Honestly, it's definitely not so bad right now. So far the changes feel just right and I can't complain. It has more of a Season 3 feel and I think that was a sweet spot because I think it's more fun for everyone without being really taxing on me to manage. I just hope it continues to feel just right like this. It allows me to write up the fun narratives and suspense without having to calculate heaps of stuff, because I tend to goof up a lot on things like that. Too many variables involved (like using a weapon, having buffs from berries, and other status stuff all happening at once) and I run a big chance of missing something.

I know it must feel pretty scaled back to people who were in previous renditions, but I just wanted to keep the really important stuff. But I'd have to say the biggest energy-draining culprits were items that granted multiple actions (caffeine delights and adrenaline orbs) and combat. Xanthe created an awesome combat system, but it was still work and I just think any kind of combat system is going to be a lot of extra dice rolls and calculation work, and heaven forbid I get something wrong and overlook something and that totally changes the outcome of the battle. That happened a couple times and it just gobbles the motivation right out.

Money wasn't too big of an issue, but there was this awkward gray area thing with it that people were really reluctant to spend it (essentially the Megalixir effect). I felt eh, why bother with it? The game works perfectly fine without buying anything.

And I was on the fence about side missions but ultimately decided to scrap those for now. Again, those were extra work and I just don't think they added too much to the game. Maybe in an open world game they make sense.