Recode Status Update 4 (Patreon)

I was originally hoping to have the dev build ready for today, but that proved to be overly optimistic so I've got a status update for you instead!

With everything settled on the new pred and prey systems, thanks to your feedback, I've fully transitioned to converting all of the old scenes into the new format. I ran into a few small issues moving the code for the systems over to the main story files, but everything's working now! Both scenes with Anita (+the Sam followup to her pred scene) and the Custodian's scene are completely done, and a few others are functional but waiting on unique dialogue.

As I mentioned on the discord, progress on Day 1 is being slowed a bit despite the non-vore passages already being recoded (thanks again to PastelStoic!) because I'm taking the opportunity to edit and tweak the early writing to be more consistent with the quality of the rest of the game. Things like minor changes to some of the dialogue from characters like Sam and Emma that was written before I'd properly fleshed them out, fixing the fact that the early prey scenes don't affect your clothes like the rest of them do, and just tweaking some writing that I felt wasn't up to par. Nothing too major, but enough to cause some delay.

To finish this update off, I want to give you some details on the other overhauls/new systems that are on the way are going to work! 

First off is the only totally new feature: Time Tracking! Rather than the timing of things like digestion and escape recovery being arbitrarily tied to when the scene transitions, the game now tracks how much time has passed between scenes to handle these values. For example, it'll now take ~8 hours to finish digesting someone, regardless of how many scene transitions you go through in that time. You'll be able to see the current time(or rather, the time the scene started in 90% of situations since I can't exactly track how far along you've read) during any given scene in the sidebar once the formatting is properly implemented. And to be clear this is all referring to in-game time, how long it takes you to read something still has no bearing on the game.

Going along with this, the digestion system has been/will be overhauled! The new system now has proper stomach capacity tracking to allow for (eventually) training up to handling multiple prey at once. While multiprey still won't be possible for a while, what these changes will allow for is being able to initiate a pred scene even if you aren't completely done digesting someone else, as long as they're far enough along that it won't push you too far past your limits. You're able to overstuff yourself to a degree doing this, giving you penalties in the pred scene but helping boost your stomach capacity for the future. In addition, as an extra little bit of immersion some prey will take up more or less space in your belly depending on how big they are compared to you (for example, if you could eat Mina she'd take up less room and digest faster than an average person).

Finally, stat improvement has also been updated. Most of this is a change to the way things work behind the scenes and not something you might immediately notice. Basically, before stat improvements were directly tied to how many escapes you'd made and prey you'd digested, while now you'll gain experience by participating in pred/prey scenes and 'level up' when you reach certain thresholds. On the pred side of things this means you'll see some benefit even if your prey escapes instead of all or nothing like it is now. The big change you'll notice here is that, up to a certain point, you'll also gain a small amount of experience toward the opposite end of things in any scene, so if you escape from someone's stomach you'll also see slight improvement in your skills as a predator.

Alright then, I think that covers the major updates on the way! I'm planning on having the dev build of the first day ready by next friday. Also, I've sort of merged Phase 3 and 4 in that progress tracker I've been including, with my plan of action for the conversion now being:

1. Convert Day 1 scenes to new system and tweak writing

2. Implement new systems detailed above

3. Convert Day 2 scenes to new system

4. Overhaul the formatting

Thanks for sticking with me through this process!

~O2

Phase 1: Master - Complete

Phase 2: Vore Overhaul - Complete

Phase 3: Conversion - In progress

Phase 4: New Scenes (If they weren't written in between other phases) + Testing save transfer to new versions