Speak No Evil

And hibernate I shall. I surrendered too many nights to that project.

But while I'm gone, I want you guys to post every bug, balance issue, and spelling error you find in the game here. When I get back, I'll comb the list, fix the game up, and call the project finished for good; probably exporting it to other kingdoms in the process.

It should be noted that bugs are entirely dependent on how cranky the game is and how much it likes you. Often, they only occur under a certain set of conditions, meaning a second or third attempt should succeed.

That's the gist of it, and I've been up for thirty hours, so before I lumber off for my coma.:

"Thanks for the support; Enjoy the Game!"

As of 1:10 AM, PST, I have 20 hours. Will I make it? Stay tuned!

EDIT: It is 6:53 AM, PST. I have 15 hours and 7 minutes and I'm so damn close!

-Finish coding Eretmaro fights.------Create End Cutscene for Eretmaro
-Create Judge Intro events.
-Create Judge event fights.
------Create Judge End Cutscene
-----------Create Judge Ending Branch
-Create Euphrates Opening Scene
-----Create Euphrates Entry Scene
-----Create Euphrates First Boss Scene
-----Create Euphrates Second Boss Scene
-Create Final Final Final Boss Scene
-Create End Credits
-Create New Game + and HARDCORE modes.
-TEST PRAY LIKE THE DICKENS.

Not five, four. Tomorrow has been taken from me by work. Breaking it down by day, the plan is:

Today: Finish mapping the final dungeon and rape dungeon.
Tomorrow: Finish database work for HARDCORE mode and New Game +.
Friday: Eventing eventing the final cutscenes.
Saturday (after league, of course): Testing and polishing
Sunday: Playtesting.
Monday: Release.

...thoughts?

While returning to the police station at level forty, I ran into a mysterious glitch where pitifully weak enemies yielded obscenely high experience awards. Turns out, the branch that sets negative level differences was misplaced.

The experience formula is x = ((e+2)-p)^2, where x is the Exp. award, e is the enemy group's level, and p is the player character's level. (EXP is calculated separately for each party member.)

The problem lied in the squaring - a negative number squared becomes positive. Since I set it to check for totals below zero after the rest of the equation was done, all awards assume the enemy group was a higher level than the player, leading to obscene awards for killing small fries. Moving the branch to before the squaring cut this problem off perfectly.

It's writing itself.

To elaborate: I'm getting to the point were subplots are coming to their logical conclusions, and where twists are revealed and resolved. In other words, production is starting to slide into cruise control.

This is mostly good. All of the database work was done before I began mapping, excluding balancing of monster's stats/skills/groups, and it allows me to churn out completed sections of game faster. However, the concern I'm having is that I'll leave out a critical piece of information or a crucial cutscene, losing the player in the process.

Another issue is rather easily solved: I have to map five more dungeons, not counting the bonus dungeon from hell (which is already partially done).

You can, however, look forward to being able to get the bad ending two demos from now. : )