Woo, I can gladly say that the Ranch Assistant system is finally ready for you guys to use! This is the last major gameplay system that I'll be adding to the game (we'll also be adding the Inquisitor system, but that's an ultimately much smaller system based on parts already in game). This is important not only because the system itself is cool and I hope you guys'll like it, but because it means I can majorly shift my focus towards refining gameplay/game balance and writing storylines/events. Alita is the only assistant who will be currently available in the game, but expect that number to expand rapidly.
Important note about animations: You'll notice there are no animations in this update. Don't freak out! They're coming! As a result of the issues we had with the harpies as well as a few other compounding problems (computer troubles, some missing cow parts, some particularly complex animation set-ups), the prep work for the animations got pushed back this month. Making animations requires a long set of processes, starting with cutting up the poses and assembling them before anything can be actually animated. Since rather than doing the animations one at a time we put them through each process in batches (cut all the poses, then assemble all the poses, etc) this means that all this month's animations are currently in the assembly phase.
What we're planning to do is, instead of making you wait a whole other month for more animations, have our mid-month release be our "animation update". Given this goes well, from now on we'll probably do releases in this manner, with two releases each month: a gameplay update on the 1st, and then an animation update mid-month.
Also, as this is the last major system we're adding to the game (and an update to some of the more important bits of the UI), there's a very high chance of bugs. I fully expect to be doing a hotfix even before we get to the animation update this month, so let me know of any important bugs and I'll try to get the hotfix up ASAP.
7.7 Patch Notes
Additions
- The Ranch Assistant system is now in-game! This is the last major game system to be implemented! You can use it to assign breeding pairs to your assistants who will automatically be bred every day, increase the happiness of monsters in a particular building, or automatically sell your consumables. Complete Alita's quest-line in order to use it in-game.
- Alita the robot girl has been added to the game! To get her on your ranch you must complete her new questline, which is currently the biggest questline implemented in the game. In order to start it, you must raise your affection with Margo and have Ellenor on your ranch. It's also the first quest line in the game to involve branching paths.
- The Shop Menu and the Monster Select Menu have been overhauled. The shop now more clearly shows the monster idles and the monster select menu now includes your custom sorting tabs. They're also both prettier and ideally better optimized now! (There may be a few issues introduced with the new selection menu; let me know and they'll be added to the hotfix)
Bug Fixes/Minor Changes
- Happiness events can now occur on the same days as other events at the ranch, and are more frequent as a result
- The loading time when opening the breeding menu after loading a save has been shifted to immediately when you load the save itself
- Gremlin versions of the Swine, the Seraphs, and the Mandrakes are now possible to obtain.
- Changed Feral, Futanari, Neoteny, and Genderbent into platinum traits: will not apply to old monsters, so you may see some gold versions of the trait floating around on your old saves.
- Fixed issues with Kay's Sea Sponge
- Fixed issues with mousewheel scrolling
Known Issues
- While selecting a monster to add to an assistant's breeding schedule, you aren't shown the energy cost; this will be fixed soon
- Consumables loaded from saves from older versions won't be counted as having been harvested from your monsters when being sold by a ranch assistant, and won't stack with newly harvested consumables (this was not tracked previously)
- Alita's mouth and idle movements aren't animated yet
- There may be some weird game behavior when monsters with disabled traits are obtained
- The tutorial displays some of the old UI
- The colors on some animations are incorrect as they have yet to be overhauled
