ChangeLog for Malise and the Machine V0.02!

Hey everyone!

Malise and the Machine V0.02 will be released on July 1, 2015 via the Patreon campaign (http://patreon.com/eromancer).  The following are changes for this version update:

NEW FEATURES IN V0.02:

• Added 'Advanced Lust Sickness' status effect and related character portraits.
• Improved upon a lot of character portraits for 'Minor Lust Sickness' status effect.
• Added the 'Assist' battle pose and artwork for when a character attacks or uses a skill on her ally's H-attacker.
• Doubled the frames in Stigmata's animated sprite set.
• Added system for special effects which include enhanced shadows/lighting and additional cosmetic objects to the maps.
• Added capability to make above system toggle-able with the 'S' key while on the map.
• Developed a low cost processing method for adding certain animated tiles.
• There's no longer a need to choose targets for skills/items affecting all enemies/allies or that have no option of who you can target (like skills that can only target the user).
• Added the 'Hold Breaker' skill. This skill becomes available for use when the character's ally is under the effect of an enemy hold. The skill damages the HP of her ally's attacker by base attack damage, and damages the enemy's Grasp (pink bar) proportional to her ally's Lust. The skill is instant unlike the Struggle command, but has a high SP cost.
• Added the 'Strike' command (will be turned into a skill once the Tetra Interface is complete). This command is an alternative to Struggle. It instantly deals base HP attack damage to the user's H-attacker, as well as damage to the enemy's Grasp (pink bar) proportional to the user's Lust. The skill is instant unlike the Struggle command, but has a high SP cost.
• Added engine capability to display skill availability in real time for skills having custom availability conditions (pretty much any condition involving the H system). 
• Added engine capability to have new skill and item scopes (logic to determine who a skill or item affects).
• Added Upper and Lower Exposure states.  These occur when body exposure occurs through either Lust Sickness or by armor damage.  These states reduce character defenses and allow enemies to perform stronger H-attacks on afflicted characters.
• Added core components of the armor damage system.  Try taking a hit from a powerful offensive skill while afflicted with Advanced Lust Sickness and after having taken a lot of damage!
• Added the Grenade skill for Splicers.  This skill can break weakened armor.
• Added the Shred skill for Vorepups.  This skill can break weakened armor.
• Added a new H skill branch for Vorepups that includes the Engorge Lv1, Engorge Lv2, and Self Destruct skills.  Vorepups can only use this branch on characters afflicted with the Upper Body Exposure state. 
• Added additional battle tutorials for new features
• The player character will now run by default on the map.  Hold SHIFT to walk.
• Lust gauges now have markers to show thresholds for Minor and Advanced Lust Sickness.
• Most enemies will now drop consumable items.
• Added icons for Lust Sickness states.
• Added Options.ini file in the 'System' folder.  Currently only the volume options work.  They will take effect after the game restarts.
• Added "Load" to the in-game menu.
• Added additional input keys (PgUp for L, PgDn for R, Num0 for B).
• Warnings and intro splash screens will now only show when the game starts, not when returning to the main menu.
• The menu cursor will now animate smoothly between menu selections.

RESOLVED ISSUES FROM V0.01: 

• During the map scenes, character sprites will no longer update abnormally at the bottom of the screen.
• Weather effects are now only about half as resource intensive.
• Enemies should now always release characters from their grasp once their enemy hold gauge (pink bar in Struggle window) has been emptied.
• Improved algorithm for enemy H skill targeting.  Previously Restrain attacks would always target the character with the highest HP.
• You can no longer escape battle while a tutorial is active (this would cause the game to crash previously).
• Offensive skills will no longer bypass an enemy H-attacker's damage reduction bonus.
• Mashing left/right keys directly after successfully breaking free from an enemy by using Struggle will no longer result in skipping the next character's turn.
• Struggle is now paused when a tutorial is active.  You cannot reduce the enemy's hold gauge (pink bar) during this time anymore.
• Battle portraits will no longer block tutorial text.
• Knocked out characters will no longer be shown as having gained EXP at the end of battles.
• Improved FPS during most dialog cutscenes by reducing the cost of having character sprite events on screen.
• Fixed a bug that slowed down performance significantly after solving the switch puzzle in Old Town South.
• Fixed an audio related crash that would occur if you tried to Continue on the title screen and then canceled out to the title screen.
• Fixed an issue where if last actor in battle is killed while being held, then the game would crash the next time a battle starts after loading.
• Fixed an issue where skill animations that are meant for all actors only show sprite effects on the first actor.
• Player/camera can no longer inadvertently move during cutscenes in which movement is meant to be restricted.
• Low memory PCs should no longer receive a 'Failed to load bitmap' error on start-up.
• Characters will no longer lose their turn when tutorials pop up in battle.
• Characters will no longer lose their turn when finishing moves occur in battle.  They will however still lose remaining time during Struggle if the Struggle window is active.
• Fixed the problem that caused text artifacts to occur where line breaks exist in the 'Help' window.
• Fixed goofy behavior for selecting a target for a skill/item in the menu.  Previously it would initially select whichever character you last used a skill/item on, no matter how long ago you did it (such as last play session).
• Improved behavior for item and skill selection in battle.  The Skill and Item windows would previously remember what had been selected last (even in previous battles or play sessions). These windows will now default to the first selection.
• Improved behavior for selecting an enemy target in battle.  The target cursor will now default to the leftmost enemy on the field, and will no longer default to an enemy that is performing an H attack on a character.  
• Fixed a problem with the dynamic portrait terrain background system (this won't be noticeable to players yet, but it was critical for being able to display different environment backgrounds on the character portraits in battle).
• Fixed a typo in the item name for the 'Access Card' item
• All of the Vorepup enemy encounters during the sequence in Old Town South should now be Vorepups, and not Splicers.  Malise's portrait should no longer improperly appear in both character slots in the save menu.
• Fixed a problem where characters weren't getting revived after battle if the player escaped while one character was KO'd.
• The scrolling battle tutorial messages that begin displaying after the first battle will no longer stick to the side of the screen if you leave the map before they finish.
• Improved character mobility in Old Town Waypoint / Old Town South by removing directional restrictions on curb tiles.  The original purpose of this had to do with the old (pre V0.01) character sprites looking ridiculous as they walked along the curb.  This isn't the case with the new ones.
• Fixed the infamous bug that would cause a crash if you walked up to a specific laser gate before a certain switch was thrown in Old Town South.
• Fixed an issue whre tiny white dots were appearing on windowskins.
• Fixed an issue where character portraits on the map were not updating after battle.
• Greatly improved behavior of character map portraits during dialog scenes.  They will no longer swap in and out like crazy every time characters finish talking, and cannot be toggled on/off during these scenes.
• Fixed an issue where items could sometimes not be used properly after escaping a battle.
• The knockdown status icon will now properly be removed as soon as the status effect wears off.
• Fixed a fence in Old Town South that was displaying on top of the characters instead of behind.
• Changed the position of 'Note' item so that it is easier to see.
• Fixed an issue where skill animation effects were playing on top of some windows.
• Fixed status icon positions in the menu for Malise.
• Fixed a serious issue with the loot list in battle (wasn't obvious in V0.01 since it was hardly used).
• Greatly reduced the memory required by the animated enemy sprites, meaning future sprites can be bigger and have more frames than anticipated (RPG Maker has a pretty low memory limit, and will become unstable and can crash when you approach it).
• Fixed an issue where the tutorial manager event wasn't turning off when battle tutorials had all been shown.  Results in a slight FPS increase after tutorials are over.
• Improved performance of audio playback.
• Improved database performance.

BALANCE CHANGES FOR V0.02:

• Overall battle speed reduced by approximately 15-20%.
• Knockdown state duration reduced by 40%
• Enemies no longer have to charge turns (the blue ATB bar) in order to cast Restrain skills or H-Attacks after they are already holding an actor.  In other words, enemies will more quickly progress through the early skills in a H-skill chain.
• Significantly reduced the amount of Lust that H-Attacks and Finishers add.  
• Restrain skills now add less Lust when a character is afflicted with Minor Lust Sickness and even less when afflicted with Advanced Lust Sickness.
• Increased Neon's SP.  Distracting Shot is now significantly more viable due to this.
• Increased SP cost of Reconstruction
• Increased the required minimum travel distance for a random battle encounter to trigger.
• Increased Vorepup evasion (though, this is mitigated by the known issue affecting evading offensive skills other than Attack).

KNOWN ISSUES (V0.02): 

• Characters will lose their attempt at Struggling if interrupted by a finishing move animation performed on the other actor.
• The background gradient for the Struggle window may sometimes not appear.
• Objects that are supposed to be in the shade that are coming in from the left side of the screen will appear unshaded for a brief time. 
• The 'Guard+Damage' artwork is sometimes incorrectly displayed when an actor guards immediately after taking damage.
• The "Attack" portrait is sometimes incorrectly displayed instead of the "Assist" portrait when the Hold Breaker skill is used.
• Killing an enemy while it is restraining an actor will sometimes not play the death sound effect.
• Enemies occasionally will not act even when they have a turn.  They will proceed to act after the player characters have taken turns.  This may also occur when an enemy is readying an H attack (red gauge will remain full until actors have taken a turn).
• The left post of the left laser gate in Old Town South has some funky shadow issues when shadows are turned on.
• No offensive skill (besides normal attacks) can currently miss or be evaded (by either enemies or player characters).  
• Skill animations are playing on top of the Struggle window, obscuring it from view.
• If actor X uses Hold Breaker or Strike directly after actor Y manages to break the target's hold (or if it is broken for whatever reason), actor X will still use the action, thus losing SP.  Instead, it really should retain the SP and show the 'Skill Failed!' popup.
• "Escaping..." window will not close if keys for escape were being held when a battle proceeds to the victory or defeat screens.
• When changing maps the screen is faintly visible while the next map loads.
• Running out of a type of item while using that type of item in the menu will not close the actor selection window automatically.
• Scrolling tutorial messages will be cut short if you save and then load that game while they are being displayed.
• During battle the gradient behind the actor command window will sometimes not appear.