Being Slack

Not been arsed doing anything recently my max skills pissing me off threw dummy out of pram after 10th attempt to make big cactus for scenery (well it is a desert after all)

Will have another bash once I finish my full time job on Wednesday (xmas yay :( )

Basically i want about 5 different types of cactus then I'll work on decorating the world and sticking some nice big squares for place holder buildings to build up at least the layout of the town.

So hopefully by end of boxing day I'll have some in game screenshots to show you of the world and basic scenery.

Then I can work on getting the network code up and running and the server up and running then we can test it all out and hopefully get a couple of people online to test out the chat and player collision mapping.

There be hangings tonight

Bring out the lynch mob theres hangings in town.

OK so a symplisstic model but then hanging stages are simple things, there is work to be done ie: needs rope and a trap door and some proper mapping perhaps even bump/normal mapping :) that all ofc depends on if I develop overnight max skills or i manage to find someone who is a kick ass 3ds Max user.

The idea is that when a bounty has been complete that perhaps the corpse will be shown hanging for a while. Perhaps not entirely sure how i'd impement that perhaps I may use it for a random times lynch mobbing if i can script a horde of npc's to perhaps do a once a week hanging.

I've also sketched out the basic world on a sheet of paper now the problem is I dont have a scanner so I cant upload it for you guys to see perhaps I'll go buy one.

Current focus is on developing the assets that are needed for the world in general. That includes world map, all buildings, scenery, npc models and skins, player models and skins, weapons and skins. Theres alot of work needs doing before I get anywhere near world like. Some help here particularly with 3ds Max work and Skinning would be greatly appreciated to allow me to concentrate on what I do best which is code monkey stuff.

Oh well.

Also feel free to link to this blog perhaps if some interest develops around the game then I'd find it easier to dig up some hired guns to help me out :)

Working on the world

The way I figure it the world/zone we create is what will make or break a game ie: when a user first logs on they need to be impressed with size/complexity/features/textures/lighting etc etc etc it needs to have a wow (not the game) factor.

So I've been messing around in max although I'm hardly a pro with it something as simple as a world should be doable even by someone with my limited skills. However as always there are restrictions.

I can go upto 50k yards in each direction along x,y,z however i very much doubt everyone's pc could handle that.

The zone needs to sit as a gold fish bowl if you like: ie raised sides to stop people getting outside the world either that or i could leave it flat and put an invisible barrier around it however that kinda kills realism don't you think? Name one GOOD game that has invisible barriers? They dont they some how build in the world geometry.

So I figure that if i make it a gold fish bowl then ruffle up the edges alot to make it look like foot hills then I can map onto them a hilly type texture to break up the floor texture. then i can put a bounding box around the world and map out some mountain textures onto that for distance mountains (see where i'm going yet) then i cam map out a geo sphere above that for the sky box. Phew harder work than i first thought.

I've also added in a water area where people will be able to swim/fish it should be large enough.

I've created the initial world at only 5000x5000 yards most modern pc's will be able to render that in real time without thinking about it which is good ie: exactly how we want it. Cos by time i've finished adding in water and sky and backgrounds all smoothed and such and then their bounding boxes and then the complex things come in of adding horses buildings etc etc etc now we're gonna be talking major poly counts. I'll tell you this for nothing now the game its self will look very good no jaggies etc :) the engine does handle high poly's superbly even on my medeocre PC.

ofc any major issues with any of this will all come out in the future when theres more than me running around in the world.

Background Story

So I've been trying to think about background story for the game mainly so that i can try to get a feel for the environment I need to create within the game.

Setting the background first will allow me to develop a game world that fits with the story and history it will also give me a direction to go with the town layout/development and character development and creation options. As well as giving the entire project a general direction.

Now the thing that plays on the mind is do I just make a story create a game in that world and then be done with it or do I try to build an open ended story so that over time we could run ingame events and allow story progression.

Now all this brings into play the questions of support and GM time etc.

This initially started out as just a proof of concept but there seems to be some interest in it on just Furious-Angels.Com alone and if their attention spreads around the rest of the mmorpg world then perhaps this could get bigger than I can control. I can run a server for upto 30 people for free just about may be a little laggy. However if more than 30 people want to play then this would bring up the point of requirement for full server setups and proper hosting etc which costs money. Depending on uptake it could be as little as $2 a month or if uptake is huge perhaps we need more than that to support a bigger infastructure these are questions I just dont know and just can't answer at this time.

Another bit of scenery for you now a simple watch tower bridge.

Welcome to WANTED! MMOFPS Developer Log

Welcome,

If you here I guess you want to know about the MMOFPS we're working on called WANTED!.

Background info:

• Set in the expansion phase of the United States ie: Western.
• Will be a simple MMOFPS on release should support around 2k users.
• Aiming for a single zone however if that zone appears to start to get too heavily populated we'll look at adding either extra zones or instancing of the same zone to create virtual servers in effect.
• Simple FPS based combat using a range of traditional weapons.
• Horse mounts.
• Bank and vendor system.
• Skill and Stats system to increase your combat effectiveness and your ability with various weapons.
• Based around the town of "Dry Lake"
• Missions around the town to help introduce you to the world.
• Leveling done via both pvp and also quests etc.
• Quick effective fun leveling
• PvP possible/fun at all levels
• Bounty type missions hunting NPC's and player created bounties on other players.
• Possibility of adding BOP engine to game allowing players to become "outlaws" who would then be bountied by NPC's ie: the sheriff.
• Lots of other stuff I havent planned/thought about yet

Progress so far:

• Slow :)
• 3D/physics/collision/particle/lighting engines are inplace.
• Basic sandbox world created so I can run around and test interaction.
• Aiming to get a basic sandbox online for alpha testing of user creation/login/interaction and chat layer by new year

At the moment I'm in a decision period I have to now decide how i want to place objects to the world. I have 3 methods at my disposal.

I can make objects static placement ie: part of the map its self cannot be removed/edited by gm's etc potentially useful for static buildings.

I can make the map the only static thing and load each building as a reference file ie: its loaded once but placed by GM's into the world this allows more scripted interaction however could cause problems if theres an update patch applied ie: things vanishing or moving slightl. This shouldnt be an issue if proper process is followed but it does leave it vulnerable.

I can instance things as runtime entities. This is the most flexible but not the most stable these vanish every time the server is restarted.