Casting a battle spell, the super useful buff spell "Enhance Reflexes". It gives +3 to Pace - thats how many hexes you can move in a turn - which by itself would be worth the 6 mana points. But ALSO giving +3 to Dodge? Verging on O/P! But a strong defensive line relies on magic like this and makes the team-turn based method of initiative really shine - everyone on your side gets to act before the enemy does.
Oh hello dere! Let me know if I am re-using the same witty intros ok? Wassup! Leets gooo!! :)
First up is that testing is really happening now, with nearly ten people running through Act 1, and myself running through Act 2. After that, Microprose will test it all again with their QA team. I won't bore you with the bug lists, but the intention is to smash all those bugs and polish the mess of bug shells away. In order to get the experience nice and solid, I've had to shift the release date to Feb next year. Remind me not to make an RPG next time! :)
New features keep arriving despite "feature freeze", whoops!. Steam achievements are added and quite cool to get. Assist mode, for accessibility, to what is essentially an invulnerability mode. You can now dismount your dino/giant wolf/tiger/hippo/mammoth at any time to start combats on foot, making your big mount into more of a battering ram missile! Meals are shared at camp so you don't have to divvy up meals. Main sprite can now auto-match the portrait choice on character creation (hair, beard, skin, shape). And lots more minor things too.
Feedback at Adelaides Avcon event regarding the new hand-made portrait art was extremely positive, so it's certain that the right choice was made to go "GenAI-free" for the game. Comments like "much better than the old art" and "finally fixed the portraits!" is what I needed to hear that weekend. It feels right also to get back to the solo-dev roots of the project and focus on the innards of the game working great.
Until next month, when I can update you on the testing schedule and hopefully respect my own feature freeze this time...
