v0.7.0 is live on the homelab server — and this one changes what Meadow Bound is. Up to now the meadow was a place: a hamlet, chat, a bag of flowers. As of this morning it’s a game with a story and a fight in it.
- Act 1 — “Stolen in the Night.” The first story chapter. Bandits came in the night and took two things that matter: your hen — the one you named yourself, back at the start — and the family heirloom hoe. Act 1 is the getting of them back: clues around the hamlet, a lair below the cave, and a Bandit Leader at the end of it who would rather you hadn’t come. Finish it, and she follows you home.
- Combat. Auto-attack while you think, a hotbar of abilities on a shared 2.5-second rhythm, cast bars that break if you move, mana to mind. Every one of the eight point trees has abilities now, so a Garland build is finally a build and not a promise.
- A proper login. The login screen has a server dropdown now. Pick Homelab, or the handshake sends you away.
The deploy ran the usual gauntlet — checksum-verified build, a full backup of the v0.6.0 database first, schema migration 8 applied cleanly, and the same accounts and characters waiting on the other side. Keeping score at home: you need the v0.7.0 client for this server; older clients get politely refused by the version handshake. And an honest gap: there’s no v0.7.0 Mac client yet — the v0.6.0 Mac build can’t join this one. It’s on the list, not in the release.
One retirement
The last devlog teased our first hunt: the Moss Golem. It isn’t happening. The golem is out of the meadow — these days it’s a rumour the hamlet tells on quiet nights, not a boss you fight. The bandits earned the spotlight; they can keep it.
What’s next
Playtesting and tuning — combat balance from real fights, not spreadsheets — and a story that keeps growing from here. Nothing here ships until it’s real, and this one’s real: it’s running.