We've just hit the 20% milestone of recovering our DQ Patreon subscribers - thank you so much to all of you who have joined so far, and we really hope that by the end of the month we can breach 50%.

Anyway, as promised, at certain subscription milestones we will provide further insight into what the new game will look like. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out the second half of the previous blog post here).

All of this is of course subject to changes and reworks, but represents our current plans for the game.

The Divergent is a military vessel on a science / research mission. This mission may involve interacting with a number of anomalies that the space ship encounters in the sector. Interactions with anomalies will have several stages to them, and at each stage, the current captain will earn / lose points (usually earn!) depending on how the interaction went. Only certain crewmembers will have access to information on what the current objective is and what the criteria for how the captain will score. Usually,  but not always, it will involve having some specific part of the ship as functional as possible at the correct moment. As part of the captain's role in preparing for mission stages, she will use the computer in her private quarters to give 'special mentions' to a small number of other crewmembers. These crewmembers will also earn points alongside their captain after the mission stage, and so have a great incentive to help out. But, they will rely on the captain's honesty about who she currently has listed as special mentions!

Players traverse the ship via service corridors or pneumatic tubes. Pneumatic tubes are faster but are sometimes offline... Or sabotaged. If sabotaged, you might get stuck for a while, or perhaps get sent somewhere you didn't want to go. Service corridors require more energy to traverse but are less easy to booby-trap.

...Booby traps? Yep, that's right. Part of this game is laying and springing traps at the right moment. Ideally, without the victim even knowing it was you that did it. But sometimes, you might want to betray someone while looking them right in the eyes.

What's the reason for all this betrayal and intrigue? Well, at the core, it's about getting points. Getting promoted makes it easier to get points, and you can't get promoted if everyone else already has the high-ranking positions. Doing things that make other people soiled themselves leaves them vulnerable to being nailed by the enforcer, who will want to nail whoever they can be confident has had an accident, as this earns them points. When someone is nailed by the enforcer, she loses all her promotions. But we'll learn more about enforcers when we reach another pledge milestone. What you need to know for now is that you might want to cause others problems in order to improve your own standings, or because you're suspicious of their motives, or because you have been infected with The Dips and temporarily earn points by causing mischief.

At times, certain locations may have been turned into automated robonursery 'hellscapes' by game effects, and temporarily be no-go zones if you don't want to end up babied, humiliated and almost certainly soiled. It would certainly be upsetting to discover that your pneumatic tubes have been redirected to one of these locations. Other locations might at times have lesser hazards that require someone else in the room to force you into them ("This is your captain speaking. There is some sort of floating energy ball in the mess hall. Touching it appears to make you soil yourself. Please don't waste valuable time and energy by pushing each other into it..."), and others might have permanent environment objects that can be used for nefarious purposes ("Squiggles the Grunt attempts to shove you into the locker. She succeeds! She turns the lock, and you're now trapped until someone discovers you and lets you out. You are still desperate to go potty...")

The captain will need to traverse the ship in order to properly ensure that it is running how she would like. But, the captain is even more vulnerable to getting caught out than everyone else. If she ever soils herself, she is not wearing a diaper, so it is immediately evident to everyone, including the ship computer. She will be immediately demoted to Safekeeping, and the captain spot will be automatically allocated to another high-ranking officer.

However, as long as you have some friends, as well as enemies, you should hopefully be safe enough. Players can set themselves to be 'defending' another player in the same location as them, protecting that player from offensive actions unless you are incapacitated first. People who want to get to the captain will have to get through her loyal crew first. ...Until those crewmembers need to rush off to the medical centre for a nappy change.

The captain herself has a private toilet in her quarters, which can normally only be accessed by her. She can also temporarily grant access to one or more of her enforcers - their diapers have a zipper at the bottom, to allow them to use the toilet like an adult, but only if the captain has allowed them access to the toilet.

So the trick to being a successful captain is to establish a clear chain of command, with your trusted officers by your side at the top. Troublemakers will find themselves in the brig for a while, earning no points at all. Let's just hope that none of them suffer from too much ambition... Or loyalties might soon crumble, along with your dignity.

Does all this sound exciting? Then please please please help us recover some more of our subscriptions - losing 364 subscribers in the same day sent us from a health place to instantly operating at a serious loss. But you can be a part of our comeback, before it's too late! Just hop on over to our SubscribeStar and support us for $12 a month at the DQ Tester level! With current inflation numbers, what's that, like not even a whole fast food meal?! Please, do us a solid (but preferably not while diapersitting on our face!)