Still grinding away at maps… I managed to pick up a cold this weekend that grounded me at home, but as soon as I had energy I was back at it!
A particular slow-down is for some of the maps, I need to create new graphics. I had several “special” sets that are only used for particular situations, and the time has come for me to actually draw them out.
This is part of what I think is fun about CRPG’s. You set expectations early (“Oh yeah, more hills and mountains, seen that kind of building before…”) then break them. (“Whoa, what the heck is this place?!”) Leave the players guessing as to what could happen down the road.
It’s a bit of a spoiler, but one thing I just decided tonight, and will need to make coding changes for potentially, is to have “giant” size mobs, which are 2 tiles tall, 1 tile wide. This lets me have “giants” who have their own land and places have a bit of scale to set them apart from the rest of the maps. It should really give you a sense of how “big” a problem you have. š
I’ve done some transaction write-ups as well, but the current ones went quickly because I had plotted text some time ago in a spreadsheet. After an early set of maps, I’ll be writing new material. I’ve had plots and ideas in my head for years, now is the time to commit them to a text file and see how they fly…
That’s part of the CRPG design process, honestly. You need to be able to change, alter, and update material as you go along, because you’ll have new ideas. You’ll realize there’s not enough information being provided in one place so you need to add a new NPC to tell the players something. Or you’ll realize some plot idea is overly complicated or has been done elsewhere, so you trim it back or remove it entirely.
It’s an organic process, and probably the biggest reason I haven’t started sharing it yet for testing is that it’s still incomplete. You can taste the stew before it’s ready but you don’t want people seeing the bones you’ve added or removed. š