Okay, this one is a doozy, so STRAP IN.

Removed:

Heracles Quests!

I was becoming frustrated with the quest mod not allowing certain perameters for quest completion, as well as the bugs with rewards and quest unlock notifications being given multiple times, often breaking both the feel and the gameplay balance of the pack, so I GOT RID OF IT

It has been replaced with a fully custom patchouli book. There are pros and cons to this change, but I think that it is going to be massively worth it going forward. Easily the biggest draw back is that I am having to manually create all of the quests both mechanically in the backend of things, AND graphically in the patchouli book. This is MORE than doubling the time needed to make each quest, but it provides a much more intuitive and immersive feel, which is ultimately what I care most about.

Put simply, this means there will likely be far less quests realeased with each new update, and in total with the whole pack. HOWEVER. I have MUCH more control over when, what, and how rewards are granted. Plus, I can do fun graphical things like adding quest trackers to show your progress towards completing certain goals to display right on the player hud. I am looking for feedback about the feel of the new quest book, and would absolutely love to hear any and all ideas about new quests and features to add to the book and modpack in the discord! (link on the info page to the right!)

Since I have so much more control over the game with this book and my custom datapack, don't be afraid to dream big! There is a lot more that I CAN do with this system than I CAN'T, so don't hold back!

Macaw's lights and lamps

As much as it hurts me to take this one out, since I love all of macaw's stuff and the lamp designs are awesome. I have to, just because the lanterns from this mod ignore the hardcore torches fuel system and that is very bad for game balance. ;-;

Balance changes!

This is another part I am very excited about! I have found a way to take more control of the zombie hordes which appear periodically. In the past, I could control what types of mobs were allowed to spawn and their frequency, but I couldn't limit different mobs to different difficulties. I have since found a way within the mod to actually do exactly that! Lower difficulties will now feature more reserved zombie waves with no elites or special zombie types whatsoever. As the difficulty increases, you will begin to see more and more, as well as stronger and stronger zombies. I've gone for a more quality vs quantity approach this time, instead of trying to force a massive amount of zombies to overwhelm the more... inspired base designs. I can instead just add different mob types to counter specific strategies! The very late game should be more challenging but less unfair as there are far less enemies to play around. ALSO. The new quest system now properly rewards XP to the player so that they are granted LevelUP XP, so more points can be put into your attributes and hopefully help with some of that early strength gap between the encroaching hordes and the players' lack of equipment.

What's next??

The biggest things I am looking to work on going forward are improving overall performance of the pack, quests, and lore. I would like to see less impact on the hardware and focus more on pushing the SOFTWARE to its limits instead of making everyone's PC case fans spin up like a jet engine. Also, at the very least, I want to get all of the quests ported over from Heracles to Patchouli quests. Once I get done with those two things, I think I will pivot a bit to making some lore! My wife has been getting involved in some of the development process and has taken to writing a whole character backstory that I am VERY excited to bring to the pack in new and interesting ways! I can't wait to uncover the STORY of this strange world that I've created and talk about some of the interesting powers at work behind the scenes of Horror: Perfected!

Thanks so much to everyone who has tested and played the modpack so far, and please enjoy the newest patch!