Alpha Preview Update (July) (Patreon)

Hello! I bring good tidings!

I am DONE WITH EDITING MY NOVEL MANUSCRIPT FOREVER!!!

It's in my editor's (and God's lol) hands now and I hope to never have to look at or think about that thing again... until publication. That'll be in July 2021, and I'll post here if I have any updates!

Due to being busy with the novel, I was a bit crunched on time for ShoH this month, so I wasn't able to accomplish everything I wanted--but next month I can absolutely get back to it with gusto! You can read the update here! 

Things added in this update:

- Save system skeleton (NOT FUNCTIONAL)

- Gambling on days off

- Training your squad of recruits on your day off

- Relationship litmus testing function: see who your highest friendship and romance is with

- The first 15,000 words of Chapter 5

Developer notes:

-  My standard disclaimer, times ten: this is a first, rough draft that hasn't been reviewed or edited at all. The pacing, descriptions, staging, etc is probably very rough--even moreso this month because I was trying to balance so many things (and I'm so mentally exhausted from writing my book). Thank you for your understanding and patience regarding this!

- Day off scenes for the characters have not been written since last time, so don't panic if they don't appear in your day off section or you can't access them.

- You technically are not supposed to unlock gambling on your day off unless you've 1) visited Chandry at least 5 times and 2) have a good relationship with him. However, for testing purposes, I've made that option available to you so you can see what gambling looks like. This means that the game will act as if Chandry is introducing you to the Golden Way, even though he's not actually. This is not a bug, it's just a result of me giving the option to you early.

- You won't see the save system checkpoints unless you're playing some earlier chapters--and as I've stated, the system "works" but won't be usable until the game is pretty much complete for beta testing, since it needs to know all of the game's variables (which haven't all been created yet).

- The training section of the game is probably the most code-crazy thing I've ever done. It is VERY complicated behind the scenes, so if you run into bugs in this section, please let me know (so I can go cry in the corner). 

- Because I was short on time, going with Halek to camp and going to town with Ayla are not yet written. Next time for sure! 

- Another thing I intended to do but forgot was [SPOILERS] addressing Tangriel's possessions, especially his medallion, if you found them in Chapter 4. You can show these things to Vivek if you've met him to give him closure! [/SPOILERS] I will implement that next time as well for sure!

- Briony next time! 😭 I am sorry my sweetpea, I fully intended to end with you but I've worked myself to the bone this month!

- Please do not yell at me about the relationship litmus system if it gives you a result you don't expect. :') The romance system in ShoH is very unique and may not make total sense, especially if you are waiting to romance a character you haven't met yet!

- I went crazy with the "remembered" choices in this chapter, so if there's a continuity error you notice (like the Shepherds acting like you didn't do this thing in Chapter 3), please let me know!

Total wordcount: 340,255 words

Thank you for reading and playing, and I hope you enjoy!