Damsels Progress 3/29

Hi... I've been working away on Damsels and I wanted to report some progress.

You may recognize the image above from the last update -- but it's *not* that image. I've been working on more interesting lighting for my renders and if you compare this to the same scene from 1.11, I think you'll notice an improvement. Making better renders takes more time, but it's more interesting for you, and it's more interesting for me.

Damsels 1.12 will include a lot of new changes. First and foremost, each character will be unique -- you won't get a Harbinger if you already have one. This won't invalidate existing saves that have more than one -- you just won't get one more. This will make it easier to "get all the girls."

I'm also going to be working on more story for some of the characters. Obviously, I can't do all this at once. Based on the character polling I did earlier, the first two I'll be working on will be the Enchantress and the Valkyrie. There will be additional renders and scenes and a sense of progression as Amora the Enchantress and Hilda the Valkyrie build a relationship with you and advance as adventurers. Other characters will be added as time permits -- whether it's realistic to build story for all 16, or if it's better to go deeper for a smaller selection of more popular characters, I don't know yet.

If you start a new game, you'll find there have been some changes. Amora will help introduce you to the game, and about half of the classes will be unavailable at the start. Some of them will be recruited at specific places in the world. Others might show up on your doorstep soon after you start exploring.

If you have an already saved game you're fond of, all of this will still work. However, if you want access to the specific story for Amora, say, you will have to get rid of your existing Enchantresses for her to show up. I've made it easier to dismiss a girl from service -- no more going to the Temple to do that -- which also means that quest from Raphaelle has changed. This business of dismissing the non-unique characters in order to get the story that comes with a unique one is likely to be a feature of future releases as well -- it's not perfect, but it's the best way I can add this new content without requiring people to start over each time to get it. Since I'm adding content to the beginning of the game, it's somewhat inevitable that the best experience will come from starting afresh, but I don't want that to be the only option.

Damsels 1.12 will be released in April. I don't have a target date, because I have the list of things I want to include is almost certainly larger than the list of things I'll be able to do. If by taking an extra week I can make the game significantly better, or make it so saved games transition to 1.13 better, I'll do that, and if I'm at a point that seems like a great break point, I'll release earlier in the month. Barring some kind of emergency, no later than April 29.