Chasing Sunsets

v1.10a
Corrected path detection algoritm bug that led to some players not having their saves parsed properly.
Fixed continuity error after Day 2 where the judge referred to an evidence mistake as “yesterday” when it was in fact a week ago.
Fixed the script referring to a non-existent music file in Ch4, leading to gray screen.
Fixed Amanda using a contraction in her dream sequences.
Fixed an incorrect variable check where Lisa says she resigned from Polygene when speaking with AG Tom Reynolds.
Fixed several instances where MC’s name was assumed to be “Alex” by the script.
Fixed several typos or grammatical issues identified by players and testers.
Updated little refugee girl’s name from Gul to Alfire to maintain consistency with the closing credits.

Here are the links to the final content release of Chasing Sunsets.
This episode builds off the future unlocked by your choices in the main game with consequences in both the short and longer term. Our largest update to the game by a significant margin, this episode acts as closure for the origin story and sets up the shot for what's coming next.
The most recent update is v1.10 which completes the Chasing Sunsets story, and ties up most of the loose ends, but leaving just enough to connect it to the next installment in the Polygene universe.
v1.10 also stomps some bugs that led some players to be unable to maximize points with some love interests in certain scenarios. Some of these are fixed trans parently, and the most egregious of which will require a new playthrough beginning at Ch9. That save should be present on page 99 of your saves in the 10th slot.

Now onto the big reason for this patch:
For those of you who felt burned by the outcome of the casual path for the two main LI's, we know we dropped the ball.
While we feel the girls' dissatisfaction with the casual arrangement was adequately telegraphed, we also never provided an offramp for the player to right the ship. That both violates the spirit of our "no gotcha" statement at the beginning of the game, and it's objectively obvious that the result was unduly punitive.
I (Stoya) take ownership for that as the writer, and legitimately felt gut-punched the moment I realized that no escape hatch had been provided. I can only offer my word that it wasn't intentional or malicious, and began planning a fix for this the moment I realized the enormity of the miss.
As such, we are adding a scene to Chapter 9 near the beginning after the Lexi concert. This scene will provide two choices where the player can exercise agency before the girls start making decisions on his behalf.
To be clear, it will NOT add endings that were never planned for, nor does it violate the integrity of the story as planned. I also want to point out that this scene does not exist in a bubble just to change a variable. The fact that this scene occurred will be reflected in other conversations throughout the chapter.
If the player was on a committed path, the scene will offer no stat changes and they have no need to replay. There will just be be some banter and a little more visible bonding between primary characters.
TL;DR This only impacts saves that were on the casual path with Mallory and Jaye.

As of today, Chasing Sunsets contains just shy of 16000 renders, 200K words of story and dialogue, nearly 150 pieces of music, and nearly 300 different sound effects.
Our game contains nearly 100 different characters with speaking roles, and has 204 achievements.
Chapter 9 explores a world that has grown smaller for our protagonists after returning from the island. Against the continued threats from the usual suspects, Mallory wants to return to the fun she and the main character had the first time they met: Outdoors with no labels on their relationship.
Needless to say, Mallory is well aware of Jaye's bungalow adventure with the main character, so she knows the bar has been set pretty high. Will she be up to the challenge?
Meanwhile, Jaye is wrestling with the specter of her medical school dreams evaporating, and all of this while the pressure is still on from their government and corporate enemies to nip the threat posed by Mallory's existence in the bud.
We will see some new faces as well as revisit a few from earlier chapters as events converge on a trajectory that, unsurprisingly, ends where it began.
There are changes beyond the content addition. You'll notice a new main menu with updates to dated animation, and improvements throughout the UI.
Additionally, Kent added his first animations to replace the slideshow lewd psuedo-animations scenes in the Prologue and Ch1.
Where do we go from here? Chasing Sunsets moved on from Early Access on purchase platforms today. While we will add one more content update, and modernize the oldest parts, our focus will begin moving toward our next project, Firebreak.
We hope you enjoy Chapter 9 as much as we enjoyed making it. We hope you laugh a little, maybe get a little bit of the feels, and, of course, enjoy our ladies doing what they do best.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us on this project. We couldn't do it without you, and we hope what we do next only raises the bar.

Bugfix

1900 new individual static renders
6 new animations
1 Crossover
22 new original audio tracks
21 new achievements

Fixed:
Fixed coding issue that resulted in poor animation performance during the hotel scene
Pathing issue Fixed: If MC rejected Mallory at end of Ch5, it does not end her path, but Ch7 failed to allow the player to continue a physical relationship with her.
Two variables were duplicated from Ch6. They are not story-critical for the most part, but a replay is worthwhile to avoid weird dialogue in Ch8 onwards.
Fixed erroneous reporting in the Chapter Summary about how the MC handled his chat with Jaye when he returned her phone.
Reverted an error in Chapter 2 where a variable was malformed. (Recording if the player hugged Jaye after she arrived on the yacht)
Made the trigger for the Erica phone chat in Ch7 more forgiving, and corrected dialogue to accurately reflect MC's behavior up to that point.
Lowered the love requirement with Mallory to ask Sophie to replicate Bandit from 34 to 31. This value is achievable without pursuing her romantically.
Corrected numerous spelling errors, typos, and flawed grammar.
Outstanding issues:
Some players have reported broken saves.

N.A

The developer did not publish a changelog for this version.