V.0071 and I'm alive

Edit 8:

I swear this is the last edit to this post. Anywho, I got the discord put together but I'm not gonna be posting it right this instant. I figure I should put the link out when I have a free block of time since it's the launch. However, I do have an update for you.

Patch notes:

-Fixed the ending so it now properly goes into infinite days mode (Also added a debug npc to the fire forest if that's your only save to teleport you out so you can access

the current end of content).

-Fixed minor error where the first time the main character says their male name it would come out as Ray(Male)

-Fixed putting eth in the empty vat problems.

-Fixed Geomancer's hair in mirror messing up when longer

-Fixed soul depletion state not removing itself once fixed (You might have to sleep on it).

-Fixed missing audio

-Various typo fixes.

Edit 7:

Reuploaded version to get around a packing error.

Edit 6:

Cloning issue should be fully fixed retroactively now, among several other glitches. The "earth shield" problem is going to require a lot more work, so in the meantime I made it OP by making the thing unkillable (Not completely but you'd have to work for it) to bypass the glitch.

-Geomancer's earth shield causes crash when dies protecting someone. Implemented workaround (Made shield have stupid health) until error solved.

-Real retroactive fix for party order problems. Probably for sure for all circumstances.

-Fixed using admin's key card skipping a large chunk of explanation text and a choice (There's another, boring, solution).

-Fixed being able to avoid an encounter in the meat plant due to collision.

-Fixed several other meat plant math route related errors

-Fixed case sensitivity eyebrow issue for linux users.

Edit 5:

Figured out the cloning issue. For real this time. Hopefully this is the start of the timer for the public version

Patch Notes:

-Fixed not present sound files for ember hound summon.

-Fixed, retroactively, FOR REALS THIS TIME, cloning/main character not in front problems.

-Fixed a glitch with the first arena cutscene

-Fixed a problem with the math puzzle

-Fixed glitch with choose to let Erin do what he wants at end of optional dungeon. You must load a save before the event or else it'll load the event as it was in a previous version.

-Fixed glitch with rainbow fragment fusion.

-Fixed glitch where a shower scene picture would stay up.

Edit 4:

OK. Tracked down the rest of the reported errors and found some other ones. I'm figuring out that some of the fixes I put in after testing through actually caused bigger

problems than they solved so I didn't catch them. HOPEFULLY that's all the bugs for this version. Apologies for the problems after such a long wait.

Patch Notes:

-Fixed several borked paths in karaoke event in several ways.

-Fixed Sybil 3.

-Inserted potentially missing file to avoid crashes in the water slime and acid slime fights (couldn't reproduce error so I'm not sure if this helps)

-Fixed end of optional dungeon (WARNING: if you saved mid-cutscene you'll have to load an earlier save for the changes to apply).

-Fixed rainbow fragment fusion event

-Possibly other fixes, kinda lost track while multi-tasking.

-Some typo correction.

Edit 3: Hopefully the last fix version so I can start the clock to make this version public.

Patch notes:

-ESPer class 3 now does not freeze because someone tries to walk through a podium backwards.

-Not hanging out with Erin 2 times before a certain date no longer causes a softlock.

Edit 2: There was a glitch causing the new optional dungeon to not actually be accessible. If you ran into it, this fix is retroactive. Just enter the train again and you'll be whisked off.

Patch note:

-Fixed glitch getting to optional dungeon.

Edit: Some of you might've noticed some glitchiness with the latest version. Whelp, that calls for a fix version. The links below contain the updated version

Patch notes:

-fixed some party order errors that cause a bunch of cutscene chaos clones. Should be fixed retroactively (Probably, didn't account for the Alia bit).

-Fixed there being a duplicate nurse-droid.

-Fixed a couple incidents where the player would be frozen until reload.

Yo! Sorry for the radio silence and worrying you, but I'm alive and have been ceaselessly working on this update.

First, here are the links:

*Deleted because newest version is elsewhere now*

Non-exhaustive (I know I didn't keep up with updating the patch notes sufficiently) Patch notes (this version isn't going public yet, but will be on patreon within the next few hours):

Patch notes:

-Definitively broke saves, for reals.

-Approximately 375,000 words written, up from approximately 210,000 words.

-Made the Dream Catcher's Lair a little brighter.

-Nerfed some things.

-Added a chest here and there.

-Nerfed monetary gain from killing enemies a smidge.

-Erased the invisible do nothing enemy from the week 3 first visit boss's encounter.

-Fixed Sybil's upgrade event causing a black screen.

-Fixed Delia 2 event

-Added new dungeon (accessed by having done Erin's first two events before 4/26 and 5/4)

-Added Karaoke Outting.

-Added Beauty mark tf.

-Added glasses related hair/coordination tf. (Only accessible by wearing glasses to karaoke, with the voice tf, while making a particular set of choices on the solo path)

-Added a new Marksmanship event with a new class-dependant skill at level 10

-Added a new specialization training with a new class-dependant skill at level 10

-Added Delia repeatable

-Added third Delia event.

-Added new optional dialogue options for Delia.

-Added quest entries to track character affection and progress.

-Added options entry to turn off text noises (Only works when within the game, not from the starting menu)

-Added option to swap the menu name of the main character between male/female

-Added message log. Press shift during dialogue to bring up a log of previous messages (slight glitch where a random number appears in text that the MC speaks)

-Added ability to hide windows by pressing the "1" key.

-Revamped icons

-Added tooltips for states (It's a bit wonky when in the skills menu, WIP).

-Added ability to reveal weaknesses of enemies when you hit their weaknesses.

-Performance increase.

-Weakness pop up.

-Fixed all furniture-related glitches.

-Made many couches have backs that cover the sitter.

-Added calendar system with 9 days weeks and graphic overlay. Shows free days as well as the section of day you're in.

-Added Dream catcher compulsion and fusion.

-Added Earth Spirit Echo fusion and compulsion.

-Added Beckoner Fragment fusion intitial event (no more past that atm).

-Added gardening free time event related to the echo.

-Added soul degradation system. Fusing with fragments (except the dream catcher fragment) and echoes now increases the amount of time you can go without running into soul collapse event.

-Added game over potential with soul degradation. Depends on satisfaction, minimum satisfaction needed to prevent a game over increases depending on severity.

-Added soul collapse event with a potential tf from it.

-Added cat eyes tf. This TF also makes the dream catcher dungeon much brighter.

-Added event in spiritualism shop.

-Added side quest within Dream Catcher dungeon that can also be helpful for navigation (Miiiiigggggghhhhttttt have some performance issues for the moment).

-Dramatically decreased number of encounters in Dream Catcher dungeon.

-Rebalanced Dream Catcher enemies and encounters to be less grueling.

-Did a complete stat rebalance for all characters and a ton of pieces of equipment.

-Added head equipment for each character so their stats won't trail the MC so much.

-Companion characters now have their stats scale slightly more so they can keep up/exceed with the MC's training and otherwise.

-Made healing items have their healing scale a bit with max HP and level of target so they don't fall behind.

-Increased Sybil's healing scaling.

-Fixed Delia's partake to no longer give flame cloak, instead properly gives her a buff.

-Fixed syntax error in equip requirements making equip requirements not apply.

-Added option to add choice noises.

-Changed way hair color works.

-Tons and tons and tons and tons of typo corrections.

-Tons and tons of plugin edits to make life easier in the long term.

Now some details:

There's been a combination of many things that has lead to this extended delay, and I really should have kept up communication. The reason why I didn't is that... frankly I felt like I was constantly a couple days away from finishing things and that lead to the thought of "if I'm gonna do an update I may as well finish" (Not the first time this has happened, but definitely the worst iteration of this) I have had some family deaths from covid, but that isn't really an excuse. 

Missing a deadline by this much made me a bit afraid of checking anything until I was finished if I'm being perfectly honest. I haven't withdrawn anything from Patreon since April either since I was in a "finish, finish, finish" sorta state.

Word-wise the project has gone from containing about 210k words to containing 375k words, but it REALLY doesn't feel like there's 165k new words worth of new content, unfortunately. The karaoke event alone has 40,000 of those words. Of course, words alone are only a slice of the total picture, I made a lot of resources, edited plug-ins, hit my head against the wall of a few major problems for a long period, added new options, and did yet another complete rebalance (What annoys me is that I feel my first iteration of stat balance was the best one minus a few details, but it didn't work with stat minuses). Still, if it weren't for getting stuck on the karaoke event and bar event (that's definitely still not finished unfortunately...) I would've been done in april. There's also a lot of unimplemented text in that between the bar scene, Vanity dungeon (added a different optional dungeon due to the vanity dungeon being and iteration nightmare), seki/kita events that I need maps for and more.

The reason why I had absolutely no grasp of how long it'd take is... writer's block is hard to account for, not to mention I didn't think the iterations for the karaoke event alone would add up to ~1/5 of the game's previous word count. I was still able to make some other events within days (Literally got all five of the new trainer events done in about 3 days) but the Karaoke and Bar events (The bar event isn't even finished) were massive sumbling blocks. There's also other things like spending a weeks editing/creating resources, then losing days to cutting some fat off of a lot of things (turns out having thousands upon thousands of icons in one sheet can cause some loading delays! Compacting that lead to me having to redo the entire database of icons, and there are still some icon-related errors so if you see that, you know why). Also spent a week getting a plug-in to work for a couple skills.

I actually started both the bar and Karaoke events back in November of last year, is the annoying part. In hindsight I should've just made them into completely separate events that occur at different times once I realized that I could only get the card game event in in time last time and fired without it.

Again, sorry for the worry. I'm probably going to make a discord channel (read: up within the next week for Patreon supporters and a bit after that it'll go public, I dunno) to avoid future communication blackouts like this.