Writer's Portal Update: Week of December 7, 2023

Announcements! Writer's Portal Updates
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Hello Episode Authors!

We’ve been working on developing new features to make it easier for you as creators to tell your stories!

We’re excited to announce the following features are now LIVE on episodeinteractive.com:

:arrows_counterclockwise: Imitate

  • Allows you to imitate a character in a new part of the story. If you imitate the same character twice, it will now take the scale of the second and following character.

  • Makes it possible for your characters to assume the identity of another in appearance. Character imitation creates the mapping, which is what we call the relationship between the script character (the one you use in your script) and the mapped character (the one whose appearance and name you want your script character to assume).

  • This tool is especially handy when you have 2 (or more) characters that you’d like to streamline into one in the script for the sake of efficiency. Since most stories offer readers a love interest preference, the most common use for character imitate is for 4fplus & LGBTQ branching.

  • The Command for Imitating: @JOHN imitates ALISON

    • In this example, JOHN is imitating ALISON. This means that the character that readers see is ALISON; the name you’ll use in the script is JOHN.
    • You can use “imitates” and “looks like” interchangeably: JOHN imitates ALISON means the same thing as “JOHN looks like ALISON.”
    • Let’s say ALISON is also imitating someone (suppose BOB).
      @JOHN imitates ALISON
      @ALISON imitates BOB
      In the example above, JOHN is imitating ALISON, who is imitating BOB (a.k.a., JOHN looks like ALISON, who looks like BOB).
      The character that readers see is BOB; the name you’ll use in the script is JOHN.
    • All of our in-house Love Interest avatar templates already include a male and female option, imitates commands, and gains, so you generally don’t need to worry about coding this part yourself (link only available to commissioned authors). You will, however, need to spot place and resize your male and female avatars differently.

:wastebasket: Lose flags with the loseFlag Command

  • This feature will allow you to erase the gain command. With this, you remove a certain choice made earlier in the story.

:dancing_women: Copying Characters

  • Just like copying an outfit, this feature allows you to copy the in-story copy on the character page and copies the character. Writers can access this tool on the character page.

:dress::necktie: Filter Clothing Available To Female and Male Characters

  • You can now filter clothes that are shared with other characters
  • Under “For” select the character type you’re selecting clothes for (red box)
  • Under “Shared with” select another character type to see what clothes can be used for both types (blue box).

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  • Looping Backgrounds via Donacode (24.90)
  • Solid Color Backgrounds via Donacode (24.90)
  • Overlay rotation tool (Week of 12/11/23)

Released on 11/21/23

  • Outfit Editor: Favoriting clothing item
  • Filter “recently updated” in Hair Avatar Creator
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wow! these are so interesting and cool! thnks @Maxx :yellow_heart::grin:

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I don’t get it

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FINALLY!!

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Oh, does it mean we will finally get this update that allows us to rotate overlays directly in the portal preview without the trial-and-error method of coding? I’ve been waiting for this since you gave us the update on copy/paste commands under the preview, where you could see the rotate command as well. :face_with_peeking_eye: that would be super cool :sob:

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For this we need to request access :face_with_peeking_eye:

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Stop, I’ll cry :sob:!!

Also, I’ll probably need a layman’s terms explanation for the “imitates” command and its differences from “becomes”

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These are amazing!!! @Maxx I can’t wait for the sitting animations!!! Thanks!!!

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@Maxx when should we be expecting the sitting animations?

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I think they were trying to say it takes the place of duplicate character coding but they used the wrong example for it. Unless this new feature overrides the male and female bodies. I feel like they should have given us more details for that part.

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I’m so confused… but this seems really exciting :sweat_smile::joy:

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It works similar to becoming but with genders and body types change :slight_smile: I hope there will be a full guide to use it soon @Maxx

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Wow good release

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This will save so much unnecessary coding with the point system now we can ungain a gain.

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Can the imitation be turned off again? That was the problem with the becomes command, you couldn’t turn it off, even if you’d reset the story.

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can someone explain the imitation thing. I have 5 love interests in a story. how would this help me?

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the link isn’t working @Maxx

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Gotcha, I’m not use to using the duplicate characters yet. So, I wasn’t sure what it entailed. I hope they make a guide on how to use it properly as well.

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These are awesome! But the imitates command confuses me.

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@Maxx @Tory the link leads to a “Request for access” bar.