Maids & Masters (& Shops & Stealth Missions)

Apparently I've decided to take a "bottom up" kind of approach to filling out all these maps. Rather than do the story-relevant bit first (which is effectively an extended stealth mission; kind of a combination of the aggressive path for Viridius and the catacombs part of Griselda's segment), I've decided to make a bunch of new animations for Evdokia's Estate (there's four right now, but I may make a few more once everything else is done) and work on the bit for Emily's Master.

Emily's Master is a bit of an exception when it comes to Estates. It isn't explorable like other Estates (which there is a narrative reason for, I'm not just being lazy about making another dozen maps, honest), so it basically functions as an extension of Emily's shop, and an excuse for a new means of purchasing things to be added so I can get around an engine limitation I discovered while updating the new customization options in v0.15.1/2. The trouble with this is that the accommodations I need to make for the new system to work without either breaking something, neglecting something, or sacrificing something are a little more complicated than anticipated. Which in turn means it took longer than I'd have liked to make progress on it.

 

The good news on that is that it's nearly done at this point (and should be complete tonight), and thanks to my Patrons being generous with me, I can focus on development work for the rest of this week, get the test build out to VIPs on Friday, and focus on fixing any bugs next week (provided no more wrenches get thrown into the gears and cause a delay). Once I get it finished, I'll also never need to mess with the shop setup again, as it's built in a way that includes the final tier of equipment before you have full access to it. Provided I don't have any bugs in it that need fixing, anyway.

 

Which just leaves that stealth segment. I know how gamers feel about forced stealth missions, especially long forced stealth missions, so - trying not to spoil anything - there is something in place to accommodate that. If you don't want to do the stealth mission, you won't be forced to in order to progress the story. You will have to do it if you want the full story for the new area, but it isn't going to be required reading. I still have a few more maps, enemy types, and mechanics to build out, but I should be able to get at least the majority of that done for Friday. It might be missing the actual ending, but that depends on how smoothly/quickly things go. All I can really say right now is that I'll do my best to get it all to a point where I'm happy with what will be in the test build.

If you want to get your hands on that test build, all test builds go out to VIPs on both Patreon and Subscribestar. If you don't want to shell out for the VIP tier, all the other paid tiers still get access to the patch notes, which goes into a little more detail of what's in the update and what to expect than what you get in the posts I make here. All tiers also get early access to each build at the same time, so if you want to play v0.17 as early as possible, give the pages a look and consider joining a tier.

Maids & Masters (& v0.17 & Evdokia)

I'm definitely not sick enough to actually consider myself sick anymore, which would be great news if it weren't for the lingering headache that still haunts me every time I try to get work done. I'm doing what I can to mitigate it, because I genuinely want to get v0.17 done in as timely a manner as possible, but it's a struggle. I'm also tired of talking about not really being sick, but still having trouble getting a decent amount of work done. Hopefully this will be the last time I mention it affecting development and I can actually get the other Estates in the region done and get v0.17 out.

On that note, Evdokia's Estate is nearly done. I still need to finish populating it with events and hide the various Estate goodies around, but the maps are done. Then I need to get some new animations rendered, because Evdokia has more or less served her purpose in the story at this point, which leaves her Estate really only existing as an excuse for more lewds. There is still a meta trophy that her Estate is a part of, but other than the usual rare items you can find at Act 2 Estates, there's not a lot going on there. 

Which is actually going to be something of a theme with this update. Without spoiling anything, the story segment for this update is going to be a short one, and the other non-story Estate is basically only going to exist as an extension of Emily's shop. There's still plenty of content to find in the update, and I expect doing everything to take at least an hour for most people. A lot of it is optional, though, so I'm also expecting a certain type of player to be a little disappointed at the comparatively few minutes of story there is in v0.17.

 

I'm pretty happy with where the region is right now, though. I still want to find a few more places to fit in combat, because my testing has my Maids around level 28, which is still two levels shy of where I want them to be. That might resolve itself once I get the story segment done, but even if it doesn't, it's probably close enough.

That said, I'm not sure there'll be a new test build this Friday for VIP Patrons. The wilds segments are at a point now where I think I can safely call them complete, and Evdokia's Estate is at least completely explorable, but that's not a lot more game than what was in the last test build. I'm hoping I'll be able to get the other non-story Estate done this week, and if I do, that feels like enough to justify a new test build, but I may not. The remaining Estate is going to be a lot of math for me to do, and I need to copy over a lot of infrastructure from Emily's shop to make sure everything works as intended. Not to mention updating Emily's shop itself so you can actually pick up all the new stuff you can buy. What I want to do is double down and get everything done over the next two weeks, have the next test build be the final one, and leave myself a week to playtest and focus on QoL.

It's a good thing the Patron poll seems pretty well decided on the "it'll be done when it's done" option, because not only does that take some pressure off, that preferred timeline above puts v0.17's release on October 4th. I also had some client work come in, and I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to get through that yet. I've been told that it's relatively low priority, so it shouldn't affect development on Maids & Masters and hopefully v0.17 won't be any later than the 4th. If you do have an opinion that you want heard, that poll is still active until this Friday, and is available for both Patrons and Subscribers. Even if you're in the minority, I'd rather you say something - even if that's just leaving a vote - rather than be unhappy with the outcome in silence.

Maids & Masters (& v0.17 & Being Sick)

Much to my chagrin, the cold that I caught over a week ago at this point is still clinging to life. While I do feel well enough to be able to get at least some work done every day, what's left of the cold makes it much more difficult than I appreciate to concentrate on work. All of these wilds segments should be done by now, and while the vast majority of the work is done, what's left are the bits that require me to be more able to use my brain than I currently am, which has made reaching an endpoint on them an exercise in frustration.

The good news is that I think I'll be able to justify getting a test build put out this Friday. The wilds may end up still missing a few finishing touches that make each section feel more unique, but I can at least get someone else's opinion on how much of that is needed or if I'm just mentally stuck on it.

I've also got another two enemy types built out since the last post, bringing the total new enemy types for the wilds up to five. Most of these enemies also do things besides just poison you, too. If nothing else, combat will hopefully feel a little more varied than in previous segments of the wilds that only had one or two new enemy types, and only maybe three enemy types total.

I'm also hoping combat will feel a little more rewarding. I'd originally wanted the Maids to be somewhere around level 30 at this point in the game, but obviously the mountain regions didn't have a lot of opportunities for combat. Even if you've been keeping up on the combat that did exist, most of your Maids are probably going to be around level 24 on the high end. I haven't tested all the combat available in the new maps yet to see approximately where levels will be if you complete all of the new combat encounters, but I made an effort to make the new enemies worth a meaningful amount of experience. Hopefully without making them overly difficult to fight, so if you happen to be a little behind on levels, it doesn't prove overly difficult to catch up by fighting the newer enemies.

While I'm busy hoping for things, is it too much to hope you'll click on a Patreon or Subscribestar link? That poll I've been talking about is going to be running for all Patrons and Subscribers for a little more than another week.

Maybe I'll stick to hoping I wake up tomorrow to find the last of this cold has finally left me.

Maids & Masters (& Starting on v0.17)

Well, I'm finally taking some actual time off, but it took getting sick to do it. I'm fairly certain I'm already over the worst of it, so I should be back to normal before Friday. This Friday's Patreon/Subscribestar post is a poll about development anyway, so I don't feel too bad about not having enough done for a test build. And with me being sick and not getting as much done this week, that poll is going to be all the more important.

To avoid being vague, the poll is going to be replacing the "which Estate is next?" polls that I held for the first half of Act 2, and instead is going to be more about how I want to handle my usual monthly releases, since there's an increasing likelihood I won't be able to finish v0.17 before the end of September, and v0.18 is likely to be of similar size and complexity. This might apply to v0.19 and beyond as well, since what I want to do with the first half of Act 3 is yet again something I've never done before.

I have still gotten some work done, though. Something I'd wanted to add more of but never got around to adding to the mountains - segments of the wilds - are already blocked out in a general sense for the South Desert. There's five segments in the new region, one of which is already map-complete. There are also four new enemy types - so far. I wanted to take a crack at making wilds maps that weren't just paths with sections of mazes, but without a decent variety of landmarks and enemies, they might actually be "big empty maps" like some people like to complain about. I take enough pride in my work that I don't want that to actually be true, so I still want to find at least two things to make unique about each map that gives you something to find or do besides fight enemies, and I might still make another enemy or two to try and round things out a little more.

But so help me, if I get the complaints anyway, v0.18 is going to have maps so big and so empty it'll make the Deep Wilds look like Times Square, and I've already got the lore justification for it.

The three Estates in the region are also a little different than usual. You've already met Evdokia and know everything about her that the story needs you to know, so exploring her Estate is entirely optional. Then there's the Emmerich Estate, where you can finally meet Emily's Master and unlock the opportunities to invest in tier 4 and eventually tier 5 gear (which will unlock a little non-linearly; he'll explain it when you get there). Lastly, there's the actual story segment for the update with the ancestral Wickham Estate, home to Viridius' older brother, Aridius.

The other two Estates will probably still get their own blog posts as I develop them, but I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll be doing my best not to talk about Aridius' Estate too much. Though I will say that it, too, is going to be a little different from the way you've been interacting with other Masters up to this point.

It was actually based on that difference that I was starting to become hopeful I might be able to get v0.17 done more quickly than I was anticipating, but that was before I got sick and lost two and a half days (so far; it's likely I'll be losing the rest of day three and most to all of day four), so there definitely won't be a test build on Friday, and it's impossible to say how that'll affect the rest of development for v0.17 in general.

That feels like it should be the end of this post so I can hopefully get more sleep and get over this cold faster. If you wish you could send me soup and nyquil, maybe consider becoming a Patron or my first paying Subscriber. It's basically the same thing if you think about it.