LEWD, an erotic text adventure in spaaaace (Semi-public access now up)

[Sadtaco]

Main and Test Server Update, Alpha 1.2

• Progress through scenarios is now saved between sessions on the client. (This fixes it describing something as unfamiliar when it shouldn't, and so on)
  
• Updates to the renderer.
  
• The starting screen now will detect if WebGL isn't support and/or has crashed on your browser, and report an error to that effect.
  
• Starting screen errors are more clearly noted.
  

There is a known issue with the "More of the same?" options on the 'taur girl sticking in place when you select one. I'm looking into that and will have it fixed soon. Think I'm getting too tired to get it done today.


After fixing that and the issue where items aren't properly instanced (will take a bit, it's a deep rooted engine issue), I'll be working on the 2nd alpha release that'll have some of those new features I've mentioned earlier.


December was light on content, but that should pick up. Lots was slow due to holidays, and I'm still looking for at least one new writer since none have met that 10k words of content per month benchmark lately.

 

[GeekingOut]

If you've been registered on playlewd.com for a really long time, like since 6+ months ago, you'll be getting a key automatically fairly soon (next month or February).


Haven't decided how all multiplayer stuff will work. I don't want people to really miss out on content if they play solo.


But no, there won't be pvp, I don't think. At least not in the traditional sense.


There will be some way to party, or at least a way to see friends.

PvP should clearly be wiggling genitals at each other ;P

 

[Mightykitten]

PvP should clearly be wiggling genitals at each other ;P

Please hell no, it should be normal combat - you lose or you win then you have sex or not ( or you could kill them and be marked as the evil type) 


But having options like this would be cool but it means more coding for taco.

 

[GeekingOut]

Please hell no, it should be normal combat - you lose or you win then you have sex or not ( or you could kill them and be marked as the evil type) 


But having options like this would be cool but it means more coding for taco.

Hehehehe


You're right, of course.  Also should probably be either (a) a PVP area that's clearly marked (Re: Runescape) or (b) consented to by both players in the fight.

 

[Mightykitten]

Hehehehe


You're right, of course.  Also should probably be either (a) a PVP area that's clearly marked (Re: Runescape) or (b) consented to by both players in the fight.

Yeah an area and i was hoping there was a party system where you could go and take down bosses or do dungeons 

 

[Dr.Grimm]

how long does it take for the patronage to go through and for the key to be distributed? just curious cause finally able to play this fame

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

I don't know how patreon exactly works, but seems when you get charged you get access to your rewards, was to avoid people getting stuff and then withdraw in order to not get charged, to get freebies basically.

 

[Sadtaco]

how long does it take for the patronage to go through and for the key to be distributed? just curious cause finally able to play this fame

Patron is pretty crappy and only bills at the start of the month so you have to wait for that to happen. Then you'll get a key that you can find on your LEWD account page.

Please hell no, it should be normal combat - you lose or you win then you have sex or not ( or you could kill them and be marked as the evil type) 


But having options like this would be cool but it means more coding for taco.

I don't really like the "win = rape someone; lose = get raped" thing. I've so far mostly avoided having that stuff in the content.


As far as PVP, most of what I've had for ideas is just sort of tagging along with someone, and getting them in terrible situations since you know about something they don't. Like I remember that with sharing CoC with friends, tricking them into doing things to/with their character that they'd think are terrible.


Part of the new engine I made was to support content that can involve multiple players. As in, the scenario that come up can be shared for multiple players. They can change from others responses for other people as they go step by step, and/or require one persons' response before it continues, and you can see the other players' character description in them. In the case of people playing solo, it can use their companion(s) automatically in there.
Companions are a much bigger ordeal in here if we get to the point of including them. They're not something you just bring up to repeat some scenes with.


Like I said, I don't think there will be traditional PvP. It depends on demand and having a good suggestion that actually works with the story and such. But this isn't really like HellMOO.

 

[Mightykitten]

Patron is pretty crappy and only bills at the start of the month so you have to wait for that to happen. Then you'll get a key that you can find on your LEWD account page.


I don't really like the "win = rape someone; lose = get raped" thing. I've so far mostly avoided having that stuff in the content.


As far as PVP, most of what I've had for ideas is just sort of tagging along with someone, and getting them in terrible situations since you know about something they don't. Like I remember that with sharing CoC with friends, tricking them into doing things to/with their character that they'd think are terrible.


Part of the new engine I made was to support content that can involve multiple players. As in, the scenario that come up can be shared for multiple players. They can change from others responses for other people as they go step by step, and/or require one persons' response before it continues, and you can see the other players' character description in them. In the case of people playing solo, it can use their companion(s) automatically in there.
Companions are a much bigger ordeal in here if we get to the point of including them. They're not something you just bring up to repeat some scenes with.


Like I said, I don't think there will be traditional PvP. It depends on demand and having a good suggestion that actually works with the story and such. But this isn't really like HellMOO.

I'm not really a fan of the rape thing either, but will there be bad ending or a boss raping you when you lose? 

 

[Dr.Grimm]

so there any other ways to get a key for this? since patreon decided to decline my payment info (which sucks) cant go about it that way

 

[Sadtaco]

so there any other ways to get a key for this? since patreon decided to decline my payment info (which sucks) cant go about it that way

Unless someone with one gives theirs out, no, you just have to wait.

 

[Dr.Grimm]

Well damn, the waiting game it is then

 

[Saerea]

This looks and sounds interesting, but as someone who never played the original demo (Or so people speak of), I have no way of telling what the game plays like, nor do I know whether or not I'd like it enough to pledge money towards it.


... Is this a deliberate business plan? I personally backed things like TiTS & AD3 etc. because there were previous games / demos / etc. that caught my attention and interest, and thus I was confident in my pledges towards those products.. But I'm uncertain of how I'm supposed to be able to tell whether or not this game is my cup of tea.


Not going to ask for a key, I'm simply curious as to how this works out as a business plan, as people like me who haven't played the previous public demo aren't going to know what to expect from this beyond what is written on the Patreon page and this thread.


On a sidenote; What /does/ this game play like? Is it like TiTS, or is it completely different?

 

[Sadtaco]

There was no "original demo". It was a prototype. It's not very representative of where things are now and would cost an extra waste of money to have it running when people could be patient instead. Or you can just read the site and see if it sounds like something interesting to support or not.


TiTS was funded with no playable thing.  Then it was like 10 or 11 months until there was a playable older version of it. I've been working on this like 4 or 5 months, not counting the engine stuff. Comparing to well funded things that got to have their development focused on longer ago and saying they're already released is not a good comparison.


Yes there is a business plan, because to make something high quality and polished, it has costs. I'm not ever interesting in making something unless it's really good. I don't half ass things.


It is a pretty similar sort of game to CoC. Or rather, it's like a MUD/MUSH but more polished and easier to get into and you can make it single player.

 

[Sadtaco]

I really need feedback to see what sort of rewards people would like for their contribution, and any stretch-goal sort of ideas they may have.


I'd appreciate if you can respond in this thread: http://forum.playlewd.com/index.php?p=/discussion/146/need-input-for-stretch-goals-rewards
That way it's all organized for me, but responding here is fine too.

 

[Sadtaco]

Alpha 1.3 release candidate


I updated the test server with some fixes.


I'll be updating the main server in a few days - assuming these fixes don't create new problems (please report problems) - along with giving a key each emailed to a few thousand of the oldest registered accounts.


Engine:

• Fixed an engine issue that lead to it being unresponsive when selection any option in response to "More of the same?" from the female 'taur.
  
• Added the missing instance id to an object's properties
  
• Fixed an engine issue that wasted a lot of data and caused the bug where your clothing would seem to get unequipped, and you would see issues like "removes your bare breasts" in the writing.
  
• This would also cause problems with things not being equipped the same when you leave the game and come on again. That'll probably be an issue that still persists between server restarts until a further update, however.
  
• -Fixed an issue where scenarios were being bound to a tile multiple times, and explorable only scenarios were getting bound to scenarios on initialization of the server that shouldn't be.  Fixes roll chances too high, and explorable only scenarios coming up without hitting "Explore".
  

Tools:

• Fixed the tool showing multiples of a scenario when a tile was clicked if it was an explorable scenario.
  
•  
  

Patron Bot:

• Fixed an issue with capitals in emails which was effecting 8 Patrons.
  

There is a known issue with player data not saving on scenarios between sessions, and even between instances of them. But there is very little content that this effects, and I'm going to be focusing on some other things before fixing that.

 

[Sadtaco]

Alpha 1.3 update, and new keys given out

I’ve given a key to all accounts that were registered before August 1st, 2015. 4449 in total. If you have a key, it can be found on your account page.
Each key is a 2 use one, so those that get one can also share it with someone else to grant them early access to the main server as well.

I’ll be sending an email out to all those that got one as well later today or tomorrow to confirm for those that got one. But you can just check your account now if you think you registered before then and it’ll be there if you had.

Also I fixed an issue where the main server would be missing resources the client needs to fetch whenever the test server is down, and did some various other things that just make deploying updates branched off from the test server easier and more painless for me.

 

[Sadtaco]

Oh, and I just took a look and we're nearly at 200,000 words of content which is actually further along than I thought we were.


I'm looking to spend most of February working on increasing most of the content now that nearly all the bugs are fixed (just three fairly small ones remain that I'm aware of). I'll be getting back to writing myself, and working with the other writers to get more written and polished up.

 

[htom350]

Anyone have a spare key?  If so I'd really appreciate it!

 

[Gizmo1206]

so is the game down? i turned off the firewall to try playing and it didnt work

 

[Dr.Grimm]

so is the game down? i turned off the firewall to try playing and it didnt work

EDIT: Nevermind, saw the update message

 

[Sadtaco]

The main server should be fine right now.


The test server could be wonky now and then. I'm changing the way you travel between planets and such right now.

 

[Sadtaco]

Oh, there is a problem where it loaded with some things that shouldn't be there. Taking it down for a few minutes to resolve that.

 

[Draconic]

I hate to beg, but can anyone share a key?

 

[Sadtaco]

I've been just mostly thinking, working on some new content, and getting the new writers situated. So this is just a few minor things I got added or fixed up. And like usual I don't put the added content in these notes since you can see that on the Dev Tracker for the most part.

• Added some extras to the writing parser to further make changes to content based on past choices easier.
  
• Fixed a bug with saving certain client data that messed up how things were displayed between sessions.
  
• Removed something about how scenario content is displayed so some odd edge cases wouldn't happen when it comes to different ways to deliver content. It now no longer removes repeated selections, and instead has the whole entire history for the duration of that scenario.
  
• Scenario content now starts from the bottom up, instead of at the top, so the new content is consistently at the bottom.
  
• When reloading from a save, you now start at the last area you were playing at.
  

 

[Sadtaco]

I want to reiterate that we're always looking for feedback on the game, and that you can post that on the forum. In developing a game, you sometimes see things a certain way and things seem to play fine, but you need that perspective of how it is for people that are fresh to it and how that might not be the best. We especially need feedback from those that are supporting the game monetarily and helping progress it that way, and what they expect, what could be better.
It's just an alpha, yeah, but you shouldn't just assume that things will magically get better and that we've thought all that you've thought, especially when there are things that you don't see written in the "game info" or otherwise haven't seen mentioned. So don't be shy on giving your feedback on issues you ran into, or things that you think that could improve the game which fall in line with the sort of game it is.


There's quite a lot of people that are pledging to the Patreon then canceling before a payment. I'm not sure if these are just people trying to abuse and cheat Patron's dumb system, if they had problems getting things to work, or if there is something they expected when pledging that they didn't actually get so changed their mind. For the last two, well feedback would be helpful that we haven't gotten a lot of yet.


Anyway, I think this fixes all the problems with Alpha 1. I'm going to start on Alpha 2 that should be out in March or April, which will add a number of neat new features. Alpha 2 will also fix one of the two last remaining engine issues that are in the way of a beta release and making the game freely available to non-supporters more widely, the saving and carrying persistence between player instanced game objects seemlessly, which is the cause of some "bugs" at the moment. (The other issue is caching to help lower bandwidth costs and further speed things up)
 When Alpha 2 is released, I'll also be updating the main server with the test server content that's polished enough for that, which should be around a 30-50% increase in the amount of written content that's currently there. I'll also be giving out at least another 10,000 keys along side the Alpha 2 release, spread between the older registered users and large keys I'll post publicly again.


Site:

• Fixed an issue where things on the account page didn't update in a proper order, so it'd still say you don't have main-server access after redeeming a key.
  
• Added a "logout" button to log out from your account.
  

Game:

• Added more detail for female sex that was missing.
   
  
• Fixed some more PARSE_ERRORs, including one that wasn't finished for plural body parts (thighs, arms, etc). Still need to add some things for how it generates descriptions for asymmetrical pairs.
  
• Fixed some more content issues that had things displaying that shouldn't have been under certain conditions.
  
• Fixed some new crash issues that came up due to some previous updates.
  

There's been more content added to the test server as well, but you can see the dev tracker for that. Some point soon, I do want to start doing like "content" recaps to better go over them, but things can be pretty hectic with my programming side of things right now.

 

[samurei12]

anyone have a spare key i could use?

 

[Matrix]

anyone have a spare key i could use?

Me too

 

[Farlun]

Me too

Same here, I'd love to try this game out but I can't afford being a backer right now.

 

[Sadtaco]

I'll be giving out a bunch more keys with the Alpha2 release. At least 10,000 more, mostly to the older register accounts like last time but some public ones as well.


Test server update



So far, still updates to get some enhancements to the engine all working smoothly, and to have the capabilities there for new upcoming features. Also got some more bugs fixed.

• Introduced a preliminary to restore player instances of game data. This should make some content work that wasn’t before, like the Macsen sex scenes that required tracking a “fondness” he had for each player. It also gets items restoring to their previous equip/unequipped state, and makes a lot of new content we’re working on possible. It’s just preliminary since it’s just a short persistence, and there are a lot of things I need to do over the next few weeks to get it fully capable and efficient.
  
• Fixed some more issues with parsing. “Eyes” would sometimes say they are bare.
  
• Fixed an issue where the camera would move inaccurately in some cases, particularly when teleporting a great distance.
  
• Made some small client changes to improve its efficiency slightly.
  
• Lowered the rate of libido gain (did this one a while ago and forgot to note it).
  
• Libido is now mostly working and updating correctly.
  
• Fixed an issue where some game objects would not get listened for changes on them. Only affects some new content being added, and nothing that was previously there.
  

I did notice some more issues with the parsing of what clothing is covering correctly. Some things seems to be showing bare and I’m not sure if it was doing that before this update or not.
I also think there’s some issues with parts of the player and/or their clothing being “cum covered”, “egg-filled”, and things like that, and how they’re handled by the content, especially with multiple things like that. I have a more robust ailments/conditions system which I might want to have implemented for the Alpha 2 release.
And there is some odd issue with underwear that makes them unequipable now that I need to look into. But besides that it seems like I’ve gotten most most of the new issues that have come up from this recoding resolved.