Already a month into 2022. It doesnt feel like it at all, but regardless its time to give you all an update as usual. This month was a little strained due to my holidays seeping into the first week of January, but a lot has still been done. I dont think Ill go into a ton of detail on whats up for the next patch, but rest assured things are being added and changed. Ive received a lot of feedback this month on certain aspects of the game so theres a good deal of QoL and changes coming. Ive also managed to get 2 more NPCs added, I just have to write their quests, 5 in total and then they will be ready. As for the patch itself, Im hoping it will be out in the next week or two. As mentioned a second ago, there are two NPCs that need quests written. I just outlined them the other night so they wont take long. There is some other stuff Id like to address in this patch that I havent done yet so the timeframe is a bit up in the air, but the patch should be in the near future. Outside of those notes, Ive started to actively divvy up my time a bit, perhaps another reason this patch is taking a bit longer. Ive mentioned before that combat is next on the docket so Im using some of my time to set out everything in that space. At this point its mostly monster design. While Ive had a lot of stuff laid out for some time, monsters were more cliff notes than anything else. I basically knew what kinds I wanted and where to put them, but there were some logistical challenges to figure out. I also had to figure out what their abilities would be. Bosses in particular are what Im mapping out at the moment. Currently Im about half way done figuring out their movesets and laying out a general idea of what each boss is about and how they are meant to challenge the player. There has also of course been some modifying of the combat systems and some streamlining. Looking back combat has changed quite a bit and gone through a few variations. The most recent changes mostly streamline how the player grows stronger and develops. To put things simply it used to be very, very complicated. Lots of different stats, ideas, items, ways to improve, etc. Overdeveloped would probably be an understatement. So that has all been reigned in to a fairly straight forward system. The other thing, which I think Im more excited about, is secrets. Granted Im also excited about combat, and most things in this game. This is something else Ive been talking about for a while as well. The map is obviously large and Id like to fill it up with lots of little challenges, rewards, or really just things to give some level of interaction to the game world. Ive had a chunk of this planned out for a while, but nothing hyper specific, just a nebulous idea with a few rewards I knew I wanted to include. Along with combat Ive started to separate out a portion of time for secrets to be added to the world. Im still devising a number of them, but if you subtract the ones found in dungeons its probably sitting at around 70ish things scattered around the map in various little hidden mechanics, puzzles, riddles, etc. Itll be a ton of work but Im super excited about it. One of things I remember about playing Harvest Moon was wanting to be able to wander around and run into little things in the world to discover and interact with, so Im hoping I can achieve that here. As usual there is still a long way to go. Thanks to everyone for bearing with the bugs and giving feedback, reviews, etc. I appreciate all of it as its all helping to make the game even better. Hopefully, in a week or so here youll have a nice new patch to play with.