Pre-Alpha 1.44

Good morning, all! My goal this week was really to make the game more stable and livable, if that makes any sense. As such, most of the things that I accomplished are updates, bug fixes, and optimizations. I did add a few things, but mostly in the spirit of ambiance.
That isn't to say that I didn't do more than updates, however as there are a few brand new things that were added.
Now, for the change log:

Change log, 1.44

-Finished the influence levels for the Vulpine home village of Kerankohora, also named the Vulpine home village Kerankohora :p
-Added a small Vulpine fishing village, Tonorhanko
-Updated a few spawners to work randomly
-Added a few more random NPCs, for ambiance :p
-Increased the stability of the loading system
-All the bugs ever (found the problem with the left scythe arm, to name only one)
-Increased world size by about 20%
-Updated the Follower class
-Dealt with map tears
-Quite a few optimizations, mostly dealing with render distances
-Added a simple health widget for followers


Items Added:

-Chewing Leaf, accessory


Cards Added:

-Cloak of Scales, tier 3 card, one of the six final cards derived from the Little Lizard
-Fennec Meteor, tier 3, one of the final upgrades of Fennec Fire
-Vulpine Poisondrinker, tier 2, one of the first upgrades for the Vulpine Ritualist summons card
-Crystalline Wave, tier 2, last planned tier 2 upgrade of Crystalline Barrage


Enemies Added:

-Updated the Little Lizard (which still to this day needs a new name :p)
-Updated Brindlebark (along with the new name, originally Stumpy Steve)
-Updated the Vulpine Poisondrinker
-Updated the Vulpine Trickster, removing its infinite teleport loop :p


Quests Added:

-The Windy Seas


Coming Up:

As I am sure you are aware, I did not get UE4 to properly package the game last week, and that hasn't changed for this week either. It is really quite frustrating, because the game is in a perfectly testable state, and for whatever reason that is eluding me, it will simply not play after packaging. At least I have yet to find another shitty job. :p

So, tentatively:

-probably more bugs

-work on the influence levels for the Lizard home

-add a sort of forward camp for the Leonine race, I've the perfect place for it all planned out

-hopefully touch on the skill system a bit, I left it out this week feeling like I needed to tighten up they systems that I have already in place, which I did. I fixed a lot of nagging problems with the AI, both friendly and not so, I dealt with a few problems with the inventory and deck system, all in all, I tightened and strengthened the whole of the game that was already there. But... after that rant... yes, I would like to try and get the skill system in place for next week. :p

-any amount of other random stuff that I decide to do

Now, with that out of the way, a few screenshots:

The cloak of scales card!

I loved the feel of this one, it essentially allows you to cast Scale Dance an infinite number of times over it duration. Good for travel and for slippery combat.

It however does have its downsides... like when I accidentally teleported through the map. I have since dealt with the error that caused it. :p

Crystalline Wave, a wave of crystals. About all I have to say about that.

A few things: the health widget up top, which needs a bit of work, a swarm of friendly Vulpine Poisondancers all confusedly trying to find a single enemy Trickster, and the remnants of the smoke particle that the Trickster leaves behind when it teleports. 

Just a random shot of the player's home in the distance. I found it a beautiful sight.

Kerankohora in its flourishing state as of now. I'll certainly add more to it; more quests that require certain influence levels, for one.

Next up, we have a small set of pictures, showing the development of Tonorhanko. First, the empty plot where it would eventually stand.

Second, just a single building standing in the background.

Then a small community.

And lastly a bit of fortification. The whole village will continue to grow through the ages assuming the Shaman continues to aid them and nothing else interferes... A side note, if the village were to fall to squalor after having been built, the citizens will simply up and leave, the area returning to the Haljuhurtta as it was before the Shaman's interference. 

And lastly, a shot of the new map size. It's starting to look more like an actual map with each passing iteration. 

And that's that for this week folks; though how I wish I could have gotten the damn demo up. I've still more things to try, getting to the long-shot point of it, though. I might even have to simply wait for the dang engine to update again and hope that the problem is fixed... But!

Until next week...

-Lucas Cady

Project Director