Star Knightess Aura Release 1.0.0-beta-2

ITCH | MEGA | ITCH-DELUXE | MEGA-DELUXE

Last release before the full release next week! (Baring any hotfixes x_X) Since all content development is done, don't expect anything on that front from today's build. It's mostly a lot of technical work, balancing improvements and me polishing the edges. That being said, we do have the new variation of the Hermann Sex scene with the maid costume and the Completed Womb of Lust mini variations, so visually speaking just some new items. :)

I was hoping I could restrict myself from no longer touching any critical code by the end of beta-1 but I'm afraid there were still a couple of edge bugs cases that have been plaguing us for some time and I squashed this week. Since we still have a week of testing, I think it was worth it. The main technical item that might cause some trouble is the newly improved map reloading when loading an old save that was created during a cut scene. 

This would usually trigger events to return to their original map positions, potentially breaking cutscenes during movement. Event data should now be properly persisted across the map reload. (The original reason we did this was because otherwise changes such as event removal or addition would otherwise break the map) I believe the new approach should cover both cases. But it might also cause some problems... But still, improving save stability across versions is definitely worth it for the release.

There are a lot of other technical improvements but they are mostly more local. Since they are mostly a bunch of not at all connected items, I will just refer to the changelog for more information here.

On the balancing side, we have the following core changes:

•  The slime getting Rank III skills on Level 20 got balanced out a bit by weakening the The Art Of Feeding from 100% EXP boost to 50% EXP boost.

• Triggered by the topic of slime feeding (but not motivated by that alone), I have also iterated the value of some endgame items. I think the values I put there as a first attempt were a little bit inflated.

• Corruption costs for mental changes on the other hand have been reduced in a couple of places. Most importantly for the Identity Questions where they have gone from 10 down to 7. The other changes are mostly minor consistency changes. I'm currently on a test playthrough where I am trying to progress both Roya and Earth route in a mostly equal pace to see where I end up.

• The Artificer got both a signficant boost through his army getting a bunch of new skills. At the same time, the Security Chip now affects all remaining enemies that are pure constructs (so not the Artificer himself for example), giving new ways to counter the enemies. Not sure if the power up or new tools to fight him are stronger, but either way, it should require some more planning to take down this super boss now.

• Doing like 50 Roland Trainings was quite busted and as I found out in another test playthrough this week. It's kind of balanced by the gain of lewdness and corruption but the stacking effect eventually becomes a bit too good. Every 3 trainings the Roland Training will now become less effective giving one less atttribute. The +5 Max HP will always remain though, so you can keep boosting your HP. Since stacking HP doesn't trivialize fights but just allows you to fight more, I don't think this should be an issue - especially not for the price of 1 Corruption.

I think that should cover the main points. Finally, I have discussed with our artist the design for the Alternate Slutty Earth Costume, so production of that can begin starting next week.

As for the full release next week, expect more of the same as this week. Though, I will probably be more strict with making any deeper technical changes for the final week to not risk adding new bugs in the last stretch. Enjoy! And keep the bug reports coming!

Changelog 1.0.0-beta-2 (31.01.2025)

• Added Hermann Sex Bimbo Maid Variation

• Added Womb of Lust H-CGs

• Added glass shards when shattering Idealism Crystal

• Updated Special Study description

• Implemented analytics for tracking triggered ending

• Changed Material Girl Achievement to trigger upon infusing 30 Materials on a single playthrough

• Changed mental change crystal color from yellow to blue

• Triggered onSetup tag when spawning an ally in the final battle for better resiliance when updating an already initialized actors skills

• Improved wandering NPC routines by adding extra balloons when simulating an object interaction

• Removed duplicate code from rescue Albrecht events

• Changed Demon-crazy reward selection dialogue to item-select based dialogue

• Added Trust to Underground City location info

• Supported giving Blessed Apples to Papertrail merchant

• Improved cut scene map reload on new versions when using old save files

Balancing

• Lowered Gold Value of Heart Of The Artificer to 12500 and Unicorn Horn to 4000 #7314

• Reduced Corruption Costs of Idenity Questions to 7

• Reduced EXP gain from Art of Feeding to 50%

• Reduced Corruption cost for switching Rose and Alicia in relationship to 3 for better cost consistency

• Reduced Value of Truthmaker Page to 8000 Gold

• Reduced Patricia Friend Switch to 2 Corruption

• Reduced Power boost by Orb of Air+ to 0.5

• Changed Roland Training to give diminishing returns removing 1 stat upgrade per 3 trainings until only +5 Max HP remains

• Reduced number of Readings for Art of Assassination, Art of Tremor and Advanced Techniques for Blocking Magic by 1

• Iterated Artificer boss battle and added password hint to Far Eastern Caves Chronicle Fragment 5

Bugfixes

• Fixed typos

• Fixed instances of multiple death state being applied if battler had an onEraseState tag that added another state when they died

• Fixed incorrect file trimming for demo

• Fixed incorrect side for aura standing image display in Victory Ending 1 and Victory Ending B

• Fixed incorrect placements of overworld characters in Corruption Ending Final Epilogue scene

• Fixed map name mixup in Forest of Runes: Abandoned Mines

• Fixed no Ascend skill when using Clear Gem Underwater and then returning from Clear Room

• Fixed edge cases for Bad Guys Meetup 1 and 2 needing early triggers in case of super fast progression

• Fixed end of eternal day of sloth breaking Promise triggers

• Fixed passability issues in Eatern Forest of Runes

• Fixed inconsistencies and bugs in duelist compendium entries

• Fixed getting ambushed sometimes triggering ambushes on enemies

• Fixed incorrect fadeout in John Kissing scene

• Fixed popularity window appearing during battle against Roland Knights after killing Roland

• Fixed potential actions remaining in the action queue from a previous battle overrding the auto skill

• Fixed dead auto skill casters stopping processing of auto skill queue

• Fixed Toll Bandit Leader missing event page for smoke removal when casting wind spell

• Fixed Demon-crazy recruitment quest milestones repeatedly triggering when declining recruitment at 3 or 5 members

• Fixed max reading progress increments and decrements affecting lewd books

• Fixed Battle HUD sometimes not showing WEAK / RESIST when fighting an enemy with duplicate Enemy Database entries

• Fixed rope flag in Mount Firestorm

• Fixed Roland 1 and 2 missing collar in CG

• Fixed Rose not being visible in older recollection scenes after reaching corruption milestone

• Fixed Special Study penalty when killing Roland before completing Special Study and then re-enrolling