SITAR 0.6 "The one that reveals the actual plot"

After completing all the graphic updates last month, this month was about creating new material, adding Rachel Meets Ariane, and adding a bunch of new features to the Achievements page, now renamed back to the "Gallery" which was the original name in 2013.

Also, the popular walkthrough paths have been added to help you avoid getting stuck.  Full notes can be found at https://arianeb.itch.io/somethings-in-the-air-redux/devlog/463859/somethings-in-the-air-redux-project-06 

This new versions of the SITAR beta available at https://arianeb.itch.io/somethings-in-the-air-redux/patreon-access or you can use the attached 53MB patch to update your 0.5 game to 0.6.

The Endings

The biggest change is the implementation of one of the endings, and partial implementation of another two. To reach the new ending, once you have updated the game, depends on how much of the game you have played so far. 

If you have reached at least 15 endings, and have met the alternate version of Rachel, all you need to do is go to "Gallery" and "Show Completed Endings", it will display all the endings you have done (and give you a preview of one I plan to add soon) and if you are eligible it will tell you to start a new game.

Start a game like you are playing for the first time. The first non warning page will say "ENDING INTRODUCTION" instead of just introduction. This is how you know you are in the end game, because the ending plays like the beginning until you go out with Ariane and have dinner at the diner.  I'm not going to say anything more.

Reaching the ending from a brand new install

This next section contains spoilers so you can skip this section if you don't want to know the main plot.  I wanted to let players discover the "greater" plot of the game on their own by luck, but I am not confident in players luck, so I have forced to implement some hand hold rails. Here's how to do it:

Step 1: Date Rachel.  The first step in meeting Rachel is to use the treadmill at the gym. If you need more help than that, go to "help" and enable "All Rachel Beginnings", then enable at least one Rachel ending path. 4 of them will not immediately be available at the beginning.  If you successfully make it through the dinner, you and Rachel will experience a "glitch" in reality.  This is the first stage of the greater plot.

Step 2a: Date Veronica. The path is called "A New Paint Job" and it is needed to open up all the Rachel plots.  I'll explain why in a future post, but mostly it has to do with explaining that there is a lightning and rain storm that interrupts most of the paths.  Obviously there are many paths that do this.  It also introduces the sci-fi/fantasy festival that is important later, so this is the path that does both. To make sure this happens, I added a "hand rail" on Rachel, that on the 4th dinner with Rachel, if you still haven't dated Veronica, she will pay for dinner and send you back to the bar to meet Veronica. A similar "hand rail" exists on Veronica, you will not be able to go with her until you date Rachel at least once.

Step 2b: Date Rachel a second time. It is best if you start this second Rachel date where you are talking to Dave or earlier,  This might seem like the same as the first Rachel date but there are several differences depending on what other dates you have done (for fun try changing your name or gender in Character before meeting Rachel).  One change is that while she says she is reading a textbook, she is obviously reading a novel instead, when you go to the maitre'd and argue for a table Rachel will intervene earlier than before.

Step 3: Date Rachel a third time. Sometimes it can happen on the second Rachel date, and occasionally it will take a fourth, but Rachel will reveal that since that glitch on the first date, she is repeating the same day over and over.  The dinner conversation jumps to "time loops" and what they mean, and the date will be the first visit with Rachel to the sci-fi/fantasy festival. She will give you instructions for step 4.

Step 4: Go on an MMORPG raid with your guild instead of the gym. You will not be able to date Rachel again until you do.  You will see this as an option if you start a new game.  This path consists of several puzzles all of which have answers in "Help" when you enable "Something's In The Air" path.

Step 5: Date anyone and everyone until you are notified that the ending is unlocked, then start a new game. I think this is the most interesting part of the game, so I won't spoil it. You need to complete 10 to 15 unique endings for the "ending" to unlock.

Post Ending Endings

If you haven't completed all 25 endings yet, the "ending" will finish with little fanfare, because there is an second part that gets unlocked after reaching all 25 endings. Unfortunately this part 2 ending is far from complete, when it is unlocked you will only get a preview with a message that there is more to come.  I'm imagining some rather ambitious ideas, but I do not know how much I will do.

Also post endings you will see several new choices in the gallery to explore, mostly to allow you to replay sections that are hard to get to otherwise.

Rachel Meets Ariane

This is practically a complete rewrite of the old sequel to Something's In The Air.  Because these two game are so interconnected, it felt natural to just turn them into one game.  Especially since there are several variants of the story based on what happened in SITAR, which you can experiment with by replaying SITAR to reach different endings and see what happens in RMA. (I might just make a menu in the future).  Every chapter will recheck what the last ending you played was, so you don't have to replay from the beginning each time, you can just replay the chapter you are curious about.  The full RMA consists of 5 chapters, but I decided to only release chapters as I update the pictures, and I have only updated the first three.