Friday, April 17, 2020

TLS 0.50.1 - The Art Release is now public!

New update is public!

Download*: https://mega.nz/file/a51FlbCB#h93qMVpYMv-qHiWbEw9jnlI-EN_XKdI-B8QW2zt7VVQ
Mirror*: https://www.mediafire.com/file/10gikxn4l6ieupv/TLS_0.50.2.exe/file
RTP: https://mega.nz/file/q41xjD6A#EQyt9KAQo7Lh-qg8JEjclaesR8PwVlvAVgouAejeaMI

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

TLS 0.50.0
 - Grand art update: All scenes in Chapter 1 now have an illustrated image!
 - Total added: 28 scenes, 5 joke scenes (52 images total)

TLS 0.50.1
 - Fixes and improvements.
 - New CG: Aka/Hilstara
 - A large amount of credit goes to Lamsey and Decanter for helping with the many scripts involved.

TLS 0.50.2
 - Bug. -_-

At long last, the art update is live for everyone! That should include Steam very quickly, this time. Having said that, I don't have a lot more to add. This has been a long time coming and I hope everyone enjoys it. ^-^

41 comments:

  1. After viewing "Stineford Orgy" via Recall skill the art remains on screen.
    Can still run around and activate things.
    Can be fixed by viewing any of the other scenes with art. Though that would be impossible if this bug were to occur during Chapter 1.

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    1. This should be fixed in the version 0.50.2 that I just uploaded!

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    2. You also fixed the version numbering on the top of the screen, so Bugs instead of bug. Enjoy your weekend, please!

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  2. Yay! I knew art was coming for a long time now, but I'm so happy this update has finally made it official. Congratulations to you and the artist, it came out great!

    Being critical just so I can give feedback that isn't complete praise, I have two things I want to bring up:

    1. Hilstara's midsection came out looking a bit more slim than what I imagined. I love how muscular she is, but given her age and her attributes as a heavy armor fighter, I was expecting her to have more of a strongwoman physique, where you can still easily tell she's very strong without necessarily being as lean and cut as she came out looking in some of her pictures.

    2. While I love the satirical approach to the prologue scenes, I have a couple of issues with the current fully cartoonish take on it.

    First, I feel it gives away the ruse of the prologue a little too early, the prologue was meant to be a satire to the dime-a-dozen gratuituous adult games with dumbed-down plots and unlikable protagonists, but even those games usually had art that was at least trying to look sexy. The full-on cartoonish art gives it away immediatelly that it is a joke, before the player even has the chance to fall for it.

    Second, while the cartoonish art captures the childish beliefs of the Chosen, it doesn't capture their perversion and how self-centered they are.

    For those reasons, I think it would be better if instead of a fully cartoonish approach, something like jarringly conflicting artstyles in the same picture could work as satire. The Chosen's body is drawn in a high-effort anime style, he is impossibly shredded and both his body and the sexy bodyparts of the woman he's having sex with are super detailed, but for everything else there is a huge dip in quality and even a change of style. People in the background have very few details, the background scenery is poorly drawn and cartoonish, etc. I feel this would make the ruse of the prologue a bit more subtle and also add more early characterization for the Chosen, showing they barely pay attention to anything but themselves and what they are lusting after.

    A bit as an aside, I think Tal's scene with the flower should be done in the standard style used for the real CG, at that point we already know Simon is the protagonist and we're now seeing the world from his perspective. While it is still a silly scene, maybe that point could get across simply by having Simon and Aka's dissapointed reactions in the foreground and Tal and the flower out of focus in the background.

    That's it for my thoughts. Thanks for the great update and enjoy your weekend Sierra!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the new version!

      Back when we were deciding, there was much discussion of how the prologue should be handled. I think the benefits of continuing the ruse of the prologue are balanced by the possibility that some players might take it on face value and stop playing. Ultimately, I felt that this was the best approach.

      Having said that, clashing styles like you suggested would be an amusing concept. I really do like the idea, I just worry that it could potentially not come across and simply seem like bad art.

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  3. That was all as beautiful as I'd imagined.

    I'm definitely looking forward to the art of the other chapters and scenes. Especially since some of my favorite girls don't get one in the first chapter.

    I assume it'll be a while til the next artwork sets and the next update will focus more on story-wise content?

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    1. Glad you liked the art!

      From now on, every update will include a normal piece of story content as well as whatever new pieces of artwork are done. You may be glad to know that "phase two" of my art plan is to get at least one scene for every major character.

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    2. Oooooh, nice! (^_^)b

      That means I won't have to wait too long for more recent additions to get scene artwork.

      While not at the top of my list, I'm curious as to how the Tertia scene would look like given her size. And I'm definitely looking forward to seeing best priestess.

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  4. Is there a list of the chapter 1 scenes somewhere? I definitely don't have all 28 but I have no idea what I'm missing other than the "whore out Qum" scene.

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    1. I don't think there's any public list, no. Also, it's 29 scenes total, as we added one. There are four you might easily miss if you're looking at the Reflect menu: the first home base scenes for Aka, Yarra, Qum, and Hilstara.

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    2. There is a list in this wiki page. It's a first draft, created by Fulminato's and right now includes 31 scenes, so there are two missing.

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  5. Soooon.... soooon I shall have my beloved Nalili in illustrated form~

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    1. One of her scenes is scheduled in the set we're currently working on!

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  6. Annoying question, does anyone know how to activate a particular scene flag to get it to appear in Recall? I'm quite happy with the progress I've made and don't really want to redo the entire game again just for one singular scene I missed by chance since I most likely would mess up something else in the progress. The scene is the threesome with Yarra/Trin that's activated by checking the bed before leaving the palace after saving Janine. I tried using the save editor to do so but couldn't locate the correct flag for it. Only really interested since it seems art may be added for it soon.

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    1. This scene does have art. If you don't get an answer here, you may also want to ask on the wiki.

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    2. Thanks, but I decided in the end to bite the bullet and replay. Glad I did though, seeing Orcent's bust in his old raider gear was awesome and something I hadn't seen yet since it was added retroactively. Would like to know, will the next few updates be all art updates or will we get story progression and art mixed? I'm fine with either honestly, the art is a real welcome addition that I never expected us to ever get and since I manned up and went replaying I can just play per update if its all going to be art for a while.

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    3. I don't remember when I added Orcent's bust, but I do occasionally make visual improvements to previous sections.

      I don't plan for there to be any more art-focused updates, now that all the scripts and conventions are set up. Each update will have a chunk of new content, plus a handful of new illustrated scenes.

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  7. It is a wonderful improvement to see the scenes start to get art :D Convinced me to give the game another play-through and try to snag few minor missed bits from my first play (mostly a couple shining swords) Was a nice surprise to see that it was every scene too and not just the ones with harem members.

    Laughed a good bit over the child-like drawings for the Chosen scenes too, really sets the stage for their nature I think :D Looking forward to seeing how wonderful future art additions will be.

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    1. Glad you liked the art! We had fun with the Chosen scenes. ^-^

      The next priority will be getting a scene for every harem member, but I do intend to get illustrations for every single scene eventually.

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  8. Hello,

    I must say I'm in love with the art, thank you so much for adding them!

    I have a question though. I've been replaying the game from the start and I saw that the 'monster patrols' switch from the ending of the third arclent war added some extra npc's in some places. But I saw that after 1-2 iterations those npc's have disappeared, is this intentional?

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    1. Glad you like it! Yes, the limited monster patrols is intentional - they finish their work after some time elapses in game. Just wanted to add them for a while so the world feels more dynamic.

      Delete
  9. I'm never sure when to leave comments like these. When you are working on freshly released update I don't want to bother you with old stuff. But when you are in a mid period like now working on something else/midway through TLS I don't want to drag you back down to the old! So regardless no rush if you choose to work with the suggestions!

    But...would you consider giving the conversation with Queen Neranda and Queen Fheliel learning about Simon being an incubus King a once over? Namely making it a conversation to begin with? Both these conversations happen back to back and seem rather odd.

    Queen Neranda just...comes out of no where. We've meet this woman a total of 2 times and yet somewhere between those points she learned Simon was an incubus king, and possibly the doom king? I know circumstances forces us together but that seems odd.

    And Queen Fheliel is a little less out of no where but is still odd. At the end of chapter 4 she deduces the doom king is a figure head and Simon has the real power. BUT...does she now know that the doom king is empty armor and Simon IS an incubus king?

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    1. Yeah, there's kind of always something going on. Right after a new release is usually a bad time, but other times it just depends on my schedule. No worries. ^-^

      Neranda and Simon have been exchanging letters off screen. I know this isn't satisfying from a player's perspective, and I'm open to changing it, but I don't have anything in mind at the moment.

      Fheliel knows what she deduced during that conversation and has enough magical knowledge to suspect that Simon is comparable to an Incubus King.

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    2. It'd be a retroactive change but maybe show some of those letters in chapter 4? Either a dwarf coming in to our HQ two or three times during the investment rounds, or those dang purple orbs that have been in Simon's bedroom can get some use! Or maybe she can cameo at the summit? It'd be downright cruel if she appeared during the one time Simon is away in the tower during the final day.

      As for how Neranda would pick it up since Simon wouldn't drop the "Yo Im da doom king wanna bang" bomb of letter perhaps she could figure it out on her own as well. With an explanation being that the doom king might fool the more common people and even nobles, but to anyone with experience ruling a country and a keen eye could notice that for being an evil dictator the doom king's actions keep being...conveniently benevolent. Or the fact that anyone who gets to know Simon would find it unlikely he'd be a lackey to some foreign king.

      Whatever you do thanks for the response!

      Delete
  10. Did Robin get a powerup when she got her transformation researched? I know she was able to do other things (like able to do minor Incubus King stuff like her dad and such), but I would assume she was able to research spells and stuff too. If she does get a powerup and not just a sprite change, would you consider giving her a transformation spell or something after her transformation ability is revealed to the rest of the party that gives her a stat boost or unlocks other spells while she's in that mode? Again, I don't remember if she actually gets more powerful when transformed. I'm replaying through the game right now, so I'll find out when I get to that point, but she hasn't gotten any new spells and abilities recently. Sure she gets an additional lance spell as well as being responsible for a bunch of synergies, but I figure she would indulge herself in her own personal research a bit more after she gets replaced. I don't actually know if I'm supposed to spoiler this stuff. It's like saying Snape kills Dumbledore; eventually, the plot point has reached its statute of limitations. If you haven't learned of this by then, then...oh well. One can't be stepping on eggshells all their life or they'll never be able to talk about anything. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, transformation. Well, please give the idea some though if you haven't already. Or at least give Robin some more of her own spells. Unless all of her research has just been dedicated to synergy skills. Also, regarding the Neranda thing, you could just change the sprite of Simon's desk in his room to have a bunch of letters and when someone looks at it you can make a remark about them being letters from Neranda. Right? She's the one who's old fashioned like that?

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    1. I thought about giving Robin some sort of alternate state that could be used in combat, but in the end decided it wouldn't actually be that good for balance. The primary effect of her transformation is to let her do more sexual magic and broader scale magic, not combat magic.

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    2. Ok (I can't wait to see her transformed scenes drawn and what not), but will she get more personal spells later on though? Also, on an unrelated note, this might have already been asked of you, but if you were a part of the Ivalan religion, which sect would you be? Consecrationist, Desecrationist, or Subsecrationist?

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    3. Also, you could just make it a once per battle buff spell, similar to how Yarra has her Shared Fantasy (except, you know...not shared, and only applicable to herself). Something like an increase in magic attack and lust defense to go with her broader scale magic and sexual magic. And if you are trying to go for balance, make it have a pretty pricey cost. Nothing too outrageous that no one would want to cast it, but something that would make people consider saving it for particularly difficult fights. That way it's not like people will be slinging it out every chance they get to steam roll through the game, but give Robin a bit more survivability.

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  11. I can safely say The Last Sovereign is one of the most interesting games I've ever played. I wasn't expected much more than a bog standard rpgmaker with decent story, but what I got was a very intriguing main lead whose character makes him stand out among the fantasy lead archetypes and unique gameplay aspects such as investments and army size which I've never seen before. I've tried to find something else which comes close to this but came up short.

    I'm not sure if this is the right place for bug reports, but I've encountered the issue where in chapter 2 in quest preparations requires visiting the tower succubi, but the sewer entrance is blocked and Simon is unable to enter the old ruin. I've been told the old ruin is supposed to become the entrance to succubi tower, but it seems it was never unlocked properly in chapter 1, resulting in the quest being undoable.

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    1. Glad to hear that you're enjoying the game!

      Here is fine for bug reports, but I'm currently mentally wrapped up in the current content and it would be tricky to properly test this. Normally I'd say to report it on the wiki, but I believe you already have. Hopefully someone else will come to help me check in time.

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  12. Thanks for the fast response, I've learnt that beating Varia and the Impaler apparently skips the quest requirement and missing out on an army size increase isn't a huge deal. I'll definitely be following future updates to The Last Sovereign.

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  13. Normally, I charge money for stuff like this, but since you asked for people to go over the early part again, I've replayed to the reunion and have the following notes. Many, many notes.

    1- The knowledge of other incubus kings seems inconsistent early on. Yarra seems to know about there being multiple, Simon doesn't. Then later it's revealed that he's been to other continents that have IK controlled empires. And at the Academy library, he mentions that there have been/are "seven others" according to some theological books.

    It seems like you were going back and forth on what was and wasn't available information early on.

    2- Simon in the academy library said succubi had shorter lives, then later in the Orgasmic Empire said he 'had a feeling' they did, and seemed shocked to realize how young they die.

    3- When talking about races in the academy, Simon mentions the 'six races' which notably doesn't include orcs. Now, while it wouldn't be shocking to learn that orcs aren't considered a race by some writers, it seems odd that succubi would be by those same writers.

    Either way, this is right after meeting Orcent, so it seems odd that detail is forgotten.

    4- Speaking of unmentioned oddities. Simon speaks Zirantian, yet when Orcent (incorrectly) explained the origin of his name, Simon said nothing on the subject. I could see that being a thing Simon didn't know- he likely wasn't exposed to a great deal of intellectual discussion in the language, but it feels like something that Orcent and Uyae would have brought up during their discussion of his name.

    5- When Riala helps plan in Yhilin, she says 'embrace being incubus king' rather than 'being AN incubus king'... while it's not completely improper English, it doesn't flow well. There's a similar thing right before Simon enters the tower with the Doom King armor.

    6- How old is Iris, exactly? She talks about things that make it seem like she's been serving at her job for a long time... why is she holding meetings about how they hadn't conquered Ardoheim yet, when that was an event that happened when her grandparents were young, if they were alive at all?


    Anyhow, that's enough for now. I'll get back to you later with more, probably up to and including Gawnfall.

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    1. I'm happy to have players going over the game in detail, but as you know, the game has a ton of dialogue. I could potentially spend a while searching for an errant line, so specificity or screenshots are much appreciated. Your first and second points do sound like inconsistencies, but I haven't hunted for the specific dialogue.

      Succubi being counted but orcs not is intended, as orcs are considered monsters while succubi have built civilizations.

      Simon not knowing Zirantian roots in detail was intended, but I'm unsure about bringing this up in the later conversation.

      Iris is 35 and grew up with the idea that the Incubus Emperor was going to conquer Ardoheim.

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    2. 1- In Yarra's case, part of it was during the frozen time moment after grabbing the cache, when she says Simon has the potential to become an IK and he asks "there can be more than one?"

      The other half of the oddity is in the stineford academy library, one of the books dealing with IK history.

      2- Stineford library and Empire library, both when speaking about succubi.


      Another thought occurs... If Aka's 'demonic transformation' apparently grants some brand of longevity, why don't they just do it to everyone as opposed to seeking out divine shards? I mean, clearly such transformations take effort, but it seems like it'd be a more reliable means of life extension than gathering enough shards to turn everyone into goddesses.

      Definitely something that should be discussed in-game given the circumstances.

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    3. Thanks for checking further! I've tweaked the lines to smooth these issues out.

      Aka's transformation isn't easily repeatable, given that it depended on her unusual set of circumstances. You're right that the characters would think about it if they were lacking other options, though, so I'll consider if they should discuss it.

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    4. As far as the narrative shows, all you really need is the research into the transformation... it was done as a means of fixing damage caused by IK corruption, after all. And even if it does require IK corruption to make possible, Simon is literally right there.

      Delete
  14. Hi Sierra! I don't play this game on steam for *reasons* so I can't show you all my hours but I wanted to at the very least leave a message for you!

    I love this game, so much so that I've played through it SEVERAL times now, though some of the playthroughs weren't complete.

    Every time I play this game it's such a delight to go through the world and explore what I can do with the economic choices and what-not, and sometimes even just trying to pick a new favorite in my party.

    I love just about every single character, and I'm not getting tired of this world and game anytime soon!

    If I have some money sometime soon to drop, I will definitely use it on your patreon or subscribestar, because you ABSOLUTELY deserve it! I'd pay 60 dollars just to go through this game ONCE!

    Thank you so much for making this game, and giving me SO many hours of entertainment!

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    1. Thanks for dropping me a message! I'm glad to hear that you've enjoyed my game so much. ^-^

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  15. Is there a way to toggle the graphics on and off? I definitely appreciate the game art, but one of the things I like about playing this game is that I can do it with people around and it generally looks innocuous unless you watch very closely.

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    1. It's in the System menu with the other options.

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