Getting Back on Track… Again | Patreon Weekly #128

Hey Patrons!

Firstly, there’s a new Content Poll! Though I suggest reading this weekly for context first.

I’m doing a bit better this week and am trying to get back on track with work on v1.1.0. Thanks to Roguelike Celebration and those real-life troubles, v1.1.0 ended up getting delayed quite a bit! However, I do hope that I’ll be able to get v1.1.0 to beta toward the end of this month.

With that in mind, here’s what I’ve been working on for the last week.

Alchemical Energy Changes

I’ve now implemented the core changes to alchemical energy. It now takes the form of a second currency that is attached to the player (not to alchemy pots), and which is produced mainly by sacrificing consumable items. I opted to give energy generation a dedicated button in the alchemy UI, instead of treating it like a regular recipe:

Each alchemy room does still spawn with some energy, but the amount has been massively reduced. Right now the overall amount of energy generated by the game itself over an entire run has gone down from an average of about 200 to about 30, and I’m considering reducing it a little further. At the moment the base amounts of energy produced from a seed/stone/potion/scroll are 2/3/6/6 respectively, and the exotic potion/scroll recipes requires 4/6 energy each. The energy costs of other recipes are going to be mostly unchanged.

Along with these adjustments I’m also changing up the alchemize spell. Alchemize is at risk of being totally useless in its current form now that almost every recipe requires energy, but letting it work with energy would also cause it to push too far into the Toolkit’s territory, so I’m giving it a complete redesign. Now, the spell will be used to convert items into gold or energy on the go! Each use of alchemize will let the player turn an item (or stack of items) into gold as if it were sold to a shop, or into energy as if it were used in an alchemy pot. This should go a long way toward helping players with inventory management, and reduce the need for players to trek back to shops or alchemy pots.

Pin Shipping

I’m also getting started on procuring shipping supplies for the pins. The supplies are mostly straightforward things like envelopes, labels, stamps, and packing materials (I’m opting for paper here, not plastic), but one thing that’s taking a little more effort to produce some cards that the pins will slot into. These cards just require a bit of design work, but will be a nice little bonus that includes the pin’s number and series. I’m hoping to get them ordered in another couple of days. If all goes well, I will have everything together in another couple of weeks, and will start shipping the pins at the end of this month and the beginning of December.

If you qualify for a pin but don’t have a mailing address, I will be sending a final warning soon. Please make sure you get me an address if you want a pin, especially if you want one with the lowest possible number!