New patch day! Check out the changelog for the new hotness – the next couple paragraphs are an update on Azra development and my health.

Art for the lovely Venus provided by Adjatha!

First off: Azra’s third expedition. Authored by Skom, it’s around 150 pages of content, and I took another pass through to check up on my last set of corrections and requests. The first go had been fairly brutal – I’m picky about Azra since I wrote most of her content myself (recruitment to most of the two followup expeditions) so I’d like to avoid any significant variance in her personality or the way the her expeditions flow. I’m happy to say most of the issues I had with her characterization have been resolved. One of the NPC encounters (a male Nyrea) still requires reworking to match their biology as defined by their codex. Skom had some neat ideas that he thought were kind of hot (and to be honest, I do kind of think would be interesting on different species) that didn’t quite mesh with the established lore. I also rewrote some of the early epilogue content for characterization, even though I slipped into doing something I had asked Skom not to do in my previous rewrite request! (Sorry! I’m a pain, I know…) I’d like to start working on the coding for finished portions  of Azra’s third expedition this week, and hopefully have it in your hands in 1-2 weeks from the time of this post – HEALTH PERMITTING.

Which brings me to my next topic: my health. I’ve caught some flack with previous posts about my recent health issues being manufactured, but that is sadly not so. After sliding back toward the gutter bit last weekend, I went to urgent care on monday. The diagnosis? Post-Covid bacterial sinus infection and impacted earwax in my left ear. Given the difficulty they had extracting the blockage Wednesday and the fact that my left side ear has felt a bit off for a while, I suspect that was impairing me for a rather long time. I’m now in the last half of my antibiotic course with a clear ear, but I worry that there’s one more issue to chase down. During the end of Covid, I started getting shooting pains into my neck while blowing my nose (especially the left side), as I often had to blow quite hard on that side. Well, the pain in my neck persists on and off even as my sinuses and ear are returning to normalcy. My worry is that the overpressure may have torn or herniated something around my larynx. I’m hoping that with my sinuses cleared (and avoiding pressurizing myself) I can take it easy on those tissues and recover naturally, but if I’m still having issues when I run out of antibiotics later in the week, I’ll be trying to source an ENT (ear, nose, and throat doctor) to help me get it sorted ASAP.

I don’t think it’ll slow me down too much unless it winds up being something that needs surgery. I’ll keep you posted.

0.9.157 Hotfix:

• Venus’s first encounter is now in the middle jungle (around the plantation and near the probe) or in the deep jungle (the darker green area) where venus pitchers and their elders can be found.
• Venus’s repeat encounters should now be found anywhere except the the vanae-occupied region.

0.9.157 Changelog:

• [Now Public] Paulette’s second quest is now available! Are you a bad enough dude to save the zaika? Or will the nefarious Dr. Ovvi’s inventions spell your doom? (D-O-O-M spells doom!)
• [Backer Exclusive] New NPC: Venus, a venus pitcher that becomes ambulatory after an accidental encounter with Captain Steele. She can be repeatedly interacted with and eventually moved into Esbeth as a proper resident! Right now she can be encountered in the first, easy jungle zone, but I’m going to be repositioning her encounter to the middle and deeper jungle zones where other venus pitchers can be encountered in the next patch or hotfix. (Written by Somechuvak and coded by Leek.)
• [Backer Exclusive] New Extrameet Encounter on Tavros: Deenya, a muscular kaithrit looking for a big strong submissive who likes to struggle a little before giving in. (Written by Melonear and coded by Fenoxo)
• New Item: Kiro’s Dress, obtainable during her quest. (Jacques00)
• Some fixes for Kiro’s quest’s cheats. (Jacques00)
• New Busts: Venus (clothed & nude).
• Numerous fixes for Jana and nursery content. (Jacques00)
• Improved virginity-taking messages in Fisianna’s content. (Jacques00)
• Minutes consumed by movement should now consider the movement cost of the room being left as well as the room being journeyed to. (Jacques00)
• Updated some encounterText() to use encounterTextGenerator() and make them compatible with the Combat Description toggle option, hopefully reducing the number of commonly repeated long texts in some fights. (Jacques00)
• If the “Display Reputation Changes” toggle is on, changes to personality should be visibly displayed. (Jacques00)
• Added an option toggle to disable current lust level from impacting appearance descriptions of vaginal wetness. (Jacques00)
• Under the hood work to prepare for the player mannequin to display ears and tauric body shapes. (Jacques00)
• Huge amounts of typo fixes, particularly in Paulette’s second quest. (Thanks Jacques00 and our fearless forum bug reporters!)