This week's 'Invisible' update!

You won't find any visible changes to the site this week, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy! Actually, I've been too busy with doing stuff for other people. I'd love to talk specifics of the light novel translations I work on, but alas, NDAs don't let me. Basically, it was a long one that I enjoyed — too bad there's only one volume left in that series.

Anyway, in the relatively little time I've had to work on Moonrune Saga, I've been addressing something that really needs work: the stuff behind the curtain. The site is growing, and (as I think I've mentioned in passing before) the directory structure needs reworking. I also need to find a better way to build the files than what I do now. Editing a copy & pasted existing file worked at first, but it's less than ideal now. The live site is static. There's no javascript or PHP or anything of that nature. That's just how I want it, but it makes building the site and updating information across it a bit of a pain. That's why you still see the "Welcome to Project Moonrune Saga ＊ Now launched!" message on every page. 

To update that message regularly, I would currently have to edit each page manually. But not for much longer! This week, I've set up a couple of PHP environments, one on PC and one on my Mac, where I actually do most of the Moonrune Saga writing. The plan is to code up a script (or two) that can get a view of the current site, and (re)build all the pages as needed when something changes, like the header or footer. Maybe also have it update links to future files, too (another thing I need to do manually at present).

There's one downside: my PHP is rusty; I last did any serious coding with it in the 2010s. But there's an upside too: this provides an opportunity to play around with an LLM, see if it can do a chunk of the heavy lifting. And at the very least, show me solutions I'd have had to wade through several websites and forums to find otherwise.

Once all this is ironed out and in place, I'll be updating all the files on the site and splitting each section into its own directory. Right now, Textbook Example and Zero to Hero share the same directory. Now there are a fair number of files, it's making it harder to work with. That's something I should have thought about at the beginning, but well, that's easy to say in hindsight!

This also means the current Premium url will change — I'll give you a heads-up for when that goes live, and of course, post the new base URL here for subscribers. Which brings me to my last point for today: payments.

I don't like talking about money, really, but Patreon has indicated that there have been "Declined" members. This apparently happens when a payment method cannot be charged correctly. When that happens, affected members will lose access to the Patreon hosted content, but as I don't specifically check membership on the site, access will remain for as long as the premium URL is known. With the URL upcoming URL change, please ensure your payment information is correct and consider adding a backup method. 

Anyway, please keep that in mind, especially if you're a Pioneer member, as I don't know if you'll keep that membership tier should payment information be updated after its been declined fully. Everything to do with payments, other than specifying tier pricing, is out of my hands.

I've also had more ideas on revising the Iroha format to make it even more useful for when that launches. We'll talk about that soon. Next week's update will be another Zero to Hero lesson!

Thanks for your continued support and have a good one!