Dev Update – R6 Progress #3 & Release Date

So to follow on from my thank you message, here’s the update on how things are progressing. This might be the last one I do before R6 is available, barring a small post nearer release day to confirm the date.

There are some changes to the norm this time around, which I’ll outline. So if you have any further questions about them, do ask! And I look forward to the feedback once you get a chance to try them for yourself.

Job System Progress

So both the office and club routes are done, each having their own intro and ~4 actions each. The usual MC focused ones are of the style of in event love/lewd variations depending on which you choose. So kinda depends how you count it really.

One thing I’ve done differently this time around, mainly because it’s actually possible, is set up a pretty easy way to offer her jobs (yes you can offer both at the same time). Once you advance her to the next stage there will be a small event available to go through, and from there you can offer her the jobs based on what’s available, or do so again later simply by chatting to her in her room. Much nicer I think than the previously very contextual triggers.

Just as a little peek forwards beyond R6, the office will probably be getting a lot of work soon. So there’s a good chance the Lydia content will be fleshed out some more with that.

Christine Favours

Started this pretty recently. Works similarly to Jen’s reward system, though this time around I’ve taken the approach of you having to go to Christine, receive a task and then complete it. Bit of an experiment, I’d actually like to do this kind of thing more to perhaps take advantage of the world space. Easier said than done, and what we’ll get in R6 is pretty simple. But feedback on this kind of thing will certainly influence whether I do it again.

There will probably only be a couple rewards for now. But like with most stuff it’ll get expanded as Lydia’s content is progressively finished.

Story Changes

R6 will be a bit different in its story structure. Main reasons being: time constraints, and because I think the changes are for the best (for this release anyway, doesn’t necessarily reflect the ones to come after).

Intro

First up is the intro. Instead of doing one for each path I’ve rolled them both into one. You’ll still get the two Love/lewd options to start it, but that’ll determine how the dialog plays out and which of the two gets levelled up (the other will auto level when the stat gets maxed out as usual).

Now I’ve done this mainly because I needed both intros to do the exact same thing. So it’d be a bit silly to try and make them unique to just be the same event in practice. Obviously in these very early stages of Lydia’s content, the divergence between the paths is very small. But I’ve given the event a love and lewd twist depending on which you choose.

Story Events

For this stage of her content, I’ve decided to just go with one Love and Lewd story event (so one for each path). Usually there are two per path at a minimum.

First motivation is time. The party content took way longer than I should have allowed it. I’m not sure if it’s something I could have mitigated, maybe a little. But once the time investment reached a certain point there wasn’t much that could really be done besides just going for it and getting it done. And I can’t delay the release because of the IRL circumstances of the Christmas period.

Second is the story itself. I’ve got a pretty good idea of where I want things to end for R6. And I just can’t really envision how I’d split it into two parts for each route. Already in R5, one of Lydia’s story events felt super forced to me. I don’t really want to do that. Perhaps there is a bit of an overall pacing issue, which I’ll keep in mind. I should have plenty of time after R6 is out to reflect and plan things going forward in attempt to mitigate that.

Between the stuff that happens at the party, the jobs, the intro etc, I’d say a lot more of the story is being delivered in the intermediary content than usual. So honestly just having one thing at the end to cap everything off might be better overall. We’ll see how it turns out. But I just wanted to explain the departure from the norm, and assure you I plan on doing the story events as much as possible. They seem pretty popular, but I’m sure you’d rather get something good than a whole bunch that are just forced and garbage.

One thing I’ll say about the story, as a peek into the future, it’s probably going to progress differently to what we’re used to. Different character and relationship, only makes sense things would be different too. But you’ll see what I mean, assuming I don’t change my mind ;)

Release Date

Aiming to have this out by the 18th. Cutting it a bit close, but I’m going to need every day I can get to make this one as good as possible. Should leave me a few days to do support and bug fixing before I have to disappear for IRL.

Thank you all for the support, and the patience. This is a long wait I know, but once we get into next year things should be back on track.