Can someone share schedule and latest progress report?
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Schedule for June
Monster Monsoon has been patched to v5a, with a few additions and bug fixes. I will now switch to developing GStC for the next two weeks. Since the reception for GStC has been rather mixed, I will post a poll in a couple of days to find out if you want to see development end at v4 or v3. The game will still get a chance to be picked as a big project over Royal Chess regardless of the outcome of the poll, but development for Royal Chess can start earlier if you prefer.
Below is a list of projected dates for upcoming events and releases. I will edit this post to notify of any changes in plans as necessary. New post are usually made a little after 7:30 PM, GMT-07:00.
- June 9: Secret Meeting.
- June 10: GStC development length poll.
- June 17: Progress Report.
- June 24-27: GStC v3 release.
Progress Report #46
Girlfriend Saves the City
Posting the progress report a day sooner, because early feedback on some of the big changes I am making may be helpful. A revision of the gameplay was a major point of focus in this first week, and I attempted to address as many of the common areas of criticism as I could. Lack of unity between the battle system and town, confusing movement arrows in combat, necessary losses, lack of progression, and limited inventory have all been points that I have tried to fix. Here's what I changed:
- Items will no longer carry over between missions, but you will get a lot more of them and they will be directly influenced by what structures you add to a district. There's no more incentive to hoard things, experimentation is encouraged, and there are many more buildings and double the amount of items to play with. Transforming the buildings was fun for a lot of players, so all of the new item generating structures have a second form with unique production.
- The movement arrows in combat have been replaced by a waypoint system. Instead of assigning directions, you can suggest a sequence of rooms to reach. The arrows are the replacement of the "wait" and "turn" commands, combining them into "wait while facing a direction". You can also delete an assignment, rather than the old way where an overflow would push the whole stack down.
- Enemy encounters are now assigned based on a "quest" system similar to the one I had in Summer Sweepers. The villains will be the ones choosing them from a list of increasingly more evil schemes that eventually lead to a final confrontation and an ending. Defeated enemies will be gone by the next time Heather attempts to foil their plans, so losses will no longer feel quite as bad. I want to add a variety of objectives in the next update to make each mission feel more unique.
- The office is still in development. It will feature Leo's dad and Heather to talk to as well as a variety of visitors from around the town. There are a few interactive objects that I want to add like a TV with closeups of various events Heather gets herself into. A conspiracy pinboard to track enemy plans and a paperwork desk for assigning edicts that change what buildings do will probably not make it into the main update, but may appear in either v3 or the patch.
New Content:
- Started making the town hall and related events.
- 10 new buildings.
- 10 new combat items.
- "Evil schemes" quest progression system to replace previous "threat level" system.
Gameplay Changes:
- Replaced combat arrow movement que with waypoint que. Action requests can be cancelled. Wait requests stack.
- Items no longer carry over between missions. Buildings give items for a single encounter.
- Items can now be stacked, inventory is infinite.
- 2 item shops are guaranteed on each construction proposal.
- Changed effect of various buildings, especially those that used to give you items.
- Changed effect of various items, generally to make them hit broader areas.
- Introduced 2 new attack elements. Changed some item activation rules.