Team Nessassity News - The Lhùred October, And Also It's The Future, Zura

TECHNICALLY! still September! >.<

And today, I have something good to share for a change! Some good news and some amazing news! Which one would you like to hear first? Let me know and I'll tell you in the next Monthly Mo-

Okay, okay! I'm joking, put down the tomatoes please!

As I mentioned before, around a month ago, my old PC broke down, I replaced it and took some time to rebuild my working environment. So a lot of my plans around that time got derailed and delayed. And one big victim of that... whole mess ended up being the EoS Lhùren rework, which last month's MMR was supposed to be about but... um...

Well, all of that is over now! In fact, on top of getting comfy on my new PC, I also took the time to mess around with some things the old hardware wasn't good enough for before, such as running Stellaris all-AI sims that managed to go well into 2400-2500s without noticeably slowing down, which made me go

...which certainly helps my motivation to finish the Year of Finishing Things projects!

And I also decided to give myself an early Shopmas present and got a new desk and chair, which... might not sound like much, but to me, it was a massive QoL upgrade! Because it's one of those L-shaped desks and there's SO much surface space on it, and everything is now within my reach, and I no longer have to move my keyboard to use my drawing tablet and AAAAAAAAAAA!

I can actually work on my PC for hours now without all the juggling, cable-fu and uncomfy chair acrobatics draining my energy. After so many years of that, a seemingly small change to my um... workplace geometry? Turned out to be such a buff not only to my efficiency, but mood and motivation as well >o<

But we've talked enough about Princess' happy butt for one day, so without further adooooooooooooo, let's FINALLY talk about the Lhùren plan for October!

✧ Elves of Stellaris

The implementation phase of the way-too-long-awaited Lhùren rework is finally officially in its implementation phase! That means, it's all planned out (well... has been for months), most of the necessary assets are prepared (Nessa came up with a super pretty orbital ring and shield just earlier this week and my mess of Obsidian notes is full of event text and descriptions for all the elements of the new system!) I've reworked my entire version control setup to be... sane. (Yes, it wasn't sane before, and no, I won't elaborate because it's too embarrassing.) And, most importantly, despite my best efforts, I've run out of excuses to delay it any further.

So remember that time I lost my mind and decided to crunch out a whole MEC: Asari rework a year or so ago? Don't worry, we won't be doing THAT again. This time, I'll actually try to value my health and sanity and try to implement the rework over the length of October, with the aim of making progress in at least 1 of 4 major milestones per week.

And those milestones are:

• Basic Origin setup. This includes redoing the initialiser to include the new starting megastructure (unique orbital ring with a broken shield) and a series of events (in the form of Situations) that introduce the new narrative of the Celestial Throne Origin, and allow the player to decide whether they want to commit to restoring the shield, or salvaging its remaining infrastructure to repurpose it into something else.

• Basic Celestial Favor mechanics. Implementation of the Leader-based CF API, with all the scripting necessary to reflect the ebb and flow courtly intrigue. The Ruler, Heir, Council members and Vassals each have different uses for CF, and will trade it between one another for favours. The more CF powerful people accumulate, the more the Empire will prosper, but if too much power flows into one set of hands, disarray and division will fester. It is up to the wise Celestial Emperor to maintain the balance.

• Advanced Celestial Favour mechanics. The new Situation-based CF system responds to the player's actions and offers challenges and dilemmas that often involve important Leaders. The advanced part of the system handles those events.

• Advanced Origin setup; Jiedushi mechanics. The unique new vassal type ties the Origin's story and Celestial Grace's mechanics together. If the Empire opts for expansion, ambitious leaders will step up to govern the frontier clusters on its behalf. With the Celestial Emperor's blessings, they will launch diplomatically deniable invasions on neighbouring powers, and come to the Core Sector's defence if needed. However, if the Empire's court descends into chaos, they might also step up to "protect" the Empire from incompetent rule. This milestone is relatively light on mechanics, but requires several complex events and diplomatic interactions.

Since there is so much interdependency between these 4 milestones, I will be trying to tackle them from top to bottom in this order. I estimate that the two Basic Milestones will likely be finished pretty quickly, and most of the time will be spent on Advanced CF mechanics, but who knows? I may surprise myself.

Anyways, I will be posting my progress on Discord! So if you'd like to keep up to date and possibly watch my descent into madness if something happens to derail this project, be sure to join!

✧

Aaaaand... I'm ending this MMR here, because I want to enjoy the rest of my last day of slacking off by laying waste to the environment in Satisfactory >.> AHEM...

So see you again next month! ^o^ And thank you for your amazing support, especially during the times Princess' disorganised life spirals into AAAAAAA! You give me... the rest of the alphabet, and for that I will always be grateful with all the letters I know! <3

So until next time, i hope you're always having fun playing games and you're less of a mess than I am!