Hello friends! Once again, it is dev diary time.
This week, we turn our attention to the October monthly update. Where the last monthly update was mostly dedicated to extending Greek content, this one is a bunch of different things.
I have addressed one more thing about Greek life, however, and that's the storylines for the roommate and their partner, and the BFF. These would be somewhat cut off by moving into the Greek house... not entirely, but you'd have to jump through some unintuitive hoops to keep them going. They should now reintegrate more smoothly after your move.
To those groaning because they welcomed the Greek house as a way of removing themselves from the roommate and partner: it's still an opportunity to cut that storyline short, but now it's your decision rather than just something that happens.
I've also checked off a few things that have lingered on my list for a while: a dialogue option to break off a friendship that no longer suits you, reactions to approaching somebody for conversation when you're a mess, and the ability to go topless of your own volition at the quad party with a new opportunity event rather than waiting to be dared (though you do have to experience the dare once and have Exhibitionism leveled in order to see this option), and some other stuff.
Though it's been a bit since I first added opportunity events — the options that appear at certain locations and/or with certain NPCs around — lately I've been enjoying utilizing them more and more. Along with in-person dialogue options, they're a good way to bring in more player volition rather than just hoping things happen to you, and I want to keep utilizing them more.
I've also addressed cross-save books. As you may or may not know, characters who publish books within the game will make those books to your other characters in other saves. Which I think is cool! But it also gets cluttered after a while, or maybe you just don't want all those books hanging around. You can now delete any that you no longer want to see.
After last week, a couple people suggested expanding the selection of extra credit tasks, so that's where the bulk of my work has gone this week.
This update introduces the observatory, a location I've long planned to have in the Hallowell cluster. While I'm mostly adding it for the sake of this new extra credit category, it'll also be a new location you can visit anytime for fun and edification.
The existing extra credit tasks were designed as a deliberate trade: you would improve your grades at the cost of a hit to your reputation. This set of tasks has a different tradeoff, mostly in terms of the time management required to get up at an ungodly hour and then try to go about your normal day. The events will have a different tone as well, more about the intimacy of spending the wee hours of the night in a small room with one other person.
I think this is also the first storyline that can specifically spur a romantic or lustful interest in a professor — though do note that while the event set prefers a professor, if there are no science professors that fit your attraction preferences, it will instead pair you with a senior student working on a project. In any case, I've had this storyline vaguely in mind since before the game released, and I'm glad to finally get to work on it.
My goal is to finish up this location and this event set by the weekend, and then get back to checking off some smaller tasks that have lingered for a while. I also still want to put some time in on polishing encounters again, too. Early access will come on Tuesday, but as usual, I'll see what more I can get done on the way to public release a week after that.
So that's all for now! I hope you have a good weekend, and you'll hear from me very soon with early access. Until then, thank you as always for your support and for making this project possible!