The Reading Release - Version 0.26

Hello everyone, it's finally time for the release of version 0.26.

For this release, I've focused primarily on content. There's a lot of new written content in this release, over 37,000 words from myself, plus more from Besty. While we do have a novella of new words to read, most of them are spread out in different places. The two prologues have been completed, and there's a lot of new job content in addition to some other smaller items. Overall I'm quite happy with this release, and I hope you are too!

The highlight of this release is likely the completion of the male and female prologues, but there are also two new jobs (the Fecundate Division & stripper job at Pole Riders). The Janitor job at the Institute Services Division got a huge expansion of new events and the Progenerate Technologies Fecundate Division job also got a starting chunk of events related to being a proper baby gestation employee. The strip club downtown has some new things to see, pregnancy now has some associated events such as morning sickness and food cravings, the nutrition system has been expanded so you can now lose or gain weight, the No Ragerts tattoo parlor has been added with tools to create your own custom tattoo, there are new unique story threads for unique NPCs, and there are several new items available for your home including a home brewing station.

There has also been the usual assortment of minor improvements and fixes, such as a new "restless sleep" scene if you try to go to bed too early, new NPCs including Toby and some Farm Coop employees/hucows, fixes to the pronoun issues in the PC sex acts text, and plenty more.

I'm quite pleased that writing and adding content into the game is proving as easy as I hoped. It makes me glad that the decision to focus on making it easy to add content is paying off. If I had to deal with some of the other setups I've seen, there's no way I could have written so much in a single month. 

With all that said, we really hope you enjoy the release!

ThaumX

Change Log

Words:  1,951,812     Characters:  11,520,510     Code Lines:  183,181

Known Issues:

• The male start prologue skip has not been updated to include the final details of your relationship with Lily, so you will not see any changes to your relationship if you skip the prologue.
• Old saves can sometimes be unreliable. This doesn't always occur, but there seems to a fault in backward compatibility that occasionally causes issues. If you are experiencing bugs or strange behavior, it may be best to start with a new game. This is more likely for older game versions.
• Not all conversation tags have writing/placeholder writing so you may see the message that "this x conversation tag hasn't been written yet". This is more likely to occur when there is little interesting to talk about (because it is more likely to pull more obscure tags).

Changes:

• Male Start Prologue has been completed.
• Your choices and relationship with Lily in the prologue can result in six different outcomes. Each outcome has two options for the player, resulting in a total of 12 possible player reactions. [6,500 words]
• Your relationship with Lily will be properly set after completing the prologue.
• A minor cheat has been added that allows the player to choose the ending they want to get manually.
• Update to wardrobe tutorial to make it relevant to current wardrobe system.
• Updated the description of non-institute jobs.
• Female Start Prologue has been completed.
• There is a new Science Aptitude Challenge test in the Institute Job Fair to unlock the SPERM career.
• The empty displays/booths in the job fair have been filled with content about Appletree and the Thornton Institute. [2,500 words]
• The final scenes of the female prologue have been written. [6,500 words]
• Toby has been defined as a proper NPC and can be interacted with after the prologue.
• Organ Donor Ad created "Give the gift of research!"
• Lily and Toby starting relationship values adjusted based on male/female start.
• Player menstrual cycle starting time tweaked to better match timeline
• Also allows quicker integration with Progenerate job.
• Restrictions on starting jobs have been lifted, it's now possible to start the game with any available job rather than being restricted to institute jobs.
• Custom Story threads have been added.
• Unique NPCs (such as Lily) can have custom story threads that let them talk about their own unique past instead of being randomly selected. [besty]
• Lily and Toby each have a full set of story threads that discuss their past. Their story will vary subtly depending on whether it was male or female start.
• Institute Services career (janitor) has been expanded with a lot of new content!
• several new events, including event-chains and repeatable events, can happen while working in this career. [11,500 words]
• Players will meet Marta, a coworker in zone D, and can become friends with her outside of work. 
• Marta is a unique NPC that has been defined.
• New "job content" items for everyday things that happen at work.
• New "Restless Sleep" scene.
• Prevents game errors caused by going to sleep too early.
• Allows players to safely forward the in-game time to a time appropriate for sleeping while gaining a limited amount of extra rest benefit.
• Includes a fun video of a restless sleeper.
• Improved skill check system
• temporary skill bonuses are now calculated automatically in the skills class.
• derived skills are now standardized and implemented for skill checks.
• Skills like performance, stripping, management, etc. that depend on a combination of standard skills.
• Succeeding in these checks can result in skill point gain for one of their parent skills.
• Skills are capped to 80 points when assigning skills during character creation. 
• Character creation skill assignment will now properly apply a penalty to purchasing sex skills if the character is shamefast.
• The cleaning and aesthetics skills can now receive a limited price bonus for certain characters.
• Added some new pregnancy events that occur during pregnancy.
• Morning sickness event during the correct portion of pregnancy that responds to your current map location so you can puke in the correct place.
• Food craving event with multiple food variations.
• Pregnancy arousal event.
• Baby's first kick event that plays the first time you detect a pregnancy kicking. There are some minor variations and a unique version for your very first pregnancy.
• The Hyper Menstrual Cycle mutation now properly affects sperm survival.
• The Fertility Seal tattoo ovulation tracker now properly displays days until ovulation
• Fetal age/growth information made more clear
• Added the Progenerate Technologies Fecundate Division job.
• Job includes 6 new primary events. [7,000 words]
• Birth control discovered event
• Insemination event
• induction event
• fertility boost event
• hip-widening event
• Giving birth to children while employed at Progenerate will give a larger birth bonus, however you will not receive weekly income from these children (you were only a surrogate).
• Several unique job content items for everyday activities in the Fecundate Division, complete with images.
• Unique hiring process also factors player fertility into initial job position.
• Added some job content images to replace the "placeholder" that was in use for other institute jobs.
• Added new links to the job selection menu in screen-reader mode to make them easier to use.
• Updated the on/off toggle switches used in the game to a screen-reader friendly version in screen-reader mode.
• Improvements the the Womb class to ensure proper womb status information.
• Improvement to the menstrual cycle and ovulation timing code.
• Added aftOvulation flag for ease of tracking pre/post ovulation.
• Some tweaks and improvements to the parser.
• Generic cock size parser command will no longer poll cock girth when selecting a size verb. This will temporarily prevent the "changing size" issue with characters that have cock length that isn't matched by cock girth. (extra girthy or unusually narrow) 
• Breast size verbs slightly tweaked, and mistake in breast noun parser fixed so that it will no longer return "mosquito bites" for normal-sized breasts.
• Several grammar/typo fixes throughout the prologues.
• Updated the character description to no longer give two breast sizes while lactating and cup size isn't different.
• Loading a game with an interact window open will no longer let the window remain open.
• Escape Hatch will now remove the sex-scene loading cover and other menu items that previously could remain stuck on the screen.
• Added code to prevent children from entering sex scenes if NPC settings are adjusted to generate children.
• Updated hospital sweats for the female start.
• Fixed the navigation issue that could happen when having sex after a date in some locations.
• Fixed the character viewer in the social menu.
• Fixed the shitty pronouns used in the PC sex action text.
• Updated the navigation system to properly track time when moving between tertiary club locations and an outside location.

Besty's Changes In His Own Words:

• "NoRagerts" Tattoo parlor was added, tattoo services were transferred from "Penetrated" parlor.
• Custom tattoo creation implemented, single tattoo mods can be created, downloaded as a standalone mod and uploaded in the tattoo parlor.
• NPC options working properly now, design was fixed for easier use.
• Nutrition\exercise system and weight gain\loose implemented.
• Home scales for checking weight and BMI.
• 7 New NPC in Farm Coop area with unique storythreads.
• Unique story threads system for NPCs. Now semi-defined and defined NPC will have their own stories, not just from the generic list. 
• Story threads viewer in NPC info screen.
• New striptease club in the club district.
• Stripper work basic setup.
• Map for lake Clitea resort can be ogled from the world map.
• BB&B home items shop.
• New furniture items in BB&B shop and Bullseye electronic.
• Brewing machines and the moonshine. Available in Bullseye.
• Accessibility switch in settings.
• Alternate home inventory menu for players with screen reader software.