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Friday, July 30, 2021

Release 20: Observation

The main feature of this update is a new system by which various scenes from the personal lives of the Chosen (and the Forsaken) can be shown.  These scenes, which are referred to as "vignettes," don't have any impact on gameplay mechanics, but they do offer more depth and context for the corruption undergone by the characters.  As part of this system, scenes shown to the player are now saved and can be viewed using a new option on the main menu.  The scene viewer can be used not only for vignettes, but also for viewing the other major scenes which occur during each playthrough.

There are seven vignettes in this first batch, all of which have some sort of sexual content and most of which are very explicit and descriptive in that sexual content.  I'm still experimenting with writing styles for this kind of scene, so I'm interested in hearing feedback about how well it works.  Three of the vignettes are tied to tier-1 Innocence breaks, three are tied to tier-2 Dignity breaks, and the last one is a sex scene between two Chosen, triggered when the one with significant Confidence and the one with minor Confidence have a positive relationship and are moderately corrupted.  Each vignette can show up once per playthrough, and while they don't vary too much from playthrough to playthrough, there are dialogue differences and some minor scenario changes depending on personality and corruption level that should hopefully keep them feeling fresh and appropriate every time they come up.  I intend to continue adding a trickle of vignettes alongside the new gameplay features in future releases.

On the gameplay front, this update includes quite a few adjustments to features that players have reported problems with.  They're listed in the changelog below.

The next update will have some much more significant gameplay changes, as I plan on trying out a major rework of the multiplier balance in order to make PLEA-focused strategies more viable.  We'll also be seeing the first alternative corruption path, which involves turning the Chosen to your side using pleasure and manipulation of the public instead of violence.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

  • Content: Added the vignette system, along with an initial set of 7 vignettes.
  • Interface: Added a scene viewer which may be used to rewatch vignettes, core break interactions, and a few other scenes.
  • Interface: The number of turns each of the Chosen takes before arriving to help each other Chosen can now be viewed in their profiles.
  • Interface: All upgrades, including those already purchased and those with no prerequisites yet owned, can now be viewed in the new "Info" menu.  Chosen profiles from Psychic Reading have been moved to this menu.
  • Interface: The battle status summary is now reprinted every time the player returns to the menu to pick one of the Chosen to target during battle.
  • Interface: The game will no longer attempt to prevent the player from selecting Chosen who cannot be targeted by any actions in the current turn.
  • Interface: When examining surrounded or captured Chosen who are taking continuous damage, the damage they took in the previous turn is now displayed.
  • Bugfix: The multiplier summary will no longer print nonsense when the multipliers are especially large.
  • Bugfix: The first male Chosen to be generated will no longer sometimes use female civilian names.
  • Other: Added a cheat to unlock all upgrades with the push of a single button.
Release 20b:
  • Bugfix: The game will no longer crash when trying to add scene information to a new save file.
Release 20c:
  • Bugfix: Caught another crash related to the same issue.
Release 20d:
  • Bugfix: Creating new custom teams will no longer sometimes crash the game.