February 24, 2023 - ECA 0.5 Public Release, etc. (Patreon)

First, welcome to the new patrons that have come on in the past week or two. Your support is greatly appreciated and is a driving force in giving me ambition to continue working. You have my thanks.

Unfortunately, I'm not able to get your name into this version's credits, but you will be there in the next. Make sure you check here and/or on Discord for the Patron SE versions which have a few extras.

Now, onto the 0.5 public release...

Tomorrow. February 25th. It should be out around 7-7:30 a.m. EST USA, or around 12-12:30 p.m. GMT, if I'm doing my math right. As usual, there won't be any links to the downloads on Patreon, but there will be some helpful information on where to find it quickly and, of course, for free.

The changelog is available on itch.io and on F95, but it's posted right here as well:

+ New potion making menu with bonuses
+ Streamlined code to eliminate lag
* 29 new story and thread scenes.
* 1600 new images.
* 47 new animations.
* Added scenes to allow players to move forward in the game threads when choosing not to pursue some love interests.
* Adjusted journal screen to include Artesia, Jasmine, and Gisele and allow players to follow all three of their stories, rather than just choosing one. Max and Thayis, minor side characters without content, have been removed.
* Adjusted trading screen and added selling seeds.

It is highly recommended to start a new game for this version. There was some strong lag later in the game from a phenomenon I am calling "traceback save bloat". The problem has been fixed, but the bloat is saved within the save files. If you can deal with the lag, then more power to you. The lag won't get worse, but it won't get better, either.

Only way to have it not do that funky lag where the choice buttons or location buttons don't light up quickly and sometimes act like they aren't clicked is to start over. My apologies.

I'm also already working on 0.5.1, which will be smaller than this update. I'm focusing on getting every character's story to the point of the big crescendo, so expect more content for Genny, the three girls of Velvet Desires, and sandbox content in the next several updates.