Slight 0.14.0 Delay (Patreon)

Hey, all, CaptainCaption here. I've had a very interesting month and unfortunately cannot go into the details why, but 0.14.0 is going to be delayed a few days (ETA of a drop on this Monday afternoon).

It'll be a relatively light update given the stressful situation I've found myself in, but here's the work-in-process changelog:

• The Zach dorm room masturbation scene has been heavily reworked with gorgeous brand-new art from TiltSHIFT and almost entirely brand-new writing. Espeon has reverently called it "quite possibly the best vn tg scene in all of existence" and while I'm not willing to go that far, it's very, very hot.
• This means that the writing and expressions of the whole Zach dorm room masturbation scene (not just the CGs itself, but the prelude and the aftermath too) are now up to modern standards. In fact, everything besides the starting day of Britney's route to the middle of the mall date (once they go inside) and the Keisuke route from the start of the showers to the end of the phone call on day 4 is now up to modern standards in terms of overall polish with expressions consistency and variance, writing, animations, SFX, and overall presentation. There's still a lot more to polish up (I shudder thinking of what is involved with cleaning up the Keisuke frat party), but I now consider RD to be in the "modern" era and almost entirely free of the messier days of its roots where I had a lot less of an idea where it was going. It's humbling and yet inspiring, if that makes sense.
• Zach has a new tattered gray hoodie and sweatpants outfit that is wildly complicated that shows up during this edited writing. It's a hand-me-down from his dad that he's held onto for housework, and at the start of the visual novel, it's the only thing he has that covers fully covers his new female body.
• Thanks to Espeon, the phone text messages now save the sender after saving and reloading. There's also data in the list for who sent what for what time and what date they sent it that will be used in later releases of the VN.
• I added a new menu choice to help Britney with her theater stuff without making it a bet during the Day 2 arcade date (or at lunch, if the question never got posed or Zach won the only game he can win on the second bet). Choosing it triggers a variable an rewards a bPoint and a bit of new text (the one in the arcade that shows up by avoiding Mrs. Puck Man both times is quite to my liking :3c).
• I added a line to make Britney a little pouty about not having sex on Saturday night (Britney Day 2) as she was kind of looking forward to it.
• I added a few more author's notes in Keisuke's new writing during the sex scenes.
• The IQ part in the day 1 lecture is now locked behind Awkward >= 4. I finally got yelled at enough to gate it despite how I consider it relevant for the story because I'm sick of it causing drama every few weeks. In its place is new writing that is a lot more blunt about the issues Zach has with his genius mom.
• The precise variable control of keisuke_devotion is now "None", "Soft", or "Hard" instead of a True/False that relies on other variables to check the severity of how yandere Zach/Zoey is acting.
• The maximum amount of bPoints available at any given moment are now tracked as a variable internally. This (and the change to the devotion variable) are in preparation for on-the-fly adjustment of route variables as a Sustainer patron feature.
• The C.H.E.A.T.S. screen now includes an adjustment for the "therapy" answer because of how important of a variable it is in every route. Backer patrons get in-game adjustment to it and the rest of C.H.E.A.T.S., as usual.
• The "therapy" answer is now a persistent variable that saves in saves to make the above not roll back. Making this work destroys save compatibility, hence the major version change. You should really be using the route jump menu for saves if you're not sure, tbh...
• The menu choice to go to the C.H.E.A.T.S. screen in-game is now clearer about how the system can change the length of the story Zach tells since that length has been a persistent issue from readers and I'm sick of being blamed for being a bad writer by impatient people unable to read a settings menu made to address their concerns.
• Fixed "moaningzoeyunknown" being improperly defined after changing how Zach/Zoey uses variables for the text colors. She's only been used twice, but now those won't throw issues.
• The question for the way to start Britney's route got further clarified to explain that Zach is willing to be manipulative in the shorter stub one. The choice box for the phone also got redone to line up with the other choice bars.
• I had somehow mislabeled Keisuke Day 10 as Day 9 and Keisuke Day 9 as Day 8. That's been fixed.
• I fixed a few minor animation issues in the Britney Day 2 arcade.
• A number of small typo fixes and expression errors fixed.

"'Relatively light,'" Cap wearily sighs.