Update 4/26

Did I get all of Genevieve's dates done? No. But I got all of her daytime dating stuff done. Except hiking. Ran out of steam for that.

Update ahoy.

Update 4/26

Major Updates
- You can now call Genevieve and go out on dates with her (make sure to call by Early Afternoon, as her night-time dating is not yet implemented).

Minor Updates
- Any time the game strips you naked, it will no longer hang. This should also resolve any problems with clothes getting stuck in inventory, and possibly constantly decreasing non-natural charisma.
- Changed the way the game handles the beach, so you shouldn't see clothes getting stuck there.
- Added a new outfit, Undefined, for it you leave the house wearing clothes that are not part of an established outfit. You can never choose the Undefined outfit, but this should fix any potential problems that the new outfit system might cause.
- Streamlined all kinds of stuff behind the scenes that no one will ever see, probably.

You'll probably notice that a lot of stuff got left out of this update. Turns out dating sucks the big one, so whenever I decide to update it, I shouldn't plan on doing anything else. The next update will be significantly more substantial, because I need a break before I go back to dating.

Download link here.

The Why Of Dating

Why does dating suck? Well, let me tell you.

First of all, there's a lot of options for dating. A lot. I haven't added them up, but the total variations are 50+. Which is good for you, because it means that you don't have to get bored with doing the same date over and over again, but bad for me, because I have to actually write all that stuff.

And copy/paste, while it's available for some stuff, isn't really feasible for all the stuff that happens in dates. Even similar stuff, like shopping for clothes and shopping for underwear, has different interactions. And then there's all the variations in the actual dating action itself. Let's look at clothes shopping with Genevieve as an example.

You get to the mall. That's the first constant. What she does when you meet up, however, depends on what your relationship with her is. If you're just friends (i.e. you're not romantically involved), it's a simple greeting. If you're more than friends, she gives you a kiss hello (variation #1). You then head to the clothing store and browse the clothes. At this point, there's a 40% chance of Genevieve asking you which of three dresses would look better on her (variation #2), and the results of the choice you make in two cases depends on your relationship with her (variations #3, #4, and #5). If that doesn't happen, there's a 40% chance of her giving you a dress and asking you to try it on, to which you have 4 possible responses (variation #6). If that doesn't happen, then it's just a normal shopping trip.

After the trip is over, the two of you head back to the mall entrance and prepare to go home. If you're romantically involved with Genevieve and quite far along in terms of seducing her, then you automatically kiss her goodbye (or rather, she kisses you goodbye), otherwise, you have the option of kissing her goodbye (variation #7, and the only one I can actually copy/paste), and her reaction depends on your friendship (rejected, accepted but surprised, accepted). And then she heads home.

That's one dating option. In the shopping category, there's four possible activities, and only one of them has less variation than clothes. In the case of underwear, there's about half a dozen more variations (mostly because you can get an impromptu sex scene, which had variations for straight lesbian sex, small futa and large futa sex).

So it takes a while to get it all put in.

I've been cutting down the dating options (yes, there used to be more) in order to maintain my sanity. You can no longer go to the museum at all, which is fine, because none of the characters I have planned actually liked it anyway, and makeup shopping was dumb anyway. There were way too many options for restaurants for lunch and dinner dates (dinner in particular had eight variations, which I have cut down to a reasonably more manageable five). So hopefully it'll be less work on me in the future. But I still have to code all this stuff. And it takes a while.

Long stream is done

Six hours later, I've made quite a bit of progress on dating with Genevieve. Still not nearly complete, but I feel good about what I did include.

Sex scenes are annoying, by the way.

I'm done for the day, but I'll probably still be working on this over the weekend and whatnot. Still mostly on track for a 4/26 release date.

Strem Done

Stream is live. Working on date stuff.


Annoyingly, I can't concentrate tonight. Gonna have to put in a long Thursday to make up for it.

Silent Running

It's been a few days since I posted, huh?

Not too many actual game updates to speak of. I tweaked the Strip command to no longer hang the game, which should resolve a lot of problems that are completely unrelated, like underwear getting stuck when you return from the beach, along with some stuff that no one but me cares about (trust me on this one, it's boring).

Progress on dating has been slow, simply because there's a shitload of dating options, and covering them all is brain-breaking. I don't like it. I'm going to actually cut out some of the date options (like the museum, which I've already cut out) so that I can keep my sanity while still offering some variety in the number of activities available.

I'm also starting to think that I might have been a little ambitious with the goals for this update, so I'm going to actually drop the Traits update and push that to the next update. I might end up pushing some of pregnancy stuff too, but for now that's still on the table, and if I do end up pushing it, I'm going to be pretty goddamn annoyed.

In other news, I've developed a couple of additional, relatively minor things for implementation at a later date. First of all, the Suspicion system is going to be removed, so you can transform yourself in the succubus/robot/catgirl/cowgirl/dragon/doggirl of your dreams and not have to worry about getting hauled off by the guys in white coats anymore (with an in-game justification, even). However, it will be replaced with a new Guilt system, where your illegal actions will slowly increase a scale of guilt, which runs from 0-100. Once you get above 50, you run into an increasing chance of getting arrested every time you break the law. Should you get arrested, you'll have to either pay a fine or serve time in jail, or, if you've been arrested a lot, you'll have to spend time in jail with no option for a fine (and 30 days, at that). It will be possible to run from the police to avoid arrest, with the caveat that you'll have to serve an extra day in jail if you're caught anyway, and the chance of losing your shoes if they're not really appropriate for running. Guilt will decrease slowly over time (1 point per day), but each infraction, with the exception of public drunkeness, will add at least 2 points to guilt each time. Also, one of the infractions is public indecency, so all of your desires of walking out in public with the fishnet mini dress and nothing else on can finally come true. Should you get sent to jail, you can attempt to escape, but if you're successful, the police will still be on the lookout for you. Basically, if you plan to break the law a lot, work on being fit so you can run away faster, or be prepared to spend a lot of time in the slammer.

And what implementation of lawlessness would be complete without the ability to steal stuff? So shoplifting will get implemented at some point in the future. Of course, before you start thinking that you'll be able to lift that $300 pantsuit, you should know two things. 1) Clothes will be the most difficult thing to steal (you can't steal furniture), 2) if you shoplift and fail, you'll be banned from the mall for a week. Doesn't sound like that big a deal? Well, hope you stocked up on condoms and tampons, then...

And the third thing I've been working on is an implementation for the Body Crafting spell. The original idea for the spell was to only make it work on people you were able to invite to your apartment, but man, talk about boring, right? So if there's no one in your apartment, or if you choose to hold the spell in reserve, then you can do that. However, it'll take 3 mana per action to maintain the spell. If you run out of mana, then the spell goes off to the nearest target: you. But anyway, assuming you can find your intended target before you run out of mana, then you can use it on them and see the effects. Some effects will be temporary, and some will be permanent, and I'm not saying which. You can't use it on relationship NPCs, though: they do have to be in your apartment to be affected by it.

So that's what I've been planning when I'm not killing myself working on dating.

Also, I'll be streaming tonight. Not sure when, probably between 7:30 and 8pm EDT.

Whoops

Ever have one of those days where you realize that you should have done something and you just completely blanked on it?

I just checked my email (it's a separate account than my normal email) to discover that I haven't checked anything since March 10th.

Shit.

I'll be replying to emails today, so if you get something from me and you're all "But I asked that six weeks ago!", well, now you know why. Sorry for the delays in getting emails out, I am trying to be better about this stuff but sometimes I just get wrapped up in other things.

Stream Over, Small Update

So I got quite a bit of streamlining stuff done today.

First and foremost, outfits no longer use loops, so putting them on and setting them takes no time at all. Stripping still takes time. I'm thinking about how to alter that.

The stripper job, from waitress through exotic/private dancer has been completely streamlined. Fewer clicks, a lot of automation, and, as far as I can tell, absolutely no loss of any content.

Finally, I added a bit of a tutorial to the beginning of the game (which you can skip), in case any new players don't know how RAGS works. This is honestly something I should have added about six months ago, but better late than never. It's basic RAGS functionality for now, but I'm thinking of a couple of new features that might be fun to add if I get off my lazy butt, that would probably need a bit of explanation.

I've uploaded a new version (4/12), but there is no new content in it. It's just streamlining. So download if you're interested in that or if the outfit system is driving you nuts with the slowdown. Otherwise, wait until the next version.

Download 4/12 here.

Just FYI

Not sure when I'll start streaming tomorrow. I'm sick and completely exhausted. But keep watching this space...I'll let you know.

Exhausted Progress

I started to work on Genevieve's date reactions this morning, then got bored, lost focus, and passed out for a while from exhaustion.

When I woke up, the stripper job had been redone and clothing was re-tooled to not use loops, along with a couple of other things. So...I guess I'm sleep-coding now?

The stripper will be much easier to deal with going forward. Instead of getting to the changing room, stripping, putting on your clothes, putting on your shoes, moving to the main room, selecting "Get to Work", then moving back to the changing room...well, that's all automated. So you get to the strip club and select "Get to Work" from the locker, and it will put on the clothing appropriate to your job level, let you choose your shoes (similar to when you're leaving the apartment), move you to the main room automatically, and show you the results of your work day before moving you back to the changing room and putting your normal clothes on (have I mentioned that I love how easy the Outfit system makes things for me? Because I totally do).

So one click makes the whole process move forward. This does mean I have to choose your clothes for you, but I doubt anyone will be too upset about that. You still wear the waitress outfit as the waitress, obviously. Novice strippers wear the slutty schoolgirl outfit, strippers wear the cheerleader outfit, and exotic/private dancers wear the white gown. There is a bit of an advantage: knowing what you're going to wear means I can re-write the scenes to account for those clothes.

"But Anonymous Man! Won't that mean we never get to see the descriptions of the clothes when we're wearing them?" Well, first of all, who are you, and how are you talking to me? Second of all, no. See, you know how sometimes you're offered a promotion and you have the chance to turn it down, and there's seriously no reason to turn it down until you get to the Private/Exotic Dancer split? Well, now there is: if you turn down a promotion three times, then you get a "take-home" version of the costume you're wearing for that particular promotion. So if you decide not to progress beyond the stripper three times, then you get to take home your very own cheerleader outfit. Of course, the outfits will be of limited use, but may have some benefits in, for example, the bedroom.

Clothing being retooled to not use loops isn't that big a deal, but it will resolve a lot of the problems with the Outfit system like, for example, wearing two sets of stockings or what-have-you. It's a pain in the ass to code, though. I'll leave it at that.

Other miscellaneous changes?
- Every time period in which you lactate (i.e. you get the message about your breasts getting a little fuller) lowers your overall lactation rate. The more you're lactating, the more it lowers it.
- A lactation accident in your apartment lowers cleanliness by 1.
- Set up a system where, if you call someone up and ask them to go out, then call someone else and ask them to go out, the first person will get mad because you're standing them up, basically. As a corollary, if you ask someone out on a date and then don't go (you asshole), you'll get the same reaction, just at the end of the day. This won't see any real use until I start adding other people that you can date, but the framework is there. Framework is important.

Some other stuff.
- Much like the maid job, if you set up a date and then show up late, you can still do it, but your date will be hurt by it.
- If you ask someone out on a date, and they're either a good friend or in love with you, but really doesn't like the particular activity (example: Genevieve really hates birdwatching), then there's a chance they'll still do it with you, but it will strain your friendship a bit, and your opportunities to advance the friendship will be limited.
- I mentioned a few things during the stream last night. The only one of particular importance (that I can remember) is that I mentioned I came up with a system where the player can change their living situation (i.e. move out of their apartment), and potentially move into a penthouse, a smaller apartment, or a house. Not sure if I want to do that though, as while there would be tangible benefits (the penthouse, for example, having a built-in gym so you only spend half a block with the "Go to Gym" option, rather than a full block), but it would be a pain to implement.

Stream Time was Then

Managed to get Genevieve's telephone date reactions coded in. Now, on to the next step: the actual date.

But not tonight. Tired.

Obligatory request for donations here (one donation in two weeks means I have to bring attention to it again).

The Next Update

So the weekend has passed, and the major bugs have been kind of fixed, as far as I can tell based on the reports that I've seen/gotten.

And with a couple of days of downtime (in which I swear I had no idea what to do with myself), it's time to get started on the next update. Er, tomorrow. It's late, I'm not a robot.

So, what's planned for the next version?

1) Internet Reporter job. This will be a promotion from the Blogger job, and...I really don't have much to say about it, to be honest. It's kind of vanilla.

2) More pregnancy content (I swear, I'm never going to be finished with pregnancy content). Specifically, the ability to have twins and triplets, and the consequences thereof. Also, some additional birthing options, like hiring a midwife or hypnosis instead of a regular hospital birth (with advantages and disadvantages for each).

3) The biggie: Relationship updates. Ideally, I want to have Genevieve actually date-able, which means that I have to chart and code her reactions (oh wait, I have 50% of those done, ha!), then create the locations and the events that can happen on those dates. With any luck, I'll be able to get to the point that you can start seducing her, if you're into that, and also the point at which she starts reacting to your actions. Like, for example, if you smoke and decide to light up around her, she'll hate it, then be disgusted, then ambivalent, then eventually ask to borrow one of your cigarettes (at which point she becomes a regular smoker herself). So at the end of this, the Genevieve relationship STILL won't be done, but she'll have significantly more options available.

3a) The introduction of the new relationship characters: Lydia, Dean, and the third guy who's name I don't remember. They might get to the point where Genevieve is now (you can get their phone number), but don't expect anything beyond that.

4) Miscellaneous additions, like the form-fitting exercise clothes, a few new traits, and so on.

This is going to be a rather large update, so it might take a while to do it. I'm setting a deadline for three weeks from Thursday, April 26th. We'll see what happens.

Bugfix 4/6

It's a new bugfix. This should fix most bugs reported (I'll note which ones aren't fixed).

Bug fixes
- Nude Model workplace now has the photographer again (several characters got deleted somehow).
- Cleaning supplies can now be replenished before you run out (the check was only letting you resupply if you were completely out).
- Cashmere Overcoat and Raincoat can now both be toggled on.
- Raincoat will now properly be worn in inclement weather if toggled on (it will default over the overcoat...or should).
- Getting dressed at the strip club now uses the outfit that you put on before you left, and should apply everything properly.
- Half time will now be reset whenever the time updates, or when you sleep. So if you use a half time block, and then a full time block, you have another half time block before the time will update.
- Exercising naked should properly register, as should exercising in only the sports bra.
- Jogging should now properly register the sports bra if you have it set in your exercise clothes.
- Purple belted dress can now be worn in outfits, as per usual. There was a funky conditional check in there.
- Nun outfit can now be set as part of an outfit (I completely forgot to include it, if you can believe that. 30 separate outfits will do that to a guy).

Known Issues
- The outfits don't handle regular stockings very well. This is because the loop check looks for the word "stockings" and puts on the first one it finds. Since "fishnet stockings" also contains the word, the check doesn't work properly. This will be corrected when I remove the loop.
- Setting outfits and putting them on runs a loop that lags out the game. As I mentioned above, this seemed like a good idea at the time, but I'll be changing it to run more traditionally for the next update. Lesson learned: looping items is a bad idea.

Unknown Issues
- Isolated report of charisma decreasing, not sure what's causing it.

Other Things
- Apartment cleanliness will be affected by things like lactation accidents in the future (generally it will decrease cleanliness by 1, 2 if you're lactating quite a lot).
- You don't have to clean every day. If you let the apartment get dirty and leave it there, you'll eventually get the Slob trait. Once you've gotten that, you can safely ignore apartment cleanliness, as it will never get low enough to affect your health (technically speaking, it does, but your character just doesn't care).
- If you're really concerned about cleaning every day, buy the cleaning supplies, and Tidy Up once every three days, and you'll be all set.
-The bathtub/shower will eventually get some love in the form of Cold Showers: half time block, reduce arousal by 15% if it's over 50%.
- The Maid job is not complete. It's complete in and of itself, but there will be an option to make it into an actual Job rather than a side-job. Eventually.

Available here.

I've posted a couple of polls on the right. Please take a look at them.

Bugfix 4/5b

Fixes the following bugs:

- No action to go to client's house as a maid.
- No message about when to go to the client's house as a maid.
- Cleaning supplies were registering as empty when actually full.
- Work, Extra Outfit 1 and Extra Outfit 2 were not wearing underwear properly.
- Exercise equipment will now properly register if you decide to exercise naked (note that naked is the default).

Available here.

Bugfix 4/5a

Fixes the following bugs:

- Error message that popped up when moving from the balcony to any room after exercising.
- Inability to use the treadmill due to clothing.
- Blogger job action "Get to Work" not doing anything.
- Message about meeting maid client even if you're not a maid.

Available here. (obsolete)

Update 4/5

Seven fucking hours later...

Download Link Here (obsolete)

Note: If you have any bug reports for this version, please report them as soon as possible. I will be unavailable on Saturday, and want to get stuff fixed tomorrow if possible.

Updates

- New career/job: Publisher -> Blogger. Only the first level (there are no promotions). There's some things missing from this (namely, lack of dress code, lack of problems with arousal), but it's basically functional.

- New Side Job: Maid. To become a maid, you need to do the following: buy a computer. Buy the cleaning supplies (available at the convenience store). This will unlock a command on the computer: Start Maid-for-hire business. Note that your technical aptitude skill will determine how effective your website is (i.e. how likely you are to get a job on a given day, with a low of 10% for shitty scores and a high of 60% for excellent scores). Then, once per day, you can check the computer to see if you have a job the following day. Note that you can (and if you're not careful, probably will), run into scheduling conflicts between your maid job and your real one.
--> Cleaning supplies are limited: you can only have 7 uses (1 use = 1 job), and must replenish them at the rate of 1 use for $5. If you have no supplies, you cannot go on a maid job. However, you can replenish the supplies at home easily enough.

- New clothing system. You can get dressed in whatever you want (including jewelry and accessories), and then set the outfit at the closet for future use. Currently this involves loops and therefore has a lag when you're setting it or getting dressed. I'll work on removing the loop for the next update.

- You now get to choose what shoes you want to wear when you leave the apartment. The top option (with the exception of the first time you leave) will always be Last Worn Shoes, so if you're satisfied with what you wore last time, you can just hit enter or click ok to put those shoes on again.

- Apartment cleaning system. You'll see messages in every room about how clean your overall apartment is. At low levels, this will add to your Slob trait, and at really low levels, it'll negatively affect your health. To clean up, use the room portrait actions. Tidy Up increases cleanliness to a point below the maximum (14/20), but doesn't take any time. Clean Up can increase cleanliness to max and raises cleanliness faster, but takes a time unit. Clean Thoroughly is only available when your apartment is pretty dirty (less than 10 of 20), takes two time units, and increases cleanliness a lot. The cleaning supplies give you a bonus to cleaning (i.e. Tidy Up normally raises Cleanliness by 1 point, but with cleaning supplies increases it by 3) without using any of the supplies up. Note that apartment cleaning is the only way to raise the Cleaning Skill, and that the more time you spend cleaning, the more the skill will rise (i.e. Clean Thoroughly gives you much more points per time unit spent than Tidy Up).

- Showering, makeup and vitamins are now all automated. When you wake up in the morning, you'll get a message about showering (as long as you don't have the Slob trait), putting on makeup (requires that you put it on before, and that femininity is greater than 20), and taking a vitamin (defaults to multivitamin if available; if it isn't, defaults to vitamin C; if neither, no message is displayed).

- Many exercise actions at home now use the Half Time system. Rather than using up a full time block, exercise actions use a half time block, and you have to use two halves to use up a full time block. Note that this currently carries over to the next day: if you use a half time block on day 1, and then a half time block on day 2, that counts as a full time block. This is an oversight on my part and will be fixed later. Other Half Time actions (like taking a cold shower, for example) will be added in the next update.

- The cashmere overcoat is now a toggle like the raincoat. Note that you cannot have both toggled on: it's one or the other. I'll be setting things up so that the raincoat can be toggled on to be the default on rainy days, so you can have both if you want, in the next update.

- Exercise actions will now automatically put on your exercise clothes: you do not need to put them on yourself. Simply set your exercise clothes in the closet, and when you work out, the game will make decisions based on what you set.

- When you leave the balcony, if you need to shower (and don't have the slob trait), you'll move automatically to the bathroom to do so. You'll also automatically re-apply makeup if appropriate.

The Next Next Update

So, come hell or high water, I'll be posting a new version tomorrow. I'm going to be unavailable most of the weekend, and therefore unable to work on the game as I normally would be on Saturday, and I don't want to leave things half finished.

But who cares about that BS?! We all know what's going to be in tomorrow's update, let's talk about the update after it!

This will be the "relationship" update. In addition to some stuff in regards to pregnancy (twin and triplet possibilities and some other stuff), my goal is to enhance the existing Genevieve relationship to the point that you can at least have sex with her, if that's your thing. So dating, inviting her over, maybe some cuddling/heavy making out on the couch? Absolutely. Naughty naked lesbian sex? Sure thing. Girl-on-futanari sex? I would be disappointed if you didn't expect that at this point.

That's the goal. But not the only goal. I mean, it's been pretty obvious for a while now that, while the Genevieve relationship has stalled for a while, I've always intended to have more than one person for you to romance. So the goal of the next update will be to (at least) introduce some of those people and allow you to interact with them a bit, and then subsequent updates will add on to their interactions.

Ever wanted to seduce a bi-curious Asian-American goth girl? How about a guy that's all about being chivalrous and nice, even if he's already involved with another girl? Maybe that local sports star sounds like a good idea? Those are the three I've got planned so far. Depending on how they go, I'll be adding 2 to 4 more as well.

In terms of relationships, Genevieve is pretty vanilla. You meet, you talk, you like, you love, etc. There's no unexpected curves (so far). But the other characters will have some...twists, let's say. That Asian-American goth girl? She's not a fan of big breasts. Why? Because despite the fact that she currently weights 100 pounds and is rail-thin, when she gains weight, her breasts tend to grow much faster than the rest of her, and she doesn't like it. And yes, you can "fatten her up", so to speak. But when she realizes what you're doing, will she let it continue, or will she run away faster than an out-of-control tornado?

That local sports star? He's a manly man. Muscular, tough, rugged. At least, until you realize that he has seriously repressed transsexual desires. Do you help him keep them repressed, or do you help him get in touch with his feminine side whether he wants to or not? Tell him to grow his hair longer, maybe slip him some female hormones (warning: morality alert!), keep him from going to the gym so his muscles fade to reveal girly curves. But when he realizes what you're doing, will you be able to convince him you're doing it because you love him, or will he run away, never to be seen again?

So hopefully some interesting stuff.

Stream Time is Fun Time

But fun time is over.

So here's what I got done tonight.

1) Clothing system done. The game will now check to see if your underwear fits, and give you a big red error message if it doesn't, just so you don't miss it.
1a) The Exercise outfit doesn't actually work the way other outfits do. Instead of setting it to what you're wearing, it checks what you own (form-fitting clothes [NYI], sweatsuit, sports bra and panties), and asks which of them you would like to use when exercising. You can still put it on whenever you want, but see #3 for why you don't have to.
1b) The Extra Outfit 1 and Extra Outfit 2, after being set, can be named.

2) Morning routine (shower, makeup, vitamins) done.

3) Exercise routine changed: because of the way that the exercise outfit works, you no longer need to change into it to work out. Instead, you get a simple message that you "change into your exercise clothes" (or strip naked, if that's what you choose) before working out. Going out (jogging, gym, dojo) will still require you to set actual clothes, however (by this, I mean you can't set the exercise outfit to naked and go to the gym: you have to set either the sweatsuit or the form-fitting clothes as part of the exercise outfit).

4) Cashmere overcoat is now a toggle like the raincoat, instead of a wearable item. You cannot toggle them both to on: it will switch the other off.

5) Changed the "Choose your shoes" interface when leaving the apartment. Instead of asking you to choose something every time you leave, the top (default) option will be "Last Worn Shoes". So if you're happy with the shoes you had last time, just click OK to continue, and you'll wear those shoes.

6) Added a new "Half Time of Day Update" timer. The way this works is that, for certain actions (like, for now, exercising at home), it won't always take up a time block. Instead, it will only change to the next time block every other time the half time update is run. So if you work out on the yoga mat, that won't update the time. But if you work out on the yoga mat AND lift weights, that will use up a time block (2 halves = 1 time block).

7) When you leave the balcony, if you're sweaty from working out and don't have the slob trait, you'll automatically go to the bathroom, shower and reapply your makeup (if any).

So, yeah. I think that was a productive evening. Even if it did take 4 hours. One step closer to the next update!




Here's some traits that I came up with today. Not sure when they'll get into the game, but they will at some point.

Manly/Tomboy: You may be a woman, but that doesn't mean you have to act like one! Any femininity increases are halved.

Girly/Feminine: Well, now that you're a woman, you may as well act the role. And the fact that you like it? Bonus. Any femininity decreases are halved.

Shopaholic: You. Love. Shopping. A day at the mall is a day well spent. It's fun, relaxing, and you get new stuff when you get home! Of course, like any -aholic, failing to indulge yourself tends to have repercussions. Going to the mall reduces arousal by 10 once per day, but failing to go to the mall increases arousal by 5 at the end of the day.


Big Eater: You have a big appetite and a big stomach, and you love to satisfy both. Daily meals will not fill you up as much (Fullness -10), but sparse meals will not satisfy you at all, and act as though you haven't eaten anything.


Grazer: You don't like to eat too much, and find that your stomach and appetite are easily satisfied. Daily meals fill you up more (Fullness +10), but hearty meals will make you sick from overeating (health -2).

Fast Metabolism: Your body is much more efficient at using up fat reserves than other people, keeping you slim and svelte. You start each day with 1 less Fat point (to a minimum of zero), but failing to eat will affect you much more strongly than before (If Fullness < 5 at end of day, health -2, in addition to any other normal health loss).


Slow Metabolism: You find it difficult to work off fat, and it tends to stick around for the long haul as a result. You start each day with 1 more Fat point (except on Sparse and Nothing meal plans), but your reserves of fat mean you won't lose health from not eating anything, as long as you have some meat on your bones (If Fullness = 0 but Weight < 60, you will not lose health, but rather gain points to weight [become slimmer]).

Process Improvements

Started work today on the new clothing system. Maid stuff still isn't done, but I was all gung-ho to try this out that I just couldn't wait. And the good news is...it works.

Unless someone is really interested in the details of the behind the scenes stuff, I won't bore you with that, but basically, the way the system works is you get dressed in a particular set of underwear, clothing, jewelry and accessories, and then head to the closet (currently, I might change it to the dresser, haven't decided yet) and select Set Outfit -> Casual/Work/Exercise/Extra 1/Extra 2. The game then figures out what you're wearing, and stores all of that information. Then you choose Get Dressed, and it asks you which outfit you want to put on (side note: I was originally going to make this a child command, so that it would be Get Dressed -> Casual, but it wouldn't work the way I wanted it to). The game then checks the layout of the outfit and puts it all on.

As a side effect, you also won't see the "You put on the X" messages for each item. They were a little tedious. Oh, and those "Extra 1" and "Extra 2" outfits? I'm trying to make it so that when you set them, you get to name them. So you can set Extra Outfit 1, and then call it your "Clubbing" outfit or whatever you want.

Now, there are a couple of problems with the system right now. For example, the underwear doesn't check if it fits, which is, you know, problematic. But the problems are simply process problems, as opposed to functionality problems: the system works, it just doesn't work 100% right. Yet.

You may notice that the outfit system doesn't give two shits about your shoes, and I can hear you all groaning from here. "Man, we still have to put on shoes manually?! ARGH!" Well, yes...and no. In the next update, you'll notice that the shoes that you buy don't have the Wear command anymore. Instead, when you leave the apartment, you'll get a list of all the shoes you've bought, and the option to choose which ones to put on. Wait, what's that? A simplified process wherein you buy the shoes and choose what you want to wear when you leave the apartment as opposed to manually putting them on? That's like...like...easy!

And it does work, in case you were wondering. I've tested both systems, including what happens if you pick shoes that don't fit (like combat boots when you have Reformed Feet); it tells you that you can't wear those shoes, and then makes you pick again. I also figured that (since Reformed Feet is irrevocable) it would make sense to remove that particular option from the list if you try to put on the shoes and find that you can't, so I need to add that in.

What this all boils down to is, instead of getting up in the morning, going to the bathroom, showering, taking vitamins, putting on makeup, going back to the bedroom, putting on clothes with the Get Dressed command, putting on jewelry, adding accessories, and then heading to the Foyer, picking your shoes and selecting a destination (a total of 13-21 clicks), you get up in the morning, select your outfit, go to the Foyer, select your destination and pick your shoes (a total of 6 clicks).

How's that for a slice of fried gold?

April Fools! Except Not

Yeah, there's no April Fools joke.

I was going to come up with something, like an event where you never meet Maria at the beginning of the game or something. But between work, school, and getting hit with a monstrous flu bug, I didn't have the time or ability to actually implement anything. I've barely looked at the code since Thursday night, and I'm still recovering from being sick (mostly okay now).

Plus, the fact that I have a specific release date of Thursday means that if I released something today, it would look more than a little suspicious.

Anyway, I'm back on the job tomorrow, and I'm still looking to make that 4/5 release date. Should still be able to do it, even.