Research Blog

Chapter 7 Intro

The newly released r32 build adds the intro section of Chapter 7 (the section that occurs before you get to the aquarium).

You finally make contact with the shadowy Baosheng Group and discover Krista is becoming a cowgirl.  Will you return her to human, send her to the farm, or keep her for yourself?  These three different endings will greatly affect the future of VCiV.

This section clocks in at around 6,684 words, which means that just the intro for chapter 7 is already slightly more words than all of chapter 3.  There’s not much puzzle solving or enemy fighting in this intro though, so it should be a quick play.  Try all the endings!

Faction Points

Faction Point System

Faction Points are now properly tracked and saved.  There is a UI scene (currently in settings, but will eventually be moved somewhere more appropriate) where you can check on your current faction points and allies.

This system helps keep track of the various decisions you’ve made throughout the game and how you’ve aligned yourself with the three factions.

Note that since faction points were not previously tracked, old save files will not have any faction points displayed.

Misc Additions & Fixes

• Support for player pronoun text variables.
• Fixed bug where entities that should be invisible were showing up in the item popup list.
• Several proactive fixes to save/load, including fixed bug with Krista intro replaying when it shouldn’t, Thornton status being lost and potential situation where you could be locked out of the VCiV door.

Chapter 7 is coming along well.  I ended up rewriting a lot of the minor details for the chapter 7~9 outlines, which is pretty typical for every time I’m in the early phases of a new chapter.  I think it comes out a little better each time, becoming a progressively more cohesive story that flows better chapter-to-chapter.  No changes to overall chapter topics though!

The first release of Chapter 7 will cover the events that happen before you get into the aquarium — you may recall some unusual/milky behavior from Krista, which the first part of Chapter 7 goes into details on (and lets you decide her fate!). You will also make a contact at Baosheng, who is the one to give you the aquarium mission.

Also in the next build will be proper tracking for the Faction Points system as well as a place to check your current alliances.

I’ll be closing out the discord chat vote in a few days after the Patreon pledges have gone through so new patrons have a chance to weigh in.

The usual notes about the patron cycle follow — if you’re a new patron, please take note:

It’s the first of the month, which means Patreon processing has begun and will continue updating automatically over the next few days. New backers should ensure their Patreon accounts are linked on the researcher intranet. Note even if Patreon’s website indicates a charge to you, it can still take a couple days for their website to update the data they display to me. In prior months, most people’s access is usually granted on the second of the month, with others spread out on the other days of the first week of the month.

If you’re planning to unpledge on Patreon, I recommend waiting a few days for the reconciliation process to complete before you unpledge. This is because once you unpledge, the Patreon API no longer sends any data about your purchases.

Thanks for your support!

Would you like to see a voice chat on the discord server added?  Active subscribers can vote for/against it via the researcher intranet.

As you may have heard, a lot of NSFW Patreon creators are currently being suspended.  Fortunately, we haven’t been affected so far, but I’ve updated the subscription options page to encourage new subscribers to use BMT Micro instead going forward.

Current/New Patreon Subscribers – You don’t need to take any specific action or move your subscription.  Assuming nothing happens to us, Patreon will still be fully supported.

I’m also evaluating how to handle posting project updates on Patreon.  Many creators are getting banned for making those, or even linking to their own websites, so I will either be making abbreviated posts on Patreon or will skip posts there.  As always, you can grab the RSS feed from this blog directly and read it with your favorite feed reader, or join our discord channel which has a dedicated announcements room.

Also, it’s the first of the month, which means Patreon processing has begun and will continue updating automatically over the next few days.  New backers should ensure their Patreon accounts are linked on the researcher intranet.  Note even if Patreon’s website indicates a charge to you, it can still take a couple days for their website to update the data they display to me.  In prior months, most people’s access is usually granted on the second of the month, with others spread out on the other days of the first week of the month.

If you’re planning to unpledge on Patreon, I recommend waiting a few days for the reconciliation process to complete before you unpledge.  This is because once you unpledge, the Patreon API no longer sends any data about your purchases.

Thanks for your support!

Researchers with private build access can head to the researcher intranet to download r31, which adds a number of new features.

Shark TF – Kicking off the beginnings of the aquatic themed chapter, you can now transform into an anthro shark.  Look for the Shark Tooth Pendant in the debug rooms, due west of the Debug Monster Arena.  Anthro sharks are powerful creatures that have great mobility both in and out of water, thanks to their large shark tail.  However, this tail isn’t hideable under disguises, so you won’t be able to traverse Mulberry as a shark.

Octomaid – This half-octopus woman will ensnare those who cross her with her eight lavender tentacles.  Her scenes are about 2,600 words long, with most of that in the player defeat scene.  She has a penchant for teasing her prey and knows exactly how to best use those tentacles.  😉

Tease system – NPCs can now tease you about your form, which is particularly fun when you have a low acceptance level of your current body.  So far, this is only implemented in the octomaid, but will likely show up in more NPC dialogue in future.  Here’s an example of a dragon queen getting teased by her:

Each transformation has different things an NPC may wish to tease you about, or little pet names they might decide to give you :3  These tease interactions will raise your acceptance level of your form as they force you to come to terms with your new body.

Teasing does not yet work with custom transformation mods, but will probably add support for that soon (especially if modders request it).

However, modders can use this in enemy mods today by trying the new text variables.

Text Variables – In addition to new text variables for teasing, there’s also new ones for describing the player’s movement type (currently limited to walking or swimming) and for describing the player’s butt.  Eventually player’s butt size will be calculated separately, but for now it just matches whatever player breast size is.  Finally, there is also a variable for the species the player is more than any other species.