Designing the new map system could possibly be described as an emotional roller coaster of a process. One might describe the new map as the biggest compromise I’ve had to commit to for this project. It took some time to accept it even after admitting that it’s the most logical course of action.

The map itself wasn’t the only major change I had to cope with. I also had to start to inject some luck into the game. It’d be lovely to do without, but a lot of RPG feel depends on it. It took this long for me to finally admit to it, though. I don’t actually like focusing my design process on something like “feel of an RPG, but multiplayer”. It’s very snake eating its own tail, focusing it on some vague hodge podge of other games. A genre piece like that is inherently weaker when it draws from its own medium. It’s where I’m going with it though. I’m trying my best not to blindly copy, but to understand the underlying purpose of things and use them for my own needs.

How to handle parties remains up in the air at this point, but otherwise the design is finished and all that remains is putting it all together. There’s a lot to do, but most of it is pretty low cost (the highest cost unfortunately being the first step). It took time, but I have a pretty good feeling about these changes now. I can see the game as a whole pretty clearly now. It’s a weird feeling, but I can get used to it.