HL - new (cis)gender options/chromosomes (Patreon)

Getting a little carried away with new (cisgender) options/chromosomes. Added V, W, and Z chromosomes to the X, Y mix, and the option of -, a null-gender trait.

An XX is, of course, a typical mortal female.

An XY is, of course, a typical mortal male.

A YY, or "alpha male", is a normally unstable mutation (not naturally occurring) with dangerous levels of testosterone. YY's typically have short lifespans, as their own stress-levels tend to cause them to self-destruct, both bio-chemically and psychologically. They do have the advantage of growing/maturing quickly, and are often used (by the races that make/have them) as shock troops intended to overwhelm the enemy by sheer numbers and aggression/cruelty.

The V chromosome is a morphic trait, allowing limited shape-shifting (in theory), but it doesn't replace the base reproductive ability.

A VX is a "female" shape-shifter, though she might take on male appearance, she can only act as a mother genetically.

A VY is a "male" shape-shifter...

A VV is a "true" shape-shifter, with no base form/gender, able to act as either genetic parent. Their offspring will always have the morphic trait.

The W (omega) chromosome is an amazonian mutation of the X (female) base chromosome. Having even one W chromosome will greatly increase strength/power potential, essentially becoming a demigoddess (WX). Any being with a W chromosome has the innate ability to cross between realms/planes of existence.

While the W chromosome is not typically compatible with the Y chromosome, there are some exceptional cases, when it comes from a YY or WY "father". (An XY father will always result in a WX daughter)

WY is extremely unstable, and may result in a demi-god of any outward gender, or a monstrosity. Reproduction with a WY may, of course, donate either chromosome.

WV is the genetic equivalent of a "primal", which were beings born of the Primal Plane, able to shift forms freely by using Primal Energy to take on the new traits. A tribe of these beings wandered out to explore far beyond their homeland, long before our universe, or any other mortal plane existed. That tribe became known (to some) as the Primal Amazons, and they were among the first of the Eternal Races/Beings to enter and begin shaping the Mortal Plane(s).

Due to the fragile nature of our Holomatter (or Hollow-matter, if you prefer), the Primal Amazons only project a portion of themselves into our reality. Primal-Matter allows for variable density, but in its true-form/natural state it is nigh infinitely dense and would annihilate our nearly zero-density matter on contact (likely catastrophically proving Einstein's E=mc^2 theorem). A WV's power level would be typical of the density of the projection the Primal Amazon's have deemed safe to interact with our reality without accidentally destroying it.

WW is of fully amazonian/divine power levels, a goddess by all rights. Her power is limited only by her understanding of how to use it, and as it grows, she will likely travel beyond the Mortal Plane and project a more limited avatar back to interact, in much the way a Primal Amazon would -- lest she too accidentally bring about the end of our universe.

Finally, we have the Z or "futa" chromosome. A previously rare mutation that seems to spreading like wildfire (perhaps due to the exceedingly prolific reproductive drive it creates).

XZ, the most common variant, is a futanari or hermaphrodite of ~fairly normal proportions (FiAB), typically those that would put most porn-stars out of business. The most versatile gender, they can reproduce with a male to produce XX, XY, XZ, and ZY; a female to produce XX and XZ; or another futanari to produce XX, XZ, or their over-endowed cousin, ZZ. 

A bizarre trait of XZ, comes with the expression of the gonads. Some show both ovaries and testes, in others the same gonad-structures serve both functions. In some the gonads remain internal, while in others the take on a typically more male, external expression. The exact reasoning for this expression/variance is unknown, no genetic component has yet been identified to govern it.

Another unusual mutation is the phallic variants. Some XZ have both complete genital structures, while in others the clitoris has either expanded/mutated into a permanent, or developed the ability to shift/grow into a phallus; the latter allowing them to pass as typical XX until they chose to reveal their true nature.

ZY, a less common variant, appears to be futanari at first glance, but upon closer inspection is missing female genitalia, both externally and internally. Often described with the controversial term "dickgirl", these individuals have to deal with not quite fitting in with social or gender expectations that even many of their XZ sisters have recently come to find acceptance in. ZY always display external/male gonads, typically quite oversized for their frame.

VZ, a "futa" shape-shifter, has morphic traits common of the Nymphae - able to alter their biological gender expression at will through the range of -- (no gender), X- ("barbie-doll"), Y- ("ken-doll"), XX, XY, YY, VX, VY, XZ, ZY, and ZZ; as well as few other variants. The Nymphae are responsible for the wide range of sexual/reproductive traits in the Mortal Plane... they have been quite busy tinkering with all the mortal species.

ZZ is "hyper-futanari", a rare futa variant that can only be produced with 2 futa-spectrum parents. A favored variant by the Nymphae, these beings are impossibly endowed with genitals that seemingly violate all the laws of physics and biology. Some of these individuals possess the ability to grow and shrink said parts of their anatomy at will, often to absurd levels that would frighten even a giant!

WZ, aka "futazon", comes with but a single warning: "HIDE YOUR HOLES!" This is a dangerous combination of the divine strength of an amazon (WX), with the insatiable lust of a futanari (XZ), often with hyper-futa endowments (ZZ), and/or the ability to shift scale (VZ)!

(note: genders that allow changing/morphing will automatically unlock the associated powers to make said changes, once powers are added to the engine/system)

There's still a fair bit of planning to extend to content beyond the cisgender-only model, most of those changes tie in to the content-filtering markup I'm going to be adding to allow descriptive branches to be chosen based on content-preferences (such as futa on/off), as well as host-website terms-of-service limitations (such as dA not allowing depictions of sex or bodily fluids-- poor ZZ's don't get to have fun around there and flood the whole place out... :(). That seems to be the best point in development to expand-on/redesign the simple pronoun-selection model we have presently.

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Anyway, still have an unstable internet connection... the earliest they can try to fix it is Monday. I'm on my 3rd modem and 2nd transceiver, and the consensus seems to be that the dish isn't getting enough PoE from the modem/router unit.

The CMS is quickly expanding as I add more content to the database, and improve the speed with which it can be added. (I can now paste a list of entry-names to batch add entries that share other traits/fields, as well as export the entire table into the JSON-like structure used by the engine. I can also dynamically add fields to tables from the CMS, so I'm not always having to bounce into editing the database in SQL/phpMyAdmin, and I can easily add tables to the database when the need becomes apparent, presently there are 29 tables for the base game-content. These serve as the prototype from which in-game instances are generated, including simple lists like names and costs, as well as more complex objects like characters/NPCs.)

I have a fresh "story" started in Twine to integrate the new UI and build the large-branch changes into (rooms/exploration, passive-time, free-action on any target, multiple active situations, new data structure/CMS db content), that I'm working in parallel with the small-branch changes that I can implement directly without breaking the existing game. Once the large-branch is stable/ready, I can begin merging the small-branch into that project. In the meantime I will continue working on content and simple feature enhancements to release in the v0.26-0.29 series; culminating in engine v0.30, which will fully merge all these changes/updates that we've been discussing.

I'll try to get a private alpha of the large-branch posted soon for testing.

The internal setup object is going to be cleanly split into Engine/System components and Data/Content blocks/tables. Currently they are both haphazardly attached to the same root "setup" level. Not only will this allow cleaner/faster addition of content and features, it makes it easier to port the logic-engine AND content to either another (non-twine) game/dev engine or another game project in the same engine, should we decide/reach a point where we wish to do so. (I've been running into some of the limitations of Twine and considering Ren'Py, Unity, RMMV, or a purely JavaScript engine- possibly tied to a PHP server backend- sometime down the road. --- I'll continue building this in Twine until it becomes completely impractical to do so, so no worries, I'm not about to scrap what we have an start over.)

The CMS also allows me to prototype the new content in stages, so that incomplete entries can be used for testing/private-betas, but omitted from the public/master build until it's ready for release. (Also, for that matter, I can have incomplete entries started/planned that don't export at all... so I can scratch out new ideas without disrupting the game, and hopefully speed up the release cycle toward the target weekly-updates model I've been wanting to provide.)

That's it for today's news, but I'll try to get a new build out soon.