Hello friends of Archive,

we have good and bad news. So let's get the bad ones out of the way first.

Well, we had a new version for you. Just a few more tests and we would have hit the upload button. Sadly, while we did our tests and bug fixing, we also added and changed so much other stuff that we now have an additional "new version". Instead of uploading version 0.3.007 we are now at 0.3.008c. And to cover all of this progress it will be a longer post and be divided into two parts.

Let's start with 0.3.007:

Some of you might be wondering that we still say "Archive". Well, we will rename it. And actually we had planned to do it with this version. Unfortunately we still coundn't settle on a new name. After four years calling it Archive everything else sounds wrong. But as we did spend three to four weeks now on the hunt for a new one we figured it's damn time to relase something new even without the renaming process being completed.

We also did not change our patreon tiers as announced. We want this to happen along side with the renaming process. But basically, when it happens, new versions will be available to patrons first, and only a while later to everyone. Furthermore we will reduce the number of tiers available. The standart one will get you full and early access to the new version, as just mentioned. The advanced tier however will also unlock some special features. Beginning with the possibility to lock the edit mode. But more on that when all of this is about to go live.

One thing that has already changed is an automation on Patreon to Discord. As you may have noticed there is now a Patreon-Bot on the server. It's job is to assign you to your according Patreon tier on the server. As this function is not only new to us but a new feature of Patreon as well, it has it's bugs at the moment. If you have issues whis that, please let us know!

Of course we also did something to the software beside thinking about a new name. The most obvious change happend to the UI. Graphically we did tweak some of the existing parts. But also we did move an important part. The chapter selection in main menu is now gone. When you hit the edit button you will switch into edit mode right away. The selection of chapters you'll then find in the sidemenu to the right. As a tab, just like the variables and everything else.

We changed it because we found our self constantly going back and forth between edit mode and main menu while working on a story. Now that you have the chapter selection in edit mode you can jump between chapters directly. This also is part of our idea to delete the sidebar to the left. Another important reason is to free up space for the redesign of the titel screen.

Last but not least did we spend some hours on new assets for the realtime 3D version of Archive. (Parts of which you will be able to use soon.)

And now 0.3.008c:

In this update two major changes to the software happend. First of all sound! It finally happened. Archive is now able to play it. But to be honest there isn't much of it at the moment. Not when it comes to system sounds, and not in story. But as a content creator you can now name up to 4 different Audio channels to play and group your sound with. This way, players can set each channel separately if the audio files have been assigned accordingly. The system audio files are subject to change, but let us know what you think.

The second major change to the software is the completed overhaul of the UI. The visual change in style is mostly done for now. Yet, some tweaks may happen when the renaming process is also completed. The other change was related to navigation. While working on Archive and expanding it's functions over the months and years a lot of new functions found their way into the software. That's why we have been continuously adding new UI's. Over the time this did became a mess. Long story short we broke it down into one main menu and the inventory / sidebar to the right.

So, yes. The menu to the left is gone. Most of the functions are now visible while on the titel screen or in the main menu. Which you can open up and close anytime with ESC. Again, let us know what you think.

That's it for the major changes to the software. But we also have a major "update" to the story. We added a new story branch for a particular kink ( no spoiling here ;). And not only is it a huge one, but also did it change a lot of other and old behaviors. We had to revisit a bunch of old story piece. Adjust them or rewrite them to make them fit. Or just Overhaul them, because .. yeah, some of them where simply bad. We have also found bugs, inaccessible code, or even beautiful pieces that were used only once and on very rare occasions. All of which we fixed.

Also did we brought in another new "system". This "system" is an attempt to make Archive responsive to your progress and behavior. Imagine it for example as the mood of a person. A person can be friendly, bugged, sad or euphoric. And that would reflect in the way the person responds to your actions. At the moment there is only a very very basic version of this in Archive so we can see if it works. We like to experiment with this for a while. It would be nice if it fit in well. This could impact the overall immersion and believability of her as a person a lot.

Since we changed so many parts of the story, expect new bugs, illogical situations and of course naughty typos :)

Have some relaxing days,

NH

Patchnotes of 0.3.007 and 0.3.008c

- Update of main UI (Style and navigation).

- Moving chapter selection into a new sidebar tab while on edit mode.

- Enlarged sidebar and the hover regions.

- Modding of variable date and timesspan with a random value is now possible.

- Added new story parts. (prox +900 nodes to a total of 6200).

- Adjustment and overhaul of existing story parts.

- Added sounds, soundchannels and a menu to edit this options.

- Connected a huge chunk of story parts which where inaccessible due to missing connections. Thanks to AironCel for finding this one.

- Fix a bug of Version 0.3.007 that stop progress from being saved.

- Reintroduced blur effect to increase readability of menus.

- Some tweaks to item categories, already setuped items may be reseted.

- A Lot of small bugfixes.