This will be the final imagery post of any kind prior to the Demo’s relaunch, consider it a New Year’s gift.
While I am limited on what I can from a UI standpoint, I have worked to stylize things and present contracts in a clean, cohesive manner.
Enjoy!
How do we feel about the presentation?
this is looking so cool. i love how all the mechanics feel so far!!!
Thank you so much!
I am up… far too late my time coding up a storm in the first WiP build right now. Bright side is that it’s looking like the WiP relaunch will likely exceed 40k words in total content due to a surprise I am packaging in. 
I’d rather let everyone have something else beyond just the rebuilt character creator.
So, going to actually let a cat out of the bag even if it was suspected, simply because I am going to need testers before I put this on a public branch and I don’t have enough private testers to ensure I can get this balanced in a reasonable timeframe.
I am hard at work on the following:
A single contract in The Pursuit path will be available in the WiP relaunch build.
There are several factors I am hard at work on, and this will actually service the broader game and accelerate Update 1’s development:
Most importantly though… AI.
My first pass at individualized AI will occur in the contract present in the build. Your target monster will move and shift around the areas, altering them as you go. It needs to know where it is, what connects to that location, needs to be able to dynamically determine where it wants to go next, and also needs to be capable of interacting with the environment. In addition, it also needs to be able to react and adjust based on the player’s actions, which is a good bit of scripting.
Now for the bright side. In the last 3 days I’ve not only written a solid bit of that contract’s content, but I’ve also put together the descriptors for the area and nearly completed the planning phase’s development, alongside having built out functional inventory. The player can move around, and there is a risk of being caught by the monster early which triggers the pursuit!
This risk chance adjusts based on how much scouting you’ve already completed, and I’ve already built the initial bonuses to the Control (CTRL) stat based on how much planning you’ve done including trap-laying or just scouting.
There are going to be a lot of things running through this process that will ultimately benefit the whole game and accelerate development, but I am going to need testers.
As such, I am going to put up a poll with public display of votes for if you’re willing to test the Monster Hunter contract and are aware it may be imbalanced or buggy when I make the first build available within the next (fingers crossed) week or two. I’ll be rapidly updating the build, so things will change based on testing feedback.
Those selected will be reached out to, so please ensure your forums DMs are open!
Whoa whoa why can’t you be a tall dwarf and just make it instead of being 7 foot it’s like 5 foot so ya know still sho..I mean uh slightly below average size for a human but tall for a dwarf 
Anyway jokes aside really interesting stuff so far can’t wait for the release
Giving an update on development.
In the last several days, I have brought together an immense amount of code and work on the Monster Hunter contract for the Cinder Hound.
We now have the following active and functional. I’ve begun with the planning phase, which is at 70% completion.
Overall, I would say the last 3-4 days have been wildly successful in terms of planning and implementation, and a lot is coming together to form immersive gameplay that unfolds in different ways every time you go through it. This will set the bedrock foundations for Monster Hunting gameplay, but some of this will be altered when implemented into the normal game world and not part of this demo as I am simulating some things right now (simulating your skill stats, ect).
Stopping in to let everyone know I am having oral surgery to remove a badly damaged/infected tooth on Thursday. Due to extreme pain today, I have not been nearly as productive as I’ve wanted. That said, I did manage to continue some development, and have added the ability to attempt to set a trap again should the first attempt to fail, this time with increased chance of success as you now understand the mistake that led to the failure. I’ve added another 250 words on top of the code to tie into that.
Trap-laying is unique by area narratively, as I’ve devised reasonable details and processes towards how each/where each trap is placed/set in each of the four locations throughout the first hunt. Right now my work remains on the planning phase, though I did add some RealmMaster (revised name for WorldMaster) code today. Not much, but just a few starting pieces for if a pursuit begins by being caught by the monster.
Every non-player character whether it’s an enemy or otherwise has an intelligence factor planned for them within A Realm Divided. The RealmMaster governs how they act based reasonably upon their intelligence factor in things like combat, hunts ect. This is measured in a scale of 1-5.
I did a little bit of planning today for how I want to handle party members and their interactions from an automated perspective. As they level with you and gain equipment, you will have the ability to invest skills in them much like if you control them yourself. These skills may also improve and gradually raise their intelligence factor, allowing them to better read situations. This will be subject to a shit-ton of testing and balancing because I need to ride the line between ‘too-stupid and frustrating’ early on and ‘reasonably-new to their adventure just like you’ for intelligence factor 1/2.
I’m going to code their AI functionalities separately from the general intelligence-factor code for this reason, as I want your party members to be more nuanced.
How do you feel about the RealmMaster as I talk more and more about it?
Hey, everyone!
Stopping in to let you know I’ll be resuming work on Monday on the game. My tooth extraction turned out to be a ‘traumatic’ one due to the tooth breaking apart mid extraction and so I’m in quite a bit of pain from the process. Going to take some time to relax and recover this weekend. I’ll be hard charging ahead on Monday and we’ll keep this train moving.
Really sorry to hear it - hope you feel better as soon as possible, best of luck.
Hey all. Still down and out for the count for the weekend to come, but as we know Monster Hunting will be the first profession implemented in Estheria: A Realm Divided.
As we have a gathering profession, I wanted to once more launch a poll. While Artificer largely led the first poll, I’m going to create a more target focused poll tied to the top two options from before on which will be the first crafting profession implemented.
We all have a solid idea of what Blacksmithing is simply because we’ve seen it in games one too many times before, but not many know what Artificing would be. So, let’s talk a little bit about it.
A blacksmith shapes steel, a mage shapes aether, what if someone shaped both?
The Artificer profession in Estheria: A Realm Divided uses magic and metalworking to weave the impossible to life. You’ll find yourself capable of creating runic sigils infused with aether that’re bound and implanted into your weaponry and equipment, providing unique buffs.
Further, you’ll have the capability to fulfill contracts for crafting machinery, while also creating special traps and items that can be used to alter the outcome of special situations.
However, and most importantly… You’ll create automaton companions.
Artificers will infuse aether and metal together to bring constructs to life, serving as brief-use companions that can assist in combat in addition to your party members, but who can also provide special use scenario options that will be hidden throughout your adventure. These will not be cheap to create, but are well worth it.
As for lore?.. Artificing is the profession directly responsible for the survival of the Aetherial race.
So, once again, which profession would you prefer to be implemented first?
Weirdly, I’m actually more interested in what Blacksmithing can do! Not because I’d prefer to see Blacksmithing; if I were to play the finished game, I’d 100% pick Artificing, but because Artificing sounds so much cooler than smithing (enchanting magic items? making automata!?) that I’m really curious as to how shaping steel could possibly compete, haha.
While the game does feature drop tables and the option to gain and even farm legendary gear, you’ll find several features within the Blacksmithing profession:
More to be revealed down the road, but it’s certainly not a hollow option!
EDIT: I should clarify that gear creation tied to Blacksmithing is metal gear only. Leatherworking and such are more beneficial to archery and the like!
Something of note as well to further clarify on contracts.
Contracts will not always be available for constant repeating. I have plans to create a form of ‘time’ within A Realm Divided, so you’ll need to go do other things for parts of the economy to move, contracts to generate/refresh.
It’ll be a complex system so it’ll be implemented more down the road, but nonetheless. Blacksmithing due to its necessity is considered priority within my designs for the timescale and contract generation system. You’ll find that Blacksmithing almost always has 2 or more contracts available.
For those who want less gameplay and want to story-dive, they’ll certainly be able to do so as I will be creating difficulty modes that tone down or outright skip/simulate combat.
However, A Realm Divided is fashioned as 20% IF, 80% RPG in a text-based format. Expect a lot of RPG systems for those who really love the depth and meat and grind.
I don’t have the resources to make a visual RPG or I would. But I do love to write, and craft, and this gives me the opportunity to make a huge RPG in that medium.
Do what you want. Explore. Craft. Engage in fun gameplay loops with plenty of minigames and more that’ll be fashioned out over time, delve into deep quests with branched stories, and more.
Damn yeah hope you recover well i went to bad place and Ive Ben dealing with the effects of that for many a month😢
Following up on the mention before.
My weekend of recovery is going slowly but steady. I should be ready to hit the ground running come Monday!
As mentioned, A Realm Divided is being developed as a text-based RPG first, and IF title second.
This involves focusing on several in-depth elements that are not traditionally found in other IF titles:
As you can see, this is a lot of depth. I am ultimately not looking to make interactive-fiction with the titles I produce and intend to publish through Hosted Games, but text-based RPGs that have deep narratives.
So the question I have for everyone is if you feel I’ve made that clear, and if that’s what you’ve signed up for.
Hey how are you doing so I don’t know if this is opposite the rules anyway is there a link for the game
Hello!
Originally, the base Demo/Character Creator was available via DashingDon. When DashingDon closed I was inactive when the transfers happened and didn’t get a chance to request a transfer to CogDemos.
The new build has many many things different but is also not fully finished and as a result is not yet ready to be uploaded to CogDemos. Because the original link was broken, I removed it. The original link was present and active and due to means outside my control was no longer viable and was a very very outdated build to begin with.
The new build will go live as soon as the Monster Hunting Introduction (1 contract) is completed. The moment this build is completed you’ll experience an overhauled Character Creation/Prologue and the Monster Hunting Demo. My hope is to complete this as soon as possible to get the link live again.
Of course I will waiting for it
Decided to jump in a bit early and do some design work tonight.
Early on in A Realm Divided’s original development, I discovered that any changes made within the Stats page were not saved as an engine/language limitation, as the engine creates a separate game-state/scene to display and revert with the Stats page.
This posed a dilemma as it prevented quick menu access for equipment and inventory management, party upgrades, and more.
My solution for A Realm Divided’s development is your pocket realm. Using aetheric energies and ancient magicks bestowed upon you by the Keeper of the Rift, your party will have access to a small area within the InterDimensional Rift that can be accessed when the situation allows.
When accessing your pocket realm, you’ll be able to interact with and use your party’s Base of Operations, which will gradually be expanded/expandable throughout your journey in the Realm of Harmony. The Base of Operations will include features such as:
The Base of Operations will be a significant piece of development throughout the game as I add additional functionalities to it. I am not sure if this will be available for the first time in Update 1, but my goal is to add a stripped down version of it so there is some camp access.
Either way. Tonight, development continued on the Monster Hunter contract.
