MMO Prototype

As per  my plans for the first quarter  of the year (and following up on  January ): ( Done )  Complete the path-finding logic (with a procedurally generated grid to accommodate the ever-in-development terrain) to allow NPCs to move. The grid is done, I just need to assign "weights" (so that NPCs are less likely to walk on grass than on the road) and plug the NPCs to said grid.  This took slightly more time than planned primarily because, while the grid was functional, it didn't take into account the possibility that different instanced copies of the same location might have variations of that data (where a player might cut trees in his copy of the instance, etc). So that's fixed. ( In progress ) Create spawn points that can spawn procedurally (based off available space on the terrain) as well as enabling some to be destroyed by players. This is to enable the game to dynamically spawn encounters based on player density, like pushing a wolf den away from the peri...

As per   my plans for the first quarter   of the year: ( In progress ) Complete the path-finding logic (with a procedurally generated grid to accommodate the ever-in-development terrain) to allow NPCs to move. The grid is done, I just need to assign "weights" (so that NPCs are less likely to walk on grass than on the road) and plug the NPCs to said grid. Create spawn points that can spawn procedurally (based off available space on the terrain) as well as enabling some to be destroyed by players. This is to enable the game to dynamically spawn encounters based on player density, like pushing a wolf den away from the perimeter of player structures or having mobs appear from the depths of a dungeon and have them walk/patrol back to their designated "spawn location"; rather than just popping into existence behind players as they delve into a dungeon. ( Done )  Allow player-owned plants to grow at a pre-determined rate rather than be subject to the growth rate of the ove...

Time flies. Half a year ago, I started spending my Sundays working on a   MMO Prototype   with the goal of achieving what (in my mind) SotA failed to do. It's less about doing things to spite people and more about showing people how it can be done. Can a single-player narrative exist in an sandbox multi-player environment? Can NPCs have daily schedules and respond to typed text without being a nuisance to the player's time? Can a satisfactory crafting experience co-exist in an economy where good loot can drop from mobs? Can a game be deep and thought-provoking with game-play-centric consequences in an era where instant-gratification is the norm? These are the things I aim to answer. The project has gained some momentum to the point where I'm considering working up to 2 days a week (rather than one). While the project is tangible (as some of you have seen for yourself during  PHASE TWO ) it is far from being a video-game but maybe one day it'll grow into an actual produc...

Phase 2.5 of my MMO Prototype will be available soon! I label it "2.5" as it's essentially an extension of phase two which was designed as a stress test for the server. New additions are as followed: To help people stress test, I've added in a /dance command that will automatically shift the player character back and forth indefinitely (until cancelled by manual movement). This will enable people to run multiple instances of the client so that more is asked of the server. To accomplish what SotA was originally trying to do with its dialogue system, I've written my own text parser. Players can now walk up to an NPC and chat with them. What delays this new phase from being available right now is that, while NPCs can understand typed words, they offer no replies of their own... because there's no text written. This is where some of you come in: I need people to write generic dialogue. "Generic" in the sense that if a particular NPC doesn't have a cu...

  I'm a little late but I managed to finish the prep work to finally present to you a "playable" public build of the prototype. I didn't get the VPS that I originally wanted to host the game, so the specs of the server is much, much less powerful than ideal but it should still be a good test to see if my code holds up. So here is the playable map for now: https://i.imgur.com/N8LTHyq.png As you can see from the image above, I've set up 2 instanced zones (coloured in cyan and magenta) while everything else is open world. Place houses, trees, lamps, boxes.. turn lamps on and off, open doors, cut trees. Instanced zones are currently private, you won't be able to see other people inside these areas if you're inside one yourself. I've currently disabled the ability to place any object in instanced areas but you can stillinteract with the objects already there. Chat should be working; I didn't get the chance to test it too much. You can't see the name...

It's been about two months, now, since I've started slowly working on a MMO prototype. The basic authoritative server functionality are there as well as prop/decoration management. Phase ONE  (login in the game from a client that wasn't in the same local network as the server) was a success. Soon, it'll be time for Phase TWO. Hopefully,  by the start of next week , I'll be setting up a VPS and open the server to the "public". The server will be up and running for as long as I can (assuming it doesn't crash or output bugs) to give you guys the opportunity to log in and test what you see in Phase ONE for yourselves. It's not much, but it's a very important step for this project. I need YOU to log in and stress the SHIT out of the server! The goal here is to see how well the server handles multiple objects/requests from multiple players. I need (in order of importance): As many players logged in  at once  as possible!  The client will display the ...

I had some spare time today to do a little bit of work. I basically imported chunks of terrain of a particular zone (the starting location of one of the three factions ~ the snowy mountains) and ran around aimlessly to try to get a sense of scale. If you’re seen the  previous thread , you can see the scale of the terrain relative to the houses and trees. While the world might be a tad small at this scale for an MMO, the player character is too small to be seen in the image. It takes approximately 3 minutes to cross (from left to right) while sprinting nonstop… which is roughly 2/3rds of the length of the "Hillsbrad Foothills" zone in World of Warcraft at the default/standard foot speed. I’m relatively satisfied.