and I'm beginning to reconsider whether the mod's dead, too.
First of all, I'm finally through my interminable job hunt and associated funk. I've found a new job -- in Boston, with a very well-established and reputable software company -- and start work Monday; but prior to this, I just wasn't able to make myself post again on these boards and "face the music" for having been gone so long. And the mod concept and setting have really changed, too -- as has M&B. Within a few days I'm going to have access again to a computer that can run it (the inability to run the game was one of the reasons I kind of disappeared), and I look forward to seeing how it's changed -- I started playing in .622, I was last able to play the first version that incorporated
Battle for Sicily aspects, and it looks like things have changed enormously since then.
It also looks like most of what little I'd implemented with ASLOW is now unnecessary, and is done better within the game itself -- which suits me just fine, as I've fleshed out Honseli civilization much more thoroughly than it was when I started work on the mod, and one of the consequences of this fleshing out is that the mod's setting is invalidated -- it couldn't have happened in the way I was depicting it. Which is just as well; I was having all sorts of trouble figuring out how to make the story go anywhere -- having started from Fire Emblem 4 didn't help either.
(A good game, but not remotely related to what I wanted to create. And at least for me, not having a clear idea what I'm working towards makes it a lot harder to work...)
So I want to start over, and do it right this time. But one of the parts of that is that I no longer dare to try to do it all myself -- trying to work on ASLOW in my spare time was a good part of what burned me out on my previous job (though working 60-70 hour weeks, every week, with no hope of comp time and little hope of an end to such weeks didn't help either
), so this time, I want to be a designer-manager and scriptwriter, rather than a one-man band. (So I'll greatly appreciate offers from anyone who's interested. I'll probably want to teach myself art -- to be able to do concepts -- before seeking graphics help; but mechanics and script should come first. Note: most of the costume notes from earlier should still stand; I'll need to review them.)
I also want to draw up a full design document,
before I write, or get anyone else to write, the project's first line of code. One part of this will be to work out stages of development, so that I'll know what to focus efforts on after getting to the equivalent of where I got stuck in my first attempt. Another part of it will be figuring out what, and how much, of the game as we have it will be usable here, and what won't; with how sophisticated the game has become, this new project could well turn out to be not "a new game with the same graphics engine" (as I originally envisioned ASLOW, back in .730 days), but "a couple of tweaks and a new script."
But I'm not sure that this is where I want to direct my efforts. I'm debating writing a novel set (very much) elsewhere in the Honseli "world" -- which would be a relatively more certain project than creating a game. And whatever I decide on, I'm going to be incommunicado for a couple of days, then starting a new job with all the challenges that that entails.
So, I won't be able to respond to responses to this posting for a few days at least (though I'll appreciate responses, and I will be sure to reply to them) -- and, I really shouldn't have posted this message this late at night anyways
, and I haven't read over the activity on this board since I most recently disappeared. But I'll see where this might go; I regret leaving everyone in the lurch so long -- and I look forward to seeing what's changed with Mount&Blade.
(All too much of this comes down to an unexpectedly long job hunt. I expected to find a new job in two or three months -- not in more than half a year...)
