Devlog #30 Hints and Progress Updates

Hi guys, I'm back for the bi-weekly status report!

I'm actually on schedule! Can you believe it!? Some things have taken longer than expected, but some other things that I anticipated being extremely annoying are actually pretty close to finished.

Here's the list from the last update with the current status of each item:
Event Scheduler: The scheduling logic is finished. Big old check mark, 'cause this is done. The map now calculates character location, group locations, empty locations, special scenes, etc without ridiculous endless if/then code loops.

Incidental Events:  I'm splitting this from the Event Management item in the previous post. I'm currently creating more of what I'm calling 'incidental scenes'. These are expansions of existing scenes and new scenes for new locations. For example, when Marla dares you to hold your breath, there are now progressively more ridiculous results based on your endurance stat (all the way up to 5000). These incidental scenes have actually taken FAR longer than I initially planned (I've just been adding more and more variations so this has slowly morphed into a similar system as the dungeon dialogue...). I intend to continue expanding these scenes until I'm satisfied or until the planned end of the Event Management development sprint (so for two more weeks).

Hint Manager: My alpha code for the Hint Manager is the main image for this devlog (you can ignore the font changes, I'm slowly updating the menu styles as I go). This piggybacks off of the code for the Replay Gallery and notifies players of scenes they haven't viewed while providing a replay link and a hint. It's not entirely content-aware, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. The code is now in place, but I still need to write the all of the hints, so this is about 80% completed right now.

Dungeon Tent: Not done anything other than prep work on this one. Gonna start work on the writing early next week (once the hints and the incidental scenes are finished), and then I'll move into the visual work once all of the scenes are finalized.

Recipe Status Effects: I've also not touched this yet. I plan to tackle the code and dialogue changes for the expanded cooking effects while my computer is busy rendering Dungeon Tent content.

Other Small Advancements:
- Liam is now able to learn things from the library. There are monster encyclopedias for both the forests and the dungeons that delve deeper into the lore of existing monsters, and there is also a magical recipe book that looks into his future to pull out recipes that the player may not have learned on their own.
- The Kitchen is now a location that can be visited. A special cooking scene will unlock once the cook title has reached maximum level.
- Various corn items can be found in the kitchen on a random basis. Now you can cook corn on the go!
- Skills and character visuals have been optimized. File size has dropped by 60%.

Final Thoughts:
The various changes to events were expected to take until May 10th, so I'm well within the expected progress timeline for the work that has been completed so far (I'm not going to jinx it, but I could potentially be slightly the opposite of running behind). Actually, May 10th is planned to be a rather big day... if everything goes according to plans, May 10th will be the beginning of alpha testing (to get all the bugs out of the event manager and test the initial coding for the Dungeon Tent). And May 10th is also the next planned Patreon update... so hopefully I'll be announcing a shift away from coding and into visuals. You'll be the first to know.

Cheers!