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DD#53 Mod System Upgrade and a Book Store

Hi everyone, Welcome to another week's developer's diary.

The first major part of this week's updates is the mod system upgrade.
The mod system can now have a lot of additional data and code in a mod.
To demonstrate some capabilities that mods can achieve now,
here are some examples we can find in the Steam Workshop:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2720149227
1, a mod that can add new NPCs and stories.
The new Urban Legend mod in the workshop currently proves our mod system can add additional NPCs from a mod to any specific locations in the game. It can also add its own new locations and stories in the future. For now, it just adds a slime mini-boss in the People's hospital in Liu with about a 20% chance to spawn each time you get into that hospital.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2723496939
2, a mod that adds...a playable DIO?!
With customized character walking and combat sprites, animations, sounds, and some code, the mod can allow players to play as Dio in our game. It's kinda a display of how powerful our mod system can be. It feels awesome to see a mod like this in our workshop. So, maybe we can just say, this is the greatest high (最高に「ハイ!」ってやつだ!) during the mod system's development thanks to Una who made it. :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2720385037
3, and a mod about...Baguette?!
I know I added some weird Baguettes in the game last week.
But, it appears someone has not been satisfied with all the chaotic funs yet.
Thus, this mod overwrites the baguette weapon's item generation code to make them even more powerful, mathematically.
By the way, Dio and bread? Is that some kind of meme? :)

To summarize, we are likely going to see some interesting mods with a large range of diversity in the future.

The second major part of this week's update is the new book store in Liu.
It serves 2 main purposes for now:
1, It provides an alternative solution to train life skills by reading different books. For now, each existing life skill has a corresponding book that provides its respective EXP after reading.
Thus, there is no need to farm exp of life skills while keep getting failure results.

2, It provides some mini-story content. I try to write some short stories in the description of each type of those books to provide a bit of background about such a book can improve your skills. Maybe, you can even find some references from the game content, popular culture, and history.
For example, you may find the Book of a 996 Programmer is a direct reference to the infamous 996 working system in China, and the book can improve your programming skill.
Some other books may have references much darker and maybe "sensitive."
For example, I have to change the description of the Book of a Heartbroken Mother in the Simplified Chinese version a bit. It's the book for gardening skills in a bit more...symbolic way.


That shall cover most part of this week's update.
It's a quite busy week as I expected. Legal businesses are quite exhausting. After all, it's a hardcore PVP game on the court. On the good side, I won two games this week on Wednesday and Friday. So, at least, I didn't fail anyone.

Meanwhile, as the Steam Lunar sale is approaching, a 25% discount is planned. Thus, no need to buy this game right now if you can wait like one or two weeks. :)


Today's changelog:
#########Content##############
[Book Store]New book: Book of a Heartbroken Mother Vol. 1
[Book Store]New book: Book of a 3D Printing Store Owner Vol. 1
[Book Store]New book: Book of a Soldier From South Vol. 1
#########System###############
[Steam Workshop]Added an option to visit Valve's Steam Workshop Agreement page. Valve requires all mod developers must agree on this agreement before uploading any mods to the Steam Workshop. (However, the game does not require this. It can accept all mods from any source.)
[Steam Workshop]Mods can now have their own idle animation data. (Previously, they can only overwrite existing ones.)
[Steam Workshop]Added a function to search a specific file among all loaded mods.
[Achievement]Added two achievements in the Steam backend. (It will be an interesting experiment. In theory, mods of this game shall be powerful enough to even trigger achievements in this game if they want to do so.)


Update, Version 20220119

English
#########Content###############
[Book Store]The book store now sells books, papers, and magic pens.
[Book Store]New book: Book of a Forgotten Thief Vol. 1
[Book Store]New book: Book of a Forgotten Thief Vol. 2
[Book Store]New book: Book of a 996 Programmer Vol. 1
[Book Store]New book: Book of a Disappeared Lawyer Vol. 1
[Book Store]New book: Book of an Old Fisherman Vol. 1
[Book Store]New book: Book of Chinese Parents Vol. 1
[Book Store]The book store's inventory will randomly pick a few available books in the store to sell. May you find your book in this place.
#########System###############
Added an item template that can easily add life skill experience to the user of the item.
#########Debug###############
Fixed a typo in the Chinese localization of the document "The History of Veil" (Thanks to 89444640's bug report)
简体中文
#########Content###############
【书店】书店现在开始卖书、纸、以及魔术笔。
【书店】新书:被遗忘的小偷之书(第一卷)
【书店】新书:被遗忘的小偷之书(第二卷)
【书店】新书:996程序员之书(第一卷)
【书店】新书:失踪的律师之书(第一卷)
【书店】新书:老渔夫之书(第一卷)
【书店】新书:中国式家长之书 (第一卷)
【书店】书店的商店库存每次会随机选取可用的图书进行贩卖。愿你在这里找到你想要的书。
#########System###############
加入了一个可以方便地为物品使用者增加生活经验的物品模板。
#########Debug###############
修复了中文文本中帷幕的历史这篇文档中的一处错别字。(感谢 89444640的BUG报告)

Update, Version 20220118

English
#########Content###############
[Liu]New location: Book Store (Mostly just map and some Library of Runia reference.)
#########System###############
[File System]If a graphics file is missing. The game will now try to use an empty image to replace it. If the process is successful, a warning message will pop up instead of an error message that crashes the game. The goal of this change is to limit any potential damage if a player no longer uses a mod while the previous save file still relies on the Mod's graphics asset.
#########Debug###############
[Steam Workshop]Fixed the incorrect audio folder location in the ModToUpload folder.
[Liu]Fixed the inconsistent background music volume when entering into the restaurant.
简体中文
#########Content###############
【疁城】新区域:书店 (基本上目前只是地图,还有一些废墟图书馆的梗。)
#########System###############
【文件系统】当一个图像文件缺失时,游戏现在会自动尝试用一个空白图片替代。如果过程成功,那么只会有一个警告弹出,而不会是一个终结游戏运行的报错信息。这个改变的目的是为了控制当一个玩家不再使用某个MOD而此前的存档中依然依赖于这个MOD的图像资源时可能发生的危险。
#########Debug###############
【创意工坊】修复了音效文件夹在ModToUpload文件夹下的位置错误
【疁城】修复了进入餐馆时背景音乐音量突然降低的问题。

Update, Version 20220117


English
#########System###############
[Steam Workshop]Mods can now have pet data (untested)
[Steam Workshop]Mods can now have attack animation data (tested)
[Steam Workshop]Mods can now add hit and dead graphics data(tested)
[Steam Workshop]Mods can now have a small piece of code that runs right after initial the game's database. (Also known as the "overwrite class", currently runs when getting into the title screen or load a save, tested.)
[Animation System]Reorganized the searching order of attack animation. It now checks from the last one to the first one. (So that it shall match the mod system's overwrite order.)
简体中文
#########System###############
【创意工坊】MOD现在可以自带宠物数据(未测试)
【创意工坊】MOD现在可以自带攻击动画数据(已测试)
【创意工坊】MOD现在可以自带新的受伤和死亡图像数据(已测试)
【创意工坊】MOD现在可以有一段每次游戏装载数据库后自动触发的代码段。(又被称为"overwrite类",目前会在进入标题画面或读取存档时触发,已测试.)
【动画系统】修改了攻击动画的检索顺序,现在会从数据库内从后向前检测。(从而确保后载入的MOD会正确覆盖先载入的MOD的内容。)

Update, Version 20220116


English
#########Content###############
[Containment Breach]After you gain admin privilege of Ishida's computer, a new document "Investigation Report" will appear. (No need to finish everything in the inner lab.)
#########System###############
[Boombox]Added an option to directly change the game's volume in the Boombox.
[Steam Workshop]Removed the dependency of steam_appid.txt file, the game shall automatically figure out the game's app id if it's launched by Steam. (Also, save about 7kb file size.)
[Steam Workshop]The file is still there, in case anyone wants to use the Steam Workshop mods while launching the game without Steam for any weird reasons. (In case Steam dies in China and Hong Kong one day.)
[Steam Workshop]Mods can now overwrite or add audio assets. (Background Music, ambient sound, sound effects, music effects, and voice-over are all supported.)
#######DEBUG################
[FPS MODE]Fixed a bug that the hit area of an enlarged target was not calculated correctly.
########Other################
Una uploaded a cheat mod to the workshop to make baguettes to be VERY OVERPOWERED. It proves the mod system can overwrite item generation code without any problems so far.
简体中文
#########Content###############
【收容突破】当你获得石田的电脑上的系统管理员权限后,一份新的文档“调查报告”会出现。(不需要完成内部实验室的全部工作。)
#########System###############
【音乐盒】在音乐盒中加入了改变游戏整体音量的选项。
【创意工坊】消除了对于steam_appid.txt文件的依赖,游戏如果是从STEAM上打开运行的话,游戏将会自动获取APPID。(顺便节约了大约7KB的硬盘空间。)
【创意工坊】这个文件依然存在于游戏目录,用于在任何人需要使用创意工坊的Mod,但是不想从STEAM上运行游戏的诡异场合。(这是对于如果STEAM哪天在中国大陆与香港完全无法使用时的预防措施。)
【创意工坊】Mod现在可以覆盖现有音乐资源或加入新的音乐资源。(背景音乐,背景音效,普通音效,音乐特效,配音已经全部支持。)
#######DEBUG################
【第一人称射击模式】修复了一个造成被放大的敌人的射击判定区域计算错误的BUG。
########Other################
Una上传了一个作弊MOD到工坊,让法式长棍强得离谱。不过也证明了MOD系统在覆盖游戏的物品生成代码时目前没有任何问题。