Venerable Knights of the Valley! We can only hope 2023 will bring peace, health and an end to permanent crisis mode. There's one thing it will bring for sure though: this game, on players' systems. A few minutes before mixing with the crowd to celebrate the new year at midnight I was still drafting release notes. Sure, the first Alpha release will go to a small number of testers, but wow - release notes. Here's what's new: [olist] [*] [u]Quests![/u] In one of the earlier updates I mentioned that the first release will not include quests. This statement no longer holds true. Recently though I decided it would be good to have at least something like a tutorial quest. Since even a simple quest will require code support to create and handle quests, this code support has now been implemented and it also works for elaborate quests with many characters involved, subgoals, and different endings. The system relies heavily on the Generic Requirements outlined in the previous update; having developed those now really pays off. [*] [u]Conversations[/u] An important part of quest are complex conversations with other characters. Consequently, I started working on a system to support those as well, and it became more than just something you can use to communicate with other characters... NPCs also use it talk to each other. Conversations can be impactful. Your choice of reply, or your choice of words for a reply could make a lasting difference to your adventure. While the primary driver for working on conversations right now had been quests, conversations work at any time in the game now, unrelated to quests. You will be able to chat with NPCs about topics that are dynamically determined based on your personal relationship with them, the NPC's role, faction memberships, your status in the world (like your reputation), recent events, and ongoing or past quests. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40033947/f62b99627f74584d4f19988b74c7d4b737f3d706.jpg[/img] [*] [u]Cinematic Map Mode[/u] Prerendered 3D cutscenes have been a part of [i]Knights of Frontier Valley [/i] for some time. What's new is a mode where cutscenes can play out directly on the map, in a "cinematic mode" where you can just sit back and enjoy the show. So far this mode is only being used in quests, but there are more places where it might show up. [/olist] With the addition of quests, the upcoming Early Access release has changed from being a pure sandbox experience to being partially story-based. In the final release, the story will not be fixed though. The goal has always been to develop a replayable game, and you will embark on a different adventure every time you start over, discovering new things during each playthrough... especially since I am planning to keep adding new content for as long as players keep asking for it. Until soon, Martin