Closed Beta news

Lots of time to spare recently. Discovered some young in-house Beta testers. They have spotted a few small, finicky bugs, nothing big, and every one they have spotted has been squashed and makes the game more solid. Yay!

The Beta testers have also insisted on some slightly new directions for some of the final quest parameters. I had shelved the idea previously, but have now brought it back and am moving forward with it. It being a new region…the Underdeep!

Let’s call it a precursor to the Underworld. Much smaller and narrower…a labryinth of lava rivers and tunnels running deep through the roots of the Serpent Spine and other mountain ranges.

Can’t have miles of lava lined tunnels without some new combat maps to accompany them.

I also tasked these Beta testers with producing some of the many ‘Random Encounters’ the game still needed. Currently 15 are done, though it is unlikely any play through would use more than 5. For now they are mostly simple traveller type encounters. There are a good chunk of more specialized ones as well, more along the lines of some of the random encounters found in Fallout 1 and 2. More than 15 maps done so far. A good chunk.

Added a feature. Shouldn’t have, but it cost very little code, and opens up some serious possibilities for maps, exploration etc.

Starts with directional search. Search can now find hidden doors, ladders, keys, gold, weapons, armor…pretty much anything. This opens up lots of quest possibilities, which didn’t exist before, and really revamps how exploration can work. I have not taken advantage of these changes yet. I plan to though.

The items that are found also use a new save file, which prevents them being found multiple times. They can be found once, that’s it. This all still works nicely with the default game.

So, yup, stuff is happening. But, a slightly expanded scope means the goal post was pushed back a bit. Nevertheless…lots of movement towards that goal post.