Java Cultivation Spiral [Release 2d - Justice] [CSdev]

[c4145317]

Originally, I figured it was fine to let players continue past Day 250 for now, but I'm wondering if it would've been more merciful to just add a hard end-of-loop there for now...

I can't speak for everyone, but I would greatly appreciate an option to end a loop early regardless of the current day. Couldn't tell you how many test runs I lost faith in halfway through and, with sunken cost whispering lies into my ear, forced myself to power through to completion.

 

[Cryomaniac]

The drug dealer that got ran over had an awfully specific model for someone who just existed to die. Any way to save her? Tried to search the thread but got nothing.

I've got some bad news for you. On a whim I decided to look into the assets file in the game and the only two sprites of that drug dealer were named "fakeout". I think she intentionally had a unique sprite to make Lancia's entrance all the more dynamic lmao. A shame, but seems like that's all her role is.

 

[TofuCircle]

I've got some bad news for you. On a whim I decided to look into the assets file in the game and the only two sprites of that drug dealer were named "fakeout". I think she intentionally had a unique sprite to make Lancia's entrance all the more dynamic lmao. A shame, but seems like that's all her role is.

Well, I can confirm it worked. Rip drug dealer

 

[Cryomaniac]

Well, I can confirm it worked. Rip drug dealer

Same lmao. #justice4drugdealer

 

[TheToadEmperor]

As I continue to try to optimize the early game, I'm thinking that going forward this is going to be really time prohibitive for anybody wanting to join in hitting the HoF.

Each loop takes days. And while it can be sped up significantly by looking at other people's instructions.txt, if you're looking to beat those people on any given loop those improvements will also take days.

And while I think it's cool to continue that, I think it'd also be nice to have something to work for that people can join in on at any point. Minimum MoL loops for each feat seems like a good fit. Since you can still use a save with 100 million MoL you can always jump in on whichever category you want to aim for by just starting a loop with less. And it'll still probably take days, but those days of work won't be cumulative.

 

[Cryomaniac]

Finally convinced Heilig to come to the club! (Jokes aside this is a bug.)
For whatever reason, sometimes Heilig's sprite gets stuck on the screen and keeps appearing whenever an image is shown in that window. Even appears twice during the scene where we first met Heilig and she's sitting on a desk. The bug is pretty harmless and goes away if you quit the game and launch it again, and is pretty rare. Mentioning it because it has happened multiple times before so there might be some reason for the bug. Unfortunately no idea what causes it or how to replicate it. Just seems to happen by itself sometimes.

 

[TofuCircle]

Finally convinced Heilig to come to the club! (Jokes aside this is a bug.)
For whatever reason, sometimes Heilig's sprite gets stuck on the screen and keeps appearing whenever an image is shown in that window. Even appears twice during the scene where we first met Heilig and she's sitting on a desk. The bug is pretty harmless and goes away if you quit the game and launch it again, and is pretty rare. Mentioning it because it has happened multiple times before so there might be some reason for the bug. Unfortunately no idea what causes it or how to replicate it. Just seems to happen by itself sometimes.

We need to drag her out of her lab for sunlight every now and then. It's good for her health

 

[TheToadEmperor]

Dat day 7 Heilig.

 

[Nymlith]

Anyone encountering an issue where progress isn't being made? The scenario is (auto skip one day) and when I press the next button, progress isn't being made. In the below scenario, all I did is press the next button twice and the result is no progress was made. I'm not sure if this is tied to the auto skip being buggy or the implementation of the next day skip being faulty.

View attachment 5049690
View attachment 5049692

I know this is quite a while after this was posted and I dunno if you figured out why, but if you are talking about the bartending part, I'm pretty sure its due to a lack of stamina. You see how in the list its greyed out? That means you don't have enough stamina for it and while you can still do stuff with not enough stamina, it lowers the actual progress and stuff gained. I've noticed on my end that when its greyed out, I gain 0 progress and stats, but if Its not greyed like that, I do gain progress and stats.

 

[TofuCircle]

Update time!

 

[TofuCircle]

-Content: The two placeholder scenes for the Branch storyline in the Metropolis have been given their final assets.
-Content: Added one new scene to Lancia's post-coup storyline in the Metropolis.

I've seen one placeholder scene (where someone gets a gift from the Don) and the post coup scene. Anyone know where the other scene is?

Spoiler: Spoilers for the post-coup scene

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[Cryomaniac]

I've seen one placeholder scene (where someone gets a gift from the Don) and the post coup scene. Anyone know where the other scene is?

Spoiler: Spoilers for the post-coup scene

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Spoiler: New Scene Spoiler

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[TofuCircle]

Spoiler: New Scene Spoiler

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Spoiler: post-coup scene spoiler

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[Cryomaniac]

Spoiler: post-coup scene spoiler

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I mean I definitely wouldn't mind the 2nd option personally

 

[CSdev]

A roguelike I really enjoy uses that to denote multi-crits.

At amounts over 4, it's less about being able to precisely count them, and more the fact that seeing a large line of exclamation points in response to something you do just feels very satisfying. I also kind of don't think that specific level-up numbers beyond 3 are very impactful. When you get to the point where you're doing 4 or more levels, the exponential scaling tends to set in pretty hard and it's unlikely you'll have a similar bump in the same stat/goal again.

I think [Complete x6!] is clearer, but [Complete!!!!!!] is more "fun". I don't have a strong opinion on which is better, I'd be very happy with either.

I definitely see where you're coming from, but there are legitimate cases where the player needs to know exactly how many completions they got at a glance. For example, if you're speeding through Yumeno's goals, one extra completion can be the difference between unlocking her Wetwork actions and not doing so. Or you might be deciding which routine to use, and getting +3 levels of Power in a single day versus getting +4 could have a big effect on how much you're able to accomplish the following day. That sort of situation will become more and more common in future releases.

i had random though about a perk i thought would be nice to have but i doubt would be added. what would everyones opion on a perk that allows you to start with 1 point in all skills (or atleast all college town skills). and how would it be ballanced? i was think it would either just becapped at 1 level or maby every point gives 1 point a 1 skill at a time in the order they are listed( for example it would go in the order of stamina, focus, finance, weetwork, academy, etc then if it can go above 1 then it would restart on stanima once every skill is lvl 1).

Without spoiling too much, I'll say that there's a planned unlockable effect which will be somewhat similar to this. And because there's something like it already planned, I don't want to add something else which does basically the same thing.

I can't speak for everyone, but I would greatly appreciate an option to end a loop early regardless of the current day. Couldn't tell you how many test runs I lost faith in halfway through and, with sunken cost whispering lies into my ear, forced myself to power through to completion.

Adding a "scrap the run and just take however much MoL you've already earned" button is on the table, but it'd become basically obsolete after Release 3, since there'll be a lot more ways to quickly spend all your Sanity if you want to. As an alternative, I'm considering making it possible to go to the fifth city earlier than planned, since it wouldn't break anything gameplay- or story-wise, and it'll end your run quick.

I've got some bad news for you. On a whim I decided to look into the assets file in the game and the only two sprites of that drug dealer were named "fakeout". I think she intentionally had a unique sprite to make Lancia's entrance all the more dynamic lmao. A shame, but seems like that's all her role is.

Yep, I knew that genre-savvy players would expect another heroine right about then, and even players who had seen a few spoilers about Lancia would just assume that the drug dealer was her.

As I continue to try to optimize the early game, I'm thinking that going forward this is going to be really time prohibitive for anybody wanting to join in hitting the HoF.

Each loop takes days. And while it can be sped up significantly by looking at other people's instructions.txt, if you're looking to beat those people on any given loop those improvements will also take days.

And while I think it's cool to continue that, I think it'd also be nice to have something to work for that people can join in on at any point. Minimum MoL loops for each feat seems like a good fit. Since you can still use a save with 100 million MoL you can always jump in on whichever category you want to aim for by just starting a loop with less. And it'll still probably take days, but those days of work won't be cumulative.

If enough people do challenge runs like this, then I'd be happy to give them in-game acknowledgement just like the existing Hall of Fame. It's sort of like the distinction between full game speedruns and individual level ones.

Finally convinced Heilig to come to the club! (Jokes aside this is a bug.)
For whatever reason, sometimes Heilig's sprite gets stuck on the screen and keeps appearing whenever an image is shown in that window. Even appears twice during the scene where we first met Heilig and she's sitting on a desk. The bug is pretty harmless and goes away if you quit the game and launch it again, and is pretty rare. Mentioning it because it has happened multiple times before so there might be some reason for the bug. Unfortunately no idea what causes it or how to replicate it. Just seems to happen by itself sometimes.

Something definitely isn't getting cleared properly between scenes. It's amusing enough that I almost want to leave it as-is, but I suppose I'll take a look and see if I can fix it.

I've seen one placeholder scene (where someone gets a gift from the Don) and the post coup scene. Anyone know where the other scene is?

Spoiler: Spoilers for the post-coup scene

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The other placeholder scene that got filled in is for completing the "Meet the administration" goal which follows.

Also, I forgot to post the release text last time! Here are the posts for the main Release 2 and for R2d.

Release 2

This is the second major release of Cultivation Spiral, containing the second story arc and all its associated content! Previously, reaching the Metropolis was itself the main goal of the game, and there wasn't much to do upon getting there. But now, it's merely the first step toward uncovering the rest of the story. The Metropolis now contains two more heroines, two more attributes, and many new abilities to explore. Furthermore, by reaching the Metropolis quickly enough, you can complete some goals there which will allow you to return to the College Town with fresh eyes and new objectives to complete.

For experienced players who have been accumulating Meaning of Life since shortly after Release 1, the new gameplay challenges won't be difficult. In fact, it's possible that becoming too powerful before entering the second arc will cause you to complete multiple goals in one action, skipping over parts of the story. In order to avoid this, my advice would be to head for the Metropolis on the earliest day you can (rather than building your attributes beyond that point). Improving this system so that completing multiple goals in the same action will give you unique flavor is one of the main features which must be completed before we move on to Release 3 (and it's one I'm especially looking forward to - the first meeting with Tanaka in the Metropolis will go a lot differently if you manage to complete her first two goals there at once).

For new players and returning players both, Release 2 has a new main objective: obtaining the Nemesis achievement. The old Hall of Fame (for obtaining the Savior achievement quickly) has been moved to the download hub. As before, I'll be keeping my own high score hidden until some player manages to beat it. To everybody who wants to try to clear the game in as few days as possible, I wish you luck!

When deciding which scenes, abilities, and gameplay features should be included within Release 2, my main concern was the gameplay. There are still a few placeholder scenes in the game, but most of them shouldn't show up during your natural attempts to reach the Nemesis achievement. But there's still quite a bit of writing and programming I'll have to do before we can even think about the push toward Release 3. Here's what I'll be working on in the coming months:

• Tanaka doesn't actually have much content in Release 2. I'll want to extend the storyline involving her and the Syndicate, as well as maybe add a bit more content for when you manage to keep her in the College Town.
• Lancia's story ends in a very awkward place right now. This is because her next scene involves the Reversed Goal mechanic which will be more prominent in Release 3. I'll be adding the new mechanic and the next stage of Lancia's story together.
• Paladin's story cuts off in a pretty reasonable place, but I want to add the ability to meet her after Day 150, leading up to the introduction to the other cities.
• The heroines of the College Town need to have the groundwork laid for meeting with them later in the game. The first step here will be to add the ability to save Yumeno's life on Day 100. Heilig also has one more routine which will be unlockable in the College Town, though it won't be practical to unlock it until you've reached the level of power you'll need for Release 3.
• On the programming end, the structure of the game's save files needs to be improved so that they don't get endlessly larger the more loops you've played. For players who aren't aiming for a high score, there's no need to save the full action log for all loops ever played, and the log of scene variants watched should be separate from the individual save file.
• There's still some code contributed by a patron for improving goal organization which hasn't been merged yet, because I wanted to implement Reversed Goals first and see how that would affect things. So, this will come after adding the next stage of Lancia's story.
• The Metropolis job you can unlock through DuMont still doesn't have flavor text. This will lead into the alternate method for meeting Lancia, as well as some major alternative plot scenes on Day 150 when you haven't met Tanaka in the Metropolis, so there's quite a bit of writing that needs to be done all at once here.
• A new "bonuses" screen for displaying non-attribute buffs earned during the current loop. Presently, this would just contain the popularity bonus earned in the College Town, but there's another infinite buff goal sequence which will come with the Metropolis job you get from DuMont.
• The system for linking scenes together when you complete multiple goals in the same action, as mentioned above.
• Improved auto settings, including one for selecting the "highest MoL among all loops so far" sequence of actions. Furthermore, some later gameplay features will introduce situations where you're unlikely to be able to take the exact sequence of actions as the previous loop, so a more flexible auto setting is required as well.

And throughout all of this, I'll be resuming the regular polls for which characters should get more romance scenes. Yumeno and Tanaka both got new scenes last time, and I'll be adding a new scene for Jackal regardless, so they'll be sitting out for the following poll. But now, Heilig will also be added as an option, so anybody who's curious to see how her romance route starts can vote for her. I'll be posting the new poll in a couple of days, so until then, I hope you all enjoy Release 2!

Release 2d

In the Release 2 announcement, I posted a list of things which need to be finished before we begin the proper push toward Release 3. This update begins the work of knocking items off that list. The main feature is a new gameplay mechanic which only has one apppearance so far, but which will be as important to Release 3 as opposed goals are to Release 2: "reversed goals." I plan on doing a full writeup about them at the start of next month, but for now, you can see how they work after obtaining the Collaborator achievement.

This update also has a few new story scenes. One of them is attached to the new reversed goal, while the other two replace a couple of placeholders on the Branch storyline in the Metropolis. With this, Lancia's content is pretty much done until Release 3, although it's possible that the "ruthless" stance you'll eventually be able to unlock through her will be done before then. Ruthless stance is going to have a lot of custom flavor associated with it, so I'm looking forward to showing that off.

Additionally, after a request by a patron, this update also introduces a small new alternative image pack which gives the heroines pubic hair, along with a new interface option to separate your default action choice from your default routine choice.

Because there were a couple of pretty annoying bugs associated with the new release number, I've gone ahead and split this month's release into two separate ones: Release 2c, which only contains the bugfixes and quality of life stuff for immediate release to the wider public, and Release 2d, which has all of that along with the month's new content. The proper changelog for the month is those of R2c and R2d combined.

Next month is going to be focused on the addition of a couple of new romance scenes: one featuring Jackal, and one featuring the winner of the current poll (which will be closed at the end of the month). I also plan on continuing Paladin's storyline so that it's possible to prevent her from being killed or captured on Day 150. There's not much I'll be able to write there before we start bumping into Release 3 content, so I'll probably try to knock another item off the list next month as well.

 

[Limita]

started a new loop and my stamina got bugged, so now I can't do shit

 

[TofuCircle]

The other placeholder scene that got filled in is for completing the "Meet the administration" goal which follows.

Weird, I didn't see it. Though I was relying on auto to get me to the new scenes while I did other stuff. Guess I'll play through it again manually. (Edit: I did not see that goal. Probably because I completed multiple goals at once.)

I just remembered how Heilig said we auto-pilot to the places where we need to be and only wake up when around certain people. Did Lancia notice any of that? I assume she kept an eye on us to prepare for her betrayal.

 

[TheToadEmperor]

Okay, finally got a baseline Nemesis run to start improving from. L11 d147. It's sloppy, but it's something and it's nice to have a concrete goal to improve on.

Gonna try to imitate the run at L10 and see how far off I am. We're getting there!

 

[TofuCircle]

Tanaka's all shaken up from being made to murder people, which is why she hesitates when it comes to coming back with us, yes? What happens if we reach Metropolis fast? I could probably get there before day 50 if I wanted. Got there on day 56 this run, and that's just because I did a bunch of side quests before going

Finally! My character is no longer a drug addict!


Also, apparently we've been calling Lancia by her last name this entire time???

 

[Tsul]

I don't know if I am stupid or what but how do I unlock the perk confidence? Sure I am still early but somehow I unlocked academics first before it?