Hey everyone!

About a week ago, we put out a call on Twitter asking for folks to email us their saves so we could play with a broader set of save files for Episode 3 bug fixing. Y'all were incredibly helpful, and on top of using these files to play through the first big chunks of Episode 3, we also took the opportunity to peak under the hood and fine tune our relationship system.

Up until this point, we were a little too forgiving with how easily a number of characters warmed up to the player, so we've made some changes to give everyone a more immersive experience. For the most part, these changes were from underweighting major decisions (do you call Tabitha about the teens, what happens in the woods) meaning that dialogue choices (which mostly had minor tweaks) had an outsized impact on your relationships.

• This is going to give a lot of you panic attacks, but it was too easy for players to get Tabitha to like them by the end of Episode 2. A lot of this is more about behind the scenes numbers that influence events in Episode 3 onward, so don't take her calloused attitude towards you as a sign that you're screwed. I've personally played through with the new adjustments a dozen or so times and have watched several playtesters do fresh playthroughs, and the balance is now *exactly* where it should be.
• Stella now has more worldstates where she's emotionally closed off (but still friendly) to the player. There's a fair amount of Stella content in Episode 2 that was, for all intents and purposes, inaccessible prior to this patch's adjustments because it was too easy to get into a positive feedback loop with her. Some of her scenes should now feel more dynamic based on prior choices.
• For Kaneeka, major decisions weren't given enough weight, making it hard for the game to define your relationship with her.
• The police and miners now have different dialogue with you in Episode 2 if you puked in front of them in Episode 1.
• Dialogue history is now accessed through the chat bubble button, making way for the journal button to be repurposed for your decision history and character info once those features are ready to be rolled out.

Rather than make these changes retroactive (which would have made the game less dynamic and just sloppier in general), these changes will only affect new saves, and your old saves—though overpowered— are going to be totally safe to take into Episode 3.

That being said, we can't express enough how happy we are with the current state of balance, and how perfectly things play out with these changes moving into new content, so if you're looking to play Episode 3 how it's meant to be played, we'd suggest starting with a fresh a save, either making one now with this new patch, or starting fresh when Episode 3 drops. So if you're looking for an excuse to replay Scarlet Hollow for the holidays, now you have one! ;)

In terms of release schedule, it looking more and more like Ep. 3 will be ready in late February. This chapter is going to be a *huge* amount of content, though, like Episode 2, it'll take multiple playthroughs to see it all. About half of it is finished and playable right now, and it's already more content than the entirety of Episode 1! In the meantime, enjoy some new art.