Hi Everyone!

I have an exciting announcement to make. I've decided to overhaul the current story of Valavorex by quite a bit. I plan to add a bunch more content to the beginning of the game as well as the end. There will now be more lore into the life of Thera the Blue as well as the Rune Knights organization.

Beginning Addition

To begin with, I think that throwing the players into the life of Thera without any background into her daily life really creates a disconnect with her as the main character. My first step to solve that is show the events that lead up to the siege. There are several elements that will directly effect how a player might be able to progress at the end as well as give more varying options for siege preparation for each playthrough. A synopsis of the new beginning sequence is as follows: First, Thera gets invited to a planning meeting to counteract the invading forces. In the meeting, she gets the chance to both propose ideas and support ideas that will determine certain choices when it comes to preparation. The voting of the other members will be done with a weighted random based on the support of that character so even if an idea passes in one playthrough, it might not in another. All of this leads up to the selection of Thera as the defense commander.

Siege Changes

The Siege is one of the most lengthy and ambitious things I've put into a Twine and I'm about to make it much more complicated. My first step however is going to involve a lot of refactoring of how I currently write the updates for that specific part. Seeing as it takes up over 3 pages in a word document for that alone, I really should have fixed that earlier. Now I'm going to make it more based on certain choices that the character will be provided in the preparation phase. I want to make it so that the player can really engage and make a strategy that fits their own style. Thera was labeled blue for wisdom and strategy, so it's time to cash out on that! There are plans in the work to make it so that you can set up squads and manpower into different sections of the city and can join whichever you want at the beginning of the siege. This will provide some unique experiences based on how the player wants to format their men. It might be a little bit bare bones for the next public release, but come the end of summer (hopefully mid-June) I can have the full version completed.

Another major change that will come with the siege is going to be enemy AI. I've been becoming more and more proficient with twine's scripting and want to make it so that the player's not planning around a static enemy force that just sends waves of minions into battle. For the first update, there may only be two attack patterns (Normal and Reserved) but it's a mechanic that I think will really make the game feel more immersive and improve the overall user experience. If the battle doesn't feel dynamic like one would be realistically, it takes away from some of the immersion and limits the options of the player. I also plan to add at least one more enemy AI type by the end of summer. I won't spoil what that may be yet though!

Post Game Content

One of the next things I plan to focus on is the results of the battle. I think that as it is right now, the player really doesn't get the sense of weight that's on Thera's shoulder. I plan to edit the current structure of how the game ends and make it similar in nature to a post game for each ending. The only one that won't be getting an overhaul will be the Total Defeat ending. Now, if the player manages to get completely defeated, the game will end with the city being completely devastated and Thera being killed along with  the 100,000+ citizens. However, I will be easing up on the conditions to get the Pyrrhic ending (and there's actually gonna be two, albeit that they're similar). The Pyrrhic Victory will be for when the player drives off the army but the city is too destroyed to really be revived to the way it was before the attack. The player will have the option to scavenge the city for a time before completing the task of getting the survivors safely to Luminos, the city in the northern right of Understone. The Pyrrhic Defeat will be similar in nature, except that the player doesn't get the option to scavenge the city for bonus supplies. The player will have to start off with minimal supplies and have to spend more manpower to find food, medicine, and so on. The Victory post game will sort of act like a city management sim in a way up until the Commander gets back to take the reins from Thera. 

The post game content will be mostly choice and resource allocation. Each day will have a chance at random events that the player has to deal with along with the regular task of dealing with food and other resources. The goal for this post game content is to really show the idea of how this battle affects the citizens of the City of Flowers and how your choices as the leader can change their situation. I'll be completely honest, this does in part have to deal with the way I think refugees are treated and I'd like to make a small commentary on how their lives are turned upside down and their struggle to survive. I think it will really add a lot to the story, both for Thera and the player. My hope is to get across that war takes its toll on the families of commoners more than anyone else. I hope that this doesn't turn anyone away from my story, and I promise this isn't exactly meant to be political in nature about any certain event. I just think that there's a lesson to be learned here and I hope I can convey it in a meaningful and constructive way.

Quality of Life Changes

The next bit will hopefully be more light hearted. I plan to make some QOL changes to make the game seem more immersive and enjoyable to the player. I plan to make update lines in the battle more informative and less repetitive. I plan to accomplish this with both some random elements with set lines at certain times. I also want to really hone in on  Garren's character a bit more and make him more important to the player as well as convey just how Thera feels about him [no spoilers ;^)]. I also want to give the player a bit more "In Thera Experience". I've noticed that the current ITE is a bit lacking and doesn't really say much about Thera as a person and what her goals are. Although the player is the one who gets to ultimately determine what happens, Thera is still a living being with her own experiences, goals, and worries. I want those to be more prevalent than the current "I'm Thera but I'm just playing how I want to" feeling that's currently in the story. I've been slowing going in and tweaking different parts of the story and the lines that are being displayed, but I think to really get it up to where I want it, it will take some serious time and dedication. It probably won't all be in for the next release, but hopefully in the second update it will be. As for the last thing that I want to mention, I plan to make development builds available to those who donate a single dollar. NOTE: The RELEASED version of this experience will ALWAYS be free. That dollar give you access to the DEVELOPMENT versions. The development versions will have current changes and will allow the player to see what's coming up in the future releases. This is also completely optional, but for those that want to show support, I greatly thank you for supporting me and this project. Although it's free to make, this does take up a lot of time. I do truly enjoy it though! 

If you made it all the way down here, I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read and pay attention to this! It truly means a lot to me and I hope you enjoy the story. In it's current form, it may not be anything special, but I hope to change everyone's mind about that in the future! Anyways, thank you for any support you offer and for reading!

Best wishes, Robley Evans