Yes, part one. This update is so big that even after nearly two weeks of working on just the infrastructure for what will make up the majority of the gameplay for this update, it still isn't quite in a final playable state. It is very nearly in a testable state, though. It's gonna be fun dancing around exactly what this update is about without outright spoiling what's going on.
(That was sarcasm - I really want to talk about it and it's not gonna be fun at all - but I want to keep the story as much of a surprise as I can because it's the first update of Act 3 and so much happens)
I still haven't quite gotten to Lothario's part of the segment yet, but I am to a point where everything I need to function (at least at a very basic level) should function, so I just need to test it a bit more (and what I've tested so far works as intended, which feels fantastic) and then I can get to work on Lothario. So if you're reading this while the post is fresh, there's a good chance I'm already working on opening that door behind all those statues in Lothario's attic that's been locked since v0.3. And if I get that done fast enough and the new infrastructure doesn't need a ton of attention, I'll even be able to add the first secret area for this new thing and build out Lothario's hold, and all that'll be in the second test build for v0.20 when it goes up on Patreon and Subscribestar.
Speaking of Patreon and Subscribestar, a quick aside - there's a poll on that's available to everyone (even if you just join for free) to vote on Valentine's Day cards. If you want a valentine from your favorite Maid, go vote, because only the top 3 are getting one.
Anyway, as exciting as it is that all the new infrastructure is working, there's still an absolute boatload of work left to do. A lot of this new stuff relies on proximity checks for a ton of different events, which is why it's taking so many switches and variables to make it function. Last week I was a little under 20 of each; this week I'm up to 23 variables (with an estimated 24 more being necessary to handle what hasn't been built yet) and 24 switches (with an estimated 16 more for what's left). Most of those switches are checking whether or not certain actions have been completed, but in contrast, only 7 of the variables currently being used are for something other than checking the position of something.
And that's still before scripting everything else that needs scripting, giving you the room to see everything you need to see, and putting in other checks for locations so you're not able to sequence-break anything and have the game start throwing errors or stopping progression because something happened before it was supposed to. This part of the game is deeply complicated to build. It should be a lot of fun to play, though. As long as I get the balance for the enemies right, anyway, because this segment of the game is going to be very combat heavy. It's a good thing that Mind Hold worked out. Unless you've been keeping up with combat, you're going to need it.
This update is also going to be calling back to all the loose plot threads that aren't part of a given Maid's character quests, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself so I have something to talk about next week. I think I've sprinkled in just enough hints at what's going on with this update that you might be able to guess, but you won't be sure if you're right or not. And hopefully that makes you excited for the update and not annoyed that I'm not telling you anything.
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