r3.6 - What and When?
I realize I forgot to do a "What and When" post about the plans for r3.6 as I normally do a few days after release. I did the whole big post about slicing, and in my brain, it thought those were equivalent. So... Better late than never? Actually, as I have extra info, I guess late is better in this case (also, not sure if any of this is helpful for anyone... but I like doing them, so...)
As always, the "When" first. For the last couple of updates we've fallen into a three month schedule, and I'm guessing it will be similar here. As much as I'd love an update at the end of May (holy shit it's almost May), my guess is most likely the end of
June or... mid to late
July... Again, that's mostly on Ferdafs, so we just have to wait and see.
Next onto the what, because it's sort of a big "what". I've already talked about slicing a lot (and you can see more of it
here if you aren't sick of it (I know I am)), but while there is a lot of work there, it's not exactly exciting news. Slow progress and even with two months, I'm not sure I'll finish it all before the next update. The main goal is to hit the biggest scenes, and that may be good enough for the time being.
If I do manage to finish enough of it, the current plan is to release an optional uncompressed image pack for those who want it. No idea on the size yet, but the main download will still be compressed (and hopefully smaller).
Onto the more interesting stuff! Well, actually the more frustrating part first.
ALL old saves will be delete with the next update.
Yes... I know... I'm sorry... It may not seem like it, but I really don't want to keep having save issues. I am really hoping this is the last time I fuck with your saves at this scale.
The slicing process is pretty much going to ruin all old saves (since files are being moved and renamed, almost no save is safe (the few I have gotten to work were janky and problematic)). So, possibly to much ire, I have rolled the save state folder forward to clear all old saves (so you won't manually have to delete them). Yes, that means once again, you'll have to start a fresh game.
I'm really, really, hoping this is the last time I have to do this (I can't see any more big changes with this sort of impact in the future, no more image reworks, or text overhauls, or shit like that). So, again, sorry in advance. I know it sucks. It always frustrates me when devs wipe out my saves (a lot of the time seemingly for no reason) and force me to restart (in those cases I usually open up the renpy code and just console command my way to scenes). So once more, I do apologize for this major inconvenience.
Hopefully I have included enough tools (like Day Selector and Do Over) to help you quickly get back into the action. Or to get to any day you want to make new saves on.
Which brings us into new features:
First up, a fairly minor quality of life change:
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Day Selector will now be available right from the main menu! No more need to start a new game or load up a save, the button is there from the start, and you will be able to click on the newest day (or wherever you want to go).
And speaking of tampering with saves:
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I have substantially increased the number of save slots per page from 6 to 25. Thumbnails are a bit smaller, but still easily identifiable (at least I think so), and save date and name text have been moved inside the thumbnail to match the astatic of the rest of the game.
(Fun quick aside, I had a huge amount of trouble getting the green boxes to resize correctly. After many wasted hours, I finally realized it was the default green background that was the issue. It had a built in transparent area for the text at the bottom, so when I changed its display size in renpy, it kept shrinking smaller than I expected but still being larger than the actually button! Damn you default assets!)
Lastly, as part of the major systems overhaul, I give you the first look at Do Over 2.0 (just called Do Over in game):
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As with everything, this is still a work in progress. I'm not completely happy with text position, size, functionality, and some layout aspects, but this is the basic concept up and running. I'm also uncertain about the bio blurb. It's a good space filler, but also feels unnecessary. I might make it more story focused and based on the day you are in instead (That's a fuck lot of text to write, so maybe not), I'm not sure yet. Feedback would be great though!
In addition to pages for each character (not all, the game has 55 character models, not counting variants (like other Mortys), and only 22 (mostly fuckable or main) are included here), you will also be able to set and toggle several tracker stats that weren't accessible before. Additionally, you'll also be able to edit age for any of these characters (some ages appear in game if you have ages toggled on, and some (mostly side characters) are just flavor text on this page). You can now also independently set relationship (family wording) values for the variant Beth(s) and Summer(s) (also settable via normal gameplay when you first encounter those characters).
Character specific scenes (really only Wild Summer at the moment) will now go under their variant, and will include a text blurb (still work in progress) to help remind you what the toggle options are for.
Again, I'd love to hear some feedback about this page (and any other changes) and know what you all think.
I do have a few minor scenes already underway (one at the end of day 37 expanding on the previous scene and (at least for the moment) containing a possible major story choice (which will be added to the Do Over page if I keep it)), and some additional requested dialog at the end of "Not the Bees". Mostly though, scenes are going to be scant from me this time again as I power through the slicing work.
Thanks for reading! Thanks for playing! Stay awesome!
