TLS 0.73.0 Released! (Patreon)

Here we go! This update is jam-packed with almost everything on the list, completely wrapping up the endgame section (at least in theory). Please enjoy. ^-^

Link: https://mega.nz/file/Xw03GASY#JNh2Uu3ZG-VrLsw6_UnZSh_getNgIw8l71Wue1VhPi8 

RTP: https://mega.nz/file/etk3XbTB#x31DJTtPARg_ni4Os1s1yQiDxR1UMCMTjtAuxgOMWcw 

TLS 0.73.0

- Vhala has a "harem" quest, starting in the base hallway after the Incubus War.

- Stineford has been entirely overhauled! This is one of the biggest visual updates I've done to the game and I'm just crossing my fingers that I didn't screw something up during the upgrade.

-  If Sarai was sexually restricted in your game, you can now get her to join the harem via her personal quest (if you already finished it, there's an alternate event in her tower). This is functionally the same, but involves some new conversations and dialogue variants.

- Nalili's quest now grants an additional reward, which can be found in her room even if you've already completed the quest. This is necessary for...

- A short quest that will grant a final battle item, if you've gathered all four major ingredients.

- Fuani now appears in the Renthnor Wilds guild, offering tips about all incomplete harem quests.

- Yarra's upgraded sex room now has two alternate configurations, for those who complained about the original tiles.

- Additional details around the base dependent on country scores, now covering Darghelon, Gheldaron, Zirantia, Erosia, and Rodak.

- Depending on the Entity Cohesion variable, you can see a scene resting under the tree at the Nostalgic Home.

- The final Shining Sword bonus is now available. I intend to add one more in the last optional dungeon for flex, however.

- During the Orilise segment of the elven forests sequence, the timer running out should now cause game over. This needs more testing.

- Did you know that the majority of cases refer to "Miners' Junction" but in 29 locations I accidentally wrote "Miner's Junction"? Well, not anymore!

- Bug where you could see Wendis transformed early fixed.

- Thanks to Rachnera, TLS has advanced keyboard remapping options in the System menu.

- There are now control tutorials when starting a new game.

- What may be the final investments of the game, pending any final balance tweaks.

- The placeholder in the teleportation room has finally been replaced with Riala, who will check preparedness and lead to the final battle (next time).

- One new sex scene.

- New illustrated scenes: Elleani Relief, Megail x Iris Anal, Janine Wedding Night

- Assorted bugfixing and polishing.

Misc Notes

Aside from the new content, this update includes both stuff necessary to polish up the game before the wider release and details that only hardcore fans will care about. It took longer than I wanted, which I regret, but I think this was a necessary step toward the final game.

Apologies to those who got so hyped about the Fuani note, but she is just a mechanism to help players stay organized. That's what I get for not having her finished by last week, I guess.

You can read the release notes for yourself to see the various details. Special thanks to Rachnera for taking on the keyboard reconfiguration project. Otherwise... I guess the only other one I want to mention is the details appearing in the base over time: they might seem less impactful now, but I hope they'll feel nice for people playing in the future.

Vhala's Quest 

Her quest is meant to be a lot of payoff and reward - not extrinsically, but related to the intrinsic motivations of optimizers. That is, making optimization a satisfying experience with worthwhile benchmarks. This is one of the most theory-heavy optimizations I've ever done, because I just don't have the saves to thoroughly test every likely scenario. Thus I'm sure that some rebalancing will be necessary and welcome feedback.

However, Vhala's quest also serves as a helpful mechanic for players who may be behind. I was actually thinking of including a mercy bonus, but couldn't decide what to use. It needs to be something that identifies saves that are less optimized, but not something that optimized saves could ever attain to exploit for further optimization. Maybe I'm missing the obvious, but I didn't choose anything in time.

Also, I tried a sort of "guided searching" mechanism for the quest-like parts, aiming to make most locations a player might try be viable paths forward. My hope was that this would feel engaging without being an exercise in pure wandering, or just sending the player to jump through numerous hoops, but let me know how it works for you.

I just realized, while typing this, that I didn't create Dari's event. =/ Not great, but I guess that's just one more thing to work on for the .1 version.

Overall

This update went pretty well overall, but basically everything else isn't, so I am disgruntled. -_- I will actually be AFK for a while after putting this out, so it better not be broken. But if it is, I'll be back to take care of it this weekend.

In general, I want this to finish off the entire endgame section. So this is the time to bring up any final details, infelicities, and so on. Want a clean slate before moving on.