Another boss is introduced in this update, completing the first pair. The new boss is named Splendor, and upon reaching Loop 10 in campaign mode, players will be able to choose between her and Victory when deciding who to face first. Whoever isn't faced in Loop 10 will appear in Loop 15 (and for saves which were already deep into campaign mode before moving to this update, the bosses can also appear in any later loop that's a multiple of 5). Splendor also has a unique single play scenario where you face her, although the amount of items you're given for that scenario is much smaller.
You might reasonably wonder why Splendor's scenario gives you fewer resources if the two bosses are meant to be equivalent. The answer is that many of the challenges presented by Splendor aren't applicable to single play mode. Where Victory represents the pinnacle of active resistance, Splendor represents the pinnacle of passive resistance, causing trouble for you even after you've "defeated" her.
Because Splendor is the leader of the Undead Chosen, this also seemed like a good time to introduce some other Undead-related features. A notable balance change is that Undead Chosen can now survive being "killed" in the final battle - they're treated just as if they managed to escape normally. So, getting their allies to kill them is still useful for the sake of neutralizing the team, but it doesn't actually remove them from the game. On a similar note, there's now a fair amount of content written around normal and Superior Chosen being killed in the final battle and returning as Undead Chosen. If you have a particular Chosen you like, and you want her to become an "advanced" species so that she'll still be relevant later in campaign mode, this is a method to make it happen. In order for a Chosen to be promoted like this, there must be no other Chosen who manage to escape from the final battle - it's fine to turn them into Forsaken, but as soon as any of them escape while remaining Chosen, the game stops looking for a dead Chosen to revive.
More content has been written for bosses in general as well, which means that Victory also has a bit more to make her special. Victory and Splendor have some unique interactions with each other depending on how they meet (such as which of them were defeated first and whether Victory was put on a Distortion path). In order to break up the monotony of the boss loop, Splendor also has a few extra story scenes which play as you progress. If this goes over well, I plan on going back and writing some similar scenes for Victory's loop too.
Finally, there's a new vignette commissioned by Kalloi (who also happened to provide some interesting ideas for Splendor's design which made it into her portrait art). This vignette has some body modification themes, in anticipation of the body-asset-size-tracking system which is coming very soon. It can be found by Minor Innocence Chosen on the Negotiation Distortion path, so they finally have one to go along with the Core and Significant Innocence Negotiation scenes.
Next up, I'll be spending some more time on relationship and custom sex scene content, but I also hope to nail down some game mechanics ideas I've been planning in order to make the campaign mode midgame more interesting. After that, it'll be time to add the next pair of new species: Angels and Devils, which will start taking an interest in the player after Victory and Splendor have fallen.
Click here to download. Mirror.
- Content: Added the Splendor boss fight and some associated story scenes to campaign mode.
- Content: Added the Versus Splendor scenario to single play mode.
- Content: Added one new vignette.
- Content: Added some scenes where normal Chosen or Superior Chosen killed in the final battle can return as Undead.
- Balance: Undead Chosen 'killed' in the final battle are now treated as escaping. Their allies will therefore be more willing to 'kill' them.
- Bugfix: The immediate surround actions when using Networked Consciousness can now include Tempt (as long as the target fits the usual requirements).
- Bugfix: The method for calculating a burnt-out boss's T3 move strengths are now consistent across the damage types.
- Bugfix: The Pass Time button can now appear properly during Curse Lock.
- Bugfix: Use of the Retry system in combat and training will no longer cause some Vulnerabilities to enter a bugged state.
