Update 2: Old Dog, New Tricks

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Nuntis
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Update 2: Old Dog, New Tricks

Post by Nuntis »

UPDATE 2: "Old Dog, New Tricks"

Welcome to Finmer's second major update.

There's a lot to unpack here, so let's get started.

NEW CONTENT & HIGHLIGHTS

  • COMPLETED MAIN STORY! It will be up to you to solve the mystery haunting the Finmer community... and to stop the ball that has been set into motion.
  • ALL-NEW COMBAT SYSTEM! Instead of a D&D-inspired system that is worse in every possible way, characters now roll multiple competing dice. To improve your chances, simply get more dice by leveling up, trying different loadouts, or using consumable items. Luck is still a factor, but it's much more transparent and predictable.
  • NEW AREAS TO EXPLORE! Visit the environs of South Finmer, with new people, scenes, quests and secrets to discover.
  • 30 different vore scenes for you to enjoy, and that's not counting minor variations!
  • Over 110,000 total words - almost five times the word count of the Demo version.

NEW FEATURES

  • CUSTOMIZABLE SPECIES: You can now choose your own words for your character's species. Not happy with the presets the game provides? Got a custom species? Just fill in the blanks. Scalies, birbs & friends are now welcome too!
  • EXPLORER MODE: Optionally, you may now enable Explorer Mode in the Options menu. This will give you a significant advantage in combat encounters, so you can focus more on exploring the game's story (and/or finding the vore scenes you like) if that is your preferred gameplay experience.
  • CHECKPOINTS: At predetermined locations, the game will now take a checkpoint (auto-save). If your game ends, you can quickly rewind back to that checkpoint without having to restart all the way from your last save.
  • PREYSENSE: Optionally, you may now enable Preysense in the Options menu. This will show a warning when a vore scene may happen, or is about to happen, and describes the outcome(s) (such as endo or fatal). Depending on the exact vore scene, it may or may not be possible to avoid it after the warning is shown. Obviously, this will spoil surprise vore scenes, so use at your own discretion.
  • RUMOR SYSTEM: Various characters, like the bartenders in North and South Finmer, can now dispense hints and info about things happening in the area. They change depending on what you've done in the game so far, so check back occasionally to look for new hints! (Mod authors: you can add custom rumors, too!)
  • ACCESSORIES: Two new equipment slots are available, where you can equip trinkets that grant you various bonuses.
  • EQUIPMENT REWORK: Items are reworked. Instead of raw stats, equipment can now grant various kinds of buffs and effects at different times, and even affect your opponents. They could grant you flat bonuses, or react to combat events.
  • MOD SUPPORT: Create your own custom adventures - anything from add-ons to the main game, to complete overhauls!

QUALITY OF LIFE

  • The character creation screen now remembers the last character you created. The next time you start a new game, the settings will be as you left them, so you can get in the game faster.
  • When you reload a saved game or a checkpoint, the game remembers the last several lines of text from the game log, to help remind you what was going on.
  • You can now exit to the main menu from within the game - no need to close and restart the game anymore.
  • You can speed up or disable combat dice roll animations if you want - look for the new setting in the Options menu.
  • There is now a way to respec your character. Jar'la, the alchemist in North Finmer, sells 'respec potions' that refund all your Ability Points, in case you'd like to try something else.
  • The choice button animations have been sped up and tweaked, to make clicking through a scene faster (such as for when you've seen it before).
  • The Wits stat is now actually useful in combat. Wits determines turn order: characters with higher Wits go first. Getting the first strike can turn the outcome of a battle!

CONTENT CHANGES

  • All old content has been changed, or even rewritten, to fit new the main story. The rough outline is mostly the same, but you'll find many new lines and details.
  • Added lots of new equipable items - some can be bought, some can be found.
  • Added new consumable items like potions. They can be found or bought in various places.
  • Shops now restock and change their wares as (in-game) time passes. Not all items are always available, so check back occasionally!
  • Rewrote the first encounter with Randall so it fits better with the storyline.
  • Adjusted the meeting with Oliver in several ways. Randall now actually has a reason for visiting.
  • After visiting Oliver, he now goes through several stages of grief and recovery, instead of being very casual immediately. Check back on him occasionally!
  • The messenger who went to visit Oliver now has a name (Stip), to make the dialogue about him a bit less awkward.
  • Delayed the encounter with Gavin, because he was always a difficult fight, and this makes it more likely the player has better tools at their disposal.
  • Removed the chase scene with the mysterious stranger in the marketplace, because it no longer fits the story.
  • You can now leave the forest clearing just after meeting the dire wolf, and come back later.
  • Revamped the combat tutorial at the start of the game, to fit the new combat system.
  • Removed the option to pay for a room at North Finmer's inn, because it's unlocked for free soon after.
  • And, of course, new content: there are many tens of thousands of new words for you to feast on.

INTERFACE OVERHAUL

  • All-new UI artwork, item icons and combat dice created by the excellent whoreallycares.
  • Updated visual theme! All UI components like buttons, bars, boxes, bits and bobs have received visual tweaks to make them a bit more consistent and visually pleasing.
  • Reworked character sheet and journal menus into dialog boxes that appear on top of the game, so they don't take you out of the game as much.
  • A new font is used throughout the game that should make text a bit easier to read. You can also still make the text bigger if you want - look for the Zoom setting in the Options menu.
  • Journal entries now have quest titles, to make it a bit easier to scan through them.
  • The game window now has a subtle background color gradient that changes based on the in-world time of day, to help set the mood a little bit more.
  • Streamlined main menu and first-time-startup experience, removed visual clutter from the title screen.
  • Improved inventory screen: items now show possible actions when selected, removing clutter.
  • Improved shop screen: interface is more polished and should be more intuitive to use.
  • Changed some combat-related terminology to remove any associations with D&D.

BUG FIXES

  • Fixed the player being able to swallow characters that are larger than them in combat.
  • Fixed item tooltips not scaling with the zoom level.
  • Typo fixes and phrasing adjustments across all content.

EDITOR RELEASE & MOD SUPPORT

Finmer's editor tool is now publicly available; it is included with the game download. You can now make your own custom adventures, quests and/or smut content for the Finmer engine. A reference manual and a 'your first quest' tutorial that walks you through building a simple quest, is included. No programming knowledge is required.

Join this community to see others' creations, share your own, and be part of the discussion about Finmer's future!

Want to stay up to date with what's currently being worked in? Check out the Trello board.


SUPPORT THIS GAME'S DEVELOPMENT!

Because I've decided to put the game out in the open, free for everyone forever, I do not make money off of the game like many other vore game creators do. I do not have a Patreon for Finmer, nor do I intend to create one. Making games, however, costs a TON of time and hard work. If you enjoy Finmer, please consider supporting me and the game's development with a coffee over at https://ko-fi.com/nuntiswolf - it would mean the world to me.


DOWNLOADS

GET IT HERE: https://get.finmer.dev/

System Requirements:


CREDITS

Many, many thanks to whoreallycares for making all 2D icon art for the game, submitting a couple of bug fixes, helping test the editor, assisting with editor documentation, pointing out plot holes, pointing out more plot holes when I fixed those, putting up with my bullshit, writing fanfic for my characters, and being incredibly supportive of the project from the start. This update would not have happened without you, friend.

Thanks to Noiratblack for stress-testing the new combat system design, and providing super-useful feedback to help me iterate on it.

Thanks to Honoriam, MrSheparoo and FourLeggedFeast for helping test the final release candidates.

Guest appearances:

Club cameos: Vulpes_VP as Vulpes, typoo1 as Tye, The-Outlander as Carson, whoreallycares as Phillip, Noiratblack as Rech


That's it, folks. Thank you so much for playing.

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