The first alpha testing of stage one was finished last month, coming in at just under 25 hours play time ... Except that two largish regions had had to be skipped due to some unfinished module sections on my part. That code was completed last month too, and the second alpha run is now well underway. Read on for the latest update ...
Missing Regions
My wife, who is the only current alpha tester, had to avoid completing three quests on her first alpha run, which had been expected to finish in the initial test. However, soon after she started, it soon became obvious that two NPCs were missing for one of the quests, one was missing a conversation section for another, and the last quest had some missing quest details required for finishing. The last one I advised my wife just to ignore exploring the region, which she did, and the other two quests she just played as far as she could take them. Along with other fixes required for the first testing, all these areas and conversations are now completed too.
Alpha Two To Date
So far, my wife has covered almost an identical time span for her Alpha Two test as she had the last time I blogged about it with respect to her Alpha One test... that is around 15 and a half hours so far. Only this time the story has opened up a fair number of different branches to what she had experienced in her first play through. Partly because I had fixed a section that allowed her to play the first dungeon to completion (as opposed to in two parts) and secondly, because of fixes I had made to those conversations I spoke about earlier. Important to note, however, that both her Alpha One and latest Alpha Two tests were both valid paths, irrespective of the updated conversations. (She had just had no choice the first time.)
The story has unfolded in a different way for her, and she was caught a little by surprise once or twice when she noticed certain aspects had changed. I cannot go into details, to avoid spoilers, but an area she unlocked early in her first play did not unlock until later in her second play through ... and by a different means due to choices made.
I am hoping the fix to the previous broken areas will add a few more hours. I will report in the next blog how many we hit with the fixes in place.
Encounter Balancing
As you may recall, creature encounters was an area I wanted to look at balancing. Changes made this time around have certainly improved things greatly. There is still one encounter that required my wife to drop her settings to "EASY", but I am not sure if this does need adjusting or not, as one time I tested it on "D&D Core Rules" I managed to beat it. So, if anyone has any thoughts about this, please leave a comment.
Further Development
I have been concentrating on ensuring Stage One runs as expected, and addressing issues as soon as anything turns up with the current alpha tests. However, as these are starting to become fewer and fewer, my mind is starting to turn towards finishing Stage Two of the second module, and making it ready for my wife to alpha test as well. As soon as this happens, I will be sure to update you all. I am hoping to report on that as soon as the next blog if all continues to go as planned.
Campaign Update
After some feedback from three current players, I have managed to fix a number of small issues, including some typos, which have gone under the radar for some time. I have also included some "quality of play" updates to help the player in general. As an example, Ooze Oil can now target a PC to apply to all valid items, as opposed to applying to individual items. One fix that missed this month, but will be in v1.7, is the "collision" of the Main PC on initial entry. Basically, from v1.7, the Main PC will get less caught up on other party members when trying to move. This was supposed to be in place already, but I only noticed the issue myself when testing movement in a tight spot.
12 JUNE 2024: I have released v1.7 earlier than expected, as there was a critical error that could cause the game to crash in a couple of situations. Neither are game-breaking, but one causes a side-quest to not be completed. The problem was introduced in v1.4 released on 07 May 2024. Latest v1.7 fixes these crashes.
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| One of the New Areas Yet to be Explored! |
