Weekly Progress Update [19/MAR]

We're back with the progress updates!!

Also back to working on AToC ✨

I finished an important class the past week and my uni schedule has just hugely opened up, which means for the next couple of months, I can really focus on writing CH11!!

So far I've only got 6k words on the books, but with how well my writing has gone over the weekend, I'm hopeful I'll be able to reach 15k before March ends.

I'm projecting that CH11 will feature the most amount of variation for any chapter so far, so I won't be surprised if we blast past 60k words up to the 70k range. Each LI route alone will require near 8k-10k, which means almost 40k words could be devoted to just the romance arcs. Add to that the main plot storylines that are branching as well, and you get a LOT of variance.

If I can get to averaging 20k per month, I think it'll be doable to write it in 3-4 months!! An early summer release would be absolutely ideal, so fingers crossed and pray for me haha

Current progress

Earlier in the month I skipped ahead a bit and started writing the major LI relationship climax scenes in between uni coursework, but now that I have time to fully devote to AToC I've switched to writing the beginning of the chapter.

The way CH11 opens, similar but even more extreme to CH9/CH10, will vary strongly depending on who your LI is, whether your LI relationship is high or low, and who has and has not been appointed to your Imperial Court!

This coming week my focus is X's route to start with, which is quite spicy. A Crown in a low variation has a very different perception of how CH10 ended compared to one with a high variation. A low variant Crown is oblivious compared to a high variant one, so that'll be fun once X finally shows up LOL.

But also, the political shenanigans that are already happening here are absolutely delicious. Part of X's route does have some overlap with all the others in the court scenes, though the cause for each will differ greatly, obviously.

Here's a small preview of a bit you might see occur across all LI routes, though it still depends on who is appointed to your court (and the Lord Samal referenced here is specific to X's route as well):

“Chief Minister, is this allowed? There must be procedure for the appointment of officials—”

“It is all at the Crown’s discretion,” Chief Minister Karwan states simply, turning away from the representative again to face forward instead.

“But this is highly unusual!”

The Minister breathes an exasperated sigh. “Oh, quiet down! Were you not using the same technicalities to get your way a moment ago, you insolent dog?”

“Do not speak to me that way!” Lord Samal erupts. “I serve Mîr Behram!”

“And I was already serving the Crowns of this Empire when your master was still suckling at the teat!” the Chief Minister snaps. “Now be a good boy and come to heel, we have many more matters to discuss.”

Looks like the Crown finally has some allies on their side after appointing their officials, which should make it a little bit easier on them. Although that also highly depends on what other officials the Crown appointed, or removed, or did not remove 👀

I'm still thinking about the exact structure of the chapter in terms of the events that happen, but I think I will figure that out as I go along. Overall I'm as equally excited to get to the potential romantic developments this chapter as I am for the plot elements!!

I mentioned this before in the dev sneek peak for this month, but in terms of the romances, this chapter is definitely a climactic moment.

The exact decision you make can help you fully recover and have some goodwill to fall back on, if you are on a low relationship route, or make things much worse. It won't be impossible to switch to a high relationship variant even if you mess this scene up, but your LI will keep this moment in the back of their mind for the rest of the game.

Similarly, if you are in a high relationship currently, and you make the right decision, you can reinforce it and ensure your LI remembers this moment even if you have some rough times in the future. Or, there's the potential to mess up your high romance and have this be a stain that follows you for the rest of the game lol.

No pressure though!! 🤪

That was it for this week, until next time 💖