Keeping with reducing the scope of the project to pursue a story completion, the Quest Log is on deck for removal with the next update. This patch sets the stage for that by removing healing crystals, adding save points, and adding quest-step bubbles for the Grand Library questline. This build will remain public until all promotional material can reflect the removal of the Quest Log which hopefully will coincide with the next patch launch.
Details...
A general rule of thumb of game development is that for every one manhour of development time, the player experiences one minute of play time. The time was even more skewed for the Quest Log, which added no functional value to the game besides UI aesthetics. As much as I want to keep some of the background lore going, I can think of better ways to deliver it. The quest log issue is effectively this: for every single quest step, there needs to be code telling the quest to start/end, description to change, reward to become visible/invisible or claimed, and bullet point objectives to be revealed and change. On top of that, the writing of the descriptions themselves takes a great deal of time. To sum up: the quest log has become too unwieldy to continue to develop. Instead, 0.6.402 will see the complete removal of the Quest Log, all quest log pop up data, and all associated invisible lines of code. Quest rewards will remain, as they are not directly entangled with the quest log itself.
To allow for zone reconstruction on the fly, global saving has been disabled outside of the world maps. Save Points have been scattered across the map which will temporarily allow access to the Save function as well as fully healing the party. Unlike healing crystals, save crystals can be used an infinite number of times. However, save crystals do not appear in challenge dungeons, such as veil-adjacent and colosseum creations.
In the original list posted last week, #1, #2, & #6 are complete. Moving onto the Quest Log next.
0.6.401 [Build #148, Release Date: June 17, 2023]
Bug Reports:
- The fastest way to report a bug is on Discord @ https://discord.gg/Ur4GdaKxPD.
New:
- Introduced Save Points throughout the world. These locations enable saving where saving is otherwise restricted and heal the party - restoring HP/MP and removing all status effects.
Updates & Changes:
- Healing Crystals have been removed entirely.
- Saving outside of the Save Point has been disabled in most locations.
- The Grand Library quest now shows (!) bubbles for each next step.
- Disabled the anti-cheat from the world map. Help requests for edited save files will not be addressed.
Notes & Known Issues:
- Global saving is still available on the World Map and on various Veil-adjacent maps.
- This is the last public build that will feature a functional Quest Log.