February Status Update!

Well, yes. I forgot to make January post, but let's forget about that and focus on February.
There's a poll at the bottom, pls vote.

First of all there were two new updates in January, in case you missed 'em, the game is now at version 0.57.3! Get to know the Town Hall Woman/Mission Madame a bit better, or maybe don't, something's not quite right with that one. 0.57.2 also added a mini dungeon dive below Grinder now for the combat chads.

And what's next?
1. Plot. There will come a day where Goblin Layer overcomes his addiction, and you can start laying some pipe in town, and I'm not talking about the plumbing. Or maybe I am, there are rules for what you can include in public Patreon posts.

2. Snowball. As you know I use Blender to animate now. One of the most time consuming thing when making this game, is the 3D stuff and animating. But everytime I make a new animation, I can add that to my library. And reusing and editing an animation is generally faster than making one from scratch... So I'm expecting a snowball effect when it comes to animation.

3. Art upgrade.  Want to upgrade all the old art, but I'm doing it little by little, so I can keep adding new scenes as well.

4. Steam? I'd like to give it a try at some point, maybe they'll let me on, maybe not. We'll see!
But I gotta do the art upgrade thing first, not just for visual reasons.

5. Big plans for the "Romantic Scene" mechanics and the Combat system, coming soon(TM)!

a) Romance Scenes mechanic?
You know in the cave. You go up to someone, talk to 'em, and select a scene from the dialogue choice. A bit boring if you ask me. Here's my plan:

Basically you start things up via one choice and then you get this scene. You got the image buttons on the left to select poses/camera angles, and maybe a meter tracking your, uh, romantic performance. Or maybe, you can even click various areas on the character yourself.
It will be more immersive for sure.  Let me know if you want me to switch to 2D art btw.

b) Combat
I gotta be honest here, I never paid that much attention to it since I figured most people just play for the 'plot'. But the time has come to turn it into something that makes sense.

"Yes finally!" says those of you who refused to take the cheat skill. "Oh hell no", says the "story" enthusiasts. Well, to the second group I can say that new scenes and progressing the plot is still the number one priority. But since the game has combat, and some people seem to enjoy, it might as well be decent right? Plus there may be some ways of combining the two :-)

Anyway, my ideas in no particular order:
- Better formulas (for damage etc) & overall balance
- Better handling of Attributes (maybe able to assign points yourself on Lvl up)
- New Skills for the party
- Elemental Arrows
- "Physical Encouragement" skill, with visuals
- More combat items
- No food items in combat, but will be useful to heal up outside combat
- More fun action economy, maybe able to use certain items without using your turn, or more than one attack per turn
- "Larian-style" combos, E.g. State: 'Wet' + Ice Attack = State: 'Frozen'.
(Ok, maybe Larian didn't invent elemental combos, but you get what I mean)
(Fun ways different effects can interact, basically. Should make tactics more interesting)
- Shitload of new gear some with normal +50% whatever, others with unique effects...
(Rarity levels like Mundane, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary, Mythical etc...)
- Some gear will be found in the same place, other will be randomized
- Maybe some variation for enemy encounter
- So you may see something new on your next playthrough
- Various buffs from """interacting""" with the Goblins
- And maybe debuffs if you go too long without...
- Various buffs from forming closer "friendships" with the Townspeople
- More "unique" mechanics for GobWomen encounters (Like Goblina, Hobgoblin, Paladin)
- Actually polish the 'active defense' mechanic (like a parry button)

I figure 1-2 updates to get the basics set up. Maybe 3.

Anyway that's enough text for now. Thank you for your support as always and see you next time!

Or wait, one more thing. There's a poll at the bottom.

Sorry . They don't trust me with video-player technology, so you'll get a compressed gif.

Q: How will you feel if the next 1 or 2 updates breaks your old saves?