Author: Skye

The Patreon page is now live, and you can link your Patreon and SkyCorp Global accounts via the Researcher Intranet.

Patreon supports PayPal transactions, so if you only had a PayPal account, you can now buy the game.  It’s the same price as via the existing BMT method, and functions the same:  purchasing once will unlock private builds forever.  Other than payment methods, the main difference between the two options is that since Patreon doesn’t actually bill until the 1st of the month, it’s not an instant unlock.  Granting private build access for Patreon users is currently a manual process, but I’ll endeavor to do this within the first week of purchases being successfully charged.

There’s also some more traditional monthly Patreon rewards to thank users who want to support the game on an ongoing basis.  Since the preview page, I added some suggestions as rewards and the unstable build reward option got changed to a WIP build option.  (I didn’t really feel comfortable with a fully automated build pipeline yet).  I’m hopeful the WIP builds give me some additional forward momentum to have some new content out each month — although most users will prefer to wait for the full chapter releases in the private builds, as it’s more fun to experience a full chapter at a time instead of in pieces.

I’m expecting May’s WIP build to be the Dinoian TF items.  I also need to set aside some time to get Android builds building again, as it looks like they account for about 25% of r20 downloads from the intranet — a much higher percentage than I ever thought.

On a personal sidenote, I recently attended a furry con for the first time.  I had a great time, and even got to meet some others in the TF community.  So inspiring to see others share passion for the genre!

Internal company memorandum re: next private build of research materials.

Chapter six is coming along slowly but surely.  This chapter is all about one of our most useful specimens, the Dinoians.  It would be nearly impossible to travel the vast desert wastelands without the use of our scaly, saurian mounts.  Any researcher traveling to the underground R&D facility has undoubtedly ridden one.

Researchers should be particularly careful when handling any Dinoian bindings.  Although SkyCorp Global is generally able to engineer the environment of their extended workforce so as to prevent them from shifting in form once assigned to a particular location, Dinoians naturally have to cover large tracts of land during their duties.  To ensure they stay in their intended form, their bindings are specially designed to be almost impossible to remove.  The special collars, cuffs, bands, and saddle will self-replicate across the subject as needed.

Occasionally, a subject forgets their employment agreement and attempts an unauthorized transformation.  Even if they manage to remove one binding, the other bindings will automatically replace it within moments.  This safety precaution helps prevent riders from getting stranded in the vast desert wasteland.  However, more than one careless researcher has found themselves with new duties after improperly handling the bindings.

~

Vis-à-vis status of chapter six: most of the introductory scenes are written.  In terms of size, this chapter is on track to be huge.  Just the introductory scenes are almost as many words as some previous entire chapters.  The desert area has so many rooms, the map system has to be updated to efficiently render such a quantity.  So it will still be a while yet until chapter 6 is playable, but it will be worth the wait.

If you were watching blog comments, you may have noticed I changed the name of these guys from ‘Lizlands’ to ‘Dinoians.’  May change them again as I feel out the best name for them.

To researcher Hido’s inquiry about Patreon (as well as a couple others who have written in about PayPal support via Patreon), I have a work in progress preview page set up here.  The exact rewards are still TBD, but the primary one is Private Builds, which is the same one-time cost as it is at BMT.  Also brainstorming potential recurring rewards, including automatic unstable dev builds.  However, since pre-release dev builds are by their nature broken, incomplete, and otherwise not of playable quality, I may scratch that idea entirely (if they were actually ready for release, I’d just post it as a private build).  There’s some more details on how those builds would work on the preview page.  Leave a comment if you have other reward ideas (or are an existing backer who is vehemently against the idea of a Patreon for this project — it’s still only an idea at this phase).

NathiriRuby has written the first player created monster mod: a hyper herm Kitsune.  A challenging foe, the Kitsune is best faced by well prepared players and includes over 3,000 words of sexy hyper action.

r20 is released in both public and private versions.  Since r19, the changes are:

• Bug fixes for Cloud Save – This should fix the issue where downloading the SWF caused save/load to stop working
• Autologin feature (for private builds) – It can be annoying to have to login every time you play the game to save/load, so now private builds do this automatically.  Each downloaded SWF is now customized for the logged in user so login credentials don’t have to be typed in again after download.  Currently APK does not support this, but it may be supported in future.

If you haven’t played since the last public build, the major new public feature are:

• Custom Name Entry
  Research subjects can now enter their own names instead of using default assigned ones.  Both masculine and feminine versions will be prompted for.  If the subject’s sex changes, then they will start to refer to themselves using the alternate name upon reaching 100% acceptance.
• Save/Load
  The Underworld uses cloud saves so you don’t have to worry about losing your savegame due to Flash cookies going missing.  You can resume play between browser clears, incognito mode toggles and even across devices.The save system is new and highly experimental.  Save files saved on one version may not necessarily be compatible with all future releases.  If you have trouble loading a save file which was both saved and attempted to be loaded on the latest released version, then please leave the save file as-is and report it as a bug.  Include: 1) your account name, 2) the save file number, and 3) the build number.
• Mobile/APK support
  On the splash screen, there is now a button you can press to enter a new mode which makes the game much easier to play on phone / tablet / touch devices.  It modifies the UI layout by increasing the size and distance between the buttons and resizing various other UI components.  Text windows can also now be scrolled by swiping them up/down.  Button hover states are removed in this mode since touchscreens will often keep the cursor at the last touched location.For players on Android, an APK build has been created that you can install directly as an app.  This web page has some tips on how to install APKs.  The game will try to detect if its on a touchscreen or not, but if it fails, just toggle between Desktop Mode and Mobile Mode by using the new button on the start up page.

It’s been a while since there was a content build, so r21 will be new content sexytimes.

r19 adds support for saving game progress.  The Underworld uses cloud saves so you don’t have to worry about losing your savegame due to Flash cookies going missing.  You can resume play between browser clears, incognito mode toggles and even across devices.

The save system is new and highly experimental.  Save files saved on one version may not necessarily be compatible with all future releases.  If you have trouble loading a save file which was both saved and attempted to be loaded on the latest released version, then please leave the save file as-is and report it as a bug.  Include: 1) your account name, 2) the save file number, and 3) the build number.

This feature will be available to public build players with the release of the next public build, which is planned to be r20.

Research staff can download r19 from the private employee intranet as either SWF (Flash) or APK (Android).

Monster Mods (Private build feature)

Researchers now have access to a new debug tool that allows them to create their own enemies.  Use the Debug Monster Control Panel to input Monster Code.  A new monster will then be created in the adjoining room.  Monster Code can be generated without programming knowledge using the SCLab utility.  Researchers are encouraged to post their monsters to the wiki.

New Enemy: Male Spider

A new enemy has been discovered: the Male Spider.  He traps unwary victims in his web and transforms them into female spiders.

The male spider is a tough opponent.  A level 3 player with full health & empty lust can usually take him on, but any status effects (eggs, heat, etc) will tip the balance in his favor. It’s very difficult to get out of his web, so arrive fully prepared unless you want to become his mate!

He weighs in at approximately 1900 words and is implemented using the new Monster Mods system (copy his Monster Code from the wiki and paste it into the control panel’s input screen).

Custom Name Entry

Research subjects can now enter their own names instead of using default assigned ones.  Both masculine and feminine versions will be prompted for.  If the subject’s sex changes, then they will start to refer to themselves using the alternate name upon reaching 100% acceptance.

Research staff can download r18 from the private employee intranet as either SWF (Flash) or APK (Android).

Update: r18.02 released – There were a few bugs with monsters not attacking players in r18.  Please use the newly released r18.02 instead.

Attention researchers, a new species has been discovered!

A new cursed pendant in the debug room has the power to transform test subjects into anthro black widow spiders.  After exposure, test subjects will no longer be able to stand upright, but will instead be forced to crawl on spider legs and will grow a huge, bulbous opisthosoma-butt.

Spiders are a strong species.  Thanks to their razor sharp appendages, they are capable of performing combat strikes with 20% increased damage.  This damage comes at a cost.  Due to their short stature and octopedal motion, the female’s breasts will swing below them as they move.  Large breasts will rub against the ground, driving arousal whenever they move.  Extremely large breasts will occasionally prevent movement entirely.

Lust will have to be carefully managed, as the black widow’s opisthosoma-butt is so large that she will be unable to reach her own vagina to let off steam.  Instead, the black widow will have to find a partner… but she must choose carefully.

When spiders engage in sex with a male partner, they stand a significant chance of becoming pregnant with a huge clutch of eggs.  When pregnant, the spider’s belly will fill with eggs and become massive.  The belly hangs under the spider, and at large sizes will impede the spider’s egress from predators and leave it vulnerable to attack.  After a short incubation period, the female is forced to lay eggs.  Regardless of her wishes, this cycle repeats several times until her supply of fertilized eggs is eventually exhausted.  Finally her work is complete and she can return to normal proportions… at least until she is mated again.

Currently there are no males in the open world accessible dungeons, but researchers can use the debug hub to teleport to willing males in the dragon temple.

Research staff can download r17 from the private employee intranet as either SWF (Flash) or APK (Android).

The wiki is up.  There’s not much content yet, so feel free to add & edit pages if you want to.  It uses the same account system as the game, however, you do not need to have a paid account to edit the wiki.  A WYSIWYG editor is available, so no knowledge of wiki markup is required.

Don’t login to the wiki if you don’t want your SkyCorp username to be publicly shown, as MediaWiki keeps a public log of usernames.

r16 is now available in the employee intranet for private build supporters.  This build adds one new feature: Mobile Mode.  On the splash screen, there is now a button you can press to enter a new mode which makes the game much easier to play on phone / tablet / touch devices.  It modifies the UI layout by increasing the size and distance between the buttons and resizing various other UI components.  Text windows can also now be scrolled by swiping them up/down.  Button hover states are removed in this mode since touchscreens will often keep the cursor at the last touched location.

For players on Android, an APK build has been created that you can install directly as an app.  This web page has some tips on how to install APKs.

The game will try to detect if its on a touchscreen or not, but if it fails, just toggle between Desktop Mode and Mobile Mode by using the new button on the start up page.

This feature & APK releases will also be available to public build players in a later public release.

Erihya suggested improving the monster attack text to recognize the player’s current body state.  I think this is a pretty great idea, and I’m happy to take suggestions for these texts.

I am working on getting a wiki/forum set up to document this system and be place to collaborate on these texts, but it might take a while.  In the meanwhile, here’s some information if you want to get started brainstorming/writing.

Each flavor text should specify these parameters:

FLAVOR TEXT:  What the text of the attack is.
TYPE: Choose one:  Monster’s Physical Attack Succeeded, Monster’s Physical Attack Failed, Monster’s Lust Attack Succeeded, Monster’s Lust Attack Failed
MONSTER: The type of monster attacking the player (Wild Fox, etc).  Some attack text may be vague enough to work for most monsters, and so can be labeled as ‘Generic’ (slug girls and some others won’t use the generic set)
BODY PART: Which part of the body the enemy is going after
TF TYPE:  The transformation state that body part is in (ie: human, fox, etc)
EXTRA CONDITION (Optional):  If some condition needs to be true in order for this to happen.  For instance, if the torso attack mentions breasts, then the [[BREASTS]] condition could be used to check the player has at least A-cup breasts.

Here is a list of body parts on the player that can be transformed:

FEET
LEGS
TORSO (chest / breasts / stomach)
ARMS
HANDS
UBACK_ATTACH (Upper back attachment, ie wings.  May not exist)
LBACK_ATTACH (Lower back attachment, ie tail.  May not exist)
EYES
TEETH
HEAD_HAIR (this is not really implemented/used yet)
NOSE
EARS
MOUTH
UDDER (Usually doesn’t exist)
PENIS (Currently either Human or Horse)

Here is a list of TF Types:

HUMAN
FOX
COW
DRAGONQUEEN
SLUGGIRL
PANDA
DRAGON
ELEPHANT
CAT
TIGER
HORSE
TURKEY

And here’s the monster list — not all of them do both lust and physical attacks:

Catgirl
Cowgirl
Dogherm
Dragon Disciple
Dragon Servant
Farm Horseman
Frog Minion
Minotaur Boss
Naga Queen
Nixie Boss
Slug Minion
Foxgirl

I’ll work on getting a list of conditions and parser variables up on the wiki later, but that’s at least enough to get started with.

To take inspiration from one of Erihya’s suggestions, here is an example of one attack:

FLAVOR TEXT: [[MONSTER NAME]] sneaks up from behind to hug you, but you catch [[MONSTER HIS/HER]] reflection.  The moment [[MONSTER HE/SHE]] lays [[MONSTER HIS/HER]] hand on your back, you twist around.  The sudden actions sends your [[BELLY DESCRIPTION]] smacking into [[MONSTER HIM/HER]], causing [[MONSTER HIM/HER]] to stumble away.
TYPE:  Monster’s Lust Attack Failed
MONSTER:  Generic
BODY PART:  Torso
TF TYPE:  Dragon Queen
EXTRA CONDITION: [[LARGE BELLY]]