So I wrote this all out once, and my cat decided he wanted attention and did some somersaults on the keyboard... and deleted it all. So here I go again!
It's been a little over a month since my last update (seems just like yesterday), and although I'm not dropping an update with this announcement, I thought I would keep everyone in the loop with what's going on.
I had plans to release the current update mid-way through August. Not only did it turned out to be larger than I imagined, but my better half decided to spring a surprise vacation on me! It was nice to get away for a while, but alas it did delay this update. Rest assured, I'm back at home and working hard (but the darn cat won't leave me alone).
Here's a little teaser with what I've got done for this upcoming update:
- Overhaul of the Ravencore Mechanics. Not only will players still earn promotions, they will be given quests that will help Ravencore grow and improve. As Ravencore improves, the player will earn special benefits. I have also reworked the quota and rank-up mechanics. Players will not be demoted for missing quota, instead the difference will be deducted from their progress towards their next rank. If you have no progress, you are still at risk for demotion.
- The Living World. This is a stupidly complex mechanic that tracks global variables, fires events, handles quest progressions, and tracks factors in the world state. It can be referenced and affected by everything in the game world. On the small scale it will allows for quests and multi-step contracts. On the large scale it allows for an extremely complex game world, with far-reaching repercussions for every action and decision, as well as a branching story.
- Players now leave a "footprint" in the System Log. As do other users...
- Players can now edit System Logs. Although this is currently only for certain quests, the underlying functionality will allow for this to be expanded in the future.
- Financials Node has been upgraded. Accounts are now locked, and must be cracked open. Once open, players can now see an account balance and transfer money out of the account. For now this is only related to some quests, however the underlying functionality will allow for this to be expanded in the future... such as letting the player transfer money to their own accounts.
- The functionality has been added, allowing NPCs to join you in Systems. It was tricky getting the AI navigation working in the randomly generated Systems (especially the grav-lift), but now it's working like a dream.
- Passbreaker can now be done with the keypad on your keyboard. Let me tell you, this upgrade is a lot more amazing that it sounds. Typing in numbers directly instead of clicking buttons, using the backspace to clear the entry, and using the enter key to submit your guess. So simple, but so much better.
- As you may have guessed, not only are there a few more quests to do, but the framework is completed for me to start working towards completing the main story.
- Many more misc. updates and bug fixes!
The timeline on this update is tricky, but I'm hoping to have it out soon! If it takes too much longer, I may have to leave a few items "not-finished", and complete them in a future update.
Sorry for the delay!
Happy Hacking,
~Southwind