Star Knightess Aura Internal Release 0.18.0

https://aura-dev.itch.io/star-knightess-aura-prerelease/patreon-access

Note that the public release will be in 2 weeks. You can also skip the waiting time by buying Star Knightess Aura on itch.

https://aura-dev.itch.io/star-knightess-aura

For the first time of this year, we had a 5 week development update and I think it's pretty well reflected in the amount of content of this update. For the details on each weekly update, you can check out my patreon devlog posts. As usual, I will be giving an overview of this month's changes in this post.

Let's start with some numbers as always. On the art side, there are 1 new CG and 2 pose variations that were used to illustrate a total of 5 lewd scenes. Content wise we have 3 new lewd scenes, 8 new real world scenes, 2 new dungeon areas,  8 new mental changes, and a bunch of other smaller goodies like new drugs and a new dark spell that grows stronger with Aura's collected vice.

So, let's get into the more spoilerish territory of the update post. Beneath Nephlune, you can now find 2 new areas: The Underground and the Underground City. Before you were already able to enter the Bar in the Underground City, now you can also enter it through a secret entrance in the Underground. The Underground itself is a fairly standard dungeon with a returning gimmick. In general, the focus of the enemies in this update focus on damaging Aura by inflicting Corruption - if not mitigated.

The more interesting area is probably the Underground City. Either enter as the Hero Aura or in disguise as the tavern wench Mary. The former turns the city into a dungeon, the latter into a city like area. It may even make sense to combine both approaches. Various NPCs in the Underground City offer new opportunities to grow stronger. In particuly, through the Drug Dealer who sells potent new drugs and is also willing to hand them out... In exchange for a certain favor. ;) Here you can find two of new lewd scenes, with the third one coming in June as his demands will then escalate. For the third added lewd scene, you should by the way check out the Young Merchant again, it seems he has another business proposal for Aura.

Together with the addition of the Drug Dealer, the drug system has been reworked. You can no longer drug your companions (lmao) and instead of just a boring +2 Corruption you now gain +1 Corruption and +1 Addition. The latter is a new passive state that models the medium term consequences of drug consumption by debiliating Aura and making her highly prone for getting pinked into lewd scenes rewarding drug consumption.

On the real world side, we have finally completed the scenes and mental changes for the make-over ministory arc. The new notable additions this month is the inclusion of the new outfit, make-up, and bangle accessories. There are still a couple of unsused art assets such as an expensive ring, nail polish and changing Aura's base expression, but I will be mixing them in into later updates so we have some more appearance changes inbetween this make-over and the next set further down the future.

Most of the mental changes yet don't have too many corruption scenes as I have focused my efforts on only those that are necessary to further drive Aura's gyarufication forward. Next month I plan to focus more on "reaction" type scenes. Expect the library club members and Rose to make a re-appearance here.

That covers most of the new additions of the update. There are various details such as new boss fights in the Underground or the Spell Shop in der Underground City but I leave it to everyone to explore these by themselves.

Oh right, and I made a last minute, "tiny" change of reducing the minimum day time between testing periods to 7 days (determines among others the amount of time that needs to pass after removing the first Studying Book and then removing the second one.) I did some testing and everything worked but there is a chance I broke something there. :'D Maybe should have waited till bugfix week to do this but it's been on my todolist for so long I decided to squeeze it in. Well, let's see what happens.

Anyways!! That's about it! Have fun playing. For those who look forward for a bugfree experience, maybe wait out for next week's 0.18.1 build. :''D Over the last months, as the game is growing more and more, I feel like my own testing is only being a drop in the quality ocean. But yeah, enough about that. Have fun with the update, the changelog is as usual below. And for the plans in the upcoming month, I'll be as usual create a Project Plan post somewhen next week.

0.18.0 (29.04.2022)

• Integrated H-CG for "Customer Service 1"
• Integrated H-CG for "Customer Service 2"
• Integrated H-CG for "Flashing Breasts For Guard" 
• Integrated H-CG for "Showing Pussy For Guard" 
• Integrated H-CG for "Young Merchant Dinner 3" 
• Added mental change "Blur Out Super Robot Shows" in Alicia Childhood Memory Dive
• Added mental change "Change Favorite Color Red To Pink"
• Added mental change "Add bangles" 
• Added mental change "Remove Self-Acknowledgement III" 
• Added mental change "Flashy Clothes" 
• Added mental change "Light Makeup" 
• Added mental change "Shorten Skirt Length"
• Added mental change "Shopping II" 
• Added scene "Shopping In Mall 5"
• Added scene "Aura Bored At Studying 3"
• Added scene "Aura Bored At Studying 4"
• Added scene "Shopping With Patricia 3"
• Added scene "Shopping With Patricia 4"
• Added scene "Evening With George 7"
• Added scene "Evening With George 8"
• Added scene "Aura Posting On Social Media 3"
• Added Nephlune Underground Dungeon
• Added Nephlune Underground City
• Added Demonologist NPC in Underground City 
• Added Dark Mage Spellshop in Underground City
• Added Drug Dealer NPC in Underground City #2089
• Moved end of content point in Nephlune to James mansion entrance
• Added spell "Horror I"
• Add lewd scene "Young Dinner Merchant 3"
• Added lewd scene "Asking For Drugs 1"
• Added lewd scene "Asking For Drugs 2"
• Added quest "Demon Worshipper 101"
• Added item "Sweet Memories Drug+"
• Added item "Bloodshot Eyes"
• Added item "Lascivicious Drug Coating" and "Lascivicious Drug Coating"+
• Added item "Blue Sugar Drug" 
• Added item "The Art of Fire" 
• Added availability of Remove Collar action into skill description
• Add resistance calculus to correctly determine resistance from WEAK/RESIST traits 
• Implemented type tag system for lewd scenes
• Added consumeDrug tags to Maid Job 
• Added Addicted and Withdrawal passives
• Added option to give Drug Dealer drug formula
• Added option to give White Priestess drug formula
• Added stone tabled to Underground City
• Disabled drugging companions
• Updated Hand Of The Kind quest
• Improved NPC positions during Arwin's party
• Increased max mental changes to 75 
• Increased max killable bosses to 49 

Balancing

• Unified state duration to always decrease on turn end instead of action end, especially Tactical Advantage
• Changed +2 Corruption of Sweet Memories Drug to +1 Corruption and +1 Addiction 
• Reduced minimum lewdness effects of Addicted I/II/III and Withdrawal I/II/III
• Decreased minimum waiting time between testing phases to 7 days 
• Decreased corruption costs for increasing max happiness tank capacity to 1/2 for MEDIUM and MAX 

Bugfixes

• Fixed typos 
• Fixed hands for Aura RL standing art 
• Fixed padding issues in Beastiary
• Fixed water mage reviving on slime summon in slime summoner fight in Underground 
• Fixed crashes from switching to new tagging system for lewd scenes 
• Fixed incorrect passabilities
• Fixed no addiction increases when adult content is off 
• Fixed Art Of Fire being readable twice when getting Reading. Is. Boring. 
• Fixed Skillbook: Offensive Stance II being readable twice when getting Reading. Is. Boring.
• Fixed money glitches from learning Shadowcloak I from Dark Mage
• Fixed some trust checks not being disabled upon death of associated worshipper 
• Fixed missing corruption increases from answers in Young Merchant Dinner 3
• Fixed Maid Job 2 always giving -2 Max Willpower when Adult Content is off
• Fixed mapping bug in Northern Mines Vault
• Fixed movement routes of demon worshippers in Underground City
• Fixed Shopping II being visible before unlocking it
• Fixed incorrect method of calculating last actor id of used skill / item
• Fixed numerical precision issues in discount application, especially Blessed Water cost increase
• Fixed Aamon (FIRE) form only lasting for 2 turns first time in battle

Stats

• Estimated play time: 17-21h
• Word Count: 348k
• Lewd Scenes: 37
• Real World Scenes: 121
• CGs: 14 (+1 Bonus CG)