Newlife 0.3.16

Hello everyone!

Version 0.3.16 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.


Version of 0.3.15 is now public. You can download it using the links on the right-hand side of the blog. The 0.3.15 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 java to run the game.
There's a guide for new players here which includes some troubleshooting tips for installation & downloading.

This update adds a new scene which finishes off a certain event chain that was previously missing a conclusion. While I might go back for minor adjustments, it shouldn't need any more significant new additions.


Here's the full changelog:

Major changes & additions:

• Improved handling of the taciturn npc trait throughout many scenes in the game.
• Added a new scene that can appear as an alternative to the usual one when selecting a certain activity.

Minor changes & bugfixes:

• Fixes to text issues. Thanks Joe Schmoe, BleepBloop, Cubano and Axeon for reporting problems they found.
• Charming and Taciturn are now opposing traits, as they don't really make sense together. If you had a custom npc with both then you should remove one or they won't load in the new version.
• Added some new future-love-life options to the female-start endgame sequence.
• Men's descriptions will now tell you if you've had sex together, unless this would be made redundant by other parts of the description (such as having children together)
• The prenatal class activity is now disabled when the player has max childcare skill.
• Fixed a bug where you could still watch films on dates if you buy a TV and a media player but then the TV gets broken. The stress benefit to the rest activity from having a media player is now also nullified in this situation.
• Fixed a bug where special npcs that were supposed to be restricted to certain scenes could still show up at the dance contest.

Enjoy the new version, and let me know if you find any bugs! 

Newlife 0.3.15

Hello everyone!

Version 0.3.15 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.


Version of 0.3.14 is now public. You can download it using the links on the right-hand side of the blog. The 0.3.14 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 java to run the game.
There's a guide for new players here which includes some troubleshooting tips for installation & downloading.

The main change for this version is a new scene that branches off from dates. This is similar to the porn cinema one, although this one can be initiated by either the player or her date if the requirements are met.


Here's the full changelog:

Major changes & additions:

• One new scene which can be accessed from a date if you or the guy you're out with have certain traits.
• You can now ask your partner to remove a condom, as requested on Patreon by Fiery Dog Poop, which I assume is not their real name.

Minor changes & bugfixes:

• Fixes to text issues. Thanks to atc, death25, plundernoob, notyou & secondarian for reporting problems they found.
• Added a change suggested by neokenka where the player will get a willpower hit if she has a lot of orgasms. This counts all orgasms across the scene-chain (e.g. nightclub-home-sex-morning after) regardless of how you have them or who you have them with. The effect starts at 3 orgasms – one or two does not give you a penalty. The maximum effect is at a fairly ridiculous 10+ orgasms and is as large as the maximum alcohol modifier.
• Added shortcut keys to the describe people ('D') and describe scene ('S') buttons, as requested by LavBlu
• Slightly improved the variety of sexy outfits npcs can pick (in e.g. the befriend scene where you go shopping).
• Fixed a bug where concert invitations were not becoming less likely as the pc attended them. The chance of a concert being on in any particular week will now reduce as the pc goes to them, with the maximum reduction after attending two.
• Npc who get drunk will now have an extra line in their descriptions with a clue to how soused they are – this was a suggestion from Baby J on Patreon.
• Npcs can now autonomously wear condoms if the pc is on the pill or pregnant, but the action is rarer in these situations.
• Slightly rewrote some of the male npc clothing descriptions.
• Fixed a very unusual situation reported by Cubano where you can end up having a 0-year anniversary.
• Fixed a problem in one scene reported by death25 where you can end up drinking alcohol even when pregnant.
   

Update: the following changes were added in an improved version released 22/01:

• Fixes to text issues reported by Cubano and BleepBloop
• Made it easier to orgasm during the pervy client office scene by firstly increasing the arousal bonus for low-self-esteem characters and secondly adding another boost for characters with the overactive imagination trait who go to his office without wearing underwear. This only applies to the office version of the scene – the home one is unchanged.
• Rewrote the booty-call scene to have more variation, including some new lines for men who like oral sex.
• Added some lines for men who like oral sex to the scene where your partner visits when you're stressed out.

Enjoy the new version, and let me know if you find any bugs! 

Newlife Art

Hello everyone!

Development progress is slow this week as I'm ill. However, in these dark and rainy times we have good news - the talented artist Elanwye has completed a piece of art for Newlife which I've put on the Patreon page to replace the crummy old screenshot of an outdated version of the UI.

I've also updated to Patreon's new profile version. Sadly this only shows the top part of the image, so I'm putting the whole version here - click the picture to see it full-sized. I'm really impressed with it, and I think you all will be too. Enjoy it, and check out Elanwye's deviantart page to see more of her art.

Happy Xmas, and Newlife 0.3.14

Hello everyone! I hope you're having a happy Christmas, or a happy non-Xmas holiday, or even just a happy Friday if you're from somewhere where this is just a normal week.

Version 0.3.14 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.

I'd normally release the public version of 0.3.13 now, but unfortunately due to a lapse in planning, I don't have it available. I couldn't come up with a way to get the correct files this week, so instead I've uploaded the supporter version from Patreon. I hope you'll forgive this mistake and it won't prove too troublesome for you. The 0.3.13 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 java to run the game.
There's a guide for new players here which includes some troubleshooting tips for installation & downloading.

The main change for this version is the new date alternative - this will appear as a separate action on some weeks that'll replace the usual "go on a date with <name>" one and has different text in the week planner screen. 
It's fairly rare as it isn't an event that makes a lot of sense to be happening repeatedly - I might change this if I add more paths to the scene, but there are lots of scenes that could use new paths and I don't know if this one will take precedence. Ideally you'll see it 1-3 times in a 52-week game - let me know if you think it's showing up too often.


Here's the full changelog for 0.3.14:

Major changes & additions:

•    Added a new scene which will occasionally show up as an alternative to the usual date in town.

•    Some new groping content for the new scene is also now available in some older ones in a slightly modified format. While it currently only shows up in some very specific situations, it'll eventually be available as part of one of the standard makeout scenes, and so these additions bring the game closer to a major update to one of them.

•    When starting a new game you’ll find a Christmas present in your character’s wardrobe.

Minor changes & bugfixes:

•    Fixes to text issues. Thanks to Cubano, Axeon, Death25 & OrangeJuice for reporting problems they found.

•    Implemented a suggestion from Cubano - if you have a framed photo of your boyfriend and go to bed with another man seeing the picture will now remind you that you're cheating and make you feel guilty. Romantic characters can get a point of stress from this.

•    Added a stat to track how many times you've been unfaithful. This is currently quite forgiving and won't count times you stopped things partway.

•    The custom NPC test output now includes the path to the directory the game is checking for npcs.

•    Npcs who disliked you are now less likely to ask you on dates, although this can still happen if they’re in love or find you very attractive.

•    Reduced asking-out chances for men with the impregnator trait when you’re pregnant, and men who don’t want kids if you’re pregnant or have children.

Enjoy the new version, and let me know if you find any bugs!

A short update for Thursday

Hello everyone!

I realise that the blog is mostly just a series of release announcements, so I thought I'd change things up with an update on my progress that doesn't come one day before a new version comes out.

The main change for the next version of Newlife will be a new scene. I haven't connected it up yet, but right now I'm planning for it to be an alternative to a normal date. Alternatively, it might end up branching off the date scene in a similar way to the porn movie scene.
It's still early on in development, but I've had a lot of ideas on where to go with the new content. As usual, many of them will prove to be excessively ambitious, but this time I'm trying hard to limit myself early on so I don't get carried away and spend twice as long on it as I planned to.

I haven't looked over the default save location bug again yet. I've had a pm on Patreon with a suggestion, so I'll give that a try when I get back to it.

Aside from that, I think I've fixed all the typos and bugs reported from the last release. It looks like there weren't any big ones this time, touch wood. I've also made a small addition based on a suggestion from a player - adding some text when going to bed with a man if you have a framed photograph of your boyfriend and it isn't him.

Finally, I've been trying to get through my backlog of messages a bit more than usual today. I've still got some posts and pms dating back some way that I need to answer, but I think I've replied to more than I received over the last day or two. At some point (soon?) I'll have a big push and catch up properly.

I hope you're all having a great week, and thanks for playing Newlife :)

Newlife 0.3.13

Hello everyone!

Version 0.3.13 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 0.3.12 release has been made public. I've updated the links here on the blog, so you can download it now from here. The 0.3.12 changelog is here.

Additionally, FreshSalad has updated their character creation tool for Newlife to include the new Repairman trait for 0.3.13. You can get the updated version from Mega 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 java to run the game.
There's a guide for new players here which includes some troubleshooting tips for installation & downloading.

The new version adds a new event and has a bunch of improvements to various scenes, many of which were suggested by players. 

I haven't yet got a fix for a problem some players reported with the game thinking the default save folder should be some system32 one and trying to use it for custom npcs. One helpful (but anonymous) commenter suggested this might happen if you use Windows 10 Frequent Folders to launch the game - I'm not using Windows 10, so I haven't been able to test this myself.
I'll be looking into fixes again for the next version.

Finally, Kao Rock has started a wiki for Newlife. You can check it out at http://new-life.wikia.com. 


Here's the full changelog for 0.3.13:

Major changes & additions:

• Following a request on the blog, added an option to block rough/abusive content in character creation. This will stop jerk npcs from autonomously taking the sort of actions that are unlocked by the “treat me mean” request even if you haven't asked him to be rough with you. There will undoubtedly be rough actions that aren't caught by this option yet. If you find an npc being excessively unpleasant to you when you've selected it then please post a blog comment with the copy-pasted text so I can fix it.
• Added more variety to certain actions in existing scenes: Tell him you're ready, romantic kiss and the move hips action in the missionary scene.
• Added a new action to sex scenes where your partner has refused to pull out. You can now beg him not to finish inside you as a repeatable follow-up action. This never actually works. This change was suggested over pm on Patreon from one of Newlife's patrons, so say thanks to them in the comments if you like it!
• In an addition suggested by Cubano, romantic characters who don't have low self-esteem can now dump their boyfriend if he forgets an anniversary.
• A new npc trait for custom npcs - repairman. Npcs with this trait won't be valid in earlier versions. See the updated custom npc guide for a description of its effects.
• One new random event.

Minor changes & bugfixes:

• Fixes to text issues. Thanks to Cubano, Archmage Bob and good old Anonymous Blog Commenter for reporting problems they found.
• Updated knowledge increases to use friendship status.
• Improved how stress and the charm skill modify liking as you first get to know someone.
• Added a few more descriptions for your character arriving at a nightclub.
• Modified love thresholds for low-self-esteem. Previously they had a “quick-fix” implementation that just let them always fall in love. Now they fall in love based mostly on attraction (not attraction + liking like most characters) but get a bonus if they dislike the man as they feel they “deserve” to be with someone horrid. Low-self-esteem girls still fall in love more easily if they have the romantic trait, but girls with bitchy + LSE don't get the usual increase to the threshold that bitchy gives other characters.
• Fixed a bug reported by Cubano where the time check was being skipped on returning to a home date from sex, which meant that the player was able to choose 2-part actions like the important talk one only to find the scene end before they could pick the action for the second part.
• Characters with low self-esteem now get more forgiving text and lower relationship penalties when other girls would get the “angry and upset” response to the man finishing inside them when they asked him to pull out. The enjoyment penalty (and therefore stress effects) is just as big though – low self-esteem girls are just as upset as normal ones, they just blame themselves instead of the man.
• Fixed an issue reported by Porne where heavily pregnant girls would be told there was a dance competition but be unable to attend. Now they're still unable to attend, but the message on the week planner screen makes it clear why.
• Fixed a bug reported by pgiac2 where the game would break if you split up with your boyfriend in an event that happened on the same week as your anniversary but in an earlier timeslot.
• Fixed an issue where your boyfriend would forget that you'd asked him to be rough when you went to sleep on your anniversary – this should last the entire scene chain, for consistency with normal dates.

Enjoy the new version, and let me know if you find any bugs!

Development update

Hi all, I lost most of a day due to computer problems but that's all sorted now.

The next release is essentially done aside from testing, although a fix for the Windows 10 save location issue still eludes me. It's 5am over here, so far too late for me to finish tests with a clear mind - you can expect the next version tomorrow.