Damnatio Memoriae

Greetings,

Not a lot of production has taken place since I posted the initial information on RMN, mostly because other obligations have been ransacking my creative time. In the last month I have had two large work-related projects, numerous forms to submit to graduate school, the loss and memorial of a friend, my graduation and honors ceremony, and the graduation ceremonies of both my brother (AA) and mother (MSW) to tend to. Now that all those things are out of the way and I have only a week of employment left, I am ready to get back to actualizing this labor of love!

I originally planned to implement a caterpillar system in Damnatio Memoriae, but I decided to scrap it due to the immense and tedious event creation it requires. Furthermore, I don't think it really adds to the gameplay that much and in some instances damages the encounter system by either blocking enemies from colliding with the hero or making it too difficult to avoid aggressive encounters (if a battle triggers upon any team member being run into). In exchange, I am scheming a team leader system that would not only allow players to choose which avatar symbolizes the party on-screen, but could also add perks to the party in and out of battle.

Looking at my working list of issues and absences, I have a lot of fine-tuning and playtesting to do before a first release will be ready:

Enemy sight radius scripting needs to be added to a lot of aggressive enemies in the first area and The Field. I also need to create some new enemies for The Field (which consists of multiple event scripting, creation in the database, creation of an enemy group in the database, and creation of a charset for each) and balance them.

The custom menu system needs to be at least half usable before first launch to enable players to camp. Additionally, the camp system script is not completed yet, so that is another priority.

There are plenty of minor bugs popping up in the first town-type area, so I'll have to delve into some coding that is two years old (!) and figure out what is funny.

A couple of maps of The Field are just placeholders right now, devoid of decoration and NPCs.

The second town needs to be created and the story events need to be added, although the dialogue has been written and even some NPC banter is scripted already.


It's obviously too early to tell when a release will be ready, but as soon as I have some idea I will be posting a tentative date. Throughout production I will be blogging to keep those interested aware of the developments.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned!

~Dylan