Tim Hjersted

(It would be so awesome if there was a way to reload mods while still in game ;D

Digging? MINING? WHAT!?!?

Lol :D there's no digging or mining in the adventure :p subtract mining time from a normal playthrough and I'd guess that, ahh that's still prolly not a good measure. We will see soon! But I'm still thinking around 10 hrs give or take?

It's a game within a game

It's an interesting idea, and I've thought about it, though I haven't tried implementing it yet. Would definitely be way cool though to make some hidden secrets that way. I'm going to try and focus on finishing the core experience at this point so beta can get rolling and one see this thing get released. :D

I'm going to limit myself to one unplanned new addition per three days at this point. Haha ;p But seriously.. must.. finish... soooN!

I'd like the beta experience to be pretty smooth so I'm going to try to go through the game once myself to hash out all the small obvious stuff and then let the beta feedback help me with balancing and anything I missed.

As for boss progression, every dungeon will have a boss at the end (save for 1 at the least, maybe 2) and towards the end you will be hunting the final bosses (2 main without dungeons) and a couple optional bosses you will have to find through exploring.

Towards the end players will be wanting to level up their characters with better end-game gear (offering a big incentive for fighting all the bosses, which will be the best way to level up by that point in the game) so there will be exploration, finding bosses, preparing for the boss battles, and preparing for the final fight.

But with any luck the pacing should be spread pretty evenly, as the game will get less linear and open up more options towards the end as well. Players could dungeon farm, or explore, or fight, or take a break and build a house in the mountains and get away from it all for a bit ;D

(I'm customizing the crafting recipes and remixing the stats and abilities of almost everything) Pheewww! :D

YESSSSSSS

Will they be balanced? I have no f'ing clue. :p But it will be fun finding out. No, really they're likely close. Just a few integers up or down here or there. Little adjustments. Alls well be hashed out in beta. bbebebe be be beta! Ahh I can't wait! lol

Finishing my play-through of the first dungeon. Fixing some impossible jumps. Tweaking chest contents. (More bombs) Woop!

I want it to be a challenge but yeah I hope it finds the right balance. Also, I want periods of badassery mixed with new difficulties, so there's a mix of flows. All this should get worked out during beta. But yeah.. somewhere in between just right??? :D

Speaking of which, is this map going to have any Crowning Moments of Badassery? :D

I would say... many moments. :) Also the final boss was custom designed and is a ton of fun to play (especially melee style), as it is entirely skill based (all attacks can be dodged but you have to stay on your toes and dance like a zen warrior to defeat him) and the AI patterns are nicely varied and unpredictable.

I just want a release by May. Hoorah! This map looks fabulous.

Ha, yeah, you will have the beta in a week or so. Depends on how fast everything progresses and the bosses that get released on the 14th. But I can try to get all the broad strokes finished for that and such work on fine-tuning and adding any extras during the beta period.

One thing is for sure, you'll be glad I took the extra time. At the end of march I think I was just getting the new game mechanic hashed out and implemented. It's really grown in scope over the last 2 weeks. Plus a new boss. :)

Lol.. yes.. yes I do. Kind of funny how that happens isn't it? :D

The only thing I regret is because you were looking for a release "by the end of March".

Yep, 1 mod to install using select bits from a dozen mods or so, with recipes changed for most everything to fit with the game's mechanic. Shortly after release I'm going to start a mod thread with the release of the Red Cloud Mod, which will be compatible with randomly generated maps as well, though the true potential of the mod will always be for custom maps (you'll see why when you play it)

I may talk to CMHQ about some global cs codes to make a specific tile needed for crafting to generate throughout the new worlds. Though I'll also be encouraging folks to design new maps using the mod as well, expanding and tailoring it to taste.

hey, how goes it?

Eh, so-so. How are you?

W1k is awesome.

That said, yes I hope it captures at least some of the feeling of this game. :D Pre-hard mode and hard mode, to balance with the new mod stuff, are both going to get a notch up in difficulty, so that getting the upgrades will be necessary and satisfying.. Mmm you shall see soon. And I can stop being vague ;P

If you do ever make another map with the Red Cloud Mod, how about branching paths? It'd be a complex chest setup using hidden chests and such to choose to make a sword. Also, I heard you said something about sacrificing to a god earlier on your work on the map. Will this be a karma choice?

Yea I might make a pure sand-box version just for the fun of it. We shall see. The sacrifice is more of a narrative device, I'd say. But it is optional, though, to advance the story.