Star Knightess Aura 0.49.0-prerelease-3

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And one more dungeon in Richard's Domain down! This week I finished the Lust Domain, so now there is only the Pride Domain left (okay, and then the part after that for confronting Richard) but the main dungeon crawling segment of the Final Dungeon will then be finally done.

Originally, I had planned that you could fight Asmodeus inside the Final Dungeon, however, doing the detailed planning I realized that the number of variations kind of got out of hand if you rushed inside Richard's Domain using the Star Knightess. So I chose a simpler solution to make the level only accessible after Asmodeus has been defeated.

With the freed up time, I was able to finally take care of what I had meant to squeeze into my vacation week, but didn't get to as the other items filled up my dedicated work slots: Doing the remaining changes so I could submit the game to Steam for review.

Let's hope that with all the censoring it will pass review... Although I still feel like we will be getting a rejection. Who knows. Also, the steam review requires a "Complete Build" so maybe that too might become a problem since the game is nearly done but not "Complete". However, I don't want Trihan to start working on Steam Integration for Achievements if we don't know that we will be accepted.

I also submitted the game to GoG, so another thing where I am curious how it will turn out. The form didn't give me much hope, though. I had to submit some recorded in-game footage for them to review (no build or anything) and I have absolutely no idea if what I recorded "shows off" the game. Since there were no hints on how long the video should be, if it should focus on authentically representing the gameplay or on being more of a show-off pitch or whatever. Well, we will see.........

Apparantly GoG has a wishlist system for games

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/star_knightess_aura

So maybe people need to vote on it. But maybe me writing here and informing the fans of the game that this voting system exists would already contitute manipulation?! Once again, who knows.

Anyways, yesterday I quickly integrated the new Georgia character artwork into the game and also did some minor improvements to the ending corruption scene it appears in.

 George's mother has also been added to the scene with a minor dialogue, to make sure that she wasn't forgotten. I also used the opportunity to make some other minor script improvements: The game will now reveal that killing the Demon King on Earth will just permanently send him to Roya, rather than get rid of him there, in the Intro instead of a dialogue branch with Dolus. For those who had logical issues as to why Aura wouldn't try to kill Richard on Earth, I hope this will make it easier to go along with the plot. Also, in the final confrontation with Mammon, the game will now also reveal the time limit on the Demon Generals regaining their power so it doesn't surprise the player when they reached their first Demon General post-Festival.

Finally, I also prepared the brief for the first H-scene in the corruption ending, however, our artist seems to have come down with a case of food poisoning. I wish him the best to recover.

Technically, the point above wasn't the last, I also started out doing some rough concept work today to plan out the Final Battle next month, but honestly, my thoughts are a bit too distracted with the Steam review.

Anyways, that's it for the week! Next week is polish week! I will be closing out my remaining work items on the World Fog plugin and then do some iteration on Eastern Clockwork Forest and Clockwork Forest Cave. With a bit of luck, Trihan will also be able to finish up some new levels by the end of the week. Until next week!

0.49.0-prerelease-3 (15.11.2024)

• Added female Georgia character art

• Added map Richard Domain 6

• Added encounters and loot in Richard Domain 6

• Blocked off Richard Domain 6 if Asmodeus hasn't been defeated yet

• Added boss replacement encounter in Richard Domain 6

• Added Security Chip effect to Thunder Golem

• Added notetag for Security Chip overrides

• Unlocked Sick Workers after resucing Edwin instead of after entering the Congregation

• Moved reveal that killing the Demon King on Earth moves his soul to Roya into Intro

• Added dialogue at end of Festival for 100 day demon general limit

• Change Aura expressions when examining intro corpses to grim face instead of smile

Balancing

• Improved ATK consistency among demons: Decrease Hi-Wrath to 200, Hi-Greed to 175, but increase Lucifer to 225

• Reduced number of lava tiles in Richard Domain 2 and replace them with level 2 heat tiles

Bugfixes

• Fixed autosaves no longer loading after a map is edited

• Fixed Tenacity applying twice in New Game Plus

• Fixed minor early game visual glitches in Hermann 1 and when learning Light 1

• Fixed typos

• Fixed Fleura corruption mission content being removed from the game

• Fixed remaining adult content being shown when adult content is off

• Fixed Trademond sex scene not adding to sex variable

• Fixed Trademond 2 sex scene not resetting Official Master passive counter

• Fixed passability errors in Richard Domain 4

• Fixed sleep balloon playing on wandering fisherman in Sailor Quarters even if he is not there

• Fixed being unable to progress Rampaging Golem at the academy if Roland is dead

• Fixed being able to save from message window shortcut when saving is disabled