Finally got around to finishing up incorporating new updates to the skill system and reorganizing the free space in my base rom. I have less than a MB left for any additional changes I may want from what is left. The pressure in some respects is real, but with only a few chapters left and supports, I think I should be fine.
Anyway, here is a sneak peak of the updates I made and was able to incorporate:
As you can see, the str/magic split has now been applied, in addition to there now being a movement growth as well. I thought about possibly adding in movement stars as well, but I ultimately decided against that addition given that there are two dancers available in the hack.
I also added in capture. I will try my best to balance it, but my goal with adding in capture is that it’s existence doesn’t make people feel like they will always need to capture something.
The last changes I want to note are some slight touch ups. The larger brown boxes of text I hope speed up the flow of the introduction scenes before some of the chapters. The weapon display was reverted back to a more proper one that actually displays weapon progress. I updated the minimug screen. While I don’t show it here, I did fix the odd animation issue with the flux tome. I also completely redesigned the prologue. Because of the new changes to how the hack is structured thanks to the str/magic split, people will no longer be able to use their old save files. As such, I’m trying to make some chapters play differently to make the experience more fresh for the people who have been playing the hack so many times over the years. This is the third time I’ve said this, but I really hope this is the last time such a change will happen, especially since the only other release I plan to do is for the final version of the hack.
The small updates to the early chapters I have planned don’t make me think I will fail to reach my goal of releasing the hack in full next year, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to accomplish that goal by February anymore because of these updates. I can only say that this hack should definitely be finished next year.
The last thing I will end this long post/update with is that I am currently debating requesting some assistance with some small graphical changes. These wouldn’t be necessary for the final release, but there are some mugs I think could use updating and there is one battle animation I’d like some help with. We’ll see if I put in that request.
Oh, and I also made Mikey playable in the prologue only due to his popularity as thanks for the feedback given so far.
Enjoy and happy holidays everyone!
