Hello explorers! Welcome to another Sapphire Safari patch! With Christmas right around the corner, we crushed hard to ensure this build was in your hands sooner, rather than later. Let’s dive into what's new!

A new Focus

As I explained in the previous Sapphire Documents issue, we have changed how players control their trusty camera and created a few new QOL tools to help snap the perfect photo. 

First though, a disclaimer. You can no longer take several photos within a quick amount of time.

What does that mean? Well, as developers we have an ideal way we want our players to interface with Sapphire Safari, our goal is to have players focus on stealth, making them more into peeping toms. The world needs to react around the player's presence and make it difficult to take photos, unless they are hidden and out of sight. So the first push toward that ideal comes in the form of a Photo Frame Buffer. This is a set time that the camera needs to process the last photo taken. Currently in v019 players can take two photos quickly before the camera needs to charge. In later builds we might reduce it further, once the player has an option to upgrade the camera capabilities.

These two icons on the bottom of the screen show how many photos you can take, they independently recharge, and the UI will hide itself after.

Next, we have removed the delayed focus in favor of manually selecting a target to focus on, this can be done with the Q button. To make this a viable feature we also added grey boxes around the heads of NPC within the viable scoring distance, this way you can visualize just what Monster Girls the photo will count for.

Lastly, we have added two additional features using an analysis mechanic. A full map tracking system and a photo comparison mechanic. To use both, simply select the target using the focus pull button “Q” and hold down the Analyze button.

This will compare the current animation the NPC is doing and the Variant to the photos already submitted in the Monpedia for the General and Variant tabs. Mating will come later, but the icon has been added all the same.

Next, the NPC can be tracked for a limited time. A new icon is added to the Compass and the Map function. 

Directed for higher Frames

The last big feature added to the game is the spawn director, for more details on how this works be sure to read the Sapphire Documents Issue 013, but the basic gist is that instead of a map-wide spawning system with nearly 100 simultaneous NPCs roaming and using system resources for pathfinding and needs, we now spawn the NPC’s directly around the player as the needs are met. The player won’t be able to see the seams of the system which is nice but it should drastically improve system resource use and make the world feel way more alive.

Other Extras

A few more things to note:

1. New nests were added for the Rabbit, Sheep, Deer, Bat, Wolf, and Fox species. The use cases for these are still being tweaked so expect some odd behaviours around them.
2. Malous spawn puzzle foundation added to the plains region. More on this later, but you might see and hear some interesting things around the plains at night.
3. NPC sensitivity tweaks for the upcoming stealth overhaul patch, the girls just react a lot faster to sounds you make. Just keep that in mind for this patch.
4. Running is now a toggle instead of a hold, this is for our controller users out there. No more claw hold.

Changelog v019:

• Added new Spawn Director.
• Added Photo Frame Buffer to photo UX.
• Added new Photo-scoring animation.
• Added Analyze tool to Camera functions.
• Added Tracking tool to Camera functions.
• Added Target identification to Camera functions.
• Added Manual Focus Pull to Camera functions.
• Changed Monster sound radius size.
• Added Monster tracking for SFX spawn on the player.
• Added Monster Nests for Rabbit, Sheep, Deer, Bat, Wolf, and Fox species.
• Added Malous Spawn environment puzzle foundation.
• Added new sightline props to border Plains regions.
• Removed compass from submission UI.
• Swapped Sprinting state to toggle instead of hold.

Stay tuned for the next patch! The roadmap will also be updated as we will be adding another smaller patch for v020. Enjoy!