New Year Address / 5.1.X Overview
Occasionally when I do these posts, I give a little insight into what is being worked on or what my goals are, but it's usually attached to the tail end of a patch notes briefing. Today we're going to have a look at the broader scope of goals for the near future, in list format in no particular order. Included will be some status notes about their development progress if there is any to mention.
The following are goals to be completed during the 5.1.X versions of the game. All updates between now and 5.2 will work toward these goals.
* Completion and finalization of Yuel's Castle. Then, a look at potentially downscaling difficulty in the entire zone if needed.
- The design for the interior of Yuel's Castle is already complete. Making the area interesting is far from finished.
- Will continue to release as area blocks until completed, similar to how Library and Prison were released.
* Creation of Yuelslain's Monarch DLC.
- Not yet in development pending the finalization of Yuel's Castle.
- Will allows the re-challenging of bosses from Yuel's Castle on a permanent basis for more / different loot.
- Adds a unique extra boss.
* Transformation of the Hall of Challengers.
- Gauntlet and Pit data will be permanently removed from the game.
- Zone has already been redesigned with the west wing partially filled with new level 30 challenges.
- Original custom Pit bosses scaled up to Lv. 30.
- The decision to transform this area in this way comes from observing the difficulty of Yuel's Castle relative to what equipment Ruby's party has access to. Also, the coding for both the Pit and the Gauntlet proved to be too complicated and glitchy over the long haul and needed to be significantly reduced to function.
* Addition of a second Colosseum challenge
- Since the birth of the Colosseum, I've only had a single challenge for a reimagined state of Den An'ura. However, the goal was always to have reimagined versions of every dungeon Ruby goes through with similar yet more complex trials.
- Scarlet Cavern will make an appearance as the next Colosseum trial with an expanded single map.
- Scarlet Cavern map is already completed. Once a gearset, enemy list, and economy has been established, this will be added to the portal left of the An'ura Rift.
- Current goal is level 30-40 range for the dungeon with primarily Fire and Earth type enemies.
* Removal of multi-map locations
- This is already partially in progress, found in patch notes as when zones become Timelost.
- The engine has a finite number of "maps" which can be stored in its database, and the concept of small multi-map zones is wasteful of limited resources.
- Will remove both version of Den An'ura, Scarlet Cavern, Hell's Gate, and Black Forest to replace them with single maps that serve the same function as the original.
- Once a map becomes Timelost, players have until the next major patch or 2 months to save in a non-timelost zone.
- Loading a save file in a Timelost zone will result in a game crash. That save file will be unrecoverable. To prevent this, future Timelost zones will become save restricted in an update leading up to them becoming Timelost. The overall time between a map becoming save restricted and being removed from the game should usually be roughly 3 months.
* Creation of Battle Series X
- I introduced this concept in a previous update and pretty much haven't said anything about it since. Don't worry, it hasn't been scrapped and I haven't forgotten about it. During the creation of the "Zodiac Overwatch", I discovered some things about plugins I had installed but not used - like Item Synthesis and Item Disassembly. Since then, the concept of the Crafting menu, breaking down items, and learning skills via items has found its way to other parts of the game even though they originated here in this unreleased DLC.
- Currently, Battle Series X hosts level 25 zodiac-themed bosses. "Trash mobs" haven't been thoroughly created yet, but will be in the 15-25 range.
- Data for an entire set of gear is already included in the game package for this area.
- This area, unlike Yuelslain's Village, does not have an overarching story or integration in the quest log. The map for this zone is also already finished, so the lack of quest log entanglement is unlikely to change.
- The concept for Battle Series X came months before Yuelslain's Village, but around Halloween 2021 I decided to make a Christmas themed event that evolved into what became YV.
- Once completed, Battle Series X will release as a free DLC, just like Yuelslain's Village. The reason for this is effectively to keep separate from the primary game package extra data which isn't always desired. Removing BSX from your game package won't cause you to lose any of the items obtained from the area, but will cause a game crash if you do so while saved in the Zodiac Overwatch. The same concept applies to all subzones of Yuelslain's Village, and will carry over to all other DLC packs.
Beyond 5.1.X
Following the completion of all the above goals, focus will shift back to moving the main story forward through Sha'ri (bottom right of world map) and potentially Castalia (bottom left).
- Completion of the Orc War campaign and introduction to the next campaign.
- Dojo in Lvell for all time periods.
- Inn in Lvell for all time periods.
- Usage of Alpha Ruins
- Terra Anatis sidequest
- Obscurite explorable
Beyond Orc War Campaign
Once everything you have read above this section has been completed, it will be time to evaluate whether continued development on CoA is a wise business decision for me. There are other game ideas I want to pursue, both on RMMV and on Unity, in addition to the work I do as a content creator and live streamer. Ever since making CoA F2P, thousands more people have been able to pick up and try the game - which I love. However, as a solo developer, I have to consider how best to feed my family. If development on CoA were to come to a halt, it would likely only be temporary while a new project was made from start to finish. On the other hand, if any of my other business ventures started to pick up, it's likely that development on CoA would cease immediately and permanently. Since there is no current "end of the game" ever since I abandoned the idea of releasing CoA in $0.99 chapters, everything above can be summarized as: develop a clear ending to the main story & add post-game things to do. That's it right there. That's the current overall goal. On the other hand, who knows - if for some reason the paid DLC I have in mind does exceedingly well, there would be no reason to pursue other ventures. I know a lot of developers don't talk about this kind of thing, but it's important to highlight that I'm not a teenager. In fact, I'm 32 with 2 kids, but I still struggle with the idea of abandoning a profitless project because it's something that I love.
Solemness aside, thank you for reading if you got this far, and I'll see you in the next patch notes which will probably be in 3 or so days. Next update is already loaded with fixes and removals of unused data and partial change to Hall of Challengers.
Enjoy the new year everyone
//Hardytier
The following are goals to be completed during the 5.1.X versions of the game. All updates between now and 5.2 will work toward these goals.
* Completion and finalization of Yuel's Castle. Then, a look at potentially downscaling difficulty in the entire zone if needed.
- The design for the interior of Yuel's Castle is already complete. Making the area interesting is far from finished.
- Will continue to release as area blocks until completed, similar to how Library and Prison were released.
* Creation of Yuelslain's Monarch DLC.
- Not yet in development pending the finalization of Yuel's Castle.
- Will allows the re-challenging of bosses from Yuel's Castle on a permanent basis for more / different loot.
- Adds a unique extra boss.
* Transformation of the Hall of Challengers.
- Gauntlet and Pit data will be permanently removed from the game.
- Zone has already been redesigned with the west wing partially filled with new level 30 challenges.
- Original custom Pit bosses scaled up to Lv. 30.
- The decision to transform this area in this way comes from observing the difficulty of Yuel's Castle relative to what equipment Ruby's party has access to. Also, the coding for both the Pit and the Gauntlet proved to be too complicated and glitchy over the long haul and needed to be significantly reduced to function.
* Addition of a second Colosseum challenge
- Since the birth of the Colosseum, I've only had a single challenge for a reimagined state of Den An'ura. However, the goal was always to have reimagined versions of every dungeon Ruby goes through with similar yet more complex trials.
- Scarlet Cavern will make an appearance as the next Colosseum trial with an expanded single map.
- Scarlet Cavern map is already completed. Once a gearset, enemy list, and economy has been established, this will be added to the portal left of the An'ura Rift.
- Current goal is level 30-40 range for the dungeon with primarily Fire and Earth type enemies.
* Removal of multi-map locations
- This is already partially in progress, found in patch notes as when zones become Timelost.
- The engine has a finite number of "maps" which can be stored in its database, and the concept of small multi-map zones is wasteful of limited resources.
- Will remove both version of Den An'ura, Scarlet Cavern, Hell's Gate, and Black Forest to replace them with single maps that serve the same function as the original.
- Once a map becomes Timelost, players have until the next major patch or 2 months to save in a non-timelost zone.
- Loading a save file in a Timelost zone will result in a game crash. That save file will be unrecoverable. To prevent this, future Timelost zones will become save restricted in an update leading up to them becoming Timelost. The overall time between a map becoming save restricted and being removed from the game should usually be roughly 3 months.
* Creation of Battle Series X
- I introduced this concept in a previous update and pretty much haven't said anything about it since. Don't worry, it hasn't been scrapped and I haven't forgotten about it. During the creation of the "Zodiac Overwatch", I discovered some things about plugins I had installed but not used - like Item Synthesis and Item Disassembly. Since then, the concept of the Crafting menu, breaking down items, and learning skills via items has found its way to other parts of the game even though they originated here in this unreleased DLC.
- Currently, Battle Series X hosts level 25 zodiac-themed bosses. "Trash mobs" haven't been thoroughly created yet, but will be in the 15-25 range.
- Data for an entire set of gear is already included in the game package for this area.
- This area, unlike Yuelslain's Village, does not have an overarching story or integration in the quest log. The map for this zone is also already finished, so the lack of quest log entanglement is unlikely to change.
- The concept for Battle Series X came months before Yuelslain's Village, but around Halloween 2021 I decided to make a Christmas themed event that evolved into what became YV.
- Once completed, Battle Series X will release as a free DLC, just like Yuelslain's Village. The reason for this is effectively to keep separate from the primary game package extra data which isn't always desired. Removing BSX from your game package won't cause you to lose any of the items obtained from the area, but will cause a game crash if you do so while saved in the Zodiac Overwatch. The same concept applies to all subzones of Yuelslain's Village, and will carry over to all other DLC packs.
Beyond 5.1.X
Following the completion of all the above goals, focus will shift back to moving the main story forward through Sha'ri (bottom right of world map) and potentially Castalia (bottom left).
- Completion of the Orc War campaign and introduction to the next campaign.
- Dojo in Lvell for all time periods.
- Inn in Lvell for all time periods.
- Usage of Alpha Ruins
- Terra Anatis sidequest
- Obscurite explorable
Beyond Orc War Campaign
Once everything you have read above this section has been completed, it will be time to evaluate whether continued development on CoA is a wise business decision for me. There are other game ideas I want to pursue, both on RMMV and on Unity, in addition to the work I do as a content creator and live streamer. Ever since making CoA F2P, thousands more people have been able to pick up and try the game - which I love. However, as a solo developer, I have to consider how best to feed my family. If development on CoA were to come to a halt, it would likely only be temporary while a new project was made from start to finish. On the other hand, if any of my other business ventures started to pick up, it's likely that development on CoA would cease immediately and permanently. Since there is no current "end of the game" ever since I abandoned the idea of releasing CoA in $0.99 chapters, everything above can be summarized as: develop a clear ending to the main story & add post-game things to do. That's it right there. That's the current overall goal. On the other hand, who knows - if for some reason the paid DLC I have in mind does exceedingly well, there would be no reason to pursue other ventures. I know a lot of developers don't talk about this kind of thing, but it's important to highlight that I'm not a teenager. In fact, I'm 32 with 2 kids, but I still struggle with the idea of abandoning a profitless project because it's something that I love.
Solemness aside, thank you for reading if you got this far, and I'll see you in the next patch notes which will probably be in 3 or so days. Next update is already loaded with fixes and removals of unused data and partial change to Hall of Challengers.
Enjoy the new year everyone
//Hardytier