Status Update....

After finishing Ray County, it was mentioned that I would be taking a break for a bit to catch my breath and to decide what, if any, future projects were going to happen. This post is intended to bring you up-to-date on my absence, updates to Ray County, and what is in store for the future.

I'll start with my absence. When Ray County was completed, I planned to take a few weeks before jumping back on here, Facebook, itch, and Discord. There were several projects outside of FS that needed to be completed so I began knocking those out. Then, as life has a tendency to do, my family was dealt a pretty big blow.

As a dad, there are a few "nightmare" scenarios that you can be faced with, and, on July 1st, I found myself living one of them. My wife and I have two beautiful daughters, 16 and 13, who have been very active and healthy their entire lives. That morning, our youngest, Quin, complained that her upper chest was sore after a weekend of travel softball. She usually doesn't complain so my wife took her to see the doctor. A few hours later while I was working on a landscaping job my wife pulled up, sobbing, and said the doctor had called her and said she wanted to speak with us. At that point, your mind begins to race with thoughts of what you are about to be told.

Waiting in the room for the doctor to come in was only a couple minutes but it felt like an eternity. When she entered, she informed us that they had seen several masses in her chest and neck on the scan. They were sending us immediately to Children's Mercy for further tests. We drove home, packed a quick bag, and got Quin. What do you say to your 13 year-old about the news you just received that won't scare her to death when you as parents are petrified?

After several tests, more scans, and a biopsy, it was determined that she has stage two Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The cancer is all above her diaphragm, which is a positive, but her biggest tumor is 11 cm in diameter and sitting on top of her heart. She literally has a baseball-sized mass constricting her blood vessels back to her heart as well as airflow through her trachea. The kid played seven softball games (catcher for three of them) the two days before and ran a 5k race a couple weeks earlier with zero symptoms.

We spent the next three nights in pediatric ICU because they were worried about the largest mass. After she continued to show no symptoms, we were released to go home for the 4th of July, which was huge in Q's world. We always have a large gathering of friends and family over and, more than anything, she just wanted normal.

We returned to Children's Mercy the following Wednesday to discuss her treatment plan and begin chemotherapy. She is scheduled to have treatments every two weeks for six months. Today we finished her second treatment. So far she has felt well other than having extreme fatigue for a couple days after treatment. If you knew her, a lot of her identity is wrapped up in her long, beautiful, auburn red hair and the thought of losing it has been very difficult for her. She's also really struggling with missing out on a season of softball and basketball at school.

Did we ever envision ourselves in this situation? No. Would I do anything to trade places with her? In a heartbeat. But there's nothing we can do but take it one day at a time, cherish the good days, and count down to the day when she can ring that bell. We are tremendously blessed with an incredibly supportive small community and are leaning heavily on our faith in God. We are confident that He has big plans for Quin and will be glorified through this journey. Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Quin's prognosis is good. We are praying that the treatments are effective in their purpose and that she is cancer free by the new year. We know that the journey for her and our family will contain plenty of ups and downs, but she is an absolute trooper and is taking things in stride. We would appreciate all the prayers for her and our family that we can get as we navigate through it.

As far as Ray County is concerned, I've been waiting for ThundR to work the kinks out of his new method of Row Crop Ready. He is an absolute wizard and, when it is all finished, it will be an incredible addition to the game. If the game engine can handle all he has in store, you are gonna want to see what all he has up his sleeve. I do plan to get a version of Ray County out with this fully implemented as well as try to optimize the map a bit more. On that front, about the only thing I can think of is to reduce some of the view distances and potentially get rid of some interior trees. I will not, however, sacrifice the immersion of the map to save 4 or 5 fps. We will see what I can come up with.

While RCR is still under development, I have begun work on a new project. At this point, I'm not going to share what exactly is in the works, but know that I do plan to make another map for FS25. I will not spend the daily amount of time that I have on my other projects, and, because of our new norm as a family, may not even work on the project for longer lengths of time. I want to be up front with everyone on that. As far as the process goes, it will look a lot like Ray County did. I expect there to be 3-4 beta versions starting with one that has no buildings but is entirely playable with placeables. There are already several things that come to mind that testers will have input on from that point forward. Look for more information on this project in the future.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as well as thoughts and prayers,

No Creek Farms