Engine Overhaul Progress

And what good progress it is! I resolved to be done with all the engine work by the 30th and I've done pretty well!

A ton of the work was underneath the hood, things like adding new functionality to writeHTML, having a core characterArray that updates the game's cast on startup so I no longer need to use a save updater function for each new character and it also double-checks character artists and authors so it's less likely I'll flub one of those. The biggest is that with the help of Xazzafrazz from discord I was able to get code working that counts the characters loaded, so hopefully the wrongEncounter bug will be fixed and I didn't need to manually update all 63 of the .js files associated with the game.

For stuff you'll actually notice while playing I added new selection menus to the logbook and phone:

They have pervert versions as well, and an unread text notifier too! They'll block you from reading them during a scene as that still causes issues. This is because loading a character's logbook information and phone data loads their .js file, which overwrites the current writeEncounter code. This was another cause of the wrong encounter bug, so hopefully that'll be gone for good.

These engine changes are on the PTR now, so they might need some further tweaking as I get started testing, especially on mobile.

In addition I also finished the pallete swap for ash: https://mega.nz/file/viBVGbKb#kcpeqcr-f6DI0XYWBkm2vtEnIkQkYauDtaQhGPt2cMU

This replaces Ash's images in game with a tan-ish skinned blue haired version. Originally meant to help differentiate Ash from Anri, this mod also moves Ash's color pallete closer to Nagatoro from Please Don't Bully Me Nagatoro, who was the direct inspiration for Ash's personality. Extract into the Hentai University images folder. I'll find some kind of workaround so you can use it on the online version too.

Unfortunately as you can see I only just finished all this, which means I'm only starting on the GUI proper now. There's a lot to do, and a whole lot more to test. 

I do still feel that learning to code is extremely valuable to everybody, but I also respect that not everyone has the time to do so. Hopefully this tool will reduce the barrier to entry enough that peeps can join in the fun and people with mad writing skills and sad coding skills can make their own neat characters.

Aside from that I was hoping for the possibility of a v27 this month with crypto providing content while I worked on the engine, but unfortunately that won't be possible. Crypto's talked about how something came up + a strong case of writer's block. T.T

Such is life though, that announcement is why this post is free for everyone to view. So! Putting out more content, finishing the GUI, and doing my final capstone term at school will be tough, but I can hear all of you cheering me on!

... That might just be the voices in my head again. I'll bring those up at my neurologist appointment next week.

In any case, I appreciate you all giving me the time to work on all this! That wrong encounter bug was driving me insane, and the new engine functionality both makes the game run more smoothly, look nicer in the phone and logbook, and it'll be even easier for me to write scenes from hereon with the new writeHTML functions. Thank you for supporting me / enjoying my work. This month has been really tough to keep up with the workflow but I'm very satisfied with all I've done!

Take care all, I'll talk to you again soon!