3072 AD: D-TOX REMASTERED / PATCH REPORT (Patreon)

- Presentation -

Hey folks! No the patch is not ready :p I can say it's NEARLY there but this cake is going to need some extra time in the hoven. I'm talking in a matter of a few days.
But in the meantime, let me walk your though what's coming.

Yes, the patch not long contain the completed Bijou chapter, but also REMASTERED and improved version of D-TOX.

And think you'll understand why this back has  LOT going for it (And it's very close to completion)

Here goes!

- ALL D-TOX'S MAIND CORE ASSETS ARE UPDATED -

First things first, Most of D-tox's facial expressions were not really aligned to the new improved way I do them. Some were even really odd looking to be honest, (Like here eyes were not looking in the right direction). As such, I reworked all of her facial expressions, modified her poses a bit. Added some Extra shine.

Oalso reworked the stuff she holds in her hands, like the gasmask and the arminder. Adding a lot of detail, shine.

Here is an example with the armbinder.

Other assets related to D-TOX are completely remade. Like for example the Gasmask POV layer. The old one was really blurry, low quality and frankly not that good looking.

I made a brand new on, that is crisp, and makes you feel a lot more like you are inside a gasmask. Combined with the new image assets added for D-Tox it gives a much more immersive experience.

- NEW ADDED IMAGE ASSETS -

Updating the old assets was a good starting point, but the fact of the matter is, D-Tox outside of her Dialog assets and her gameover images, really doesn't have any other images to flesh out the experience.

For example, her "Attack" images that pop up during the fight, such as her "XXX poison" attack or her "Gasmask" Grab... were essentially just a copy pasted version of her Dialog images with some last minutes changes.

This didn't make the fight interesting to watch I think, so I made a bran new set of images to use both of more flavored cutscene options (Specially having her in a close up when In Ashe's PoV) and to have a clear and detailed image of her actually using her abilities

D-TOX USING XXX poison
(Animated, she cracks the glass in her hands)

D-TOX performing her "Grab" Attack.
(The hand holding the mask is on a separated layer, so in game you actually see the masking moving toward your face before being totally encased.)

- NEW ANIMATED IMAGES -

New static images are great! Animated ones ever better!
Several new animated sequences have been added.

X-RAY view of Ashe's "Private" part.

(This is going to be a useful one for other bosses as well, including Barbwire, as it allows to show how Ashes body can react.)

I already showed a video of Ash struggling in a armbinder.
This is her "Sub" version of it. (Not animated here, but it is in game)

- WATCH WARRIOR ASH's TRANSFORMATION TO SUB ASH IN DETAIL -

One thing I really regretted not having the time to do when I made the D-Tox chapter, was showing in detail her entire transformation process. Instead, I stucked to one POV (There will still be a LOT of IMPROVED PoV shots though, don't worry) and some "Out of sight" dialog of D-Tox "explaining" what was happening.

Along with, once again, copy-pasted parts of the "Dialog Sub Ash images" to flavor it a bit.

As the saying goes: "Show! Don't tell!"
And that's what I did.

This is one of the most important decisions you make in the game. So I want to give it the shine it deserves.

As such, I'm happy to say that in this new version, you will actually SEE the entire procedure of her transformation into SUB ASH in a LOT of detail.

ASH is unable to move due to the toxin still in her body. She can't do anything as D-Tox is modifing her body.

- UPDATING THE SUB ASH MINI GAMES AND NEW ART ASSET FOR SUB ASH -

The QTE and Bar filling mini-games used a very outdated, clunky system. With the new UI system I've been using for a while, I intend to update these to make sure that they are nicer to look at, more intuitive and a lot more immersive. (They will also require a lot less images which is nice, to reduce the loading of the game).

In addition, I made a new SUB ASH art asset SET to be used specially for special events such as these (Not just for D-Tox but can and will be used for other bosses, including, Splatter, Bijou and Barb. For this patch, you'll only see it pop on D-Tox for now).

I did this for the same reason as before. Copy-pasting the dialog images for something like this? Not very professional and not very fun for the user to watch the same image over and over. Switching angles, such as a nice Frontal (Like you were in the POV of Mistress doing things to Ash), will make the experience more engaging.

Right now, this what has prevented me from releasing the patch this weekend as planned as I have to "untangle" the spaghetti code that old newbie me did with these old minigames and I have to be careful not to BREAK anything in the process.

This might take me a few extra days, but the end results will be worth it  (As this will also benefit other bosses. Using a much nice Bar fill  and QTE type of minigame).

Work in progress of the new assets to be used for the SUB challenge mini-game.
I went for a mask that totally encases her entire head this time for Full and total enclosure.

(The eye caps to blind her are still there as well, even if you don't see them in this example). The "Breathing" game should also work differently. The "Bar" to fill will the be lungs themselves. And as you gradually fill the lung the image of ash will evolve as well to reflect that. Making the minigame once again, a lot more immersive.

- IMPROVING THE GAME OVER -

Still using the previous sprites and images as these still look good today.

But, I decided to also give that one a bit of love. Not by adding an other gameover, but but adding more art and yes... Animated art... To make the scene even spicier.

In addition to a "Side shot" of Ash in the bag. You will not get a Frontal one, showing her sliding and being encased in it.

Ash found her "OWN" bag. Made just for her!

That's it for the juicy images, but here are some additional notes and changes:

- The way you "Seduce" D-Tox as been changed. Before you just kinda had to ask her "Hey, Can I be your slave?" Which in retrospect is a bit silly and doesn't explain why she would suddenly decide to do that. So now, I changed the entire chain of events to get there. I won't spoilt it, but it's much more fun, engaging, and establishes some good lore. Each time you reach a higher Seduce level, something will happen. For example, if you reach Level 1, Ash will now blush every time she speaks with D-Tox and even some dialog lines may change.

- Speaking of Lore, some notable script changes were made on her. The general outline is still the same, but I fleshed out a lot of things.

- More choices: Previously, the only big choice was to become Slave Ash. Here the choice will matter will matter bore and there can be... bad consequences.

- Many OLD bugs, have been fixed, such as: Music bug after aborting her battle, her Grab attack lagging for 2-3 seconds before she would actually do it, skipping the "First time" events, events being stuck, etc...

- If you dread making a new character, hopefully this will help. Various quality of life improvements were made. Such as:

Adding a "Tip" system which triggers after you lose two fights against a boss. This is optional but if you chose to accept it, a random tip explaining how to beat the boss will be given.  The tips are specifics to the boss you lost to by the way, so the information is relevant to the boss you're dying to.

A much requested feature: "Dashing" is now enabled. Using the SHIFT key, you can make the character RUN. So if you're tired of traversing large maps, not to worry, you can rung through them. I had to disable it before because of performance issues. Now that this is fixed, I've enabled on MOST maps (Some maps, like the Stealth area, do not allow it to preserve game balances or on other maps to set up a mood. But 90 percent of the maps can now be dashed through).

The final quality of life improvement is keeping the "Battle UI" hidden during "cutscene" event in the middle of combat. What would happen is that between dialog windows, the combat UI would pop back up on top of the image for a second. Which was annoying and distracting. I found a script to make sure it doesn't happen (Note: Right now this is only applied to D-Tox but will roll that for other bosses later)


Oh yeah, last but not least:
The patch will roll out a big performance boost. Which will remove the instance of random frame drops during a play session along with random freezes. In short, you will no longer have to close and relaunch the game because of sudden frame rate drops now.

Side note for MAC USERS: As I explained, the Dev of RPG maker have given up updating the engine to work on the latest MAC OS. I'm however making ONE last try to fix this on my own. Please try the next coming patch to see if it works, but I can't guarantee it will. If it does, then sorry to say, you'll have to wait for me to finish learning to code on UNITY and make the transition to that engine before you can enjoy my future games on MAC. (Unless you use a Windows emulator, which are common)



- In closure -:

So there you have it.

I still need a few more days to make sure it's nice and polished!

For the record, I'm making an exception with this patch, and will release it for both Tier III and Tier IV. Usually, all new patches go to Tier IV early access first (about one month), but for this one, I wanted to make a point to all my patreons following my announcement last week.  I want to improve the games quality and consistancy of progress by a LOT from now on.

And this patch is me making that statement. Which is why I want most of my patrons to enjoy it now when it releases.

Any future patch after this will return to the usual "Early access to Tier IV" first and Tier III later formula.

That's it for GAME related news, but a final side note about the future of IMAGE content:

As I explained, I want to start focusing a LOT more on making games and I need to make changes on how I deal with image related content.

The old "BIG image" sets, as much as you may have enjoyed it, as caused me a lot of stress and anxiety because of the VERY tight deadlines (Seriously I felt like one of these mangaka that has to publish chapters every month) and it just hate up ALL my available time.

For now,  I intend to finish the SHEGO set (Finished 40 more page, still have a good 40 more to go I think, the Maggie femboy set, and as for the Yor set, not worry, since a vote as already been made on her, I will do a set for her as well after I finish SHEGO part 2.

But after the Yor set, I'll have to see with all of you how we'll approach image content in the future and how to adapt rewards for different tiers to make it worth it for all of you.

IMAGE content is not going away anytime soon. I very much enjoy drawing images. The part that drains me, is WRITTING hundreds of pages. Writing a short NOVEL worth of stories in such tight time frames is... HARD! That, has to change. And I have several ideas I'll share with you and we'll discuss together what is the best decision for everyone.

There is of course, the idea of just splitting the set (as I'm doing with Shego) but I'm brainstorming other options. I'm not making any decisions right away, and for now I'll proceed as usual for Shego and Yor, and I'll come back to you on what we do after that.

But for now, I want to deliver this new patch to all TIER III an d TIER IV members very soon. As my statement to you as to where I see my future when it comes to "Telling stories".

Telling stories through a game is much more fun, AND easier in video game format. As, I can use sprites and maps to fill the gaps (IE: How to I get characters to "Enter" a scene. In a image set. That was a BIG headache in image sets. In a game, I can mix  my art, sprites and maps to make it happen.) It's just more efficient, and less taxing to my body to storytell through this medium.

I think this is where I want to take my storytelling moving forward (Progressively). And I want to keep image content, as IMAGE content. And not "Novel" content. But we'll get to that as I finish the Shego/Yor set a least.

That is to say, you won't see any less images content from me, just understand that while I enjoy drawing art and want to do MORE it, MUCH more... I no longer enjoy the process of writing entire novels around them. So in short. More things to look at, less things to read is what is on the menu when it comes to the future of image content. (Which by way, could result in a better role out of character votes.)

Also, a final note: I have a family thing this month. Towards end of august, and may be out of town for a long week. So content update might slide of a week as well (That is to say, Instead of content drop happening on the second next month, it most likely be on the 8 or 9 to give me time as I return home).


That's all, hope you enjoyed the patch report,

This is close to release and the wait won't be long now. Promise. Just give me the time to really polish this before I get it into your hands.

Btw, I plan of remastering Splatter as well at some point, but will keep my focus on barbwire first!