Build Wrap up! New Pearlus2 music, and some nice fluff.

Heyo everyone! This one might be a bit of a bigger one, but I managed to get everything on the immediate list done! A lot was covered, so let's get into it!

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DAY 1 (Sunday):

This day, I actually decided to experiment with something I had been wanted to for a while. You might notice in the upcoming build, some highlights on Aether are gone, or dull. This is a bit of a price to pay for what I'm hoping to add in the future.

Essentially I have a system that can allow the player to change Aether's color.

This should allow players to choose more human skin tones as well, for those who want a bit more of a "self-insert" feel in Hscenes.

Please do note that this feature will not be available in the upcoming v0.10. I mostly just wanted to get the frame work in place for it.

Ideally I would like this color to reflect in ALL Hscenes. To get through them all, it could take some time, hence why it is not actually implemented yet.

With that in place, and functioning, I decided to move on.

I added different state's to Aether's x-ray in her 1st Hscene.

There are 9 levels to it in total.

Next was a bit of a predicament. The "color matching" tool in AnyPortrait doesn't really work like it would in art programs due to variances in the engine's colorspace vs. the raw image. This means If I wanted to match a color exactly, I would need to eye-ball it. The problem was mostly that Coyote in Aether1's Hscene, he has an already colored head.

I took some time to learn about colorspaces, and realize the issue runs a bit deeper than I was hoping. I ultimately decided that just eye-balling the colors would be the most time-efficient manner of dealing with this.

Aside from that, I fixed some visual bugs in Aether1, like clipping, and movement jitters.

Lastly I added a "timer" bar to the character's word prompts.

I also scaled Aether's missionary position up quite a bit to match her other positions.

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DAY 2 (Monday):

First thing I did on this day was to make it so Aether's "X-ray" pop out did not play while in BJ state, as it previously just played with any animation.

Next was adding all the spunk to Aether's control parameters, along with the rig so that it properly moved along with her. This can often take a bit of time, especially with so much of it in these scenes.

The next thing I did was added a bit of context to character's gated Affinity.

When a character reaches 49 affinity, it will now also prompt you to complete their level.

Next was finishing up AetherxNova's scene.

There is some more face variance now,

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DAY 3 (Tuesday):

This day I started off by animating the climax animation, and states for AetherxNova.

After that, I set up the appropriate buttons, and progression for it.

Next was doing a bit of recoloring:

I added some color to the heads so multiplying the color could universally make things look a bit better.

(previously the head and shaft was all just the same flat color.)

Next was adding the "fluff" to these scenes... this basically means adding the sound effects, and the "splat/goo" effects where necessary (across all 3 new scenes)

Next, was a very similar thing to the previous day which was adding the spunk to the control parameters. (once again... takes a bit)

To end this day off, I essentially finished all the code to increment the spunk states, and merge to the next client.

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DAY 4 (Wednesday)

This day was another big one. I focused almost entirely on Nova's intros, and interactions.

Nova flies in from right field after this, and you begin the first phase.

Upon beating the first phase, Nova will now be a bit more flashy with her transformation.

To accomplish these instances actually took the better part of the day. I need to ensure all the buildings had these triggers for explosions, and continue to, for the whole fight, as people will likely be in very different positions on the track when reaching this stage.

After this I simply finished off her outro, and the camera pan dialogue.

Next was something you might have noticed. In the previous update you may have seen in Nova's transmission portrait she was very small.... I basically just made her much larger.

Next was actually adding Pearlus2's new theme, as you will have previewed above. This one took a llllitttle longer then normal, as there is actually 2 slight variations of this song. What you hear above is the default song, but once the player is submerged under water, there is more of a "corrupted" aesthetic to the song. Basically I had to add the appropriate triggers and transition for that to happen.

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DAY 5 (Thursday):

-Unfortunately on this day I ran into another hiccup with color spaces. (The issues I had on Sunday). I won't go into this too much, as it's pretty much a similar outcome as the first day) It took me a bit, but I got it all figured out. At least for the time being.

-Next, I actually went back to Molbon2. I think I forgot to add an "affinity gainer" in this level. (Most levels have some function to allow the played to get extra affinity within a map). In this case, killing Pigman before he gets executed by the golem will grant you extra affinity for Pix.

-I did some more touches on Catiya2, like adding Pom's support crate, and balancing a bit of the score thresholds for Gold/Silver/Bronze, along with setting up the intro camera pans.

-Next was putting the new Hscenes into the Hscene Room, so you can review these scenes with the others.

-I was finishing some MORE animation components in the 2 scenes... Yeah, I know it feels like I've said this 90 times now... Basically, I realized I forgot to do some animation on Pigman in some loops.

-In Aether2, I had previously said that the IK was working well, but that wasn't entirely the case. It was much better, but I definitely had some polishing to do. I'll just cut to the end result, but this took the biggest chunk of the day for sure.

(Obviously the sizes won't change on the fly, I was just changing them to show how everything holds together dynamically, while animations are playing.

-Next was another thing you see above, basically adding the proper curtain folds so the back guy will actually duck out behind the curtain. The layering was actually kind of annoying to manage in this case.

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DAY 6 (Friday.... today):

I started off by adding Catiya's checkpoints, and fixing up some of the issues with some enemies, and adding all the environmental colliders.

Next was tying all the new scenes into the game. I decided to make it so Aether's brothel scenes are accessed via the shop, as you can make credits from doing it.

After whipping up the UI quickly the biggest question was what to do with AetherxNova. Initially I wanted this to just be an "event", but I ultimately decided it would fit better as a "Game Over" screen.

Note you do not HAVE to lose in order to view this. It is always viewable via the Hscene Room, as long as you have female Aether unlocked.

If you are currently Female Aether the "Quit" button from the Game Over will now bring you to the Aether x Nova Hscene.

But what about Male Aether? I will likely look to adding one in the future as well.

The rest of this day was basically fixing up some last minute bugs.

-Molbon2 Boss was bugged in a way that made charge shot literally 1-shot his vulnerable points. It also made it so his vulnerable points did not jiggle upon being his. This has been fixed.
-Custom music now starts properly in the Hscene room.
-Fixed an issue with Pearlus 2's boss transition
-Molbon2, the final charging golem should now have a smaller hitbox, and more consistently kill the walkers in front of him
-SFX on Molbon2 boss have been adjusted so you hear the rocks falling better.
-fixed a bug where if you Loaded a game, then went back and started a new game within the same session, the New Game would not actually start a new game.

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Alright.... there were a few other odds and ends in there, but I think this covered the most of it. I hope you guys are all looking forward to the launch on the 1st!

Thank you all for the support again!

I'll catch you all then!

-Regulus