Today marks twenty years since I started coding SOAT, so now we move into the third decade. The latest numbers are 18056644 bytes, 1595 text files. I didn't realize it had been so long since last update, but I had some pretty large lapses in progress, including nearly four months up until today. Maybe I can take this opportunity to make sure I stay in the habit of making progress every week (if not every day) moving forward.

Since last update, I've mainly done a lot of polishing of early parts of the game, in particular making sure all the game responses make sense for trying "universal" options (that can be attempted almost anywhere) under all circumstances. Also, had an idea for, and started implementing, a fishing activity/mini-game. Not real-time/reaction-based, of course, so it's just implemented in terms of skill levels, probability, etc. There had already been, for years, a fishing pole item which you could use in numerous places to find required items, but this now just expands on that in a more level-based system. The system's calculation formulas/levels/rewards are all in place, so it's now just a matter of filling in data at each fishing location of what can be fished there, names of fish, probabilities of catches. I wanted to leave that to fill out as I progress through a play-through of the game.

On a less fun and more grammar-minded note, I realized at some point last year that I'd been incorrectly using "which" instead of "that" for restrictive clauses for pretty much my whole life (I thought that in many cases either word was acceptable), and I ended up spending 4 whole days reviewing the game's text and fixing these cases.

> 37 locations, 319150 bytes (8625 per location) [2001/03/25]
> 54 loc, 438797 bytes (8126 pl) [2001/04/08]
> 80 loc, 573649 bytes (7171 pl) [2001/04/30]
> 95 loc, 794677 bytes (8365 pl) [2001/05/21]
> 115 loc, 949191 bytes (8253 pl) [2001/06/06]
> 132 loc, 1105293 bytes (8373 pl) [2001/06/15] *
> 145 loc, 1259378 bytes (8685 pl) [2001/06/25]
> 152 loc, 1470894 bytes (9677 pl) [2001/07/08]
> 155 loc, 1598537 bytes (10313 pl) [2001/07/23]
> 158 loc, 1746880 bytes (11056 pl) [2001/08/14]
> 166 loc, 1809922 bytes (10903 pl) [2001/09/25]
> 179 loc, 2018080 bytes (11274 pl) [2001/10/18]
> 209 loc, 2188235 bytes (10470 pl) [2001/11/08]
> 220 loc, 2316166 bytes (10528 pl) [2001/11/30]
> 285 loc, 2605419 bytes (9141 pl) [2001/12/19]
> 296 loc, 2794886 bytes (9442 pl) [2002/01/27]
> 301 loc, 2891546 bytes (9606 pl) [2002/02/04]
> 304 loc, 3038874 bytes (9996 pl) [2002/02/15]
> 309 loc, 3146158 bytes (10181 pl) [2002/02/23]
> 311 loc, 3267399 bytes (10506 pl) [2002/03/09]
> 311 loc, 3449854 bytes (11092 pl) [2002/03/23]
> 318 loc, 3714958 bytes (11682 pl) [2002/04/06]
> 330 loc, 3987346 bytes (12082 pl) [2002/05/01]
> 412 loc, 5290126 bytes (12840 pl) [2002/06/25]
> 417 loc, 5534723 bytes (13272 pl) [2002/07/20]
> 445 loc, 5951946 bytes (13375 pl) [2002/09/04]
> 451 loc, 6181927 bytes (13707 pl) [2002/10/08]
> 451 loc, 6337773 bytes (14052 pl) [2002/11/04]
> 454 loc, 6602028 bytes (14541 pl) [2002/12/01]
> 456 loc, 6877294 bytes (15081 pl) [2003/02/15]
> 459 loc, 6953122 bytes (15148 pl) [2003/03/01]
> 460 loc, 7102484 bytes (15440 pl) [2003/04/01]
> 460 loc, 7217654 bytes (15690 pl) [2003/05/01]
> 463 loc, 7410958 bytes (16006 pl) [2003/06/01]
> 464 loc, 7655714 bytes (16499 pl) [2003/07/01]
> 464 loc, 8473865 bytes (18262 pl) [2003/08/01]
> 464 loc, 8101358 bytes (17459 pl) [2003/09/01]
> 464 loc, 8140964 bytes (17545 pl) [2003/10/01]
> 465 loc, 8181632 bytes (17594 pl) [2003/11/01]
> 486 loc, 8197166 bytes (16866 pl) [2003/12/01]
> 486 loc, 8197166 bytes (16866 pl) [2004/01/01]
> 485 loc, 8889647 bytes (18329 pl) [2004/02/01] **
> 490 loc, 9614464 bytes (19621 pl) [2004/04/21]
> 491 loc, 9854149 bytes (20069 pl) [2004/06/13]
> 10063192 bytes [2004/10/23] ***
> 10177700 bytes [2004/11/20]
> 10179362 bytes [2005/01/01]
> 10331884 bytes [2005/01/11]
> 10426354 bytes [2005/02/15]
> 10503046 bytes [2005/04/01]
> 10576958 bytes [2005/05/01]
> 10830199 bytes [2005/06/01]
> 11004821 bytes [2005/07/01]
> 11109205 bytes [2005/08/01]
> 11293249 bytes [2005/09/01]
> 11261072 bytes [2005/10/01]
> 11388432 bytes [2005/11/01]
> 11542625 bytes [2005/12/01]
> 11355007 bytes [2006/01/01]
> 11425523 bytes [2006/02/15]
> 11611039 bytes [2006/04/01]
> 11640914 bytes [2006/05/01]
> 11848769 bytes [2006/06/01]
> 11959800 bytes [2006/07/01]
> 12043809 bytes [2006/08/01]
> 12287368 bytes [2006/11/16]
> 12406753 bytes [2006/12/01]
> 12620681 bytes [2007/01/01]
> 12832810 bytes [2007/02/01]
> 12920349 bytes [2007/02/15]
> 13234479 bytes [2007/03/01]
> 13352602 bytes [2007/04/01]
> 13454855 bytes [2007/05/01]
> 13660068 bytes [2007/06/01]
> 13829000 bytes [2007/07/01]
> 14039480 bytes [2007/08/01]
> 14041915 bytes [2007/09/01]
> 14204068 bytes [2007/10/01]
> 14311033 bytes [2007/11/01]
> 14317981 bytes [2007/12/01]
> 14234894 bytes [2008/01/01]
> 14274387 bytes [2008/02/01]
> 14278691 bytes [2008/02/15]
> 14327569 bytes [2008/03/01]
> 14394075 bytes [2008/04/01]
> 14989987 bytes [2009/02/15]
> 15568134 bytes [2009/06/03]
> 16127147 bytes [2009/12/01]
> 16328078 bytes [2010/02/15]
> 16609169 bytes [2014/03/08]
> 16964407 bytes [2016/09/01]
> 17533277 bytes [2019/02/15]
> 17713834 bytes [2020/07/20]
>
> *, **, *** = change of metric for game size