Right. So, first off, sorry for keeping everyone waiting forever and a day just to get a little news!
The most important bit of info is this: I'm leaving my job, and the country I'm in. That means I've been busy as hell trying to get everything taken care of here. I'll be back in the states by the 11th of August and home in Texas by the 20th. I'll also be unemployed, and pretty much homeless, unless you count freeloading off my parents till I get my own place. That also means my internet access is going to be pretty thin in the meantime, to say nothing about free time. I will continue to work on Arena, however, even if it's just writing things down with pen and paper to be translated into code later.
As for the game itself, work is ongoing, as ever. If any of you played and enjoyed the Original Arena, I highly suggest you swing by the TFGamesSite.com forums and find Bimbo Mall Battle, by Narse. It's based on Arena...kind of. Started out that way, anyhow, but it's been pretty much completely rewritten by now, and in my own opinion: vastly improved. It's also given me tons of ideas and I'm still trying to decide how to implement them, and in what order. For you guys, the most significant thing would probably be my realization that the average of 10 steps in any particular stat was far too limiting, and that there is a lot to be said for percentages! And cursed items. And a more expansive environment, no pun intended. So, I'm working on vastly overhauling the stat and description portions, and want to completely redo the map itself. I like the mall, and it is probably going to stick around in some form or another, but I want to make a much larger, more interesting world for people to explore. That also means that the simple 'lock them in a room with a bunch of horny magic users and let them duke it out' isn't going to work as well. Having some 12 or 13 NPCs out for your gender-bent virginity seems a little less tense and dramatic when the map goes from maybe two dozen rooms to around a hundred, eh? But fear not! I has plans!
I've also been playing the flash games by Fenoxo and Xadera (both are on Fur Affinity, if you are interested), and I very much like having the environment out to get the player, too. Not 'OMG, Random encounter!!' so much as creatures and things and places that exist independently of the player and the players actions, but will waste no time doing nifty things should you stumble across them. I've also been working to address ideas submitted for the original Arena that never got used. One of them is an event of some sort that has the NPCs pretty much dropping whatever they are doing and come looking for YOU, exclusively. There are a number of ways this could be triggered. I'm also all about not all the NPCs being out to getcha. Some are neutral, or ever helpful, which should be a boon indeed with a much larger world to run around in.
One of the things I'm plotting are more items and equipment the player or others can wear to give them certain benefits, or purely for cosmetic effect...but which might have a little interactivity to them that may not even be obvious at first. Not until someone flips that little switch on the back of your collar and and find yourself muted, unable to cast any spells...or giggling when they discover that the vibrating chastity belt that was forced on you is sound-activated. Clap on! Clap off, clap on, clap on! Ahem. Yeah, so just a few things in the works.
The outline I posted on its own page for what I had in mind needs rewriting, but I've been too busy to sit down and do it. Just be advised that it's out of date by now, and will only grow more so as further inspiration strikes.
