Today's build is on the test branch and includes a new prologue and a bunch of new stuff that will be used in the upcoming story content.
- When creating a new character you will start in the HammerHelm stronghold and play through a short prologue.
- The prologue and other quests have been updated to use the new quest dialogue system.
- The prologue also includes some quick backstory for what happened before we get to this point.
- The Wishing Well quest (Let's Get Ready to Grrrumble) appears much earlier now.
- Grrrumble's and Shaydee's quests now use the new quest dialogue system.
- Added the expanded quest dialogue to the end of the Lantern Quest to help give you some direction for what to do next.
- The Scarecrow and Orc quests have been updated to be a part of the new story. These updates were mostly quest dialogue related to add context and a couple of new quests added to them to tie them into the story.
- A few other updates that aren't live yet but will be used in the new story.
Some info about how the main story quests will work.
In many RPGs you have a main story and then you have side quests. The main story quest is almost always active, meaning you have at least one quest related to the story the majority of your time in the game.
HammerHelm is going to work different from this. I don't want there to be a main story related quest always active as that would detract from focusing on building the town. If I did that, there would always be this pressure to work on the story and not the town. I also don't want story quest content to force you to build specific buildings.
It's a balancing act between main questing and the town building and repeatable quests. So, the main story quest in HammerHelm takes place in parts that you start and finish and then there is a break for a while before the next part starts. If you've already played HammerHelm, this will work much in the same as the way the Scarecrow and Orc quests work. In fact, those two quests are now part 1 and part 2 of the main story and connect to each other as well as set the stage for the next part. Most of the updates to these quests are story/dialogue related so they play pretty much the same as before, but with more context added and some minor tweaks.
There will be smaller quests that act as bridges between the bigger main story quests too. Some of these "bridge quests" will focus on dialogue with a townsperson or other character, rather than quests to go do something or fight something. So they'll be really quick and include information that flows into the next main story quest.
Some important notes for playing the test build:
- You MUST make a new character to play this content. Do not load an existing save if you grab this build.
- The doors are turned off in the stronghold as I am writing optimization code related to them that isn't done yet.
- Don't walk to the end of the mine until you've completed the third quest and are directed to do so. This will be closed off and won't be accessible until after the third quest but since there are no doors you can access it.
- Once you start the prologue quest you must finish it. The quests are not set up to save and load midway through yet. It's four quests and is mostly dialogue, so it shouldn't take you more than a few minutes.
- When you finish the last prologue quest you are instantly teleported to the island. It's jarring, but there will a nicer fade added.
This build also includes a test version of a new quest loading system that will update your quests when loading a save in a different language than previously used. Right now the save system saves the actual text, so if you change the language and then load a save, it will remain in the old language. This new system uses the new language's translated text.
If you would like to check out the new content, you can get it by doing the following:
1. In the Steam Client Library where it lists all of your games, right click on HammerHelm
2. Click Preferences
3. In the window that opens, select the "Betas" Tab
4. Enter the password to download this build - StoryTest2021 - and click Check Code
5. You should get a message that the code is correct
6. Click the drop-down box and select BigUpdateTest
Steam should immediately start a new download with the test client. The new game should be called "HammerHelm [bigupdatetest]". Once the download is complete you can launch the game and you should see "Beta 14.9" in the title screen.
To get back to the main build:
1. In the Steam Client Library where it lists all of your games, right click on HammerHelm
2. Click Preferences
3. In the window that opens, select the "Betas" Tab
4. Choose “None” from the drop down
5. Steam should then revert back to the main client
Thank you again everyone for the support! I'll be adding to this build as I work on more aspects of the story including the part that takes place after the Orc Quest, the new trading system, and the Quest rewards.
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]
- My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
- Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco