Information about 9.0

[p]A few months ago, we talked about how the game was going into end-of-service mode. Well, I have a plan for how the second title is going to go and I think it's something I can do with relative ease provided I first do an overhaul on some systems and other back end concepts. That's where 9.0 comes in.[/p][p]Over the next few months, I'll be working on the 9.0 version of Cross of Auria, which will require a New Game file to play. The trigger to disable the New Game requirement is met at the very beginning of the game and cannot be avoided. Due to the reuse of the current game framework, it will not be possible to revert back to the 8.0 world once 9.0 is released. There will be a post 7 days before the release of 9.0 to give you adequate time to prepare, and even that is likely months down the road.[/p][p]9.0 will be the final update to Cross of Auria and this is your warning that it requires a New Game file to play.[/p][p]To summarize this section, the overarching goal is to reduce bloat within the engine's database which makes future development difficult. These were mistakes made between 2017-2019 that were never corrected, the effects of which continued to ripple to this day.[/p]

• [p]Remove unused or unstable plugins. (This forces the need for the new game file, as saved games loaded with missing plugins instantly crash)[/p]
• [p]Remove all current Timelost Zones from the game files. (Save files loaded still inside these long since removed zones will instantly crash)[/p]
• [p]Across the board stat squish.[/p]
• [p]Removal of erroneous quests, quest functions, skills, actors, classes, items, weapons, armor, states, troops, and system types. (This is the biggest back end overhaul)[/p]
  • [p]Skill Types down to Skills, Magic, Special, Enemy Skills, down from ~20.[/p]
  • [p]Weapon Types down to Dagger, Sword, Staff, Axe, Bow, Katana, Scythe, down from ~20.[/p]
  • [p]Armor Types down to General Armor, Shield, and Accessory, down from ~15.[/p]
  • [p]Stormchaser class removed, replaced with Adventurer. Gaining of Ruby's special abilities now through questline progress rather than random level up.[/p]
  • [p]Recent new subclasses no longer available by default without meeting key criteria or completing related story missions (ex: Pyromancer was originally meant to be locked behind a Sha'ri questline, but an accidental line of code permanently released it with no way to reel it back)[/p]
  • [p]I am currently uncommitted, but I may rip out the Quest Log in its entirety. With the scope of the game having advanced to what it is now, adding the overlay of the quest log data is too much extra unnecessary detail. If I do this, key story dialogue contained within the quest log itself will be moved directly into the campaign somewhere. Ex: every start quest is 1 line, every quest step change is 3 lines, every changed visible reward is 2 lines, every quest ended is at least 3 lines increasing with # of rewards. And then for some players, the display breaks ~30% of the way into the game.[/p]
• [p]Build meaningful Class change structure. (This may appear as the biggest front end overhaul)[/p]
• [p]Tighten the story and dialogue where necessary.[/p]
• [p]Open Terra Anatis, Shadowfrost Citadel, Brandywine Manor, The Great Heap, and other minor locations throughout the Four Kingdoms Area. [/p]
• [p]But most of all, prepare the engine itself to make additional games based on the resources already gathered here. CoA as it exists today was originally intended to have been 3 distinct separate ~10 hour campaigns. By my last count, there's currently nearly 60 hours worth of baked in content - a good deal of which is discoverable and not blatantly in your face.[/p]

[p]A few of you had expressed interest in making guides for CoA over the last year or so. In your guides, I recommend adding a version label for where this information is relevant. Something as simple as 'how to find the poison weapon' in Den An'ura will fundamentally change come the 9.0 release and the removal of Schematics. [/p][p]The Gift Pack DLCs and contents contained within caches will be scaled based on the new tuning system. However, with the removal of most Armor Types, the Gift Pack DLC items will feature stat spreads consistent to those type of characters without requiring those characters specifically to wear them.[/p][p]I unfortunately can't rapid fire release the finished pieces because it would be possible to convert them back to the previous version of the game and vice versa which would cause permanent balance issues that coding could not resolve. So, in modern day terms, Cross of Auria is effectively getting its first real expansion. Welcome to Cross of Auria - Reawakened. Coming soon (estimated release window: Fall 2026. Could release as early as next month barring any serious roadblocks. Either way, I'll give you that 7 day heads-up promised earlier in this post. Oh, and yeah, you'll get a special start-of-game item if your Game Completion achievement is detected from 8.0!)[/p][p][/p][p]Thanks for listening[/p][p]//bryan m.[/p]