Elven Academy

Today I uploaded module B3: The Seelie Court. This module took several months to create. It features about 140 location root nodes and 150 dialogue root nodes.

The solo adventure module introduces some new characters, such as Puck and spymaster Peasblossom, as well as several High Moths from the Seelie Court.  It also introduces the Wild Court. This module is intended to be my best effort at a diplomacy module. So there are consequence for your behavior, your decisions, and the quality of clothes and perfume you are wearing.

I wish this module could have been longer, but it’s already quite large by my current standards: at least 50% larger than the previous modules in chapter B, with good music and animations.

I really pushed to get this done before the end of the year. The Spanish translation alone took me about 3 weeks of spare time. Why did I push? I really want to get into the next outdoor adventure, which is unlocked by finishing module B3.  I have a lot of spicy ideas for the Unseelie and Wild Courts as well.

So now I’m off to actually visit relatives and relax and have a good time. Here are the rest of the patch notes for other fixes and things I accomplished this year.  B3 surely has some bugs and glitches left in it.  I’ll be back to further playtest as time permits.  As always I’d love to hear any feedback here or on Twitter.

General Patch Notes:

Released module B3: The Seelie Court.
Fixed a bug related to module save flags giving false positives.
Added a dice rolling animation for challenge rolls. I’ve tried to do this twice before, and failed. Third time is a charm. Understanding sine waves and PI is a must for these curving animation paths. Turns out high school math was good for something.
Updated the game rules for the personal attribute correspondences to four elements plus light and dark enchantments.
Fixed a major bug with dice roll results that were using the recently added shorthand function.
Changed Pi Society reputation, which wasn’t used, to Wild Court reputation, which … might be used.
Added code so NPC’s can parse and react to the player’s gear.
Added code to game that can react to player’s class, worked on improving use of “tags”.
Removed challenge roll bonuses for weapon quality and type. After the patch that added spell schools for each of the main attributes, this bonus was no longer working properly, and no longer made sense.
Changed Spanish word for goblin from duende to ‘trasgo’ throughout.

Module specific fixes:

A0: Fixed typos in Spanish.

A1: Reduced starting points slightly. Fixed a game breaking bug when pressing space bar during a splash transition. Removed “bonuses due to divine origins” from character creation A1. All modules need to be viewed to ensure stats are still calibrated acceptably.
A2: added new skip option
A3: Fixed a few bugs and issues, expanded dialogues for Leonie as a companion. Leonie now greets you more properly. Fixed some missing translations.

B1: minor edits and text corrections
B2: a new music track from David Fesliyan, a few edits

D1, D2: Fixed a few minor typos and errors. I still want to re-do the combats, add a second level, an improve the art.

Gift Shop: Tested, tried to fix an error.

Tarot Training: Fixed HTML errors.
Added animations to Leonie, i.e. eye blinking.
Added a new facial expression for Leonie and a few new dialogue options.
Increased Psychic skill gain from a high quiz score.
There may still be a bug with affection gain with Leonie, but I was unable to reproduce it by cheating, and was not willing to train Tarot for another half hour to do it the long way.

Mini Patch Notes – January 2021

I had time and energy over the holidays to work on Elven Academy. These were all edits and bug fixes. I am still working on the second dungeon (Geomancer’s Deathtrap). Here is a list of ‘patch notes’, which are now uploaded by not playtested on live at this time. This might break existing save codes, in which case you will need to start a new game.

General:

Ora’s affection is now equal to Owl River reputation.
Fixed broken modules on the live server, which were caused by an update to Ora = not affection enabled.
Fixed broken save code during a manual update validity check (again).
Added a quest notification sound (trumpet).
Fixed the overlapping music issues between scenes.
Worked on sound controls to some extent.
Connor has a six more facial expressions in his standard portrait set.
Implemented some of Connor’s new facial expressions in chapter A.
Added character traits isBoss, isGay, isLesbian.
Started adding some dialog for these tags.
Implemented individual module results to save code, so choices (might) matter more.
Enabled completion of modules out of order.
Updated game reference spreadsheet for all updated game functions.
Added total item bonus display to character sheet for blessing, jewelry, and charm.
Language selection should now save in your room and/or when your save code is saved.

Module A0:

Added total items owned #’s in wardrobe for male, and for jewelry and misc items.
Fixed owned common magical accessories not displaying properly in the dressing room.
Fixed several other bugs, mislabeled items.
Removed text indicating dungeons ‘levels 2-4’ in adventure select menu. Ambiguous meaning.

Module A1:

Fixed broken variables that blocked dialog options.
Added a honking sound effect to VW bus.
Fixed incorrect help text.
Fixed some typos and missing preloads, character sheet not updating properly.

Module A2:

Many cuts and edits to boil down overly wordy paragraphs.
Fixed a statue blessing.

Module A3:

Proofreads to the Spanish translation.
Edits to reduce wordy paragraphs.
Cricket and waterfall sound was reduced in volume.
Fixed overlapping sound issues.
Fixed a few typos.

Module A4:

Showing up late to the meeting now means something.
Shortened many overlong paragraphs.
Broken dialog.
Fixed some missing NPC portraits server side.
Fixed typos and made many corrections to Spanish text.
Added 2 new scenes, and facial expressions for Connor.
Added more flirting, since flirt is in the title of the module. So.
Added dialog branches for dominant and lgbt character traits.

Module A5:

Fixed many errors in the Spanish translation (a few of them super mangled.) Like a few other modules, it appears this translation never received much proofreading.

Module A6:

More refinement to long paragraphs.

Main Quests For Development:

Finish dungeon D2: The Geomancer’s Deathtrap
Complete a few new library books possibly re: oil painting, Tonalism and French painting at the end of the 19th century, and/or Fin De Siecle, Belle Epoque, Victorian periods in England and France.
Finish playtesting all existing content in Chapter A, for a Free-to-play download package. Then I can develop premium content so I can receive donations, and then I can think about promoting.

Side Quests for Development:

Develop more for situations needing specific skills and clothing/gear.

Need a dungeon theme songs and sound effects for d1 and d2.

Dump jQuery.
Playtest on Firefox, etc.

Constantine’s Coat is missing an outfit graphic (44f and 44m)

Consider challenge rolls to be a three-die bell curve instead of two-die. This makes gear and CR weighted more and luck of the roll weighted less.

Leonie needs upset mood portrait. (In A6 dialog 97 and elsewhere.)

Leonie’s hearts (only Leonie) don’t seem to be updating visually on the speaker panel??

Fretzel needs upset mood portrait in A6.

(Spoiler Plot/Character Issues:)

Where is Gregory’s Grimoire? Who has it? Aspen made a deal with Glumskayah to speak with the dead, got the information, and got the grimoire. Only Ora knows the grimoire is missing, but she isn’t saying. Now Glumskayah has it after she got Aspen.

What’s with Glumskayah’s fairy dragon wings?

Jeanie playing milkmaid? Serpent reversal?