Hi, my fellow faithful, welcome to another week's developer's diary.

This week, you can see your faith's influence continue to grow with more and more people you can convert to your cause. From the beggars and homeless to the police officers and even the monks.

For each successful conversion, they shall add their contribution to your influence in this area.

Each follower may have their own original belief. The closer your faith is to theirs, the easier they will convert. A police officer who believes in Law and Order may try to follow your faith that has this tenet when they are disappointed with a corrupted legal system they see no other ways to improve. A monk may consider your Buddhist faith not so different from theirs but more true. A random citizen in China may be more happy to join your faith if you also claim to be a descendant of Dragons.

Each follower may come with a different background. May such diversity be your strength. Let the monks who joined your faith spread your words and gather devotion. Let the police officers secretly follow your truth and provide you a path to escape the prosecution of the false authority in time of need.

(Well, not necessarily "Hydra," they just put your faith's name here. You may get something more creative.)

Meanwhile, you no longer need to convert new followers one by one, all by yourself. Once you have enough devoted followers, you may see your faith's local influence passively grow on its own. You may also invest your resources in some old-school propaganda. Maybe you can post some religious articles on that infamous fake new newspaper known as the "Universal Times" and see some naive people come to join your flocks without any second thoughts.

As your faith grows and more people of different occupations join your ranks, various effects will appear on your faith influence page.

In this supernatural cold war behind the veil, we may win it by simply conquering people's hearts.

With the spreading of your faith, we also discovered more faith tenets that you can further customize your desire.
Astrologers proclaim the coming of the Year of Snake as the Year of Dragon will soon depart.

More snake-related content may randomly appear when we approach the Year of Snake in the Chinese Calendar.
But since we are not there yet, maybe we should also give the Year of Dragon a departing gift.

The Descendant of Dragons is a cultural identity of many people with East Asian ancestors.
But you know Dragons come in different colors if you have learned it in the game's lore. Many can make such a claim while having totally opposite beliefs. It's still an ongoing war of succession among various factions. Will yours be the one who comes out victorious to be the true heir?

Aside from the religious and ideological turmoil, the other parts of the world are also evolving.

The save/load menu now has multi-thread support to make everything much faster.

The master of a certain house in Hottle finally revealed himself, foreshadowing a new story.

With enough persuasion, you can now even officially turn your emotional-support demon into an emotional-support demon cat instead.

Yes, it's been a community meme for quite a while.

That's for this week. Will you be a saint to serve as a shepherd to your followers or be a cult master to dominate the world and further your own gains? It's all your tales to tell in this vast open world.

The full update log of this week:
20250111
English
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[Save/Load]Added multi-thread support and some other optimization to make it run much faster. (No more loading 51 save files altogether.)
[Menu]The in-game menu's sliding effect is now twice as fast as before.
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[Menu]It's now possible to draw scaled character portraits in any window.
简体中文
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【存档/读档】加入了多线程支持和一些别的优化，让其运行起来更快了。（不再一次载入51个存档文件了。）
【菜单】游戏中的主选单现在划入的速度是以前的两倍。
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【菜单】现在可以在任何窗口中绘制缩放的角色头像。

20250112
English
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[Save/Load]Added another optimization that shall reduce your CPU's burden when loading your save files in our new multi-thread manner. (It's relatively minor as the loading does not really have too much CPU cost even without this optimization.)
[Save/Load]Once a save file is loaded, the selection rectangle shall also update correctly.
[Conversion]When police officers try to arrest you, you can now try to convert them to your faith. (A failed attempt leads to battle.)
[An Adventurer's House]Added a secret room.
[An Adventurer's House]Added a new BGM.
[Character Customization]Added a new playable male character appearance.
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[Police]Fixed a bug that causes the police force to not retreat after you do all kinds of things that shall make them retreat to them.
简体中文
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【存档/读档】加入了另外一个优化，可以在多线程读取文件的时候降低你的CPU负担。（好吧，实际上本来也没什么负担。）
【存档/读档】在多线程读取了一个文件后，该文件的选项框现在也会自动更新。
【转化】在疁城的警察来逮捕你的时候，你现在可以尝试说服他们加入你的信仰。（一个失败的尝试会导致战斗。）
【一位冒险家的房间】加入了一个隐藏房间。
【一位冒险家的房间】加入了新的背景音乐。
【角色自定义】加入了一个新的可用男性角色造型。
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【警察】修复了一个导致警察不会在你进行了各种应该让可以撤退的事情时撤退的BUG

20250113
English
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[Conversion]Convert police officers in Liu now provides additional effects.
[Conversion]If your faith has certain tenets, such as "Law and Order," converting police officers in Liu will become easier.
[Faith Influence]Once you have enough influence in Liu, you may encounter some police officers who are under the influence of your faith, and they will ignore your crimes.
[Wiki]Added a new page on the game's wiki, "Spread Your Faith." https://neolithia.fandom.com/wiki/Spread_Your_Faith
简体中文
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【转化】转化疁城的警察现在有额外的效果。
【转化】如果你的信仰包含特定的信条（比如：法律与秩序）说服警察加入你的信仰的难度会降低。
【信仰影响力】当你的信仰在疁城有足够的影响力，有时你会遇到被你的信仰影响的警察，他们会无视你的犯罪行为。
【维基】加入了新的页面【传播你的信仰】https://neolithia.fandom.com/wiki/Spread_Your_Faith

20250114
English
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[Conversion]You can now convert beggars in Liu's sewer to your faith.
[Conversion]You can now convert homeless people in Liu's Dark Alley to your faith.
[Racial Trait]Snakes now have +4 sneak levels.
[Wiki]Updated the "Spread Your Faith" page.
简体中文
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【转化】你现在可以转化疁城下水道里的乞丐追随你的信仰。
【转化】你现在可以转化疁城暗巷里的无家可归者追随你的信仰。
【种族天赋】蛇类生物现在有+4潜行等级。
【维基】更新了【传播你的信仰】页面。

20250115
English
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[Faith]New Tenet: Descendant of Dragons
[Conversion]If your faith has the "Descendant of Dragons" tenet, you can convert most of the people in Liu slightly easier.
[Faith]New Tenet: Snake Worship
[Conversion]You can now spend money to post propaganda articles on "Universal Times" to spread your faith.
[Wiki]Updated the Faith Tenet page.
[Wiki]Updated the "Spread Your Faith" page.
简体中文
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【信仰】新信条：龍的传人
【转化】如果你的信仰包含【龍的传人】信条，那么你转化疁城大部分人的难度会略微降低。
【信仰】新信条：蛇类崇拜
【转化】你现在可以花钱在《环宇宙时报》上发表文章来传播你的信仰。
【维基】更新了维基的信仰信条页面。
【维基】更新了维基的【传播你的信仰】页面。

20250116
English
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[Deal With the Devil] You can now convince Mephisto to turn into a cat. (A community meme from the long prologue now comes true. Your relationship with Mephisto affects the difficulty of this persuasion check. If you have a good relationship with him, you can convince him very easily. Alternatively, you can use a loaded dice to cheat this skill check.)
[Deal With the Devil]Once Mephisto turns into a cat, his portrait will change into a cat.
[Deal With the Devil]Once Mephisto turns into a cat, his name will display as Meowphisto.
[Deal With the Devil]Once Mephisto turns into a cat, random "Meow~" will be added to his dialogs.
简体中文
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【恶魔契约】你现在可以说服梅菲斯特变成一只猫猫。（某个长序章产生的欢乐的梗现在成真了。你和他的关系会影响说服的难度。关系越好，越容易说他变猫。或者，你可以直接拿一个注铅骰子在技能检定的时候砸他。）
【恶魔契约】在梅菲斯特变成猫以后，他的头像会变成猫。
【恶魔契约】在梅菲斯特变成猫以后，他的对话中的名字会变成喵菲斯特。
【恶魔契约】在梅菲斯特变成猫以后，他的对话中会随机出现【喵~】

20250117
English
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[An Adventurer's House]You can now find the owner of this house with three dialogue options that provide information.
[An Adventurer's House]Added a bedroom. You can enter it by picking or destroying a lock.
[An Adventurer's House]You may find something suspicious in the bedroom. If you find it, another dialogue option will unlock on the owner.
[Conversion]You can now convert monks in Liu to your faith.
[Faith Influence]Once you have converted enough people, your faith influence may start to grow automatically in this area.
[Wiki]Updated the "Spread Your Faith" page with more information about the effects of those monks you convert.
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[Conversion]Fixed a bug that caused the beggars and homeless people you converted in Liu not to add to your faith's influence correctly.
简体中文
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【一位冒险家的房子】你现在可以在这里找到屋子的主人。有三个对话选项提供相关信息。
【一位冒险家的房子】加入了一个卧室。可以通过撬锁或拆锁进入。
【一位冒险家的房子】在卧室里你可能发现可疑的东西。发现后会解锁和屋子主人的另一个对话选项。
【转化】你现在可以转化疁城的和尚加入你的信仰。
【信仰影响力】当你在一个区域的信徒数量足够多，你的信仰影响力将会在该区域自动被动增长。
【维基】更新了维基的【传播你的信仰】页面。包含了这些被转化的和尚的效果。
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【转化】修复了你在疁城转化的乞丐和无家可归者未正确对你的信仰提供影响力

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