Devlog #9 (So Close)

First of all, I'm planning to put the next version out on Friday. So, about 48 hours from now. It's possible that some unforeseen bug will delay that by a day, but not really any more than that.

So, I'm going to put out my progress here, as well as the unfortunate bits that didn't make the cut for this update.

So, I think I've made it pretty clear in previous logs, but I'll say it again just for posterity: this update is not focused on any particular character (other than maybe palace characters if you wanted me to stretch) and will not introduce any additional sexy content (with the exception of a nude scene in the palace). This is an update to bring in the underlying bones of adventuring, fighting, questing, inventory, and skill mechanics. Basically, everything that was in the game before this update was a fake version of those things... just simple flags that knew when the player had done something to earn a skill or a title. Now, those things are dynamic and can be used independently and so forth (let's say that I was building birdhouses by hand before, and I spent all of this time building a machine that builds birdhouses). There have been a lot of fundamental changes to the code to allow the game to expand from this point further. Honestly, it was my mistake to not do this work before the game even released, and the longer I waited to get it done, the longer it was going to take. So... that's the real talk. This process was a slog, but I also learned a whole lot and I think the game will be a lot better for it.

Update contents (still almost subject to change):
- Turn-based RPG battle system (from scratch, still rough around the edges, there are currently two enemies, but that can now be expanded with relatively little effort in future updates)
- Introduction to Palace characters (Zelda and Xander)
- Furthering the main story (by a very small amount)
- Adventure guild now offers quests.
- Inventory has been added
- Items are now equipable (don't forget to equip the sword your dad gives you, otherwise the first quests can be really hard... they're also randomly generated, so you could still get unlucky and be wiped by a pack of wolves... not that I didn't have to cheat on my test character just to make sure the drops were working... I totally didn't have to do that...).
- You can kill the chicken. But he's pretty strong so you might still die.
- There's a lot of placeholder content for my own sake, and you'll see some menus and screens that use the new graphics and others that still use the old ones.

Known bugs/things that will be added or fixed in weekly updates from now on:
- Enemies take their turns so fast you don't know what's going on (there is a battle log if you want to know why you died).
- The inventory does not accurately display the quantity of stacked items.
- Vendors and crafting have not been implemented, so monster drops have no actual use yet.
- I need to add a sense of weight to attacks and skills in the battle animations.
- The adventurer guild is planned to be a major location with ways to upgrade the building, mini-quests, new side characters, and other fun things, but none of that has been implemented. It will come little by little.
- The party system is in place, but not activated in the code. Allowing Lani to join your party is the first priority for next week's small content update. Doing so will require you to win in an actual fight (since I have the battle system in now, yay), and she won't be an easy nut to crack on your first or second life.
- Player skills are currently not active (this includes basic 'take this turn to defend' strategy type skills, as well as healing items, but they'll be here shortly)
- Enemy skills are active, but they don't provide any warning (or strategy, since they use up all their MP as fast as possible).

There are various other glitches and small fiddly bits that will be ironed out over the weeks to come. I hope it was worth the wait, although it's so far from the polished product that I wanted to present that I'm actually a bit nervous about it. I just couldn't justify holding it back for such minor polishing when the actual core elements are working.

Anyway, cheers. I'll be getting back to making sexy renders in the next week or so and then it's back to business as usual.