A new engine!

[CraigStern]

-- characters are now generated with a particular description of their laugh that can appear in their dialogue.

-- characters are now generated with one particular term that they'll consistently use when addressing the player (right now: "sir," "commander," or "boss") based on their dominant personality trait.

-- character portraits are now displayed during their non-Talk nighttime activities.

-- the game now selects from among a pool of proper narrative descriptions of non-Talk nighttime activities.

[CraigStern]

Fixed a number of bugs and other issues with how the activity system was working.

-- spirits now get the activity Mumble, in which they simply repeat their names to themselves all evening.

[CraigStern]

Spent the past couple of days fixing bugs. (It's not sexy, but hey: it's important not to just leave every bug for fixing until the end!)

Also:

-- came up with a calendar system (the game world features a 10-month calendar, with each month 36 days in length)
-- the game now tracks how many days have passed in your campaign and can display the current date to the player
-- the dialogue parser now recognizes the special character -NL- as a new line, and will respond accordingly

[CraigStern]

-- lissit characters can now address the player in lissit ("Hsun").

-- character relationship dialogue requirements have been shifted so that any two characters will only be in the requisite "familiarity" zone for one triggered dialogue at a time.

-- started programming the procedure for generating characters with a selection of default nicknames other characters can pick for them.

[CraigStern]

-- completed listing default nicknames for each human and lissit first name in the game, and got about halfway through the shadowling ones.

[CraigStern]

-- completed listing default nicknames for each shadowling name in the game, and got through a portion of the spriggat ones.

[CraigStern]

-- completed default spriggat nicknames.

-- all characters are now successfully generated along with their potential default nicknames for other characters to use (except golems, who don't get nicknames)

[CraigStern]

Lots of time spent giving artist feedback these past few days, but we're making good progress on 3D assets and unique character portraits.

-- certain last names (and portions of last names) can now bestow additional nickname options. (A character with the last name "Swift," for example, may end up being nicknamed "Swifty" by other characters.)

-- nighttime character dialogue now only increases familiarity for the speaker so that the other character remains within the necessary familiarity levels to deliver their own dialogue to the speaker on a future night. When those characters talk next, the game now automatically swaps whoever has the lower familiarity score into the speaker spot.

-- fixed some bugs in the activity narration selection algorithm, as well as a palette issue in a couple of portrait pieces.

[CraigStern]

-- lines of generated dialogue can now have specific facial expressions that the speaker will adopt while saying them. (I've also added this as a new parameter for AddSpeakerPortrait, whose parameters are now: (1) facing, (2) facial expression, and (3) force portrait name. Accepted strings for facial expression parameter include: Angry, Blank, Concerned, Confused, Excited, Focused, Happy, Irritated, Kind, Mean, Nervous, Pained, Sad, Tired, and Wink)

-- characters who get along can now pair up to Clean or Practice together at night, with the probability of a character attempting to pair up with another character impacted by a character's introversion or extraversion. (Characters will only choose other characters they're at least a little bit friendly with for such a pair-up.)

-- made it so only one character can choose to perform the activity Clean each night, though they may find a partner to help based on the factors above. (Compulsive characters are now moved to the front of the activity-choosing queue so they have a chance to choose Clean before this limitation comes into play).

-- wrote a method that analyzes character portrait data to generate a number ("genes") that determines whom the character may potentially be attracted to among their preferred species/gender. (For humans, nose type is determinative; for lissit, snout type; for spriggats, horn type; for shadowlings, plume type.) Thus, even if two characters have the right species and genders compatible with one anothers' gender preferences, they might still not find one another attractive based on intangible genetic factors. Quasi-pheromones, if you will.

-- wrote a second method to check for romantic compatibility between characters based on the above-mentioned factors.

[CraigStern]

-- wrote some new lines for characters to potentially be generated with

-- characters are now generated with a friendship threshold (dependent on their personality characteristics) that determines how soon during a developing friendship they'll give another character a nickname

[CraigStern]

I've been spending the bulk of my time these past few days giving artist feedback. (We are making a lot of unique character portraits right now.)

-- after reaching their nickname threshold with someone, a character will now actually assign the other character a nickname (and will have some dialogue about it!) the next time they choose them for a Talk action.

-- fixed some bugs with Spirit nighttime dialogue and the nighttime Joke activity (performed by jokester characters).

-- wrote new dialogue.

[CraigStern]

Submitted the game to a public playtest event happening in mid-November! I'll need to see if I can get the various systems to interact within a meaningful gameplay loop in time for this.

As part of the submission process, I took an initial stab at a succinct description of what this game is about: A tactical RPG friendship simulator. Recruit a team of characters, each one procedurally generated with their own distinct personality and dialogue; then guide them to victory through a series of turn-based battles as they grow to know, trust, and hopefully even like one another! This may change over time, but I think it's a fairly good first attempt.

-- made it so characters can gain camp activities from their "likes."

-- wrote text for a bunch more nighttime activities (drinking beer, lifting weights, playing cards, playing dice, reading a book, reading a philosophical treatise, stargazing, going for a stroll...) including two-character variations for certain activities where the character can invite a friend to join them.

[CraigStern]

-- wrote text for more nighttime activities (creating art, hunting, repairing equipment, teaching history, treating wounds...) including two-character variations for certain activities where the character can invite a friend to join them.

[CraigStern]

-- I have now written at least 1-2 text variations for every nighttime activity in the game (and in some cases, far more).

[CraigStern]

More artist feedback, more progress on unique character portraits.

-- began coding the method for determining which skills characters can teach to other characters whom they like and trust.