5.3 Update and Public Release Information

Greetings everyone!

The first part of the 5.3 update released to patrons last week and I'm happy to report it's been a relatively smooth process save for a handful of early hurdles. In fact, things have gone so smoothly that I'm happy to say I'll be able to release the public build a little bit earlier than expected! Probably!

My intention was to post the public release this Saturday morning. However, today my spousal unit is being taken in for a mildly invasive surgical procedure and that will have an unknown impact on my availability over the next few days. Depending on how things go, the post could come as late as Sunday afternoon. Either way, you can for sure expect it this weekend!

5.3 - Part Deux

• New Conversation System Engine - 100%
• New Conversation System Content - 20%
• New Exploration System Engine - 100%
• New Exploration System Content - 20%
• Patron Submitted Content - 0%

Risky Exploration

I really liked how the room exploration exploration worked, particularly because of the "New!" tags next to the links whenever there was something new to explore. This helped ensure that the players were never wasting their time in game looking for new content where there wasn't any. The problem is that the way rooms were coded was an absolute nightmare, and adding new content to them (or new places to explore in general) took a ton of work.

The new system maintains the content, but functions a little differently. There's no more "New!" tag on links, however, the player will have the chance to explore more than one part of the room at a time. With every act of exploration, your chance of getting caught increases, and if you get caught you'll get thrown out of the room! Well, you might get thrown out, you might get thrown into the bed depending on the circumstances!

The content in the rooms now factors in the current game state rather than a series of linear flags, making them MUCH easier to code and implement, meaning you should expect to see more and more room content as time goes on.

Casual Conversations

The conversation system was coded almost identically to the exploration system, meaning it was just as much of a nightmare to work with. As such, it received its own form of an overhaul.

The biggest change is that you no longer have control over the flow of conversation topics, as they are now completely random. Basically, it's like talking to random NPCs in old RPGs. The flipside is that conversations no longer cause time to pass, meaning you can chat people up all you like.

Due to these changes, conversations can now pop up randomly, much like random events, and should add a little more character to the game. Like the exploration system changes, the conversation system is now much easier to work with, and should see much more use moving forward.

5.3 Part 2 (which will be 5.3.1) will add conversations to all characters, and exploration to all currently accessible areas.

One More Thing

The initial 5.3 release made transformation something much easier to manage, however, there are still times when the player just wants to play the game in a very specific way without having to game the system.

In 5.3.1, players will have the option of locking and unlocking their gender and gender state at will assuming they chose to play without forced transformation enabled. This is an oft-requested feature that I'm happy to say will finally be available soon!

That about wraps up this week. Look forward to the public 5.3 release in a few days and another development update next week.

As always, thank you all for your continued feedback and support!