Monday 20 April 2015

Newlife 0.3.1

Hello everyone!

The 0.3.1 version of Newlife is finished and I've released it on Patreon. Early-access Patrons can find it in the creations section here. The changelog is below.

That also means that the 0.3.0 release has been made public. I'll be updating the links to the right of the blog as soon as I finish posting this. The 0.3.0 changelog is here.

As usual, saved files & templates from older versions probably won't work with newer ones. 


For new players - just use one of the links to the right to get either the jar or the exe version. You only need one or the other - not both. I recommend trying the jar first.

For either version you'll need to have Java installed. A lot of programs use Java so you might well already have it. If the jar shows up as an unrecognised file type, then you probably don't. In that case you can get it from http://www.java.com/
The exe should tell you if you don't have the right version on your computer, but you'll still need to install it to run the game.

0.3.1 Focuses on UI improvements, but there's also new content for you to (hopefully) enjoy.

You've probably noticed that this release took longer than usual. I think in the last month or so I've been over-ambitious when planning new versions. Back last year I had a simple plan for each release - one large change or two medium ones. 0.3.1 has five significant changes (the gym, advanced character creation, in-game help, UI rework, alternative start) of which several could be considered large. 
I don't want future versions to take this long, so I'm going to try to get back to my original approach starting with the next release, which I aim to have out before the end of the month. 

Here's the changelog:
  • Fixes for text issues. Thanks to souldead341, dutchheathen, death25 & cubano for reporting problems they found.
  • Fixed a bug reported by souldead341 & by pm from a patron where the home date scene was ending a turn late on returning from some other scenes. This meant it could end the same turn you chose an action like “serious talk” that prompts for a follow-up selection.
  • Fixed a similar bug with the nightclub scene reported by death25.
  • Fixed another timing but reported by death25 where the scene at the client's home could run out of time just as you're about to have sex. It now won't end while you're facing a decision of whether to let him push you into his bed, or while you're deciding whether to accept his offer to get him off for a sale.
  • Choosing the Childcare as work experience in character creation now increases your starting skill. This should have been in the last version, but I completely forgot. Oops. Thanks to Orangejuice for prompting me to talk about work experience in a forum post, which made me remember about it.
  • Fixed a bug reported by souldead341, cubano and also by pm on Patreon where the check for showing the father was missing a NOT so it was appearing as “Unknown” when the player had had a paternity test.
  • Ivy's ill-fitting clothes are no longer considered suitable for going out. Go and buy a nice dress if you want to date!
  • You can no longer go on or off the pill in the middle of the week using the character screen. This is still done on the same screen, but the button will be disabled except when you access it from the week planner.
  • Newlife windows will no longer “jump around” when switching between screens, a change first requested by tfgamessite user mke back in November when the last version was 0.1.3. Well, when things get put on the todo list they do get done. I never said they get done quickly.
  • Reduced the size of all screens so they should work for people using 1024x768 or 1366x768 resolutions.
  • Improved scrolling on the action list.
  • Removed the “random outfit” checkboxes and moved Random Outfit into being a choice in the outfit dropdowns, as suggested by Mugunghwa in an impressive UI mockup on Patreon. The default selection is now to pick a random outfit.
  • Added an advanced character creation section to the female character creation screen on the patron version. This contains some cheats & special customisation options, although more will be added in future releases.
  • Alternative start with no fewer than four ways to get a game-over in the intro. Because I know that's what you really play the game for.
  • When you get dumped the guy will delete your number, which means he won't ask you out again unless you can charm him into exchanging numbers again. If you're the one who dumps him then he won't delete it, and you might get pestered by your ex asking you out on dates in the hope you'll get back together.
  • Standardised work experience bonuses to +30 skill points for those that have an effect. The exception is military which is expected to be split across fitness & martial arts, and so only gets half its effect for now. This means that sales & customer service are slightly better than before (+30 instead of +25), but fashion is significantly worse (used to be +50).
  • Added the fitness skill, but for now this has very little effect on the game. Maximum fitness skill is affected by your body type – only toned allows you to reach a skill of 100.
  • Straddling your partner in bed now has a failure chance based on how helpful he is, his weight (heavier partners are harder to roll over and get on top of), and your fitness skill. The push off / push away actions already had a failure chance, but they now also have a bonus based on fitness – or a penalty if your skill is negative.
  • Athletic outfits can now be created, and some athletic clothes have been added.
  • You can go to the gym on weekends or in your free time.
  • Added an in-game help screen with information for new players.


Have fun, enjoy the new version, and please report any bugs!

32 comments:

  1. I wonder how many times I'll get myself knocked up today, now that I have 0.3.0 :D

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  2. Is there a way to get another scene from the important client besides the blowjob? If so, how do you get to it?

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    1. I got another scene just by continuing to talk to the client, but I'm not sure how exactly.

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    2. Conditions for sex with the client:
      - You're at his home
      - He hasn't had an orgasm that scene
      - You haven't told him off for being unprofessional that scene
      - You've never beaten him up
      - He finds you at least somewhat attractive
      - He's very turned on

      Once all these conditions are met, he can take the action that initiates sex. If you've encouraged his advances then the chance he'll try to sleep with you is doubled.

      The key limitation here is probably the arousal one. If you give him a blowjob then he'll probably come before he gets turned on enough to try for full sex.

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    3. Thanks for your reply, seriously. But what about his wife? Is there a way to avoid her, or to know when shes about to come in? That thing is really annoying.

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    4. Unless you have a noisy orgasm, the chance of the wife coming in is the lowest possible. However, the other npc actions all have conditions attached so there might be situations where they all get deactivated.
      I've added an extra situation where "do nothing" gets unlocked for the man, so that should reduce the risk of the wife looking in being the only possibility as an npc action.

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    5. Every time I have sex with the client, once we're done it doesn't matter what action I select next, his wife always pops in immediately. (I've tried it nearly a dozen times now with a variety of choices for the first post-sex action.) Haven't had an orgasm either, let alone a noisy one. I'm still playing 0.3.1, though--is this something that changed in the newer version, or am I just having a really bad time with the RNG?

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    6. There were some changes to the action logic there for 0.3.2, and it should be fixed in that version.

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  3. I ran into a bug, it prevents me from loading a game it gives me this error:
    Error loading game. Are you using a newer version of Newlife? Saves are unfortunately not compatible between versions for now.
    Error was: Class cannot be created (missing no-arg constructor): java.util.Arrays$ArrayList
    Serialization trace:
    n (uk.co.blogspot.splendidostrich.newlifegame.c.b.b.b)
    g (uk.co.blogspot.splendidostrich.newlifegame.c.b.a.c)
    b (uk.co.blogspot.splendidostrich.newlifegame.c.b.c.a)
    r (uk.co.blogspot.splendidostrich.newlifegame.b.n)
    a (uk.co.blogspot.splendidostrich.newlifegame.a)

    Mind you this save was made on the new version 3.1 and i still can't load.

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  4. Hey, first I have to say that I really, really like you're game! It's the first one I actually decided to support. Keep up the good work. :)

    A couple of questions though.

    1. If you chose a relaxed personality, you can stay and chat with the old man/client after work and even visit him sometimes, but does it lead anywhere? So far, the only event I've managed to get, was letter from him,saying that he's sorry and that he was going back home to his relatives overseas.

    2. I really like the new cheat menu, any thoughts of improving it so that you can adjust the ages of the men you meet in the game?

    3. Any plans for the pc to call the men out for dates?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for your support!

      1. Him going overseas is the end of the event chain - it's just a short flavour one. You get a stress reduction from spending time with him, and he gives you a present at the end (it was going to be jewelry, but that isn't in the game...)

      2. I think the next new cheat will be customised starting clothes, but I'll add your suggestion to the list.

      3. No, you'll just have to wait by the phone! If a guy took your number but never asks you out then maybe he just isn't that into you :(
      You can spend the night with your boyfriend whenever you want though, and the friendship update will make it easy to hang out with your friends.

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  5. Thanks for good game.

    As active work on improvement of UI is visible, I want to ask:
    - Whether it is planned to enter some graphic (in a look progress bar) or simply numerical values: "Arousal-meter" "Orgasm-meter" "Appeal-meter" or something something like that.

    Now for me that is a big problem that I don't see the return reaction from game to the actions. I choose clothes with some parameters, but I don't understand - whether my dress is pleasant to someone, or me condemn at work for that that I come without underwear? - perhaps that certain "the internal voice" of the heroine could comment on the events:

    - Listen, the darling, you shouldn't come to work in such dress and to show everyone the boobs, - so you won't promote.
    - You see as that guy at bar stares at your decollete, it seems to me that he wants to consider closer that in it.

    Or intimate scenes - something depends on my actions? - it would be desirable to see that my heroine with brace bits "A talented mouth", really gives great pleasure)
    Or if my partner doesn't like the DD boobs, to him and the truth not really pleasantly that I try to involve them.

    And still the offer, perhaps empty (-it would be convenient for me if at the description of acquaintances there was information "where we got acquainted" is a partner in dances, the acquaintance in fitness club, we drank in the bar. - now, apparently, only the dancing class is mentioned, but in other acquaintances I am confused.). Also there is no information that I had something with this guy in a bar toilet. - I was simply drunk and now it is awfully a shame to me, and I don't want to meet it... but I don't remember what is his name! And perhaps very much it was pleasant to me, but how his name?)

    If it is short: It would be desirable to see a little more and different reaction to the actions. otherwise after a while you start clicking absolutely mechanically. (

    Yours faithfully.

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    Replies
    1. I'll answer what I can, not being SplendidOstrich but feeling bad about a comment going unanswered for some time:
      As far as I know, there is no plan to include a visible arousal meter. Rough arousal levels can be determined based on certain comments made by you and your partner, but beyond that you have to play it by ear. I'll go see if I can dig up the relevant post in a minute.

      As I understand, your next issue is that the game doesn't provide enough feedback on your actions/clothes/appearance, largely in regards to how other people react to you?

      The game is more about playing a specific role than about adapting to each new person's interests, though there are elements of both. The character you create at the start has certain attributes and personality traits that heavily affect your overall 'type', those primarily being cute/naughty and elegant/casual. Clothes affect these attributes as well, but your basic actions and conversation style are largely determined by your starting traits.

      As for altered reactions based on various character traits, there is already quite a bit of variance in the game. Specific clothing is largely ignored because it would require incredible complexity to add reactions to specific items of clothing, so the overall look created by each item's stats combined is dealt with instead. General types of clothing are treated differently in descriptions and actions-go bra-less and you'll get mention of your breasts bouncing freely under your top, wear short dresses and skirts and men will be able to reach right under them and touch you; etc. Same for traits and appearance; you get a more detailed description of specific sexy actions when performing oral sex with the 'skilled tongue' trait, compared to more basic sucking and licking without it; same with skilled hands. Physical appearance is also referenced regularly in scenes; your body type and skin color are often used as descriptors (pale slim arms, dark brown toned stomach, etc). Your breast size is admittedly largely ignored, with the exception of certain men who prefer large breasts telling a small-breasted woman she should grow bigger tits; even then there's scenes where men who really like your specific breast size act differently, like being fondled by your boss while arguing for a promotion (a tit-obsessed man will suck on your breasts instead of rubbing your pussy). There really isn't anything you can do to turn off a guy once you're kissing and being groped, but if he really doesn't like your type and you aren't stunningly attractive a guy isn't likely to approach you anyway.

      I do agree that more specific information about your past encounters with a guy could be added, though I'm not sure how easy it would be to track. As for the bar guy you had a fun but very embarrassing time in the bathroom with, you were drunk in a dark bar with a guy who probably never actually told you his name, so no luck there. Interact with him a few more times and he'll be added to the relationship tab, but unless he took your virginity in the bathroom there's no current way to track who's had sex with you, when, where or how.

      Finally, while I agree more variation is fun and have myself hit the problem of clicking mechanically through content I've seen before; realistically it takes much longer to add new content than it does to play through the game, so anyone who enjoys the game thoroughly is probably going to run out of content fast. The game has a tremendous amount of content already and more is constantly being added; there's nothing for it but to be patient.

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    2. Wow, that post really got away from me. Couldn't find the post that talked about orgasms, but basically you should pay attention to the game's mentions of 'you/he is breathing heavily'; 'you/he groans', etc. These trigger each time you or your partner pass an arousal threshold (think 20, 40, 60, 80, and reaching 100 means orgasm). These are scripted and each level is a different reaction. Pay attention and you should be able to figure out what to watch for before orgasm and about where both you and your partner are on the invisible arousal scale.

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    3. Ah, sorry for not replying for so long. I think centurion covers things quite well. Broadly speaking:

      - I don't especially plan new UI components to track arousal and so on, especially as the UI needs to work with every scene, and not all of them have all the information needed for that sort of thing. I do sometimes think over other game ideas, and this sort of thing is something I think would make sense in a game designed for it.
      Anyway, while I won't say "never", if I do end up adding that sort of thing,it won't be soon.

      The problem I have with the player's internal voice is the same one as with giving her directly quoted speech. The pc is supposed to be the player in the near future, but that means I have no idea how they actually speak. I assume that the future-player can speak English well enough to get by in the UK, but other than that they could have pretty much any background. Because of that, giving them direct speech or thoughts risks being quite immersion breaking.
      Still, there's no reason not to add more passive-voice comments along those lines. Things like "You notice that his eyes are drawn to your breasts, and you can tell that he's imagining you out of your dress". I've made a note in my to-do list to look into it, especially for perceptive girls.

      Tracking where you met a guy is quite tricky. In fact, there's already some issues around "first meetings" that I will need to tackle at some point, but I might have to gut some of the code first.

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  6. Hi -

    I made this comment on an earlier post, but I don't know if you saw it. The found two bugs in the stats that are still there as of v3.0:

    One, total orgasms doesn't increase after pleasuring yourself in the shower even if the text says you had an orgasm.

    Two, if you choose stop having sex, the numbers for sexual partners and times had sex don't increase. This led to the stats showing number of partners / times had sex = 0, but the orgasms from sex stat = 1 in one of my games.

    Also, this means I got the losing virginity text twice in the same game!

    Finally, are there plans for stats for blow jobs/hand jobs/tit jobs? Or even one stat lumping them all together? It seems odd that you can blow four guys in the club restroom in a night, and it doesn't show up anywhere.

    I realize I may care too much about stats. Anyway, this is a fantastic game, the best mtf tf game I've played! Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Hi, thanks for your comment:

      One: Thanks for letting me know. This is fixed in the next version.

      Two: This is intentional. You only "officially" count as having sex in Newlife when the guy finishes. If your first time is so rubbish that you stop him halfway, then you deserve to get a second shot!

      Three: Okay. I've added these to the next version.

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  7. Hi, first of all sorry for my language, English is not my native.
    Well, I must say thet the game is realy great and i like it very much, though not as TF game, more as Femsim game.
    Next, I think I found a bug, maybe you've already fixed it, maybe not: if in client's home you "tell him off" and then start to flirt with him, theres always message about his wife entering the room. I also want to ask about reducing clients wife appearing because she is showing up almost all the time in this scene.
    And another question is about adding maybe doggy style pose, especialy for those men who like it rough.
    Thanks for the game agane, keep up the good work, and, as i sad, sorry for my bad writing.

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    1. Oh, well spotted. The game tracks whether you've encouraged him or told him off, but it wasn't considering the situation where you do both! I had a look at the code and it seems that it was de-activating all the other actions except the wife looking in.
      I've changed things so that flirting with him now un-sets telling him off, and lets him go back to feeling you up.

      As for doggy style, it won the patron vote for the first milestone reward, so it'll be the next sex scene to be added.

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  8. Hi!

    I need to ask: Are you planning anything about the breakfast? Like when the guy actually prepares it, are there any plans about them making them a little "special" if you don't have some fun in the bed before?
    Thanks

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    Replies
    1. Not sure about breakfast, but you can have shower fun if you did not have bed fun...

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    2. The morning scene isn't really slated for much in the way of changes, unless I notice something that needs to be improved because of other changes. The guy preparing breakfast is just intended to be a nice romantic gesture, although it's perhaps a little rare at the moment... or maybe my test girls just have bad luck with their dates!

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  9. I wish the impregnator type was more common, it seems pretty rare, so much that it's hard to find one even if you check every club guy in 3 different games.

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    1. I want it to be rare because they're eventually going to be doing things like sabotaging contraception

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  10. Also if the boss is making comments about wondering how fertile you are, shouldn't he be a guaranteed breeder dude?

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    1. Thanks! That was actually added before those traits. I even had a comment there saying "update this when the wants-kids trait goes in"! I've restricted it to bosses with appropriate traits now.

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  11. Hey, maybe im stupid, but im not able to find any cheat-menu. I checked my version twice but it seems it keeps hiding ... Can someone give me a hint to catch it ?

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    1. Cheats are only in the patron version. If you have it then they're found in the 'advanced' tab on the female character creation screen.

      We've recently been discussing whether cheats should be made public over on Patreon, but with a fairly even split of opinions. For now I've decided to keep them patron-only because I think some of them make the game worse for new players.
      I may change that in the future, especially if it becomes reasonable to unlock content based on winning the game and so keep it from first-time players that way. I'll also definitely enable cheats publicly with the final release.

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  12. Hey first off I really like the game.
    Anyway I can't seem to figure out how to break up with a guy. If anyone knows how I would appreciate it.

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    Replies
    1. Properly ending relationships isn't really in the game yet. There are some outcomes for the "tell him you're pregnant with his baby" scene that lead to a break up.

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