Woo, I can gladly say that the Ranch Assistant system is finally ready for you guys to use! This is the last major gameplay system that I'll be adding to the game (we'll also be adding the Inquisitor system, but that's an ultimately much smaller system based on parts already in game). This is important not only because the system itself is cool and I hope you guys'll like it, but because it means I can majorly shift my focus towards refining gameplay/game balance and writing storylines/events. Alita is the only assistant who will be currently available in the game, but expect that number to expand rapidly.
Important note about animations: You'll notice there are no animations in this update. Don't freak out! They're coming! As a result of the issues we had with the harpies as well as a few other compounding problems (computer troubles, some missing cow parts, some particularly complex animation set-ups), the prep work for the animations got pushed back this month. Making animations requires a long set of processes, starting with cutting up the poses and assembling them before anything can be actually animated. Since rather than doing the animations one at a time we put them through each process in batches (cut all the poses, then assemble all the poses, etc) this means that all this month's animations are currently in the assembly phase.
What we're planning to do is, instead of making you wait a whole other month for more animations, have our mid-month release be our "animation update". Given this goes well, from now on we'll probably do releases in this manner, with two releases each month: a gameplay update on the 1st, and then an animation update mid-month.
Also, as this is the last major system we're adding to the game (and an update to some of the more important bits of the UI), there's a very high chance of bugs. I fully expect to be doing a hotfix even before we get to the animation update this month, so let me know of any important bugs and I'll try to get the hotfix up ASAP.