Since I was already in revision mode from working on the v10 update for Blooming Nightshade, I ended up coming back to Eldritch Academy and taking a look at it. While I would need a significant amount of time and money to address some of the criticisms I've noticed for the game, one thing in particular stood out as something that I could fix without too much trouble: redundant and unnecessary scenes slowing down the pacing of the early game, especially on repeat playthroughs. So over the past few days, I took a look at a number of things in the game and tried to find a way to fix the problems I saw. The result of the changes I made have reached a point where I may almost have a v2 release ready for the game. However, I've not have time to fully proofread or test this build, so for now I've only put the build on a Beta branch listed as "v2_beta", which should become available soon. (For those who would like to retain the release version of the game, there is a new "Beta" for the game labelled "v1_release". Switching to this build will retain the original version of the game.) Here's a rundown of what has changed in the current build for v2:

• Several scenes removed from Act 1 and Act 2. Remaining scenes have been modified to reflect the absence of these scenes.
• "Partner Choices" removed. All partner choice events have been integrated fully into the common route events.
• "Date Choices" overhauled. Dates in Act 1 and Act 2 work the same as in v1. However, the ending scene of Act 2 now locks in the route, similar to the special route version of the event. In paired routes, Act 3 date events are automatic and are with the character whose route is locked in.
• Due to the shuffling of events, the date/weekday box has been removed.
• Breakup endings have been removed and affection points reworked. In the new system, making too many wrong choices in Act 4 will lead to the Nightmare Ending. (Special route is not affected.)
• CG Gallery and Scene Replay have been tweaked to be easier to use.
• To reflect the removal of certain scenes, the requirements for the achievement to see all endings have been modified. It now checks for all six endings, all twenty-four date events, and seeing the CG in the Aftermath stories. (The achievement still only checks on starting up the program for now.)
• Numerous tweaks to the internal code of certain features.

Old save files probably won't work with this build, but the persistent data file should. (It can have a complicated relationship with the way certain scenes changed for "read text" purposes, but the ending flags are the same.) At any rate, be sure to tell me what you think of the update if you get a chance to try it out. I'd like to find and remove any bugs that may be in the code before I put the build on the main branch of the game, and it would be interesting to hear if the story edits helped with the slow pacing of the early game. I'll eventually get around to testing it myself, but it will be easier to catch issues if someone that doesn't know the code so well takes a look. At any rate, I hope people continue to enjoy the game. For now, I should return to working on the Blooming Nightshade revisions and working on Eldritch University...