A Family Affair - Changelog: 0.4.3 - Sanctuary in Time

Happy New Year, one and all!

We've got some exciting changes in version 0.4.3, including the chance to save family members from the clutches of cruel slavers (and then optionally romance them), new cosmetic updates, balancing changes, bug fixes and more!

These updates are coming to patrons first, then two weeks later they’ll be released for other editions and storefronts as well.

So, dive in, check it out, and let me know what you think. But, remember...

Above all else, have fun!

Max (Novus Operandi)

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Sanctuary in Time is a text-based, adult game with sci-fi & RPG elements! Your father's just been murdered. He was the God of Time. Now, it's your turn! Save damsels from dark corners of history; train them as warriors, courtesans, or workers. Build your forces. Expand & upgrade your citadel. And survive the enemies that seek your death!

New feature: Weather updates for the settlement.

A brief section of text will now be displayed in the top room description for the Main Hall of the Citadel. This describes the current weather conditions outside.

• Thanks to Celestial terraforming, the weather in the settlement is largely temperate year-round, but changing conditions can still occur, such as various strengths of sunshine, rainfall, and windy weather.
• Incorporates multiple procedural elements for a sense of variety.
• Refreshes on the passing of each turn.
• Text related to enabled settlement boons has also been reformatted so it appears more prominently near the top of the room description field for the Main Hall of the Citadel. It now appears just below the new weather updates text.

Feature update: Changes affecting all side story events.

These changes are intended to produce a more varied & enjoyable mix of those side story events which can occur at the end of the weekly turn report.

• Removed built-in chance for no event to occur after the weekly turn report (which was previously a 10% chance). Now, the only time no event should occur is if no events meet qualifications to run.
• Increased chance for recruitment events to occur instead of side story events by 5%.
• Slightly increased chance for a secondary event to launch after a preceding event closes. (Not all events qualify for this.)
• Updated erotic events w/ romantic partners, so that now if sex is declined, there is a chance for a secondary event of some kind to be launched afterward. (Previously, these events did not qualify for secondary events to launch afterward.)
• Made significant refinements to the system of priority levels used by all side story events. This system is responsible for controlling when & what type of side story events are shown, as well as how often they can occur.

New side story event: Player & follower work affectionately side-by-side.

A brief new side story event can now occur in which the player encounters a romantic interest while the two of them are working in the settlement. The two end up working side-by-side, while the follower displays affection for the player. (Contains multiple procedural elements for a sense of variety.)

• This event focuses primarily on a follower showing feelings of closeness and affection for the player while they perform a routine task together.
• Requires a follower who is either ‘courting’ the player or has achieved ‘girlfriend’ or ‘wife’ status + currently possesses minor love (or higher).

New recruitment event: A woman from offworld claims to be your “true” mother!

A new & very special recruitment event can now occur in which a woman from offworld claims to be your “true” mother. A supposed survivor of the massacre at Lord Aion’s hall who has been in hiding offworld ever since, she finds herself in dire straits as an indentured servant to a cruel master. And now she pleads for you to buy her contract so she can be free of that master’s control. But, is she on the level or is the whole thing just a hoax? It’s up to you to decide!

• Ask her questions about what really happened. Then, if you believe her answers, buy her contract to liberate your mother from her cruel master. Afterwards, she’ll come to live with you at the citadel.
• Or, deny her claims as a hoax and send her packing! (This event will continue to occur so long as you deny the claims of the women involved. And each time it occurs, a different woman will come forward making these claims. But once you accept a woman as your “true” mother, no further claimants will come forward.)
• This follower starts with a minimum of two skills, one at ‘Specialist’ level and one at ‘Student.’ Plus, a minimum level of ‘Beginner’ in courtship to reflect her experience as a consort to Lord Aion.

New recruitment event: A woman from offworld claims to be your aunt or cousin!

A new, special recruitment event which begins to occur after you ACCEPT a woman into the citadel as your “true” mother, and which is a variation of that event. While the preceding mother event is available to everyone, this event is reserved for the Complete Edition of the game.

A woman who claims to be either your aunt or cousin comes forward and pleads for your help. She sold herself into indentured servitude to avoid debtors’ prison & now she’s under the thumb of a cruel master. Will you buy her contract so she can be liberated from this cruel master, or deny her request and send her packing? It’s entirely up to you!

• Potential aunts will be from 30-49 years of age and share the same last name as your accepted mother (because she and her sisters reverted to their maiden names after being saved by Lord Aion and entering the afterlife). These recruits will address the player as ‘Nephew’ and will themselves be labeled as ‘(an aunt).’ Both they, and the potential cousins below will also share the same ethnic background as your accepted mother.
• Potential cousins will be from 18-25 years of age, but will not automatically share the same last name as your accepted mother or her sisters. (This was done to reflect the potential for a more varied parentage, plus the possibility of them retaining their father’s surname). These recruits will address the player as ‘Cousin’ and will themselves be labeled as ‘(a cousin).’
• These followers start with two skills, one at ‘Student’ level and one at ‘Beginner.’
• Though the occurrence of this event will be semi-rare, there is no limit to the number of aunts or cousins you can recruit.

Cosmetic updates:

• Added new short hairstyle of ‘pixie cut,’ an elegant option with bangs swept to one side (only available in Barber Shop). Also updated description for existing hairstyle ‘parted,’ so these two similar styles are clearly distinguished.
• Updated the African hair style descriptions to be more detailed for ‘short kinky,’ ‘med natural,’ and ‘long natural.’
• Added new eye color of ‘greenish-gold.’
• Added new facial feature types of ‘weathered’ and ‘refined.’
• Added new buttock tattoo in Ancient Greek lettering which spells out the word “ángelos” (‘messenger’ or ‘angel’).
• Added new buttock tattoos in French language which spell out the words “mother,” “aunt,” “sister,” “lover,” and “easy woman.”
• (STORY SPOILER) Women recruited by the player who are daughters of Lord Aion (and thus, half-sisters to the MC), will no longer be labeled as ‘(a Celestial).’ Instead, they will be labeled as ‘(a half-sister)’ to make their relationship to the MC more clear. (This change affects both new & existing recruits.)
• Made a small selection of new, starting first names available for recruits of Nordic, Celtic, French, and Middle-eastern ethnicities. Also made a small selection of new, starting surnames available for Nordic, Celtic, and French ethnicities.
• Made minor edits to the formatting used when describing a npc’s tattoos in narrative scenes. Now, when a npc has both a shoulder and an arm tattoo on the same limb, the arm tattoo below will be prefaced by the text, “further down the same arm....” And similar text will preface if a npc has both a buttock and leg tattoo on the same limb. The order of tattoos listed in these descriptions has also been slightly altered, so that combinations of terms tattooed on a follower’s buttocks will be read in a logical, left-to-right fashion (e.g. left buttock “favored,” right buttock “lover”).

Gameplay balancing:

• Lowered difficulty on stat-check events in which a solo follower asks for guidance before taking on a risky assignment. But increased difficulty on the similar events in which a follower is overwhelmed and requests backup from the citadel.
• Decreased the number of turns that must pass before players can construct the 2nd follower statue (priestess or warrior) and the experimental generator upgrades. Previous turn limits were 100 & 125 turns respectively, now they are 90 & 110. (These are boon events reserved for the Complete Edition.)
• Slightly increased bonus silver paid out by constructed statues of warrior or priestess followers (which are added to the settlement by boon events). Also slightly increased bonus energy units found by the search & rescue drone, ROVR, when constructed.
• Lowered courtship skill requirements for unlocking the various sexual positions. Previous unlocks were at ‘Student,’ ‘Specialist,’ and ‘Skilled Expert.’ New unlocks are one level lower for each.
• Decreased build times for additional rooms (e.g. Infirmary, Caretakers Quarters) from 3 weeks to 2 weeks, and build times for additional buildings & outposts from 5 weeks to 4 weeks.
• Put measures in place to ensure most new recruits do not start with health lower than ‘Extremely Unhealthy’ or devotion lower than ‘Deeply Uncertain,’ so as to shorten their initial recovery times. (Some special recruits will not be affected by this change.)
• Put measures in place to help ensure ethnicities offered by all standard recruitment events are more truly random. Now, a minimum number of turns must pass between each ethnicity being offered. (Recruits offered by the cheat-enabled ‘Generate NPC’ button are not currently affected by this change & simply function on RNG).
• Updated requirements for the spontaneous infatuation event, so that close family members of the MC (their mother, aunts, or sisters) are immune to suddenly becoming infatuated with the player.  However, these women can still be seduced by other means. (Cousins, being more distant relations, still qualify for this event.)

Misc. updates:

• Fixed bug which could occur if a ‘Medic’ in one building was directly assigned to be the ‘Medic’ in another building. This could result in the previous Medic assignment not being properly recognized as vacant until the game was reloaded. Now, however, the vacated assignment will be instantly recognized as open.
• Fixed typos found in first main story event (in which the apartment is invaded).
• Fixed typos found in fourth main story event (which features the two Nordic warriors).
• Updated the event in which a follower can suffer a random injury, so that their current duty assignment is listed in the SUMMARY section.
• Minor update to text in first main story event. Now, if player chooses to pray for help when first being attacked by the Anvil, their dialogue mentions needing “...a hand right now. Or, a bad-ass angel. Or, ANYTHING.”
• Fixed typo found in recruitment scenario in which follower is found prostrate before idol of the God of Time.
• Updated in-game tutorials to better communicate that Courtship skill can be raised in more than one way, by either achieving orgasms during mutual sex with the player or by performing Courtship duty assignments. This notation can be found under ‘Gameplay Tutorials>Followers>Skills’ & ‘Gameplay Tutorials>Duty Assignments>Courtship Assignments.’