cks you designed to be ~exotic~ or whatever, and those rabid jerks at Disney can only grit their teeth now!
Dark Horse Status · 7:13pm Sep 21st, 2017
The good: I'm back. It took two freakin' weeks of sick-leave I frankly don't remember much of, but I'm back.
The bad: I still wouldn't call myself outright well since I still have a frightful cough, and most of the strength I've regained both physically and mentally I've frankly had to use on the day job.
Thus, the ugly: Chapter #9 being done, polished up AND proofread by Monday seems... unlikely. 
8719 words, 24 pages, 70-75%
(Also, a burst of inspiration on two auxiliary documents for later. 565 & 4494 words, with the later especially being important to chapter #11 — The Ugly A-Mare-I-Can't. So not direct) progress, but still progress.
I'm terribly, terrible sorry for this, but I'm simply going to have to move the goal-post, and given the time of the year the most fitting date seems to be Halloween, Harry's birthday.
Once more, thank you all a thousand times over for your patience. It means the world to me how this silly little story still excites people, when all I've had to show for so long is my word on a slowly rising word-count. 
Glad to hear you're doing a bit better. Sorry to hear about the chapter delay. And happy to announce that Outlast and Whistle-blower is free on: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/outlast-deluxe For the next two days.
What better way to enjoy Halloween, than Dresden Fics and Terrifying boogie-men.
Glad you're feeling better!
Two weeks off due to plague, that's got to have been some serious lurgy.
At the least there were a couple of good releases to help keep your mind off of it (X-COM 2:WotC, and Divinity: Original Sin 2 pop to mind), and I hope that the rest of it passes soon.
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Thanks.
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Indeed. Not to TMI, or anything, and I know the words 'a cold' makes it sound... well, kinda weak-sauce, but I was genuinely worried for a bit I was going to crack ribs from the coughing, and other fun stuff.
So... yeah. Quite the ride.
Yeah, I was glad for some really solid distractions while home so long. X-COM 2: WotC especially was quite relaxing on a 'cruise control' difficulty while still letting me do something a bit more mentally stimulating then binge movies.
I'm really impressed with Divinity: OS 2 so far, though. I haven't seen an RPG this detail orientated, crazy and just simply plain unconcerned with fantasy 'normalcy' since the Gothic series, Morrowind, or the sadly forgotten Arcanum.
Just such a simple thing that the lizard people are the proud and snotty high-magic civilization, while the elves are cannibalistic savages that creep everybody out? It's such a simple reversal of expectations, but it makes so many of the tired old fantasy buzz-words all feel fresh again.
Really think this is going to be a trend-setter down the line. If nothing else, the bog-standard fire-balls that only go foosh-boom and similar are going to seem really dull after D: OS 2's let me start the game as an undead immortal thief/transmuter that can talk with animals.
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Oh sure, Make the Yuan Ti the hyper civilized golden-race. And why not just warp the Elves into creepy Darkspawn wannabe's while you prance around as the Undead, Sandal-Esq, Beast Mastering, Purse-Cutting, Mary Stu.
We'll just be back here in our regular scheduled program; Three-layers-deep into a bag of holding, weeping and banging our heads together, while chanting "Disbelieve".
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After playing it for a few days, agreed, the story and the world is amazing.
The game itself, I'm more on the fence about.
It could do with a bit more controlling the player's exploration if that makes any sense, especially once you hit Driftwood. It's way too easy to just wander off the road and accidentaly get exposed to a Cthulhu possessed Scarecrow that was 3 levels higher than my entire party (I was lvl 9, he and his cronies were lvl 12) that was literally 15 ft down a left hand fork when I supossed to turn right. I don't think the game needs to be more linear, just have a warning when you're wandering into something really dangerous, instead of your characters yelling "We need to flee!" after the fight has started. Makes me feel like a right pillock when I shoot someone in the face only to turn around and scarper the moment my Fighter loses all his armour and 75% of his health.
Couple of real standout moments so far, the battle on The Lady Vengeance (which I forgot to screenshot), meeting the Gods when they're strung up from the tree and leaking source (which I forgot to screenshot), and a battle against void possessed blobs of Crude Oil on top of a primative wood and steel oil rig, which I promptly set on fire (I do have a screenshot of the tail end of that battle, and it does, in fact, look like a hellscape).
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Had to tear my eyes away from most of that since I haven't left Fort Joy quite yet, but I agree on that the scouting could have been done slightly better.
There's sneaking, of course, but wouldn't have minded another, faster but resource using system as a compliment to know how close I am to getting my face caved in without quick save/loading from failures.
Still, that's a stable of the old-school RPG genera, so I'm not sure how'd you improve on that without losing that 'wide-open world full of dangers and opportunities' feel.
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The first answer would be lore books, or "warning signs", you know dead bodies, characters mentioning foul scents on the air, great gouges in the earth, signs of real danger, it's how easy it is to wander into death that drags at me. Just take a wrong turn and see four deer in an idyllic clearing, send the guy with Pet Pal to talk with one, before it starts chanting "Ia, ia, Cthulhu fataghn" and I'm facing down Void-Possessed level 14 deer. That and TELEPORTING CROCODILES! WHAT THE FUCK?!?
The second (and more common answer these days) is reactive leveling, where everything levels to your pace. It works for something like Skyrim, but would probably break apart in a game like this.
It just stinks to me of Gygaxian GMing (Tomb of Horros is the most famous), where the players should have known that exploring would lead them to a ignoble and piteous death, far away from home, under foreign stars, alone and unmourned.
I'm not fucking pyschic, and until I hit level 11-12 it felt like the game expected me to be.
Also hold on to the Gloves of Teleportation, if you can find them in the Fort Joy Ghetto (aforementioned Teleporting Crocodiles fight), until you get the skill itself. Amazingly useful.