Dev Blog #102 - Cruel Summer

Greetings everyone!

It's been a bit of a bumpy ride since 3.3.0 launch, but I think we're finally on track to getting to some truly great content! I've got some good stuff to go over today, so let's just jump right in!

Update 3.3.0 Status

As expected, this update broke, well, everything! This was always going to be a precarious release what with how many underlying features and systems were being tweaked and overhauled so I'm not going to spend too much time talking about how busted everything is. Still, I did want to share some quick information concerning some of the more pressing issues concerning the update.

• Transformation systems are not working as intended and have been fixed for the next update
  • There was a major bug related to transformation that was resulting in players unintentionally losing... parts... usually as a result of wearing the Cat Collar, but not registering a gender change
  • The above issue snowballed into a lot of other weird issues
  • Rates have been tuned to allow for smoother transitions
  • Outfit recognition has been fixed, as this was preventing certain transformations from occurring
• There were some unforeseen consequences of the stat revision and rebalance
  • Affection requirements are being removed from all events that used to use them
  • Corruption requirements are being removed from all serum usage
• A new system is going into place to prioritize unseen random Home and Work over seen ones
  • No, the Dakota Webcam event was not removed in 3.3.0
  • Yes, RNG can screw you to the point where you will never see it
  • With the new system, all random events will become *inhales* Inevitable

Obviously this doesn't encompass everything, but it should address some of the more pressing concerns.

Let's Talk About Q3 - Ava and Dakota

Now for the fun stuff!

The Ava and Dakota updates are set to span the next three months (July, August, and September) with the intention of giving all the home content a fresh coat of paint in addition to a bunch of new content. July's update, set to release next week to backers, will be cleaning up all the existing home content and making room for new additions. This means bring formatting in line with current standards, tweaking event flows, and addressing a number of issues and inconsistencies. Inconsistenceis? Anyway, while the patch notes (also releasing next week) will do a good job of summing up the impending update, there are a couple things I wanted to touch on specifically.

Ava's Kitchen and Living Room interactive scenes are going away in this update. They will return as linear events in the future, but for now the focus for interactive events will be moved to the bedroom. In this coming update, Ava's bedroom ISS will be getting a structural rework, setting the stage for things to come next month! Along those same lines, Dakota's bedroom ISS will be getting temporarily replaced with a generic interaction depending on her serum stage. During her update, this will be updated with a much more robust event similar to what Ava is receiving.

The reason I've decided to put Dakota's interactive event into a sort of maintenance mode is so that I can expedite the removal of the Stamina system. The current ISS events at home are currently the only events using this system, and it'll be nice to finally sand off that outlier. So the next question would be, how long until Dakota's ISS returns? I'm glad you asked!

July Update - 3.3.1 - Home Content Baseline

• Cleaning up home events in terms of flow and formatting
• Removing interactive scenes, adding quick events to increase stats
• Replacing Ava's bedroom interactive scene with proper ISS
• Laying groundwork for Ava's new serum routes
• Fixing lots of things...

August Update - 3.3.2 - Ava Update

• Complete revision of Ava's serum routes, much like John and Penny
• All existing content will appear in the route at some point, though not necessarily in the same place
• Many new serum options and events will be added
• Cat Collar will have more apparent effects, now tying into the serum route
• MCS-X option moved into a serum route ending

September Update - 3.3.3 - Dakota Update

• Complete revision of Dakota's serum route just like Ava's
• Likewise, existing content will be retained but moved around
• Dakota's bedroom ISS event will return, better, faster, hornier
• MCS-X options will be moved into serum route endings

August Update - 4.0.0 - Chapter 4, Part 1

• *Mysterious hand waving*

So, if we spend the entire summer laying foundations, you could say we'll be using the fall and winter to finally build the house! That is, the next several updates are going to be extremely content heavy which should appease those who may (rightfully) feel that the game has stagnated a bit in terms of things to actually experience. I will say that writing some of this new Ava content has me feeling some... precision excitement, which is a good indicator that I'm on to something good!

I hope you're all looking forward to the next few updates, as they've certainly been a long time coming. After Chapter 4 wraps up we'll be having another round of content direction votes to determine which character or game aspect gets some loving next, so that should be fun.

That's it for this week, as always, thank you all for your continued feedback and support. Stay safe everyone!