DD# 173 A Love Story of an Infatuated Bandit, Part 1 news - [Neolithic]To the End

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another week's developer's diary.

This week, the main focus is on a story quest from an ancient time. By ancient, I mean even more ancient than this game from 2004. The story was from Stone Age Online. In that game, there was a bandit known as Genzo, guarding a bridge between Samujier and Hottle. He was a nightmare to many low-level players back then as only by defeating them, they can progress to another area. Even the Stone Age Online has been shut down long ago. He continues to live on in every iteration of our game.

His functionality is the same. He is a bandit (or toll collector, depending on if you believe his self-claim). He guards a bridge that is essential to go to Hottle from Samujier. You will need to either pay him money or defeat him to pass through. Seems just like a normal bandit and cartoonish villain you can see every day, right?

Not so, he has been guarding this bridge for more than 20 years. (Both in the game and in real life as I mentioned above, he has been there even before this game's 2004 launch.) Even if he may sometimes get defeated by players, he always comes back to guard that bridge. What is so important about that bridge? What's his motivation behind this seemingly impossible mission he is carrying out?

Those questions were just as interesting back then as they are right now. The developers of the Stone Age Online didn't leave many useful clues. But, back then, players, myself included, used whatever details we could find and made a theory. Behind everything, there must be a much deeper story. There were even fan-made comic books and novels about this story back then.

For 20 years, even such a beautiful story faded away. Maybe not many people still remember what's this all about. Then, I think it's a good time to retell this story. Maybe it's because if even I do not tell this story again, it will be lost forever. This is also one of the reasons that I have been keeping this ancient game alive for so many years.

Now, I'm trying to avoid spoiling too much in this developer's diary.
So, let's just cover some setups and how this side quest is going to be.
First, Genzo now has a tent near the bridge he is guarding. There you can find a lot of things about his past. However, if Genzo is nearby and he can see you, he will stop you from entering. You have multiple ways to bypass this. There is also a new NPC in Samujier who is a big fan of Genzo, fascinated by Genzo's stubbornness and wishes to hire you to investigate. The funny thing is, if your speech skill is high enough, you can keep asking him to give you a higher reward until you cannot push it further. At the end of the current story, Genzo can be recruited as a teammate. And, we are not going to stop just here. It's another thing we will continue when we reach the Jiru Island. Based on your choices, the story will end differently.

The multiple-ending part is the main difference between this retold version of Genzo's story in our game and the story 20 years ago. 20 years ago, in that original story, Genzo died. Now, you may have a chance to give him a happy ending.

We all have chances to make our lives differently. But, many times, we are stopped for various reasons. But, we shall also consider the price we pay if we do not do.

Maybe, it's still not too late.

But, who is the girl that loves the moonlight flowers?

You will find out in the story.
You can also use her appearance to customize your main character or customized teammates.

May this memory live on. To the end.

Meanwhile, we also have another character's art assets added to the game.

I don't think I need to introduce a Russian mad monk too much.
He will appear in Siberia in that village full of meat cubes and orcs. But, because of the priority issues during this week's development. That part is still currently pending. But, you can also use his appearance to customize your characters.

That's for this week.
"To the world that was. Mankind shall never see its like again." --- <<A Toast>> from Fallout 4
But, maybe I can still tell you some stories about the history I lived through. :)


The full update log of this week:
20240518
English
############Content###############
[Character Customization]Added 1 new playable male character variation.
[Liu]Improved the battle background near the Confucian Temple.


20240519
English
############Content###############
[Genzo's Tent]Genzo now has a tent near the location he is guarding.
[Genzo's Tent]You can only enter the tent if Genzo is not nearby.
[Genzo's Tent]When you come out of the tent, if Genzo is nearby, his relationship with you will reduce.
[Genzo's Tent]Added a new BGM.
[Genzo's Tent]Added a bed, a campfire, and a boombox in the tent.
[Item]New item: Moonlight Flower. (Functionalities to be added soon.)


20240520
English
############Content###############
[Moonlight Flower]Moonlight Flowers can now be used as gift items.
[Moonlight Flower]Moonlight Flowers can now be used for alchemy.
[Shopping]Various alchemy ingredient vendors in Nise now sell Moonlight Flower.
[Gardening]New Seeds: Moonlight Flower Seeds.
[Shopping]Random gardening vendors now sell Moonlight Flower Seeds.
[Hottle]Junk Merchants may now appear in Hottle.

20240521
English
############Content###############
[Genzo's Bridge]Added some moonlight flowers near Genzo.
[Genzo's Tent]Added a locked chest.
[Genzo's Tent]Added a new document <<Genzo's Diary>>, some moonlight flowers and some moonlight flower seeds in the chest.


20240522
English
############Content###############
[Character Customization]Added 1 new playable female character variation.
[Genzo's Tent]Added a photo that you can inspect.


20240523
English
############Content###############
[Genzo's Tent]You can now use a smoke bomb to enter Genzo's tent without being detected even if Genzo is nearby. Thus, it's no longer necessary to directly confront Genzo.
[Samujier]Added a new story-related NPC.
[Genzo]Added a new quest: Genzo. (The first part is done. You can use your persuasion skills to increase the mission rewards repeatedly.)
[Wiki]Added a new page about this quest: Neolithia.fandom.com(Quest)

20240524
English
############Content###############
[Genzo]His story mission continues, at the end of the current story, you can now recruit him as a new teammate.
[Genzo]When you are doing something related to slavery and Genzo is in your group, his relationship value with you will reduce.