This is a copy of our v021 release post for early adopters over on Itch and GOG.
Hello explorers! It has been a while since you saw a patch from us - just over 2 months. But we have an excellent reason for it! The long-awaited overhaul to the scoring functionality is finally in Sapphire Safari, and oh boy is it good!
Judging Photography
I won’t get into the nitty-gritty too much here as those details you can read about in our last dev diary. But scoring previously was based on the distance to the target and how obstructed they are in the photo. What resulted was players being able to quickly close the distance to an NPC and snap a shot right up in their face and get the highest possible ranking - flat out did not work.
The new system is based on the Rule of Thirds and visual elements of NPC’s. So if a creature is correctly spaced within the photo, and has all its important features exposed to the camera you’ll get a higher score. With this new system, lower-scored photos will generally be the main results, only through patience and positioning will you get higher-quality photos.
The result is that scoring photos is very very consistent now. And if you learn the ways of the Third you will get reliable scoring metrics for the photos you take. You might even get better at photography in real life.
Future patches will include another system running alongside this called Perfect Photo, or PP (hehe peepee), which is an animation-based score multiplier. The exact moment the creature puts her lips to the cool waters and drinks, or the moment when their yoga pose is held at its peak. Taking a photo during this period will multiply the results, and this is the only way to elevate a photo score to above an “A” ranking.
Submissions
With the scoring system in place, the submissions panel received an overhaul as well, separating each monster girl into its own score and allowing players to submit photos for any species that appears in any photo. That score is reflective of their position during the shot.
Future patches will include an output to score the photo as a whole rather than the individual NPCs within, as we will be including additional photo activities that require full photos with par scores.
Lighting and Weather
This next feature is something we are quite proud of, the dynamic weather and lighting system we have just added to replace the old one improves the quality of our visuals. The basics of the system are that the Sun and Moon produce lighting for the whole island, and dynamic volumetric clouds can sit in front and behind the Sun/Moon blocking that light. The Sun and Moon move how you expect them to, rotating around the world, creating dawn, dusk, midday, and midnight lighting dynamically.
With the volumetric cloud coverage, we also have storms and rain effects. Puddles will dynamically cover the landscape and any creatures (players included) who are caught in the downpour will be slick with water and will drip water off their bodies.
The Moon also follows a lunar cycle as well. Starting from a New Moon (no moon visible) to a Full Moon (a full circle), this changes how bright the nighttime is during the game. With no reflections available during a New Moon the nighttime is vastly darker than other nights. This is why we have also included a new nighttime shooter mode for the camera.
This system automatically turns on and off and increases the brightness of photos taken while adding a bit of noise to the photo. We will be adding other shooter modes to help reduce the noise later, but it should be great for now.
Music and Vibes
The final massive change we have made to Sapphire Safari in this patch is the new music and vibes of the entire game. Gone are the days of a silent exploration of the map, now your days and nights will be filled with a relaxed exploration vibe, your stealth actions will be punctuated with a daring sting of music, and entering the menus or submitting photos will have you bobbing your head to the soothing musics. A few other tracks are waiting in the wings to be added to the game, but needless to say this will help give you all an idea of what to expect in the future from us.
Other Updates
Some smaller QOL features were added, things as a new Guidebook UI, map upgrades, and a model update for Jamie to enable physics for her hair, clothing, and buttocks.
Changelog v021
- Jamie physics (hair, cowlick, buttocks, clothing sim)
- map changes (new caves, overhaul plains landscape, sightlines, cliff face overhaul, water replacement, nighttime lighting, and movement fixes)
- lighting overhaul
- weather system (volumetric clouds, rain, thunderstorms, dynamic puddle system, wet skin and fur textures, wet environment textures)
- lunar cycle added (moon changes from new moon to full moon offering unique nighttime lighting)
- sundial UI element added
- weekday tracking was added and a full day in-game is now 15 minutes
- day and weather systems saved for resuming
- nighttime shooter mode for the camera added
- music added (adventure day/night tracks, stealth track, menu and submission track, main menu/theme track, special area track, dynamic volume system, track swapping)
- guidebook system upgrades (exploration menu added for regional task tracking, still needs work)
- system settings back button fixes
- anti-aliasing options added to the options menu (TSR, TAA, FXAA, Off)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/
I hope you all enjoy the latest patch, it was a whole massive ordeal to get the scoring tech working as we wanted. But now that it is in we can adjust our sights to building actual game content as opposed to mechanics. We now begin work on the long-awaited Intamacy Update! Stay tuned for more information soon!