February 25 Update (Patreon)

New TLS update is out, as quiet as usual for these days. Thanks to everyone who upvoted my promo post comparing the roadmap now to a year ago. It's doing pretty well for that sub, so maybe TLS will get some new eyeballs. That said, rambling over, time to talk about quest design.

As I said in the update notes, Vhala's quest is meant to cap off the endgame segment. This has been a pretty long period of TLS's development, so I wanted to take a moment to reflect on it.

Obviously this section closes off various character and plot threads. It's my take on the common JRPG endgame where you have an open world and prepare for the final battle - I know some players vocally don't like this, but I've always enjoyed them. In any case, my goal was to build the section such that it includes a wide variety of different content.

Of course we have multiple quests that are primarily dungeons (Trin, Varia, Riala, Robin, Megail, Orcent) since that is a major game mechanic. To balance those we also have some updates that are purely social and interaction-based, such as Altina's or Lynine's, and Dari's murder mystery is meant to be a unique little segment.

Another major quest type is "hunts" that send the player across the world. There are two massive ones for Wynn and Uyae, which I know involves some backtracking but I think will involve much less when players are handling all the quests at once. We then have several more focused hunts: Hilstara, Iris, and Sarai. I like these latter ones, because even though the format is still "Go to places" they involve weaving the world together. I hope, at least, that realizing you know all the High Priestesses and their locations makes the world feel more real.

Several quests are mixes of the above elements: Aka, Carina, and Yarra. These were primarily chosen because of the ideas I had for that character/quest, but I hope that shaking up the patterns a little contributes to the overall blend.

We have two quests that are very simple and personal: Qum and Ginasta. I wouldn't make quests quite like this normally, but I think during all the other things they're a nice little break. ^-^

I also tried to build a few "mini-game" quests that offer brand new mechanics: Balia with her orcs, Nalili managing the Orgasmic Empire, and Orilise with her Goddess Trainer. I think games can go too far with adding these, but TLS could probably have gone further, honestly. However, I liked these and hope they add spice to the whole mix.

Finally we have three "culmination" quests that are less quests in and of themselves and more checks on the player's overall progress. These are Janine covering relationships, Wendis covering equipment, and Vhala covering national variables. I think these help the player feel like they are making steady progress while giving a sense of completion, and hope they will only work better when started earlier instead of done all at once at the end.

That was the idea, anyway. But now, at long last, the endgame is over. Barring crazy bugs or new things I need to add, the hope is to polish all this content over a week or two and then dive straight into the final battle.