The final part of the update I was halfway through is now finished, with internal NPC, gender, and species stuff hopefully now finished. Some of it isn't just boring internal stuff though - most notably the species editor has had a slight overhaul to allow for old things like editing your base stats, as well as new things like being able to import and export them too!

While I have tested a decent amount, I'm bound to have missed some minor things given the edits needed for this update spanned most passages in the game, so please report any errors or typos you might see (I expect there to be a few).

Changelog

Fixes and Edits

• Species stuff - Unsurprisingly for a species-focused update, there's enough related updates that it needs a whole section.
  • New species - Finished implementing species for every sort of creature that's featured in the game that was previously missing them. This means there are now ducks, chickens, parrots, wyverns, jaguars, weasels, shrews, gophers, bees, wasps, ants, hydras, snakes, lizards, anacondas, elephants, meerkats, and manticores available as options.
  • Stat editing - Species base stats can now be edited during character creation, just like they could be in the original game.
  • Import / Export - Custom species can be saved / loaded in the editor via codes, meaning it's now easy to save or share your own custom species (which kinda makes all the effort I made into internally supporting species mods a bit moot...). While the option to save is available during the cabal species editor, using it there is less than ideal because you can't edit the base stats there.
  • Cabal fixes - Fixed the cabal species editor undoing your customisations and having "undefined" errors.
  • New species properties - Added several new properties to species so they will work with the new internal changes. The ones most players will be familiar with are the "adjective" and "plural" properties, as they'll appear in the species editor.
  • Species modding support - A few internal changes have made it easier to create species mods - both ones that alter the core species, or add new ones on top.
• Mod menus - Added a section during the introduction for configuring mods and mod settings before the game starts, and a new dedicated options menu (found in Options) for configuring mods during gameplay.
• Automatic mod patching - Now mods will automatically run their required patches whenever a save from an old version is loaded - no need to have to manually run them from the menu any more! I'm not actually sure whether or not it triggers on loading an autosave or not, though - documentation isn't great on that, and it's awkward to test. There's also a notification to let you know it's happened, but I'm not sure how often that's going to be used as I changed my mind on how these updates should be implemented...
• More gender options - Added a couple more gender options to character creation that were kinda already in the game. They feel a bit iffy, but since the gender editor exists I'm fine leaving it there for players to fix up to their liking :P
• Cabal fixes - In addition to fixing the cabal species editor undoing customisations, I've also removed the stat changes that happen when changing your stats when using the service - I'm unsure if it was intended / a relic of something older, as other height changing effects in the game don't do it.
• Misc other fixes - It's been a while since I started on this update and I didn't keep a full log, so there's a few base game fixes I've made but forgotten about.

Pokemod

Made Pokemod Core and Pokemod Plus. They feel more like proof-of-concept example mods, but maybe some people will enjoy them.

Pokemod adds pokemon species to the game. It comes in two forms - core and plus. Core replaces all the base game species and enemies with their closest pokemon equivalents, while plus just adds popular pokemon species. These changes are only reskins, and don't have an impact on gameplay.

What's next?

Assuming I'm not too burnt out, I should be moving on to actual content soon. Or at least, I would be if I didn't have to internally change up how spells work first... I'll soon be delving in to areas where I have to do writing, which is by far my least favourite, most time consuming, and least confident part of making content for FTAG, so wish me luck so I hopefully manage to persevere!