I've been contacting people, as outlined in previous updates, for the first, initial testing phase. I've met the minimum number of people I wanted, and there are still a few people I have not heard from yet, but I'm giving about a week for people to get back in touch with me before distributing test copies.
The previously mentioned game-crashes are fixed. An optimization was made to pretty much remove all loading time between map transfers, but it has some quirks of its own so I will not be including it in the first round of testing (which means people will need to get used to the 3-4 second wait times between maps for testing purposes).
I went through the game and made sure that all areas are accessible for testers (at least I hope...), and also filled all of the towns with simple NPC templates. This means players can purchase and craft everyhing they need, but these NPCs will be replaced over time with their 'real' counterparts that will have actual dialogue, names, and so forth instead of just the template setup I created.
I implemented all of Mr. Rao's music into the game finally, and added various background-sounds as appropriate and, I must say, what a HUGE difference this makes in terms of game quality. All this time I've been running tests without the music and sounds implemented because it saved time and disk space, but my god, does the music and sound add so much to the game experience as a whole. I love it. I also added all of the battle backgrounds to all of the appropriate maps, and threw in a handful of the special weapons and pieces of armor. I am going to continue to add more content into the game for the remainder of this week, and then distribute the test copy to the appropriate people for testing next week.
The primary focus of this first round of testing is combat and exploration. I want to make sure that players can access all necessary areas, and that combat is smooth and interesting, and discover whatever fundamental bugs that might be lurking about. As such, testers will have more immediate access to most skills and spells than normal. I am hoping players will also play around with crafting, decorating, and so forth as well. There are a number of elements that have not yet been implemented for this first round of tests, namely quests, dungeon/town takeovers, books, important NPCs (except party members, which exist now), mercenaries, bosses (though I might throw in one for the hell of it) and some various minor elements.
I have a feeling this initial testing phase will be rough due to the lack of in-game hints, tips, and directions, as well as monsters that may very well be too tough for certain locations, lack of unique weapons and armor, and just the fact that I 'eyeballed' most of the numbers in the game. But I do appreciate those who are interested in testing - the feedback I ancticipate will be invaluable for improving and balancing the game. I can't wait, personally!
Once I gather all pertenent information, suggestions, etc from this first round of testing, I am going to take some time to implement and change things as necessary, and continue to keep adding/changing NPCs, weapons, armor, whatever else that needs changing and adding. Then I will open this up for the second round of testing, which will include a larger body of testers, who I shall contact in due time, and I will repeat the whole process until it is time for the third phase of testing (hopefully the largest part of the entire game being complete at that point) in which every elligible beta tester can participate and give feedback/suggestions.
On a side note, I have not been able to do as much work as usual this past week. I recieved a rather severe bite on the hand (gotta love working in a hospital) which pretty much made it very difficult to do any work for about 3 days until the punctures and bruising diminished. It's healing up quite nicely now and I can use that hand once more for typing/mouse control, so I am delving back into game-making.
Anyways, I hope you all have a great week/weekend!
-Jesse
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