Hey, folks. My bi-weekly Dungeons and Dragons session ended a bit early tonight, so this update won’t be done at 11:59, but instead at 11:58. I’m sorry, but healers gotta heal. Didn’t do a lot of healing this week, mostly just yelled at midgets, books, and dragons. But before anyone starts complaining to me, that little midget had it coming! Anyway… let’s do that update.

Wordcount: 4,229 (Most of the writing was focused on adding scenes to the Ardent Flare, the ship that you all named! Alexi is pretty fond of her little ship and having the stink of Katajions on it is driving her crazy. Even on her route and you manage to help her believe that not all Katajions are foul dogs, she still really hates the weird smells that Natalie and company drag onto her highly perfumed ship. Part of the reason I like Alexi is that she doesn’t like to stay in the cookie cutter I made her out of. There’s a lot of little oddities to her personality that keep coming out in the weirdest ways as Natalie gets deeper into the Raltin world.”

Music: A couple more songs of the custom soundtrack were finished up. As a reminder, all songs of the custom soundtrack will be distributed to the Kickstarter backers when the game is released. Once again, this game wouldn’t even have been possible without that key support. It will be available for purchase at a later time.

Art: Since there is only so much that I can ask from our CG artist, I’ve been thinking about adding chibi CG for some of the slice of life scenes and some other little moments in Fates. I guess my biggest question is if people would like those sorts of little art additions to Fates? Do you hate chibi illustrations and plan to hit me for even thinking of it or would it add some amusement and would enjoy the extra art? Let me know!

Price: Due to the sheer amount of content being added, we’ve been discussing a possible price increase for the game’s release from $15 to $20. This wouldn’t affect anyone who has donated or backed the project and would be implemented after release.

Okay, for this week’s game topic, I want to take a moment and talk about the history of the Katajion uniform. There are a lot of them that have been added over the years and more that will probably be added as we explore different sectors and roles. Right now there are six official renditions over the years and four of them that are still in effect.

Pre-visual novel era uniforms: (Yes, I drew that back in the day and yes I am ashamed of it) For those of you who have been around since the start of the series, you’ll remember seeing the original outfits that the Katajions were drawn in. Back then, there was no real differential in uniforms between the various sectors of the directorship other than color. Everyone wore what was basically business casual outfits. The uniform consisted of black slacks or white skirt, black leather boots, white undershirt, and a dress shirt and tie in the color of the member’s sector. The dress shirt had epaulet for the rank of the member, pockets, and the unit’s insignia on the shoulders. Various types of overcoats were designed and authorized during this era. Unlike many of the other uniforms, the PV uniforms fell completely out of canon and no characters are authorized them anymore.

Anton’s Vacation uniforms: Because the sprites from AV were pre-made royalty free ones, they were never given KDF uniforms. However, they did wear something kind of like the PV uniforms. The female members wore black skirts, white or gray undershirts, and black blazers. Anton wore whatever the hell he felt like because he is a boss. His uniform wasn’t a Japanese school outfit… stop looking at me like that! Anton’s position in the Katajion Directorship allows him to wear gray uniforms, which makes him the only member to wear gray.

RA: The Red Rose uniforms (Katajion Defense Force dress uniforms): During the failed development of Anton’s Vacation EP: 3, a new set of uniforms were designed by Auro-Cyanide. These outfits were the first real uniform that the fictional Katajion Defense Force ever really had. There are also a fairly wide variety of styles as it is used by all sectors and most of them for day-to-day operations. For space sector, a white dress shirt with either a red or black tie is authorized. Depending on the rank depends on the coat worn over it. For a junior member or cadet, the coat ends at the shoulders. For deck, fleet, or director grade troops, a full coat in the sector colors are authorized. Both males and females are allowed to wear black dress slacks or pencil skirt, though individual commands can specify which is authorized.

Katajion Pilot Uniform: One of the secrets of Rising Angels: The Red Rose is that there was supposed to be a completely different ending to it. Instead of fading to a to be continued, the group was to get a call that total war had broken out between the Empire and the Directorship. Faye was going to be drafted and serve aboard a carrier heading off to battle. To support the pilots, a suit was designed by Geckos to help bring the fighter pilots back alive.

Katajion Space Combat Uniform: In addition to the fighter pilot uniforms, a uniform was designed for the crew of the carrier. It takes a lot of people to make a ship run smoothly and they needed a uniform that could look solid and practical in all environments. Also designed by Geckos, it had a variation that had a gold and red singlet and a pair of tough black cargo pants in addition to having a heavy black overcoat. This uniform was designed to be unisex and have solid utility for crew aboard ships that were expected to go into combat.

Katajion Space Utility Uniform: While the KSCU is used primarily by the marine corps of the Katajion Space Sector, it never gathered a lot of popularity with the core as a whole. Because of this, a new uniform was designed and implemented by Nuge. This outfit was more decorative and less utilitarian than the KSCU, but it also is a lot more comfortable and easier to take care of in austere conditions. While both uniforms wear black pants, the KSUU uses dress slacks similar to the dress uniform, a thick knit shirt, and tunic in the color scheme of the sector that the member serves in. There are variations of the tunic that is determined by what tier of rank the member holds.

And that’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed the history lesson. Until next time, Chief out!

 

And my video of the post is a bit of a homage this week…