Big List of Changes and a Donation Incentive!

Hey all,

    So I've stayed up, yet again, several hours longer than I would have liked, but I have a big change log (more than yesterday) to share with you all! I don't even know where to begin, so I'll go in the order in which I coded them.

    First off, the Inventory Screen now displays player stats (only health at the moment!). They appear in the top bar so that people can see them as they are modifying their gear and using items:

    As you can also see, the name of the selected item now appears Green as well as in the inventory list! I may not have posted pictures of it previously, but selected item names would appear white even if the item was listed as green. It was in my bug-list.

    Next, I added NPCs! For those of you who aren't Video Game savvy (I hope none of you), that's a Non-Player Character. Their purpose is to stand around the map, populating areas with common-folk or shady dudes in cloaks.

    My buddy Thirston here keeps me company as I test features. He's cool like that. He's also wearing my ERROR skin (intentionally, though!). If you ever see this skin on a player, something's wrong. If you see it on an NPC, well, they just like teasing you. But how can you tell NPCs apart from regular characters? Sure, this one's wearing an error skin, but they won't all be. Remember that when you look at a regular player, their name appears blue. When you look at an NPC, their name will appear GREEN! The color of money, just for Thirston (yuk, yuk, yuk)...

    Next I have several bug fixes. First off, as you've been able to see in my previous pictures, there are lots of players around. See the picture to the left for example. That's from what feels like forever ago. Well, I didn't actually have tons of people on my server. Whenever a player disconnected, their marker would remain in place, forever unmoving. Well, that was on my bug list and it's been fixed. Player Markers will now disappear when a player disconnects from the server. I can't really show a picture, but trust me, they know when they're no longer wanted.

     If you remember back, you might recall me complaining about a glitch that caused the client to remain open even when you told it to close. It would run in the background, invisibly, and would have to be closed with Task Manager before the game could open again. I also claimed to have fixed it, but it cropped up again. Well, that seems to be fixed. I made a small change to my code that closes the game, and it seems to have worked! The game now closes when it's supposed to.

    Next was another small bug fix. The user was unable to see the names of players who connected after them. They would all show up as "unnamed". That was a simple fix and everybody's name can now be seen when looked at.

    Another small bug was that when the game lost focus or was minimized, the Inventory menu would no longer work in any way. With some small modifications, it's been fixed and the Inventory Menu will no longer lock up!

    Speaking of the inventory...

    I've added a new feature called "Quick Equip". Instead of going through the motions of Selecting an item and selecting where it goes, or selecting an item and pressing that teeny tiny little "Unequip" button, I've saved you the extra effort! All you need to do is RIGHT CLICK any equipped item on the left, and it will automatically be unequipped. You can also RIGHT CLICK any item from your inventory list to equip or unequip it, accordingly. Regular items, of course, are not affected.

    Next up is another bug fix (Last one, I promise!). In my previous post, I announced that the console log would display 19 lines and save everything else to a text file. Well, turns out the text file was only storing those same 19 lines. I fixed it so the file will now contain the most recent 100 lines of console news!

    Onto some cooler stuff. Do you guys remember my second post? It was the first time I showed an in-game picture. here it is again:

    Well, for the first time since this picture (Pre-ALPHA 1), I've re-implemented EMITTERS in a much more dynamic way! I know you can't really see the old one too well, but take a look at the new and improved fire!

    It'll look better when there's something under it to burn. But, the way I wrote the code this time, it will be much easier to place fires and other cool emitting things! As you can see in the picture, Thirston enjoys looking at my fire. You may also be able to see in the picture if you have a keen sense of detail that I've changed the way shadows work. Previously, there was a full-bright map with a dark glaze over it. This was good for appearances, but if you got too close to it (climbing hills), you could see through it to the full-bright map beneath. I removed that method, so there is no longer a dark glaze. By adjusting the lights, I created nearly the same effect, but much less glitchy and easier on the game's resources!

    Last, but certainly not least, is a system I'm very proud of! I've successfully added QUESTS to the game. They currently run through Console Notifications, as you can see below:

    Right now, when you Click on Thirston, he will give you the "Into the Fire" quest. You must then walk into the fire on the map. Once you do, the Quest Goal is accomplished. Then, you must return to Thirston and interact with him to finish the quest. Where you see "STARTING QUEST!", "QUEST GOAL ACCOMPLISHED!", and "FINISHING QUEST!", more interaction will take place after I create the chat interface.

    Also, I have my next DONATION INCENTIVE! Exciting right? Well, for the rest of the week, until MIDNIGHT on AUGUST 4, 2012, if you donate at least $4.00, you will be able to name an NPC in the game (One that will be in the actual release!). Just remember that the name must fit the theme of the game (Nothing silly like "Babyface McGeek"!). Please note, if you wish to collect on this offer, you MUST have an account on the forum, and it would help if you could send me a PM after you donate! It'd also help me out if all you kind souls who donated for my first incentive (an Item) could register and PM me as well so I can give you Donator status. Thanks very much, guys!

    So, that's what I've got for today! As you can see, I've finished several things on my To-Do before v3 list, so I'm on schedule. Thanks for reading!

- Dan

Pre-ALPHA 2.5 has been reached!

Hello all!

    It's been a long day of coding. I've actually been working for about 8 hours straight at this point, and I have Pre-ALPHA 2.5 to show for it! I'll list out all of the changes I've made for you so you can give me your opinions on it all! Let's start off with the boring things, as usual.

    First off, I decided that it was a little awkward trying to see what you had equipped, so I decided to make it stand out a bit more. As you can see here in the picture, equipped items will now appear in GREEN! (And yes, I added a new item to test out other slots!)

    So now, you can easily see and select what you're wearing to UNEQUIP it! Yes, I have also added the Unequip feature to the menu! If you select an item that you're wearing, it will remove it from your person. If you try to press the button on any other item, nothing will happen.

    Next up on my list is the introduction of HEALTH and EXP Curves! As demonstrated to the right, I have set up a simple curve system to control how much health you get each level and how many experience points each level needs to get to the next level up. These are both very simple and not very well thought out. At the moment, they're placeholders for when I figure out how it should be balanced, but the framework is there now!

    Also taking a look to the left, you'll see that someone has painstakingly added the phrase "Nothing Equipped!" to the picture. Well, there's a reason for this as well. As you're all well aware, I have included the ability to equip items. What you do NOT know is that I've now implemented them to modify your stats. That's right! Equipment now modifies your stats! Of course, there are not many stats to be modified just yet. Pretty much just health! But I was clever enough to hide the stat modifiers for the items in the above picture. ;)  The Socks of Sneaking add 20 health to the player, the the Helm of Questioning adds 50 health. here is a picture of the affected stats:

    The game also knows enough to fix your health when you unequip items. It scales your health and whatnot. So that's the first four of the eight things I've updated. Next up is something I had almost forgotten about since I had been spending so much time on equipment. If you're observant, you probably saw it in the images above. Items can now be used in the game! As you can indeed see above, the first item I created was a Weak Healing Potion. It restores 10 HP to a player when used. As you may have already seen as well, there is also a new USE button on the inventory screen:

    It only works if you do not have full health. If you do, it will tell you so and not allow you to use it. If you have less than 10 HP of damage, it will simply bring you up to full health. The STATS section still remains unaffected because I'm not sure which other stats I'll be using in the game. See my notes below about Pre-ALPHA 3 for more details on items!

    The next thing on my list was intended to be something so I could work easy for a little while, but it ended up being one of the more difficult things I've done. I've implemented temporary Player Skins. I'm sure you all remember that players in my game are simple white cubes. Well now, whenever I release a public version, you can play as colored cubes. When you start up the game, it asks you for your name, which color you want to use (Currently TEN to choose from, seen below) before asking for connection details. Here's a picture I took of all but the BROWN colored skin (I used it to take the picture!) :

    It's hard to see, even in the full-size version, but the players are made up of little squares, almost like mosaic tiles. I'll post better pictures later! The last three items all relate to the server console. If you recall, the server console has looked gray and depressing since I first created it. Just a gray box with a few lines of text. Well, I'll be honest. It isn't much better now, but it's an improvement. Here is the new and improved 0.0.0_2.5 server console!

     So, there are several new features here. As you can see, the Active Connections and Port fields have remained the same. There were two other lines under those, one of which I do not believe I ever got a chance to post pictures of. It was a field called "Connections Left". Previously, the server had 25 connections. Theoretically, a player could connect and disconnect 25 times, and then nobody else would be able to join.I used it to keep track of how many more times I could connect to test things before I had to make a new one. Well, that's gone now. I ended up rewriting almost the entirety of my networking code, which proved to be a MAJOR pain the you know what, and now the server has infinite connections. Well, almost infinite. It has 10,000 connections, but if anybody hits that ceiling in the near future, you're crazy. This does not mean, however, that you can have 10,000 people on your server. The Active Connections are now limited! This means that instead of being limited by a number of connections, you are now only limited by a number of clients active at once!

    The other field on the old console was "News", which would broadcast one line of updates. That has been replaced with the white box on the right of the screen! The console actually has a log now! This white box holds the most recent 19 lines of "News", and a text file in your game folder holds them in their entirety.

    The third and final update I have to speak of is, you guessed it, the other white box! The server now has a connected players list. When players connect, they are added to the bottom of the list. As people disconnect, the name list compensates, not leaving any gaps. Here's a picture of the console I took while I was taking that photo of all the skins above after I disconnected them all:

    So that's all of my updates! If you stuck around through this wall of text, congratulations, and thank you for your support. As a result of these steps forward, I decided to update to Pre-ALPHA 2.5. I was considering calling this version Pre-ALPHA 3, but there are a few things I'd like to finish up and get rid of before I declare it v3:

• My Bug List
• Fixing Player Rotation (Other people don't rotate properly when you look at them.)
• Stackable Inventory Items
• Player -> Player Trading System
• NPC System (For Quests!)
• Main Menu
• Options Menu
• Fix Mouse Rotation (You can currently turn 360 degrees backwards.)

    I know that seems like a lot, but some of them are fairly simple tweaks. I'd say that getting all of these things done will take another 2-3 days, but I'm not sure if I want to wait for them all to be done. So Pre-ALPHA 3 may arrive sooner than expected!

     One last thing I wanted to talk about was DONATION INCENTIVES! The poll is unanimous, so I will be coming up with some new ones very soon. It's possible I'll post them tomorrow, even. They are coming, and so is a new Poll soon!

    As always guys, THANK YOU for your continued support! If I was just designing this game on my own without anybody cheering me and helping out, I wouldn't be as far as I am now. Keep on wishing me luck!

-Dan

Massive Menu/Inventory Update

Hey guys!

    I've been hard at work implementing and coding lots of Menu stuff, and I finally have some significant things to show for it. But let's start off boring, shall we? Here is a picture of the first version of the ESCAPE MENU!

Pretty plain, right? Well, I'll be working on that later. Currently, the "Back To Game" button is not functioning due to an engine bug that's being fixed very soon. Until then, only the "Esc" button will properly return to the game! The Options button does nothing as of yet, but soon it will open up, you guessed it, an Options menu where you can adjust mouse sensitivity and display settings and whatnot. And, you guessed it, the Exit button closes the program.

    I'd say that implementing the game's first "Pause Screen" is pretty significant, but in my humble opinion, it's nothing compared to what I have to show you next. Ladies and Gentlemen, the INVENTORY MENU!

"It's blank," you're thinking. Yes, it is, but it is more exciting than that. This is how your player will start off. You have 34 slots for unique inventory items. If you get more than one of a given object, it will stack. The only part of this menu that isn't complete is the box labeled "STATS". Once I figure out more of the game mechanics, I'll configure that into a neat little information box about whatever item you're holding. 

    So let's kick it up a notch, shall we? Let's give the player an item or two! As you can see to the right, I've created (with the expert help of Sarah), two simple test items for the game and given them to our default player. You'll see that those item names now appear on our menu. When you click on them, the item is displayed at the bottom of the screen. On the left, you see its picture. In the center, you can see the item's name displayed proudly. Underneath that, the description of the item is displayed (up to four lines). As I stated previously, the "STATS" section needs to be configured, but I thought I'd wait until I knew more about the game mechanics to set that up. This inventory screen may change a bit, but this is pretty much how it will appear for at least my first ALPHA release. Just note that these are quirky joke items, and they will obviously not be included. ;)

    But wait! There's more! Once you click on an item (as above), it becomes your "Selected Item". You can then click on an inventory space and equip that item to your person. You can only equip items to the slots in which they belong, and if you click on an equipped item to the left, it will display the details of that item at the bottom of the screen. Take a gander:

The system also keeps track of what items are equipped and which ones aren't, so you can not equip the same item twice, or to multiple slots.

    I'm very proud of the work I have to showcase here today! Another few tweaks and additions, and I might be ready to step it up to Pre-ALPHA 2.3. Looks like we're getting very close to that custom item creation a few of you donated for a few weeks ago! Speaking of which, it seems that everybody wants more Donation Incentives, so I'll work on coming up with a few cool ones and I'll let you know. But for now, I'm off to bed!

G'night all!

-Dan

Pre-ALPHA 2.2

Hello e'rryone,

    So, one of my weaknesses is losing track of time when I'm doing something I enjoy, like coding. I ended up working through the night and accomplished probably 3 to 5 days worth of work. I think that's enough to call this Pre-ALPHA 2.2 even though 2.1 was announced a few hours ago! Here's what I've added:

    First off, I created a proper GUI working with XML. It was a bit easier than I anticipated. It displays a crosshair, the player level, player health, and player experience points (all of which are stored in the PLAYER object!). I even added nifty colors. But it gets cooler...

 

    When you are within a certain distance of other players and you look at them, your crosshair will display the player's name (entered by the user when connecting to the server)! This was very tricky to figure out, and I had doubts about my ability to do it at all. You can also see another feature of the health system I added. The color of your health changes as you get weaker or stronger. If you see above, it starts out green. But wait, there's still more...

    The INVENTORY SCREEN... is TOTALLY blank! But it's there! Pressing the TAB key toggles between your regular HUD and your inventory screen. I have yet to populate it with awesome data as of yet, but I was not expecting to have a functioning visual for it ready for at least a week!

    Next to work on is the Escape Menu, and the Main Menu can wait for now. Once the escape menu is done and I work some more on the inventory screen, I will be very close to Pre-ALPHA 3. If it's shaping up well at that point, I may be ready to release a few copies as a teaser! Or maybe as a donation incentive... =o

Thank you for your support everyone! Your kind words make a difference!

-Dan

New Forum!

Hello again all,

    I did just post a little while ago, but I thought the addition of the QFang FORUM required its own blog entry! You can find it on the new Menu Bar at the top of this page!

    Don't forget to check out my last post below! It's full of exciting things that you should read even though it's not on top!

-Dan

Pre-ALPHA 2.1 and a New Poll

Hi guys,

    So I've been tinkering some more today, and I finally have an actual "Player" object for the Client to interact with! This new addition includes the Inventory Skeleton, Health, Skills, Experience, and much more!

    I've also introduced the HUD finally, and made the screen not an awkward size! Check it out:

As you can see, I was messing around with lots of clients today! With these updates, I decided it was time to officially call it Pre-ALPHA 2.1 (0.0.0_2.1) to make myself feel more like progress was being made!

    It would also seem that my To-Do list has been defaced! Some devious female seems to have added "Not enough Khajit" to my bugs list and "Markers other than Crayola" to my Multiplayer list (I assume referring to player markers). I love you too, Sarah.

    Anyway! I see that almost 80% of you think I should start up a forum, so I'll get working on that soon. Just remember. All my updates will still be posted HERE. The forum will just be for discussion. And with that, it would seem as though it was New Poll time. But what to ask...

    Okay, my loyal readers, let's see what you all think about my donation perks. Should I do more donation events like I did previously ($3.00 to make an item in the game)? I'm sure I could come up with more cool incentives! Remember, I'm going to need the money to buy some professional help when I get closer to release times!

Thank you for your continued support!

-Dan

Networking Ready!

Hello everybody!

    I finally got the networking to function as it's supposed to! Clients can connect and see each other successfully! Now I just need to add a few small details and I can move on to work on inventories!

    More screenshots to come soon.

-Dan