freshmulan
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Progress Report
🕑 Added 2024-02-29 17:48:40 +0000 UTC
Howdy! Here’s what’s up:
We’re conducting another poll right now, it will be the final one before the update. I also wanted to make a poll about Katya’s transformation path, but I want to think more about how it will all work, I mean all NPC transformations in general - not just Katya (More about this later).
Now, while the poll is the final one before the update, there will still be (hopefully one) progress report in which I’ll tease the second repeatable pole H-event and explain how it will work.
This turned out to be a rather big update and while there’s already enough content to upload it, I just don’t want to split it into parts (again), for two main reasons:
- We already said what will be in it and we want to stay true to our word;
- It’s supposed to be a “big” update.
You seemed to like our last couple of updates, which were on a smaller side and I don’t mind releasing them occasionally to show both the progress we’ve made and to make the wait more bearable. But there’s got to be “big” updates (like the upcoming one) too. because they're simply both more enjoyable to play and to upload for us as devs.
I mean, usually when we publish an update we feel this “rush”, like we accomplished something and I eagerly check your comments to see what you think about our work. And our last couple of updates didn’t do that for us, we uploaded them because we felt that we had to, not because we wanted to.
The upcoming version is already feeling like something we can proudly release, but I’d like to work on it more. In the future, however, we’d like to combine both strategies - have big and small updates, because they both have their own upsides and downsides.
That said, we’re still working - Moana is coding in the “red Kira” scene I teased in my last update and other interactions I’ve written (there’s over a 100 pages of varied text for Shwift/Polina alone). And I’m still drawing both minor things (new T-shirt for Kira that has to work with all breast sizes) and major ones (“mini-poses” for the repeatable pole H-event to make it more varied, randomized and interesting).
While I’d like to finish it all in peace, I can feel the pressure building up - so we may just crunch what’s left and rush the release a little bit.
In this report I’d like to cover “Npc transformations” on Katya’s example and the colossal work Moana did behind the scenes.
Let’s start with Moana and the next part is written by her.
Note: I’ve got no idea what the heck is happening in that dev room of hers, but it sure looks like the npcs are having a lot of fun!
Note: Note: The link below will take you to a short video preview Moana made, I couldn’t find an option to just make it play directly in the middle of the post, but you don’t have to download it in order to watch it.
Kira’s Dialogue art preview video (click me)
The video shows both the problem and the implementation of changes in the way Kira's bust is called. It might not seem drastic, but in practice it involved rearranging the way it works entirely.
There were a few reasons to do it:
First - is to get rid of that annoying occasional "glitching" that was driving me insane.
Second reason - is that as the game progressed it became apparent that Kira’s bust needed to be more flexible in terms of its positioning (right, mid-right, center,...). The change was required in order to portray the images properly - certain bust elements, like tails for example, or to assist storytelling ("carry" pose, "covered" pose, etc.).
Why did we do it in this update and not later? It’s because in this update we added a new bust feature ("carry" pose) and it only seemed logical to add it to the renewed bust system, to avoid hardcoding it now and later doing the same work all over again.
How it used to work:
Step1: Call Kira's bust
Step2: Call Kira's facial expression
- Dialogue text
Step3: Delete Kira's bust entirely
This type of coding was deeply flawed, but I didn't realize it in the beginning, because at first Kira's bust consisted of a humble ONE picture.
Since then it grew to the “not so humble” 44 layers with dozens of pictures on each one - calling it on screen seamlessly became a serious issue.
How it works now:
Step1: Check what pose Kira has (carry, cover, normal, etc.)
Step2: Call transparent Kira's bust
Step3: Check for positioning (side, center, etc.)
Step4: Position Kira's bust
Step5: Make bust visible in correct location
Step6: Call transparent Kira's facial expression
Step7: Check for positioning
Step8: Position facial expression
Step9: Make the facial expression visible in correct location
- Dialogue text
Step10: Delete Kira's bust entirely
With this change we will avoid loading issues that caused "glitching".
The only problem left (shown on video) is to recode dialogues to not delete Kira's bust whilst she is having consecutive dialogue boxes so it would not "double load".
This is a monstrous task considering the amount of dialogue we already have in game, so I'm planning to keep it as is for now, and I intend to gradually change all existing consecutive dialogues with each “technical” update.
Other changes:
- Added 3 new layers for a new “carry” pose
- Rearranged layers to allow facial expressions to change without reloading the whole bust
- Recoded all bust pics to appear transparent
- Added an appear/disappear logic for bust pics
- Integrated positioning logic in bust, expression and appear/disappear calls
Thank you for your time! I hope I've managed to explain what the issue was and what I did to resolve it!
That’s all Moana wanted to say and now we’re back to me, Mulan.
From what I understood, she fixed the dialogue art glitch, but it requires more work to be resolved completely - which is something she’ll do gradually.
As for me, above you can see my new versions of Katya’s dorm outfit and I want you to pick which one you prefer via a poll.
I wanted to make her dorm outfit seem “casual”, and I also want her to wear that precise top. Because the print on her t-shirt will change on one of the branches in the upcoming update, and we will add the exact same t-shirt to Kira (it’s important for the plot).
Apart from that, blue jeans just don’t look good with her black leotard and if the first option wins (the only one without that t-shirt) - she’ll change into the second one at a certain point (on a certain path).
Now I wanna talk about her overall “path” and my ideas in regards to the npc transformations
(Minor and vague spoilers ahead)
Regardless of what path Katya is on, there will be a threat of her losing her job. I mean, we plan to add an “AUG’s shop assistant” job for Kira and if Kira does a poor job (like bestowing fake breasts on all customers instead of doing what they want) - Katya’s position will be threatened.
And here’s where a little trivia about the USSR comes into play - getting fired is akin to being branded for life. You’d simply lose any prospects of acquiring any “good” job in the future. So, naturally, Soviet people did absolutely everything they could (based on their own personal morals) in order to avoid this.
As you can imagine, I want this “do anything to keep your job” part to be in our game, and Kira will have to either rectify her “mistakes” or let Katya resolve it by herself.
I’m bringing this up because this is a good example of how any transformation path can work perfectly fine with any character. If Katya becomes a Bimbo or a mindless Cow - she’ll get herself in this position all by herself and the same choice will be presented to you (help her or nah).
(Minor and vague spoilers end here)
Hopefully, this eases any worries some of you might have in regards to the plot. I absolutely can make every potential transformation path be consistent with the rest of the game, and I promise that I won’t just “half ass” it.
With that in mind, here’s the issue with my whole idea of community picked npc transformations - if Cow transformation wins once, it will most likely win every time.
That’s what happened in the past and that’s what might happen here as well, I imagine. It’s just that if the majority of players like the same thing, they’ll most likely always pick the same thing.
There’s nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that I don’t think I can write 5 different cow transformations, at least not as good as one.
Which is why I’d rather do one cow transformation that has a higher quality, instead of trying to write 5 slightly different cows and dividing all cow content between them.
This means that if Katya’s “transformation path” poll will result in the “cow” option winning - polls for other transformable npcs won’t have cow options in them. This fact changes things, because now that you know it, maybe you’d rather see Nadya or Liuda as a cow? There can only be one, after all.
So, here’s what I think we should do - before conducting any npc transformation polls, I should make a big and detailed post with all npcs that can be transformed, and with all potential transformation options. That way, you’ll be able to make a better decision and the whole voting process will be more fair, in my opinion.
What do you think about this all? Is it fair? Do you have any other ideas? I really want to know what you think and nothing is written in stone yet. At this point we’re just discussing how to make this idea work in the best way possible.
That’s all I wanted to say today! We’re busy at work and while this update definitely took more time than we’d like, it’s coming along together rather nicely.
After the update will be out, we’ll start working on Moana’s quest and the next female NPC overhaul polls will happen then as well (Olga is the next one, btw).
Here’s the current poll we’re running, in case you missed the notification:
Katya Dorm Outfit Poll (click me)
Thank you all for your patience and support! The end is near!
Comments
Mahnaemisjeff
Indeed slutty nurse or Dr.Love would fit Olga better, how about "secretary" option or sensual technician?
Dr. Madness MNA
I think the transformations that fit Kate best would either be being made into a maid or sexy nurse (though, the latter option would seem to be in the stars for Olga instead). Given Kate's clients ask her to model, that could be another option for her transformation, turning her into a slutty model fawned over by wealthy men.
PM31st3r
I also agree that letting Mulan decide would solve a lot of headaches. Nothing's stopping you from conducting polls to see people's interest and preferences, and use that to decide on your own. It could even be polls open to everyone like you did when you wanted to see what breast size people preferred for Kira. And if the polls don't have a final say, then you could go wild on the amount/type of polls you conduct! You could test out asking for each NPC which TF would fit them best, or the other way around and for each TF, which NPC would fit them best. You could follow the results as much or as little as you want, and if there are big outliers that you think might benefit more from community feedback, use those results specifically, or conduct even more polls to get a better pulse on specifics.
Mahnaemisjeff
These fixes by Moana are really commendable I hope RPGM wasn't as much spaghetti code nightmare as Source engine version for Team Fortress 2, you can show Moana "the rapidly dwindling sanity of valve programmers as expressed through code comments" on Youtube, if you want to know what I mean. About NPC transformations, I don't know if anyone mentioned before, but if you leave transformation options as a surprise, you'll keep the intrigue and players will be excited to see what's next. You're the co-writer and an artist for the game YOU should decide what NPCs transformations should be implemented THAT YOU THINK fit the characters.Suggestions and democracy is good and all, but final saying should be on YOU, if the suggestions fit pre-established characterization, lore etc.It must be done that way, if you care about your artistic vision .If you'll try to please everyone you'll please no one. I maybe sounded bit naggy, but these were my two cents. Despite that can't wait to see what both of you have in store for us. Godspeed and the end is fucking nigh.
EngelsPringles
I think there are still things to vote on regarding the TF paths, even if the assigning of the paths are left up to you and Moana. Like what paths are in the pool to be assigned, what the paths look like (you could show us approximately on Kira, if it isn't that much of a lift, while still hiding the surprise of which girl got which path), or even which girl gets her path implemented first. I don't even think it would be a broken promise for those reasons. But implementations of votes to decide on whether or not we need votes is incredibly based and democracypilled, so I vote we do that.
Wolfregis
I think that having the paths being left up to the dev team makes the most sense. That being said maybe having a vote to determine to what extent an individual is changed could make for a good compromise.
Fresh Mulan
I mean, the whole point of this idea is to give you more input and more deciding power over what happens. But if you honestly think I should decide this particular thing by myself, I wouldn't object. However, I did already promise you this kind of a poll and I don’t want to just go back on my word. So, since I don’t truly know what people are feeling, I think I’ll conduct a poll to determine whether or not this is something I should decide, or something we all should vote for. “A poll to determine if we need more polls” Sounds a bit ridiculous:) But I think this will be fair to everyone.
EngelsPringles
I mean, we'll likely still get to vote on what each TF path looks like and entails, right? We'll have no shortage of polls and decisions to make. Why not leave the meaningful lore/story decisions of each path and girl up to the people that have the proper meta-knowledge and context?
Pavlo
I'm thinking on this "democracy" part too, like, I'd better leave those decisions directly to Mulan and Moana
EngelsPringles
I second the sentiment of the dev team making the executive decisions regarding TF paths for the girls, and then surprising the players when they are released. I think the enjoyment of that surprise will be worth a lot more than the ability to decide ourselves. If the players never had a choice in the matter in the first place, any frustration over "decisions" made really lacks any grounds beyond light criticism. But Mulan seems to be a man of democracy, so we'll likely get that instead.
EngelsPringles
The fixes on Moana's side are commendable. I have been hoping for optimizations like that for awhile and it will undoubtedly go underappreciated in the grand scheme, so thank you Moana! As usual, the character art looks great. Katya possibly having both jean overalls and jean hotpants in a world where jean material is rare is super bougie; she is truly a member of the petit bourgeois lol. Regarding the voting for NPC paths going forward, it seems like people are going to be disappointed no matter what, but maybe some of that could be alleviated through a different voting structure? It's tough because I think Patreon really only directly supports direct 1:1 voting, any other methods or changes have to be done or calculated alternatively. The best I could offer is hard majority voting, rather than assigning whatever wins a plurality. For example, if we have 6 TF paths available for Katya and Cow is the highest voted at 39% and Bimbo is the second closest at 33%: Cow was the most voted, but failed to pull the 50.1% majority necessary to win. Because Patreon (to my knowledge) doesn't support ranked choice voting, another poll would be held with the uncompetitive choices eliminated. It could be likely that Cow still wins in the runoff, but there is also the chance that the other groups mass under Bimbo, which wasn't that far behind, carrying it to a majority. That could alleviate some disappointment/frustration, but would also take more time. Just depends on how quickly you intend to get the polls done. Either way, good luck with the coming update, looking forward to everything planned for release!
JC
I'm for waiting until there is big content release- I like em' big! (patiently awaits Kira's hidden 4th hip/thigh transformation) As far as transformations to other characters, what about forgoing the whole democracy bit and you follow your intuition as to which characters suit which options- only you know in your pigeon brain what plot developments may take place and what subsequently 'fits'. Just my thoughts! Thanks for the great update, Mulan!
