| Login to Realms of Loria! |
|
|
|
"Devblog FTW!" - Bob
Bob's Developer's Blog! This is the place where the Lead Programmer will post his thoughts, ideas, and questions regarding The Realms of Loria.
| Update: 5/16/08, 4:29 AM CDT - Bob |
Wii Love RoL
I have been alpha testing every feature that we have created for the new game. I have been doing this not only on my computer, but also on my Wii console. The game is actually playable on the Wii (although we need to make a change in order to get it to work extremely well) through the Internet Channel. Any typing based things don't work quite as well, as you have to click a screen-based keyboard to type, but that's only a minor inconvenience. It's crazy stuff.
Progress Report
1. Completed chat interface for new game this evening.
2. Discussed implementation details of other features with Matt.
3. Developed a massive case of insomnia.
4. Fought off a bout of optimism for the game's progress (James is the optimism department).
All in all, productive. Next, I'll be folding in the character sheet (that is, inventory/stats). |
| Update: 5/15/08, 2:09 AM CDT - Bob |
Devteam Casts True Resurrection on The Realms of Loria.
We have cast True Resurrection on our development. Seriously, if I could show all of you the current progress we've made, I would. A good portion of the work so far has been done by Matt, but let's just say that I put in my two cents. A good portion of the work I've been doing is more on the design side rather than the development side.
Allow me to walk you through our old coding practices:
Year 1: James thinks of interesting feature, attempts to code it, fails, I fix it.
Year 2: James or I think of interesting feature, code it, and debug it.
Year 3: Same as year 2, except there's more code to debug, and Matt's involved.
Year 4: Same as year 3, except even more code.
Year 5: Think of feature, think of the work involved and the code that will have to be waded through to make sure everything works, shoot self, reraise, forget about it.
Year 6(This year): Design features and interaction at Saturday dev meetings, divide code into modules, code during Monday dev meetings (and throughout the week, if you so desire), speak to another person and work out design issues before developing any new feature, keep your head from exploding.
Essentially, we've got the equivalent of Build 4 running under the new system. Almost. There's a slight chance that we would have the game in its current state completely converted to the new system by Monday, at which point we would be taking some testers.
Profitable Diversions
Sometimes my brain is just so full of zeroes and ones, data, that I forget that I'm still a human. It is these times when I feel it is best to take an artistic break. I'll play my guitar, watch some stuff, write in blogs (rarely this one...), whatever. Sometimes, however these diversions lead to interesting things for the game. The greatest examples of these include the health bars, my quests of the week (including the infamous mirror quest), and Torrentia's music (which most people, of course, don't hear).
Well, I did something else like that tonight. I just made some image buttons for the game. Yes, it's not much, but I was impressed with myself. Anyways, I think I'll claim chat next. |
| Update: 1/17/07, 3:08 PM CST - Bob |
Ok, ok, ok. So the Christmas season hasn't been good to us. Things are going slow here because I have research to do, for my 'job'. It's ugly. That being said, there are a few things for me to discuss.
At this last dev meeting, we pretty much decided that we needed to revamp, in its entirety, the whole game. Well... some of it will stick around, but the idea here is, this game was coded in the code-and-fix style. Right now, there's code in the game that I have no idea what it's doing there. So, the game needs a redesign. And along with that, we're changing battle mechanics and things like that. We're going to change the 5 basic stats to 8 basic stats (4 physical and 4 mental) and mess everything up. The main thing that our game was and is lacking is DESIGN. We got none of that.
On another note, Matt and I are currently investigating locking methods within SQL in order to prevent concurrency exploits, which will pretty much fix 90% of the exploits in the game.
Advanced class teaser will not be seen this update... because I am being forced to write it. |
| Update: 11/18/06, 3:37 PM CST - Bob |
Well, I think it's time for another devblog update.
Today, I did some security-related things. For example, changed the authentication method used by the game. Won't go into much more detail than that. Secondly, I did a little more input verification on the game itself. It's some cool stuff.
And now, for another advanced class teaser:
Fatespinner (TP): In addition to their natural stealth, and psionic ablities, a fatespinner has unlocked the secrets of several previously unknown artifacts, each of which can have powerful, or devastating, effects, to the user or the target, based on a random chance. All is not left to luck, however, as the fatespinner can, as he progresses, exert more and more control over the forces of chance.
Alright. Well, the next thing I have to do, is beat The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. |
| Update: 10/27/06, 6:56 PM CDT - Bob |
Alright. So, there have been concerns about monster treasure drops, and the like. I have been doing some design work on the new treasure table, which will be a part of the new item revamp. (Which in turn, will lead to advanced classes, and the wipe. Yes, it's coming.) So, here are my new proposed things:
1) Treasures will no longer be thrown into the monster's inventory. If we want a monster to have potions, we'll give them to them.
2) The thief's "steal" ability will be made actually useful, in that we will associate items or a list of items with given monsters, which could potentially result in items which can ONLY be found from stealing.
3) Instead of the amount of treasure increasing exponentially, we will, instead, have the amount of treasures be smaller, but the quality of the treasure will be appropriate to the level of the encounter.
4) Some items will become non-transferrable (say, some items you can get from quests... we'd like for everyone to do the quest, you know?)
Those are some of the ideas I have now. If you'd like to give me some feedback, post on the message board, for now. There will be a blog comment option soon.
And now, for the first installment in what I shall call "Bob's Advanced Class Teasers." Most people now know that the classes themselves come from combining two of the base classes (or combining a base class with itself). There are six base classes, (F,M,C,T,D,P), and so all combinations thereof are (FF,FM,FC,FT,FD,FP,MM,MC,MT,MD,MP,CC,CT,CD,CP,TT,TD,TP,DD,DP,PP). With every new devblog post, I will be posting a "teaser" description (along with the official name) of one of these classes. And... the random number generator tells me:
Soulknife (FP): The soulknife is the perfection of mind and body, the fusion of the metaphysical with the physical. In addition to having access to psionic powers, the soulknife will be able to call into existence a weapon based on the powers of his own mind. As the soulknife progresses in power, he can build his blade to his exact specifications, becoming quite a devastating threat.
There we go. Tomorrow is the monthly official dev meeting. Things will get done. |
| Update: 10/18/06, 9:52 PM CDT - Bob |
Hello. I'm Bob, and I'm an MMORPG-aholic. Seriously. I'm going to attribute 50% of the lack of updates recently to me and Matt spending time in a little place I like to call Vana'diel. (That's FFXI for those of you spoiled on WoW). Anyways, here's what I've got on my plate:
Item Revamp (HUGE thing)
Advanced Classes (21 Classes of AWESOME)
More Guild Stuff (Politics, Joint Projects)
A Super-Secret Thing That Is More Awesome Than You Can Imagine (Hint: It has to do with battles)
I'll start posting progress updates as often as I make progress. |
| Update: 10/17/06, 7:53 AM CDT - Bob |
| This is Bob's Developer's Blog. |
|
