DD# 167 Ah, Fresh Meat! Part 2 news

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

Continuing from last week's update, we keep exploring other aspects of flesh and meat.

Let's get down to the contents:

First, let's see something mundane.
1, Zhao can now teach you cooking.
As we got Zhao appeared in the relationship menu last week, the relationship value shall have some actual usage in the game. So, here we are. We all know even though he has anger problems, he is still a good cook. Thus, of course, he can train you to be as good as him. It's free. But, each time you learn from him, he will enter a cooldown so that you can't just stand there farming cooking skill experience. With a higher relationship with him, you can gain more experience from him, and the cooldown will be shorter.

2, More Butchers.
The butchery system has been changed to be fully reusable in the code. Thus, we can get other butchers in the world other than Zhao. One interesting example is the doctor in Katan, namely Dr. Butcher. He got his infamous title because of never used anesthetic when he operated on his patients. Local folks called his hospital a slaughterhouse and him the butcher. But, can he really be a butcher? Well, you can ask him about that.

3, Butchers shall have different skills.
If butchers cannot produce more meat than you directly hunting animals in the wild, then why bother? Thus, I changed it so that butchers may give you multiple portions of meat depending on their skill levels. For example, Zhao is quite skilled. Thus, sometimes he may give you three pieces of meat instead of one if you get lucky. However, there are other butchers even though not so skilled, who may still yield better outcomes than directly hunting animals in the wild.

Those are the continuous development of the butchery system. Now, let's go for something spiritual.
1, Pescetarianism

Of course, eating a lot of meat or even only eating meat is quite unhealthy, thus, some people try to avoid eating land-based meat while consuming fish instead. Some others do the same thing but for cultural or religious reasons. Such is the Pescetarianism. Historically, it was a common practice in ancient Japan.

2, Veganism

Going one step further, in order not to harm or exploit any animals, we get Veganism. It further limits the food source one can take to be in line with this tenet. Certainly, it provides more health benefits. In the game, it's shown as negative effects resistance. However, here is a catch. During my research, I found a recent study from Stanford University this year revealed: " Women who switch to vegan diets see their libido levels increase by up to 383%." Wow! That's something unexpected and interesting. So, I added a slight bit of horny resistance reduction here just for some nasty thinking that came into my mind. :P

Followers of both Pescetarianism and Veganism will lose devotion if they eat food against those tenets. However, this is just a soft cap, not a hard one. The game will not fully stop you from eating meats if you add them to your customized belief system. In the secret war against unspeakable horrors, there are desperate times. Maybe you are just a few health points and one good meal away from taking down some cosmic horrors. You can always save the world first and make amendments to your faith later. But, what if someone wants to go all the way down to a darker path? Let's continue our spiritual searching.

3, Ritual Cannibalism (Updated!)

In previous versions, this tenet only affects the skill of "devouring corpse." Now, as our system expanded and covered more types of meat (which of course includes human flesh) and the dishes that contain those types of meat. The faith tenet has now been updated with more features. It now covers all food sources that are considered human flesh. Meanwhile, many enemies such as the Possesseds and the fire imps may now drop religious books that can unlock this tenet. (Previously, the tenet can only be unlocked if you have tasted the flesh by yourself.)

Yet, all those are nothing compared to what comes next:
The updates on Dr. Kyofu! It has been a while since she got new content the last time. Why now and what is happening?
1, She now sells potions and other interesting items.
Well, that's not very exciting.

2, Among those items, she sells Butcher Machines!

It's a new furniture item. Thus, you can carry it around deploy it anywhere, and use it any time. Basically, you get a pocket butcher that allows you to do the butchery on the run. However, the machine may not be as skilled as certain butchers. Thus, it may give you less meat.

3, Memory Distiller
Consuming the flesh is too mundane for your taste? No problem, with some dark science from our mad doctor, we can achieve much more!

This dark machine can extract the memory of its victim, and turn that memory into a kind of liquid that you can drink.

By drinking it, you can relieve part of the memory of its victim, the pet you sacrificed, and gain experience from it. I am not just talking about the common experience, you can also gain weapon proficiency experience, and elemental proficiency experience, and there may be more to come! There are many use cases of these devices. Some wild creatures naturally have some levels of certain experiences such as those undead Russian skeleton soldiers that may come with some firearm proficiency, you can distill them right away, and drink them to enhance your or any of your teammate's firearm experience. You may also find better pets during the game, you can now use this device to make them level up much faster by sacrificing some old pets you no longer wanted. More details can be found on the game's wiki page. It's ruthless but efficient. The choice is yours.

However, all powers may come with some costs. When you experience the lost memory of the victim of the distilled memories, there may be side effects. Meanwhile, if you butcher too many pets or turn too many pets into those liquids, you may find your karma slowly drifting to evil. Even if you only do it once, you will no longer be qualified to adopt pets from an animal-loving organization. All choices come with consequences. Are you ready for that before going down this dark path?


Some other updates of this week include a connection between certain ingredients and the dishes made from them regarding applying and removing special effects. It's not widely used right now. But, the system is in place and will be useful in the future. We also have some small content updates in Hottle with more background history of this town and some other small content updates in Katan that prepare for what will come next.

That's for this week. Once again, Bon appétit.

The full update log of this week:
20240406
English
############Content###############
[Zhao Sandao]If you have a good relationship with Zhao, you can now learn cooking skills from him. There is a cool-down.
[Zhao Sandao]A higher relationship value with Zhao can increase the cooking skills EXP you can gain from him each time.
[Zhao Sandao]A higher relationship value with Zhao can decrease the cool-down time between each time you can learn cooking skills from him.
[Zhao Sandao]He can no longer teach you cooking skills if your cooking level is higher than 50.
[Katan]You can now ask Dr. Butcher if he can actually butcher animals. You will get a positive but much darker answer.
[Katan]After taking that dialog option with Dr. Butcher, he can offer a service similar to butchering your pets.
############System################
All butchery functions can now be reused.


20240407
English
############Content###############
[Faith]New faith tenet: Pescetarianism
[Faith]If your core faith is Shinto, the cost of applying Pescetarianism is halved.
[Katan]Slightly expanded the Den of Pleasure.
############System################
[Faith]Added a function with a mod interface that manages how certain faith tenets can gain/lose devotion based on item usage.


20240408
English
############Content###############
[Faith]New faith tenet: Veganism
[Faith]If your core faith is Buddhism, the cost of applying Pescetarianism is halved.
[Cooking]If meats can apply or remove a special state effect, the dishes made with them shall now inherit such a feature.
[Cooking]If fishes can apply or remove a special state effect, the dishes made with them shall now inherit such a feature.
[Cooking]If eggs can apply or remove a special state effect, the dishes made with them shall now inherit such a feature.
[Katan]Added an entrance to a mine. (Interior areas are still working in progress. Thus, it's inaccessible right now.)


20240409
English
############Content###############
[Map Tileset]Added additional content on the "commercial club" tileset.
[Hottle]Added a new NPC in Howard Commercial Club to provide some background information about this town.
[Hottle]You can now purchase MP5 and FAMAS from the local Illuminati Field Office.
[Howard Commercial Club]Added more decorations.
############Debug################
Fixed some tileset bugs that cause people can stand on chairs in Howard Commercial Club


20240410
English
############Content###############
[Faith]The "Ritual Cannibalism" now grants devotion when its believers consume anything that contains human flesh. (Previously it only granted devotion to those consumed corpses.)
[Book]New Religious Book: Book of Human Flesh. (It teaches the "Ritual Cannibalism.")
[Loot]Corrupted Books may now drop "Books of Human Flesh."
[Loot]The possessed may now drop "Books of Human Flesh."
[Loot]Fire Imps may now drop "Books of Human Flesh."


20240411
English
############Content###############
[Butchery]Skilled Butchers may now give you multiple pieces of meat from one pet you gave to them.
[Butchery]Zhao Sandao may now give you 1~3 meat per pet.
[Butchery]Dr. Butcher may now give you 1~2 meat per pet.
[Dr. Kyofu]She now sells potions.
[Furnitue]New Furniture: Butcher Machine.
[Butcher]Butcher Machines always give you 1 meat per pet.
[Dr. Kyofu]She now sells Butcher Machines.
[Dr. Kyofu]Her procedurally generated quest may now involve four new types of pets.
[Wiki]Added a wiki page about the butchery system: Neolithia.fandom.com [Wiki]Added a link to the butchery page on the pet page. Moved all butchery-related content on the pet page to the butchery page.


20240412
English
############Content###############
[Furniture]New Furniture: Memory Distiller (Thanks to 渺兔's suggestion, this machine can kill your unwanted pets and turn them into Exp Potions. Please check wiki for more information.)
[Dr. Kyofu]She now sells Memory Distillers.
[Karma]Butcher or Using a Memory Distiller on a pet will now move your Karma slightly towards evil.
[Memory Distill] Using a Memory Distiller on a pet now also disqualifies you from adopting any pets.
[Wiki]Added a wiki page about the Memory Distill process: Neolithia.fandom.com [Wiki]Added a link to the Memory Distill page from the Pet page.
############System################
Added an item utility library.
Made the check condition for items that can give weapon proficiency exp, element proficiency exp, and life exp more flexibility.
It's now possible for an item to give weapon proficiency exp, element proficiency exp, and life exp at the same time.
A consumable item can now also directly affect its user's sanity.
############Debug################
Fixed a tile bug in Egypt that allows a character to move to the roof of a building.