Hey, folks. Chief here with your weekly update. Are you in a good mood? I’m in a good mood. I’ve finally recovered from my illness and get to return to my flying job next week! That means I can get back out there earning and saving money that can be used to increase the amount of awesome things in Fates! That, and I hate sitting at a desk. The old man isn’t one for sitting at home living a 9 to 5. Those stories of excitement and adventure you all enjoy have to be inspired from somewhere, right? Until then, let’s talk Fates.

Wordcount: (6,010; Focused a lot on finishing up Act 2 as quickly as I can. I really want to get off the Planet of the Elves and continue my journey. A lot of focus this week was on the investigation sections of Act 2. Though this may come as a shock to you, I’m an old hand at Phoenix Wright games and enjoy them a lot. One thing that bugged me about Phoenix Wright though is that there is always only a single correct answer. A specific line and a specific piece of evidence is needed to move things along. I get it at points, but there were several cases that had me banging my head against a wall because I had a clear cut solution and the game didn’t like it.

I’m going into this with the idea that there should be multiple solutions to a particular investigation, multiple clues that could answer your mystery or take it on a completely different path. Act 2 is the first point where the clues and how you react to them will influence the story. A particular moment I want to share involves Lenna Edeck, Sol and Faye’s old love interest. During the course of talking with her, there will be several moments where you can use clues gathered to either realize that Lenna isn’t sharing her facts. Pressing too hard, however, can turn Sol against you pretty quickly. He still loves Lenna, and if you want to press her too hard, you can expect the investigations with him to be a lot more difficult. That does increase the amount of writing I have to do though, which is why I’m considering that additional writer.

Art: Still working on the blinks and movements of the characters. I do have a pretty awesome thing to announce. Originally, we didn’t have a character sprite for Natalie. Much sorrow. The sprite artist wasn’t going to be able to finish her off. However, thanks to the awesome Geckos, who is doing those animations, we now have a sprite for Natalie. That’s right, you aren’t going to be forced to do all Natalie/Name scenes from Natalie’s perspective! It also opens the possibility of side sprites again. I’m really, really, really excited. A couple characters are also going to get additional outfits as well.

Advertisement: Speaking of Geckos and her art, if you have a few spare dollars, please consider backing her kickstarter for a pretty awesome visual novel called Brilliant Shadows. I’ve gotten to do some admin support for it and I’m pretty excited about it. You can check it out here.

Voice acting: One last week to get your auditions in!

Lore: Now, for this week, we get to talk about something a little less… happy. While I do have some experience with chemical and biological weapons, I didn’t put a lot of thought into what hit Faye on that desert planet. I knew what I wanted to happen and lore didn’t really catch up. However, as her illness is going to be a pretty strong point in her route (dying tends to be a major life moment), it had to be worked out. Thanks to the help of the Eve writer, we now have a very detailed list of effects to what Faye is now suffering from.

Qudratexadon uses an ibotenic acid base to disrupt the lupide immune system, thus allowing it to take hold without being combated effectively. It causes inflammation of the alveoli, thus limiting gas exchange between the lungs and blood, and causing a buildup of fluid in the lungs. Qudratexadon poisoning directly causes effects to other parts of the body as well. Tissue hardening between brain hemispheres is a common symptom of Qudratexadon poisoning, and causes emotional turmoil, as the brain can no longer properly regulate emotion with reason (the effect is more profound in people that were predominately logical, as those mental tendencies are disrupted). Muscle development becomes hindered, and while the effect is generally universal, most cases are afflicted with uneven loss of muscle mass. In the worst cases, this can cause muscle spasms so severe they appear to be seizures, though most cases simply inhibit basic motor functions. Higher doses have a profound effect upon the nervous system, mainly damage to the nerves along the vertebral column and brain stem, causing impaired touch sensitivity, muscle paralysis, blurred vision, and possibly death.

I’d like to take a moment to mention that Faye is one of my favorite characters, she’s been in 3 visual novels so far. That being said, she is a very, very sick lupide who had the misfortune of ending up in a bad situation. Should she be out there? Definitely not, even with a specialist doctor following her around. Even though she’s a very lazy, very laidback person, Faye’s not going to abandon her friends in their time of need. Will Name be able to help her keep going or will Faye succumb to such a terrible disease…? Faye will be one of the hardest characters to keep alive in this story (both from external and internal problems), but you can do it.

With that bit of lore, I wrap this up for the evening. Remember not to contract deadly toxins! Until next time, Chief out!

Today’s video of the post is one talking about our new spaceship design. Kinda creepy that he does look a bit like me…

Hey, folks. It’s time for some Saturday Night Fever! After finally earning the murderhobo title after a crazy night of Dungeons and Dragons (broke time and space at one point…), I’m here to give you the weekly update! One thing I’m actually kind of surprised about in Fates is that we don’t really have any murderous or hobo-like members in either Natalie or Name’s groups. It’s weird. If this was an alignment scale, most of the cast would be lawful good or neutral good. Kind of tempted to plot that stuff out when I get a free moment… ANYWAY, back to the update!

-Wordcount: (Honestly, with as much editing as I’ve done this week, any wordcount total is probably going to be negative. As the scripts for Act 2 are being finished up for the voice actors, I’m trying hard to make sure that they’ve got clean scripts and that everything is exactly how I want it. If I fub a section and it is already voiced, my options are limited to redo the scene’s voices or retool further story to polish over it. The first option costs time and money, the second option costs story flow. As a man of the flight deck, I’m very much used to the world where most of the time being right isn’t acceptable. That’s why I’m being remarkably detailed and thorough in planning my events, just like I’d plan a flight.

The character route scenes though are a bit more like my usual loose writing style. Since they aren’t being voice due to budget constraints, I can let them occasionally have a free moment without trying to stick to the outline to the dot. Some of my favorite scenes from Reborn were really just organic moments where I didn’t quite know what I wanted to do and let them run wild. Not sure if that’s a good thing to do as a writer, but we’ll find out very soon…)

-Voice acting updates: Voice acting auditions are still going on and you are probably not going to hear the end of that until they end, I apologize. More information can be found here.

All of the voices for the first act by the major characters are finished up. Right now, I’m just waiting on the director to go through and make sure everything is okay. For those of you who have been with IDHAS a while, you’ll remember that I’m a bit leery towards voices. However, after the stellar auditions and the success of the voices in Perceptions of the Dead, I’m very stoked about having the voices in Fates. I can’t wait to share some of them with you all.

-Art: Right now, there are two major areas of art that are still going full steam ahead. The first one is the CG. I’m still pondering doing chibi CG for the more comedic/light-hearted moments, but I’m still very much on the fence. It works better for RA: Hope, which is a slice of life. Fates isn’t as light-hearted and I’m still leery about adding chibi to a serious investigation. While that is resolved, the focus is still very much on the normal CG. I realized that a finished CG has not been shown and I wanted to take today to show one off.

 Link for the full size version.

The other art area starting up is the animation of the sprites. Ear wiggles, blinks, wing flaps, and (maybe) tail wags are being done and coded in now that the sprites are completely finished. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I like having little things like that to add movement and life to the world.

Wrapping up tonight. I’ve got to go into work tomorrow to approve some stuff, so I should get to bed. Until next time, Chief out!

Video of the post… I have no clue why, but I like the song.

Hey, folks. This weekly update almost didn’t happen. Why? Because I nearly burned down an apartment building. As you may have gathered from last week’s post, I was in the process of moving. After more trips up three flights of stairs than I want to ever do again (until I move out), I was almost done. Then I realized I had one day to completely clean the 3 bedroom apartment. Seven hours to be exact. Pretty much by myself. Fuzz had left a lot of stains and messes for me to scramble and clean. I almost submitted to the temptation to clean by fire, but then I realized I had packed my lighter away. So, in the end, I got to waste most of last week moving and cleaning. This week’s lesson for all of you is to bu… can’t say that… plan ahead?

-Wordcount 2,022 (More writing on the core of Natalie’s story. Though they may be sisters, how they get things done is rather different. Not even intentionally different, just how their personalities influence investigations. Name is a very direct person. Writing her investigation scenes ends up with a lot more pressing people and a fair bit more natural distrust. Name doesn’t speak her mind very often and has a lot more internal dialog as she processes the information gathered during investigation scenes. As I was writing Natalie’s this week, the differences jumped out. Natalie confides a lot more into Zuri and Sol, bouncing her opinions off of theirs. Even when she withholds information (by player choice), she still tends to talk her way through problems. The thing I find most interesting is that I’m not sure which of them has the better method. Name isn’t at as much risk of spreading confidential information or letting the traitors and confused in her group cloud her judgment. Natalie can gather additional perspectives and can find answers that would otherwise be sealed off from her personal biases. I’m pretty excited about the comparisons and am more sure that it was the right choice splitting her and Name up.)

-Voice acting auditions are still going on. If you haven’t gotten your audition in, there is still plenty of time as auditions will not be closing until the 24th of April. More information can be found here.

-Soundtrack is progressing well and should be done by sometime in June.

-We may possibly add another writer to help ease the burden on myself. While I am an experienced writer with a lot of time behind the keyboard under the belt, this week has proven how even the best can get beaten down by real life. Another writer would help mitigate those problems and also reduce the burden on me. While I am not completely committed to this idea yet, I will accept any interested writers’ applications at overwatch@idhasstudios.com . Just make sure you send over a sample of your writing, preferably a completed visual novel. It would be a paid post, I’d just need to figure out what the budget can afford.

-Hope is going well and should be out sometime later in the month. For those of you who are new to the weeklies, Rising Angels: Hope is the remake of the original game, Rising Angels: The Red Rose. The story is being fleshed out and finished, the GUI is being implemented, CG are added, and all in all, it should be a fun time for all. We’re still working out the cost as there has been a recurrence of the free for all to enjoy vs raising some money to help add more things to Fates debate. It’s a philosophical debate that will go on forever, I think. Either way, all backers of Fates and studio donators will have it for free and two weeks early when it is finished. Right now, we are waiting on the last of the CG.

-If you all have not had the chance to play Perceptions of the Dead, I highly recommend you check it out. It’s a fully voiced short horror VN done by our awesome partners over at Ithaqua Labs! Geckos is an awesome artist; Nyogtha a talented writer. There’s a lot of cool effects in Perceptions that we are hoping to add to Fates, so… GO CHECK IT OUT! Android version can be found here, PC/Mac/Linux can be found here.

Anyway, I’m wrapping it up. Not only are there a bunch of NaNoRenO games I want to try out, but I need to work on getting back on track. Until next time, Chief out!

Video of the post is one you all should take to heart! I often ask myself it playing Heroes of the Storm!

Hey, folks. Short update today. I’m still trying to get everything cleaned up at the old apartment and settled in at the new one. Exhausted and nobody else was available to help out with this week’s update, so I’m gonna hit just the basics.

Wordcount: 5,222 (I’ve wrapped up the core of Act 2. Like Act 1, there are ways to get yourself and other people killed off. As a writer, I try to minimize how many unrecoverable things like that happen in the first half of the story. It gets very, very complicated when the player starts losing key people and it makes things a lot longer to write. Nevertheless, there are stakes in Fates. Even if they go up drastically as time goes on, they are still there in the earlier acts. Somethings are easy to avoid by using even the tracest amount of common sense. Others… well, you’ll learn over time the lasting effects your decisions will have. As a writer, there is a balancing act between making sure you know what you are getting into and sometimes having effects that could not be foreseen.)

Backgrounds: All of the backgrounds of the Ardent Flare are done! There are five different locations on the Flare. While that is not as many as the Nimross, the Flare is smaller than the Nimross and is more of a personal yacht than a warship.

Voice acting: Voicing acting for the other members of the cast has started. The characters who can be auditioned for this time around includes Alexi, Faye, Yoi, Lenna, Akurel, Miyani, Sora, Syl, Eiril, Nigel, and Stan. Who is a villain, who is a hero…? They’re ALL villains! Or not. Either way, if you are interested in auditioning, information can be found here.

I hate writing these short updates when I had fun ones planned. Next week we will have something incredibly fun planned, I promise. Until then, Chief out.

And the video of the post is a very, very, very important one for Fates.

Hello, everyone! Chief here writing from a pretty barren office today. I’ve spent the last couple days packing up and moving, so this will be the final weekly from my current office. While I was looking forward to this day for a long time, the actual moving parts have completely and utterly wiped me out. It didn’t help that the day I was going to start the heavy lifting was the same day that I also got to do a pretty heavy workout. Not exactly sure how I am going to get out of this chair…

Wordcount: 1,566 (Didn’t get to write much this week. Between packing and moving, I got barely any time to sit at my computer to just knock things out. I plan on catching up though by dedicating tomorrow solely to writing since I won’t have any internet after I finish this post. The other thing I’ll be knocking out is Rising Angels: Hope (the remake of Red Rose). It has a release coming up next month and will be free with early access to all backers/donators.)

Voice Acting update: I’m hoping to have some samples of the voice acting to share in the upcoming weeks. We are almost done with the first act’s voices, which is the core of Celestia. After that will come act 2, which is our first trip to the Nimross and Ardent Flare as well as both teams’ adventures on the forest planet of Tropolain.

The biggest voice acting update though is that we are getting ready to start auditions soon for the secondary characters. The list of characters to audition for is pretty long and there are a decent number of “route” characters who are hiding in there as well. One thing to note is that most of these roles are female. I didn’t realize it when I was making the outlines and deciding characters, but Fates is pretty heavy in the female to male ratio. Funny story involving Eiril accidentally changing genders in there as well… These characters will include… Alexi Faye Yoi Lenna Akurel Miyani Sora Syl Eirl Nigel Stan

Art: With sprites being completely finished until we start working on all of the animations for them, the focus turns to CG and BG. Tscbr, our CG artist, has recovered and work has continued forward for the CG. Got to see a rough for a Zuri route CG that I can’t help but share with you all below. There is a variation on this one that I love and hope you all will love when it comes out. Zuri standing up for what she wants… People evolve as time goes by and working with Young Zuri for the short stories makes me a bit proud of her evolution.

The first set of backgrounds is all done! Right now, all we are waiting on the rest of the Ardent Flare backgrounds, a couple more Emerald City locales, and the backgrounds for Natalie’s adventures 20,000 leagues under the sea. All in all, there are probably 13 more backgrounds that need to be done out of the 36-40 backgrounds in Fates.

Greenlight: After a long amount of discussion with various people, we have decided to use the Greenlight system to get Fates onto Steam. It’ll help spread the word, which is something I’ve always struggled with over the years. More details to follow, but I did want to make the initial announcement now.

And that’s all for this week. As all that remains in my office is my desk, computer chair, and computer, I really need to finish packing up and getting it to the new apartment. Until next week (from our new locale), Chief out!

For the video of the post… don’t ask why I felt the need to listen to this or share it with you. Some things are better left unasked.

Hey, folks. It’s another late night Fates Weekly Update. As is normal for my Saturday, I spent a fair amount of it playing Dungeons and Dragons. First I was a male half-dragon monk, then I was a female human healer, then I evil, then I was a statue, then I was a private eye in a noir story, then I was killed in a dream, and now I’m part-machine. I’m pretty sure this character is terribly traumatized by this point. After Fates, the life and probable death of Hobson might be a story. Until then, onto Fates!

Wordcount: 6,014 (Pretty rough week, similar to last, but I did get to spend a good amount of time working on things. Tropolain is a planet that has a lot of history in lore. The original full-length novel even visited it at one point. That visit creeps its way into a fair bit of the routes of the people who were part of that; Anton, Yoi, and Sol all have scenes that reflect back on those days. Part of me wants to rerelease that original novel, even though 90% of it has completely fallen out of canon. I think I might end up including it as an early release in the book of short stories and then a later release for general. As funny as the idea might sound, I think there may be people who are interested in reading the adventures of Lenna Edeck.)

-Sprites: Sprites are all done! Every single member of the cast is done! The grand total of characters in Rising Angels: Fates is ending at 21 characters. Two protagonists, eight love interests, and eleven support characters. It’s a pretty massive cast to be sure, but there are two storylines and five worlds to visit. One of my favorite things when building a universe is to have it populated with both strong and unique “party members” and a supporting cast that is more than the occasional throwaway without a sprite. The world is populated with more than the main character and love interests. You don’t get that feel of being on an epic adventure through space without the locals.

-Our CG artist is a bit sick, so I’m taking a moment to wish her well. I’m also going to take a moment to remind everyone to eat healthy, get sleep, and workout as best as you can. Taking care of yourself is important. It is going to be a few more months before Fates is released and you gotta take care of yourself to see its release. As someone who has had too many medical visits lately, health is a very important thing to protect. Okay, that’s all for my soapbox moment.

-Today’s big topic is a bit of discussion on how the romance system will be implemented in Fates. It has gone through some evolutions over the months of development and I am quite happy with how things are going. Let’s take a moment to review the changes and what you can expect on release.

Starting out, we originally were going to use the bread and butter points system. It’s a very basic system where every choice gives you points towards a certain character. If you wanted to get on Zuri’s route, you had to say things that would make Zuri like you (don’t be a selfish jerk). This system was used for Rising Angels: Reborn. For most visual novels, this works out really well because the aim of most visual novels is to be primarily romantic. As you might have guessed, I rapidly fell out of love with this system because romance is not supposed to be the leading draw of the Rising Angels series. Yes, love is a part of it, but the adventure is the most important part. I want people to worry that their decision could be ruining a relationship, but saving the world, not worrying how to figure out how to get on a route, gather the points, and try to save the day. Too wide of a focus.

The second version was much more separated. After talking with everyone several weeklies back, I decided that the best idea was to have the romance and the story options in two separate districts. The investigation sections would only impact the case as a whole, while the story sections would only impact relationship with the character. Even then, the impact was going to be fairly minimal. You would pick a character option at the start of the game and the story would bring you along with those scenes being paired along the story. You’d get some options to make the character love or hate you more, but nothing too world shattering. This was a merger of some of the original ideas of the project and the new ones. In the end, I decided that modifications were needed. As it stood, it was too inorganic. If you are screwing up and threatening the universe, Sol wouldn’t just sit there and nod his head. Zuri wouldn’t be kissing you on the cheek if you just accused her of being a terrorist in disguise. Too inorganic.

The final version is a merger of those two. At the start of game, you will get the choice of whose route Natalie and Name are going to follow. No ambiguity, no forced options to try and get on a route. From the start, if you want Natalie to realize her love of hair drills, you just choose that. This will also determine if Natalie gave Kika more time to work on the crystal or if she decided to use it in the engine. Kika and Alexi are with giving Kika more time, Sol and Zuri are with putting it in the engine. However, just because you choose which line of scenes are going to appear between investigations and core story scenes does not mean you can breathe easy. Forcing the player to occasionally make the tough choice between what they think is the right choice for the case and what their heart is asking them to do. I’m trying my hardest to make sure there is rarely a “right” answer. I think this is going to be the biggest appeal of Fates. You are an investigator, lives are in your hands. If you constantly disagree with Zuri and question her all the time, don’t expect her to not to begin to question if you really love her in her route. At the same time, if you don’t ask questions and look for the truth, you all might not be alive to have a romance at the end of the day.

It’s requiring a lot of writing. Honestly, it is a pretty hefty load even for a veteran writer like me. That being said, it is something I think will turn out for the best. And with that statement of optimism, I am going to wrap up this weekly and get some more writing done before I retire for the night. Remember, folks, to try and keep healthy. Until next time, Chief out!

For the video of the post, I want to take a moment to pay tribute to the Kobold (Earth type), the Djinn (Wind type), and the Fire-Souled (Fire type).

Hey, folks. It’s Saturday and that means it is time for another Fates Weekly Update! It is NaNoRenO season, so you know what that means… It means that I won’t be participating this year. While nothing would make me happier than to sit down and write some epic tales, I really can’t pull myself away from the work I have now. Dedication and all that. That means that all of you are going to have to go out there and make games in a month for me! I’m counting on all of you!

Wordcount: 3710 (I decided to take a short break from working core to indulge myself with some content from the character routes. Alexi got some special attention this week. Writing a Raltin character allows me to explore her unique heritage and point of views. It also has led me to a moment where I am trying to figure out what to do about adult content. This isn’t the first time where I’ve had to come to terms with characters letting hormones and feelings put themselves into mature situations. I’ve been practicing and I think I could write such scenes tastefully. On the other hand, I’m not sure I want to bring them in. It’s only certain characters and fading to black works for most situations. This doesn’t work in this particular case because Alexi seducing Natalie is a key plot point for her arc. If she doesn’t, things unfold completely differently than if she does. It changes certain dynamics between them and evolves her arc. This week has been me pondering if I let it go forward and then fade to black before it gets too far, give an option for a softer option that leads to the same place, or rework her route entirely. If anyone has thoughts on the matter, I would love to hear them.)

Merchandise update for backers: Okay, as those of you who follow me on Twitter already know, the person who was supposed to be in charge of shipping everything and had told me had already done turned out to be a liar. It came to my attention this week that he had not done so. After some choice words and removal from the studio, I will personally be taking care of getting everything out. I have a short (inconsistent as well) lunch break, but I have been trying to get all the customs forms and packaging finished up. I’ve got some of the things out and will get the rest out on Tuesday since I have time off of work to go to a doctor’s appointment. I cannot begin to state how sorry I am for this. I apologize and promise that it will not happen again.

I’m going to cut this one off early. I just… uhhh… lost my dinner, if you get the phrase. Apparently I am sick now and probably should go lie down or at least hover near the bathroom. I hate apologizing twice in one week, but I just can’t seem to shake this illness. Tune in next week (or possibly sooner, as I meant for this one to be longer) as we talk about Rising Angels: Hope getting ready to get out the door, new music for you all to enjoy, and some more lore to dive into. Until next time, Chief out!

And let’s do a video of the post for me to listen to as I hack up a lung!

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…

Hey, folks. Sorry for both the lateness of this post and the brevity of its contents. I’ve got a headache bad enough that I can barely see the text. I doubt any of the words coming out of my fingers make much sense at this point, but I’m not going to miss a week because I’m a purple monkey dishwasher. I’m just going to give you the key details this week and we’ll do some more in-depth talks next week.

Writing update: Wordcount: (23900)Real life kept my writing far away from the record. Act 1’s core is all done and a fair bit of Act 2’s core is done. I’m going to be focusing on the next week or so on getting through Act 2’s core so I can get ahead for the voice actors.

Voice acting: The first round of casting has been done. There were 310 auditions for the 6 roles in the first round, which was astounding to me. I want to take a moment and thank everyone who auditioned, it was an incredibly tough decision. For those of you who were not chosen, we will be doing a second set of auditions to cast the secondary characters in the upcoming months.

>  Natalie – Jill Harris

>  Name – Cayla Martin

>  Kika – ScaredTear

>  Zuri – Trina

>  Sol – Matthew Curtis

>  Anton – Patrick Seymour

Random: I’ve been playing with depth lately. Here’s some of my random tests.

Okay, wrapping up. Sorry, will be more amazing next week, I promise. Until then, Chief out.

Hey, folks. It’s the day of love here and I was late getting this out because I was out there enjoying a sexy time with my beautiful love… Okay, that’s a total lie. I spent all day with my cat and staying at home. There’s a blizzard out there! That, and my only love is my love of writing. That’s pretty hard to romance.

-Wordcount: 2,396 (This week was slow. I ended up being the only person working my office this week and we got 4x the amount of work we normally get with our full staff. If I wasn’t doing my day job, I was sleeping and trying to recover. The good news is that most of the time I was preparing for this week. This week is going to be my first attempt at breaking my personal record for most words written in one week. Do I think I can write 105,000 in a week like I did so many years ago? Probably not. Do I think I can make some serious headway into getting Fates finished? Most certainly!)

-Voice Acting update: Voice acting is closed (or in the process of closing as we speak). There have been some amazing entries and a lot of them. I’m pretty impressed by the number of people interested in voicing this project. At the risk of being cliché, I’m a bit sad we don’t have enough roles for everyone. The good news is that there will be more minor roles available at a later time when we cast the rest of the cast. For those of you who auditioned, we will be announcing the roles in the next week.

-Art update: Just a little showing this week of some of the rough work being done on the CG. No matter where Natalie goes, there is always a pair of hidden spies listening in as they follow behind. Sadly, neither of them are very good at the whole disguising thing… (“But at least I’m trying, unlike someone,” Name grumbles.)

Today’s character is Sylvania Logivechk, one of the longest standing characters in the series. As I’ve talked about before, Syl is very strange in that her core personality has never really faltered or changed. However, Anton’s Vacation was a bad moment when her inner shell was shown a lot more than the reason she is by far my most favorite female character from the series. Let’s go into some depth on that.

Name: Sylvania Logivechk

Age: 29

Gender: F

Species: Human

Chief’s Notes: First thing that should jump out at you is the radical differences in the sprite itself. AV was so far off canon when it came to that we might as well have been talking about Lord of the Rings. Syl wore glasses, a schoolgirl uniform, green eyes, very big breasts, very wispy hair, and a stance that was very out of place for her. The sprite was just utterly wrong for Syl, but we used it because that was what we had at the time. Out of all of the characters, Syl’s sprite underwent the most changes. Changes that made her both canon and fell better within how she composes herself. Then we went from the Whispered Voyage’s Syl design and moved to the current one. Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about it.

Out of all the cast, Syl has been out there saving the universe the longest. She started out as a government killer at the young age of 13 and has been earning her keep since then. Prior to an incident involving her brother, Syl wasn’t the stonewall she is now. Young Syl was a tad bit shy and very devoted to studying everything she could about anything. The only real friend she had was the problematic child of a local politician who would constantly drag her into trouble; a friendship that still exists in this story with Sora Doichu. Back in those days, Syl was borderline naive, even to the trade she was a master of performing.

Then a certain incident happened when she was a young adult and everything changed. Only a couple people are still around who remember the fateful mission or the girl she used to be. After that, Syl almost never spoke, going from never saying a word to her current limit of less than 3 words at a time. She became a lot more focused on perfecting her trade and her combative, the wonder of the universe that once inspired her disappearing. While she has warmed up a bit from the days after the incident, Syl never returned to the way she was before.

If there is one thing I loath from AV, it is how Syl was portrayed. She’s determined, ingenuous in matters both physical and emotional, and a team player. She can be forceful when the situation calls for it; I always picture her walking along side Anton, stepping in front when danger lurks or falling back when they enter the political arena. Falling back, but always there to step in. Almost always, Syl will hold back and gather the facts, using moderation when unexpected situations arise.

What she isn’t is a clingy servant of Anton. The thing that seemed to be missing from Anton’s Vacation is the badarseness that makes Syl herself. There was the closeness with Anton that came from three years of living alongside him night and day, but it didn’t have the feel that I wanted. They weren’t two close friends who had been through hell together, it was a shy girl who couldn’t express her feelings. Good story, I often enjoy it, not Syl’s story. While that is a facet of their relationship in the story, I focused a little too closely on it. What I want to do is show the relationship before I try forcing the changes down the reader’s throat.

As I’ve said before, Syl and Name do not get along in the slightest. Name only sees the cold exterior of a former assassin with a mission to protect Anton. Syl sees Name as a glory hound who cares little for anything more than her own pride. For there to be an effective route between them that isn’t them exchanging barbs every other line they share, there has to be something that to give them some sort of common ground. I’ve spent almost the entire last two weeks mulling over what sort of thing could give them that bridge and only one thing comes to mind. Anton.

While she has no problem laying into Anton about every little mistake, Name does care for her boss as an intellectual and as the person who kept her from ending up on the streets after failing as a SITO. Syl has protected Anton for years and the two are incredibly close. If there is one thing that I think would bring them together long enough to gain even a little traction as friends, it would be saving Anton’s bacon. So… it is looking less and less deus ex machina to get those two to have a solid route, but I’ve still got some ground to cover before I feel like it would be worthy to play.

That’s all for this week. Tune in next week for another update! Until then, Chief out!

Got a video of the post this week! Don’t ask why this relates to the Syl and Sora.