Overhauling 'The Kingdom of Vostora'

My last attempt at The Kingdom of Vostora came to a pretty abrupt halt as the middle to end points of the scenario gave me continuous problems.  I'm not sure why, exactly, but sometimes a story just simply doesn't work.  It may have been my frame of mind at the time, or perhaps it was the way the story and characters had been set up.  I had too much focus on certain key elements of the story, without enough focus on the larger objective the story was trying to reach.  As is my way, I took some time on some other creative endeavors to let that idea sit and rest for a while.

I'm not sure how, but at some point over the past couple of weeks a number of changes had popped into my head that seem to solve a lot of the key issues I had with the game's general scenario.  I've thought it over, and the few problems that linger I'm confident I can solve with some rather simple techniques.    I'm currently in the process of writing the story out to see if it fits the way I expect it to.

With the story changes in mind come a number of game system changes as well; and I think they'll work out for the better.  The current system in mind includes a simple class advancement system at certain key parts of the story to allow for a degree of customization and replayability that shouldn't adversely affect the complexity of the battle system any.  Likewise, my goal for the usage of statistics has simplified, which also makes it seem much less daunting.  Perhaps I was overthinking things this time last year, which would make sense.

Life currently involves balancing a number of things, as one might expect; so I can't really say how long anything will take.  However, the vast majority of the game's plot is in place, with only minor tweaks to make the new story ideas flow into it.  Redesign of the initial areas from the game are well underway, with the town of Grensan and its surrounding areas much more interesting and better laid out than before, I think.  Once they're fleshed out with some detail, I'll post some screenshots.

The current plan is to release the overhauled opening parts of the game, which include the town of Grensan and Grensan forest.  Way back during the release of Llunia, I often had faster release cycles that included a new town and a new dungeon, with story advancement, of course.  I'm seeking to do the same thing here, as it keeps a steady feeling that I'm making progress.

Anyway, I'll be posting some more information probably some time this weekend with some screenshots of the redesigned opening areas.