Current Progress Update

So first thing's first, to get it out of the way. What's the deadline for Chapter 2? If all goes well, Chapter 2 will be releasing some time at the end of September. Progress is swift, but it is not always that way. Real life plus medical issues make it hard to produce the content required to make this game everything it can be, but I'm doing my best!

What to expect

The previous update talked about Molly and Drel and their personalities. They play an integral role in Chapter 2 to help drive the story further and expand upon the brewing conflict hinted at in chapter 1. Not to give away the story elements of Chapter 2, let's just say that Molly will help Ralph with a dangerous escapade and from there Ralph will help both Drel and Molly on their quest. 

New crafting recipes  will come to you in Chapter 2, alongside access to the Alchemy Station in Fesfel Church!

Two new towns! Fredenia and Aristen are the two new towns to explore within Chapter 2.

More Quests! Along the addition of these towns and the updating of the quests already seen in Chapter 1, you can expect at least 5 new quests, hopefully all of which will be able to see completion within the release of Chapter 2.

The plot thickens and more will unfold to you, the player, and to Ralph in Chapter 2. I hope that there is plenty of intrigue toward this as I'm doing my best to keep the story flowing and the elements of it feeling brisk and wonderful to follow.

Planned Future Content

For the future I've decided that some of the base systems in the game will need a rework at some point in time. These will see expansion after Chapter 2 has released and will likely come within fixes and content updates for Chapter 2 (because let's be honest it's impossible to find all those bugs).

The two main points of focus will regard:

• The Mining System. Mining is generally an easy task and I'm hoping to make gaining secondary materials more enjoyable alongside requiring levels to mine higher levels of ore. There will also likely be other side-quest related benefits to having a higher mining level and smithing level.
• The Fishing System. As it stands right now, you can catch all types of fish from their respective spots if fish long enough. There's not a lot of them in the game, so I plan to expand upon this by adding more types of fish and fish that can only be caught if you have the correct level or higher to do so. Also planned is the idea of different types of fishing. Instead of just using a fishing rod, there can be net fishing, or harpooning, or cage fishing for lobsters, who knows? (I'm totally not getting all of my ideas from Runescape). I want the fishing experience to be more rewarding for how enjoyable it feels and I hope that I can achieve that.

Outside of these two as the main focus, the secondary focus will regard:

• Combat Level Balance. From what I can tell, experience through combat is too easily obtained, which means that the formula itself needs tweaking, alongside adjusting how enemies will scale up to you. The current iteration allows enemies to scale to your level pretty well into the higher levels and it's important offset this by lowering their max level to prevent the player from becoming way too strong way too early. Hopefully that can be achieved.
• The Monster Tracker. Right now, the bar that shows up to inform you that "Monsters are nearby" is just a simple bar that fills up once enough steps have been taken and then gives you a monster or few to fight. Yes, it's a random encounter. The bar is there is to let you know when to expect the encounter so you aren't frustratingly caught off-guard for not knowing. The encounter formula itself has been handcrafted to make encounters a lot less frequent and more fair to leave players to exploring rather than fighting every few steps. That said, there are plenty of ideas that have been tossed my way on how to improve this tracker. I've been really interested in implementing an idea given to me that when you're on the main paths in an area with monsters that monsters are less likely to approach you and when you go off this track monsters are more likely to approach you. This can hopefully be easily implemented and I'd like to work toward doing that to make the encounter system a little more dynamic and in tune with how a monster might act when hunting for its prey.

Some Screenies

The Village of Aristen

Aristen is a small village on the hills to the northwest of Mantano. As you enter, you will soon learn of a conflict taking place that you'll have to solve before you're able to progress further. What would an RPG be without its inherent roadblocks to your ultimate goal in the main story? Boring, it would be boring. But who knows? Maybe this is trite and cliche (That would suck!). Hopefully you enjoy the conflict our characters face here in Aristen.

The Mystic Forest

The Mystic Forest is a forest located just south of the Gray Kingdom and east of Fredenia. It's a forest rich with history and it has magic flowing throughout it. The monsters here are in tune with the flow of essence in the land and are more readily able to tank your magic attacks, making them dangerous to most spell casters. It also has many mystic properties and lots of secrets hiding within. Will you be able to figure out those secrets and gain the treasures hidden within?

Espionage

Well, we can't win 'em all. I guess Borrel isn't the good guy we thought he was.

Unless.......?

That's all for now! Expect some more updates closer to release to give you some expected hype!