So, what will happen next? (Patreon)

It's time to prioritize and outline all the relevant goals that need to be achieved for further work on the project. 

First of all, it is worth noting that the development of the game with the help of old tools has turned into a huge pile of growing problems. A lot of programs necessary for use, a massive and clumsy system, difficulties with correction and making adjustments, a lot of "crutches" that work exclusively with certain introductory and break down when trying to make additional conditions. The further, the more all this ceased to be convenient, fast to use and meet the required conditions that were necessary for the development of the project. Unfortunately, due to lack of experience, such things have to be corrected exclusively by trial and error.

All this led to the fact that it was decided to create a flexible and universal framework that will meet all possible requirements, concentrated in a single tool, convenient for writing and editing, which can be easily expanded for new tasks as development progresses.

• Below will be a detailed description with examples, so if you are only interested in short results, scroll almost to the bottom.
• NSFW content warning!

At the moment, about 80% of occurrences in game events are javascript function calls. It became unbearable to use the standard interface of the engine, which was absolutely not designed for such a programming style. It was decided to write a transpiler of game events into syntactically compatible pseudo-code in javascript and vice versa, while simultaneously translating the rest of the "native" commands of the engine into real function calls. With the help of dynamic typing generation and advanced automatic analysis built into the IDE, it is possible to achieve a significant reduction in the number of syntactic and logical errors already at the stage of direct code writing. And the autofill system and other features of the modern development environment will allow to create events an order of magnitude faster. Finding, replacing, and refactoring code will become a trivial task. A nice bonus to this approach was the ability to play out events with any conditions right "on the fly". At the moment, a fully working prototype with all the basic functionality has been implemented, but the development potential of this system is truly inspiring.

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As many of you know, the game uses a completely written from scratch image system, the so-called "matryoshka", which allows to assemble an arbitrary image from many layers. Unfortunately, as this system has developed, it has become clumsy, complex and filled with various kinds of hacks, which entails many problems with the speed of development and the correctness of displaying images in various game conditions. A critical mass of improvements has accumulated that require implementation, and it is impossible to do with half measures here. The system needs to be rewritten and simplified. While it is difficult to judge the depth of this rabbit hole, but it is already clear that this will affect all the events, of which there are several thousand, which will require full testing of the entire gameplay from start to finish. In addition to the display engine itself, the toolkit for creating presets should be rewritten. We will also have to recycle a large number of graphic assets, work in this direction is already underway.

There is a lot of work to be done, during testing of which we will need your help, but the result will be a universal template for images that will allow to freely modify and expand the graphic component of the game.

For example, here's what the old atlas looks like for both Natasha's overalls:

It includes a large number of repetitive elements that must be there for each individual image change, which leads to a complete mess when the same hand has to be duplicated a dozen times to match all possible variants. Any minor change in this scheme entails the need to redo a huge number of layers, which turns the work into a real nightmare.

By adding to the game the ability to display layers with additional effects, such as "multiply" for shadows, we have moved to a new standard, fully modular, which makes it easy to edit certain parts without affecting the rest, and also makes it easier to add new options, be it clothes, hats, other accessories or even new hairstyles.

To further develop the procedural generation of random encounters, a new system of dynamic container placement and item list generation was created. Lock picking will be fully introduced into the game. The number of maps has been increased, and the maps themselves have become more diverse. Many other improvements are planned to make the journey through the wastelands between locations more interesting.

The standard interface of the engine could not provide a convenient enough way for mass editing of game objects. Therefore, a separate interface has been created in the form of tables, which will allow to quickly search and make changes to the properties of an ever-growing list of items, attacks, states, groups of opponents and other things. A quick search, a filter system and a more convenient visual representation will greatly simplify error detection and refactoring of game data.

In parallel, there is a process of complex refactoring of the game, getting rid of "crutches", simplifying and standardizing approaches. Thus, the ground is being prepared for a simpler and more stable process of development of game events. Unfortunately, due to the number and nature of these changes, backward compatibility with older save files is likely to suffer, but serious efforts will be made to minimize the damage.

• So, it's time to take stock.

The first update will be the most basic, containing a redesigned graphical and technical framework. Finally, it will be possible to undress Natasha freely with the corresponding reaction of other characters and additional events on this occasion for each of the available settlements. Also, Natasha will be able to relieve herself not only in the toilet, but also in any place where there will be no restrictions for this action. To do this, existing events will be redesigned and new graphic content will be added.

New maps for the random encounter pool and an expanded system of unique objects on these maps. The lock-picking system, the reputation in the settlement and everything that was voiced in past messages. Additional equipment options: a robe, a full-fledged shelter t-shirt, leather reinforcement for a regular overall, hats and other accessories with unique characteristics, new weapons.

Depending on how smoothly the transition of the game to the new framework will take place, we are also going to expand the combat component. It is planned to add to the opponents the opportunity to consistently undress Natasha in battle, with the possibility of stealing her clothes altogether, after which she will be open to various sexual harassment. This is also possible if the heroine enters the battle naked, or her clothes are completely torn.

In the future, the focus will be on processing all available graphics to the new standard, which will allow to use old images to create events on a par with new content that will be expanded with new options or even animated. Images used only once, such as the prison scene or all the stages in the infirmary, which could be seen again in the game only using the memory function, will be recycled for extended use in various other events.

There is no point in voicing more distant plans yet, and the post has already turned out to be quite long, so we will finish here for today.

If you have any additional questions, you can ask them here or in discord.