DD#147 The Finally of the Paddy Field Story Line and the Arrival of New Faiths news - [Neolithic]To the End

The 145th Week and Version 20231117

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another week's developer's diary.

This is another very productive week.

First of all, we've reached the end of the story of the Paddy Field side quest.
All documents have been updated to the game's wiki, including the walkthrough and reward information.
Now, let's talk about some designs of this final part here. This is a story about a broken man, who lost everything in his life. Thus, the tune is supposed to be quite dark. In the previous design, you will find the corpse of the dead investigator and get your final clue and an item that can be used to solve this case. However, in the final moment of the development, I decided to turn it into an even darker story.

There is no escape from this madness. Even in death.
With Kayir's package, you can finally stabilize Kayir's situation. He will reveal to you a memory.

Of course, he is involved in this story. That's why I got him in the game before finishing this part.
You will find out all the truth behind this side quest. You will find Kayir's past. You will find out why he became this. In the end, this is always a choice to make.

There is no right or wrong. All that matters is if you are in his place, what will you choose?
No matter the choices, you will get rewarded with an item and its crafting blueprint to allow you to unlock Kayir's chect&key game much easier as you can gain the ability to blend in those scarecrows. All his legacy will be yours to take. Thus, it concludes another memory from that old Stone Age online.

One more thing about the Paddy Field storyline, the initial music puzzle now has a text version so that our players who have trouble hearing can also enjoy the game. Life is sometimes unfair, but that's at least something I can do to help.

There are quite a lot more I'd talk about about this story. Yet, that may all fall into the category of spoiler. Thus, I think I'd better restrict myself from talking more about it. Hopefully, you will enjoy this part of the story.

Now, let's move on to the 2nd part of this diary. That's about new faiths.
As many people on RMAsia discord love bunnies, our first new tenet is:

Bunny Worship!
The tenet works quite similarly with the Cat Worship. You can surround yourself with those fluffy bunnies and pet them to show your devotion. This is your faith to customize. As it's not mutually exclusive with the Cat Worship, maybe some of you will even add them both. Anyway, have fun. :D
The second new tenet is:

I blame McDonald's for this. For all your conspiracy theories. This time it is quite real. My local McDonald's gave me some free goodies and I added this tenet in the game. Hey! It's not too bad, right? Especially to people who prefer to use food to heal instead of taking potions. :)
With this new tenet added, our progress to have the seven sins is now at 2/7. But, I'm not here to judge. After all, it's ultimately upon every single person to decide how they want to live their lives and what they want to believe in. (Oh, okay, not just every single person. Every couple of married people too. :P) Anyway, the point is, those tenets are just there. Some may seem very messed up. But, it's still a choice. Fun fact: in Stellaris, people can do even more messed up things. Yet, that's a game for 7+ years old while our game is 14+ to 16+ depending on where you live. Oh, well, life is simply unfair. :)
In addition to the new tenet, we also expanded our faith system to include three new beliefs that you can use as the core of your customized faith system:

We live in a colorful world. It's people's difference and diversity makes it beautiful.
As for now, we get 20 different belief cores and 35 different tenets. The number will continue to increase in future updates. I am also open to suggestions. :)

Next up is a new way to make money.
It's literally just...making money.

A new 3D printing blueprint has been added to the game. You can get it from different sources such as directly purchasing it from some shady merchants or defeating some bandits and hoping them to drop it. Anyway, it's now possible to print money from all those 3D printers as long as you get enough material. Sounds great, right?
OK, here is the catch.
In addition to it being illegal in real life, one challenge of printing money is, that it's just not worth it. You will need to find specific materials to make the money you print look real. You will also need a highly skilled forger to model the money with all the details so that it looks real. Thus, let's do some math in the game,

f(x) is the profit you can gain from printing money and x is your 3D printing skill, 7200 is the cost of the material you need to print each batch of money. Thus, unless you can find ways to reduce the cost of the materials, it will take a long way to break even. You will need to train someone to have their 3D modeling skill reach about level 50. Thus, it's really a long way to go. Of course, they may find cheap materials somewhere in the game. But, that will be another topic. The point is, it's not that easy to make a lot of money even if you know all the details about how to print money. It's also illegal. :)
But, once again, it's still a choice that shall exist, a feature we shall have to make this world more free and colorful.

Of course, everything above is turning this diary quite heretical. Before any inquisitor breaks in and shouts at me or shoots at me. Let me introduce our next feature added this week. That is the Indulgences. Those pieces of paper somehow have the ability to amend all your sins or negative Karma as long as you purchase them and use them. At least, some medieval priests told me so. You can purchase them from Samujier Cathedral. You can also find them among the loots of certain enemies. You may find them useful when you are about to do something sinful. Oh, wait. I think I'm just making the diary even more heretical. XD

In addition to everything mentioned above, that's the daily routine of the development. More bugs got fixed thanks to your feedback, Samujier areas continue to expand, and we also got some life quality improvements. Please check the full update logs for details.

That's for this week. Steam autumn sale is upon us next week. We will have some discounts to welcome new players, and also, our will journey continue. Probably we will see another iconic figure from that Stone Age Online next week. :)


This week's full update log:
20231111
English
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[Crafting]New crafting content: Counterfeit Money. (The amount of money you can get is heavily depending on your 3D modeling skills. In theory, you will need at least lv50 to cover the material costs. Alternatively, finding somewhere to get cheap materials may also make it profitable.)
[Egypt]Random shady vendors in the Abandoned House may sell the recipe for "Counterfeit Money."
[Commodity Market]Random shady vendors may sell the recipe for "Counterfeit Money."
[Dr Kyofu's Lab]Added a 3D printer.
[Loot]Random businessperson-type enemies may now drop the recipe for "Counterfeit Money."
[Loot]Bandits now have their own loot tables. They may also drop the recipe for "Counterfeit Money."
[Wiki]All those methods to learn how to "Counterfeit Money" have been updated to the game's wiki.
[Liu]The entrance of the "Quarantined Neighborhood" is now more obvious.
[Siberia] Returning a stolen washing machine back to Ukraine now gives more reputation rewards.
############System#################
[Dialog Window]When the name of an item is displayed in a dialog, the system now automatically sets the color of that name.
[System]Added new system module: WindowsBase_TextProcess to handle global text process.
###########Debug##################
[Jackel's Nest]Fixed a bug that causes the nurse to sell blood at a very very high price. (Thanks to 渺兔's streaming.)
Fixed a missing icon for a book. (Thanks to 渺兔's streaming.)

20231112
English
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[Faith]When you enter the faith menu with the mouse deactivated, a popup will now appear to remind you to enable the mouse so that you can see details of those faith cores and tenets when you hover over them.
[Animal]You can now pet wild bunnies to recover some MP.
[Faith]New Tenet: Bunny Worship. (Function similar to "Cat Worship." Added for 渺兔. :D)
[Faith]Reduced the cost of adding "Cat Worship" to your customized faith.
[Faith]Gatling Bodhisattva now gives +8% firearm damage. (Previously 5%)
[Craft]Your 3D modeling skills now have an impact when crafting Analysis Pads.
[Craft]Your 3D modeling skills now have an impact when crafting Plastic Pants.
[Craft]Your 3D modeling skills now have an impact when crafting Plastic Shirts.
###########Debug##################
[Unfinished Building]Fixed a typo. (Thanks to Chuliko's Streaming today. :D )
[Pray]Fixed a bug that using pray in combat can cause some text display errors. (Thanks to Chuliko's Streaming today. :D )


20231113
English
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[Maze underneath the Paddy Field 3F]New Boss: The Lost Investigator. (Instead of a corpse as previously designed, he is now something different. )
[The Lost Investigator]Other scarecrows will join him to attack you if you are engaged in a battle with him.
[The Lost Investigator]However, he will not join other scarecrows to attack you.
[Wonderland Travel Agency]The Lost Investigator is now a potential boss in Halloween-themed random dungeons.
[Faith]New Tenet: Glouries Gluttony


20231114
English
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[Faith]Renamed Glouries Gluttony to Glories Gluttony
[Faith]Glories Gluttony now gets a 50% discount when adding if you are a Lucifer worshiper.
[Faith]Carnal Exaltation now gets a 50% discount when adding if you are a Lucifer worshiper.
[Faith]Your first tenet now has a -80% discount. (Previously -50%)
[Kayir's Key]It now has the tag of "Key Items."
[Maze underneath the Paddy Field]New key item: Kayir's Medicine.
[Maze underneath the Paddy Field]New document: the Investigator's Note #4. (That's all the Investigator's Notes.)
[Maze underneath the Paddy Field]Both of them will drop from the Lost Investigator.
[Maze underneath the Paddy Field]A part of the story between Kayir and Father Emilio has been added to the game. It's inaccessible right now. Pending finishing the rest parts of Kayir's story. (This part of the story reveals a lot of truth behind this entire side quest and the Father's unique ability.)
###########Debug##################
[Maze underneath the Paddy Field]Fixed a number error in the Investigator's Note #3


20231115
English
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[Maze underneath the Paddy Field]Mission Complete!
[Item]New item: Scarecrow Disguise
[Craft]New Crafting Blueprint: Scarecrow Disguise (Attributions scaled with your 3D modeling skills.)
[Random Citizens]They will react to your Scarecrow Disguise if you are wearing it.


20231115B
English
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###########Debug##################
Fixed a bug that Dr. Jackel somehow can make you unable to sell items to other vendors. (Thanks for 渺兔's streaming.)
Technically: Window_ShopSell now automatically resets $game_variables[100] and $game_variables[101] in its dispose function to avoid any future human errors.
[Bypass Password]Fixed the mission does not display the working location in Chinese localizations. (Thanks for 渺兔's streaming.)
[Boss Fight]Fixed a bug that caused COVID-19 Vector's boss fight placement somehow got messed up. (Thanks for 渺兔's streaming.)
[Item]Fixed a typo on Item-625 in Chinese localizations. (Thanks for 渺兔's streaming.)


20231116
English
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[Maze underneath the Paddy Field]The music puzzle now has a text version for people who are hard of hearing to enjoy the game.
[Samujier Hospital]Added two new dialog options on the Skeleton Doctor.
[Samujier Hospital]Added two restrooms.
[Samujier Hospital]Added two sets of alchemy devices.
[Samujier Hospital]Added another nurse who sells alchemy ingredients.
[Alchemy]Silvers and Gold are now alchemy ingredients. (Please check the game's wiki to see their elemental effects.)
[Faith]Samujier faith now also grants the skill to pray.
[Faith]New Belief: Sikhism (Just a very basic version. More content to be added in the future.)
[Samujier Cathedral]Added a new merchant
###########Debug##################
Fixed a bug that a dead character can sometimes take their action again after being revived at the same turn. Now, when a character is dead, they will be removed from the action queue.(Thanks for 渺兔's bug report.)


20231117
English
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[Faith]New Belief: Zoroastrianism
[Faith]New Belief: Mu-ism
[Item]New Item: Indulgence
[Samujier Cathedral]The merchant now sells Indulgences
[Loot]The following enemies may now drop Indulgences: The Possessed, zombies, demonic nuns, business people, bandits, and random citizens.
[Indulgence]It can be recycled into paper.
[Hello Stranger]After the combat simulation, when talking to Alicia, you will now have an additional confirmation before following her to start the next part of the story. (Thanks for 阿碳's video.)
[Samujier Cathedral]Added an altar.
###########Debug##################
[Special Tractor Operation]Fixed a typo. (Thanks for 渺兔's bug report.)