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.
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