"Codename: This is not the greatest game in the world, no, this is just a tribute/Feature creep is our business model" is resuming production as of today. Considering the wide, broad, and deep field of other creative interests I have (running my larp, running my tabletop campaigns, writing for Shadowrun, making my own tabletop games...and sometimes I even think about actually writing serious fiction again) we'll see how long that lasts.

In the meantime, those of you who were testing this, I will have need of you again soonish, so here's hoping you're still around. *fingers crossed*

Journeyman is a vast project with a ridiculous array of in-game items. Reacquainting myself with it all is daunting as a motherfucker but I'm trying to dive right in.

As is so often the case, I run almost immediately into a frustrating bug that I can't seem to figure out the cause of. The number and complexity of the now-unfamiliar moving pieces within the game's scripts and events makes debugging seem an impossible chore. I think that's part of the reason I tend to start new projects rather than return to old ones. That and testing is exhausting, and can quickly make you hate your own game. (For the curious, something (I know not what) that I've evented is causing YERD_EventChase not to work. My chances of getting support are low because YERD is three or four generations obsolete. It works fine at my save game with 6:00 minutes, but doesn't work at all at my save game with 90:00 minutes. I have no idea what bit of event code in those 84 minutes made it not work.)

AHAHAHAHAHAHA! I figured it out. Exhilarating, solving a mystery. (The Yanfly "Stop All Movement" switch is set to 82. Which in my game is the toggle for one of the countless pickable weeds.) Well, that's one hurdle overcome.

Like a year later and still no clue what's causing the game over crash, or how to fix it. : ( Stupid undisposed windows. *grumble*

Today's Accomplishments:
* Ongoing tweaking of the battle difficulty. Mainly that means reducing enemy Attack strength a point at a time so the game's combat eventually feels less "masocore" as I think Kumada described it.
* Testing of the first level of Northstar Mine and the enemies there.
* Implemented the 'Steel' tier of weapons, armor, and shields.
* Implemented 'Steel' availability in shops, steel smelting (from Limestone and Iron Ore) and steel forging.
* Retesting Northstar Mine 1F enemies with Steel gear and some spells...MUCH easier. So the feeling of progression/power gain is there upon leveling up self/gear, but the game can be kind of a stonewall when you are underleveled/underequipped. Now to tweak things so that once you have full Steel Chain it's not TOO easy while not making it impossible with lesser armor. Hmm...