Rising Star 2 News

https://youtu.be/nJXllRvSgnk

This update includes several nice quality-of-life enhancements, a couple of new minor features, and some bug fixes.

The full change list:
• Added MP3 support for external soundtrack songs.
• Added ability to link game songs to external sound files. When including songs with external sound links in a gig set list, one of them is chosen at random to play during the gig.
• Added gig set list recent history saving, and ability to choose from recent set lists.
• Allow forcing a guitar, bass, or drums to be used for performing, regardless of the Stage Presence bonus.
• Pressing X in most locations will now immediately exit you back to the van from any screen. Not available in gigs, while recording, and at photo studios (due to confirmation).
• Fixed bug in banner/CD designer that wouldn't let you re-save an existing design after recalling and making changes.
• Fixed issue where the radio announcer's voice was still heard while busking.
• Fixed glitch where clicking the same song sorting header multiple times could result in different secondary sorting.
• Fixed glitch that would make banners appear as plain black during some gigs.
• Adjusted calculations that reduce audience attendance by recent audience attendance counts, so that more people show up for gigs, despite playing in front of a lot of people in the same city recently. Avoid 0 attendance gigs.
• Added logging to troubleshoot false van rollover detection when starting city travel from within home.
• Make sure gig attendance from band with relationships counts toward the total audience.
• Various other small bug fixes.

In addition, the update includes many small bug fixes and quality-of-life enhancements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vGcSu9mJqs

- Balance tweaks:
- Fixed label-based CD sales, which was using the wrong calculation to determine sales.
- Gig-based CD and T-Shirt sales. Less CD sales, more T-Shirt sales.
- Gig flat-rate gig pay in theaters and arenas (more appropriate for your popularity).
- Song popularity gain during gigs (lowered). Song popularity now primarily comes from distributed CD's.
- Recording costs and requirements for contracts, including a required producer for initial major contracts.
- Larger recording contracts now have longer deadlines.
- Smaller record labels have even easier requirements to get a contract, larger labels have even harder requirements.
- Song idea values, making it harder to get really good ideas.
- No longer reduce band popularity when a member leaves the band.
- Doubled the amount of happiness & inspiration gained from trashing hotels.
- Inspiration and happiness gain from gigs - less is gained when playing several shows in a row without days off.
- Added busking feature, and a few instruments specifically used for busking. Busking can be done in mowed parks.
- Added naming of tours.
- Added upcoming gigs list, accessible from the personal calendar. List includes the tour name that each gig is part of, if part of a tour.
- Added ability to rename a song.
- Up to 10 song ideas can now be banked so they aren't forgotten after 14 days.
- No longer increase song quality during practice. The final quality is what it was at writing time.
- Songs can now be re-recorded at higher quality levels than previous recordings.
- Option to disable musician compatibilities changing over time. This is a temporary fix until a new feature is introduced.
- Added confirmation dialog to do things that would pass time and cause you to miss a gig.
- Fixed bug that could result in negative t-shirt sales.
- Fixed bug that prevented other bands from watching your gigs to support your band.
- Fixed bug with overlapping art appearing on the art screen when choosing what to hang in your home.
- Fixed bug preventing banners from appearing in theater and arena gigs.
- Fixed bug where the theater or arena calendar button would be stuck on when chauffering away from them.
- Fixed bug where adjusting venue reputation was adjusting the city reputation by the incorrect amount.
- Improved error-handling when trying to load bad external soundtrack file.
- Non-musician NPC's will no longer wear spandex pants.
- Male NPC's will no longer wear the high-heel boots.
- Added "Bought for: $X" text to equipment details, to show how much was paid for equipment.
- Slight improvements to equipment repair UI.

The custom soundtrack feature supports WAV and OGG files only.
Create a folder somewhere on your computer, then copy all the songs you want in the soundtrack into that folder. Subfolders are also supported.

Then in the game settings, choose that folder, and those songs will become part of the soundtrack while driving around.

https://youtu.be/G4lGUBWbcME

Finally, now people can directly see where the Business skill is making a difference. Look for the handshake icon on various screens.

A little balancing for the buy low/repair/sell high strategy, so that you can't profit quite as much on each item.

And finally a few minor bug fixes and QOL enhancements, some too small to list here.

Here is the full list of changes:

• CD cover designer added. Improved banner designer.
  
• Show benefits of business skill on various screens.
  
• Increased effectiveness of business skill when booking gigs directly in a venue.
  
• Used equipment prices will bottom out at 20% of it's full value, regardless of being less than 20% condition.
  
• Added hint to number dialog.
  
• Fixed bug where the small minimap would get stuck as 3x3 blocks after visiting a city with only 3x3 blocks.
  
• Refresh discography list when returning to mode just in case a gig sell price changed.
  
• Fixed label overlap issue on T-shirt sales box in merch screen if the numbers were too large.
  

By popular demand, you'll now be able to use those band photos for more than just decorating your home. The banner designer has been enhanced, and a CD cover designer has been added. Coming real soon!

https://youtu.be/fW7WllyrKmc