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[Neolithic]To the End News

DD#77 Another Page in a Dying World.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another week's developer's diary.
The game turned 18 years old this week.
However, we don't have much time to celebrate as many sad events took place this week.

On July 5th, we lost Yui. It's always sad to put someone to this game's "in memory of" section in the credit file. But, it happens. Yui is the first discord bot on NEOLITHIC's discord server. She also once lived on many of my friends' servers. However, in the past 5 years, Yui has become a huge project that her developer finds it hard to spend time to keep maintaining. What makes things worse is Discord's policy to enforce slash command. Thus, the creator of Yui shut the project down on July 5th, 2022. As a game developer who worked on my own project in the last 18 years, I fully understand how much efforts need to be put into a personal project. I respect their decision and appreciate all the joys I had with Yui.
Hopefully, some miracles may happen in the future to bring her back. There is still hope as Yui is a digitalized life form, more robust than fragile humans.
But, for now, rest in peace.

In order to remember her, I've added an NPC named Yui in our game as well. You can find her near Queensmouth Church. I reimplemented some of Yui's functions such as providing random kitten and puppy images. But, that's just a memorial. I don't think I can fully reimplement all her functions. At least, not right now.
Maybe, only those with her in her last moment know what this means:

Thank you for all the free hugs, cookies, kittens, puppies, inspirations, and kisses.

On July 6th, the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh, Kazuki Takahashi was found dead wearing snorkeling gear in Okinawa, Japan. I'm not a serious Yu-Gi-Oh gamer and I only watched a few seasons of the anime. But, I do remember spending a lot of time playing online with my vampire decks against players from all over the world. I also remember once I sent too much money to Konami and got my credit card frozen by my bank. I had all those fun thanks to Kazuki Takahashi. But, now he is gone.
I added the scroll of reborn to our game with a similar design to Yu-Gi-Oh's "Monster Reborn" card.
However, it's a pity that we do not live in a game world and there is no card that can bring him back.

There is more sad news this week. Japanese former prime minister Shinzo Abe just got assassinated a few hours ago; British prime minister Boris Johnson was forced to resign yesterday; Famous Minecraft Youtuber Technoblade passed away after years of struggle against cancer. Some people in China may dislike Abe, some people in the UK may dislike Johnson, some...well...I don't know any people who dislike Technoblade so far. But, anyway, being an indie game developer, I can care less about what others say, and as a human being, I feel the sorrow of their departure. With limited resources, I can't add them all into the game. But, at least, I shall mention them here. When people who once lived in this area are gone, it always brings me a feeling of the world is ending. Maybe, indeed, to live is to have a mortal wound that step by step we will reach the inevitable.

Now, enough for the sad part of the story. We shall move on.
The story continues both in Queensmouth Church and the Unlucky-13 Motel.
Treason has been revealed even among the rank of a secret society while demons now drop sulfur.

Some live quality improvements have been made with the item selection UI with some items receiving an update to make them more flexible.
New items to better control enemy aggro.
New character appearance to make the world more diverse.
New skill book mechanism to make reading smoother.
We live on, carrying those memories so that they will not be forgotten.

That's for this week. Maybe one day, everything, everyone dies. But, before that, let's live and have fun.


Today's changelog:
##########Content#################
The game will no longer quit the item selection menu after you use a book. Including life skill books from the book store, skill books dropped from enemies, and weapon proficiency books. (Thanks to 7.Ti's suggestion.)
This change only applies to new books generated after this version as there are some code changes in item generation.
Books already generated before this version can still be used. But, they will quit the item selection menu after being used.
If a character fails to learn anything new from a life skill book or a weapon proficiency book, the book will no longer be consumed.
##########System#################
If there is no more in-use item left, the system will now prompt and automatically exit the target selection window.
Items can now run a sub-event interpolator without needing to go back to the map. (Some limitations apply.)

Update, Version 20220707


English
##########Content#################
Added a new variation of the Possessed near the Unlucky-13 Motel.
The Life Essence can now be used on targets that are still alive. (No revive effects as the target is not dead. But, the healing effect works.)
Life Essence can now be correctly used on enemies if you wish to do so.
Reduced the basic MP cost of the skill "I am your shield" from 120 to 70 so that tank characters are more useful.
New item: Scroll of Reborn. (It's sold in the Bazaar. Fully restore one character, no matter dead or alive. Can only use once per battle. No limitation out of battle.)
It's somewhat related to the death of Kazuki Takahashi, the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh, on July 6th, 2022. Unfortunately, no card can bring him back.
##########System##################
It's now possible to make certain items that can only be used once per battle.
An item with such attribution shall display this information in its detailed description.
Some items can now be used on both the living, dead, and undead.
##########Debug##################
Fixed a bug that when some items are used from the menu, their numbers are not updated correctly on the UI.
Fixed a bug that the mouse cannot select a dead teammate in the battle.
简体中文
##########Content#################
厄运13旅馆附近增加了一种新的被附体之人。
生命精髓现在可以对还未阵亡的角色使用。(因为目标没有阵亡,所以不会有复活效果。但是治疗效果会被应用到目标上。)
生命精髓现在可以正确地作用在敌方角色身上,如果你想要这么做的话。
降低了技能『吾为君之盾』的基本气力消耗,从120降低到了70。从而让坦克类的角色更加有用。
新物品:死者苏生卷轴。(在巴扎有售。完全恢复一个角色的生命值,无论生死。每次战斗中仅能使用一次。战斗之外没有限制。)
与游戏王作者高桥和希在2022年7月6日的死亡多少有点关系,不过再多的游戏卡片也已经无法把他复活了。
##########System##################
对战斗中限定只可使用一次的物品提供代码上的支持。
有这类属性的物品将会在其详细物品介绍窗口中显示该属性。
部分物品现在可以同时作用于活的、死的、不死的目标。
##########Debug##################
修复了一个造成物品在从菜单中使用后,队伍中拥有的数值未正确在界面上反应的Bug。
修复了鼠标无法在战斗中选择阵亡的队友的Bug。

Update, Version 20220706


English
#############Yui##################
On July 6th, 2022, around 4:50 am in GMT+8, Yui is gone.
In the game's credit file, I moved her name from the "special thanks" section to the "in memory of" section. Goodbye.
##########Content#################
A friendly ghost named "Yui" may now randomly appear near the Queensmouth Church.
She can do something similar to the Yui we just lost, such as providing random images of kittens and puppies. (Some functions are based on 3rd party Web APIs for 2 reasons: 1, to avoid the game folders becoming super huge. 2, to avoid any copyright issues of those images.)
Some of her dialogs are not localized from English to other languages. That is intended.
Added one new playable male character variation.
简体中文
#############Yui##################
在2022年7月6日凌晨4点50分左右(GMT+8), Yui离开了我们。
我把她从游戏制作人员名单的"special thanks"中移动到了"in memory of"之中,再见了。
##########Content#################
在王后镇教堂附近加入了一个随机出现的友好的名叫Yui的幽灵。
她可以做一些和我们刚刚失去的Yui相似的事情,比如提供给我们随机的猫猫和狗狗的图片。(部分功能基于第三方的网络API。因为两个原因:1,防止游戏文件夹体积过大。2,避免使用这些图片导致的版权问题。)
她的部分对白没有从英语本地化到其它语言,这是故意的。
新增了一种新的可用的男性角色造型。

Update, Version 20220705


English
##########Content#################
Renamed Ammonium Nitrate to Nitrates for the following reasons:
1, It's much shorter in the English localization.
2, Both Ammonium Nitrate and Potassium Nitrate can be found in fertilizers. It's inaccurate. You do not always get Ammonium Nitrate.
3, It may be too dangerous to mention the exact components required to make bombs in real life. Anyway, it's not a good idea to buy some fertilizers and try to make bombs in real life unless you know what you are doing.
4, By making it a bit vague, we can have more recipes in the game that are technically correct. (Still, no details on how to make them will be provided unless it's as easy as making Molotov.)
In front and back of the Unlucky-13 Motel, the possessed now spawn more evenly.
New item drop list for the possessed. They may now drop weapons and sulfur in addition to generic drops.
Reduced the basic attack value of the possessed.
New crafting and alchemy material: Sulfur
When used for alchemy, sulfur can cause poison. (More details are on the Wiki: https://neolithia.fandom.com/wiki/Alchemy)
简体中文
##########Content#################
重命名了游戏中的硝酸铵为硝酸盐,原因如下:
1,英文本地化中的用语可以变短。
2,实际上从肥料中即可能获得硝酸钾,也可能获得硝酸铵。所以,只能从肥料中获得硝酸铵的游戏设定不够精确。
3,如果有人真的用了游戏中的精确配方去制造出了炸弹,会是很尴尬的事情。总之,我并不推荐在现实生活中直接买肥料制造炸药,除非你知道你在干什么。
4,在将原料的具体种类稍微模糊化之后,我们可能会有更多技术上正确的配方加入到游戏中。(当然,覆盖各种细节的精确配方不会被提供。除非制作过程像制造莫洛托夫鸡尾酒那样简单。)
在厄运13旅馆前方和后方的区域,被附体之人现在分布更加均匀。
被附体之人现在有了新的物品掉落列表,他们不仅会掉落一些通用的物品,现在还可能掉落武器和硫磺。
降低了被附体之人的基本攻击力。
新的物品制造和炼金原料:硫磺
当用于炼金时,硫磺可以造成中毒。(更多细节请查阅维基: https://neolithia.fandom.com/wiki/Alchemy)

Update, Version 20220704




English
##########Content#################
Butterfly wings can now be used in the Inner Chamber of Queensmouth Church.
[Sins of the Father]Story continues. (Variable changed from 520 to 555. And Eve gets a new cutscene.)
简体中文
##########Content#################
蝴蝶之翼现在可以在王后镇教堂内部房间使用。
【父辈的原罪】故事继续。(剧情变量从520到达了555.同时伊芙有了一个新的过场动画。)