Development Blog

[Ray]

And this is the part where I say flash sucks, and that I completely hate flash.

I was doing some final touches to the client, adding glow effects when you mouse over buttons and such, but now it has corrupted the source and won't export.

This doesn't mean the game is forever broken, but it does mean that adobe needs a slap in the face, and that it's going to take me a little while to fix it. Such a waste of time this is going to be.

Ray

[Ray]

Fixed - Apparently there's an unmentioned glitch in flash when you embed font characters that completely breaks the export system.

Update this weekend...this time it should be for real

[Ray]

Ok sirs and sals, the update feels about ready. As usual i'm expecting some glitches....things that I may have missed for the interface and such.

I'll try to get the patch out for tomorrow so I can start preparing for the naked leprechaun event and fix whatever other issues pop up.

I appreciate the long wait for this seemingly empty major preparation patch, however as I may have mentioned in the past about my sudden work hours, and the fact that every time I would update, it would break the game on hundreds of portals (still broken on many - and the last patch was quite a while ago) as the portal owners tend to not be wise enough to direct link in order to allow devs to update their games in real-time....however, this patch downloads the game directly, so it should solve some issues in that department.

Very soon i'll be getting some more publicity for the game as well, so things should pick up again.

Again, I appreciate the wait, and I hope some of it was worth it.

Ray

[Ray]

Update feels ready enough - whatever may be missing or need fixing can be done tomorrow afternoon and throughout the week before I move onto the next major patch.

Unfortunately I did not have time to add/fix some of the mentions:
-Blocking/Parrying
-Things bleeding more than 9 damage showing as 1 damage
-Token selling in auction
-High rarity items selling for more


These are mostly simple additions and will make it in soon.

[Ray]

Update is out however the game may go up and down a lot today as I deal with certain issues, and additions I may have missed.

I'm also going to be out on and off today, so again, expect some issues and lack of support for the day as i'm in a bit of a hype getting things done.

Ray

[Ray]

Alright, i've fixed subscription issues...

The chatbox will be embedded soon so you can see it in other windows, the actual magic skills will be unlocked as soon as the gui is stable, and lastly i'll be trying to squish the game down a bit for those on widescreens who can't see the entire game without scrolling.

Consider what you see now as a work-in-progress update - please be patient as the pieces get put together more properly.

Ray

[Ray]

Delete Temp files & refresh should show the proper class now.

Facebook has also been fixed for Retime

[Ray]

You can now begin increasing the skills and learning the ability tree for the first black magic spell.

The skills will unlock as you raise them, however the effect skills have yet to work.

By thursday/friday everything with the skills should be done and i'll be able to work on whatever issues I missed in this patch, then begin on the st patty's week event (late, but there).

Ray

[Ray]

The once a month issue where not being able to attack (timers all screwed up) occured this morning. I've reset the machine to reset the tickcount on the computer and it should be fine again.

[Ray]

I'll be starting the easter event development in a week or so - might be late, but it will happen (as the st pattys week event did). It wont be anything special..but rewarding is certain.

I'm not sure how far i'll get with this in such short spare time, but i've started working out the tradeskill system. The system intends to allow players to join party members in their skilling in order to make working on tradeskills a bit more interactive, rather then the same old 'solo' bore that tradeskills tend to bring.

There might be plans later to have groups work on tradeskills together, however for now the plan is only to allow you to join the same window and watch each others attempts.

The tradeskill system is directly linked to locations in the game (every single position possible on the map), where each location has its own set of properties...which will certainly be an interesting feature when the player-owned territory comes into play, allowing people to invest in what resources are available in their territory, setting taxes on them, and so forth, making their location a hotspot to be for players in order to obtain interest.

In the meantime, please try to be understanding that i'm horrendously busy, but making the best effort possible to get what updates I can out - and admit that the updates coming out are still faster than what you could expect from corporate commercial games. I would also really appreciate that the current players assist any new players that begin to show up - more support = better updates, better art, better quality, better community for when beta comes.

And thanks for the support up to this point and on...
Ray

[Ray]

While I haven't had time to tune the current, in-development, expansion of the battle system for multi-player interactive tradeskilling, I have started adding the Tool-Box.

The tool box will be an addition to the equipment screen, which will hold and show all the tools you have...

Now there's something a little more interesting about what is to come along with the tradeskill system. You might think that you'll be able to buy tools, or find them from drops, however I have a very, very interesting new system I think everyone will enjoy that will end up being used for tools, weapons, armor, padding, and probobly more.

This system will be the item level-up system. The more you use the item, the more it will upgrade, and allow you to choose stats for that item. Please bear with me on this large update that i'll have to stretch out for a while as I have about 30 spare minutes on weekdays, and a few hours on the weekends. However, I do certainly hope I can get most of it prepared by this weekend

The system will incorporate an experience system in items so you can view their progress and level.

Have a good Tuesday - worst day of the week

[Ray]

I've managed to set it up so special characters can be typed in chat without being disconnected (due to utf-16 issues), and although I still need to add support for other characters (chinese characters for example), for now it's not the biggest need.

Fishing/item level-ups, i'm slowly gaining on the tradeskill system (pretty similar to combat system). The item level-up system will be a whole new thing, but i'm sure by next weekend at least fishing will be available on the unlock system.

And ofcourse, the Easter Event.....I wouldn't expect anything major from this. The event will probobly just be the addition of random findings when you move around the map from the gigantic pool of 'Lost Items' from the old buggy loot system.

Ray

[Ray]

Took the day off work just to relax, require less sleep, etc. Good progress over the night!

Updates:

-30 of the 54 fish (game total) have been added into the game. No one will get beyond 15 for quite a while, so i'm going to postpone the rest of the fish (requires artwork) for now.
-Fishing Rod, Line, Bait slots have been set up into the client.
-Item level-up system has been initiated...quite a bit more work to do on this system though.
-Each territory (location) on the map now holds tradeskill attributes for Resource regen, count, and max to deal with tradeskill resource limitations in a single location....and also to allow for territory upgrade system, and items(potions)/premiums to replenish resources in a location later on.
-It is now possible to join tradeskill sessions with members (more work to do to allow players to leave and rejoin the session).
-A few more interactive features in the battle/tradeskill window...allowing tool/weapon animations, along with a secondary interactive feature so you can watch yourself or other members catch fish (or in the future, mine, cook, etc).
-Fixed layering issues with credit shop & premium windows
-Improved the top list viewing to automatically scroll to your name when you open it.
-Fixed a horrible party bug

if only every night was this productive again as it was during early alpha :-p

[Ray]

Yeah yeah, and so fishing isn't out today.

I've been pretty good about my dates of completion with focused features, however this one i'm purposely going to be a little late on.

I've extended my timeline with the tradeskill system for the Fishing release in order to improve it and to help ensure that I won't have to do rollbacks in the event of exploits or unexpected high progress rates.

While it's currently possible in the system to have a tradeskill session with party members for additional tradeskilling interaction (among new global fishing sounds & catch animations), exp animations on catches, a new floating Skill-Bar in the tradeskill session window (to watch live progress of your fishing skill), the 3 new tools, new fishing shop at newlake for the tools, etc.

However, i'm missing out on the ability for players to leave/rejoin tradeskill sessions for bait-runs, the depletion of global resources (fish in this instance) in each location as players fish to limit resources and increase economic rating while providing expansion to the possibilities with the unlock system and future territory system and lastly, a little more testing on the system itself.

I've only had about 5 minutes to test the system, which would be chaotic for a release.

Please bear with me the next few days as I try to finish what I can on this patch.

ps. This patch includes some other changes, additions, fixes, such as improved logging to help track down what's causing crashes, additional character support in chat, and a few other things. It's a big update!

Ray

[Ray]

Yes, fishing is finally out.

Already starting to work on the item level-up system, which as usual will probably be turned into some ridiculous system far beyond initially planned.

And...the next patch fixes focus charge damage (it's there, just showing wrong old damage), bleeding damage bug fix, and the ability to see how many more times you can hunt a lair.

Ray