Hello! This link will be available within 1 week to a 0.5 build containing the revamped Character Creation system with new narrative and updated Kingdom Lore ahead of Update 1’s full release.
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As for my last post of the night, the WiP thread has received a bit of an overhaul, especially the plot synopsis component following a fundamental storyline overhaul.
Old Plot Teaser
1021 P.D.
The Realm of Harmony is on the brink of war.
Two of the most powerful Kingdoms of the realm have locked horns over the disappearance of the Crown Princess, Adylisa. The Crown Kingdom of Maldium has accused the Arcane Kingdom of Veltar of high treason and kidnapping. Despite Arcanian insistence of the opposite, the Crown refuses to see reason. Thus, the remaining nine Kingdoms have been forced to take sides or risk bitter retaliation without an ally.
Summoned by the Veltarian Chancellor, you’ve been offered the unruly task of an unsanctioned act of recovery. As Veltarian reconnaissance would be struck down without hesitation, the Kingdom cannot act on its own. Bestowed with unique privileges through Veltarian lands, your party of misfits shall investigate the Crown Princess’s disappearance, rescue her, and bring her home. With a sole month to spare, the fate of civil war falls to your shoulders.
Despite the seemingly easy task, multiple armed skirmishes between the two Kingdoms have begun to erupt. Regardless of the peril to your timeline, you may be thrust into the fray as part of your mission. Shall you become a general of wartime? Or merely a pawn for a King’s war?
Save the girl, become the hero, or die trying.
New Plot Teaser
Harmony finds itself at the brink of war.
When two of the most powerful kingdoms in the realm lock horns over a royal’s sudden disappearance, Estheria is ushered into a new era of darkness.
Accused by the Crown Kingdom of treasonous kidnapping, the Kingdom of the Arcane finds themselves at an impasse as tensions between the regions escalate to a level unseen in over three hundred years.
Unknowingly, an ancient ritual cast in distress saves the life of the Crown Princess’s most trusted confidant, sending them through reincarnation in the InterDimensional Rift. Emerging in Crown lands with a blazing mark and words of a dark prophecy thundering through their mind, they’ll find themselves set upon an adventure of a lifetime amongst three other wayward souls.
Little do they know…
Ancient evils have awoken to threaten a realm divided.
Which do you prefer? 
- Old Plot Teaser
- New Plot Teaser
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voters
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Whenever I play a fantasy game, my go to is playing a gentle, magical elf girl. So I will be playing as close to that as possible 
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I remember your sadness at the normal elves being down the original roadmap a good bit! Haha, you and a few others helped influence my refinement process.
I think we’re in a solid place to execute on A Realm Divided properly now.
2 Likes
The opening line is so nice.
“Harmony is on the brink of war*. Very clever and cheeky.
2 Likes
Howdy, Heroes!
Work continues on both Update 1 and Update 0.5 (which will relaunch the Character Creation Demo). I’ve got most of the revised code in a better place, and am working on fixing up the original code that was in place in the stats page.
Gutting the racial mini stories shaved off about 20k words that I had written (2 mini stories were unfinished and the mini-stories no longer served a proper purpose). Given that, I am working to replace some content with small fleshed out additions throughout the character creator.
When selecting your background, you will see some additional descriptions tied to it, along with an option to view more information about that background in the Glossary (which was originally not something I really had… implemented, but I’ve pulled code off The Frontier to make an organized version).
This week, I’ve stripped out the body type having a stat impact and simplified parts of the stat system overall.
With The Frontier, there has been division in feedback where half the potential playerbase loves the stat-heavy handed type of game, and the other half doesn’t.
So, since I have two projects; The Frontier will be my stat-heavy game, while Estheria uses a more simplified and easy to grasp version. We’ll still have inventory and plenty of fun RPG systems, but less of a focus on a system like Fallout’s S.P.E.C.I.A.L. that I use in The Frontier with P.R.O.T.O.C.O.L.
Anyways, just checking in to let you know work is ongoing. Despite the Holidays I’m trying to keep up the pace, and my hope is to relaunch the Character Creation Demo here soon.
6 Likes
Heroes!
Work continues as I also adjust the changes I’ve made in my writing style in the last few months. Something extremely important to me is that I can effectively juggle science-fiction writing (The Frontier) and mythical high-fantasy (Estheria: A Realm Divided). Estheria’s tone has been effectively evolving over time, turning towards a more grand yet… dark and twisted theming.
You’ve seen one piece of The Grey (Humans) mini preview. Below is the rest.
What I’d like to know is how you feel about the writing style, and in particular if it’s something that gets you excited. Obviously normal dialogue, interactions with characters ect will be much different, but I’m trying to weave a focus to detail while keeping in tune with the fantastical intrigue that brings the Realm of Harmony to life.
So, I ask you.
What do you think?
- I love the writing.
- I like the writing.
- I’m neither here nor there.
- It’s not quite for me, truthfully.
- Not a fan, man.
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voters
This poll is not public so feel free to give as honest of an opinion as you’d like.
I know the snippets are small overall, but they do cast a light on the overall writing, and you’ve seen plenty of other work over the last year or two where I’ve posted here and there. I appreciate any and all feedback, even if harsh.
Thanks a ton.
~Zach.
3 Likes
No pressure if you don’t want to; I’m partially blind, so I can’t read black text on a white background. I can read it slightly better if it’s on night mode.
Again, no pressure. I can just wait until the demo is re-released.
1 Like
Hi Myera!
I can rebuild the imagery and DM you! I’ll rebuild the screenshots in night mode, not an issue!
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Hi Myera!
I noticed I cannot DM you likely due to privacy settings.
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That’s so sweet! I usually have it turned off by default. Let me know if it works!
2 Likes
Dropping by tonight with another lovely poll.
Backgrounds will play a solid hand in your journey throughout the Realm of Harmony. Whether experiencing unique background-centric dialogue, having additional conversation options, or outright opening new choices that carry varying consequences; each background carries ways to mix things up.
Which background will you pursue? (While only one background can be chosen for your playthrough, you can select up to 3 for the purpose of the poll so I can see which interest you!
- Craftsman
- Diplomat
- Lone Wolf
- Merchant
- Monster Hunter
- Scholar
- Slave (Former)
- Thief
- Vagabond
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voters
2 Likes
For today, my goal is to wrap up the racial re-implementations in entirety, however I’ve also cleaned up documentation and organization for the project and got it where it should be for the long-term.
Parsing over code between The Frontier and what my original desires for Estheria are, we’ve got a pathway towards the horizon for a proper fantasy-RPG. Amongst key features within A Realm Divided, we’ve got:
- As mentioned a long time ago, you will experience a mixture of Adventures (Main Quests) and Stories (Side-Quests). Both will have impact on the broader world, whether that’s economic impact (thanks to the carefully fleshed out shopkeeping and economy code present in The Frontier that I made modular and can easily slot in), introduction/loss of characters presenting missable pathways, unlocking new areas that’re hidden, changing existing ones, or outright closing them off. There’s a lot opportunity within the branching system.
- Locations! This was originally a desire on the list but I was not even remotely close to being development capable of it at the time the project commenced 2 years ago. Within Estherian lore, we’ve got the Mirage, which serves as an aether-channeled transportation network throughout the realm. Utilizing the modular code built in The Frontier, you will have access to the Mirage network which dynamically expands as you travel to new areas or gain the knowledge of their whereabouts. This lets you travel through the realm in a lore-friendly way but carries a minor cost which allows me to justify that some sequences within the game involve traveling on foot, train, or otherwise. This code is 100% functional from the moment I plug it into the game with no development time needed to get it off the ground.
- Pocket Realms! Another win off the backs of The Frontier’s development. Using Aether, you’re able to travel to your own personal mini-realm where you keep your party’s camp. You’ll be able to check in with others and have fun interactions, play minigames, craft, manage your inventory and equipment, upgrade its capabilities and more. Using the already functional housing code within The Frontier, I can easily tweak and plug this code into Estheria with minimal development overhead outside of adding new features tailored to A Realm Divided.
- Equipment and Inventory Redesign. The original inventory system in A Realm Divided is similar in appearance to The Frontier despite being over 2 years old. However, the underlying code and how it was structured is… messy to say the least. What I’m going to do instead is port over The Frontier’s revised modular code for both equipment and inventory management which will create a more optimized, cleaner experience with less headaches and bugs. Expect to have a vast inventory system that lets you hoard to your heart’s content.
- Combat. This one will take time, as I had not yet properly began development in The Frontier of this feature. For Update 1, Combat will be done via narrative with options you can choose and some dice rolls that’re simplified. The broader plan is to introduce turn-based combat with direct control for the player character, with a backend AI system controlling members of your party that is customizable. You’ll be able to assign roles to the different party members and place weight on certain actions that could be conducted which will allow you to craft the AI to your playstyle. As you progress, level, and grow through A Realm Divided, your party will organically level with you and their equipment will adjust. (This is necessary due to limitations in ChoiceScript with multi-party member control that caused me to lose months of wasted development time in A Realm Divided’s original development-track and was the key reason I burned out in the first place.)
So, we’ve got a plan, we’ve got lore rolling, and we’ve got things in a healthier place both for me mentally and for A Realm Divided.
I apologize for the radio silence on the project’s front, truth be told the original combat update burnt me out on a massive level when I sunk months of painstaking work into something I ultimately had to scrap. For every issue I fixed, two more things broke and it ultimately boiled down to a lack of proper functions and array support within ChoiceScript.
I look forward to relaunching on CogDemos soon, and then chugging away on Update 1.
3 Likes
Likely going to be giving daily development updates over here!
We are 3/5 racial options implemented and I’ve got their underlying code corrected in entirety.
When viewing a race, you’ll see a small couple page story tied to it, but much smaller in size than the original intended racial mini-stories. These vary from about 500-1500 words per, with the largest coming in right now for the Dusk Elves (written today).
I also spent part of today completely redoing the Stats page code to operate on subroutines that go out to other areas. Much of the original failings in design is that I had so much actual content and function within the Stats page itself and given that nothing saves when accessed from the Stats page, we can’t have that. This meant plenty of new files created and areas carved off.
On a note: it looks like the most liked background will be the Monster Hunter one! I’ll drop a small teaser for this in the coming days as I hammer out the background mini stories.
Bright side is the old demo was 12k words.
We’re already 10k ahead of that, and once the Character Creator is done, I’ll revive the Demo on CogDemos alongside a teaser of Update 1 I’m writing. We’ll likely land between 30k-40k words when it’s up!
3 Likes
I’m pushing hard to revive the Character Creator Demo as a Christmas present.
In the event I can’t, I’m leaving this one under the tree as well.
There were many originally eager for the Shadow (Now Dusk) Elves, and they have one of the longest mini-stories present in the Character Creator’s revival.
Happy Holidays!
9 Likes
I hope everyone is having a wonderful holidays!
Being upfront: The Humans will have the smallest mini story present in the first WiP relaunch build during character creation. At the end of the day, we know who/what humans are more or less, and that story trope has been walked a thousand times in lore.
Now, that said. I will ask feedback as I like to do.
Right now, the human mini piece is about 500 words and moreso is just a quick compare/contrast that points to the atrocities committed.
Every other mini story truthfully comes much closer or exceeds 1000 words.
Are you okay with the humans mini piece being shorter?
- Yes. I am!
- No. Extend it.
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voters
1 Like
Howdy, Heroes!
Today, we’re going to talk more about racial impact in A Realm Divided.
While allowed to pick any of the five races present in A Realm Divided, you’ll find that the race you play changes or outright introduces a variety of a factors. Whether that’s race-based dialogue such as racism by other characters, different situations can emerge.
Using ArcWeave, I’ve been really focused on mapping how I want to create differing forms of branching content that makes you feel as if your playthrough is actually ‘unique’. While I may have scrapped my plans for five individual versions of Act I, I am instead exploring deeply branching racial content. Some quests may completely vary/alter based upon your race, and some choices may open up or outright wall off (choices you never knew you had/didn’t have solely because of your race) all in a natural manner.
I want this to be tied to narrative. You have the opportunity to potentially change how others may feel about you, but you will live and die by the lore written in Estheria’s universe.
Humans can be rampant. Elves are accepted and the second majority race, but still can be racially ostracised. Dusk Elves are outright exiled to the shadows in most situations. Dwarves are loved and respected because they fuel the fires of war.
Aetherials…? Two words. Good luck.
Overall, I want you to feel as if your race means something and isn’t merely another customizable piece of information on paper. Now, how this plays out in development is going to go like this (using The Frontier as my wonderful baseline).
Update releases with light racial content. —> Within 1 to 2 updates later that content will receive a 2nd pass adding more racial content and spreading out the breadth of what’s there. If quests were in the prior update, they will receive further content in the new one as an addition to what the new update introduces. —> Finally, within 3-4 updates that content will be fully locked in and tightened up in its final form.
You’ll still have plenty to chow down on, but I like iterative development. You’ll be given something meaty, but expect that I plan to take feedback and iterate/improve on it.
Anyways. I hope you have a Happy New Year!
4 Likes
Howdy, Heroes!
With the Racial Mini-Stories now completed in entirety (and man I am just going to say I adore the one I put together for the Aetherials. Warning… It’s dark.) I am moving to some other bits and bobs of content along with polish to correct a lot of design oversights.
In the original demo, I had capitalized all character creator options when they were set variablewise. This is a problem as while !${} capitalizes the first letter, there is no inverse function to lowercase it. I’m spending a lot of time tonight going through and fixing that error so that I can reference things without their strings being capitalized by default.
Separately, I am working to actually align the races to race-specific options. As an example, if you become a dwarf, you should not be able to pick your height as average or tall like others might be. Instead, you will automatically be configured to be short and then proceed to bodytype selection.
Another example is Dusk Elves. Dusk Elves will not have the option to select their skin color, as it is silver by default per lore.
Overall, the project is experiencing quite a bit of polish, and things are looking likely that Update 1 will kick off immediate development. I am going to use a fail-fast development approach. Content updates will occur in 20-30k word batches or in feature updates. This allows me to rapidly iterate with feedback while balancing ensuring people can enjoy things sooner.
Anyways. Now that we’re past the racial mini stories (which I was stuck on far longer than I would’ve wanted simply because I brainstormed how best to introduce them), expect this to land soon.
7 Likes
Quick poll for update 1!
Which crafting profession should be implemented first?
- Alchemist!
- Artificer!
- Blacksmith!
- Carpenter!
- Cook!
- Fletcher!
- Leatherworker!
- Tailor!
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voters
Second poll!
Which gathering profession should be implemented first?
- Fisher!
- Herbalist!
- Hunter!
- Lumberjack!
- Miner!
- Monster Hunter!
- Salvager!
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voters
2 Likes
An overwhelming amount of you seemed excited by the prospect of the Monster Hunter Gathering Profession!
Part of the reason I chose this poll was not just to have an idea of where I might focus my manpower, but also because I have descriptions and loops designed for each of them.
The Monster Hunter
There’s little more than the thrill of the hunt.
The Monster Hunter profession in Estheria: A Realm Divided provides contract and bounty-based hunting gameplay that is higher risk than normal hunters scattered throughout the realm. Considered a reagant-gathering profession due to the nature of what they retrieve, Monster Hunters delve into areas of decay and danger to track creatures known for their vicious nature, tear their parts out with delicate precision, and return unscathed to fulfill their contract.
Freelance Monster Hunters are able to conduct their own unsanctioned hunts for the purpose of obtaining parts for crafting purposes or for selling to obtain coin.
You will have three potential pathways towards completion of each contract, and their
success depends on how you build your Profession Skill Tree:
#1. The Silent Hunt
The Silent Hunt - A stealth first pathway that’s built around tracking mechanics, patience, and a single moment of execution.
Pros:
- You’ll have a high chance of retrieving Prime quality monster components.
- Less chance of ruining monster parts and either lowering your pay or outright failing the contract.
- If successful, you’ll skip chases and/or combat.
Cons:
- In the event you’re spotted, a disadvantage is triggered that significantly hinders your success in a Pursuit or Duel event.
- Should you be spotted and then fail the subsequent event, you will suffer a reputational hit that will decrease the quality of future contracts until you’ve regained reputation.
Metrics to monitor:
- Stealth (STL) - Your risk of being caught. (Begins at 100%, and decreases to 0% (failure)).
- Tracking (TRCK) - How well you’ve analyzed the monster and succeeded in determining its patterns and/or anatomy. This provides increasing additive bonuses to your Window (WIN) chance.
- Noise (NOI) - Beginning at 0%, the higher the value, the larger the loss to STL upon conducting any action, and the greater the risk.
- Window (WIN) - Beginning at 0%, this determines how close you are to a fatal opening, and your success chance for an execution.
#2. The Pursuit
The Pursuit - A high intensity pathway involving a chase sequence where the target is intentionally alerted to trigger a controlled hunt using a series of traps, terrain, and applied pressure. Chase the target, wound it, prevent its escape, and finish it on your terms.
Pros:
- This allows for faster gameplay through high intensity, quick contracts.
- Truly feels like a hunt, where you’re the hunter and they’re the hunted.
- Brings out the risk, but also carries the reward.
Cons:
- Should the monster manage to escape, you’ve outright failed your contract and will endure a significant reputational risk.
- Sloppy actions can cause significant damage to critical monster parts, lowering the value and upsetting your benefactor.
Metrics to monitor:
- Distance (DIS) - How far you are from the target. Beginning at 0%, should this reach 100% the monster will successfully escape, failing the contract.
- Pressure (PRS) - A mixture of exhaustion and injury to the monster. Beginning at 0%, by successfully executing attacks or tiring out the monster, you’ll succeed in ramping up the pressure. Upon reaching 80% Pressure, execution actions will become available.
- Control (CTRL) - A measure of your overall plan’s success. While also beginning at 0% (outside of any opening bonuses or preparation), every right move increases your Control, which provides an additive increase to how much Pressure you can apply/gain. A mixture of Control and Exhaustion are evaluated to determine negative effects. If your Exhaustion is high and your Control is low, you’ll find the chase increasingly going awry.
- Exhaustion (EXHST) - Your overall fatigue level. The more actions conducted and the longer the chase, the more tired you’ll become. However, there are rejuvenating items that skilled hunters can carry along to use and wake the hell up. Should exhaustion exceed 80%, you’ll find significant negative effects that’ll allow the monster to rapidly increase Distance.
#3. The Duel
The Duel - Directly engage in combat with your target in a face-to-face battle. Work to wound and eliminate your target while preserving the integrity of the parts you seek to retrieve.
Pros:
- You get a straight fight, and can prepare as much as needed for a reliable win rate.
- Optimal for those who love combat and are less focused on chasing the monster over time.
Cons:
- Death. Should I say more?
- Brute force can damage components and destroy your payout, while also causing reputational risk.
- Should you outright eviscerate a monster, you’ll find a failure of the contract as you’ll have little to retrieve that’s more than just meat and sinew.
Metrics to monitor:
- Wounds (WND) - This is how you determine progress towards killing your target.
- Guard (GRD) - A measure of your defense. The closer to 0%, the larger your risk of being both hit and taking higher damage from the monster’s attacks.
- Part Risk (PRISK) - The risk level that your actions will significantly damage or destroy parts and reduce or eliminate your payout. Beginning at 0%, should this hit 100% you will eviscerate a monster upon kill, failing the contract.
- Momentum (MOM) - Beginning at 0%, the higher your Momentum rating, the more consecutive moves you’ll be able to execute, and the higher your advantages are, including a lowered risk of increasing your Part Risk level through clean hits.
Seems like many of you are looking forward to this, and I have a surprise tied to it.
How do you feel about being a Monster Hunter in A Realm Divided?
- HELL. YES!
- I’m looking forward to it!
- Neither here or there.
- It’s not really my thing.
- HELL. NO.
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voters
Happy New Year!
2 Likes