Release 63: Denial

This update includes advancements and additions to various subsystems, which were generally too large to fit into an update alongside a major feature, but too small to be the sole focus of an update.  I think that most players will find something to enjoy in this one.

First up, continuing from last month's work, the commented replay system has been expanded to account for item interactions, which means that scenarios involving items can now also be reliably replayed!  On top of that, exporting a .par file will also create a .txt file containing the entire set of instructions for easy review.  A bug which was causing instructions to be overwritten when rewatching the replay has also been fixed.

This release also includes some balance reworks which have been a long time coming.  Angel Chosen have had two of their T3 Adaptation moves completely reworked.  Ego Murder, rather than preventing the player from issuing new orders to Thralls, now ends all Surrounds early, sort of like a Surround-based team-wide Detonate.  And Twisted Reward, rather than providing a huge one-time trauma resolution, now provides very strong damage mitigation to Defiler+ and Orgy actions involving the user.  Lastly, the Aversion Distortion has been buffed so that Aversion Chosen fleeing the battle now enable Orgies (but not Defiler+ actions) as though they were Surrounded and being affected by the same Defiler as their partners.  This means that when two Chosen are suffering from Aversion and fleeing from the battle, the third can actually be put in an Orgy all by herself.

A significant new custom sex scene action commissioned by Kalloi has been added, the Demonic padlock, which deepens the existing orgasm denial content.  Only subjects wearing chastity belts can be targeted by the Demonic padlock, which means that it currently can only affect Forsaken (who can be given chastity in the Customize menu) as well as Chosen who naturally wear chastity belts (currently possible only for custom Chosen whose outfits have specifically been given "persistent" chastity belts, but more ways of applying chastity to the Chosen are coming soon).  When subjects are affected by the Demonic padlock, they lose the ability to orgasm entirely, and this persists even after the end of the custom sex scene.  The padlock will temporarily unlock for Chosen who are trying to commit lustful sins, but it will lock itself up again immediately afterward.  Subjects who have been denied orgasm for a long time will gradually grow more desperate and more submissive in custom sex scenes, as they hope for the Demon Lord to show mercy and allow them release.  A new type of custom sex scene action, "Response," has been added to let the player specifically decide how to handle it when a Demonic padlock subject asks to be let free.

Players who have made a wrong move before starting a battle only to realize that their last save was a few days back should be happy to hear that the game now also allows you to rewind to the start of the day, before doing any purchases or other pre-battle actions!  For save file size reasons, this feature is somewhat limited - it only allows you to return to the start of the day during the current play session, and loading a save will not allow you to revert any actions taken immediately before that save.  But even so, I hope this will be a nice quality of life improvement for players taking on the game's harder challenges.

This update also includes a new feature in the form of a code contribution by one Hoshikawa Emi: the "size limits" feature.  The options menu now includes a setting for applying a maximum and minimum for each body asset size, so that Chosen will never be randomly generated with a size outside the specified range.

Finally, there's also a new vignette commissioned by SuperSkippy, featuring a Core Morality Chosen experimenting with ways to cope with the stresses of battle.  This one was pretty fun to write, so I hope everyone enjoys it.  The details may be found in the vignette checklist.txt file.

As always, there are also a few miscellaneous bugfixes.  Next month, I hope to completely finish the commented replay system, allowing it to account for Forsaken training and the other campaign-specific mechanics.  There are a lot more player actions to account for, and the problem of how exactly to deal with indirect effects on the gameplay from content toggles hasn't yet been solved, so this is going to be a challenge.  We'll see how much side content can be fit in alongside it.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added the Demonic padlock effect to custom sex scenes (requires subject to be wearing a chastity belt).
• Content: Added one new vignette.
• Balance: Completely reworked the effects of Angels' Ego Murder and Twisted Reward actions.
• Balance: Aversion Chosen fleeing from battle now count toward Orgy (but not Defiler+) requirements.
• Bugfix: Love's free deployment from "Pillar of Mercy" will now properly be expended when used.
• Bugfix: Resolved a crash which could happen during clothing customization.
• Other: Added an option to rewind to the start of the day.
• Other: Added "Size limits" feature coded by Hoshikawa Emi.
• Other: The commented replay system is now functional in all scenarios which don't involve Forsaken.

Release 63b

• Bugfix: Angel Chosen trying to use the new version of Ego Murder will now correctly account for the surround durations of Chosen who would be surrounded later on the same turn.
• Bugfix: Resolved some possible crashes due to save compatibility code failing to execute on Day 1 saves which skip the shop screen and go directly into battle.

Release 62: Repetition

This update represents a very significant step forward, though it might take some time before the benefits reach the playerbase as a whole.  After being unusable for a long time, the commented replay system is finally back and better than ever!  With this, experienced players will be able to use in-game tools to save every step of their run, both to compete against each other and to share tips and strategies with newer players.  Now that the game is nearing maturity, it's high time to get polishing features like these worked out.

In repairing the commentary system, I've also worked out a couple of bugs which had been making it more difficult for players to share Chosen teams with each other as well.  The "Export" feature in the Data menu is used to take the current Chosen team (in its Day 1 uncorrupted state) and store it as a .par file which may be easily sent to another player so that they can keep their .sav file without needing to lose all their other progress.  If the playthrough contains commentary (via the Commentary: Write option in the Options menu), then this will also be stored with the .par file.  Presently, this only works for Classic and Challenge mode, but players will soon be able to share entire Campaign mode seeds with each other using this same system.

On the content front, this update contains another system with a lot of future potential in the form of more humanoid Demon Commander customization content commissioned by Kalloi.  When sending a Punisher-type humanoid Commander against the Chosen, the player can now choose to use a "Seductive" approach or a "Humiliating" approach.  Against Chosen suffering from Total Vulnerability Break, this will give you some much more flavorful descriptions than the current default battle text.  Going forward from here, it will be possible to add more approaches and more situations where those approaches give you some more interesting variant flavor.

In the coming month, I'll be continuing to expand the commentary system, as well as take care of some much-needed system reworks and adjustments based on player feedback about the midgame of campaign mode.  And once all of those are finished, it will be time to start looking ahead to the final species and final bosses of Reign's route.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added "Seductive" and "Humiliating" Approaches for humanoid Punisher-equipped Demon Commanders.
• Balance: Love's "Pillar of Mercy" trait now gives her the "Stamina regeneration is based on lower between Hostility and Obedience" effect.
• Bugfix: The Punisher progress from the "Propaganda" item is now correctly reduced by Reign's traits.
• Bugfix: The game will no longer crash when Splendor tries to flip two negative traits but only has one left to flip.
• Bugfix: Boss Forsaken who remain deployable under the Despair Distortion will now correctly display their unique Defiler ability on the Forsaken summary.
• Other: During custom sex scenes, more Deviant Chosen will prefer to use their mouths for things other than kissing.
• Other: The commented replay system is now functional in Classic and Challenge single play modes.

Release 61: Incitement

After last month's brief hiatus, Corrupted Saviors will now be returning to its regular monthly updates!  Now that we're done with the latest wave of bosses, the next phase of development will be all about polishing the game and getting it as stable as possible for the final push which will complete campaign mode.  Much of that polish will come in the form of adding content that takes advantage of the systems implemented during the previous phase of development.

Predictably, a decent chunk of this update is devoted to fixing and tweaking issues that cropped up following Reign's implementation in R60.  This update also includes a significant rework of the Despair Distortion.

Forsaken defeated by Despair will still work the same as they always have, and the basic premise of "fulfill a condition in order to instantly defeat Chosen with Accuse in the final battle" remains the same as well.  However, rather than requiring the player to tediously accumulate a much larger stack of Evil Energy than is ever required anywhere else in the game, the new Despair condition is to blitz toward midgame-levels of Evil Energy generation as quickly as possible.  The base requirement is to hit 30 Evil Energy generated from a single day's downtime actions with at least 30 days remaining before the final battle (thus, the deadline for triggering Despair is Day 20 in a regular single mode game).  The Evil Energy requirement goes up with the number of Morality and Innocence Breaks suffered by the Chosen team, and the deadline gradually relaxes in campaign mode with more levels of the associated achievement.

The other especially notable addition in this update is the unique Chosen dialogue for facing humanoid Demon Lord bodies.  On top of improving the experience for players who like to deal with the Chosen personally, this is also the last requirement before tackling a big chunk of commissioned content planned for next month's update.  That commissioned content should hopefully come alongside some long-needed fixes to the in-game commented replay system.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added Chosen responses when fighting humanoid Demon Lord bodies.
• Content: Added new option to retroactively convert a single play run into a campaign mode run.
• Balance: Reworked Despair Distortion.
• Balance: Reworked Reign's "Fisher King (Superheated Resentment)" trait.
• Balance: Bonus ANGST granted by the Propaganda item increased (1G -> 100G)
• Balance: Devil Chosen's Candle of Snuffed Out Life effect now expires immediately after the final battle.
• Balance: Added a new replacement trait for Negotiation Love when Megalomaniac Victory has been replaced as Second-in-Command.
• Balance: Reign's later appearances will now decrease the amount of difficulty modifiers encountered in the same loop.
• Bugfix: Boss Chosen defeated with Despair will now correctly progress Splendor's corruption.
• Bugfix: Rampant Forsaken deployed using the Hot Tag item will now show their proper reputation strength depending on the Demon Commander used.
• Bugfix: Resolved a possible crash related to the Hot Tag item.
• Bugfix: Victory's profile will now correctly reflect how her Resolve can be damaged in the final battle.
• Bugfix: Reign will no longer be able to fall to Despair while already under the effects of another Distortion.
• Bugfix: The Maneuver bonus to capture duration will no longer fail to be reset after releasing one of the Chosen mid-capture.
• Bugfix: Resolved a softlock that could occur when trying to display a Forsaken vignette when Chosen vignettes were disabled (e.g. because the current loop is a boss fight).
• Bugfix: The extra requirement before triggering Despair when facing Reign will no longer be printed when not applicable.
• Bugfix: Reign's thresholds for using T3 moves will no longer be improperly reset when appearing in later loops.
• Bugfix: Angel Chosen will now correctly display any custom subspecies set by the player.
• Bugfix: Corrected the displayed circumstance damage requirement before Reign begins using her T3 moves.
• Bugfix: Resolved some buggy behavior when Chosen suffer a Core Vulnerability Distortion before all three Chosen have made their first appearance.
• Interface: It is now possible to delete your save file's archive of scene variants.
• Other: Campaign mode random seeds now result in more consistent item choices.
• Other: Chosen meeting each other in private will now be less unfriendly.
• Other: Chosen will now update their mental image of the Demon Lord (relevant for vignettes and some spoken lines) when facing a humanoid Demon Lord body in battle.

Release 61b

• Bugfix: Group downtime actions will no longer sometimes trigger Despair without meeting the Evil Energy requirement.
• Other: Updated the description for the Propaganda item to take into account the recent balance adjustment.