No screenshots tonight. I'm in the middle of a push to make RetroQuest's interface more presentable/accessible, but it's like that stage of serious housecleaning where things look worse than when you started because everything's been torn apart but not put back together yet.

Right now I'm specifically focusing on chargen... to be more specific, on the visual customization. This is something I haven't even attempted to put in controls for before... I tested the different configurations by changing the defaults in the code, hence why all my recent screenshots have had the same generic figure in them. This is the first time I'm looking at all the options laid out side by side, which is also giving me a chance to look at what's missing in the hats and accessories and things.

I'm mulling whether or not to assign minor abilities/values to things like your choice of head accessory. Pro: It gives another way to tweak your character's abilities. Con: It could lead to people taking the headpiece that optimizes their abilities over the one that suits their character. Given that I'm so conflicted, I'm probably going to default to leaving them just cosmetic because that's the solution that's less work. And it's not even work in the sense of just having to put in more time... if I couldn't think up an effect for a given hat, I couldn't include it. And I want to offer a good variety.

Since I'm moving the character customization into its final(ish) configuration, I'm also considering the question of the horse. Right now the horse takes up your companion slot, which seems obvious but is problematic from a design perspective.

First, the horse's AI and behavior are so different from other companions that it would be less kludgy to use a different system entirely... not make the horse a full mob. Second, the horse's benefits are primarily in quality of life during exploration/travel... their usefulness decreases during combat. And because you get more fast travel options as your character advances, the horse's usefulness decreases over the life of your character. It also decreases if you're traveling with people who picked a different companion.

So I think I'm going to split horses off from the companion system and make a simpler and separate mount system. Said system will probably consist only of horses at launch time, but will have room for expansion. Mounts won't need separate AI, because the game uses "subspace storage" for companions and followers so they'll never have to move separately from you. They can have attacks but they won't need a separate AI loop for them because mounts will never exist independently of a rider.

I still want characters to have the option of having a horse "built in" to the character during chargen for a couple of reasons, including the fact that one of my alpha testers really likes to play horse-mounted archers. I can add something equestrian related to the Jobs list, though, to take care of this. Cavalier, probably.