Development Update

So, after posting the last update (literally from Airport) I took a quick holiday with the family. I didn't get as much writing done as I had hoped, but I did get a lot of thinking and designing done. Now that I'm back on

The two big systems that still need love in Morningstar is the gem based combat and the optional replayable paths (the Maze). I spent a fair bit of time fleshing those out, and looking at how to improve them.

The gem combat is getting a reasonably large overhaul; a 'refactoring', which is programmer speak for "time to rip this thing apart and put it back together again". Kinda like kids and grandfather's clock. I'm changing how move data is stored, and shifting it out to a google sheet, because I need a LOT more skills before I'm happy. In addition I'm cleaning up how things like HP is calculated, and fixing various small bugs in the system. I expect that'll take the next couple of weeks to complete.

I also wanted a replayable place to fight; I'm a little less sure of this, because for about 60% of the game there's nothing that it makes sense to hunt. I can make some non-humanoid things (giant rats, middle-aged mutant turtles, etc) that he can fight, but killing humanoids becomes problematic for the kind of guy he is (unlike Love of Magic's MC, who's got a higher bodycount than Kim Kardashian).

 Anyway, I was working through the stuff that would need to change when it struck me that either I postpone this until after the Early Access launch, or I risk launching into EA while in the middle of open-heart surgery on the combat system. Not an ideal situation.

I decided to push the launch out, and skip Early Access altogether. Tentatively that's a rather optimistic End of September, but as always the truth is that it's done when it's done.

How does that change things for Patreons? Not much. Builds will keep coming, with new side content for Saoe, Mu Lau & Saffron and Lin now rendering. I'll be pushing out the first version of the refactored combat/upgrade system either next week or the week after, and then getting back to writing again.

As always, if you want a Steam Key to keep any eye on progress and help play-test, let me know.

As always, thanks for the support, and let me know what you think in the comments.