Of Devotion and Despondence [v0.1.12]

0.1.12:

– New (experimental) gameplay mechanic: Skirmish! The base now gets attacked every 20 days, challenging the main character and his girls in every stat. At least 3 victories out of 6 are needed to win the Skirmish, receiving skillpoints to spend among the MC and the residents as a reward. Defeat will take away some resources (NOT Essence), but don’t worry – losing a Skirmish will never result in game over.

– Added Active Talents! Spend resources to modify and augment the skills of residents in interesting ways. Active Talents are unlocked by building ‘Living Quarters’.

– The player and residents start with 10 skillpoints to spend by default.

– New skill graphics for the residents screen. Girl skills now have a maximum limit of 100 by default.

– The Dice have fallen. The first event where the MC struggles with his depression is now in the game.

– Added new random daily event: Traveling Merchant (can appear from day 50)
– Added the option to show resources during events.
– Changed the “Accident” event to only appear after 25 days have passed (previously 5)
– To reduce early grinding, the day 2 ‘Cellar’ event now gives more resources. Resources gained from the repeatable adventure events were also greatly increased.
– Increased the cost of some buildings (Essence Nets, etc) and reduced the cost of some other buildings (Smelter, etc).
– Slightly increased the game’s base volume.
– Searching in cities is now twice as fast.
– Added a notification if New Rozan discounts are already active (they cannot be stacked)
– New visuals for tutorials.
– Fixed some tooltip display bugs.
– Added the Credits screen! Patreon supporters now get recognition ingame. Love you guys <3

Note: There’s a few things to address about Skirmish.

1) Balance is highly subject to change – feedback is everything. Please let me know what you liked, disliked, and what changes you think would make this feature a better experience.
2) You are not supposed to win every Skirmish. Sometimes it’s better to accept defeat ahead of time and mitigate the resource loss by spending as much as you can beforehand.
3) Skirmish was designed with Active and Passive Talents in mind, but Passive Talents are not in the game yet. I’m working hard to make this a reality as soon as possible.

v 0.1.11:

A revision update that addresses a large amount of player feedback!

– Revamped / expanded the intro at certain places to flesh out the main character more. Some adventure events that touch on the main storyline also received this treatment.

– Added 2 early girl events for Raven, pacing out the growth of the relationship more. Also made small changes to already existing girl-events, including a new picture for ‘The Unfortunate Shed’.

– Continued Raven’s story with 1 new girl event, told from her point of view.

– Added the first girl event for Dalena. Also changed her name to Dalena

– Added 1 new erotic event in the mansion with Bonni the vampire.

– Changed multiple images for Raven, including her profile icon.

– Fixed several early pictures with major AI weirdness going on. Added new cumshot pictures for early erotic events.

– The save menu can now be accessed during the intro.

v 0.1.10:

– Added 6 new adventure events! From a vampire mansion to a sticky-slimy cave, these new places also contain 3 erotic events to feast your eyes upon.
– Added the third recruitable main love interest: Lady Melrose! Once reached, the lovely oracle will finally be ready to settle in her new home.
– Added 1 new girl event for Raven, shedding more light on a main story line.
– Added Cheat start! If you’ve already played enough and just want to quickly rush to where you previously left off in the story, this will boost your resources and character stats to pretty much trivialize the gameplay.

– Changed some character descriptions.
– The first encounter with Mel has a different picture now (Boob size buffed 

– Raven’s girl-events are more spaced out.
– Small UI fixes.
– Typo fixes, as is tradition.

v 0.1.9:

– The Collection is here! Acting as a breeding minigame, players can reveal a random card from the collection for every impregnation. Not only are these cards nice to look at, but they also provide various bonuses based on rarity (Common, Elevated, and Legendary).
The collection unlocks in New Rozan when you acquire the Mirror of Spirits.

Note: I’m aware right now there are only about 5 breeding events in the game. The plan is to add more and more with new updates until it’s possible to unlock most of the collection.

– Changed the appearance of D’Alena
– Fixed the Old Rozan unmade fight not increasing the “Unmade Killed” stat.
– Small enemy stat adjustments
– Fixed typos

v 0.1.8:

– Added 2 new events to New Rozan – with the last one at progress 10 opening the way to the old city!
– Added a new persistent location, Old Rozan – Explore repeatable and other events in the ancient floodlands!
– Added 1 new event that leads out of the city and sets the stage for a new main plotline
– Added 6 new items

– The game now has a main menu theme!
– Added an option in preferences to show player HP during events and adventure
– Changed the intro picture of New Rozan
– Greatly reduced the chance of ‘Strange Echoes’ event happening. Also reduced the effect it has on skills
– The ‘Training Tools’ building is now recommended for early construction
– Changed the ‘X’ icon next to equipped items to only show when fusing is 0 (and it can be unequipped)

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Hotfix:

– Added the ability to skip unseen text in preferences – now catching up to your old save should be much quicker and easier!
– Fixed the broken tooltips

Note: Don’t know why the RenPy build distribution broke the tooltips, so I’m back to doing it manually.

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v 0.1.7:

– The first iteration of daily random events is in!
– Added 4 random events, each with about 7% chance to occur on day end (Including a conditional event when someone is mining)
– Increased essence looted from early enemies (again)
– Changed the city exploration “progress” value to be capped out when all non-repeatable events have been completed (currently 10)
– Added tooltips to resources
– Added a stat that tracks how many Unmade the player has killed

– Fixed game crash after clicking “…asked about my purpose” during the portal event.
– Fixed Heart-Hold price and a bug where the player could heal infinitely without equipping the item
– Fixed a bug that displayed a message that a profession item was found
– Fixed stat headers highlighting
– Fixed some typos
– Also uuuhh, the ‘Collection’ button was not supposed to do anything yet. Fixed 

v 0.1.6:

– A large amount of UI improvements and overhauls!
– The character screen has been updated, and now includes a page that displays various stats.
– The combat screen has been remade with improved visuals and more QoL (like enemy bodyparts highlighting on hover)
– The adventure screen‘s text and icons have been replaced, with persistent locations having their own distinctive icons.
– Updated several other screens such as yes/no prompts, preferences, save and load menu, residents stat menu, etc.
– Added a hidden (Magnetic) event to the tower trader.
– Added more dialogue to the oracle portal event.

– To bring ARCA lategame more in line, each enemy bodypart now has a maximum of 5 instability (so 15 total)
– Passive healing can now heal to full HP
– Fixed some typos
– Item balance changes (Heart-Hold now heals 20 instead of 25, but is significantly cheaper)
– Adjusted several background variables for future use (Maximum HP, Bonus Shield, etc)

v 0.1.5:

– Added 3 new adventure events.
– Visit a new persistent location, the city of New Rozan!
– Added 3 new enemies
– Added ~16 new items
– You can now smelt duplicates of equipped items

– Added further groundwork for the Collection (still in development)
– Small enemy adjustments
– Small event text adjustments
– Main menu UI adjustments

Note: Sorry for the slower updates, life has been happening, plus my ancient dinosaur of a PC keeps making weird noises.

v 0.1.4:

General changes:

– Added the Smelter, where you can break down your items and gain essence for them.
– Added new buildings that help with essence upkeep (mostly intended for the later stages of the game).
– The game now can be saved anywhere outside of combat.
– Fixed a bug that allowed shield to go over the maximum shield amount (which is 5 shield per 1 ARCA)
– Fixed an error that appeared if D’Alena was not recruited during Raven’s 5th event
– Fixed some tooltips
– Added “Anal” warning to the fog encounter

Balance changes:

– Greatly increased essence gained from enemies.
– Changed some building costs.
– Very slight adjustments to enemy stats.

Note: I’m still working hard on the next row of adventure events – which will include at least one persistent location (a city), as well as some new mechanics (collectibles, anyone?). If things go according to plan, at least.

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v 0.1.3:
Lots of quality-of-life changes!

New content:

– Raven’s story continues! Added 3 new girl-events for Raven.

General changes:

– Added “Memories” to the residents page! Acting like an event gallery, you can now revisit the story of each girl.
– Added support for custom player names. Since this is a very story-focused game, I hope this feature will be used seriously… instead of naming yourself something like xXx_AnalBlaster_xXx.
– Added “Back” buttons to several screens. For those who prefer using RMB, these buttons can be hidden in the preferences menu (Ps.: I like having a clean UI, what can I say).
– Added “Skip” button to the adventure screen
– Added “Test” button to the sound options
– Changed “End Day” button to “Proceed”
– Fixed some typos
– More UI adjustments

Balance changes:

– Adjusted advanced building costs to account for the previous profession buffs.

Note: This patch I also worked on setting up the random event system under the hood. There will be positive events (essence winds, traveling merchants), negative events (floodings, accidents) and whatever else me or the community comes up with in the future.