Newlife 0.4.21

Hello everyone!

Newlife 0.4.21 has been released. Early-access Patrons can find it in the creations section here. The changelog is below.

The previous version is now public. You can download it using the links on the right-hand side of the blog. The public version's 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 a zipfile containing Newlife. Once unzipped, you'll see a folder containing .jar and .exe files. Either one of these will run the game. 
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 version focuses on updating how Love works internally, along with new scenes to support the changes. 
This is the largest change to Newlife's internal relationship mechanics for a long time, perhaps ever. There'll certainly need to be balance tweaks over time, but I'm hopeful that it'll really improve how the relationship building is presented to the player. In fact, I'm tempted to go back in for more with the next release and give Liking some work as well.



Changelog:

Major changes & additions:

• A major overhaul of how Love is handled. The goal is to make love feel more special and give the player more feedback about it. No longer will it be something that just sort of happens in the background whenever the player spends long enough sleeping with someone.
  • The core functionality remains the same: love is tracked separately for pc and npc, and it's handled in 5 main categories (none, some, confused, crush, love). This means that volunteer & commissioned writers will not need to change how they work. Besides, I think this foundation is fine.
  • The PC can now only be in love with one person at once, and can only have 3 at crush or higher.
  • The PC's Love will start to dwindle over time if she spends enough weeks without gaining any at all.
  • The love-threshold system has been completely replaced. Previously a total love+liking threshold had to be met for love to increase. Now, there's a new 'compatibility' system that returns a maximum love-level. This is influenced by liking & attraction so compatibility can increase over time but it won't always go all the way to true-love for all men. This is to make it more meaningful to find a man who matches the PC's traits and also to lead to potential late-game decisions, such as having to decide if a boyfriend the PC has a crush on (but no more) is 'good enough'.
• Four new 'Crush Dream” scenes that can trigger when the PC develops a crush on a man.
• New decision scenes that trigger when the PC falls in or out-of love with a man. These give the player a bit more control over who their character loves as well as making it more obvious when it happens.

Minor changes:

• Camisoles can now be cropped.
• As requested by Vasmat99218, added makeout actions to expose or remove the PC's top.
• Added an ultimatum requested by Adrianna N. on Patreon where you can insist your partner go down on you even if he's refused. This must be taken the turn after the refusal and is not available for shy or low-self-esteem characters. If he doesn't comply the second time then your character will end the makeout as if the “leave me alone” action was chosen.
• Modified the relationship effects of enjoyable sex. This will now have a lower impact on liking.
• The week summary will now show some information about important love changes.
• Increased NPC liking gain from some non-sexual situations. It should now be more practical to get a man to like you without sleeping with him. Bear in mind though that liking gain from a single encounter is typically capped so you can't become best buds just from one fantastic date.
• Having a conversation with a boring man will now not drop the pc's liking all the way to DISLIKED – this should require him to actually annoy/anger/offend her, not just be a bit dull.
• Some tweaks to text & balance for conversations.
• Saur reported that the PC's reactions to a gloating impregnator NPC when she informs him that she's pregnant needed better handling for baby-crazy PCs. This has now been updated. I also restricted the choices for low-self-esteem PCs in that situation so they can no longer express their annoyance at the man.
• Made a change to cunnilingus orgasms suggested by Ammut. Instead of being capped at 2 the cap is now based on your fitness skill with +1 if you have the passionate_lover trait. At skill 95+ you can come 4 times (or 5 with the trait). Moderation? What's that?
• Baby-crazy and (to a lesser extent) maternal PCs get a bonus to love and love-compatibility the first time they discover a particular man has got them pregnant.

Changes for user-submitted content:

• Added getShortDesc methods to male NPCs. This is based on some content I wrote for the new top-removal makeout action that I felt might be useful in other scenes. It provides a short phrase describing the NPC, randomly selected from all applicable ones.
• Added a debugging section to the writing guide with a link to http://www.yamllint.com, an online yaml syntax checker that's useful in figuring out the dreaded “Error tokenizing YAML” issue.

Bugfixes:

• Fixes to text issues. Thanks to Saur, MadCat, Flanjygo, Saint Destiny, OrangeJuice and Kyle Quesom for reporting some of these.
• Added a missing line in the standing-position tickle action. Thanks to Saint Destiny for reporting this one.
• Increased the amount by which the shynessCure increaseArousalTo macro increases arousal on each recursion. This should hopefully stop MacroOverflowExceptions when the character's arousal is increased from a very low value to a high one.
• Fixed a bug reported by Eulexia where the cunnilingus “remove panties” action had badly messed up output if used early in the scene.

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

Newlife 0.4.20

Hello everyone!

Newlife 0.4.20 has been released. Early-access Patrons can find it in the creations section here. The changelog is below.

The previous version is now public. You can download it using the links on the right-hand side of the blog. The public version's 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 a zipfile containing Newlife. Once unzipped, you'll see a folder containing .jar and .exe files. Either one of these will run the game. 
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 new addition for this release is the often-requested cunnilingus scene which can be accessed from either makeout by the PC's request or at the man's initiation if he has the relevant trait.



Changelog:

Major changes & additions:

• Your lovers can now go down on you, either by your request or from their own volition.

Minor changes:

• Updated the conditions for NPCs wearing condoms following a report by Madcat so impregnators now won't wear (and attempt to sabotage) one if they've already told the PC she can't get pregnant from her first time.
• Added an extra line to the unhappy anniversary ending if you're cohabiting so it doesn't read strangely. Thanks to MadCat for suggesting this.
• As suggested by MadCat, added some text to the naked wedding 'getting ready' section if your bridesmaid previously tried to cure your shyness. Also added some text for innocent bridesmaids .
• New NPC traits: TALENTED_TONGUE, LIKES_GOING_DOWN.
• Changed the logic for pill sabotage following a report by MadCat so it now won't happen if you lied and told your partner that you weren't on the pill.
• New stat: CUNNILINGUS_ORGASMS
• Added a new male orgasm option to the standing-behind sex scene. Not because it's relevant to the cunnilingus content but just because I had an idea that I liked.
• Added some more names for male NPCs.
• As suggested by Saur, added some alternative lines to the NPC male-dominant sex talk action when the PC had asked him to come inside.
• As suggested by OrangeJuice, added some alternative content for baby-crazy characters to the scene where an impregnator friend is confronted by one of his conquests.
• Added a willpower boost for virgins who don't have the low-self-esteem trait, as suggested by KTDid.
• Updated the logic for the jerk friend conversation (again!), this time to remove redundant questions. Thanks to MadCat for reporting this.

Changes for user-submitted content:

• Added a removeCondom method to male NPCs.
• As requested by Secondarian, added MISSIONARY_SEX, DOGGY_SEX and COWGIRL_SEX as possible transitions from custom scenes. See the documentation for details.
• Added CUNNILINGUS as a scene transition.

Bugfixes:

• Fixes to text issues. Thanks to Atc, MadCat, OrangeJuice, Saint Destiny and Saur for reporting some of these.
• Fixed a bug reported by Saur where the GrabBreast action in shyness cure could error in one specific set of circumstances.
• Fixed a bug with the jerk-friend introduction event that's been in the last few versions where the conversation gets skipped. Thanks to everyone who reported this – most recently Atc and JulianR.Amazing but I know there had been more reports back in April so my apologies if I you told me about it and I haven't credited you.
• Fixed a bug reported by Patrick where the wedding scene would error if you flee the altar when there's no sister-in-law present.
• Fixed a bug with the custom-scene isNpcHidden method.

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

Names

Hi all,

Newlife currently has 100 male names - more than sufficient for the game but it'd add a bit of variety if there were more.

Obviously I can continue my previous strategy of finding online lists of popular names in the UK and just copying them in there en-masse, but I thought I'd check if there were any names players specifically wanted to be added to the game.

If there's one you want to see, just leave a comment and I'll consider adding it.

Newlife 0.4.19

Hello everyone!

Newlife 0.4.19 has been released. Early-access Patrons can find it in the creations section here. The changelog is below.

The previous version is now public. You can download it using the links on the right-hand side of the blog. The public version's 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 a zipfile containing Newlife. Once unzipped, you'll see a folder containing .jar and .exe files. Either one of these will run the game. 
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.

I'm still afflicted with my back injury, so progress has been painfully slow this month. I'm feeling much better than I was in April though, thankfully.
I'm looking into commissioning a writer so players will get a bit more content to compensate for me being part-time lately. This release though is mostly Eulexia's work. The main new scene I'm working on isn't ready yet, but they submitted their extraordinary Shyness Cure scene for you all to enjoy. To copy from my post on patreon:

To access it:
- Be shy
- Have a party-girl friend
- The event is for weekends so don't choose actions there that have fixed events (like the gym or shopping)
- Wear a skirt-type garment (skirt or dress) on the weekend.

The scene is a spectacular one - an enormous amount of content with three different paths, plus some choices that can lead to really interesting outcomes - try lying to your friend sometime. Kudos to Eulexia for a great piece of writing.



Changelog:

Major changes & additions:

• Added Eulexia's massive Shyness Cure scene.

Minor changes:

• As suggested by Saur, added a new, more-enthusiastic response to the “late for work” scene for baby-crazy PCs who are trying to get pregnant.
• As suggested by Katie, changed the text when the PC is cheating and has a photo of her bf in the room to reflect relationships where the bf likes the pc sleeping around. Also added some lines where the PC isn't guilty if she dislikes her partner.
• Some small improvements to the text for when an NPC refuses to wear a condom during a makeout.
• Updated the yamlbeans version as suggested by Rigel and made some internal changes to how custom scenes process follow-up actions. This should now mean that the actions presented to the player for custom scenes will be in the same order as they were in the yaml file.
• As suggested by Katie, toned down some of the large arousal increases in the concert makeout section and also blocked the pc from having an orgasm on consecutive turns.

Changes for user-submitted content:

• Fixed a bug where the testingInfo location section used isOutside but the location section in scene transitions would error unless just “outside” was used. It's now isOutside on both.
• Added the getExposeRemoves method to clothing items. This may be relevant when writing undressing text.

Bugfixes:

• Fixes to text issues. Thanks to OrangeJuice, Saint Destiny, Ammut, Madcat and Saur for reporting some of these.
• The baby-crazy text when you flirt on dates will no longer appear if the PC is pregnant. Thanks to Saint Destiny for reporting this.
• Fixed a bug reported by Allen J. E. with some extra info from Saur where the “anal doesn't count” action wasn't working in the standing makeout.
• Fixed a bug reported by Saur where one of the standing makeout NPC actions to initiate sex wasn't checking if the NPC was barred from starting PIV sex.
• Added variant text to the conversation with your sister-in-law for the special weddings so she isn't mentioning your dress when you get married naked. Thanks to MadCat for reporting this.
• Fixed a bug reported by Katie where the PC giving a man oral sex in the blackjack scene wasn't setting him as having had an orgasm.

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

Hiatus

Hi all,

I've come down with an injury that is stopping me from working on Newlife for the time being. This unfortunately means that there not be a new release coming out in April.

I've put the patreon page on 'pause', which means patrons won't be charged at the start of May.

I'll re-assess the situation in early May and post again to let you know if I can resume work or if I'll need to extend the hiatus.

It's painful and difficult for me to use a keyboard, so I will not be able to reply to any comments or post on forums until I've recovered.

Thanks for reading, and I hope your month has got off to a better start than mine.

Newlife 0.4.18

Hello everyone!

Newlife 0.4.18 has been released. Early-access Patrons can find it in the creations section here. The changelog is below.

The previous version is now public. You can download it using the links on the right-hand side of the blog. The public version's 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 a zipfile containing Newlife. Once unzipped, you'll see a folder containing .jar and .exe files. Either one of these will run the game. 
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 release adds the baby-crazy trait and the ability to tell men you're saving yourself for marriage. There's also an improvement to the shopping scene and the ability to meet your sister-in-law at your wedding. 
As a release full of "lots of little modifications throughout the codebase" type changes it's been quite tiring. I'm going to take a different tack for 0.4.19 and focus away from the wedding for a bit. I will be returning to married-life again before the 0.4 changes are done though - I've said before that the wedding can be seen as the climax of the game and its associated scenes should end up as some of the deepest ones in Newlife to reflect that.

Changelog:

Major changes & additions:

• Added the baby-crazy trait. This has some similarities with Maternal but implies a more obsessive, less rational attitude and doesn't come with Maternal's benefits to parenting. Both can be taken together for a character who's obsessed with getting pregnant and also well cut-out to be a mother. As usual for this sort of trait, the change required lots of little adjustments all over the place and it's possible some might have been missed – let me know if you spot something that doesn't make sense with the trait.
• As requested by several people on Discord, you can now select from a number of shops when you go to buy clothing. This is done from a combo-box next to the money display. Each shop specialises in a different clothing style, with the high-street being the general one.
• You can meet your sister-in-law at the wedding, and there's a small sub-scene involving her later.
• You can now tell men that you intend to stay a virgin until marriage. Men who are cool with this will not attempt to have PIV sex with you until your wedding night. Even if they aren't fine with it this will still stop them for the rest of that scene. This doesn't affect anal or oral sex.

Minor changes:

• As suggested by George S. on Patreon, you'll now usually be able to ask your partner to remove a condom if you're married. This will make it easier for characters to handle the “always use condoms” vow.
• Removed the extra clothes that are added to the shop at high fashion levels. These aren't needed any more now that the choice of shops gives players a much bigger selection to choose from.
• As reported by Saur, the booty-call scene didn't really fit taciturn characters. They now get a very short text, in-line with their normal lack of verbosity.
• Following a report by Max Mustermann, Added a line in the birth scene that mentions the hospital will inform the father if the player hasn't.
• As requested by Max Mustermann, the Clear Head trait will now appear a bit less often due to randomness (e.g. chaos mode).
• As suggested by Madcat, added an alternative lead-in to the repeatable jerk-friend scene for when the PC lives with her partner.
• The “Ask him to come inside” cowgirl-position action now checks that the man is close to orgasm instead of checking the PC's arousal. I'm not sure if this was a bug or just an odd decision when the action was written, but I think it makes much more sense this way.
• As suggested by Flanjygo, the anniversary will now specify it's your anniversary as a couple, not “as his wife/girlfriend”.
• As suggested by someone (I forget who – possibly MadCat), added an NPC reaction to the “tell him you're a virgin” action you can take at home.

Changes for user-submitted content:

• Added the informVirginUntilMarriage method to male NPCs, although I doubt many user scenes will need to call on it.
• Added the attemptRemoveFromWardrobe method to the player character, as requested by Nashiita. This allows writers to permanently remove clothing from the PC's inventory. However, this will only succeed if it wouldn't lead to problems in the game. The method will return false if the attempt to remove clothing failed – writers will need to take this possibility into account if using the method.

Bugfixes:

• Fixes to text issues. Thanks to MadCat, Max Mustermann, Sync, Ammut, OrangeJuice and Saur for reporting some of these.
• Fixed a bug reported by Dunk where the groom would sometimes wear a condom when consummating a marriage when he shouldn't be.
• Fixed a bug with the blackmail scene.
• Stopped the nightclub scene erroring if the scene description is requested when behaviour is null.
• Fixed a bug reported by Plundernoob where the willpower test when being taken home from the bar was blocking the wrong action.
• Fixed a bug reported by Mr Simple where your baby's father wasn't automatically being identified when there was only one man who could have got you pregnant.
• Fixed an issue reported by MadCat where you often wouldn't get special text when your husband wears a condom in the shower because of a vow.
• Fixed a bug reported by Flanjygo where it was possible for the morning scene with your husband to not have any available actions.

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