vrengames

Lab Rats 2 v0.16.0 Release!

Added 2019-05-01 06:58:41 +0000 UTC

Lab Rats 2 v0.16.0 is finished! Grab it here!

Linux and Windows: Lab Rats 2 v0.16.0-PC

Lab Rats 2 v0.16 is ready for it's round of patron bug testing! This update cycle had two major components: first, character titles were introduced and integrated with all of the existing dialogue and narration for the game. Second, rendering support and a few initial designs were added for clothing patterns. On top of that there has been a major optimization made for the start up time of the game, new clothing items and a hair style have been added, and a handful of bugs have been tracked down and squashed.

Character titles have replaced all of the direct uses of a characters name in Lab Rats 2. A character title can be thought of as the name you know that person by, or the name you are choosing to call them. For most characters this is the same as their first name, but others may prefer a more formal title such as "Mrs.Girl". As you corrupt a girl there will be more titles she thinks are acceptable for her. Girls also each have a title they use for the main character in a similar way. Your mother might call you "Sweetheart" or "Son", while your employees may call you "Sir", or "Boss". Finally, there are used in narration when talking about a girl in relation to you; "your employee" or "your friend". Character titles are now formatted throughout the game to use the same colour and font as that character's dialogue. While looking through menus or reading through narration it is much easier to remember what character is being talked about.

Rendering support for patterns along an initial test batch has been added to the game. A pattern is a section of an existing piece of clothing that can be drawn as a different colour. Patterns make use of a mask to recolour clothing, which makes them much faster for me to render and a smaller file size when added to the game. Going forward more clothing items will receive pattern variants as a way of increasing the variety in the game without significantly increasing file size. This new functionality called for a redesign of the outfit designer. When selecting a pattern you can now alternate between changing the primary or secondary colour. A colour swatch has also been added to let you store and load colours by right or left clicking on the spaces available. These colours are saved and persistent between games, so you can now match colours for different pieces of clothing or create themed uniforms.

Lastly, the release of the v0.16 update will mark the start of phase 2 of Lab Rats 2 development. Previous updates have been focused on the internal mechanical support for a number of different game mechanics: dynamic outfits, character personalities, goals, etc. Future updates will now focus on introducing new, unique characters and producing a detailed storyline to make use of all of these mechanics and tie the game together. Rendering improvements will also be taking top priority. Facial styles and emotions in particular are going to be reworked completely to achieve better results. New body types/models will also be worked on to widen the variety of base bodies in the game. Lab Rats 2 characters may have a different style than they did in Lab Rats 1, but I want to achieve the same level of quality with them.

As always, here's a changelog (v0.15.1 to v0.16.0):

*CHANGES AND ADDITIONS*

- Initial game startup speed has been massively improved. Startup times reduced to between 5 and 10 seconds.

- Added concept of character titles. Each character has a title for themselves and a title for you.

- Character titles are used inside of dialogue in places where their names would previously have been used.

- MC titles are used inside of dialogue in places where the main character's title would previously have been used.

- Added character possessive titles. Possesive titles are used in narration when describing a character's relationship to you.

- Added initial list of titles for each of the three types.

- Each personality can now add their own titles to the general master list a character picks from.

- Character titles and possessive titles now recieve the same formatting the character's dialogue does during narration.

- Character titles and possessive titles now recieve the same formatting when used inside of menus.

- Added ability to talk to a character and change their titles directly. Requires a minimum of 120 obedience.

- Characters now have a random chance to want to reassess their titles when you talk to them.

- Low obedience characters will demand you use a new title or be unhappy. Moderate obedience give you a choice between two they like, but will keep their old title if you wish. High obedience characters give you complete control and are happy no matter what you pick.

- Added "Business Vest" clothing item.

- Added "Strapless Bra" clothing item.

- Added "Bobbed Hair" hairstyle.

- Added rendering support for "patterns". A pattern is a section of an existing clothing item that can be coloured a secondary colour.

- Six initial patterns added for testing:

- Bra now has "lacy" patern, colours lace separately from entire bra.

- Sports bra has been rerendered to remove clipping and now has "two toned" pattern, which recolours the strapping.

- Sweater dress now has two toned pattern and a star pattern,

- Tshirt now has a striped pattern.

- The tied sweater now has a two toned pattern.

- Added .xml export and import support for patterns. (Add outfit exports to the wardrobe.xml file to add them into your game permanently)

- Outfit creator redesigned.

- Outfit creator now supports patterns. When a pattern is selected you can also select if you are modifying the primary or secondary colour.

- Outfit creator now has a colour swatch. Right click on a colour square to save your currently selected colour. Left click to load the colour loaded in that square. The colour swatch is persistant between games.

- Redid graphics for outfit designer tutorial to match new outfit creator design.

*BUG FIXES*

- Fixed several spelling mistakes throughout the game.

- Libido inhibitor side effect no longer adds far more sluttiness than it should.

- Fixed hair colours of some characters being incorrect when new characters were generated.

- Fixed some serum trait combinations resulting in a final production cost of 0 (And crashing things later)

- Fixed serum designs being allowed to progress when they lacked any production trait.