TLS 0.75.0 Released!

New update for supporters on Patreon or SubscribeStar! Version history updated, you know what to do, etc.

TLS 0.75.0

 - The dialogue system of TLS has been massively overhauled to show character busts during conversations. Thanks to Rachnera and others for helping this happen.

 - Substantial balance changes, including many new skills (see next section).

 - Remade and polished prologue section.

 - New custom title screen menu.

 - New maps for all Stineford interiors.

 - Further polishing, to the final battle and across the game (see lowest section).

 - New windowskin thanks to Lamsey.

 - New illustrated scene: Shard Sipping.

Balance Changes

 - 33 new skills spread across the harem.

 - 6 new skills dedicated to swapping active party members, a newly coded capability.

 - 8 new synergy skills: Poison Storm, Piercing Assault, Weakening Assault, Agile Guard, Pure Thrust, Inspire, Anti-Tyrant Essence, Arcane Shieldwall.

 - Uyae's stance skills no longer require a turn to switch.

 - Thanks to Lord Forte for scripting help, the LUK statistic now has more complex effects on the game, including status effects, hit rate, and evasion.

 - The LUK of both enemies and characters has been adjusted to compensate for these effects.

 - Six new offhand items unique to Vhala have been added, spread throughout the game depending on decisions.

 - Multiple synergy skills have been tweaked, and Earth Lance no longer requires synergy.

 - The cost of Dominate/Corrupt was reduced.

 - The damage formula for Quake was improved.

Past Changes and Additions

 - Final ending requirements modified.

 - The final push section now shows your variables more accurately.

 - Lustlord's Shadow boss weakened.

 - The Crystal of Harmony is now purchasable if you missed it.

 - Eustrin now has two new tracks, thanks to Lamsey.

 - Lamsey also contributed a significant number of modified sprites, such as succubus sex, prologue Simon, and a new Doom King statues.

This isn't the final optional dungeon update I wanted, but look at all the stuff in the above list: I felt it would be wrong to keep that all from everyone while I finished the next section. Plus, it will be good to get input on the balance of all the combat changes before I do the final combat challenge. I don't know if this will take a week or longer before going public, but that will have no impact on how quickly I finish the next update.

Official Statement on Collaborations

Over the years, I've received various offers of collaboration. Some have gone very well (such as Annikath), others have been basically selling services, and a few have been utterly bizarre. I have a fairly busy schedule, and it has occurred to me that perhaps some professionals might have been aware of this and not approached me for that reason.

So, as we get closer to the conclusion of TLS, I'd just like to publicly state that I am open to the right collaboration. Maybe nothing will come of this, but better to be clear than to leave things in ambiguity. If anyone has been waiting for me to finish my decade-long work, I'm approaching a clearer period in my long term plans.

If you fall into that category, feel free to contact me at:
sierra.lee.author@gmail.com

Now, not to be too delicate about this, I am not looking for random people to email me with ideas. The unfortunate truth is that ideas are cheap and the games industry in general doesn't value writing. But if someone with other skills values mine, then feel free to get in touch. ^-^

There are still months of intensive TLS work, of course, but after that I will transition to a new period in my career. While I do a lot of polishing and revision to TLS, I intend to turn the majority of my attention to completing several shorter games. I've already taken some steps on other side projects, which you'll hear about over time, but my schedule is far from full.

One day I hope to return to another very long game, a spiritual successor to TLS, but that will be after I've gotten TLS into finalized shape and hopefully refreshed my energy with other projects. More on that later! 

TLS 0.74.7 Public Release

New update is public!

Download*: https://mega.nz/file/O8cjGD6I#i-Vv4RqhdRZAbpjkwsdRrXxwS5ptP33IS9pmfbBpKY4
Mirror*: https://www.mediafire.com/file/ve6kh8xo9kgufn7/TLS+0.74.7.exe/file
RTP: https://mega.nz/file/KxsGyJCJ#BHyW6vDwU6Fl8oArrNFITRBnUipGWv-tgnKQLScNE6M

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

Whew, here we finally are. I've been living and breathing this content for the past month, and tons of players have given it a shot, but this is a lot of fresh story anyone playing for the first time! During the development I have added more content, refined balance significantly, and tweaked all manner of things. Hopefully it will be a fun conclusion for everyone. ^-^

As I've said elsewhere, this update fulfills many of the promises I've made over the course of TLS. The remaining plot threads will be wrapped up in the optional dungeon, epilogue, and postgame. This isn't the end, not by any means, but we've definitely reached one of the last big milestones.

If you have enjoyed TLS over the years, please consider throwing something my way. I assume at this point people have used Patron or SubscribeStar if they wanted, but a review on Steam would also be helpful! Or honestly, I'd be happy just to get a comment. I've worked hard on this, both the game and the final battle, and I hope you enjoy it!

EDIT: I've updated the game on itch.io as well, in particular adding an unpacked version in response to player request. I cannot offer true support for mobile, but I hope this helps those who attempt it.

The Final Battle 0.74.6

Updated build for supporters on Patreon or SubscribeStar. If you want more context, see the original post for this release.

TLS 0.74.6

- Final polish and fixing bugs caused by the .5 version's new additions.

- Added another opportunity to heal and save point mid-event.

- Slight nerf to the strongest scaled versions of the final boss.

Well, I really hoped this would be the public release, but I put it out early just in case patrons would find anything else. Most of the reports were minor stuff, issues that 99% of players wouldn't even encounter, much less notice... but there was one bug that could result in a worse time. =/ Hence this is yet another interim update, just hopefully the one that finally gets the content polished.

Everything seems to be in order! Nothing short of internet calamity should be able to prevent the public release of the final battle. ^-^

The Final Battle 0.74.5

Updated build for supporters on Patreon or SubscribeStar. If you want more context, see the original post for this release.

TLS 0.74.5

- Some story additions. Too minor to be worth replaying for their own sake, but I think they make the final battle stronger overall.

- There are significant new additions to the battle for highly optimized saves (both mechanical and plot-based). These will only occur if you start the battle from the beginning.

- One notable example is that, for optimized saves, healing in the Harem Prison is now finite.

- The massive Chosen boss is buffed for optimized saves.

- Several additional opportunities to use stamina have been added throughout the battle.

- There is a final place to use Simon's stamina near the end, with new bonuses.

This update is the reason I have been taking longer: as you can see in the notes, the additions this time include qualitative additions and improvements as well as fixes. Unless there's a serious omission or someone makes a very compelling point, I intend for this to be the last form of the final battle.

The original build was basically stable and had the heart of the final battle, but this one is more balanced in ways that aren't immediately obvious, has some great new additions, and does a better job of matching the player so everyone has a reasonably challenging experience. Plus twice the illustrated scenes and the other new content I've worked on!

I said no promises when I started the final battle, but now I can say this: the update should go public next weekend unless something goes wrong.

The Final Battle 0.74.4

Updated build for supporters on Patreon or SubscribeStar. If you want more context, see the original post for this release.

TLS 0.74.4

- Polishing and background changes.

- New illustrated scenes: New Lovers, Uyae's First Time

 

This update is all pretty well polished... in a sense. The problem is that the playtesters and feedback have overwhelmingly been via highly optimized saves. While this update is playable and vaguely correct, I'm not at all confident that this is the true final balance that I want.

So I'm updating this to supporters of the lowest $1 tier in the hopes of getting a wider variety of feedback and make the final battle as polished as it can be! I'm likely to keep adding content, which right now is more illustrated scenes, but could include new wrinkles later in development.

The Final Battle 0.74.3

Updated build for supporters on Patreon or SubscribeStar. If you want more context, see the original post for this release.

TLS 0.74.3

- Various serious but obscure bugs caught not by players, but by Fulminato, Grim8P, and other data miners.

- Two more save points added.

- Numerous musical enhancements thanks to Lamsey.

- No major behind-the-scenes rebalancing yet, just fixes and improvements.

- Additions and polish.

 

Still moving forward, one step at a time. The final battle isn't unprecedented in complexity or anything, but it is one of the largest I've put out, so it's taking a while. I'm using this extra time to catch up on all the stuff I was putting off while focusing so much on this... >_>

The Final Battle 0.74.2

Updated build for supporters on Patreon or SubscribeStar. If you want more context, see the original post for this release.

TLS 0.74.2

- One additional save point added to final battle events.

- Added an opportunity to change equipment after the prison sequence.

- Altina now has the opportunity to gain a new skill during the final battle.

- New additions to various calculations, including slight rebalancing.

- The music is more consistent in several sections thanks to a new script from Lamsey, who also contributed a couple edited tracks.

- Hopefully all the collision issues dealt with, but I haven't thoroughly tested every map.

- Mostly polishing.

 

This definitely isn't the final build, as I've received fairly few reports about balance (unsurprisingly, it's taking the community a while to look through all the variable math). However, this one does fix a number of bugs that had a negative effect on the experience in addition to the usual polishing. The first build was actually pretty clean, but this one is another step up. 

The Final Battle 0.74.1

Updated build for supporters on Patreon or SubscribeStar. If you want more context, see the original post for this release.

TLS 0.74.1

 - Primarily a hotfix to remove a fatal bug when your final variables are too uneven.

 - Minor bugfixing and polishing, but this is not the fully revised build.

 - Additional tweaks to Rachnera's control scripts.

 - The base library is now complete. One shelf will fill retroactively, one will fill if you talk to Grynyth in the base, and the last is reserved for the final optional dungeon.

 - New illustrated scenes: (Blogger doesn't like.)

 - Added a sheep Zirantian thanks to Annikath, primarily for Annikath. =P

 - Annikath also made new unique sprites for Iris and Trin.

 - Relevant to much earlier content, the Lustlord fight has been nerfed.

 

As mentioned previously, because I didn't promise a release date for the final battle, I will be keeping everyone here updated. The final battle seems mostly stable (many players have finished) but there was a fatal bug in certain circumstances. This build fixes that as well as throws in the other things I've been working on.

Many players have yet to even touch the final battle. Barring another necessary bugfix, the next build is likely to be the enormous polish build.

TLS 0.74.0 Released! - The Final Battle

New update for supporters on Patreon or SubscribeStar! Version history updated, you know what to do, etc.

 

TLS 0.74.0

- The final battle.

 

Here it is, the result of months of work (and in a sense years). Usually I say that an update will be available in a week or maybe two, but in this case I can make no promises about when it will go public. This is an update of high complexity and length, plus I am wiped out from the marathon of the last few months.

(This would all be easier if Blogspot wasn't failing to work properly for some reason. Apologies for delays in responding.)

What I do promise is that I'll keep you up to date here on the blog and that everyone will get to play eventually. I hope it's worth the wait. ^-^

Updated roadmap: https://imgur.com/gQ6E4hc

Update on the Final Battle

I'm always updating supporters on Patreon, but I didn't want to leave everyone else following the game in the dark for so long, so I have made a Patreon post public:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/102654309

More information (and fanart!) at the link, but basically I think it would be fastest and best for the game overall if I did one bigger update instead of two smaller ones. Please look forward to it!

TLS 0.73.4 Public Release

New update is public!

Download*: https://mega.nz/file/Kssg0BLQ#fWoqmZDOUvPcKhRBWaexRuy4lImxfYzVmjaWPCQfJzs
Mirror*: https://www.mediafire.com/file/fdovrsl2vv2fnjc/TLS+0.73.4.exe/file
RTP: https://mega.nz/file/7x1ERaCR#eRl3nSrYkS_tnc83EG7X60-h3cBq3PuHR4Hxmz9b4rU

(The itch.io version has finally been updated alongside Steam.)

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

With this, the open world segment is at last officially done! I reserve the right to add more content or make corrections, of course, but the intent was to wrap everything up this time. All harem quests, all side content, all balance, all equipment, etc. This also has much better keyboard and controller support thanks to the tireless work of Rachnera.

This took longer than expected, which will make sense if you look at the version history - I was adding in more content all throughout, even as late as the middle of this week. Lots of details to juggle in a game like this. But it didn't occupy my full time, so I am already deep into work on the final battle.

That's right: the next major update will be starting the final plot sequence. I hope there will be nothing to distract me from this, but of course I'll be around if there are any lingering issues. Anyway, have fun!

TLS 0.73.2 still on Patreon

Since this doesn't usually happen, this post is to inform everyone that the newest update is still in beta on Patreon and SubscribeStar. This isn't because it has particular problems or anything, there's just final balance on some things and it has taken optimized players a while to give feedback.

Actually, I have been dedicating increasing time to the next updates, from a sizable minority earlier to a majority this week! These final updates are going to be beasts, but I intend to roll with the momentum and rush right into them. It will still take a while to conclude the whole story, but I am making significant progress.

Next week public, barring something really strange.

TLS 0.73.0 Released!

New update for supporters on Patreon or SubscribeStar! Version history updated, you know what to do, etc.

TLS 0.73.0

 - Vhala has a "harem" quest, starting in the base hallway after the Incubus War.

 - Stineford has been entirely overhauled! This is one of the biggest visual updates I've done to the game and I'm just crossing my fingers that I didn't screw something up during the upgrade.

 -  If Sarai was sexually restricted in your game, you can now get her to join the harem via her personal quest (if you already finished it, there's an alternate event in her tower). This is functionally the same, but involves some new conversations and dialogue variants.

 - Nalili's quest now grants an additional reward, which can be found in her room even if you've already completed the quest. This is necessary for...

 - A short quest that will grant a final battle item, if you've gathered all four major ingredients.

 - Fuani now appears in the Renthnor Wilds guild, offering tips about all incomplete harem quests.

 - Yarra's upgraded sex room now has two alternate configurations, for those who complained about the original tiles.

 - Additional details around the base dependent on country scores, now covering Darghelon, Gheldaron, Zirantia, Erosia, and Rodak.

 - Depending on the Entity Cohesion variable, you can see a scene resting under the tree at the Nostalgic Home.

 - The final Shining Sword bonus is now available. I intend to add one more in the last optional dungeon for flex, however.

 - During the Orilise segment of the elven forests sequence, the timer running out should now cause game over. This needs more testing.

 - Did you know that the majority of cases refer to "Miners' Junction" but in 29 locations I accidentally wrote "Miner's Junction"? Well, not anymore!

 - Bug where you could see Wendis transformed early fixed.

 - Thanks to Rachnera, TLS has advanced keyboard remapping options in the System menu.

 - There are now control tutorials when starting a new game.

 - What may be the final investments of the game, pending any final balance tweaks.

 - The placeholder in the teleportation room has finally been replaced with Riala, who will check preparedness and lead to the final battle (next time).

 - One new sex scene.

 - New illustrated scenes: Elleani Relief, Megail x Iris Anal, Janine Wedding Night

 - Assorted bugfixing and polishing.

Aside from the new content, this update includes both stuff necessary to polish up the game before the wider release and details that only hardcore fans will care about. It took longer than I wanted, which I regret, but I think this was a necessary step toward the final game.

This is meant to be the final open world update before the finale. I want to finish everything, including new issues that may come up, so no promises about when this one goes public.

Here is the updated roadmap: https://imgur.com/a/rPUOOEs