Hey!

Me again?? Well, I said I would do a Devlog on the first of every month, so missing the first one seemed a little too cheeky!

So, the dust has settled a little bit on Chapter 3, and thanks to my wonderful testers over on the Discord, there were very few little bugs left! After some feedback, I'm currently working on balancing the combat a little bit, since it's a little too easy to spam some defence now and cruise through. Sometime tonight, I'll push an update that caps it somewhat (still in beta testing at the moment).

Now, let's be real, combat balance is probably not why most people play the game ^^ Nevertheless, it's fun to tinker with it. Keep the feedback coming if you find anything that needs fixing (I think  a few scenes might not be counted properly in the spanking counter, so if you find any let me know).

Anyway, this is a Chapter 4 devlog, not a Chapter 3 post-mortem, So, what's the plan for the future? 

**Spoilers for the story!**

The next Chapter is called Expedition, and I think it's pretty obvious where we're going next if you've finished Ch3. The Orcs (most of them anyway), have sailed away to another continent a long time ago after the betrayal of the other races, and we are going to go and visit that distant land. Now, I think it's pretty obvious that the world of Elven Kingdom is an homage and a parody of classic Fantasy tropes that we know and love, and I grew up playing WoW (I was an original beta tester, even!), so it will definitely have big Kalimdor vibes, and more specifically jungle-type environments. I want a bit of variety, and we've seen a lot of forests and whatnot!

Our heroes will be searching for the lost Elven King (Maera's father), and, of course, the final Gift of the Goddess. Just like the last chapter was an excuse to develop the Dwarves, this will be a good opportunity to get a good look at Orc society. No spoilers on what exactly is going on over there, but I love what Warcraft did with them, and the nobility they wrote them with as opposed to just being violent brutes. This is a visual novel after all, so it's mostly about the dialogue (and spankings, looooots of spankings), so them being articulate and thoughtful just makes sense.

In that Expedition, you will have companions come with you, one of which we've just met (Ten'Dy), and some that will return! I think it would be really cool to give you a choice of who you want to bring with you, to make the role-playing aspects more prominent (and for replayability!). For that, I thought it would be great to have your classmates from the Academy come back. My biggest question right now is whether it's worth making lots of alternate routes is everyone is going to pick one or two of the characters overwhelmingly.

And thus, I would love some feedback on that! If you could choose 2 of your ex-classmates to come with you, who would you pick? (as a reminder, the boys were Máel, Nerinn, Falaen, and the girls were Tyria, Ly'Dell, and Dúah). Two of these have made an appearance in Chapter 3, or course, but it was a very short little thing. I'm really curious about this, and if most people what the same characters, then that can be the only ones that go and it will save me some work. Still, I like the idea of a choice, so let me know!

Running parallel to that story, we'll follow Scarlett Stormblade, the Huntress, on her quest to find the First Altar and rescue the Queen. She will recruit a few familiar faces along the way to help her with her quest, and she will get to fight a certain traitor that we haven't seen this Chapter, but has been plotting her revenge after being humiliated. This storyline will allow us to revisit some locations and see characters that we know.

In this, I'm trying to balance having fun, diverse situations with working smartly and reusing characters, art, and places that I already have drawn. I do want to stick to the deadline I've given myself, and I'm very conscious that I don't need to make it more complicated for myself and burn out in the process :)

In terms of gameplay improvement, I am currently testing a class system for the Main Character — three choices: mage / fighter/ rogue (classic!). I think it's a bit of a shame that we spend all that time at the Academy learning about magic and all that only to not use it later! With the new combat system, such changes are actually quite easy to make and I already have a version working for the mage (fighter would be as it is now, Rogue would lose the ability to defend but get much better dodge, and maybe an extra ability that I need to think of). Again, feedback on what you'd like to see is appreciated!

That will probably involve a few more scenes at the Academy, but that Chapter could definitely be expanded anyway!

And I think that will do for this Devlog! There is a lot that I would like your feedback on, so please let me know what you think! If you want to get involve with creating a character that will feature in the next chapter, there is an option in the "Rewards" section as well. And the $20 tier pictures are coming too for those of you still waiting on them! Don't hesitate to nudge me along if you don't hear from me in the coming weeks.

Finally, as is tradition, some art to finish with! There will be a lot of Orcs in the next Chapter, of course, but not just that!