New weapon type, Pix's dialogue, Affinity changes, and more. (Patreon)

Hey everyone! This week was focused on dialogue, but there was plenty of time to spare. I used the extra time to try and round off some things, and even do some further planning on how I want to shape the hub's experience. I'll share some of it after this progress report, so let's go!

First up was obviously Pix's dialogue

Previously every character had 1 "conversation". It gave a small boost to affinity based on dialogue choices, but now all 4 conversations for Pix have been added. Each conversation is available at certain points in Affinity. 1st is Aff: 0, 2nd is Aff: 25, 3rd is Aff: 50, and 4th is Aff: 75. I have plans to make a 100 for characters later that will likely involve impreg.

Along with this, I wrote the rest of the cast's 2nd conversations as well

As always, these dialogues are totally optional, but can grant you some bonus Affinity, and give a bit of backstory for the character, or their planet.

Speaking of affinity from these. I had done a lot of thinking about how affinity is rewarded. I found it could feel really bad if you wanted the extra affinity, but just guessed all the wrong dialogue options, and only got affinity for Aether. (As you really only have 1 chance at the affinity). Due to this I thought it might be better to give a flat rate after the dialogue. I was a bit split because I do feel like the responses giving affinity felt a bit more engaging. I ultimately decided to keep it how it was, but also give 4 affinity to the character at the end of the conversation no matter what the choices were. This means these conversations actually give more affinity than they did before.

Raising the amount of affinity given is likely something that will be needed as the characters routes open up. I don't want gaining affinity to feel "too" much like a grind in the full game.

Anyways! Next up!

Every character's Affinity is going to cap at 49 now instead of 100. The affinity cap's at 49 and the text will change to green to reflect this.

Once you hit 49 Affinity with the character, a new distress signal will appear on their planet. This distress signal is their 2nd level.

Completing the 2nd level will unlock their affinity to 100. You can then gain the affinity needed to reach the new dialogue, and new Hscenes. This will also give an upgrade to their ability.

Next is how we bring in our "Extra" Hscenes here. When certain conditions are met, an "EVENT" button will appear at the top of the hub.

 In this case, the condition is simply that you have both Rooster, and Tanya unlocked. These events will lead to the extra Hscene. Once viewed, this button will go away, but the Hscenes can be viewed at any time after the event via the Hscene Room.

Next up is an interesting one. I decided to take a bit of time to implement a new weapon type I had been thinking about. These are called MITE Drones.

The gifs are a bit hard to make out, but I'll explain. The weapon is a primary weapon. Every time you shoot, you will spawn 2 drones up to a max of 20 (number pending). These drones will auto-target random enemies within range and detonate on impact.

Overall the MITE Drones do low damage, but if you use down-time to generate a cluster, you can enter fights with massive bursts of damage, as once spawned, the drones will orbit you indefinitely until they find a target. They're strength falls off once the initial cluster is largely used though. In small numbers their damage isn't strong enough to keep up with the other primary weapons.

It is likely best paired with a reliable secondary like the Gatling.

Unlike the other weapons, MITE Drones will not be available right away. They will be purchased from Tanya's shop.

A couple other things I've done is saving clothing states of characters. This code was always written but never truly implemented, but now it is.

This is actively saved, so it'll persist between sessions too.

Next was to simply apply the requirements, and method of swapping to female Aether

Female Aether requires 50 Resolve. Once achieved she will be unlocked. It is likely that you will need to achieve 50 resolve to use her in Hscenes as well.

Finally, some small tweaks.

-The Titas boss will now play the boss theme (Before it just kept playing Titas' theme).

-Before the Titas boss, during the fading transition, a block enemy would spawn in a weird spot randomly. It no longer does this, and instead spawns with the rest of the blocks.

-Before the blue dome in Titas, a large convoy spawns. The numbers in this convoy has been minimized

-Fixed a bug where if you are shooting the Gatling before the final cut of a level, it could get frame-locked and freak out.

I also spent a bit of time doing some brainstorming on some changes in the hub, and the structure of some things.

Basically I was thinking of a coherent way to introduce the medals, and their rewards. The rewards will largely be cosmetic, but I didn't want confusion on requirements when the player talks to a character and goes to "Clothes". I didn't want to add explanations during dialogue, so I'm thinking I will add ALL character aesthetic options in a "Changeroom" window within Tanya's shop. This way it can show all options you currently have, currently do not have, and the conditions to each one laid out in a simple way, all in one place. This means I will also probably be removing the option to change clothes/aesthetics via dialogue, and do it all through the changeroom. I'll see about implementing this in the next week here.

I came up with a couple neat ideas aside from this, that I will talk about when the time comes, but I am excited about.

That pretty much wraps up this progress report! Next week will be focusing on similar things as this week. Implementing, and adjusting the setup to accommodate the changes. Things like the changeroom mentioned, adding Pix's upgraded active, and basically just going down the list of things I've yet to get done on here.

With that, thanks again everyone! I'll catch you all next week!