Features and Mechanics progress update!

Heyo everyone! There isn't much of an "overview" to go over today, other than thanks everyone who tuned in to Hentai Expo! It was a blast ^^. I didn't quite get everything I wanted done this week unfortunately. I had run into a few complications on the last day, but I at least got the base down for the things I need. Let's get into those now:

Right out the gate I added colliders to obstacles along with applying the proper fading shader to applicable props.

A similar clip was in last week, but the shaders were not applied yet, so the bar clipped through the camera.

Next was working on the necessary menu components. I added flags to completing the level, to properly unlock Lana after completing Raptura. After unlocking her, she will appear in the hub.

Raptura is also put in to the level select. The "!" and Distress signal icons will now be removed upon completing the mission for the first time.

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Those things weren't necessarily new features/mechanics, but they were necessary gaps I needed to fill before starting on them.

The implementation for the charge shot is now in.

The SFX still need to be put in, and there are a couple small quirks to clear up with it, but it is fully functional. It took me a bit longer than expected to get all of it working haha.

Next up was implementing the base of the party system. Some of the layout is subject to change, but I mostly just wanted to get the core scripts in place for this to be ready by v0.2.

You may see there is a "Passive" and "Active" section. Each party member will bring a passive to the table along with 1 active.

At the moment Lana's active is "Aerial Assist". With it, she will fly in, and shoot random enemies. Party's active abilities will be bound to a key between "slot1" and "slot2".

Using their active, as you can see, will drain the player's "Thrust" gauge(same resource used for boosting). A choice I dwelled on was either having them on a cooldown, or use resource. I ultimately decided to have them use resources. I think this will be best for fluidity's sake. It may be subject to change, but I quite like the feel of it right now.

Lana's passive is "Dynamics". It reduces thrust consumption by 30%. (Considering actives use Thrust, this is a much more valuable resource than before). This will allow you to use your ally's supports more, and/or boost.

The active and passive are bound natively to each character. Different characters will offer their own unique active, and passive.

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After that, I did something I should have previously. We changed the worm's tail to be blue. Blue signifies weak points on Raptura, and will be reflected in the boss fight as well. Another thing that was done was adjustments to the scaling of the texturing on the ground, and putting in the boss's intercom portrait.

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The next section was unfortunately the part I wasn't quite able to get done in time. This was the implementation of the affinity system. I got the foundation all written up, but the actual implementation is yet to come.

The start of the ground work for this was to actually create the base of the Save system/scripts. These scripts are essentially what will store the character's affinity. I wrote these scripts along with the calling scripts. Luckily this is pretty much all of the leg work.

Essentially this is going to be the script to get called in every single situation that grants affinity. All I really need to do is go to the situations that need it, and call this.

The places it will get called are planned to be:

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>First time entering a dialogue tree with a character. Dialogue options can grant affinity.

>Allies in your party upon level completion will receive a flat increase to affinity

>Saving allies from a "help me!" scenario in missions will grant affinity

>Various events within a character's level. (In Raptura you can gain affinity depending on if you follow Lana's instructions or not.)
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In almost every one of these cases, in the scenario you do NOT get affinity for the ally, you will instead get affinity for "yourself". (I will go into what "affinity with yourself" means in the future). Both types of affinity will be beneficial, so there is no real "wrong" dialogue options, or level routes to choose.

Even if you do not get the desired affinity, gaining affinity is something that is repeatable via playing missions.

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As a follow up, I also set up the base for the dialogue system with PixelCrusher's plugin.

The system just kind of... exists right now, as I plan to get more in depth with it once I animate Lana Kova's conversation art (Like in SpunkStock).

The set up is as follows (These dialogue sections will likely be completely optional, but can give some perks):

"Romance" is essentially the "Hscenes" options, and "Talk" is where you can engage in several conversations with them throughout the game to gain affinity.

In the full game, each character is planned to have at least 4 Hscenes from the "Romance" section. In this build however, Lana will only have 2.

The affinity requirement may be lifted for this build, as the requirements will likely be catered to a full game's worth of progress.

In the "Talk" section, Each character will have 4 core conversations that are unlocked at different stages of affinity. The first time you engage in these conversations you will be eligible to gain extra affinity from your dialogue options. (You can engage in these conversations again at anytime to explore other dialogue routes, but you will only receive the bonus affinity the first time).

On the other fronts, the boss is almost finished being modelled, Lana's 1st Hscene is nearing completion along with her in-game H-transmission cut in.

In the upcoming week the focus will almost be entirely focused on the implementation of the boss and his phases. If there is any opening in time I will hopefully be able to finish off the implementation of affinity system that I was cut short on this week. I'm pretty excited to present the boss, as this one is a bit of a 1-up from the last one. I'll catch you all next week with it!

Thanks everyone! I think this build will be quite the jump from v0.1 in terms of improvements. It will hopefully start to fill in the questions on the direction of the game.

-Regulus