Finally! I'm back with news for Simbro ResErection! Let's take some time to go over what's new and what's next to come. So, this update took a lot longer than expected. As mentioned before this was due to improving the game's performance and trying to fix/limit the number of silent crashes. In the end, I've doubled the performance on all platforms aside from Mac (Mac should still see some performance enhancements). This isn't without trade-offs. Due to the way the game is compiled, players will no longer receive error messages. This will likely result in a silent crash but I believe the performance enhancements are worth it. When will we get the update? As usual, other subscription-based platforms get updates 1 week earlier. So this update will be out in 7 days. This allows me to receive bug reports and apply patches before post it here. What was causing the silent crashes? I narrowed the silent crashes down to how the game was compiled and texture swaps. I've solved the compile issue and fixed some texture swap issues. The texture swap issues are a little more complicated to fix. Basically, when a character icon is made (contacts menu, stage plan, shop items, etc.) it creates a new texture sheet. the game needs to swap between these texture sheets to draw the icons on screen. This can cause older (or less powerful) computers to freeze up and close the game. What's the fix? To permanently fix the issue I would need to create assets for everything an icon contains. This means every hairstyle, face shape, clothing item, etc. would need its own unique asset for each type of icon in the game. As you can imagine, this is a lot of work and only adds to the workload whenever a new character customization option is added. This will be something I tackle in the future, but for now, I hope the previous fix will suffice. What's in the Update!!! I've already mentioned that the game now has multiple weapons and traits added along with unique attacks for every Class. I've spent a ton of time play-testing the game to ensure everything works as intended but I'll be surprised if I didn't eliminate all the bugs. Combat has seen a massive overhaul with the introduction of buffs and debuffs. In my opinion, this has made the game a lot more enjoyable. I'll admit that spec-ing the characters a certain way can break the combat and make you essentially invincible, but I think that is also what makes it fun. I'll go over the attacks and status effects below. Attacks Heal - Heals and removes debuffs (Nurse, Doctor, Assistant) Cheer - Buffs target increasing their damage and accuracy (Receptionist) Charm - Inflicts Charm Debuff (Gigolo, Whore) (More details below) Intoxicate - Inflicts Intoxicated Debuff (Bartender) (More details below) Protect - Redirects attacks from target to user (Guard) (More details below) Back Stab - An attack that ignores the defence status and always hits (Guaranteed Crit if the target isn't defending) (Butler, Maid) Grab - Restrains target forcing them to either struggle or stomp (More details below) Grab Mechanics So, we finally have some grab mechanics in the game. Unfortunately, I couldn't add animations or options for stripping or nasty things yet (due to the current model setup) but it does function for combat purposes. Characters that are being held now have two options, struggle, or stomp. Stomp has a chance to deal 1-3 damage to the assailant. If a character Struggles they will try to break free of the grab. If the character being held is charmed or intoxicated they will skip their turn. Characters currently holding another character can either Wait or Release the held character. Physical attacks on held characters always hit. Currently, poorly drawn icons are the only indicators for character grabbing or being held. Once the main model is updated to handle multiple characters of the same gender I'll have Thelawfulsock do proper animations. Weapon Types Blunt - Blunt weapons have a chance to stun characters that are not defending (more below) Pierce - Pierce weapons have a chance to act as a Back Stab attack (ignoring defence status or dealing a crit) Slash - Slash weapons have a chance to inflict Bleeding on characters that are not defending (more below) All weapon types have a 5% chance of activating their effect. Weapons have different damage, hit rate, and crit chance. You can see the weapons stats in the shop or inventory screen. Status Effects Stun - Prevents character from acting for two turns. If a stun character is hit they will no longer be stunned. Bleed - Characters will receive damage (1/10 of current health) at the beginning of their turn for two turns Charmed - Charmed characters will act as allies for two turns. If a charmed character is hit they will no longer be charmed. Intoxicated - Characters will act randomly attacking friends and foes for two turns. Protection - Redirects attacks. If the redirect target gets stunned, charmed, intoxicated or grabbed the protection gets removed I think that wraps up everything for combat. Like I said, I tried testing every scenario and buff debuff combo but I'm sure I missed something. Let's talk about Weapons! In this update, you can purchase weapons from the Shop. This is temporary until a weapon/armour shop is added to the game. Once the shop is added most weapons will be locked behind mission progression related to the shop owner. Also, the weapons stats will be adjusted as more feedback comes in. Where is the polish? You will notice that some attacks and status effects have no animation. My main aim was to get everything functioning and this update out. I know everyone has been patiently waiting and I'm sure everyone would rather I spend the time adding content they want. As things progress, I plan to polish these things on the side. Where do we go from here? With this last update out we are finally on to the second stage of development. This stage will consist of updates that add content and make the game more... game-like. Currently, things like living caps, runaway customers, tired brothel employees, and reputation gain, among other things haven't been added to make the game somewhat "enjoyable". In the coming months, I plan to fix these things while also holding polls (On other platforms) on what I work towards next. Outro As always I'd like to take some time to thank all of you for supporting the game. I can't thank everyone enough for giving me this opportunity. I love interacting with everyone and I look forward to hearing your new ideas and feedback every day. Thank you for keeping this dream going and being the pillars to this great community.