[ORPG] Shadows of Everwood

[Wolfe]

Once I re-install my NewGen (new computer, yay), I'll be taking some screenshots, updating my album, and the thread with screenies, as well as making a brief progress report.

 

[Tukki]

Alright; not very exciting news on the coding front

Progress

• Remade Save & Load algorithms from scratch
• A lot of bug-fixing on abilities and systems
• Finally added load support to the demo (fixed Hero Selection load-prohibiting)
• Various interface updates (Specialization & Inventory interfaces + multiboards)
• Character Panel spell haste value now also displays provided spell haste %

My holidays have just started, so I might be able to get a lot done during the week to come!
Previews on the interface changes are on the way.

Until then!

 

[Miss_Foxy]

That sounds like good news, will be looking forward to it

 

[Grey Nightmare]

Sorry if OUR lives are inconveniencing you.

Hey cut him some slack, the amount of projects 'identical' to these that just 'give up' or 'fail' is ridiculous, he's just showing concern... in a weird and ok maybe slightly rude way.

<.< Sorry it just gets on nerves when people advertise these brilliant projects and have a go at people who expect updates with the old ' we have a life '.

Because ultimately, YOU decided to USE your life when you started advertising this project. You can't (justly) have a go at people expecting to see some progress unless you stop working on it.

Think of it as a shop that sells an item you really want but it's out of stock they tell you they'll get hold of it asap but it never comes when you ring back and ask why they are like "dude wtf, we have lives you know, we'll get that item when we get it".

The shop wouldn't last very long...

 

[Tukki]

Since it's OUR time we're talking about, isn't it up to US to chose how we spend it?
And that shop isn't really a good example since it actually gets money from selling that item, while we get.. satisfaction?


We are doing what we can to provide you with updates.
Don't expect more, don't expect less.

It seems like the majority of the modding community has forgotten the fact that map-making is something called a hobby - not a job.
It's something done for fun and when you got time on your hands.

 

[Grey Nightmare]

Yesh.
Satisfaction is it's own reward.
Else really... why else are you doing it? If your not enjoying it and it seems like a chore, perhaps you shouldn't be doing it?
But I'm sure you guys do...

I'm merely trying to help, it just pays to be polite to those who actually care about you making updates, no?

Since they're the ones who will be giving the above reward, or maybe they won't if when they ask why there are no updates you reply with "because we have other things to do or it's our life".

Try something along the lines of...

"Sorry guys, I've been ill or had some schoolwork, this guys having problems connecting - they'll be something soon enough"

It's about two sentences more and shows that you can actually spare five minutes for your fans.



What the modding community really seems to forget is:

Mods need makers to exist.
Mods need fans to prosper.

Hence neither developer nor fan are any less important.

And ok so maybe he was a bit rude in the way he asked but two wrongs never have and never will make a right.

 

[Adiktuz]

but then the fans shouldn't really put pressure on us to give updates...

and I don't see a problem with that old excuse since that is the reality. Its always better to be honest and say things straight rather than sugarcoating words right? and basically "other things to do" is equal to acads, etc...

 

[Tukki]

Okay we've gone kinda OT.

As promised a few posts back, I've brought some images displaying the resolution system multiboard-resizing, new specialization interface layout and a short preview of the various attributes + character panel!

Off-topic reply

This might be only me, but the difference lies in the manner the question is asked.
I.e writing "no updates for 3 days.. wtf?" will not earn much of a reply, whilst "Any progress lately?" would certainly earn some attention.

You treat people as you want them to treat you.
Don't create bad-mannered posts if you want a good-mannered reply.
Each to their own, but that's my philosophy.

 

[Adiktuz]

OT

agreed

The resolution-based resize is simple amazing. ^_^

 

[Grey Nightmare]

Off-Topic Reminder ;)

And ok so maybe he was a bit rude in the way he asked but two wrongs never have and never will make a right.

Yeah I actually have nothing against you guys or the project, it's looking freaking sweet but I have to deal with feedback from our mod and I learned the hard way replies like that get you nowhere! So... I was trying to help =(

I must say... For wc3... That is one feature xD
Now you need to make it so dependent on what option you choose at beginning of game you can play with UBER DUBER textures or low normal ones!!

(just kidding, though it would be nice if you have a machine to run it to make it look less wc3 (more HD/HQ)!)

 

[Wolfe]

To Grey, yes, what you say is correct and whatnot, but the fans seem to forget their manners when they ask for updates, especially only after three days. MMOs and other games can have little to no updates for months or weeks, even WC3 projects take their time.

So I'm sorry if my reply to something that I saw as insulting offended you.

 

[GhostThruster]

Give us some progress you stupid pricks!

Just jokin ;P

The attributes look interesting. Will the abilities be based off them (eg. 'Furious Slash' deals 20 x Power damage in 200 + [25 x Agility] radius).

 

[Wolfe]

Yes, abilities will receive a boost from a percentage of your current stats. Our aim is to make it simple (so your example isn't really something that would appear in the game). By doing this, we can negate how stats from items (because in the end, item stats can really add up to turn you into a buff-god-of-supreme-ownage) affect your abilities.

If you're wondering why our stats are so individual (meaning one stat offers only one bonus), this is because we're aiming for players to think about where they're spending their points. So rather than a player maxing spell power (as well as getting spell crit power and God knows what else), a Magus would invest in Haste, Focus and Tenacity. Or, for a more "what-we-hope-for-example", a Magus investing in Haste, Reflexes and Power. Why would one do this? Well, Power for weapon damage (so you can be a battle mage of sorts), Haste for quick-casts (suitable for the melee environment you're aiming to be a part of) and Reflexes for its survivability. That being said, because only a percentage of your stats affect abilities (Haste is exempt from this as it directly affects your abilities), your abilities still follow their own progression.

For example, a Ranger's Wolf Fang might deal 6.0 damage, then leave bleeding at Level 1. However, at, say, Level 20, Wolf Fang might deal 30.0 damage and leave bleeding + 2.0secs.

 

[Grey Nightmare]

Sounds a lot like Guild Wars (in a good way!)

QUESTION!

In the video you use blademaster, ranger etc for the class models but I have also seen you've got an attachment hero in the works.

What can we expect to be playing with in the demo? Static class models?

 

[Oziris]

You'll be expecting a fully functional custom hero with custom model attachments!

 

[Wolfe]

Sounds a lot like Guild Wars (in a good way!)

QUESTION!

In the video you use blademaster, ranger etc for the class models but I have also seen you've got an attachment hero in the works.

What can we expect to be playing with in the demo? Static class models?

Guild Wars is an excellent game. Why not let it, like other great games, influence us? ^.^

 

[Grey Nightmare]

AWESOME and yeah why the hell not?
Guild Wars 2 FTW!

 

[Dragonson]

Hey guys.
I dont know if you even WANT it, but i felt that i kinda owe you something as i were sadly unable to supply you with art when wolfe last asked for it, and i might be unable to do so again VERY SOON if i dont get photoshop to work on my other computer.
So, i made you guys a new banner.
Another couple o' reasons that i made it is 'cause the old banner i made for you guys is, well, old.
And i've been incredibly inspired since i came back from the USA. MAN you lucky americans got some nice mountains.
Here it is. Hope it's of use to you.

 

[Adiktuz]

the new banner is OWNAGE!

 

[Grey Nightmare]

Awesome, not a big fan of the glowing orbs for O's but I would put that down to personal taste

+Rep

 

[Dragonson]

@Adiktuz
Thanks. ^^
I've improved alot of my font-teqnicue, so that's a plus anyways.

@Gray
Yeah, i was kind unsure about them.
Luckily, the normal O's fitting the rest of the text is still there somwehere behind 'em.
So incase everyone hates them replacing them will just take two clicks with my mouse. ^^

 

[indomitable1319]

I love the new layout and the screen resolution system.

 

[Miss_Foxy]

Yeah, the layout is nice.

 

[Oziris]

I likes it Dragonson.

 

[Dragonson]

ON the subject of the banner:
Wolfe also didnt like the glowy orb-o's, so they has been removed.
He did though also not really like the rest of the orbs, so i did this, which wolfe approves of.

I have though later thought it abit through, and i've told wolfe that once i get photoshop to work on my second computer i will try and change the dark-blue metalish stuff around the spheres to roots.
I think that will look cooler.

 

[VeljkoM]

Looks great. Must have taken lot of effort.

 

[Dragonson]

Thanks.
Not really though.
To be honest all the best stuff i've made is the stuff that gets finished really fast. Sometimes the inspiration's just there, you know?
In other news, i got my photoshop to work on my second computer ( i think ) so i'l do some further messing around with the banner as soon as i have time.

 

[Nognix]

Looks great, I'ma keeping an eye on this.

 

[Dragonson]

Alright people.
Here is what i hope to be the last version.
If you guys and wolfe likes it, that is.

 

[Oziris]

Looks waaaaay better! Nice job!

 

[Grey Nightmare]

That is more of an improvement than I would of expected O_O
Kudos D, you've outdone yourself <.< again!

 

[Dragonson]

Hehe. ^^
I'm really glad you guys like it, as the roots and plants took a long time (on my standards) before i got them to look authentic.
Everything on that banner apart from the wolf is made by me.
But, that's the hazard of my field. If people dont like what you do, it's OVER AGAIN.

BTW, i've been thinking guys:
My sig shop is still closed for a couple of days, so i could use my spare time from doing other stuff to upgrade the loading screen.
If the answer is yes, then i was thinking of using the banner and building ontop of the established concept.

 

[Tukki]

Really, really nice!

Not to steal attention from D's banner or anything; just a quick progress update

• Work on the attribute/stats interface has started!
• Quests have been updated and I hope to finish them this weekend.
• Various code updates to improve efficiency (boring shit)
• A little update to the specialization interface has been done.

I'm working on the resolution system to resize images correctly;
there were some collision-problems when I started to resize the textsplats letter-by-letter.
I'll add another resolution system preview when I've fixed this issue!

 

[Miss_Foxy]

That sounds nice, resolution sometimes affects gameplay too.

 

[indomitable1319]

I love that banner, Dragonson!
That is so damn awesome. I love the grass details.

 

[Dragonson]

Thanks indom. As i said earlier, it took it's time to make. Lol

Anyways Tukki, know that if you need help with art for the interface then i am technically on the team.

 

[-W3SK3R-]

Dragonson you are really talented person. You can applicate somewhere to work for some company for drawing things.

 

[Dominic74]

This really good! i love it..
very good work!.

 

[Dragonson]

@Demigod
Heh, thanks.
But the real people in the industry makes me look like a skillles idiot.

Also, please do stick to the topic of the thread, lol.

 

[Tukki]

Alright, not the update that I expected - but who cares?

Yesterday I tinkered with the trackable model, since the current wasn't that accurate.
I didn't say anything to the other team members and guess what happened when I logged onto msn this morning?
Diego (who's been co-working with me to fix the inaccuracies) told me that the inventory had become more accurate!
So I can only guess that my experimental model fiddling actually worked!
Now you may ask "so.. what's the cool part?".

Truthfully, it isn't that cool - but it'll stop you from rage-quitting over missclicking in the inventory;
selecting the wrong ability when you actually clicked the right one; deselecting when you want to swap items.. the list is endless!

I've also found out that the WC3 MPQ held a great number of images (not just icons and textures)
- and they will be exploited to the max to improve the existing interfaces!

So.. in the end I'll probably put that textsplat resizing error on hold for a while = don't expect any updates on that front.
On the other side, you might see some changes to the existing interfaces!

 

[Hiude]

Dragonson, your banner sucks because it's missing something. A game to come with it. :<

 

[Tukki]

Sorry, I might be missing something, but I'm not following you.

Care to point out where we stated that we'd put this on hiatus?
-----

Wolfe's working on an update to the main page; so expect some awesome shit folks!
ETA is within 48 hours.

 

[L2love]

May I inquire what is the map size at this moment?

 

[Tukki]

Without any compression at all: 4.0mb
A first test-compression brought it to: 3.4mb
Two-part compression lowered it to: 2.8mb

And this is without any pre-import compression.
So I guess we still have a lot space left

-------
Okay, these values are just guidelines as Oz just told me that he lowered the map size by 600kb pre-compression.

 

[Wolfe]

Thread update about 75% complete - take a look at it thus far, folks!

 

[GhostThruster]

Love the little poem, dislike the video. Also, maybe you can give us an idea as to your progress.

 

[Dragonson]

Looks a lot neater.

 

[Wolfe]

Progress will come. As I said, I still have to finish updating it.

Also, it was never mean't to be a poem, heh.

 

[GhostThruster]

Nevertheless, a beautiful bunch of words.

 

[Miss_Foxy]

Heh, a little more description would be nice too