V0.4 Release & Patch notes

Hi all! Please find the patch notes for V0.4 and the changes that have happened. Also at the bottom of the list are short term future aims for the next release.

Tech demo V0.4 Notes

V0.4 Generally is a culmination of QOL (quality of life) updates that needed to be implemented in the game for growth and a lot of these improvements have come from you, the players.

Please note* If you are going to rate this game please consider it is under development it is not* a complete game, I'll happily accept the rating given up but please be constructive. Let me know what is not working correctly rather than stating it is buggy, so it can be acknowledged and fixed.

NPCs

NPCs have been rewritten to chase and give up at a fairer distance, even shorter chase distance when Bryn is crawling.

I've added a few daytime walkers, just generally mulling about the streets and some in the school. There is still  some work to do with these as Bryn becomes spotted more at night and the dialogues of those will change through how often Bryn exposes/gets caught/particular mission outcomes. For example after Bryn goes out naked and get's caught by a walker in the school district 3 times, the dialogue changes with the students hanging outside the school during the day.

Parking Garage 1

NPCs have been replaced for the Parking Garage mission, I've tried to make it more of a sneak past mission as they look around on the spot, and also avoiding some of them walking. I have now implemented the same tech that was not included in that area when Bryn crawls, drastically lowering their chase radius. Generally being chased and having a good amount of squares away and dropping to the floor can help stop an NPC in their tracks.

Stamina

I have increased stamina capacity by a further 30%, it is now at a rate of  '400' , where in previous versions it was 300 and a lot less in early versions of the game.

Crawling

Crawling is temperamental for some reason, even though I've tried to muddle around with the feature. Adding delays to stop Bryn from flickering from feet to floor seems to completely bug out and remove the option for her to get back up again. So for Bryn to crawl 'A light tap-tap-taperoo' is all you need to do on the key to toggle it.

Recollection room and Mission help

I have worked these two in together, now accessible by Bryn's computer you can access the Mission help and recall room, allowing you to see a visual map of 1, Where to pick up missions. 2, Where to carry out those missions (visual map after they have been unlocked), and the conditions required (day/night/clothing etc) and 3, Recall graphics from a scene you have completed in the past. All referenced by coloured check points Red not picked up, Orange in progress, and Green complete. 

Missions

I know I mentioned the combination of category missions and keeping them all collecting in the same location, but I have decided against this for now. I want the player to still run around at night and look for them (also with the help of using the Mission help and Recall room), as this still brings in the risk-reward and hopefully with the rework on NPC's, Stamina, Crawling this will make the discoverability less tedious.

The school

Removed an entire floor, Library added as mentioned and included before, added some NPC daytime characters there. School is only 'in session' when Bryn is in her school uniform. She cannot access the school during the day if she is not in school uniform through the front door, unless she sneaks through the back entrance but the school will be empty if she is in casual clothing or anything other. I could program in that the school is open open on Weekdays (e.g Day 1-5, closed day 6-7, and repeat for weekly rotation) but I feel that becomes, unnecessary.

Turn off running animation

Accessible option to toggle through Bryn's computer.

Skip Intro

Added the option to skip the intro, gives a short message of what the objective is for the game and then starts the player off out at naked, for Bryn's first run outside at night. It still starts the player with introducing the walkers, phone booth points, and GPS tags as that is still vital parts of the game's function.

Mission timescale

21 days to complete 10 missions, I think this will change in the future. When more missions are added in V1.X I will then start to look at removing a time limit overall, and have it to Mission points, instead of mission complete. I want to add missions where Bryn can offer to do 'extra' tasks during a mission which may add an extra mission point.

Where are we going now?

Before moving onto adding more mission content/ lewd/ embarrassing events/occurring daytime events that happen periodically throughout the days passing, I want to focus on the following below. I will create a new roadmap early in the new year covering what content I want to release leading up to V0.6 and this will generally cover adding content if the stability of the game is doing okay.

Bugs/feedback

With a lot of bugs hopefully dealt with and please keep reporting them back to me, I have attempted and fixed all that have been mentioned *fingers crossed*, but nothing gets fixed if it's not informed.

Graphics and scene polish

The plan is to polish off those graphics that already exist in the game, making sure fingers add up, generally speaking from comments it is just the fingers that need work on. I also want to add subtle polishing of scenes where the scene tints black so the area map is not on display when a graphic is shown (Unless the area map needs to be shown for actions), I think I started doing this for a few missions already but that is another aim.

NPCs

I want to start populating the world throughout the day, with small dialogue changes before we get to V1.0. I have started this off to trial for V0.4, it's nothing major in terms of environment actions, but it's the small talk.

The Sheep/Save sphere

Is still going to be left in the versions of the game leading up to 1.0, the aim is to hopefully have a good balance of mechanics, stats, the entire works before removing this option entirely. I could always introduce a method where Bryn/the player can purchase a single time use Save progress item, being able to bank these up in the inventory if you know that you may need to save before a tough mission.

As always, thank you for your support and I wish you all a happy holidays and a happy new year!

-B