Devlogs
Update (20-May-2022)
Hi, All. I wanted to give you a quick update on my progress.
- The good news is that I was able to finish the test harness for officers, and I was also able to confirm that the outfit bug is now fixed. The test harness also lets me do things like change the officer's relationship level, test their scenes, reroll their mission, and of course change their obligations.
- Another good news is that I started working on the lewd morning events, which are based on the main character's outfit state. I wrote about 28 message pieces, and I'm happy with how they turned out. To give some context, whenever this repeatable scene plays, 2 to 3 message pieces will play. Which messages can play depends on several conditions, usually around what the main character is wearing. However, I doubt I can add this to the game before the end of this month. It is likely something I'll add to the game during June.
- I made a balance change, as well. I made the subordinate bonus only check one rank down, instead of all the way down. The previous way made colonels and generals too powerful, I feel. I do want colonels and generals to feel powerful. If you put in the work to unlock them, it should be game-changingly rewarding. But at the previous setting, it was just too much. I also considered nerfing the bonuses you can get in the beginning for the station types, but I decided against it. That's a system that's dear to me, so I'll hold off for now. I also considered reducing the base pay for missions by 20%, but then decided against it. I think let's just see how the subordinate bonus nerf affects the game.
- Another change I made is that I made it so that after relationship level 3, all relationship levels only take 3 relationship points to level up. Previously, higher relationship levels took forever to level up, and you could finish the game before reaching high relationship levels. That's not very fun to me, so I decided to speed it up a bit.
- I've added a Skip button to the story sections. It doesn't actually go past the whole story section. It just takes you to the last message. I did it this way, because the story section might have some important stat changes that the player should be notified about, such as morale changes. I've purposely put the stat changes at the end for this reason.
- I've also added a red or green note when the main character is offered an obligation. The note tells the player if the obligation can be re-rolled or not, the next time the officer is asked for a relationship level up.
- Separately, I'm reviewing and updating the code, in anticipation of adding and updating a lot of lewd story scenes. I actually wrote myself a treasure trove of great methods before for doing just this, and completely forgot about them, haha.
- Lastly, I'm half-half on whether I should make a release next week or at the end of June. If I make a release next week (if testing goes well), it will include the bug fix, balance changes, and quality of life changes, but it won't include the lewd morning events. If I release next month, then I can include the morning scenes and other QoL features, probably. I think it might be better to release next week, because then I can just focus on writing after that. What do you think?
Cheers!