System crashed

Development of LifeWeaveR has been a bit delayed due to a laptop crash. Luckily, I have backups, so I only ​lost about 4 hours work.

After everything I've gone through to make this game, if I had no backups and lost literally everything, I'd say "fuck this" and cancel the whole project. I started developing LifeWeaveR almost two years ago and have put a ridiculous amount of effort into it. I really don't know if I could take doing it all over again.

In any case, the problem is fixed and development has resumed as normal. I'd like to be finished before May if possible.

Saint Ingrid's Island

A new area has been created named (surprise!) Saint Ingrid's Island. This area is completely optional and is not necessary to complete the game. The reason it was created is three-fold:

The first reason is it is the only area in the game that sells the Seagull Feather accessory, which nullifies all water damage for whoever has it equipped. Visiting this town is a suggestion made by Pria just before the party sets out to enter the Great Ocean Cave.

The second reason is because it is probably the only "money farming" opportunity the player has in the entire game (aside from Goldfish hunting and good luck with that).

Ami and Will shell hunting.

The twinkle of light indicates the presence of a hidden sea shell. On St. Ingrids there are two types of shells: White, and Lylac. Selling these will only get you about 150-300 per shell, but the Lylac shells can be opened to check for the high-value Raindrop Pearls that may or may not be inside. The way this works is as such:

The twinkling light isn't actually a shell until the player picks it up. When they do, there is a 50/50 chance of whether it will be White or Lylac. If it is in fact a Lylac shell, there is a 1-in-5 chance of it containing a Raindrop Pearl.

There are six shells on the beach at a time, and they auto-erase when picked up. When the player leaves the beach, a special state is activated. If the player enters the beach while this state is active, none of the shells will appear. This state will only expire after the character has walked 500 steps. The reason for this should be obvious: to stop the player from going from "broke" to "rolling in it" in mere minutes.

If you are, however, patient enough to continuously walk around until the shells re-spawn, there is literally no limit to how many you can find.

The third reason is it gives a little more backstory on Ami, specifically about what it was like growing up in a similar environment (Vhespia is in fact an island not much bigger than St. Ingrids)

The view from Ami's room at the Inn

What's New - 3/6/2017

*As of this update, Save Points ("podium and open book" type) will now heal a random amount of HP and MP the FIRST time they are used. After that they will simply save the game like they normally do. HP will use a number between 50 and 1000, MP will use one between 25 and 300.

*A "Battle Tutorial" has been created and will be offered to the player at the start of the game. There is no EXP or coins awarded and whether or not you choose to view it doesn't affect anything. I just thought it may be nice to have in cause someone new to RPGs decided to give it a try.



*Several new enemies have been created,

*The 3rd floor of the Astral Tower has been altered slightly. There is now a hole the player can jump in that will lead to a difficult-to-obtain treasure chest.

*Fixed a minor issue with the Clairvoyance Gem where the red aura from booby-trapped treasure chests remained even after the chest was opened.

What's New - 3/2/2017

*Created new enemy spell called Nightmare. When cast, it instantly kills any party members who are asleep.

*Added special item "Clairvoyance Gem" that shows which treasure chests have hazards in them.

*Enemy HP/MP gauges now display the enemies HP with numbers in addition to the bar.

New Feature: Enemy HP/MP Gauges

As of this update, a gauge will appear over an enemies head to display their HP and MP plus any status ailments or buffs in effect.

Slime-B is asleep in this example.

For "Boss" fights, this same Gauge is displayed, only much longer than for regular enemies.

The Ruby script for this (VTS Enemy HP Bars v 2.02) has been provided by Ventwig and is gratefully accepted. The only thing I'd have preferred he changed would be adding MP to the Gauge, as the letters HP are already displayed. I may remove the HP in the future and may possibly re-configure the script to display the enemies remaining HP as a numerical value in addition to the bar.

Time will tell, but either way he's done an excellent job and I'm thankful for the work he's done.