Alpha Preview Update (March)

Hi everybody, it's finally here!!!

Play the Alpha Preview 

Password: stvalentine

I did not get nearly as much as I wanted to done, for reasons I'll cover in a separate update (blog update, not game update) tomorrow! Still, in hindsight, it was still quite a lot! Lots of quality of life improvements as well as gameplay additions, all thanks to you and your support! 💖

(Also, if you read Halek's very dark and depressing short story, get ready for some whiplash, because pretty much all of this new content is comedic.)

(Wait, maybe I shouldn't say that if it's not actually funny. Anyway, it's light-hearted!)

What's New:

• A new quest system (and three available quests) have been added to the day off hub. You can visit a job/quest board, accept jobs, and earn money, stat boosts, and more! (Currently, you can only unlock the quest system if you play through the game at Chapter 3.)
• A new social link system has been added to the stats screen! This is simply a small side activity where you can keep track of which characters you've spent time with, and how far you are from completing the maximum amount of time with them. The social link system is currently tied to Mimir, so the alpha version may reference her even though she's not recruited yet! This will make more sense in the final version of the game.
• A new trading card system has been added to the game. I'll leave it to you to discover what that means... It's pretty ridiculous.
• New dialogue has been added to Briony's day off.
• My notes/changelog say "random encounters" have been added, but I don't actually know what that means or remember doing anything with that LOL...
• If you are a Wild Mage, training wild magic specifically (visiting the menagerie) on your day off will include new special encounters (ohhh, this is the random encounters!) involving legendary creatures! Check it out!
• QOL additions: save system, quest board, social link, and other images have been added throughout the game, and small hints appear during your first day off, such as which activities take time and which don't!
• Spots for music... 👀
• 15,000 words of new content!

Developer Notes:

• A bug that led to legendary weapons and other items getting stupidly cheap (which was actually a mistake in coding!) has been fixed. 
• Chandry's discounts now take slightly more to achieve each time. 
• Unlocking the trading card game is currently available as soon as you're able to unlock quests in general. However, this will change in the future. As such, some cards may reference characters that haven't actually been recruited in your game yet! (AKA, you might draw a card for Lavinet, even though she hasn't actually been introduced in your playthrough yet.) This will be fixed later!
• Quests unlock during the day off in Chapter 3. You will not be able to access quests unless you go back to an earlier save and play to that point in Chapter 3. Sorry for the inconvenience!
• Some trading card descriptions have not been written yet, so you may not see all the ones you collected written out in your album. 
• I added a lot of images (Dashingdon's limit is 20 at a time), so if you notice anything that looks missing or doesn't show up in dark mode, please let me know!
• Thanks to 2 helpful users on Discord, the magic requirement to [SPOILERS] kill Jarkyth without a Word of Power [/SPOILERS] has been lowered to 78! That may (will probably) fluctuate as the alpha build goes on, but there it is for now!

What's Next: 

• Riel's day off interlude. I'm so sorry I didn't finish it LGRJGR this month was just crazy and I got sidetracked with implementing these (admittedly large) new systems! I really swear next month will have his day off!!! 😤
• Writing more of Chapter 6! I'm rearing to get this chapter done, so here's hoping next month is a better month for me!

Total wordcount: 518,846 words without code

Thank you as always, and I hope you enjoy!