Sorry about the lack of a post for the last month, but I am trying to get through alpha testing so that I can upload the module for my beta testers. Things have been going a little slower than hoped, after I encountered another issue that forced me to restart my testing for a third time. Thankfully, so far, this third run through appears to be easier going than the previous two, and I am considering contacting beta testers in the next few days.
50th Birthday Target
I have tried setting myself a date for when I would like to release this module to the public: the 1st October (this year), which coincides with my fiftieth birthday. I would like to give the beta testers at least a month to give me feedback, and so that means having something ready for them to be able to play by the end of this month. To meet this date, I have decided to cut back on my own testing and concentrate only on two aspects:-
1) Lighting and Sound for areas. (Currently 23.5% checked.)
2) Encounters and Bestiary entries. (Currently 15% checked.)
This means "Conversations" and "Treasures" (which I had hoped to double-check), will now be left to the beta testers for feedback, alongside everything else, including basic working and flow.
New Material
I did also have to spend a little time accommodating another side quest after realising I had made reference to it, but somehow missed doing anything about it. To prevent further delays, I made the decision not to cover one or two "options" that I was going to include originally, and see if the beta testers are conscious to the "missing" options. If too many report a request, then I will endeavour to include it before final release.
Store Conversations
This new quest did help me to finish off another system concept I wanted to include, which is to allow conversations start if a PC sold a particular item to a vendor. This has now been achieved, and adds a neat element to the already new store system.
Fixed Crafting Anomaly
I also fixed a crafting anomaly, where you could add enchantments to "gloves", but not to "bracers". This appeared to be down to a confusion about the BASE_ITEM_XXXX, where BASE_ITEM_GLOVES use the "Gauntlet" descriptor and BASE_ITEM_BRACERS use "Bracers". The problem is, only the "Gauntlet" allows enchantments. Therefore, as changing the descriptor does not affect anything else to do with "bracer" items, I set all their "Bracer" descriptor to "Gauntlet", which means it now returns BASE_ITEM_GLOVE, which can be enchanted like any other worn items. No more anomaly!
