Corrupted Saviors Version 1.03b

This month, I finally tackled the performance issues which have been making the game run slower and slower over time.  There's no other content in this release, but the performance improvements are so significant that I'd still recommend downloading this release, even if you normally only check out the new content each month!  You'll find that the game is much easier to play now.

Solving the performance issues was a bit of an adventure on my end.  My initial assumption was that the slowdown on lategame save files was caused by the code which double-checks to make sure that Chosen from previous versions were compatible with the current version (and because campaign mode always tracks all of the Chosen you've ever seen, keeping multiple lategame campaign mode saves would cause the number of Chosen who need to be checked to climb very quickly).  In order to figure out which functions were consuming the most processing power, I've been training myself to use a tool called VisualVM.  It turns out that the Chosen compatibility code wasn't the main issue, but I still ended up streamlining the code there somewhat, and the ability to use the new tool should be helpful in the future.

The real issue causing the slowdown was the number of times the game accesses the player's save file.  The autosave feature would constantly access the save file, and there were several places where the game would needlessly read the save file even when not loading a save.  This escaped notice during the testing of new features because I'd always be using a small save file to test those features.  But when playing for fun, it's easy for the save files to reach 10+ MB, which is where the constant loading starts to become a noticeable nuisance.

In Version 1.03, I've refactored a bunch of code in order to avoid those unnecessary file loads, and I've also changed the autosave system so that it doesn't need to access the larger main save file.  Even on a slower computer, this should go quickly enough that it can barely be noticed.  The game will still hang a bit when loading the main save file (when starting the game, when opening the load menu after changing the save file, and during a few spots in Wisdom's and Reason's boss fights), but these events are rare enough that the game should be overall much faster to play.

In the coming month, I'll be refactoring Wisdom's and Reason's boss fight mechanics in order to make use of the autosave file so that they'll also run faster, and then I'll be starting on the game balance issues that I want to fix before we get to the alternate endings.  A lot of lackluster items will be getting new gameplay features which should be pretty fun to play with!

Also, unrelated to the above, I've noticed that SubscribeStar has changed the way it displays notifications, and apparently I've missed some new subscribers.  I'd like to extend a belated welcome to them now!  I plan on releasing the first playable beta of Crooked Sword to subscribers a bit earlier than I do to the general public, so I hope you can look forward to that as well!

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Interface: When loading a save file, the "Back to day start" autosave feature (which previously couldn't be used at all) will now revert to that save file.
• Other: Significantly improved performance, especially with the autosave system.
• Other: The text for Reign's first appearance will now explicitly tell the player that it isn't expected to be able to fully defeat her in that loop.

Version 1.03b

• Bugfix: Resolved some improper behavior with the new reload save from mid-battle feature.
• Bugfix: Anaphrodisiac will no longer apply some of its effects to Chosen who haven't been placed on the Aversion Distortion.
• Bugfix: Advanced species campaign custom Chosen will no longer be set to use empty portrait folders by default.
• Bugfix: Custom bodies will no longer sometimes lose the ability to be used to approach the Chosen.

Version 1.03c

• Bugfix: Resolved a bug that could cause save files to be deleted when closing the game after winning a campaign mode loop.
• Bugfix: The Tuned Duplicator will now properly duplicate parts based on its global counter.
• Bugfix: Resolved some buggy behavior when achieving Tier-2 Dignity Break using a Parasitism-type Demon Commander.

Corrupted Saviors Version 1.02

This is another update focused on adding requested features and fixing bugs that have come out since the 1.00 release.  Two new cheats have been added for players who want more control over the experience: one which allows you to extend each fight for as long as you'd like, and another cheat which allows you to directly edit the Chosen's Vulnerability Breaks.  The latter cheat can allow you to set up situations which normally wouldn't be allowed by the game (like Chosen being on Distortion paths with Vulnerability Breaks which are supposed to be forbidden), and the resulting flavor text sometimes might not make sense, but I'm fairly certain that there won't be any gamebreaking bugs.

The portrait pack also has another new addition!  The Highest Morality/Lowest Confidence personality type now has a second face associated with it, and that face has variants for all six advanced species.  Previously, Demonslain Undead would simply use the original human portrait set, but this new face has a variant for that subspecies as well.  Eventually, I'd like to do the same for all of the subspecies which presently use human faces.

Now that I'm catching up with the requested feature list, my next focus is going to be on improving the game's performance.  I'm hopeful that Version 1.03 will yield a noticeable improvement.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added seven new faces to the default portrait pack.
• Interface: Added an option to delete all campaign custom Chosen at once.
• Bugfix: Free surrounds from the Aversion Distortion will now properly have their length increased by SHAM opening levels.
• Bugfix: Animalistic Chosen now take higher-tier Forsaken species into account when deciding whether to use Frenzy.
• Bugfix: Resolved a crash that could occur during a between-loop plot scene.
• Bugfix: It's no longer possible to place Reign under multiple Distortions at once.
• Other: Added a cheat to extend the length of each battle.
• Other: Added a cheat to directly edit each Chosen's Vulnerability Breaks during play.
• Other: Added a section to the resources.txt file which links to existing mods made for the game (currently just one).

Corrupted Saviors Version 1.01

With this update, we're moving into a phase of polishing and minor tweaks in order to make up for all of the little scuffed spots that have become apparent during the push toward the end of campaign mode.  There are parts of the game that will require full-fledged overhauls (like the difficulty factors in later campaign loops, item balance, and the slow save management system), but charging recklessly into those will just let more of these small issues accumulate and compound upon each other.  It's important to clean up after the last push before moving on to the next one.

Among the features added during this campaign mode cleanup is the last of the Boss Forsaken lines they use when talking about each other.  The "Other Forsaken" lines in the Forsaken menu are a minor thing that you can safely ignore during regular gameplay, but it does expand on the lore a little bit, so players who are interested in that can see how the lines change depending on whether the bosses' relationships are positive and negative, and on how their corruption values match up to each other.  It'll be easier to explore this part once you have more ways of managing relationships between Forsaken, but at least the lines themselves are all in the game now.

The other main content improvement is one that's been requested for awhile now.  During custom sex scenes, characters who can't properly speak (either due to being gagged, being in the middle of a kiss, or being incoherent during orgasm) will now show their thoughts alongside the disrupted dialogue depending on a toggle in the options menu.  By default, characters will show their thoughts only while their mouths are actually blocked (leaving their incoherent orgasming dialogue untouched), but you can enable thoughts being printed during orgasm or disable thoughts being printed entirely depending on your preferences.

This update also has a few minor balance tweaks.  The Distortion-affecting items are probably going to be mostly untouched by the item balance overhaul, so it felt safe to tack on an extra effect to the Anaphrodisiac (the Aversion-related item) in order to bring it in line with the others.  It now provides some bonus Punisher progress to offset the difficulty of getting Aversion Chosen to use T3 moves (similar to what Propaganda does for Negotiation).  Activating warp routes has also become a bit easier, as Reign no longer blocks the Angel warp route when it lines up with her Loop 21 encounter, and facing Wisdom or Reason before Loop 30 now automatically enables the following warp route in order to make up for the fact that they don't give you a new species warp route to attempt.

Finally, I've added a link to a public source code repository for the game.  This way, in addition to supporting mods which can be loaded at runtime, Corrupted Saviors will also support entirely separate forks with their own balance changes or feature additions.  The code isn't well-commented, but I'm here to answer questions for anybody who's interested in maing something!

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Completed the "Other Forsaken" lines for Boss Forsaken talking about each other depending on corruption and relationship.
• Content: Added settings toggle to display Chosen thoughts during custom sex scenes when their mouths are blocked or their speech is incoherent due to orgasm.
• Balance: When defeating Victory in Loop 20 and facing an Angel Chosen in Loop 21, the loop warp condition will ignore Reign's corruption.
• Balance: When defeating Reason or Wisdom before Loop 30, the following loop's warp route will automatically open.
• Balance: The Anaphrodisiac item now provides bonus Punisher progress to catatonic Chosen.
• Interface: In the campaign loop where the warp condition is based on the number of battles fought, the current number of battles fought will be displayed in the Info menu.
• Interface: In campaign mode, the profiles of Chosen who haven't arrived yet will still be shown.
• Bugfix: Resolved a crash when fighting Reign.
• Bugfix: Setting campaign custom Chosen as guaranteed partners will no longer cause them to become their own guaranteed partners.
• Bugfix: Campaign custom Chosen being set as their own guaranteed partners will no longer cause buggy behavior.
• Bugfix: The bonus Punisher progress from the Propaganda item will now be properly reduced for Reign.
• Other: Added a link to the public source code repository in the resources.txt file.

Release 75: Finale

This update finally adds an ending to campaign mode.  I say "an" ending rather than "the" ending, because this is only the first and easiest ending to achieve.  Simply playing until Loop 35 will bring you to your final confrontation with Reign, and while the fight does have a slight twist in that Reign shares some of her power with her partners (and you can choose whether you want those partners to be Mechanical or Elemental), I think that most players who make it this far won't find it to be too difficult.  It might even be a bit of an anticlimax.

Nonetheless, it's still an ending, and that means that the development of Corrupted Saviors is moving to a new phase.  From here on, I'll be less focused on rushing new content into the game, and more focused on making the existing content more pleasant to play.  After looking through feedback over the past month, I think the biggest issues that need to be addressed are (1) game balance, (2) load times, and (3) the clarity of the mechanics as expressed to the player.  I'm going to want to at least begin to address all of these before moving on to the Basis route and the Thousand Chosen Battle which will act as the foundation for the later routes.

After leaving a month to iron out any final issues with the game, I'll be designating the next release as Version 1.0.  This will also give me time to polish up the ending a little more.  There's a bit more unique flavor I'd like to add for players who continue on to endless mode.  Reign also still doesn't have a proper Forsaken form, but this is because there are actually serious balance questions that need to be answered before that point - you'll be able to use the Forsaken Reign as a full-fledged member of your roster for the later routes, which means that I can't just give her a bunch of overpowered postgame-only abilities.  At the same time, she needs to be able to compete with Mechanical Forsaken, and Elemental Forsaken are going to be getting some buffs as part of the coming balance rework.  The later endings will basically ask the player to break the game's balance over their knee, but there needs to be some balance in the first place so that breaking it can feel properly satisfying.

The other immediate goal is a proper "multiplier summary" feature.  Right now, it's very easy to get lost in the sea of additive and multiplicative bonuses the game throws at you by the time you reach the later loops.  By next month, I want the game to be able to show the player a comprehensive list of everything that's happening underneath the hood.  This should also help with the upcoming balance work, since seeing a breakdown of all the multipliers will make it much easier to figure out which ones are simply too weak to be worthwhile.  Until then, I hope everyone enjoys the boss fight!

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added the final boss fight to campaign mode's Loop 35.
• Other: Reign cannot become Forsaken before Loop 35.  Save files where she had become Forsaken will retroactively return her to being one of the Chosen.
• Other: Added the Loop 28 warp route to campaign mode.
• Bugfix: Resolved some crashes that could occur when traveling between cities.
• Bugfix: It's no longer possible to enter a bugged warp route on Loop 31.

Release 75b

• Bugfix: Creating a new save file will no longer sometimes put the game into a bugged state.

Release 74: Comprehension

This is another smaller release, following last month's new boss battle and leading up to the final battle of campaign mode which is coming next month.  The main new addition is the "Versus Wisdom" scenario which has been added to single play mode.  Because the Wisdom boss fight is about seeing how many iterations of increasing difficulty you're prepared to face, and because scenarios always start the player at the same level of power (based on how many items they give you), Wisdom's scenario works a bit differently from all the others.  After you've completed it once, another sub-scenario is unlocked which makes Wisdom more difficult in exchange for starting you with a few more items.  The items probably won't quite be strong enough to make up for the increased difficulty, which means that beating Wisdom in the base scenario isn't too hard, but the later scenarios will definitely test your skills.

This release also adds a fair number of new Favorite Forsaken smalltalk lines.  The new lines fall into two categories: those which are spoken by Boss Forsaken (replacing lines which didn't make sense for a Boss Forsaken to say) and those which are spoken by regular Forsaken regarding Boss Chosen who have already been defeated.  This is really just a minor update to an optional feature which some players might not even use, but players who care about the lore might find it interesting.

Among the bugfixes this month is one for an issue with the "To Day Start" retry system which could cause the game to be put in a bugged state where some combat-related variables weren't reset properly.  This would cause strange behavior like Chosen starting the battle Surrounded, and saving the game in this state would cause the bugged behavior to persist even after closing the game and opening it again.  This should be fixed in R74, and saves which were previously bugged should work properly, but please let me know if something like this is still occurring.

Next month should bring us to the conclusion of campaign mode!  Reign's boss fight, which is presently in a half-complete placeholder state, will be fully implemented, and the final battle on Loop 35 will be added!  It's taken quite awhile to get to this point, but once the main path through the game has been completed, we'll be free to go around and add side feature and polish without needing to worry about whether later additions will conflict with them.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added the Versus Wisdom scenario to single play mode.
• Content: Expanded the Favorite Forsaken smalltalk system with a bunch of new lines (mostly related to former Boss Chosen).
• Bugfix: Fixed a crash that could happen on the data menu.
• Bugfix: Resolved saves being put into a bugged state after using the "Return to day start" option in battle.
• Bugfix: Forsaken should no longer sometimes crash the game when giving birth in between campaign mode loops.

Release 74b

• Bugfix: Wisdom's loop preview will no longer display incorrect partner species, and the difficulty modifiers of that loop will no longer be generated as though those incorrect species were being used.
• Bugfix: The Dimensional Kaleidoscope will now produce Forsaken with the full effects of the listed Distortion.
• Bugfix: Elemental Forsaken with the Dissociative Identity (Torment Monsoon) trait will no longer allow Surrounded Chosen to escape to the sky early when released by the Forsaken's Capture ability.

Release 73: Wisdom

This release introduces the final of the species-based boss fights: Wisdom, the leader of the Elemental Chosen!  With this, campaign mode is almost complete.  There are no species or bosses to be unlocked after beating Reason and Wisdom.  All that's left is to implement the final battle and the alternative story routes (which will involve a few new unique mechanics and boss fights once we get there).

The battle against Wisdom will begin to appear in campaign mode as an option 5 loops after you've defeated Love, which means that the soonest you can face her is Loop 20.  Of the two boss fights, Wisdom is definitely the easier one.  However, you'll be in a much better position in later loops if you prepare for a tough fight before taking her on.

Without spoiling too much, I can say that corrupting Wisdom isn't a binary thing.  The further you're able to push her, the more you'll get out of her as one of the Forsaken.  In principle, you can make her as strong as you like by corrupting her more and more.  In practice, there aren't currently any further unique mechanics after you acquire the "Energy from Other Universes" Forsaken trait, and everything after that just makes the numbers larger.  Depending on player interest, I might add more stages and rewards to the boss fight, but the fight as its stands is already 'complete' in the sense that there's really no point in fighting her past the current end of content.

Next up, I'm going to be working on the finale of campaign mode, but I'm also going to be shifting focus toward fixing longstanding bugs and balance issues, and improving how well the game runs now that I can be more confident that new mechanics aren't going to spoil any code improvements I try to write.  A bit of this has already made it into the current update (players should find that the shop screen runs much more smoothly now), and I'm hopeful that the game will become much easier to enjoy in the coming months.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added the Wisdom boss fight to campaign mode after Love has been defeated.
• Content: Added Wisdom's portraits to the default portrait pack.
• Bugfix: The "Siphon" Forsaken Defiler action's button will now correctly appear.
• Bugfix: Fixed an error when displaying building costs under Reason's Distortion traits.
• Bugfix: Corrected an off-by-one error when determining the Omelette du Malefice Evil Energy bonus.
• Bugfix: Resolved some incorrect behavior when using the Abrogation Resonator after the first turn of battle.
• Bugfix: Reason's Operation: Extreme Violence Application will no longer crash the game.
• Bugfix: Humanoid Demon Commanders will now display the appropriate portrait for their gender.
• Bugfix: Resolved an error when attempting to progress past Reason's loop in campaign mode.

Release 73b

• Bugfix: Resolved a potential crash that could happen when the Favorite Forsaken was unable to find a valid topic for smalltalk.
• Bugfix: Resolved a crash that could occur when Wisdom would use one of her abilities.
• Bugfix: Resolved a crash when attempting to read data for Chosen who aren't part of an active save file.

Release 72: Answer

This is another smaller update while I clean up lingering bugs from the Reason boss fight and prepare for the upcoming Wisdom boss fight.  A couple of minor interface improvements which have been on the to-do list for awhile also found their way into the release.

The main new addition is the ability to face Reason is single play mode.  The new "Versus Reason" scenario was very difficult to balance, since she's even more difficult than would be expected for a boss fight late in campaign mode.  You're meant to "burn all your resources" to beat Reason, because the nature of her simulation mechanics means that those resources will remain available in the real world.  For a player without access to Forsaken, the number of items you need in order to reach that level of power is high.  There's also a large degree of randomness in how well the items you get will synergize with each other, which means that the scenario can be pretty easy or extremely difficult depending on your luck.

I'm still including the scenario just so that players who don't like to play deep into campaign mode will still be able to experience Reason's mechanics and story, but it's still recommended to face her in campaign mode as originally intended.

Next month will be the introduction of the final species-based boss fight, Wisdom!  Like Reason, she has a pretty crazy gimmick, but I've already done a significant chunk of the work required to implement her this month, so she should be done on schedule.  I hope you all look forward to it!

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added the Versus Reason scenario to single play mode.
• Interface: The Forsaken roster may now be reordered.
• Interface: The player may now choose to waive the usual extra action granted by Networked Consciousness when using a surround-type Demon Commander.
• Bugfix: When facing Reason, the "To Round 1" retry option will now properly keeps everyone in their appropriate simulation universe.
• Bugfix: Elemental Chosen no longer fail to activate their Elemental Surge when the Demons retreat from battle.
• Bugfix: The gender composition of Chosen teams can now be changed mid-campaign.
• Bugfix: Warp routes will no longer be available when they're not supposed to be.
• Bugfix: Operation: Entice Thralls to Betrayal will now consistently forbid non-PLEA-inflicting actions.
• Bugfix: Operation: Leech Demonic Energy will now properly stop providing damage reduction when the user performs an action generating zero Evil Energy.

Release 71: Reason

This update adds the first of the endgame bosses: Reason, leader of the Mechanical Chosen!  Reason will first appear 5 loops after Judgment is defeated.  As a scientist whose knowledge of the workings of psychic energy has allowed her to replace her own body with mechanical parts, she's an exceptionally powerful and resolute opponent.

From a gameplay perspective, Reason can be treated as effectively a "final boss."  Similar to the Mechanical Chosen who serve under her, Reason's Forsaken abilities once defeated are all about making the player stronger over time.  If you can beat her as early as Loop 25, then it'll be easy for your power level to snowball to the point that the actual final boss on Loop 35 will become trivial.  Even if you delay fighting Reason until Loop 30, the extra efficiency she adds when crafting buildings will still make you a lot more powerful by the true endgame.

This is important, because Reason's city is an exceptionally difficult fight.  She has her own unique set of Operations (which are now also listed in the mechanical operations.txt file), and you'll need to figure out which ones to aim for and which Operations to manipulate her allies into using in order to make the fight winnable.  Don't be afraid to burn all your resources (mechanical parts, limited Forsaken abilities, etc.) in order to beat her!  She has a special gameplay mechanic you'll discover which encourages you to do just that.

Because the fight is so difficult, and because it assumes that you've spent all of campaign mode building up the resources to take it on, there's currently no single play version of the fight.  I'll probably need to tweak some of Reason's mechanics in order to make the fight fair for players who don't have a Forsaken roster.  Until then, campaign mode is the only way to face her.

Now that this is done, I'm going to be moving directly to implementing Reason's Elemental counterpart, Wisdom, as soon as possible.  Like Reason, Wisdom makes use of some pretty tricky mechanics in her boss fight, so I expect this to take 2 months as well.  Until then, I hope everyone enjoys the beginnings of the endgame!

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added the Reason boss fight to campaign mode after Judgment has been defeated.
• Content: Added Reason's portraits to the default portrait pack.
• Bugfix: Resolved some incorrect behavior when recapturing a Chosen who had been subjected to the "Add to Orgy" Aversion Forsaken ability earlier in the battle.
• Bugfix: When bargaining with Splendor, the bargain to make the next loop easier will no longer expire before the next loop actually starts.

Release 71b

• Bugfix: Resolved an issue where Distortions other than Despair wouldn't properly carry over to Reason's Foraken's form.

Release 70: Flexibility

This is just a small release to hold everyone over while I work on implementing Reason's boss fight, but it does have a couple of features which might prove enjoyable.  The first is the introduction of a new position to custom sex scenes.  In addition to being "on top of someone," "below someone," and "on her back," it's now also possible for custom sex scene participants to be "bent over."  This position is basically used as an invitation to penetration, and Forsaken with high Deviancy and Obedience (or who are especially enamored with everyone present in the scene) will use it to make it easier for you to give them what they want.

The other new addition is something the game hasn't received for quite awhile: a completely new face in the default portrait pack!  Ever since the introduction of the first advanced species, the number of basic human faces in the default portrait pack has remained at 16, and the only new addition has been advanced-species-variants of those faces.  But as Corrupted Saviors starts to near completion, I want to start filling out all the duplicate faces so that players are less likely to see repeats.  The new face is currently shared between Triumph and Stigma, and the portrait pack also includes their advanced species versions (Catgirl, Vampire, Succubus, Seraph, and Night Elemental).

Aside from a couple of bugfixes and minor improvements, the rest of the work this month went into working on Reason's boss fight so that I could be sure that it'd be finished next month.  If I overprepared, then there might be some time to squeeze in some of the extra content that otherwise would've been done this month, but I wouldn't bet on it.  The gimmick of Reason's fight is a pretty crazy one, and finishing the implementation and playtesting will take some work.  I look forward to showing it off!

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Implemented the "bent over" position in custom sex scenes.
• Content: Added six new faces to the default portrait pack.
• Interface: The corruption summary screen when Reign's Distortion plan is set to Despair will now more clearly express the Vulnerability Breaks required.
• Bugfix: Elemental Forsaken defeated through Despair will properly remain deployable.
• Bugfix: Resolved some cases where bonuses from the number of Elemental or Mechanical Forsaken defeated wouldn't properly be multiplied according to their species tier.
• Other: Player-input Forsaken text colors will no longer be overridden by the Trainer position's text color.

Release 70b

• Bugfix: Resolved some buggy behavior in Reign's "Contagious Angst" trait.
• Bugfix: Reign's forced escape after Vulnerability Break should no longer sometimes put her in a bugged capture state.
• Bugfix: Defeating boss Forsaken without adding them to your roster no longer potentially fails to open the following warp route.
• Bugfix: The game will no longer crash when attempting to generate an item-containing warp route while the player already owns every item.
• Other: Reign's "Demonic Resonance" trait text is now more clear about how Distortions also trigger it.

Release 69: Elementalism

This release marks a major milestone: with the addition of Elemental Chosen, all of the species planned for campaign mode have been added to the game!  I enjoy adding new species with all their various gameplay twists, but any new species added after this point will be firmly in the realm of optional, postgame content.  I'll only be considering that sort of thing after campaign mode is done.  We're getting close.

Elemental Chosen are the counterpart to Mechanical Chosen.  Where Mechanical Chosen had a bunch of different Operations to force you to plan and navigate your route for how you'd corrupt them, Elemental Chosen are built around huge amounts of brute-force damage resistance.  They're unique among the advanced species in that the brunt of their damage resistance is applied to trauma damage, rather than circumstance damage (although they reduce that by a fair amount too).  They still require some finesse, though, because fighting them without breaking any Vulnerabilities causes them to directly advance the day counter.  Finally, their T3 Break moves are also unique in that their use of the moves applies damage reduction which gradually become stronger and stronger over time, even if they get Surrounded or Captured later.  I hope that they'll bring back the feeling of facing Animalistic Chosen in early loops, but at a level of difficulty appropriate for later loops, and with a few unique twists of their own.

Alongside Elemental Chosen, Elemental Forsaken are also now fully implemented!  Their general theme is that they deal huge amounts of damage, supported by bonus effects which are powerful, but which also come with some drawbacks to their usability.  For example, Elemental Second-in-Command Forsaken spend their Stamina to deal even greater damage, but as long as they're deployable, they stop any other Forsaken from being deployed.  Overall, Elemental Forsaken provide a lot more up-front power compared to Mechanical Forsaken, so the choice of which ones to unlock first in campaign mode should be an interesting one.

As I said further up, we're approaching the conclusion of campaign mode.  The main challenge now is the addition of the boss fights for Mechanical Chosen and Elemental Chosen.  Both of them are going to introduce some pretty crazy mechanics to the game, so I want to get an early start on working on them.  Until then, I hope that players will enjoy having the full selection of species to play with!

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added Elemental Chosen to campaign mode following Love's defeat.
• Content: Added the Elemental Clash scenario to single play mode.
• Content: Added 16 new faces to the default portrait pack.
• Bugfix: Mechanical Chosen will no longer skip Operation levels when starting new Operations.
• Bugfix: Reign's Contagious Angst Distortion trait will now properly not give any bonus damage reduction to Devils.
• Bugfix: Resolved a rare crash that could happen when bargaining with Splendor.

Release 69b

• Bugfix: Resolved some buggy behavior in the "Force Level 3 Operation after suffering two T3 Breaks" effect for Mechanical Chosen.
• Bugfix: Resolved a couple of cases where Chosen belonging to species with special transformation outfits would fail to use them.

Release 69c

• Bugfix: Resolved some issues (including at least one crash) when appointing your save file's Forsaken to positions in single play mode, then converting that save to a campaign one.
• Bugfix: Resolved some buggy interactions between the Angelic Chosen's Ego Murder ability and Capture mechanics.

Release 68: Differentiation

This is an update which takes care of a bunch of minor things that were slated to be done before the introduction of the final advanced species, Elemental Chosen.  It includes a few final bugfixes and tweaks to Mechanical Chosen along with some additions to custom sex scenes.

The tweaks to how Mechanical Chosen work could be pretty significant depending on your playstyle.  Previously, it was possible to "run out of Breaks" before the Mechanical Chosen had progressed all the way to one of the Level 4 Operations.  Once the Mechanical Chosen had suffered Total Break in all Vulnerabilities, it wouldn't be possible to progress her to another Operation, and the only way to win the loop would be to have the final battle before the Operation's deadline.

In order to fix this, there are now alternative conditions to make the Mechanical Chosen progress directly to a later Operation level.  Mechanical Chosen who have suffered at least two T3 Breaks will progress directly to a Level 3 Operation, and Mechanical Chosen who have suffered at least two Total Breaks will progress directly to a Level 4 Operation.  This makes them easier in some ways, but more difficult in others.  It's now harder to farm energy from Mechanical Chosen for an early Imago Quickening while keeping them stuck in the easier Level 1 or Level 2 Operations.  But at the same time, you don't need to worry about running out of Vulnerability Breaks, because every fully-corrupted Mechanical Chosen will progress directly to the much easier Level 4 Operations.

The custom sex scene additions are mostly focused around making the different species feel unique.  Most of the changes are just to the number balance, but there are also a couple of new actions.  The first action, "Hack," can only be targeted at Mechanical bodies, and only by other Mechanical bodies or by the Demon Lord.  Mechanical Chosen now innately feel much less pleasure during custom sex scenes, but the Hack action multiplies their bodies' sensitivity, and it can be stacked multiple times.  The other action, "Tentacle Bondage," allows non-player participants to tie each other up for the first time.  So, if you want one of your Forsaken to be able to tie the others up during custom sex scenes, just customize her body to give her tentacles and see what she does!

Next month will be the introduction of Elemental Chosen.  Their gameplay mechanics are actually quite simple, and their Forsaken counterparts don't have anything nearly as complicated as the Mechanical Forsaken basebuilding system, so I expect that there won't be any need to split them across two releases this time.  The bosses associated with Mechanical and Elemental Chosen, however, are another story.  They're going to push the gameplay system of Corrupted Saviors to its limits, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Custom Sex Scenes: Added body customization for number of arms.  Gallu Devil Chosen are now generated with 4 arms.
• Custom Sex Scenes: Added option to give bodies tentacles.  Added the "Tentacle Bondage" action, usable with tentacles.
• Custom Sex Scenes: Animalistic bodies now have greater endurance and sensitivity.
• Custom Sex Scenes: Undead bodies are now less sensitive, but have overwhelmingly greater endurance.
• Custom Sex Scenes: Angel bodies now gain greater pleasure from actions which give their partner pleasure.
• Custom Sex Scenes: Devil bodies are tougher and inherently sadistic (gaining pleasure from actions which cause trauma and hatred), but also gain HATE much more quickly.
• Custom Sex Scenes: Mechanical bodies now have much lower sensitivity, but greater endurance.
• Custom Sex Scenes: Added the "Hack" action usable on Mechanical bodies by other Mechanical bodies and by the Demon Lord, which multiplies the subject's sensitivity.
• Balance: Mechanical Chosen with at least two T3 Breaks will now always start a L3 Operation.  Mechanical Chosen with at least two Total Breaks will now always start a L4 Operation.
• Interface: Reign's display in the Bosses screen now summarizes the global bonuses granted by her corruption.
• Bugfix: Mechanical Operation: Excise Sinful Impulses will no longer prevent new T3 Break moves from being unlocked.
• Bugfix: Mechanical Chosen will properly report when the protection of Operation: Observe Demonic Battle Tactics expires.
• Bugfix: Save compatibility will now be checked for "Next City" options generated before switching to a new version.
• Bugfix: Mechanical Chosen will now be smarter about estimating future damage for T1 Break purposes.
• Bugfix: The pregnancy progress of spared Forsaken will no longer be frozen.
• Other: Campaign custom Chosen may now be set to adopt multiple species in order to fit themselves into a city.

Release 68b

• Bugfix: Resolved a custom sex scene crash involving regular human Chosen.
• Bugfix: Resolved a vignette crash with Minor Dignity Chosen.
• Bugfix: Corrected some damage overflow code which wasn't working properly.
• Bugfix: Abrogation Resonators will no longer trigger improperly when a multiple of 3 have been built.
• Bugfix: Some Level 4 Mechanical Operations with swapped in-battle text have been fixed.
• Bugfix: Megalomaniac Chosen killed by Megalomaniac Splendor will still be counted as "broken" for the purpose of their species-specific achievements.
• Bugfix: Megalomaniac Mechanical Chosen killed by Megalomaniac Splendor will still be counted as "broken" for the purpose of the Tandem Resonator.
• Bugfix: Non-Distorted Mechanical Forsaken spared via Splendor will properly grant their Corrupt Capacitors.
• Bugfix: The option to customize Boss Chosen before starting campaign mode will now be properly displayed again.

Release 67: Industrialization

This update integrates the newly-added Mechanical Chosen into campaign mode after Judgment has been defeated, adding their associated warp route and their functionality as Mechanical Forsaken once defeated!  In their initial state, Mechanical Forsaken are almost identical to the regular Forsaken you'd get from beating the Chosen of Loop 1.  They have the ability to Release targets before the natural end of the Capture, but they lack the damage buffs and other innate effects that usually make advanced species stronger.

However, Mechanical Forsaken have the ability to generate Mechanical Parts.  There are 7 types of Mechanical Part, corresponding to the 6 Distortions plus 1 type of part generated by Mechanical Forsaken who were defeated without a Distortion.  Once any Mechanical Parts have been generated, the "Other Minions" menu in Forsaken management will become the "Base" menu where you can combine any pair of Mechanical Parts to create Constructions.

The Constructions created from two of the same Mechanical Part grant small global buffs to all of your Forsaken.  However, the true power of the Construction system is unlocked by combining different kinds of Mechanical Part together.  Many Constructions grant buffs specifically to Mechanical Forasken, and these buffs all stack multiplicatively with each other, which means that heavy investment into the Construction system can let your Mechanical Forsaken reach damage values far beyond what's possible for other Forsaken.

In order to give players a chance to experiment with the system before trying to master it late in a campaign mode run, I've added a new "Parts" cheat for campaign and single play runs which gives you a bunch of Mechanical Parts to try building with.  If you want to see what they can do, I'd recommend also customizing one of your Forsaken in cheat mode in order to change her species to Mechanical so she can benefit from the buffs.

Aside from the usual bugfixes and tweaks, this update also adds some code contributed by Keldon which can load player-written mods from the options menu without needing to download an entirely separate version of the game.  Presently, it's not really practical to use since it doesn't have any supporting documentation or examples written, but I plan on fixing that soon.  Take this as a preview of what's to come.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added Mechanical Chosen to campaign mode following Judgment's defeat.
• Content: Added the Base menu and construction system after any Mechanical Forsaken parts have been generated.
• Balance: The Mechanical Clash scenario will now provide the player with slightly more items.
• Interface: The Chosen profile display now tracks how many times you've made a truce together while on the Negotiation Distortion path.
• Interface: Even when the Chosen are all Surrounded or Captured, the current extermination progress rate per free Chosen will still be shown.
• Bugfix: Resolved some cases where Mechanical Chosen would start the wrong operation after having Vulnerabilities broken.
• Bugfix: The Entice Thralls operation will no longer incorrectly allow some non-PLEA-inflicting surround actions.
• Other: Added the Parts cheat to the cheat menu for generating Mechanical Forsaken parts in campaign or single play mode.
• Other: Added the Loop 21 warp route to campaign mode.
• Other: Added bare-bones support for player-created mods, contributed by Keldon.

Release 67b:

• Bugfix: Added some missing code that was causing Corrupt Capacitors to not be generated.
• Bugfix: Resolved an issue that was causing only Forsaken to properly increment their orgasm counts during custom sex scenes.

Release 66: Mechanization

With this release, we're once again pushing deeper into the gameplay features which will be needed in order to finish campaign mode.  And as the first step on that push, Mechanical Chosen have now been added to the game!  Mechanical Chosen have a pretty diverse set of abilities, and Mechanical Forsaken will introduce several more, so I ended up opting to focus purely on the Chosen side of things for this update.  The Mechanical Clash scenario has been added to single play mode, but facing Mechanical Chosen in campaign mode (and making use of their Forsaken counterparts) will have to wait for next month.

The theme of the Mechanical Chosen is that they represent human ingenuity and proactivity.  As such, they don't need to wait until the final battle before trying to destroy the Demon Lord.  Mechanical Chosen conduct "Operations" which count down, day-by-day, to the destruction of the Demonic hive (which means game over).  Furthermore, each Operation grants powerful bonuses to the Mechanical Chosen or to her team as a whole.  Operations can be disrupted by breaking the Mechanical Chosen's Vulnerabilities, but if you aren't careful, you might end up in a situation where the buff granted by the current Operation prevents you from progressing her corruption in the way you had planned.  More than any other species up to this point, Mechanical Chosen require you to plan ahead, so you should read up on what their Operations do and decide which ones you want to trigger!

Because so many of the Mechanical Chosen species were explicitly designed to be indistinguishable from humans at a casual glance, the number of new faces added to the default portrait pack is a bit smaller than usual.  (That said, the "inhuman"ness of the remaining ones is pretty striking - I got a lot of questions about what Mechanical Chosen would look like in the leadup to this update, and I hope those who were interested in this sort of thing will be happy with the result.)  In any case, this freed me up to go back and add more portraits to Animalistic Chosen.  The "songbird" Animalistic subspecies no longer just uses regular human portraits, so this should help people imagine how they're meant to look different despite their lack of animal ears.

This release also has a decent chunk of content commissioned by Kalloi!  The orgasm denial fetish vignette now has a continuation, and that continuation unlocks a new Forsaken tool, the Maid's Cage, which the subject can use to subject other Chosen to more of the same.  Furthermore, the orgasm denial fetish itself has also gotten a bit of new functionality, so that Chosen who have it maxed out will take extra PLEA from related actions in custom sex scenes, and the edged orgasm can end up so intense that it actually knocks them out.

In the coming month, I'm going to be working on the "minigame" that Mechanical Chosen will introduce when converted to Forsaken in campaign mode.  It'll be possible to start doing some pretty crazy things once you have Mechanical Chosen improving your hive.  Once this has been fully implemented, players who are interested in playing beyond the end of campaign mode should have some options that let them do so.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added the Mechanical Clash scenario to single play mode.
• Content: Added 12 new faces to the default portrait pack (10 for Mechanical Chosen, 2 for Animalistic Chosen).
• Content: Added one new vignette.
• Content: Added one new Forsaken tool, the Maid's Cage, unlocked by that vignette.
• Content: Added the orgasm denial vulnerability effect to Chosen with a maxed-out edging fetish for custom sex scenes.
• Interface: Clarified the trait transfer display when using the Velvet Key.
• Bugfix: Spared Forsaken will now correctly have their deployment in battle immediately cancelled.
• Bugfix: The item selection for Loop 15 will no longer break the random seeding in campaign mode.
• Bugfix: Resolved some cases where swapping Forsaken positions around wouldn't immediately take effect.
• Bugfix: Species-determined outfits (previously just mummies always wearing the cloth strips outfit, but now also armor pilot and robot maid Chosen) are now consistently applied.
• Bugfix: Resolved some crashes that could be caused by missing Favorite Forsaken smalltalk.

Release 65: Favoritism

This month's release has a single focus: expanding the "Favorite" Forsaken position so that the one in that position can actually talk about more than just her assessment of whether the currently-selected Commander is strong enough.  Whenever you don't have a Commander selected, your Favorite Forsaken will now instead speak on one of many new potential subjects.

The number of topics is quite high, including subjects like how her Vulnerabilities were broken (or, if they were left intact, her opinions regarding breaking them on other Chosen), her feelings about other Forsaken, her thoughts about the other Chosen species, about the boss Chosen, her thoughts on her former partners, and more.  For each of those subjects, the number of variants depending on her personality, her corruption, and her experiences is also quite high.  My hope is that this will help each Forsaken feel more unique, since even two Forsaken with the same initial personality can turn out quite differently depending on how you corrupt them and how you treat them after they become Forsaken.  Forsaken who have any traits relevant to the attitude system (currently just futanari Forsaken and Forsaken who have developed a stance toward orgasm denial training) also have some unique lines appropriate to their attitude.

I normally don't like to focus an update on just one feature like this, but the number of variants that needed to be written was very high, and this is the kind of feature that needs to be implemented all at once, rather than across multiple updates.  I was still able to fit in a couple of bugfixes and minor improvements, and a decent chunk of the month also went into preparing for the introduction of the next species: Mechanical Chosen.

Mechanical Chosen are one of the two endgame Chosen species, encompassing everything from Chosen who wear power armor all the way to outright robotic Chosen.  Their powers will test the player's ability to respond to a wide variety of challenges, and their difficulty is (of course) yet another step above Devil and Angel Chosen.  Next month's update is going to be a big one, so I hope you all look forward to it!

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Implemented "smalltalk" system which allows Forsaken to talk about subjects depending on their personality, corruption, and history (currently only used by the Forsaken in the Favorite position between battles).
• Interface: The natural (most efficient) reputation strength for Rampant Forsaken will now be automatically calculated and displayed in the Forsaken summary screen.
• Bugfix: Fixed a case where loading a campaign save file would put the player directly into battle instead of the shop screen.
• Bugfix: Resolved a crash that could happen when using the Hot Tag with an Aversion Forsaken's unique Defiler ability.
• Bugfix: Resolved some other improper behavior when using the Velvet Key to put the Aversion Defiler on non-Aversion Forsaken.

Release 64: Ecstasy

The main focus of this month's update was to finish the commented replay system.  It should now be fully functional, allowing players to share the exact sequence of moves for their runs in all scenarios and campaign mode!  I also fixed some minor bugs with the system while doing my usual playtest.  For an example of how this system can be used, it might be illuminating to check out SuperSkippy's walkthrough, which has been linked in the resources.txt file.  Even experienced players might be able to learn a thing or two by following along and seeing how a Chosen team can be quickly dismantled.

Although sexual content wasn't the focus of this release, there are still a few new additions to custom sex scenes which might be fun to play around with.  The orgasm system has been completely overhauled so that rather than just being something that happens during the 'damage' phase of the subject's turn, it now has duration and persistent effects.  Characters will usually use alternative dialogue when cumming, and they'll also comment when experiencing a particularly intense continuous orgasm.  Likelihood of continuous orgasm depends on the subject's Deviancy, her PLEA level, and the number of orgasms already experienced in the current scene.  Ruined orgasms get their own dialogue too.

A minor but very entertaining component of this system is that custom sex scene participants will have their speech distorted depending on whether they're continuously orgasming and on the intensity of that orgasm.  Characters using a "speech" type action (like dirty talk) will still say what they meant to say instead of using the orgasm dialogue, but their speech will be a bit messed up by the pleasure.  At very high PLEA levels, they can get pretty incoherent.

Much of the month was spent working on the "smalltalk" system which is meant to let your Favorite Forsaken comment on her history and (depending on Obedience level) provide helpful advice or taunting provocations related to the other species, the bosses, and the general state of the world in your campaign run.  But trying to finish this up alongside all the other stuff this month ended up being a bit over-ambitious.  This feature should be the last one I want to tackle before moving forward to the introduction of Mechanical Chosen, so I'll be continuing to work on it in the coming month!

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Overhauled custom sex scene orgasm mechanics to allow for continuous climax.
• Content: Participants of custom sex scenes will react appropriately when orgasming.
• Content: The commented replay system will now function in all modes of play, including campaign mode!
• Bugfix: Resolved some cases where Chosen captured by humanoid Demon Commanders would use the wrong dialogue lines.
• Bugfix: Performing other actions in between buying a Commander and refunding it will no longer break commented playthroughs.
• Bugfix: There are no longer some sequences of actions for which a commented playthrough will expect a specific action but will not read the current instruction in order to inform the player what that is.
• Other: Improved some of the auto-generated commentary for commented playthroughs to be more clear.
• Other: Bosses who have appeared in story scenes may now be previewed in the Info menu.
• Other: Updated the resources.txt file to point to SuperSkippy's commented tutorial.

Release 64b

• Bugfix: Resolved an error which prevented the player from changing Commanders on a save file which isn't set to write commentary.

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.

Release 60: Reign

With this release, the game finally includes the recurring boss enemy which appears throughout campaign mode: Sovereign Decider Reign.  Unlike the other bosses up to this point, Reign appears to be nothing more than a regular human.  But her persistence and drive for survival are strong enough to make her a formidable foe.  And although it's unlikely that you'll be able to defeat her the first couple of times she appears, you can still exploit her mysterious connection to the Chosen as a whole in order to reach even greater levels of power.

Reign will show up to face you in every 7th loop.  It's possible to defeat her outright by either burning through her large reserve of Resolve or using an instant-defeat Distortion, but it can actually be better to corrupt her more slowly, because every Vulnerability Break against Reign gives you a buff to your damage for the entire playthrough, even in future cities.  Furthermore, while Reign is under a Distortion, a powerful and unique effect related to that Distortion will take effect, which also continues even in future cities.

Because Reign's mechanics are tied to facing her multiple times across multiple cities, she doesn't have a single play scenario like the other bosses.  This might be a good time for players who haven't tried campaign mode recently to give it a shot!

This release marks 60 consecutive monthly releases.  The next month will be the first where I don't plan on releasing a new version of Corrupted Saviors, because I'll be polishing and preparing a side project for its public release.  This side project will not be receiving monthly updates, so after that, Corrupted Saviors will return to its regular monthly schedule in January.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added the recurring Reign boss fight to campaign mode on every 7th loop
• Content: Added Reign's portraits to the default portrait pack, updated Basis's portrait with a full expression set
• Bugfix: Corrected a logic error which could result in Spared Forsaken ending up in the wrong contingent
• Bugfix: Boss Chosen who escape the final battle will no longer reappear in later loops in a buggy state
• Bugfix: Loops with only Angel and regular human Chosen will no longer display as containing only regular humans
• Other: The Loop 7 warp route now has a different condition, described in the campaign map.txt file

Release 60b

• Bugfix: Resolved a crash that would happen when customizing the appearance of a single play custom Chosen.
• Bugfix: The game will no longer fail to print the updated body description when giving a Demon Lord body an ovipostor.
• Bugfix: Resolved some buggy behavior surrounding Demon Lord orgasms during custom sex scenes.
• Other: Corrected some misleading text for Reign's Negotiation Distortion trait.

Release 60c

• Bugfix: Resolved some buggy behavior when Reign is defeated.
• Bugfix: Resolved a crash that could happen when Reign or Love would escape the final battle.
• Bugfix: Corrected an error in the save compatibility function which would strip boss Forsaken of their boss abilities.

Release 60d

• Bugfix: Resolved a custom sex scene crash.
• Bugfix: Animalistic Chosen using Surrender to Instincts will no longer cause a crash when targeted.

Release 60e

• Bugfix: Resolved a crash when the game was unable to determine who's responsible for a pregnancy at the end of the loop.
• Bugfix: The game will no longer sometimes stop printing text in the middle of battle.

Release 60f

• Bugfix: Resolved some possible crashes while attempting to generate a new city in campaign mode.
• Bugfix: Attempting to recruit a Second-in-Command during the final battle while having a Demon Commander due to the Hot Tag will no longer crash the game.
• Bugfix: Resolved a couple of custom sex scene crashes.

Release 59: Humanization

This is another flavor-focused update, with the main addition being the ability to take the custom bodies you use for sex scenes with Chosen and Forsaken, and use those bodies in battle as a substitute for the usual monstrous Demon Commander forms.  This works by adapting the flavor text that was previously just used for sending Forsaken to fight the Chosen.  On a cheatless playthrough, the option only changes the flavor text, but when the toggle for body traits to affect damage is turned on, the traits of the body you send out will be properly reflected in the bonuses you gain.  Overall, my hope is that this option will ensure that players who dislike some of the fetishes associated with the different Commander upgrades will still be able to take advantage of the gameplay opportunities they provide.

Reworking the Commander Capture code to use an entirely different set of flavor text has been a major overhaul, and the feature is definitely still a bit rough around the edges.  Deployed humanoid bodies are given a "combat style" based on which damage types the body deals, and this normally works out pretty well.  When circumstance damage levels reach the point that Defilers start taking effect, the damage increase text also properly reflects the Defiler (for penetration, orgasming, etc.).  But it didn't make sense to use the same Demon Commander capture dialogue, and most of the Forsaken-Chosen banter also wouldn't make sense for talking to the Demon Lord, so there aren't any spoken Chosen lines associated with humanoid Demon Commanders at the moment.  Total Vulnerability Breaks triggered by humanoid Demon Commanders also don't yet have any unique flavor.  This feature is still very much a work in progress, and the main goal for now is to make sure that it doesn't have any crashes or text bugs.

Alongside the main feature, this release also had an unusually large amount of time spent working on adding custom sex scene actions.  It was originally going to be focused on friendly actions that might give low-Deviancy Chosen more to do with each other, but a couple of rougher activities made their way into it in the end.  As always, there's also the usual small collection of bugfixes and balance tweaks.

Next month will be another gameplay-focused release, with the addition of yet another boss.  But this next boss, Reign, will be unusual for a few reasons, most notably the fact that she'll reappear multiple times throughout campaign mode.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Allowed players to take on the form of one of their custom sex scene bodies as a Commander in combat.
• Content: Added hugging, kissing, handholding, and deepthroating as actions to custom sex scenes.
• Content: Added the Apply Gag action to custom sex scenes which take place in the S&M club.
• Balance: Performing a large number of simultaneous actions in custom sex scenes isn't as tiring.
• Balance: The Omelette du Malefice now grants more Evil Energy from actions performed by higher-tier Chosen.
• Balance: The Velvet Key will no longer be able to change the species of boss Chosen.
• Bugfix: Resolved a crash that could happen when updating an old save file to the current version.
• Bugfix: It is no longer possible to go into negative Evil Energy by repeating yesterday's Commander.
• Bugfix: Resolved a crash that could happen when customizing bodies while body traits are set to multiply damage.
• Bugfix: Performing a Chosen's first penetration with a Forsaken in combat will no longer put the Chosen's sexual history into a bugged state.
• Bugfix: Resolved a crash that could happen when merging Forsaken personalities with the Velvet Key.