Hello, everyone. I know it's been a while since you've heard from me. First, I'd like to thank everyone who has read Alice's story and stuck around until now. I logged on for the first time in years a week ago to reread some of my old favorites, and I was shocked by private messages from people asking about Alice's story and if it would continue. Most of them were from years after this went on hiatus, which was surprising. So, I want to thank those people for their continued interest in Alice's story, and I am sorry for the lack of response.
To make a long story short, life was going poorly for a while, and I dropped out of college. To be blunt, it was all my fault, but on the bright side, dropping out was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I am happy to say everything is going very well; I have good friends, a career I enjoy, and most importantly, a family that cares about me. So, regarding my personal life, I couldn't ask for more.
Regarding Alice the Roaming Dungeon, I've decided to pick it back up. This time, I plan to do things properly. I purchased a Grammarly subscription to mitigate the disaster, that is, my grammar as a stopgap. Luckily, since I have a job that pays me a decent amount, I can afford an actual editor and am looking for one. So, if anyone knows or is one, please let me know so we can come to an arrangement.
With that, thank you all again for reading. I will make major and minor changes to the story, which I have listed below, along with my general thoughts and other plans. Please note these aren't concrete and are subject to change. Thanks again.
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Change List & Updates
Storyboard. I found my old storyboard, or what I thought passed for one back then, and have started editing and rewriting it.
Chapter Rewrites. While I'm taking care of the storyboard mess, I plan on rewriting and editing all of the chapters that are currently out, especially the prologue; after rereading it, it's meh at best. As of this posting, the prologue is the only complete rewrite I have planned.
New UMRD Chapters. In what, in my opinion, is the best, most detailed, and harsh review of Alice the Roaming Dungeon, Maromar expressed his confusion about how the cults established themselves so deeply into the UMRD organizational structure, why the UMRD would be so willing to send trained and valuable personnel on suicide missions as punishment and other plotholes. In some cases, I was purposely vague. I allowed the UMRD's and Walker's actions to seem almost nonsensical with the context on hand with the idea of exploring the reasoning behind their actions later in the story. This is a theme I've been trying to get right since day one since I plan to use it consistently throughout the story. I want things to seem a little off to Alice and, by extension, you all. Sadly, I missed the mark in many cases, with the UMRD being the most egregious example. For the sake of future reveals, I neglected to explore the UMRDs and, by extension, Walker's more base motivations that should have been explored in more detail. I also did a lackluster job of having Alice pick up on the illogical situations she found herself in; in many cases, I neglected to have her do so completely. Given her hyper-awareness and paranoia, doing so will play into her personality nicely while giving me a way to flesh out the world.
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Given the length of this section, you can probably guess my heaviest edits will focus on the UMRD arc. This arc will also be my testing ground for many other changes I will implement, so your feedback and thoughts will be essential here. I'm a very blunt person, so if something sucks, tell me it sucks; please don't mince your words. It's how I operate in my personal and professional life. So let me have it; if you feel uncomfortable doing it in the comments section, PM me. Discord also works, but I don't use it much, so I may take a while to respond.
Chapter Length. I used to shoot for a specific word count for each chapter instead of letting it flow naturally. To meet that goal, I would drag things out longer than needed. So, chapter lengths will vary, but I plan to do more short-form chapters overall.
"The System" Rework. It's reached the point where the numbers don't mean anything, and it was a nightmare to keep track of and edit. This will likely be the most annoying thing to change on my end. I will focus less on it and dumb it down while focusing on the more interesting parts like the skills and, my personal favorite, the Journey System. I plan to keep health, mana, stamina, regens, strength, agility, and intelligence. The other stats will be scrapped. I may also drop the percentage system for Elemental Mastery. This should make the system more manageable and easier to read. I love the LitRPG genre, so I do not want to abandon it, but I will be toning down those elements. The Dungeon System will also be getting a similar treatment. But it will mostly stay the same since this is where I plan to showcase the LitRPG elements the most.
Tone Shift. I want to move away from brutality for brutality's sake. But don't worry, Alice's tendency towards excessive violence isn't going away. I want to tether it to her declining mental health rather than her impulsive nature. This is part of my overall effort to make everything make more sense in the context of the world around Alice. When things purposely don't make sense or seem off, I want them to pop out. I'll play with this in the URMD rewrites, so please share your thoughts there.
POV Changes. Since day one, I've been dealing with my indecisiveness about POV. To address this issue, I have decided to do three versions of the prologue, with the POV I like best being used for the rest of the story. This will mean more work and a delay in the story's relaunch, but it will be worth it in the long term.
Relaunch. I'm debating whether to remove old chapters and repost the edits on the story's original page or create a new page. I'm leaning toward the latter since I want to leave my original work as a reminder of where I started and as a way to measure its progress.
Artwork. I plan to use AI to create art for Alice and other characters. I would still prefer art made by a real person, so if anyone reading is an artist, let me know. I would love to commission some art, especially if it's coming from a fan of Alice.
Editor. I said it once, and I'll say it again: my grammar is terrible. If you know or are an editor, please let me know.
Schedule. I've just started this process, so it'll be a while before anything is released. I don't expect to post anything before the end of June at the earliest. However, any more updates will be posted as new chapters on this page.
Thank you for reading until the end of this long-overdue update. This is my first attempt using Grammarly and its new AI, so hopefully, this is much easier to read when compared to my old posts. As always, please let me know your thoughts in the comments, and wish me luck. I have a lot of work to do.