Log # 1

Here I am again, managing something that only became a burden. Well, it only seems like a burned now because the community could feel more like something trying to make a puppet out of me. Returning back to making things for the fun of it has helped me quite a bit.

As of where I left off, I was stuck on deciding how to change the tree guard's combat. It's a slow moving creature, but I've always felt that it needs speed to be menacing. Uncompromising Mode has done the mob well, but I plan to make something different. After all, the mod will be cross compatible.

The other mobs are in a good place. Basic combat has been cleaned up, but there main problem is the weapons that I added. The Cutlass Supreme has some issues with the sprite showing on the ground and when being forced to equip it (like when you craft it with nothing in hand). The weapon also needs some viable stats to make it viable but not a straight upgrade (something that involves a hunting theme). The Demolition Dirtsmasher just needs better indicators of the modes and a fix with the rocket jumping mechanic. A new sprite could be used like the blunderbuss along with different item descriptions to make tracking modes easier.

There really isn't much to change now. If anything, artwork should be what takes the most time. Now, before I return to a very unforgiving community, I still got some work to do for myself. A new era of inspiration has returned for another game, and I'm not about to miss it.

Log # 2

Bet you didn't expect for me to return a bit quickly, or maybe all you care is that I am working for you. Well, I'm feeling very inspired after going back to my roots, and development is starting up again. Don't get your hopes up though; I'm not exactly going full time like I used to do.

So I've got some progress, and if anything, I can get the rest done somewhat soon. The Demolition Dirtsmasher is the first thing fine tuned. Coming straight from Team Fortress 2, of course the weapon inspired from the game would be what I was drawn to. There was a problem where missing with the rocket jumping mechanic would cause the weapon to keep its ammo, letting you rocket jump again. Damage numbers were also screwed over since the mechanic shares code with the Glass Cutter's leap ability. Descriptions were changed up, so they now describe the state of the weapon ether when there is any ammo or if it's loaded and in a specific mode. I plan to add other indicators like sprite changes to make things more recognizable.

Up next is the Cutlass Supreme. There was a skin that was based on Klei's concept Monster Wrench. I removed it since it was just obscure (as if the Iron Gauntlet made any sense). Speaking of it, there is now a new skin, the Pantomimed Gauntlet. It's simply a skin that lets you punch with your bare hands. With that, I've got some stats in mind. The main one would be the ability to make the user unable to be disarmed. It would make sense with the weapon's hand guard or the fact that it covers or is the fists of the user. The other stats should make the weapon a side grade to the Shogun Showstopper, but I still need to figure those out.

Anyway, the Cutlass Supreme's sprite problem is a bit more problematic than I thought. The equipping problem was dealt with, but the ground sprites are still the issue. I've checked the code for that and even copied and pasted the old version's code for it. For some reason, only the Pantomimed Gauntlet shows up when on the ground. Pretty ironic. The mime weapon shows up on the ground, but the actual weapons only show up when held. The solution will probably be to rework the sprite files themselves. The ground sprites and animations would be packed into the same file as the rest of the sprites. You would know what I'm talking about when you see the ZIP files called "swap_" and the name of the weapon.

All of the custom weapons have been tested so far. The in-game ones will be while I make the artwork for them and clean some other things up.

You may have noticed that I have been a bit more aggressive when it comes to my responses ever since I started coming back to this mod. That is simply because people don't read and more-so only try to use me. I mean, people started using sad faces ever since I announced the major changes. They try to beg for me to keep something that only breaks the game or for something to be compatible. Take a look back at the last exchange in the comments and see for yourself. I'm not even sure if the person I messaged read my response or only skimmed it. Compatibility is something that is easy to fix; it just needs time.

It's not very encouraging when someone doesn't care that I was struggling and was only begging me to do something for them. All complaining aside, progress is slow, but I'll still stick around in the community. Any bugs I do find in some mods, I will help fix it. That is different from being tasked to repair an entire mod (like what happened with the Writhe mod).

Log # 3

I've been pretty busy with some DST mods, mainly personal ones. My character bots have been continuing to improve in intelligence, and I finished an entire personal mod based on Crypto Forest (the TF2 workshop map). I've also got around to reworking the coughing mechanic for "The Black Death" mod by The Tiddler. The cough has a new, more brutal animation that even features some black spit (coughing out bits of the plague was cannon).

Everything seems to be all going well, but I know that I need to prepare for something that is coming up. I don't know exactly what it is, but my instinct tells me that something steers this way.

As you are probably reading this, I am working on the Flare Gun. The sprites have always been janky, considering that I was remodeling Wheeler's Pew-o-matic. With my new tools, I was able to completely re-shape the sprites, so it should look like Klei's original flare gun. The regular full red flare gun just didn't seem right. I decided to change up the base wood color to be more of a tan. The metal is much brighter: a steel silver instead of the old gun-metal grey. Having only the two colors really makes the weapon look more like any old handgun (which is a problem considering that this is DST). To supplement this, I added a red stripe behind the muzzle of the flare gun, slightly darker than the red of the original. Other sprites have been resized to really fit the weapon's proportions.

Upcoming is a set of new animations for the flare gun's sky-shooting feature. The shooting will be refined to no longer use the staff animations, and a dry fire animation will also be implemented. The weapon also has a change where attacking without ammo will result in a dry fire (like Walter's slingshot). With the weapon having only 16 uses, it would be a waste to melee something with it.

A nitre projectile has also been made for the flare gun. This projectile will feature in both attacking and signalling. Both of these actions will cause a red fire trail, used from the Survivor skin of the torch.

I already have a small set of artwork for the mod preview, but I might rework that. I want to make the previews really get into detail of the weapons they feature to give users some tips and background info. Otherwise, the weapons would often get overlooked, being judged entirely on the cover rather than possible strategy. It would make everything look all bloated when the mod inevitably adds more content.

As of what is left to do, the previous log mentions them. I haven't gotten into those issues yet since I am just working on what I feel like. I plan to take my time with each asset to make them at their best before everything gets released. Until then, I'll still be around to watch the community. So far, it doesn't seem like people have changed, according to what I have seen, but I'll be ready for them when my time comes.

Log # 4

A few things have happened since the last log which has kept me quiet for some time. Besides the new game update, some life-related chores have made a return. It seems that society is trying to open up again despite the news about the pandemic.

Game related things. I've been spending some time fighting against some enemy survivors that I made myself. They've only been getting smarter; they kite only when their target attacks, they steal valuables from chests, they hang around their own fire pits and refuel them, and plenty more. With such intelligence, it only made sense to use them as test subjects. Mob combat could be tested along with the strengths and weaknesses of my weapon changes and additions. This could help determine if something is too similar to another weapon or if it would be practical in some situations at all.

The flare gun animations have been completed some time ago. There are three separate animations: the base animations where a flare is shot, the fail animation, and the pyromaniac animation. The listed names are self-explanatory. At base, the character watches the flare until it explodes. Pyromaniac just changes it so the character smiles when watching. The fail causes the character to look at the flare gun in confusion along with saying how the weapon is not loaded.

The other change, so far, is a minor one with the code. Originally, anything that involved Willow used if conditions, something like "if inst.prefab == "willow" then." That would make the game check to see if the player is playing as Willow. I changed it up to make the game check if the player is considered a pyromaniac (if they have the tag "pyromaniac"). To do that, I replaced the if condition to be "if inst:HasTag("pyromaniac") then." This would make Willow's benefits more dynamic, allowing other possible pyromaniacs to receive the benefits.

I've got some spare time now. I'll probably use some of it to return back to the mod. Some of that time might also be used to improve on my friendly character bots. I'm still not sure if I want to prepare them for public release, but I'm sure there will be a good amount of people who would appreciate the company.

Log # 5

For some reason, I've been very busy with the mod. I've somehow got enough inspiration to finish half of what was left (excluding artwork).

First things first, Wigfrid's battlecry. You probably know that I revamped the effects and gave it a skippable taunt. However, the new soundtrack has been revamped, also including a victory soundtrack for when you kill a boss during the battlecry boost. I also cleaned up the code for the entire mod again. It's much cleaner and easier to read. The configurations were also altered to remove unnecessary configurations. One quick disable config was added to make all weapons only use animations (for some reason, there was high demand for it).

The Cutlass Supreme has had its sprites fixed and its stats set. The weapon will keep its 10% speed boost, but it now features a strong grip mechanic. Mobs can not disarm the player using the weapon, but the weapon might still slip if the player is too wet. The attacking has been refined as well. It originally made the player move forward when attacking only when he/she was previously running. Now, the player will continue to move forward whenever attacking. This feature was made to help chase down targets such as MacTusk; it's more reliable now.

Other plans have come up while I've been working. I have a set idea to how I will change up the Tree Guard's combat, but more info on that will be released when I do implement it. It's strange to think how close I am to completing the mod. I won't rush to the finish, but I'll still keep close to the mod.

Log # 6

So where have I been? Well, I've been off in Don't Starve's past. Me and my bots have been exploring the oceans of Shipwrecked while stopping here and there to challenge the Gorge. I wanted to explore something new since I've already gone through all of the Waterlogged update.

During our adventures, I've been sneaking in some time for work here and there. I fine tuned the Tree Guard's base attack, and its new slam attack is coming soon. The main thing to note is how I am now keeping track of my progress. I would find myself looping through checking on everything on the mod which puts a strain in time and my overall motivation. To combat this, I started working according to the new artwork layout. Most of them consist of three panels that would describe the stats of a specific class/weapon. They turned out to be pretty inspired by the Team Fortress 2 weapon stat layout which helps keep everything clean. The panels also take up the full page to maximize space usage instead of having only half the page used. This would make stats easier to read while also using less preview images.

Character drawings were half of the preview images' value, literally, but I am cutting them down. They're not here to show off my drawing and photoshop abilities; they're here to help demonstrate something. They will most likely make an appearance on the page that talks about character specific aspects, but not in full figure. They will also be new drawings to keep things more interesting and clean.

Content-wise, the reimagined version is just about done. Artwork-wise, it is only beginning as it is all being reworked. This new layout has been helping me keep track of everything, and hopefully, I can push out the final version soon. It's about time that I make everything clean and neat.