Real quests are coming soon! Ugh... so much coding.I've wanted to have quests that could push the player into specific directions and situations for a really long time, but it's just such a daunting task that I've not done it... but with sound being the focus of this update (yet another daunting task...), I'm up for the challenge. And it's going really well!
Before I get into the nitty-gritty here's my current log:
Finished:- Sound (music, effects, etc)- Dynamic hint menu for selected scenes- Quest log book and generators- Lani's new solo Threadbare changing scene
In Progress:- Manually created quests (someone's gotta write 'em, and that someone is me)- Marla's first solo Threadbare scene- Lani's special scenes for finding items in the second explore map
So, first, a quick bit on sound: It's done. I mean, I'll probably be tweaking things for a very long time, but I'm done with this iteration and no longer actively working on sounds (I haven't had my headphones on in a week and my ears are so happy). Response from test is mostly positive, and I've addressed concerns they had, so... overall, sound is in a pretty good place.
Now, QUESTS! There are three types of quests:- Main quests that are created manually by me.- Side quests that are generated at the Guild and Temple.- Scene quests that are generated by the player to guide them to a specific scene based on their current game progression.
Main Quests:These are intended to teach players how to get around the maps, encourage specific actions, reward you as you progress in the game, and things like that. What returning players may enjoy, though, is that with the quests I've also included the Luck stat as an active part of gameplay. Finishing quest chains will grant you Luck, which will impact rates of discovery (like for dungeons, chests, etc), trap dismantling, critical hits... pretty much anything that is randomly decided. Luck will be an intentionally limited stat.
(Other stats will also be granted during the quest chains, and those are permanently applied to the character that earns them. All rewards are permanent.)
Side Quests:These replace the quests that currently exist in the Guild (and the Guild will no longer immediately send you away when you start a quest... you'll collect it in the log and then complete it at your leisure using the exploration system). That said, some of the old quests are being manually generated with specific prerequisites (like the Funky Orc Dance Party). Those will appear on the board when you have progressed far enough in the game.
I must also mention that these quests are now issued by both the Guild AND the Temple. I have a generator specifically for Temple quests that will skew more towards collection and good deeds (while the guild will be collection and extermination). Temple quests will reward experience for the Temple itself, but some of them will also give favor to specific Gods, so you can use that to help lift some of the prayer fatigue everyone is suffering.
Scene Quests:This is something I spent a lot of time working on, so hopefully it turns out to be fruitful (honestly, testing it is a huge burden, so I may be relying on actual players to tell me what does and doesn't work on this one). When the player chooses a scene in the hint section, there's now an option to send that scene into the quest log as a quest. The quest card gives players real-time information about what stats are needed to complete the scene (along with their current status).
At the bottom of the card, there's a link to a full walkthrough that also pulls your current play stats and attempts to give you a detailed chronology of what events need to happen in what order to arrive at your chosen scene. This is very much going to need to be a longterm effort... I built the progression dictionary, but knowing exactly what scenes need to be mentioned specifically in the walkthrough will come down to player feedback. I anticipate that most scenes are pretty self-explanatory, but a lot of stuff in this game comes down to the order of events, so I'm hoping this will open the doors up for some newer players.
Final Thoughts:Development is going smoothly, but it's slowed down by summer vacation. With the kids home, I'm just not able to work as much as I'd like. Unfortunately, I don't have a good notion of when the final release candidate will go into test, but in all likelihood it won't be until August. There's still a lot of writing to do for the story quests (I've barely gotten to the chicken fight), and I do have some renders to do that I've not really even started on yet. I'll keep you guys up to date, but the best place for smaller updates is, as always, the Discord channel (though I know that Discord is evil and a not small amount of you can't access it... I wish there was a better way).