At this moment all story content is done. The game is now playable from start until the final boss. Everything is in there.

At this moment I’m working on the New Game+

I already took the New Game+ in this form in mind before the first line of code was entered, and thus I can work things out quite easily, I must say.

The Image above was taken from…. Kthura. Yup, my map development system which I used to develop and display all cities and dungeons Wendicka and friends will get through, and in the production of Kthura I placed in a very extremely simplistic but in the same time very versatile meta data system, and that part of Kthura was the secret of setting things up so fast. Of course, for now I took 5 cycles in mind, but more or less are possible, that will depend on how much I need to get things properly done. I’ll need a crystal ball to tell how much it will be exactly now. Time will tell I guess ;)

For those to whom this shot looks like abracadabra, I shall explain a few things about the New Game+ in this game. I did aim for a good story in the game, that is always my main focus in an RPG game, however Star Story has been developed from a different perspective than most JRPGs are, meaning combat plays a big role in the game. For this reason I also placed in a New Game+ so you can keep playing on a little longer. You get the same story, same dungeons, same enemies, however, all enemies will be much more stronger than they were before, but you carry over your levels, weapon upgrades and everything you worked out about a character over into the new cycle. The “Level Range” fields just determine to the game the range in which the enemy levels will be in that specific dungeon.
Items are always randomly placed in a Star Story dungeon and they respawn at every visit, but you never know beforehand what you’re gonna get. The healing items in your first visit here are too weak to be valuable in a second cycle, so hey I’ll be nice you can get stronger stuff in the second cycle.

The level cap is increased too in the New Game+ cycles. In the normal difficulty setting the level cap is level 200 in the first cycle. In the second cycle it’s level 400. The ultimate level cap will in the end be level 10,000. I just had to stop it somewhere, sorry folks, however starting new cycles can then still be possible.

That brings us also to the ultimate challenge. The Black Hole Dweller. It’s a level 10,000 optional boss. In all cycles it can be unlocked by completing ALL sidequests and by reaching floor #20 in the final dungeon. It will then appear as a new location on your airship. It’s the only enemy in Star Story whose level is always 10,000. It never gets lower or higher. So you will need multiple playthrough cycles to have a chance to defeat it. Once the full game’s released I’d like to see who the first player is to defeat this guy (without cheating).

By biggest concern for now is possible conflicts between the cycles. Up until now I found none, but I’m not sure this stays that way the entire game. If no conflicts arise, I just know I can put in cycle #3, #4 and #5 without much trouble (because it’s the scenario data I’m worried about, and all cycles use the same resetter for that). And that will then also be when the closed beta can officially start.

I’m working as fast as I can, and the closed beta date is slowly getting closer.
So hang on with me guys. I hate to make you wait much longer, but I want to do this right, and I don’t want to mess it up by rushing things.
Since I already have all story content, setting up this New Game+ stuff is going to be a lot easier and faster to do, so I hope I can finally announce the closed beta in one or two weeks. We’ll see.

I post another log entry about this matter soon ;)