Friday, January 29, 2021

TLS 0.55.3 Release

New half update on Patreon and SubscribeStar!


0.55.3

New Content

 - If you invested in repairing Feroholm, new maps can now be visited.

 - Same with Stineford Farm, which has different versions depending on whether you chose orcs, succubi, or the poor.

 - Sprite animations can now be viewed en masse via the private rooms staircase in the base.

 - Five new Orcent conversations: Yhilin Guard Bar, Denlak's Bar, The Tower's Backdoor, Orgasmic Cafe, Feroholm (rebuilt only)

 - Four new illustrations: Riala Relaxing, Trin Double Team, Wendis Reunion (x2)

Investments

 - Megail has an "investment finder" event in her office, specifically for new investments not in Rodak or the Orgasmic Empire

 - Tertia has a new conversation/investment that affects the price of Rodakan Agriculture.

 - Stenai now includes a new event with Feremina.

 - Gathering Complex Refurbishment price now scales with collateral damage.

 - The Rodakan Order investment likewise scales with collateral damage.

Tweaks

 - A new conversation with the Erosian harem leader now grants an Erosia point.

 - The Helvanna "Succubi in Rodak" investment now grants character points.

 - Ryoken receives a greater number of cosmetic changes as it improves, including new NPCs, new dialogue, and empty houses receiving doors or occupants.

 - Two Erosian NPCs have new dialogue with Ginasta.

 - Herin has moved from the Bloody Spire to Cee'Kan, if she became High Priestess.

 - The Impaler has a new line of dialogue.

 - Doors in Theltiar now animate (thanks to Decanter).

 - Minor new dialogue for the Helvanna Lustlord temple.

 - Minor additional dialogue to map succubus.

 - Truly minor fixes, like typos or tileset corrections, are not listed.


I've done something weird with this one, a sort of half update. It includes new illustrations, new investments, new Orcent conversations, etc... but not the amount I'd normally put in an update. What I can say is that it's all content I think makes the game better, and that I felt doing an update like this was the best way to keep momentum.

Anyway, this update is available to all patrons $1 and up, and should definitely be going public in a week.

Friday, January 22, 2021

TLS 0.55.2 Public Release

New update is public!

Download*: https://mega.nz/file/GhtEEJxJ#uc1FOku_C7E2iyEHDk_QPOhJxNsdFUBkSNWUBJ_O7OQ
Mirror*: https://www.mediafire.com/file/jya8ryg6xw9yg3b/TLS+0.55.2.exe/file
RTP: https://mega.nz/file/jg92BT7A#7xVw1zbKSztMxRONdSTp2BNTZc_pOJqpxmzIebi5vjk

*Requires RPG Maker VX Ace RTP to be installed. If you don't know what that means, use the RTP link.

TLS 0.55.2
 - More  polishing and bugfixing.
 - A succubus in the Orgasmic Empire library now shows the map of Renthnor.
 - The Renthnor map is added to the teleportation room maps after being viewed.
 - Hilstara RP shifted, Balia RP added to orc investment.
 - Xestris RP added to her first headquarters conversation.

So, this release... I think it's a pretty good broad update, with a ton of content of many different types. However, I think that it should be better. There were a few ideas I didn't implement, patrons made some good suggestions that weren't easy work, and there are some potential improvements that I have in mind.

Therefore, I think I'm going to break my usual pattern with this one and put out a version 0.55.3 later with expanded content. I feel this is better than trying to flesh that stuff out into its own update (it'd be too small) or put it off until version 0.56.0 (it'd over-extend the dev period). Hopefully this is the best way to maintain momentum and people enjoy the new content, which I'll try to list carefully so everyone can find it specifically.

Until then, enjoy! I don't intend to change the balance of current events, but new opportunities in the update might change what choices you make, so I'd suggest keeping an earlier save.

Completely unrelated: has anyone seen Crimson Gray show up anywhere lately? Recently it's started selling an unusually high number of copies and I can't figure out why. The analytics show direct navigation from Steam instead of outside links, but I wonder if a YouTuber or somebody covered it. I figure there must be some reason it's suddenly selling like a new game again.

Friday, January 15, 2021

Sunday, January 3, 2021

2020 (partially) in Review

As I do every year, I made a long post on Patreon, outlining what I consider my successes and failures from the past year. But since this blog has been quiet during my break, I thought you guys deserved an excerpt of the TLS portion:

TLS in 2021


I can tell you how things will go fairly clearly. The next update won't be as far away as you might fear (work is well underway), covering another open world segment and some major character inclusions. After that, a quieter update with sidequests and a major country-based block for those who qualify (similar to Eustrin).


After those two, we'll launch into one of the last major events in the entire game. Don't want to overhype, but by the end of it, a lot more pieces will be off the board, and the true antagonists will finally be clear. My original outline had this penciled in to require two updates, but I'm not sure.


After that comes the final open world, which is more substantial than the others, comparable to how many JRPGs open up new content before the final boss. There will be sidequests, including a personal one for every harem member, but also some optional content that's important to the central plot and ending. This is also the stage where I'm sure some people will say that I'm dragging out the game for money, but all I can say is that I believe everything during this part is important for the game as a whole.


Once that's done, there's the climactic sequence, final optional dungeon, epilogue, and postgame, as I promised in the roadmap. Will this stuff happen in 2021? I wish I could say for sure, but I feel like I'll struggle to polish these final updates to the degree I want. So TLS is not almost over, but it will soon be obvious how close we are to the end.