Desert Stalker 0.17.2

Hey everyone! So it begins once again. It has been a very busy few months, and here's the result:

A new extended story event for the mutants, multiple follow up events with Pepper, repeatable gym visits, repeatable visits from Savana and her boyfriend, Shani's repeatable sexy sparring scene and a bunch of reworked scenes.

Update on Future Release Schedule and Public Releases:

With the game now available on Steam and Itch.io as a one-time purchase, version 0.17 will be the final public release. This decision ensures compliance with platform rules and provides a fair deal to our supporters.

We are still releasing version 0.17 for free as promised. However, after its release, 0.17 will remain available as a free demo, while future updates will continue to roll out across all supported platforms.

As with past releases, future updates will first go through an early access period, becoming available to our Patreon and SS supporters in their respective tiers before eventually being updated on Steam and Itch.io.

This decision is not just about technical logistics but also reflects our deep gratitude for the incredible support you've shown over the years. (Can you believe it’s been four years?)

We wouldn’t be where we are today without your encouragement and generosity. Your early support allowed me to dedicate countless hours to this project and build a small but growing team. For that, I cannot thank you enough!

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You can find a detailed changelog below. I recommend turning the audio sliders on. When it comes to the animations, we will still have to update them in quality over the next few weeks. Also, the only scene I did not yet manage to rework despite all efforts was the market kidnapping. It will come soon later.

A huge thank you to all the beta testers that pointed out a good number of bugs and helped us make the game a bit more polished, but if you find any other issues feel free to DM me or reach out on Discord.

Have fun, and we hope you enjoy the update!

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Full version:

PC, Linux & Mac: Gofile (0.17.2)
Android: Gofile (0.17.2)
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Important note about the saves

The underlying code had too many changes to guarantee automatic save compatibility. For that reason, we have disabled the old saves. Beta saves are not recommended.

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0.17.1.2

Minor changes / Bugfixes 

• Fixed an issue with the gallery scenes having the same hint

• Fixed an issue with the new car event triggering too early (should also resolve the incorrect jump within the event)

• Fixed an issue with Kyra's trip to Adira being locked out if you visited her in the basement and told her to wait

• Fixed an issue with the Codex screen not being draggable on PC/Mac

• Fixed an incorrect jump in Emilia's introduction scene which would cause the game to continue to the next scene automatically.

• Fixed an incorrect flag for some dialogue variation in Emilia's introduction

• Fixed a flag not being set correctly during Nadia's market scene

• Fixed a missing blocker for Shani's repeatable sparring session

• Fixed a replay scene ("Foreign Affairs") that couldn't be unlocked in the gallery.

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0.17.1

New content: 

• Added the mutants bunker gym (repeatable)

 Reworks:

* The reworks listed below are almost solely visual upgrades, not story changes

• Added d3d (Emilia's introduction)

• Added d5d (Shani meets the Queen)

 Minor changes / Bugfixes: 

• Added a missing conversation with Red during d17a

• Fix a missing flag that caused certain Ain events to be blocked

• Added some missing renders throughout various scenes

• Fixed a missing flag in Kyra's intro

• Fixed an incorrect scene flow during Kyra's intro

• Fixed a condition that caused some settlement events to trigger out of order

• Fixed missing Emilia images in harem buttons

• Fixed a missing blocker for Pepper's lab events

• Fixed a missing blocker that caused the wrong variation of the new car event to be fired

• Added missing icons assets in world map for tracked quests

• Fixed a missing flag that could potentially lead to Fairy never being offered

• Fixed a wrong content flag which caused certain interactions with Fairy to be disabled

• Fixed a long-standing issue with some screens that could cause stack pollution

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0.17.0:

New Content (1,160 renders):

• A new mutants mission

• Pepper's examination (multiple steps, repeatable)

• Sparring with Shani (repeatable)

• Invite Igor & Savana again (repeatable)
  

Reworks (~900 renders):  The reworks listed below are almost solely visual upgrades, not story changes

• d2e (Shani's first adventure)

• d2f (Back from the pyramid)

• d3b (Night market visit)

• d3c (Shani and MC in old Cairo)

• d4a (Kyra in basement)

• d5b (First mutants visit)

• d5c (First raiders vist, including a 100-render extension)

• d5e (Kateryna & Igor's first visit)

• d6a (Kateryna's city visit)
  

 Technical: 

• Migrated to RenPy 8.3.3

• Added the ability to track quests so it's easier to see where exactly you need to go

• Made content flags persistent and available to change in the Options menu

• Added the ability to upload/download saves using the Renpy Sync feature

• Streamlined most of the quests

• Completely reworked the underlying Event System