Progress 20.12.2024

Hello all!

So... what's up? Builds are being done tomorrow. I have a few things I need to check and merge, which I mostly do today, so can deal with random issues that might crop up tomorrow in peace. Mostly.

And writing of update 34 is going well, I'll finish it off by Monday as usual.

Then... it is the time for my annual day off as usual. I will most likely start rendering the update 0.31.0 on Monday, but I'll take a day or two off, so the next update might be a day or so later than usual. Maybe. Update 31 is one of the longest one's text wise since there are a couple of variants in it. Although... I do regret creating a couple of characters although different reasons, but it will be alright somehow or the other. So not looking forward to the epilogue, though might surpass TRS2 in that regard...

So pretty pictures time or something of that kind. Amusingly enough, this isn't what I would have wanted to render, but what I would have wanted to render would have been a huge spoiler. This at concept stage was called "The Herald" but I never decided herald of what exactly. In a sense, ToaM has been one of my larger projects I've ever done background material wise, partially due to the whole visual aspect. When you write, you never really have to think what people looks like as is, you might give vague description in the first story of the series, even if that. But with the visual aspect tends to throw a curve ball into it. Take the gods for example, in writing they would just be a name, maybe a mention that X is god of Y at some point, but that's it. Maybe a glossary at the end of the book, now there is all those images and needing to think what each one of them look like, and their heralds and champions and so on. Interesting things...

 

And then... Ayaka. So yeah, I'll got back do some writing. Have a great weekend you all, and I'll see you all on Monday.

Progress 16.12.2024

Hello all!

It's Monday... And progress post. Rendering: I have one largeish scene and one small conditional scene left. I'm slightly uncertain of the last one, but... eh. I'll see how it plays out when testing. So yeah, things are going as planned.

And as for writing? It's on schedule, more or less. I do have a couple of issues with how things are going, my biggest concern is the download size. Which I've probably said before. But that's why the update only files do exist. Other concerns are more easily manageable, it just requires few text alterations on text that no-one but myself has seen so far. Ah well, I knew this was going to be closer to 50 updates than the usual 40ish. Have to see how it goes. Regardless, I'm happy with how writing is going at the moment.

So... this is final preview from this update. Chatting with Mal. There aren't that many scenes in this update, but they are long. I altered one of the scenes so everyone can see it, but... the consequences of the choices made will stay the same as before, just going to be worded slightly differently come basically the epilogue since it is one of those "fate" things.

And then we have Satya. Right... back to do some stuff.

Progress 13.12.2024

Hello all!

Slightly chilly Friday, not bad at all. So what's up? Rendering is going alright, I'm technically a day ahead for what I want to be since I was supposed to start this scene tomorrow. And hopefully there isn't any major issues with the remaining scenes.

And as for writing... it's going decently. A bit continuation of 33. I tried to fight a scene because I didn't think the character was ready for it, her "story" moment was supposed to mostly be in the next segment. Wasn't getting anywhere by trying to steer so it would go as plan, then I just let if flow. The scene works and then the follow up makes sense, a few things I need to edit with it but over all that's good. It is kind of amusing though, since I write ahead I have the advantage of knowing how things unfold, which allows me then to tweak back and forth of the material that is published. But at times, at rendering time I notice that event (and variable) that I thought would be a major decision point doesn't work anymore like I originally planned and wrote, this causes ripples, now to achieve that original plan I need to write something more later date about it, or write the events slightly differently... not sure yet, but I made notes of things. And then some renders.

A bit more with the blue lady, we had Rhea discussing things previously, this time more with her. Not really much to say about the scene as is, it's bit probing from both sides to see what the other is made off.

And then just something for fun sort of, turned out much better than I expected. I don't use bloom too often, it can make the render pop but it also can make a mess of things if there a lot of light sources in the scene. I might turn this into a painting for Sorcerer 2... maybe. If I remember it then. I did test the character in it, I was, almost pleasantly surprised by it. Need to make a few more tests though.

And then to end in cheerful note... Have a great weekend you all!

Progress 09.12.2024 and Changelog for ToaM 0.29.0

Hello all!

So shocking, double feature of progress and changelog again. So what's up? Release will start soonish nothing more to that really.

Then rendering of update 0.30.0 has started. Amusingly, it is shortest update text wise that is in a while, 0.29.0 is 24 pages, and 0.30.0 is just 21 pages. That was unintentional but convenient considering the time of the year. I won't say when the 0.30.0 comes out exactly, but there are plans for things. Hopefully they pan out. Also of note, there are three graphical "issues" that I know of. One of them is fixed (floating keys) but I forgot to copy the file to the "uncompressed" version. I'll put the rpa up when I remember with a few other image rpas. The two others, one is a hair issue that I can't do much about except remaking the hair in question by hand, not an ideal solution. One of those things I'm not sure I can fix. And a third causes skin distortion on a character this can't be avoided since it is from a light source in the scene and it has happened before, the second part of it is a kind of unintended issue related to daz that I might be able to use to my advantage later date. The reason for the third issue is the crystal on the desk. So there is no avoiding it as is, except moving the crystal to somewhere else, but a bit too late for that.

Writing, I've moved on to 0.34.0 as one would expected, the 0.33.0 took an interesting turn that I didn't expect. And now you ask, wait, what? How is that possible? I have overall plan yes, but when I write it can follow the plan or diverge from it greatly because of the characters involved. Then just thing B makes more sense than thing A. In this case it is more of a thing D making sense than anything before. But that being said, the deviation actually works well, unexpected but needed at that point.

An actual preview! This is from 0.30.0 since it is relatively safe render. It's just Ayaka delivering some sort of scroll... Frankly it probably leaves more questions open than it answers. But rest assured there is a plan for things... Which kind of ties to couple of choices already made. And yes, that's the crystal I was talking about earlier.

And Maevra joining the holiday cheer. Well that's it for the progress part, now the changelog and release schedule...

Changelog: ToaM 0.29.0

•     298 renders

•     Implemented the next part of the story

•     1 hidden image

•     A bunch of fixes to things.

Special thanks to for finding stuff that needed fixing: Adry, Shaddy, BryonSmothers3DX, Bread, Oaiki, OBE, Draco, DocWhoJ, Horny Frog, DavidCF, Orion, Anon1234, Doovel, dogswithguns.

Release schedule:

•  $15 Tier: As soon as the post has had its final touches and links been verified.

•  $10 Tier: 11th of December

• $5 Tier: 12th of December

• $3 Tier: 13th of December

• Public: 23rd of December

Checksums:

• ToaM-0.29.0-mac-C.zip
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• ToaM-0.29.0-mac.zip
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• ToaM-0.29.0-pc-C.zip
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• ToaM-0.29.0-pc.zip
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• ToaM-0.29.0-Update-C.zip
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• ToaM-0.29.0-Update.zip
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• com.talothral.toam-release.apk
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• com.talothral.toam-release.apk (WT)
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Public Release: Tribulations of a Mage 0.28.0

Tested and played through it a few times, and all the saves worked. But that doesn't mean things didn't slip by. So, as always, if there are any issues, please report them on Discord if possible. That way, I notice them quicker.

https://discord.gg/GJK5kfKypg

Completely optional grammar patch, with a couple fixes to codex.
01598BC9B5042BEF5DA599685930123EAF633CC38AC0D58EA4CFD07BAE674B0E
https://mega.nz/file/fjBjxbhL#RXV5qxn2Ueqdr4fm_O_Tc9okBl6vZf4gmJCWqeQwUFM
https://gofile.io/d/gAvs6I

just extract it to the /game folder and let it overwrite the scripts.rpa

PC
EFBB6C511D5169105A44C446F56C5A5835FEBAF10E8FCE0C3DAD6EFB1CB950BA
https://mega.nz/file/juRHTTqT#XrFW_sHlLZqPpYQNmoQHxQfeto84yLq7joUboXXP3YU
https://gofile.io/d/Us3Sda

PC Compressed
6BA020322AB77E2475AD5216B3B595C5D44E7BE37F4EC704AF7216E57CD5186C
https://mega.nz/file/D2IGSIhZ#HJAhi8MFLu5k_4DDqdA15Szb7AXGOnGSmHndfs9DiSA
https://gofile.io/d/mLUHwg

MAC
0181B8F7BB5AE1A5CD75109E44363E2E8B3DB268B030CF86776D35942B03D32F
https://mega.nz/file/bjwUgSLQ#nrAHSY2SMHhZICuMvsfaM1UkJLIF7W3TNYp6CUeGLFs
https://gofile.io/d/k2RRlD

MAC Compressed
DA0ECE4EE80F88C6AA2C74210B0363AB501D9AE07BDB0C735FB5B7B46CC68DD8
https://mega.nz/file/froFnTBZ#RQNZ2UhQzAhavwqZDR5q1WgD-rPfijLObvggDarXnj4
https://gofile.io/d/ul0dVS

Update only
A389C54DD7737BDBB41640E26587F37FFB66137D361D9C881360A8D0715C6BB4
https://mega.nz/file/6ihmmQRI#rRGa9Y9YLYN7QM149fPFN8F7ZMrzwMNOJ9p04fVJ6Is
https://gofile.io/d/0mRbVL

Update only compressed
D669C1386F8390D12E90A368ACFA81B986B28B1B6EE7EF7B750F97D1E9A95707
https://mega.nz/file/D750SQxD#miiEd03Zj_77YX_LvjTQM1c7qxuSs1AjmSgBeM6TLBY
https://gofile.io/d/5CtEpI

Android
6D593DDAED14AF98F3CFE7ADF81495BABD4F80D5A5EFC1332874E8E7C89F703E
https://mega.nz/file/TrozBT5a#F11-GSEBaXwKcn1x1GO3JGs2yJu0-FyetJCD3iQmJHw
https://gofile.io/d/n9yyJb

Android WT
2C3716370203DE51E9BBCFEBAAE022C2F96E545E7E945C5E8B579923F51289C0
https://mega.nz/file/OzplQLYI#1Pj42Q90aK1rHEO9oMlV8PbLbI7RZd2VUfB7KqjYB1M
https://gofile.io/d/rTJeZTg

Progress 06.12.2024

Hello all!

Friday! So as usual the update has been rendered... I admit, half of the time I wonder why I'm doing the progress posts so often, but then I remember that I update fast, and I want to be as transparent as possible with how things are going. And that alone requires frequent updates. That and can show pretty pictures. Anyway, so...

So the actual update? Rendering is done, except for the hidden render, but that needs a character built, I'm doing the final coding bits so I can hand it to testing soon. The power outage messed up things way more than I anticipated. And few other things throwing curveballs in the mix. Ah well. Might get uploaded day or two later than I would want, but happens, shouldn't affect .30 too much.

Writing is in an okay state, and should be done by Monday. And as usual avoiding spoilers so, well kind of.

Some of you probably wonder about the "last blessing" from the orc gods. I haven't forgotten it, just that there hasn't been suitable opportunities to show if he gains it or not. Technically speaking there is a scenario where it might no be received but that's to be seen then when the opportunity is there.

And then continuing the Christmassy renders... The Seeker. Honestly she and the empress are amusing to render (and emperor). If I would want there probably wouldn't be much more to see than tails. Still, I better get back to work. Mostly the hidden render at this moment to do rest is mostly done just waiting the first run. Anyway, have a great weekend you all! And I'll see you all on Monday...

Progress 02.12.2024

Hello all!

Monday... Yay...

Rendering... I'm a bit behind of things, partially because the electric company decided to cut the power for unannounced maintenance work. Annoying, but overall it is in okay shape. Might take couple hours longer to get where I want to be. But that being said, one and half scenes left to render. Not that it matters much as is since renders take the time they take, but it gives and estimate of how things are.

Writing in other hand, thanks to the pause in rendering, is in good shape since got to write a bit more. So I'm happy with it mostly.

And then we have a small chat with Riya. I realized that this update might be rather short for some people, Riya stuff can be missed. The Gladeling things can be missed if you didn't invite them to the village, or got the others killed. The gladeling decisions while helps the progress, are separate from the love interest choices. Just in case someone was wondering.

And then it is time for... these. I don't do holiday specials, they rarely make sense. And I kind of like doing these renders, they are simple to do, and just some light fun over all. Anyway, time to do more stuff...