Announcement of 1.5

Yes, it's not the end of the month yet, but I've already made up my mind. It will be the 1.5 update, not 1.4. Initially, I thought it would be smaller than 1.2, but now I understand it'll be about the same or even larger.

Numbers and immodest comparisons.

At the moment, there are 320k words in the game (at the end of the last update it was 290k). By the time the update is complete, that number will almost certainly be ~360k. That's an important number. Why? At the time of the first release in September (Chapter 1), there were 180k words in the game. So by the end of May, the Inner Empire will actually double in content. And it'll double in less time than it took me to work on the entire Chapter 1, which means I got to work faster. And that's good.

Is that a lot or not? Well, I googled how many words in some classic cult RPGs. Maybe it's immodest, but for comparison, Fallout 2 (400k), Planescape Torment (800k), and Disco Elysium (1kk). I don't know about you, but progress seems pretty good to me. Considering I'm a lone wolf.

In addition to the pure number of words, there is another dimension that is not in plain sight. Almost every choice dialog line has a separate variable. In Chapter 1, I had 1000 such variables (and a couple of dozen left in "reserve"). At the beginning of Chapter 2, another 1000 variables were initialized, for subsequent content. At the beginning of 1.5, the second thousand variables are initialized, because the first one is already used up. That is, summed up, by the beginning of 1.5 the total number of choices exceeds 1000 or 1000+ lines of dialogs only... I hope I do not have to initialize the third thousand for this chapter xD

Generally speaking, by the end of 1.5 the total volume of the finished part of Chapter 2 will be comparable to the entire Chapter 1, and in the context of the choices it already surpasses it. In my earliest plans, the place where 1.5 will end was the old ending place of Chapter 2, but then I decided to merge the two chapters into one, since conceptually, events are unfolding on the road to Amarath and it seemed unnecessary to split them into two chapters. So now it's 1.5 instead of a whole chapter, but it's the same volume.

A bit of fun trivia about 1.5

• A few cat moments (already in the game). Perhaps there will even be a separate scene dedicated purely to the cat. I have such plans, but I'm not sure about the timing. Maybe I'll leave it for last and add it, if I manage to release 1.5 by May 31. If not, well, sorry. Release update in time > cat scene. Ah ah ah, your cute meowing won’t helps here, Pitchy!
• A few lines and dialog variations, depending on the protagonist's ethnos (already in the game). Maybe a couple more will be added. For everyone except the Valateans, since they're the majority... and they're not supposed to... umm, let them check their privileges! xD
• Cadonis is an asshole! Not only does this asshole now have the biggest (so far) sex scene, but he also will have the biggest dialogue scene (working on it right now). Seriously, Cad, you're taking up way too much of my time! People say you're a regular womanizer, stop consuming so much of my time!
• Murella. There will be something (not yet in the game). Nope, I won't say anything else ;-)
• Those who don't like to read books and like to ride with Iolanta will have a unique fun opportunity (already in the game). That was a hint, yep.