Goblin Layer [Parodos] [v0.58.8]

Last update was cinematic, this time the focus is on gameplay! New places to see and things to do.
The main story also progresses forward!
Compared to previous updates, there's definitely an above average amount of new playtime 
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Art/Scenes/"Plot"
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Chapter 8 & the main story continues...
Barrel waves a "magic wand" around.
Lot's of new dialogue and gameplay-style cutscenes
Some new 3D cutscene stuff as well. Though the focus is on gameplay this time.
A deep delve into the Protagonists inner workings and backstory...
Why does no one have real names?
A montage!
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Gameplay
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Some New FX
New Enemies & Encounters
New items
New skill for Barrel
New skill for Priestess
Some skills & states have changed or new functionality
New Dream area to explore
New Dream area(s) to see
Some new sprites
New (kind of)(technically a modified track)music track for the Dreamscape
New combat music track for the Dreamscape
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Bugfixes
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Fixed magicians hat being unequipable
Fixed scroll of fire not stacking in inventory
Fix some typos which were long overdue
Fixed a trigger that might've reset the Litterbox fight
Fixed a bug (I think) that made Anvil's skills not work with Longbows
Blessed properly applies order damage on basic attacks
Fix XP bug when choosing Chapter 7

v0.58.7 Bootleg Anime Edition
The changelog is gonna look a bit different this time cause it ended up being a highly cinematic update.
Since it moves the main story forward I'd say its a significant update!

The  main story  continues as the gang attempts to deep dive into the Protagonists dreamscape.
So it's got the usual 'significant story update' stuff including:

- Main Plotline Progression
- New Animations/Cutscenes
- New Dialogue
- New Sound FX

To explain: The animations/cutscenes in this game are played through pre-rendered video files.
For example all of Chapter 2 has 6 cutscenes like that, and Chapter 3 has 8 in total. (mainly short spicy loops).

This update I ended up with a total of 14, and they also ended up being more elaborate and longer than average. I figured since we're doing a dream arc, its a good time to experiment a bit and try new things. I could probably have spent less time on this, but it was fun and my animation and and rendering skills improved a bunch in the process.

Behind the scenes I've also made 5 or so "spicy" animations and added them to a library. As in they are raw animation data that I can apply to any model. Will save some time and come in handy in the future... I've also been studying stylized rendering.

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Polished/Added:
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Added a unique reward for defeating Greenbeard (Sewer Pirates, Watertown) /Enemies + Armor
Added unique reward for defeating Gunnar the Lucky (Sea Raiders, North) /Enemies + Armor
Added Rusty Throwing axes to loot lists
Added some new animations (for FX & Combat)
Added a Fountain of Rejuvenation to the Secret Room in the Sewers
Added Scroll of Protection to loot lists
Various enemies have gotten new skills, e.g. throwing spears & axes for Sea Raiders
Extra lootables placed on some maps
Debug: FadeIN item changed to Debug: Screen. Can clear pics/videos/blackscreen now.
Improved Anvil's "arrow nerd" scene during Chapter 4
Made some improvements to Hoblina's Arrival & aftermath scene during Chapter 5
Improvements to the Paladin's intro scene (leading up to the 'main' scene)
Various other scenes throughout the game have also recieved small tweaks and improvements, can be bothered list them all
Some enemies might have new skills at higher levels
Light effects should be more vivid now, and the ambient light indoors slightly brighter.
Fade during map transfer should feel slightly smoother/faster now
Various enemies stats rebalanced
Silence state now also makes the affected enemy less likely to reflect magic.
Replaced VE_tile priority plugin with an optimized version by Hudell/Sang. (Ported to MV from MZ though). Tested on old save and seems ok!
Revamped some combat encounters/Troop Compositions
Updated/Remade sprite art for some enemies.
Adjusted enemy loot lists to make more sense and give more useful things, and thematically correct things, and give less junk.
Various enemies combat AI (if you can call it that) adjusted
Adjustments to music/sound effects etc that were either too loud or too silent /Ch2 CAVE
Adjustments to music/sound effects in general, like switching some out, changing pitch, timing etc
Better hitbox for the healing fountain in Grinder
Better hitbox for the Goddess statue in Hubtown's Church
The dungeon dive below Grinder will be inaccessible until you've met Anvil & Barrel. Things flow better that way. /BACKPORT IMPORTANT!!
A number of tiny adjustments to the farm fence repair quests to make things flow better //animations, Farm
Removed some unnecessary screen fade in/fade outs from various events & places
Improved hit/triggerbox for the fast travel posts in Hubtown
Priestess is more resistant against getting Blinded /Actors
Anvil's Careful Aim skill lasts 3 turns instead of 2.
Improved some map transfer down south
Improved the process of pushing a guard out of a watchtower (Overrun Outpost)
Improved the game over scene.
Slightly slowed down the rate of levelling, to make things more balance.
... and many small adjustments to many things throughout the game.
Added a check to see if the player is allowed to open the Quest Journal or not. Blocking access during some scenes/maps, some more esoteric bugs can probably be prevented.
Adjusted stat allocation points (eggplant) cost of upgrading skills.
Not sure if I'm repeating myself, but added some new skills to enemies.
And a few new enemy types
Bought a new computer (Rtx5080! Faster blender renders, letsgo!)
Updated hall of fame
Updated cheat room

(!)Re-encoded most of the music and sound effects for better optimization.(!)
Also attempted to normalize all audio to -23 LUFS.
However, I feel things are still slightly off-balance, so adjust as you see fit in the options.
I'm gonna give the re-encoding a try again, next update. Cause there's def some performance to be gained there, + I've used sounds from
different sources, so it'll be good to give them all the same baseline.
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Fixed
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Fixed missing sound effects /Northport /all over
Visual bugs on the map /(Northport
Fixed some plugin issues that might've prevented lights from showing
Fixed and optimized light effects /everywhere
Fixed Goblin character bust stuck on screen during animation
Fixed a Chapter 4 bug that might've prevented you from leaving the Cottage area /BACKPORT IMPORTANT!!!
Fixed Chapter 8 being visible in the Quest Journal too early.
Removed "test" message from Priestess Physical Encouragement skill
Fixed an oversight that might've prevented you from getting a unique staff after dealing with Goblina /Enemies + Ch2 int
Added animation to enemy 'Oily Eruption' skill (previously missing)
Fixed a map transfer in the capital that sent you to the wrong spit
Fixed a lockpick bug that prevented GG's intro scene from triggering properly. Also made some small dialogue adjustments + you get a discounted lockpick.
Fixed Man-Eating Plants combat-ai not working as intended
Fixed broken combat encounter during CH5 (Watertown, final sewer room) //Important backport!!! map 102 + troops + items + skills + animations
Fixed broken or at the very least outdated combat encounter during CH6 (Norf, Dwarven fortress, entrance/courtyard) ////BACKPORT map 144 + Courtyard + Tower
Fixed visual bug where the cathedral staircases changing sprites upon being used
Fixed an 'out-of-order' type bug, that happened after the "resurrection" scene in the Cathedral. If you went back to the baths instead of the sewers the scene would replay.
Fixed sleeping state not wearing off after a certain time
Fixed shitty accuracy for Crossbow gobs
Fixed splatter showing up too early after Priestess beats up a goblin during Ch6
Fixed a bug that might've potentially reset some progress if you backtracked in the fort during ch6
Fixed movement on various stairs
Fixed various enemy magic skills not getting blocked by 'Silenced'.
Fixed Broken Treasure chest in Overrun Outpost
Fixed some incorrect collision on various tiles
Fixed some wonky tiles in OCSE
Fixed Missing sound FX crash in Gobapatra's tomb //Important!
Fixed water bottle not behaving properly
Fixed a bug that muted the victory music
Fixed a bug that skipped a mini-puzzle and repeated some narration during the Grinder Dungeon dive.
Fixed some missing sound FX during the dungeon dive
Fixed missing animation crash in Solemn Swamp
Removed a weird map transfer spot from Lonesome Lighthouse
Fixed a bug that made the protag say "Let's meet Barrel inside" before it was actually time to do so, which may have led to some confusing
Brigade is not spelled bridage
Fixed wall-hacking snakes

Fixed a bug (I hope!) that caused Gopatra's "sneak loop" to get stuck on screen when loading a save. It's was a bit complicated to figure out, because it involved 2 different plugins and on top of that the player would have to act in a certain way, at a certain time at a certain map. It is possible the bug might still happen on older saves, but you can just use the debug item (screen) in your inventory to clear it.

Didn't fix some typos from the latest quest, I got distracted and forgot until after uploading. Next time.

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8️⃣ Scenes/"Art"8️⃣
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New renders during a showdown at the Farm

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8️⃣ Game8️⃣
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Chapter 8, Part I, has started. Chapter 8 will be a turning point in the story, and a psuedo-psychophysicological exploration of the Protagonist's inner workings...
In this episode:
Hubtown comes under attack by a bunch unusual goblins out for revenge, and there's an epic(debatable) showdown at the Farm
A conclusion to the 'Homoglobin' substory.
A certain goblin brings a folding chair.
The Mission Madame breaks the Geneva Convention.
The townswomen hold an emergency meeting after witnessing something

New dialogue
New battles
New location
New 2d face portraits for Blondie to better suit her new 3d model.
New enemies
With new skills
and new sprite battlers
and new FX
and new sound FX
Tileset/map spriteart additions
Some general map Improvements and Optimization

I replaced the Light Effect plugin with a simplified one. I noticed when opening savefiles that people send me for bugfixes etc, that half you guys have the light FX turned off anyway, so I figured there's no point in running a heavy light plugin. I think the simplified version will still be good enough.

Upgraded NW.js from versios .48 to .105. (!). 105 minus 48 is 57. Which is a big difference.
RpgmakerMV (the game engine) is powered by something called NW.js, by default it's got an ancient 0.29. version, and it's basically not been updated since the Heian Era.

A long time ago, I updated it to 0.48. And then in 0.58.2 Patreon version I made an experimental upgrade version with NW.js 0.94.
A couple patrons reported big performance improvements, so I decided to go even further and now I have tested to upgrade it to 0.105.

In theory there should be a performance boost and potentially compatibility improvements.
In practice... well you know. Won't know until it's been tested. It works on my machine (tm).
If this upgrade turns out to be stable, I'm also gonna try upgrading PIXI, which is kinda like the rendering engine.
If there are any issues, I will upload a version 0.48. But let's try 105 first. I'm gonna do a bughunt again, in the meanwhile.

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8️⃣ Bugfixes8️⃣
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Thanks to some reports from the cummunity, I was made aware of the following bugs, which has now been fixed
Map120 missing from the 2nd Xmas Special. I somehow deleted it. Yeah, the whole map. But its back now.
Also fine tuned some sound fx while I were at it
Fixed a bug that might've happened when opening the calendar(s) from the 2nd Xmas Special
Set up some extra collision in the Grinder Treasure room, to prevent wall clipping.
Changed the trigger for the exit in the Blue House, from action to touch (so you can just walk on it to exit, instead of having to click)
Fixed double farm-girl
Fixed a bug that might've gotten you stuck in the Weathered Watchtower
Fixed missing collision in Ice Cave
Fixed infinite crystal skull glitch
Fixed a bug that showed the Ceremonial Circle dialogue, when trying to clear the watchtower
Fixed missing troop (Fire, armoury map) in the Dwarven fortress
Fixed path getting blocked up North by a barrel.
Fixed some missing entries in the Quest Log
Fixed some unkillable critters in the Pharaohs tomb