man even sonnet 4.5 is honestly pretty good, we've used it for a bunch of stuff. we have got to try opus at some point.

so that's where we're at with the xpac! We may have one final release patch for 2025 but things are uncertain. If not now, then early 2026. It should keep everyone nice and toasty.

so far, memory leaks are fixed, stability issues are fixed, and next is working on whittling down the first round of compiler warnings. 38 down, 182 to go.

then it's time to turn off warning suppression and do the rest of them.

fortunately coding assistants make this a lot easier; even a wizard at C/C++ would struggle with performing a refactor of this kind and scale by hand with no help. that's one thing about dozens of coders across some thirty-odd years!

this not only fucks with every day performance and stability (and boy does it) but is also a restriction on the amount and types of building or class design we can do. fixing this requires refactoring basically the entire codebase. so that's what we're doing.

all my game design ideas are "wouldn't it be cool if you put in a load of extra effort for a relatively small but very cool payoff"

Jennae is a Ramc original I dug out of the NeoNendor block, though I've redesigned and reoutfitted her significantly. We needed more Harrudim and more women in Arisuth.

Nyuri is another new character for Arisuth. He has not been introduced yet. Maybe soon.

Ruripar is my creation: the elder brother of Feolne, he is a master summoner highly positioned in house Ilaephos, a former student of Eshrin Linphori, and perhaps the most Divorced Man that Daphoa has ever produced. He's a branded Barkjan, because I want to make Arisuth a Barkja joint.

My ambitions for Arisuth ballooned about as I expected, so I did some pretty major area shuffling for this. Once some things are further along, Alil will return to working on the Ruripar and Jennae encounters too. Ruripar will be replacing the Heart, while Jennae replaces the Voice.

What do you think might help with that? Written recaps, spaces to chat and riff with other players, scenes for catching up and going over plot beats? I'm always looking for ways to support more kinds of folks participating in stories.

We know the Arhakhla conquered it, but Rveyelhi and some part of an early predeific cult actually ruled there for some period that might extend past the end of the war. Rveyelhi was also a PC in play millennia later so that complicates things. I've got an idea for how to square this though.

Things get a little weird in the timeline around the War of Night in general and VB is no exception. We know it was occupied at the end of the war and that it became independent post-war because the Republic was collapsing.