Note that the public release will be in 3 weeks. You can also skip the waiting time by buying Star Knightess Aura on itch.

https://aura-dev.itch.io/star-knightess-aura

REMINDER: During the development of 0.39.0 I changed frameworks for the Andorid app because among other reasons becasue the old framework didn't allow for dependency upgrades without losing saves. Because of this switch, however, you need to enable "external saves" in the options before you upgrade or saves will be lost either way! This is a reminder, so those wo already did that for a prerelease build are save. Also, this only affects the Android build!

Okay, reposted that note for the last time. :'D No way, I have to do it one more time for the public release of 0.39.0.... Oh well, okay anyways, let's look into the actually new content!

We will do the usual thing. First look at a quick numerical summary and tour through the main additions. For more details I refer as usual to the previous devlog posts. So, what do we have in store for 0.39.0! It's mostly a lewd content focused update, which will probably be the case for many updates until the end of Chapter 3-B. We have  2 new character artworks, 2 major H-CG variations, 2 new corruption scenes, 2 new vice decisions, 1 new dungeon, 1 new passive,  alongside the usual minor additions.

The two main focuses of this update are on the moral degeneration side of Aura - both with content in the real world and in Roya in the Maid Academy. And those into tf related content are probably going to enjoy the start of the Paulina corruption content.

Let's start with the character artworks! Paulina and Laura got new content here! With the addition of the Laura character artwork, we finally have our real world cast complete... That is not counting a gyaru version for Laura. :) She ended up getting quite a few expression variations as her base expressions allowed me to do a lot of mixing and matching, especially allowing her to keep breaking eye-contact. Oh and a lot of pouting. :'D

Alongside the new character artwork, we also have new scene content involving Laura. Both new corruption scenes deal with her bullying sequence. Finally the Homework Project is completed! However, the new mental changes that are available in this update make Aura into a quite menacing bully and Laura gets to suffer quite a lot. We also get a new passive to go alongside the character change.

In Roya, the big focus continues to be the Maid Academy. I have completed this month the Aura related lewd content and half of the Paulina related lewd content. All Aura Maid Trainings are with this done. And for Paul continues his transformation into Paulina on both the mental and physical level. The Soul-Contract he gave to Aura during the Festival now finally comes into play when his patron finds out about it and makes Aura a very tempting offer to add some new clauses to it...!

There are two vice decisions with which Aura can now interact with Paulina's patron. The first one, technically not vice decision as it doesn't increase vice nor require it, it simply increases corruption but Aura can get vice-locked into it, makes Paulina take the Maid Trainings more seriously. The second one... is well, a bit more viceful. :'D There is also a very unexpected thing that happened in the related vice scene for this decision that I myself didn't expect but Aura had some ideas of her own, you know, while she's add it, to just add a litttttle improvement into Paulina's soul --- to share her love for shoes. It can't be that bad to mess with someone if it's to add such a GOOD interest, right?! Well, see for yourself.

Then, moving on past the lewd content, we also have some more dungeon crawling content to get the final dungeon started - Richard's Domain. I will keep this brief, as this segment is currently not very relevant. You can only access it if you break Richard's barrier using the Star Knightess, as we need to progress further on the Maid Academy content to unlock the proper way of unlocking the way into Richard's Domain. I will just say the dungeon's powerlevel is quite high with the currently existing resources :'D (At the same time as writing this I am already mentally prepared for our local min/max power players to laugh sneeze at the encounters calling them pathetic beyond belief :'''''D)

Okay, that covers most of the new content. On the artistic side, aside from the new character artworks, we have the two H-CGs, one for new 3rd Maid Training and one for the real world corruption Lewd Streaming 3 scene. They are both variations of the bunny suit masturbation H-CG but with adjusted costumes, expressions, etc. So don't be surprised if you don't see the H-CG counter go up in the Stats, since technically these are "just" major variation updates to an existing CG.

On the technical side, well, first we have the change in the android framework. And then a couple other additions. Don't be surprised when booting up the update! You will now be asked ingame to activate the Analytics option when you first boot up the game. A couple of people activated the option when it was still in development, but it's really just a couple which isn't statistically useful enough, so I added  an opt-in question on first game start.

Then we also have the NEW markers in the Skill and Item categories that our assistant developer Trihan implemented this week. I would like to hear more feedback about them! Currently the only feedback I have is from a person asking to be able to turn them off which is why added an option for that as well... But if it's not as useful as I think it is, we may can also by default turn them off.

And then we also have a set of further minor improvements such as new hints Nothing But The Truth, an offer from Luciela to provide hints in case you lose a life and are stuck. (On the pure route she will charge 1 Max WP for this!) And various other small improvements!

Aaaaalright! And that's it for this release! Let's see if we need a hotfix! ...The patreon release already got rebuilt twice while I was writing this post. :'D As usual, for the full list of changes, I refer to the changelog below. Have fun!

Changelog 0.39.0 (26.01.2024)

• Added Laura character artwork
• Added Paulina Maid character artwork 
• Added Maid Training 3 H-CGs 
• Added Lewd Streaming 3 H-CGs 
• Added lewd scene Maid Training 3 
• Added lewd scene Maid Training 4 
• Added lewd scene Paulina Training 1 
• Added lewd scene Paulina Training 2 
• Added scene Homework Project 6 
• Added scene Homework Project 7 
• Added mental change Corrupt Diligence Orb 2 
• Added mental change insert corrupted Deliquence Orb 2 
• Added mental change Weakness Hate 1 
• Added map Richard's Domain first level 
• Added map Maid Academy North Wing 
• Added map Maid Academy Hidden Room 
• Added passive "The Strong Stand Above The Weak" 
• Implemented new android port 
• Set fast-forward on Android to enter SKIP mode 
• Implemented NEW marker in item and skill menu 
• Move Maid Academy unlock to finding James documents 
• Expanded Maid Academy with additional NPCs 
• Implemented Womb of Lust completed version and add it upon completing all 4 maid trainings 
• Implemented Swap UI for circle navigation #5167 (Thanks to Gaurav)
• Implemented analytics tracking of item spending 
• Implemented analytics tracking of gold spending via resource events 
• Auto-applied "no backward when moving randomly" behavior to all detectors instead of using tags 
• Improved android external saves stability 
• Improved parallel execution of android external save file system operations 
• Implemented display of loading effect when waiting for external save export/import to finish
• Implemented event Bringing Party to Richard's Anchor 
• Implemented event meeting Richard in Domain Level 1 
• Added red fog effect into demonic domains 
• Implemented analytics scene 
• Implemented Paulina Maid Score 
• Added puzzle hints to office for Nothing But The Truth 
• Added Luciela hints during trial for Nothing But The Truth 
• Changed promise skill learning text for day 1 to say Aura begins training instead of continues
• Improved new marker and make it a toggle option 
• Upgraded to RPGMaker 1.8.0
• Increased max mental changes 144

Balancing

• Reduced Air Bubble I and II MDEF requirements to 40 and 60 
• Reduced stats of base Hi-Greed and Hi-Wrath Demon 
• Upgraded Acid Bomb x 1 in Mount Firestorm Caves 1 to Acid Bomb+ x 1 
• Replaced Acid Bomb x 2 in Mount Firestorm Caves 4 with Stasis Bomb+ x 3 

Bugfixes

• Fixed typos (Thanks to Kytt)
• Fixed event-based states overriding limited resists 
• Fixed incorrect TLB alias in advanced_states 
• Fixed android saves disappearing when not restarting when turning off external saves
• Fixed Tenacity not working properly
• Fixed Maid Training 4 giving 25 maid score instead of 30 
• Fixed Maid Academy negative energy scene repeating if you leave and come back 
• Fixed Delinquency Orb 2 being corruptible in Chapter 2 
• Fixed issue with skills and items disappearing in battle lists when scrolling with touch input 
• Fixed quests that get added to the log if they are undefined failing after saves 
• Fixed New marker show option reverting to true when the game is started 
• Fixed wrong Jellyfish being enhanced in Lamia troop 
• Fixed Greater Salamander missing an enhancement battle event 
• Fixed Hi-Aethon refined nose reveal having the wrong enemy ID 
• Fixed Bloodshot Eyes[22] lasting 15 turns 
• Fixed bestiary resetting if not skipping intro in NG+ 
• Fixed skill selection window no longer showing for John Rising 
• Fixed Paul's Soul-Contract not updating name when cursed 
• Fixed passable wall in Arwin Cellar
• Fixed cliff passability issue in Winterfall 

Stats

• Estimated play time: 32-42h
• Word Count: 663k
• Lewd Scenes: 97
• Real World Scenes: 252
• CGs: 40 (+1 Bonus CG)