Maids & Masters (& Putting The Finishing Touches on v0.15)

Being as close to release as it is, there's not a lot left to say about v0.15, so this is largely just going to be a "Patron appreciation post" for my high-tier Patrons. That said, there is some information to share.

As I mentioned in last week's post, there isn't nearly as much XP going around in Act 2 as I wanted there to be so I could build up to where I wanted levels to be in Act 3 properly. This can also create some progression-related issues, such as characters not having all of their skills, when we're getting to a point in the game where you should have more of those to be able to deal with some of the more strategically difficult fights. Lucky for me, my Patrons are amazing, and give me feedback. I discovered a bit of a flaw in the way I was calculating XP for the newer enemies, resulting in their XP values being significantly lower than they should be. 

Fixing this means there are some enemies (like the Cave Bear, Sword Butler, and Assassin Maid) that are already in the game that now give nearly (or more than, in the case of the Cave Bear) double the XP they did before. Thankfully these enemies are really rare at this point in the game, so anyone with an existing save that's already past where you encounter these enemies will be minimally affected - it's only about 1/7th of a level's worth of XP that's been added. The main thing that would be affected is the new arena and exhibition fights coming in v0.15. All of those enemies will be worth nearly double what they were when I originally did my own playtesting.

This also means I really need to do another in-depth playtesting run to look for bugs in parts of the game that I've already played through. I've been relying on having help playtesting a lot for Act 2, so my personal saves are kinda half-broken messes, and now I'm under-leveled as well. It'll also be nice to take a little "time off" and have work be just enjoying all my effort up to this point.

If you're interested in being one of those amazing playtesters, check out my Patreon. VIP Patrons get access to all of my test builds. If the high tier is a little too rich for your blood, I still love feedback, and Patrons get early access to published builds before it goes up anywhere else, along with a bunch of other benefits. Every bit of support matters - my Patrons are what keep me going.