Tuesday 24 February 2015

Newlife 0.2.8 released to patrons, and 0.2.7 publicly

Hello everyone!

From now on I'm going to be putting new releases on Patreon before they're made available publicly. That's because I want to reward my patrons who make it possible for me to spend so much time on the game. If it wasn't for them then Newlife wouldn't be even close to 0.2.7 at this point, let alone 0.2.8.

Early-access patrons will always be one version ahead. Newlife 0.2.8 is ready, I've put the changelog below, and I've posted the jar Patreon already. If you're a patron then head on over there and enjoy! 

Because 0.2.8 is available to patrons, I'm also putting 0.2.7 out for a public release for everyone else. You can see the changelog at http://splendidostrich.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/version-027-changelog.html

0.2.7 can be downloaded using the links to your right. You only need either the jar or the exe - not both. I recommend trying the jar first.
For either version you'll need to have Java installed. A lot of programs use Java so you might well already have it. If the jar shows up as an unrecognised file type, then you probably don't. In that case you can get it from http://www.java.com/.

As an aside, quite a bit of my time today has been taken up in stressing about Blogger's plan to prohibit adult content, starting in late March! In fact, that's why I'm posting this now and not about four hours ago. It's not yet clear if text content will be covered, but if  you suddenly see this blog disappear then it probably means that I've been forced to move to another platform. 
If that happens then I'll post links to the new site on all the Newlife forum threads I know of and also on Patreon. So, if my blog suddenly vanishes and you don't know where to go for game updates, head over to the Patreon page which is linked when you open Newlife and see if I've put a link there.

0.2.8 is perhaps the biggest update yet with 4 new scenes. Even so, there is more dance content to come! In particular, the nightclub scene hasn't been updated yet and you can't dance with dates after bringing them home. Both those things will be added soon. Without further ado, here's the changelog:
  • Fixes for text issues. Thanks to death25, Lawhorn, curious & cubano for reporting problems they found.
  • Fixed a problem reported by cubano where the outfit details pane showed negative values for naughty & casual outfits instead of absolute ones.
  • Slightly increased the effect of taking high willpower.
  • Reduced the effect of alcohol on willpower.
  • Slightly reduced a few common modifiers on willpower checks
  • Added some more restrictions to offering a guy your number in a few scenes
  • Replaced one possible pornstar name which could be the same as your date's! Thanks to Cubano for reporting this one.
  • Added alternative text for clear-headed girls when describing how drunk you are.
  • The description of the player from the Describe Characters button now has a line for how drunk you are, as suggested by cubano.
  • If your lover refuses to wear a condom you now get a willpower bonus to the normal “end the makeout” action as well as the stronger rejections.
  • Fixed a bug reported by brodur where you could remove your underwear even while wearing hotpants.
  • Characters with the ambitious trait now start with more money, to reflect that they were probably more financially successful before the start of the game.
  • Added the dance skill
  • New scene for dancing together with a man. This covers proper dancing as in a dance class. Nightclub dancing will be updated in a future release (probably the next one).
  • New dance class activity with several associated scenes. You'll always get a scene for your first class. The other scene will show up somewhere between half and a third of the time – sometimes you just have an uneventful dance class where nothing interesting happens.
  • When your dance skill is high enough (specifically, 30), there's a chance each week that you'll hear of a dance tournament on weekends. You'll be informed of this in the week planner the same way as you're told about dates, and you can attend by choosing it as a weekend activity. Dress code for dance classes is casual, for the tournament you wear going out clothing. I may change this to formal eventually, but of course formal clothes haven't been added yet.
  • Dropped the number of random men down to 12 again, because there are new ones added for the dance class.


Have fun, enjoy the new version, and please report any bugs!



24 comments:

  1. Consider this - "Ambitious" isn't just a mindset, it's also a STATE of mind.
    Ambitions can appear and disappear based on the life lead.

    Moving towards success and wanting to be successful doesn't mean that you were doing it all your life nor does it mean that you got there.

    On contrary being successful can be the end of one's ambition, be it as a logical conclusion, or as a re-evaluation through experience.

    Ambitions and success are completely different things.

    Success and wealth aren't the same either. What I meant by that is that not every ambitious person is even working towards the goal of being rich, never mind reaches it. It can be respect, it can be renown, it can even be a dream unrelated to anything commonly associated with success.

    Bottom line - if you want an option for a wealthier start just call it that way. Binding wealth to ambition is just wrong.

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    1. While your point is true in real life, in the context of the game it makes sense to simplify it down to ambitious = altered stress(more stress from work-related events/more stress relief from promotions) + extra starting money to represent more wealth/cash on hand before your transformation. Adding in anything approaching the complexity of real ambition/success/wealth is ridiculous, since at that point SplendidOstrich would basically be about halfway to a fully sentient artificial intelligence. Moreover, the current setup is in fact an early beta-both the major work update and the major money update are still some ways off, and stress is almost certainly going to go through revisions during that time. Due to the fact that this is a life sim game focused on romance, relationships and sex, adding more complexity to ambition doesn't seem particularly relevant.

      Moreover, adding extra cash to ambitious players also balances things out somewhat-currently most work clothing is considerably more expensive than going out/casual clothes. Work blouses tend towards ~$80 compared to the ~$40 of basic going out tops, and buying work trousers often costs ~$80-90. Even work skirts tend to fall more towards $60. Buying a full work outfit is often impossible unless you happen to find one of the rare work/going out dresses. Usually my tomboy has to spend most of her initial $150 on work trousers and panties that fit, then go bra-less and wear an ill-fitting blouse for the several weeks to build up enough cash just to buy a work blouse that fits and a bra. Meanwhile, any other activity that costs money pushes this further back-it's not uncommon for me to still be wearing two or more of Ivy's borrowed clothes items 5-6 weeks into the game. Add in furnishing your apartment, alcohol when going out and occasionally getting mugged and you can easily go for several months still wearing borrowed clothes.

      Adding an option to just have more cash is pointless, since there's no reason to not select it-at that point SplendidOstrich might as well just make the default starting cash higher. Having extra cash on ambitious means you're trading higher general stress levels for extra starting cash, which seems a fair tradeoff.

      tl,dr: binding wealth to ambition is right and works in context.

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    2. I have to agree with Def Oit here. The Ambitious trait in-game refers to someone who is driven to "win", especially in a work context. The ambitious trait also affects how competitive your character is in general - this comes up a few times in the dance tournament. Someone with ambitions towards, say, being successful socially, might be better modelled with the outgoing & relaxed traits.

      It's true that it doesn't make a lot of sense that you can gain Ambitious as part of your transformation and still have the extra money, but it tends to be a negative trait in game because the stress it causes has a bigger effect that your improved job performance, so the increased money is a way of balancing it out a bit. I may reconsider if future changes make ambitious more beneficial, but I'm not sure that they will.

      As an aside, I don't plan to ever make Newlife character creation properly balanced because some people want to play a character who struggles financially or who has to work hard to find a lover, while other players prefer an easier game in those areas. Real life certainly isn't balanced, and I don't want to limit people from making characters who are beautiful, confident and talented just because they'll have an advantage over a plain awkward girl without many skills or experience.
      Still, there are going to be more balance tweaks later on and I'm going to try to add minor positives to most traits so there are fairly few that don't have any upsides at all.

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  2. Hints on being cute enough? You know what i'm talking about.

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    1. You need a modified cuteness (i.e. traits+clothes) of 15 with the cute trait or 12 without. That's reduced by 4 for Nice girls.
      You also need a Charm skill of 10 or higher, and you can't have the Bitchy trait.

      Delete
    2. The msg below was me too. Just did a replay and got 12 with no cute, not nice/bitchy/flirty, charm was 70's. Got a msg about being cute enough, but still not charming enough. Having a hard time getting above 13 with cute trait. I'll keep trying, but I can send a save game via tfgs if you want to double check.

      Delete
    3. Oh, good call there. I've found a bug - the conditional clause was the wrong way around so it needs you to have a charm below 10 to be accepted.

      That's fixed in the next release. In the current version, the best way to model is to take the Shy trait. This unlocks an alternative path which isn't bugged. In that one the option to offer to model won't appear, but if you meet all the requirements then the baker will stop you when you say goodbye and offer you the job without you having asked.
      The conditions for that are shy, not bitchy, charm>=10 & cute >=15

      Sorry about that, but thanks for letting me know about this!

      Delete
    4. Oh, and another quick comment - the cuteness rating needed is your total one, not just the cuteness from your clothes.
      The cute trait gives a massive bonus - I think it's +15. That's why the requirement is higher for cute girls - otherwise you could get the odd situation where you'd be singled out as being especially cute even while wearing a naughty outfit!
      If you're going for the shy route, then I recommend taking the cute trait. The shyness check is against a value of 15 which isn't reduced for being nice, so it'll be hard to meet otherwise.

      Delete
  3. OK, cleared first req, then second appears. Cleared second, third appears. I already seem to have that trait... this job a red herring?

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    1. I think this is referring to the same thing as the comment above yours - see my reply to them.

      Delete
  4. Hey, just a question - does either this build or the patron one has oral (deepthroat) and/or anal sex in it?

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    1. Oral has been in a while, but there isn't deepthroat content. Anal isn't added either. It'll be a candidate for the first milestone reward. That's been passed now, so next month's vote will decide which new scene gets added for it.

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  5. How do you trigger the dance thingy events?

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    1. Dance class is a free time activity. The dance tournament will sometimes be available on weekends once your dance skill is high enough. You'll get a message on the week planner telling you when it's available.

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    2. The dance class on free activities doesn't show up for me, sorry for being stupid :P

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    3. Gotta pay to play, or wait for next update.

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    4. Are you on version 0.2.8? Dance was only added in the latest version, so until the next update it's only available for early-access patrons. If you are a patron then the jar can be found under the creations tab on patreon.

      Delete
  6. Great game. In fact I'm so impressed by your work that I couldn't stop myself and point out things that have been irritating me since 0.2.6 version. They're still in the game so I guess I may help a little in a case they weren't noticed. First thing is the problem with description buttons when you maximize the game. I find it much more comfortable to play like that but the buttons are almost invisible. Pic: http://imageshack.com/a/img910/6567/12dBXJ.png
    Second one is the minor problem in the shop with the long descriptions of clothes as the statistic Suitable for outfits is hidden. Pic: http://imageshack.com/a/img903/6949/ZrqAtB.png
    I hope you'll be able to fix those things and expend your game much further. It's pretty awesome. You're doing excellent job.

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    1. Hi there, I'm guessing you're playing on 1366x768 or a resolution with similar height?
      At the moment the standard size of the Newlife window is 1000x800, and this is why you're seeing it squashed vertically. I develop on 1920x1080, so when I created the UI I just looked at it on my own screen and hadn't considered smaller ones.
      I'm going to do some UI work for the 0.3.1 release - after the pregnancy update. That should be out in March sometime. As part of that I'm going to reduce the window's height down to 750 or so, and that should fix both the problems you're seeing.

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    2. That's right. It is 1366x768. Thanks for the answer. Good luck, I'm looking forward for the new versions.

      Delete
  7. please implement the shoes and pantyhose stockings into this fantastic game ;) as i noticed there is none

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    1. Hi, I'm not sure when stockings will go in, but they are definitely in the core plan for the game! Maybe I'll add them when I put in formal clothing.

      Shoes are probably not getting added separately. It's already quite complex working out the different combinations of clothing & position when the player gets undressed, so I'd rather not add more clothing types that need to be checked for that. Right now the game just assumes you're wearing whatever shoes are appropriate, and that they get removed when appropriate too. I guess shoes could be an option for the "prove me wrong" milestone, but otherwise they aren't likely to get added.

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  8. The reason I can put so much time into Newlife and release as often as I do is because it is my only source of income, so I spent most of my productive time on it.
    Last month I made about £540. I have to pay rent, council tax, bills & living expenses from only that. I don't receive any sort of benefits, I don't share my expenses with a housemate or partner, and I don't get money from my family.
    I'm not going to share my exact finances, but there's a big shortfall between what I make and what I spend. Each month I'm eating into my dwindling savings, so if you're even breaking even then you aren't nearly as poor as I am.
    If my patreon account doesn't increase to where it can cover all my expenses, tax and so on (around $3000/month) before my savings run out then I'll have to relegate Newlife to a few hours on weekends and go find a job that'll hire me even though I'll have to tell them at interview that there's a year+ gap in my CV because I was making erotica. If that happens you'll be lucky to get a release every two months.

    While I don't time how long I spend on it, that Newlife certainly represents over 1000 hours of focused work, the product of which I'm releasing for free. I'd like to apologise to you though. I understand that I'm a monster for asking people to play a version that's 8 days out of date if they can't support me with less than the cost of a single beer every month.

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  9. Actually, I shouldn't post when I'm annoyed - sorry about that. I think what I'm trying to say is that I need money to live on, and that's not something I feel I should be ashamed of.
    If you can't support the game financially then that's fine and I hope you can enjoy the public version, but please don't complain about the incentives I give to people who are supporting me.

    ReplyDelete