with a model, go back to it's old model for chapter 2 to go back to it's chapter 3 Model, you'd quickly lose your mind !
4 : Rewriting a story that fits it's conclusion, in 3 years a lot goes through in your head in how a story is evolving, and I can safely say that Chapter 1 doesn't fit that bill anymore, some lore elements need to be changed, some need to be explained and a lot has to happen in between.
As of today, when you boot your game, you're greeted by me, your fancy french friend into the game it's a funny and relaxed way to introduce players into the wacky world of whoohoo stronkboi man's quality shitpost.
I love breaking fourth walls and I will continue doing it, but I want to be a bit more subtle about it.
I want to drop a few more memes here and there, some will make you grin at your screen without taking you too much off the plot the 3rd image in this setup is a good exempl
When you'll boot the game when the rework is done, first of all, I WON'T BREAK SAVES
Once the chapter is fully reworked, you will have the opportunity to answer to major choices that happened during the reworked version of chapter 1 without doing it, of course this choice is only open IF you use an old save Keep in mind that the choices from chapter 2 will remain unchanged.
If you make a new save and play through the reworked version of the game, your new choice will matter all the same
It sounds a bit confusing but it's really as simple as if you don't make a new save and load an old save you simply recieve a small intermission in which you'll pick your past choices for chapter 1, a bit like Mass Effect Genesis, if you know how that DLC works !
Chapter 1's rework will happen before the actual current opening of the game.
In the first screenshot, you can notice that "Nona", Vanessa's mother finally recieved a model she is an important character, and I feel like keeping her to the side would be a bit silly, you won't be able to romance her in any way or form as it isn't her purpose, don't worry we have a lot of other thicc hips mommys on the way.
At first I wanted her to look a bit older, kinda closer to a proper middle aged woman, but it would feel weird in my opinion to have Vanessa's age be that far from her mother, she's only 20 during chapter 1.
I also want to remove routes, they're more restrictive than anything and it's something that has been recieved negatively, which I agree, in doesn't make sense to have branching path related to romances this early.
If I can keep up the good work, the full reworked chapter will be ready for 0.12 / 0.13 at worse, chapter 1 is supposed to be a bit longer than what it currently is.
I still want to push the rest of chapter 3 out as I rework the rest !
If you have suggestions for Chapter 1, please do let me know, there is no better time to share feedbacks and opinions
I'll soon use polls a lot more to ask my patrons what kind of stuff they want to see, so if you want to directly help me with chapter 1's rework AND the future of my projects, consider pledging !
I'll finish this post with a good note, but now that I'm back on my schedule I should be able to get a beta out for 0.11 REALLY soon, I want it to be out before the end of April, so I'll do my best to get it out and fleshed out
Take care of yourself and thank you for following the project !