Apologies in advance for my absence from the blog! I’m very grateful for the increase in posts recently, and for all of your attention and thoughtful comments on the modules. I do want to reply to more of those comments soon, but I’ll probably need a few more days before I can get time to do that properly. Work will be busy for me for the rest of the month, and I’ve been spending all my spare time trying to finish up the Sanctum 1 upgrade.
As for the upgrade: that’s now officially gotten “out of control” (my wife’s words) and turned into a pretty substantial makeover. That’s happened for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I’ve got a year’s worth of ideas, player suggestions, and improved knowledge about modding to work with. I keep wanting to include all of those ideas, and since I’d like this to be the final update to Sanctum 1, this is the time to make them. So here’s another brief (and non-exhaustive) report on my progress:
- I’ve updated Robin and Orion to use their improved blueprints from Sanctum 2, including Robin’s single class of Rogue. This should make them a little more effective in combat, and relieve most of the pressure on players to take (possibly non-primary) thief skills.
- I’ve moderated the combat balance a little, and also added and tested an option to make the combat even easier still for players who prefer that.
- I’ve redesigned the “picnic swim” cutscene to be more elaborate, and to make use of some features that I also used in Sanctum 2.
- I’m making great use of the features of a new tileset that I added for Len’s Lab, the Secure Area, and the Master Control Room, each of which (along with the lower level of the ruins) has now been rebuilt from scratch. And I added a new twist to make the “repair operation” a bit more interesting and elaborate.
- I’ve also decided to rather significantly expand on the functions of the “Holo-Theater.” I’ll won’t say any more now, except that this is what I’m currently working on, and it involves several new areas and encounters.
Watch out. Slippery slope. Pretty soon it will be too big. Then you will want to split it into Part IA and Part IB. Then you will want to make prequel and it will be a trilogy on its own.
Wow! these modifications sound exciting! can’t wait to play! I never did manage to get the theater thing to work… Maybe this next go-around. I can’t wait to see the waterfall improvements.. Seriously, that was already an awesome scene.
Hello Andarian!
It’s great to hear that your making progress on your modules! I haven’t had the time to try them out yet unfortunately but they look very interesting with their original concepts like swimming, flying, interesting companions etc.
Since I want to promote other people’s works I’ve decided to add your blog-link to my own Blog and if you feel like it perhaps you could do the same for me? My blog can be found at berra-nwn.blogspot.com
Good luck in your future works!
The makeover sounds really wonderful! I’m very enthusiastic about the last version of the Sanctum I. I do agree with the comment that a male and female version of Robin should have a slightly different dialog in some circumstances.
Ah, almost can’t wait to play! (I’ll wait, of course) Keep up the great work!
Berra, thanks for your comments! Updating my blogroll has been on my “to-do” list for a while now, but it always seems to keep getting put on the back-burner. I do want to try to get to it soon, though, and I’ll make sure to keep yours in mind when I do. 🙂
Aderyn, thank you for your very kind comments! The update will definitely be ready sometime in March, and I hope to have a beta version to upload next week. After that, though, I’m going to have to take a short hiatus from building to focus on some of my “real world” commitments again for a while. 🙁