Made a rough addition to the forest
the boar and deer might be too convenient for later on
I can definitely use this, but it desperately needs better pictures. When I get some time, I'll have a look around.
I was actually thinking of
not creating a new 'encounter list', and depleting the forest animal event chances faster when you hunt. And possibly some level requirement similar to the treasure caches. Or a fear malus, so a big dragon just scares everything away.
The trouble with avatars is, for some reasons 'drag', the 'NPC object' that shows your picture when talking, isn't updated when the avatar changes. I don't really know exactly why. Ren'Py NPC objects are not always well-behaved. I had to make a separate 'drag_as_king' version for the witch quest. So currently, avatar changes will be limited to 'profile' and combat.
Small size evolution easier
Not a fan of this, small size is already quite a bit more powerful than anything else costing 40 XP.
I disagree that skipping the stage entirely would be a proper solution (though it is a quick way, maybe for easy? although that is easy enough as it is).
I was thinking of making 'very easy' with medium size and 100 gold, 'easy' with small and 20 gold (but otherwise having a similar bonus to evolving and malus to enemies), 'normal' with small, 'normal+' with tiny, hard and draconian. This way, people can skip the 'whelp' stage if they want to or are bored of it.
If anyone has better ideas, I'm listening.
Between the hunting option and a reduced tiny to small requirements you still get to have the wimpy stage, but it is far less of a chore
As far as hunting goes, is it really? The fox gives you nothing you can't get from the lone farm with a better reward/action ratio, even given you have to throw every third fight or so. The rabbit is a guaranteed geese encounter. And hunting sheep with a goblin in tow is
far better for speeding up evolution than either.
I like the addition for its flavour, but I don't think it actually is a game-changer of any kind.
Halving the evolution time of course cuts any 'chores' in half as well.
Thinking about all this, I'm actually leaning towards making a third 'hunt' option, 'hunt for herds' at the countryside. Gives you guaranteed geese/sheep/pigs/cows, but again depletes the chances faster and has a failure rate similar to merchant-hunting.
All in all, I now have a lot of good suggestions to work with, so another update might take a while. Perhaps a week or two, even. And I still have the 'forest adventures' on my todo list as well.