February Report (Patreon)

Ok, maybe I will take it from here.

As I mentioned before, this month will not have an update, as there is much to do and February would just not be enough for me to finish all the things. Right now the code is one big mess and while I managed to finish part of the stuff I had in mind, there is still a lot to do. And then go through all the files to apply all the changes that will otherwise break the game.

As you've already seen I'm changing the way dialogues are presented. It will show more of the actual character without covering so much of a background with a wooden frame. Just don't stare at Logan for too long or he will get angry.

All old dungeons are now working in a new system, exploring them will be the same as in the Munbury Complex, which should make moving around them much smoother. Also I took the chance to add one additional dungeon : Wolves Den.

The werewolf event will progress a little bit differently. Not much changes there, but now you will have to roam around the place to actually find your werewolf friends. That includes searching for Caleb when Bernard is accompanying you. As you can see in the example if someone is with you his portrait will appear in the middle of the frame on the right - you can click on it for a small dialogue. It's not doing anything, just a flavor text and a small reminder you are not alone.

The rest of the changes is mostly in code to make things work better and in an easier way. You will see a ton of changes in the screens. There are stuff I wanted to implement for a long time, but there are also things that were suggested by people and I decided to implement them. Thanks for all your input and ideas, no matter if I used it or not, it's always helpful to know how people view certain matters.

Let's go with icons for items. A lot of them don't have an icon yet, so it will be a temporary picture for now. I hope to fill them all sooner or later. That's how the bag will look from now on (And a reminder, things may still change, so stuff I'm showing is still not final):

As you can see I also implemented another feature: quick slot. You can add up to three items you use most often in battle to have them always on display (they can also be used by pressing a keyboard key).

With that we will move to the battle screen itself, which changed slightly as well.

Besides for the quick slots, there are some new buttons. Loadout will allow you to change equipment during the fight in case you want to wield a different weapon for a particular fight. Defend works mostly as a wait action, but it will increase your defense, making the opponent's next attack less effective. I'm still keeping the wait button to have even numbers of buttons.

Using items in a fight has a new look as well. With an option to sort items by certain categories (healing, curing statuses, offensive items, buffing items).

A lot of screens that were displaying items will change, because of the icons. Another one that is mostly done is a crafting screen. The button to craft is now bigger, I also added a reset button that clears all the slots with one click.

The ingredients that you are lacking are now shown in red, so you can see right away that you won't be able to craft a certain item (If you have one berry and the recipes require two or more it will still not be red, so take that into consideration. I may find a way to work around that, but I'm not sure yet). You also can see how many of the crafted items you already have in the bag, without having to go to the other screen to check it there.

And while we talk about ingredients.

If you find an ingredient or meet an enemy in a certain zone now you will be able to see those information on the map. Just hover the location you are interested in and you will see detailed information about it. That also works with additional stuff like bandit's morale or lizard's corruption (You won't have to be exactly on that location to see it, just hovering will be enough, so it is still easier to access).

The character creation screen is also slightly different. There will be a new stat, I'm still working on what will influence what but charisma will be mostly used when you want to convince someone or grab their attention, it will also change the shop prices and change the max amount of libido (instead of int).

I also divided position and role, as some people were complaining about it. I can't promise how many old scenes will be taking into consideration that change. I will try to go through all of them and adjust them, but it may require more time so I may do it later with next updates. I will be paying attention to it in new scenes for sure though.

What you can also do is to lock certain stats (orientation, position, role). If you don't want any of them to change during the game, you can lock it and it will remain unchanged no matter your choices. It will be still available to change that option in game.

The last thing I have to share right now is about quests. You could always take only one at a time... but no more. Now you can have as many active quests as you want (Hopefully it won't break anything :D).

Completed quests tab stores all the quests you have already finished. It works like it used to before when you could see all finished quests. The only new thing is you can see more detailed information instead of just the name of the quest.

Event log is also like it used to be. You can check the progress or what to do with the most important events in the game.

Active quests is a new addition, it shows you what quests you currently have taken. If you want to abort any, you can do it after going into details of a said quest. The "+" button is marking that quest which will give you an easier access to information on the main screen.

And that's all I've got for you. There is still much to do. I can't say how much new content I will add at the end of the march, cause I'm not exactly sure how long I will be still working on all the other changes I have in mind.

All equip items will have different stats and the fight will work slightly differently, also I want to give an option to 'enchant' weapons and give them specific additions. As you are a herbalist it shouldn't be weird to use the specific you make on the blade you are using. Also bows and shields! I'm in the middle of working on that, which includes changing the equipment screen as well. There's also a plan to make a relation screen different with an additional log that will help you progress the npc's stories. Some other adjustments here and there as well.

Once again sorry it will take me two months and I won't be able to post an actual update in February, but I hope it will be worth waiting at the end.

~ Hyao

PS.

RIP saves :(