Working title: Otherworld

[SekoETC]

Recently I've been working on the manufacturing system. I'm about ready to move on to refining resources.


The main things that need to be finished before considering to let someone else test it is the resource refining system, character creation, rudimentary hunting system, rudimentary farming system and maybe the ability to cut down trees.

[Hommer]

Recently I've been working on the manufacturing system. I'm about ready to move on to refining resources.


The main things that need to be finished before considering to let someone else test it is the resource refining system, character creation, rudimentary hunting system, rudimentary farming system and maybe the ability to cut down trees.

You making me excited to play this game man

[Rmak]

How many hours have you spent on this so far Seko ?

[SekoETC]

I don't count hours. I think I first set up the local environment in 2009. I wrote a lot of documents but my first php files are dated back to 2012. Yet my first test character was created in 2011 so you would assume I had some code to go with it back then and not just the database. The world map was decided on in 2012. At one point I was collaborating with Adam Berg (Armulus Satchula) and there were ideas of including mushroom people who wouldn't need food and would be immune to pain but couldn't cross oceans unless they brought a layer of soil on deck. A lot of things have changed. In the original version, time was going to progress linearly. Also there was going to be a command line interface like in MUDs. And characters were classified as "animals with extra features". I started seriously working on this during this summer. At one point there was a whole week when I did nothing but then I got busy again.

[*Wiro]

This looks good. It'd be great if you could let me know when it's live, as I'll definitely want to check it out. Can you (theoretically) use any material to make any object, unlike in Cantr where each material needs its own object? How about behind the scenes, is it easy to add new objects without having to set different stats for each material type etc every single time? It's important to keep things like that in mind so you won't have an unnecessarily complicated "RD tool" at the end. Ideally you set up a material's stats once at the start and then never again.

[MattWithoos]

While I was on the project, I proposed using a graphical user interface for a Resources-like department to easily enter new resource data. Short of that, the next best option was a YAML file (.yml), you can read up on them, they're basically tabulated data text files. The former option may have helped that problem you're referring to a little.

I can say that I was impressed with the codebase. I thought it might be a bit of a spaghetti like Wordpress or (based on rumors I've heard) other games. In the context of Seko not being a professional programmer, it is a really good effort. Of course if Seko was a professional programmer I'd be telling a different story!

[SekoETC]

Originally I was going to have an RD interface, but recently I've noticed it's much easier to just have Excel tables that produce queries I can copypaste, so unless I could make an interface that accomplishes that faster, I might not even have an RD interface. Each possible resource alternative needs to currently be added as an option separately for each project. It might make more sense to produce resource groups, like hard wood, bow wood, construction wood and such. I might do that in the future, but currently I have an Excel sheet and I copypaste queries like I said. It allows entering multiple items much faster than I could hope to type the values separately in a form.

Edit: It might be simpler to use something like this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1271 ... into-array than a database, but maybe that's what you were already implying?

Edit: If I went back, at least chert and basalt knives would be the same item because they always have same efficiency. But in some cases, flint is better than those two, and obsidian deteriorates faster because it's brittle.

[*Wiro]

Whatever method you intend to use to implement new resources, objects, animals, etcetera is your "RD tool". Even if that's just an excel spreadsheet. It's one of those things that's really important to get done right so you won't run into the same issues we did while on RD with an interface and database that was clearly not designed with user-friendliness in mind. It's really doing yourself a favour because spending time on that now will save you a lot of time later on.

Definitely implement resource groups in favour of hard-coded objects for every single material. You'll end up with so much bloat otherwise. Ideally you'd just set the material stats once (wood is available for construction/art/weapons/armour, has X durability, X attack, X beauty etcetera) and then every object made out of it just copies those stats.


I'm not a programmer so I can't give specifics on what method is best.

[Wolfsong]

Because it might be of interest/spark some ideas, when I have the time and am not on 3G, I'll post about how our MUD engine handles object creation. In brief, it has components and flags, which sort of is what Wiro is suggesting? Maybe.

[SekoETC]

I made fire. The idea is that you ignite the tinder, which ignites the kindling after 1 minute, which in turn ignites the firewood in 15 minutes, assuming there is enough. Optimally in the future it will be possible to burn most anything.

Another thing I did today was enabling resource refining projects. It was surprisingly little work because it mostly uses the same system as object manufacturing. It's possible to access the project setup through any tool that can be used on the project.



It currently looks like this. The lists can get pretty long, so I might need to do something about that. I can't even sort by name because some of them use the resource name, which is only fetched separately, so currently I'm sorting by category id.

[Rmak]

Cool

[SekoETC]

Otherworld now has an online test server, and thanks to a sponsor, I don't personally have to pay anything for it. I haven't tested if most aspects work online, I have only viewed the login, character list, new character and all tabs of the view character pages. I was actually planning not to put this online before I have a finished hunting system and the beginning of a farming system, but since the sponsor was so eager to see it in action, I uploaded it in its current status. So what is possible currently is create new character, traveling, gathering resources, interacting with items (pick up/drop/give/store/remove from container), manufacturing Neolithic items, chopping vegetables, eating, felling trees/clearing away bushes/mowing grass, searching for animals and initiating combat with a single animal, but it's not yet possible to finish the fight (or access the attack function through the interface) because I haven't finished programming it yet. There is also a scenes system, but that will be rewritten some time in the future.

Each animal has 10% of their body weight in blood, and if they lose 50% of that, they die. So that's pretty much an equivalent of HP. It's also possible to die earlier any time after 25% if the animal fails an endurance roll. Also it's possible to break bones, sever major tendons and poke out eyes. In the distant future, there will also be a pain system. Different animals have different attack styles. Deer/alpaca/llama kick the chest and attempt to make the character fall over, then trample him or her. Small animals attack the feet and ankles. There are no wolves in the first test, but once they get assigned an attack, they will first aim for major tendons in the arms and legs, then when the character falls over, they will aim for the neck. So certain animals will be very dangerous and it is beneficial for the hunter to finish them off fast before they finish you off. Ranged attacks won't be in the first test.

[muidoido]

is it open for testing? I'm a volunteer!

[SekoETC]

I'm planning to take some testers but the amount will be limited in the beginning. I'll PM you tomorrow.

[MonkeyPants4736]

I'm happy to help test, as well.