Locking in Pledges for V0.05!

This post will lock in your pledges for V0.05 so that Patreon can process them at the beginning of September.  

We've pushed the release date back a few days to September 15th to guarantee we can have ample testing time.  We are planning on making a test release to the Inner Circle patrons in advance so that we can get the drop on any issues that slip by us. 

It's very likely that we'll be making a secondary release (free for those that are pledged for V0.05) with more content in October.  I say this because I really wanted to have *all* of the artwork for Neon's new armor ready, but at this point I'm not sure there will be time to finish all the Fleshpod and Vioreaper artwork for this release.  The secondary release would aim to cover any remaining art as well as additional map updates now that TK has his new map editor fully operational.  

For some better news, I'd like to mention that I'm experimenting with some basic animation for the story H scene in this release.  This has been the most requested thing pretty much since the first MATM release, and at this point we've optimized the rendering and post-processing workflow enough that it's worthwhile to attempt doing for certain scenes.Below is the planned change log for V0.05!  Some of the things we're still working on, but will be ready for the release.     

Content

• Added the ‘Tactical Frame’ armor type for Neon.    
• Added approximately 100 portraits as well as the sprite artwork for Neon’s new armor type.
• Added a new skill for Neon compatible with her new armor type.
• Replaced the puzzle area in the Breeding Zone with a more straightforward series of exploration-centric maps.  These maps were created with and show off the power of TK’s new 3D map editor, and they also do a better job of setting up the main story than the puzzle area.
• Replaced the Access Tunnels Entrance map with one created using TK’s 3D map editor (over time we will replace all existing maps with improved versions).
• New story H scene

Map Overhaul

• Tilemap usage (vanilla RPG Maker’s method of making maps' visuals) was removed or heavily scaled back on all maps in favor of parallax mapping (using multiple layers of pre-processed images to construct the maps’ visuals), resulting in a huge increase to map performance.
• Redesigned how traversable/non-traversable terrain is set for maps in the RPG Maker editor.  This reduces map configuration time and minimizes the chance of errors such as invisible walls, walking in the air, etc.  In addition, this allows for more elevation layers to exist on a single map, as well as much cleaner handling for marking areas of maps that utilize multiple elevation layers (for instance, walkways that characters can both walk on top of and underneath).
• Recoded and improved map elevation levels code, which allows proper and player-independent occlusion and shading of characters and event graphics.  What this means is that previous to this change, mobile NPCs and the player basically couldn’t exist on separate elevation levels without the possibility of crazy visual anomalies.
• Added map data preprocessing, which greatly reduces access time to map data by the engine.
• We’ve begun implementing a new design system for new maps that should make it easier for the player to judge where the player characters can and can’t move with regard to navigating near walls and ledges.
• Added custom collision detection for events with graphics bigger than 1 tile (for example, the player character doesn't have to overlap with larger characters like FuseBot to interact with it, and in addition large characters like FuseBot can now hypothetically freely wander the map without overlapping walls or other map events).
• Added custom activation area for events, meaning an event can be activated from multiple points on the map.  This means using less events to perform a task (for example, transfer zones which required up to a dozen events now require only one, resulting in a performance boost).  This also significantly speeds up time spent creating complex events, since before this we would have needed events for the sole purpose of triggering other events, and so on.
• Added a general custom event configuration feature that allows us to quickly and easily make a variety of common edits to events, thus speeding up map creation.   This includes but is not limited to setting collision/activation data and being able to shift events’ graphics independently of the event itself. 
• Limited the creation of event sprites to only those that are within or near the visible area of the map, which greatly enhances performance.
• Updated all existing maps and events to take advantage of new features.
• Plethora of other fixes, tweaks, optimizations, etc.
• NOTE: The map overhaul is an ongoing process, so some things, such as map loading times, may actually be worse than before - this will be addressed when more maps get updated with new visuals as then we'll be able to make more proper decisions on what is the best solution for this.

Equipment

• Fixed a few minor bugs related to armor types that surfaced after implementing Neon's second armor.
• Implemented separate skill Tetra panels for each armor type.
• Improved handling of Tetra panels in both Tetra configuration screen and battle.  This gives a marginal performance boost, but is way more manageable.
• Implemented armor type restriction for skills.
• Added armor/weapon type restrictions to some skills.

Miscellaneous

• Removed multiple major 3rd party scripts - their functionality, when necessary, was coded from scratch in way more efficient and dedicated way, which improves performance and makes code more manageable.
• Added cursor speed options to the Options menu, allowing for more responsive navigation of the menus / battle target selection.  “Initial Delay” changes the activation time for the cursor to begin repeating movement when a directional key/button is held down.  “Repeat Delay” changes the speed at which the cursor repeats movement after the initial delay time has passed.
• Added 'Y' keyboard key as alias to 'Z' key - their positions are swapped in QWERTY/QWERTZ keyboard layouts, and using Z key in QWERTZ layout is a pain in the... ahem... hand ;)
• Filenames for all graphics depicting player characters (portraits, map sprites, etc.) are now dynamically built using current actor state (armor damage, lust sickness stage, states, etc.).  This means that character sprites and dialog portraits can now show armor damage / effects of lust / so on.  Unfortunately, adding graphics for this wasn’t in the scope of this update, so these changes won’t be visible yet.
• The ‘Pause’ key/button will now hide all map windows (including message windows). This is basically a simple beta method for being able to hide the message window during H scenes.
• Added process for displaying ‘under construction’ graphics for battle portraits that don’t have art yet.
• Added the capability for having loading screens, and added said screens where necessary.

As always I want to remind everyone to please check that your payment information is correct and up to date (even if you had it set correctly for the last release, please check to make sure Patreon didn't change something on their end). Remember, your payment must be successful for you to be eligible for pledge rewards! 

Thank you for your continued support! 

- Eromancer