Map seems to be coming along nicely, though. I dislike the kind of harsh cuts into battle mode, maybe smooth the zooming in part a little. Same for the camera circling around the battlefield.
The ability to fade in/out for a specific player was added in a recent patch (1.5, maybe?), and I totally forgot about it until you just said that. So I'll fix that up for sure, it's a great suggestion, I totally agree it's a bit choppy. ^.^
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I think I've asked you guys pretty everything about the project. It definitely seems it'll be very cool and I just wanted to say good luck again ;)
Hopefully that will be soon. :P On a side note, we will (hopefully) have some good stuff to show you guys soon(ish). Keep an eye out.
I'm reposting the old to-do list with stuff updated so you can get an idea of our progress (crossed out stuff is totally done):
Finish Moves (Maity's Almost Done with those)
Set up move lists for existing starmon (Should be fairly quick once moves are done) and then create more starmon (That's more work but should be way easier than all the moves, since it's mostly just filling out data tables, without much actual trigger or data work)
Set up trainer types for the world generator to draw from (Again, this is a very quick process once we have all the starmon actually finished. We just need to say which trainers can use which types of starmon, and the rest is handled automatically)
This is super easy to do, we just haven't done it yet
Set up all 100 Arena encounters (or at least a good chunk of them). Should be very quick once the trainers are done- its just a list of trainers that we've already set up, plus some boss battles.
Again, it's pretty easy to do, we just haven't done it yet.
Set up zones (We just need to create the terrain itself- the game will automatically fill every zone with the appropriate randomized trainers, starmon, items, mini-quests, etc...)
Moz is hard at work on the zones, and they're coming along nicely :) We have two (ish) more that we definitely want in for the alpha, with 3-4 zones currently terrained.
Create quests for each zone so the world isn't empty (This will be a more time consuming process, but most of the groundwork, like the saving system and quest-battle system, is already finished. Most of the work will come from designing the quest ideas and battles)
This is the most time consuming part, but we're working on it still
Create "random events" to populate the world (These are randomly placed mini-quests around the world to "spice it up" a bit. They're not super important for an alpha test, but they'll certainly give you something to do, which is important for the real release)
There will be few, if any, of these in the alpha. They're not too important
Finalize the "Arena Setup" system. This is what changes the battle arena's terrain to match the zone you're in. So the battles in the forest have grass and trees, battles on the beach have sand and rocks, etc.... The basics for the system are in, but it needs some more work.
Add a better PvP system (We have a PvP system that works, but it's very barebones. I'd like to add some sort of progression, or PvP rank. Maybe even some type of global PvP arena if we can pull it off)
We had some hopes for global PvP, but blizzard just recently said using a server program to handle this would violate ToS. So it definitely won't be here for alpha. Maybe we'll figure something out for later.
Polish (A few more dialogs need to be made presentable before any type of open testing)
We've got more dialog art finished, but there's still a little more to go. The most important stuff is done though.
Are you having areas that are infinitely weather affected like pokemon? I thought that was a little unrealistic. To make weather even more special can you change which NPCs appear in the zones based on weather and maybe have weather dependent quests? For example have an umbrella as a key item and you can only give it to 1 NPC in rainy whether to get a particular reward :P.
I wasn't planning on making any zones "permanently rainy" or anything like that. Some zones will definitely have more frequent weather than others (the forest area has frequent rains and the desert has frequent sandstorms), but we probably won't have any permanent weather conditions. And yes, we plan on making at least some type of weather-specific content, although no such content is in yet. That could be rare starmon that only surface when it's rainy, or special quest NPC's like you described.
I don't suppose you or Zelda will do what the internet has done for pokemon, which is setting up a searchable database of starmon which we can sort by moves, types, name, base stats, zone, etc. If you do I'll be extra happy ;)
I know enough about web development to create a simple database like that, but if we went the website route we'd probably want a forum and as well. In that case, we'd probably go with a forum-hosting service that doesn't require us to develop the whole thing ourselves. So the only way I would foresee us developing a database like that would be if this map really catches on, since something like that would require both time for development and money for the hosting, licenses, and domains. So we'd probably wait until the map is finished up before even considering that, even though it would be totally awesome :P That said, we do realize that it's probably not going to happen, or at least it won't happen for quite a while, so we put a lot more information into the stardex than you'll find in the pokedex. You actually get a complete moves list as well as a zone list for each starmon within the game. So hopefully that will make a web-based tool less necessary. There is not a way to sort at the moment, but that's a good idea, so I'll see if it's possible. If it's something that's feasible within the existing engine I'll throw it on a to-do list.
Cool stuff. When it comes to breeding can you make it easier and less grindy to get our desired nature? Instead of the everstone and ditto thing how about there's a 50% chance the mum or dad's nature is passed down? Even better would be a guarunteed way to get some nature.
Breeding is not currently a planned feature. That said, we are going to be implementing what's I'll call a "DNA Mixer" for now. Basically, it's a lab which is able to modify any starmon's DNA for a pretty steep price. You can re-roll a single IV, re-roll all 6 IV's, or re-roll a nature. The price is going to be pretty high, so you definitely can't just re-roll your stats over and over to get the best ones, but it should help you make your favorite starmon just a little bit better. We may put the breeder in later if it's a heavily requested feature, but this make getting your "ideal starmon" much less grindy.
A small update from my end today. I can't remember if we've addressed putting natures into the game previously, but either way, they've been added as of today. They work pretty much the same way as they do in the real game- there are 25 different natures your starmon can have, and 20 of them have some effect on your stats. Each one of those 20 natures increases one stat by 10% but lowers another by 10%. For example, a Jolly starmon has 10% extra speed, but 10% lower special attack. A calm starmon has 10% increased special defense but 10% lower special attack.
This should add another layer of depth when it comes to catching your "perfect starmon", but not add too much complexity. We wanted to make sure the nature's effects were clearly relayed to the player, so we're coloring the increased and decreased stats, and also providing information on what the nature of your starmon actually does.
I also worked on some boring internal stuff. In preparation for the alpha I put in a error reporting feature- Basically when a battle crashes (and although things are working great now, they never go so well for the first multiplayer test) the game saves a chunk of information and variables onto your computer, so you can give that to one of us. It should help us diagnose any problems that show up.
I haven't posted anything too important recently, so I figured I'd give a quick update of what I've been working on. As you saw above, Moz has been working hard to create a beautiful terrain. To make his terrain feel even better, I've implemented a weather system. As you travel around the world, the weather will change over time. This looks awesome, because it actually impacts the environment. If it starts to rain in the forest, for example, the lighting gets much darker, the water level rises, and little puddles start to appear as it continues to rain. It's a small touch, but it's a nice feeling of life that gets added to the world.
Weather also affects the game play itself. For example, if it's raining in the overworld, it's going to be raining in battles as well, so water moves are powered up and some special abilities activate, just like in the games. If you're in the desert and a vicious sandstorm kicks up, your party will begin to take damage the longer you stay in the storm, it becomes hard to see, and sandstorms will also affect moves and apply damage during battle. We haven't totally finished the system, but we'll likely create some unique encounters that only occur during particular weather patterns.
I also added another quest, bringing us to 5 finished sidequests so far, with plenty more on the way.
So do these discounts or deals work for just that merchant or every shop? How about we can get coupons that give us free items of our choosing? I don't want to grind at the battle tower to get enough points to buy earthquake for everyone :P.
For now, the plan is to have a few random events spawn each game. So if you find a particular shopkeeper, his prices might be 75% cheaper than the "standard" price for whatever he's selling, but he doesn't always spawn, and even when he does, it's in a difference place. Or perhaps it's a black market that is only open at night. Something like that. Some random events would be more like mini-quests or battles, but the discount shopkeeper would be one of them.
Haha :) . Now I'm wondering, is the awesome trigger guy, data guy, and models ppl going to be in the game and what are their roles? Does anyone mind being professor Oak or the mentor? :P
The world is fairly empty now, but when we're closer to release, if you explore the world closely enough you'd be surprised what (and who) you'll be able to find :P
Ah, fair enuf. In that case how about something lighter? I do like the idea of making buddies in the game so maybe we can borrow their starmon at certain times. They'll train their starmon to keep up with your party or the zones you've been travelling in but I was thinking maybe a side quest could be helping these helpers out. For example if you train Brock's geodude, for every 5 levels and you return to him, you'll get like a TM, money, or party exp reward.
Training/borrowing other people's starmon is a neat idea. I'll put in in the idea box :P
I went ahead and put in the quest log today, that was a great idea. It was getting a little tricky to tell what you had to do at times, so this should help alot. It's nothing fancy, just a list of your active quests that tell you what to do next, but it really helps. Maity also made awesome artwork for some more UI elements, which we'll show off once they're properly in-game.
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Hiker trainers. They'll point you to side quests at places like mountains or wherever there's less people likely to be travelling through (or maybe some remote location).
Ruins maniacs. They give you puzzle minigames that when completed they'll share hidden locations like caves or an island.
A certain awesome terrainer may or may not be placed into the game and have this role exactly. But don't tell him I said that, he doesn't know yet.
Law enforcer. Help officer Jenny defeat specific trainers like biker gangs or team rocket trainers and you can return to her office in the city for money. Kinda like being an assassin for hire but starmon are your weapons and the target doesn't end up killed :P.
Organised rebels. Defeat specific trainers (just like the law enforcer) except you kind of run as a small gang. Based on the difficulty you return to the black market to gain an item.
No specifics for now, but there might be some stuff like this. We'll let you know.
Charismtic protagonist. Defeating certain trainers makes them want to join your party. Kinda like Ash, Misty, and Brock. You also get to choose who to bring along (when you want) for 2v2 battles or other team activities. This extends to milestone trainers or someone related to them. The benched party members hang out in the city or their usual locations. They also train their own starmon their own ways so you can't control that.
As neat as that is, it probably won't happen. 2v2's are definitely not coming during the alpha or beta.... There's a small chance they COULD be added in a post-release patch, but if they were added at all, it would likely be in a major game-changing patch or expansion. It's just that the current way the system is set up would make it very difficult to add 2v2 support. If I tried, it would certainly take at least several months with the amount of time I have available.
That's some interesting info about Cipher. How about in battles with them they occasionally pull out their gun to do reasonable damage to your starmon on top of their starmon's attacks. Maybe even have a yugioh thing where Cipher will occasionally attack the trainer during battles. Honestly, why has no one directed their starmon's attacks at the trainers? Without them, their starmon will roll over and die :P.
I'm going to just reiterate the following quote instead of responding in full. We hope you'll like "it" when we reveal "it"- you might even be able to guess what "it" is ^.^ But that's for later.
To be absolutely honest, I feel as if an alpha/beta test is incoming. We've got a LOT of stuff implemented, we just need to add more zones and quests, and I need to do some more data work for a couple of the quests which will hopefully be a pleasant surprise for you guys ;) I'd give us another month though - Can't really estimate well how quickly this phase of development will go, as we heavily rely on each other (We need Moz's terrain to make quests, and we need me to... Well, I kinda do whatever the fuck I want and no one really relies on me too much. We need Moz to make the terrain, then Zelda and I start adding quests, and I set up anything special necessary for the quests)
^ I'm emphasizing this. We really are making progress. Moz needs to create a few more of our starting zones, I need to then populate those zones with quests, and maity needs to....well, like he said, he'll do whatever he wants :P We definitely do rely on each other, and real life stuff can get in the way, but things are looking good....We'll just say that our guess for Alpha is now just a regular old "soon" instead of Blizzard's "soonTM".
And like Maity said, soulfilcher, we really do appreciate what you've already provided. It might not seem like much, but just a few custom assets go a very long way.
First of all, sorry I haven't posted much this week. I've been involved in a team at my school and I haven't been getting home until after 1 AM this whole week. I'm also running on about 4 hours of sleep right now, and I'm going to attempt to respond to the week's postings, so this post might be a little discursive.
Well, getting night-time screenshots was problematic: these two eggheads implemented some kind of trolling day/night system where day lasts for 3 hours game-time and night lasts about a minute, meaning that even with a speed up function it was tricky.
Right, so basically, we HAD a day/night system that was working, but then we realized it didn't work with player-specific lighting. So I took out the dynamic lighting and replaced it with static lighting for either day or night. But then blizzard said they'd be fixing the issue, so we putthe dynamic 24-hour lighting back in and left it non-functional, waiting for the fix. And then blizzard said that they changed their minds and it would be coming in a future patch who-knows-when. So the lighting is currently messed up, but it's an easy thing to fix, we just need to remove the time-of-day lighting and replace it with the static day/night lighting.
Nooo! I actually prefer the night, and those screenies look nicer than day IMO. Day looks ok, but I like night better. Though, IDK why the footpaths are light up by street lamps, it gives a nice park effect.
The intended time duration is the same between day and night. 6 AM to 6 PM is daylight, and 6 PM to 6 AM is night. The cycle will be shorter (I don't remember the time specifically, but it's 5-10 minutes for each phase).
All of this is Route 1; some at day-time, some at night-time. The lighting is still WIP, but it'll give you an estimate. The zone is now about 99% done, with me only wanting to make some smaller adjustments that'll pop up later.
Moz's terrain is awesome :P With any luck, we should have at least a few mostly terrained zones to explore. Now that the terrain is done, we'll go ahead and start adding stuff to do (mostly quests, item boxes, trainers, and random events). This first zone is sort of our "tutorial zone". It's the only zone, other than the city, which you are able to enter until you complete the introduction quest (it's basically requires you to pick your starting starmon, then catch a wild starmon during a tutorial-battle). So it's not too big and will likely have no trainers to fight, making it an easy and safe place to get started.
@TheAlmaity: Go A teleporter huh? I'll think of something. Made me remember of Chrono Trigger... I wonder if your teleporter had a chance to malfunction and send the player to a new secret zone, with some never-before-seen starmon... that would be an awesome secret in this map ;-)
Yes, a teleporter model would be fantastic. We're using a sensor tower as the temporary model, and even thought I put a lot of work into making teleporting super cool, the sensor tower just doesn't sell it as well as I'd like. I literally spent like 20 minutes just teleporting around because I loved the way it felt. If you're able to animate the model at all, a "charging up" animation would be pretty cool. If not, don't worry about it at all, we can add some kind of sparks via other actors.
@JacktheArcher: Go
Just took a look at the triggers that handle our quest system, and I must say Zelda did a really neat job ^.^ 90% of the actions necessary for quests seem to be the conversation box related ones :) He even made the phasing system really easy to use!
Yup, I just overhauled the sidequest system, so it's going to be (hopefully) very easy to add quests. It's not totally "redone" yet, but it's already way easier to add stuff. We just enter the info in the user type (requirements, some info, xp rewards, etc....), copy the "template" quest trigger that I haven't actually made yet, set up the dialog, and then create any quest-specific units or events we might need.
I was thinking the mentor could be more accessible if broken up and might save players from teleporting/flying back to the same town all the time. I like the NPC gathering idea and will there be a random amount and types at each place (just to make it more realistic and interesting)? Yay for a quest log like thing.
I'll reiterate what TheAlmaity said- we're going to have ONE city, the big "arena city" at the center of the map. There just isn't enough room to put in loads of towns, and we'd rather have more fun content rather than an extra city to talk to people in. We're definitely going to have some "outpost" types of places where you can find trainers to talk to, pick up quests, heal starmon, teleport, and buy items. You'll find places like a small farm, an outpost in the desert, a campsite in the forest....stuff like that.
I understand I might be asking a little too much and have been in that same position. When people really like your project they suggest lots of wild and interesting ideas. From the dev's point of view it's a little overwhelming since we have alot of work to do and our own ideas to manage. Just give the word and I'll cool my jets :P
I understand that from both sides. Obviously we're not able to take every suggestion and implement it, but we really do look at them all, and we really do appreciate it. A lot of times as a developer, you see your project as "your baby", and it takes an outside pair of eyes to point out obvious flaws. I know for runecraft we had this super weird alternate currency and had this placement system that was annoying and confusing, and Eivyn came along and pointed out how stupid those systems were.
Yea, but the point is we now have TWO ACCOUNTS for each region (Mine and Zelda's) :p
Basically that. If Maity was working on the project alone, he'd have the same amount of space as before, but could publish to each region. He'd be able to publish up to 20 MB (I think that was the limit) in each region, just like before, except now he doesn't need to purchase different accounts for different regions. But since there's two of us, BOTH of us can publish to US, and BOTH of us publish to EU, etc.... It essentially doubles the amount of space we've got, and/ allows us to get the project up-to-date on every region easily. Even though cross-region dependencies are not possible, cross-account dependencies are. So maity could publish the actual game, and I publish all the dependencies, for example.
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SoulFilcher's models are looking good :) Ignore the sensor tower poking out in the back, that's our temporary model for the teleporter. The PC box isn't totally finished (pokedex stat bars will be added later) but it looked so awesome I had to take a picture :P
Today I put in a feature we've wanted to get done for a while now, which we're calling the mentor. Basically, you've got this old mentor who gives advice to young trainers. The point of the mentor is to give you some direction in the game, but only if you want it. You can ask him basic questions (where can I find water starmon, how do I save, how do teleporters work, etc....), but you can also ask him for things to do. He's very well connected and can point you in the right direction. The mentor will find a quest somewhere in the world that's appropriate for your level and tell you about it. This is intended to give some direction to players who don't like the "Do whatever you want" approach taken by some open-world games, but still allowing experienced players to go wherever they want and do whichever quests they want.
EDIT: Here is a test for the center PC. I took one of the Castanar's monitors and removed the small side screens. Also it is easy to modify the texture that is applied to the screen so it can really look like you're using a Starmon computer.
Like TheAlmaity said, it looks awesome :D I know I'm just repeating what he said, but I really wanted to say something ^.^
@BladeOfAiur: Go
Helping a novice bug catcher...I like it :P
Wow, the new trigger editor runs fantastic on my computer.... With the update finished, I can get a lot of stuff done a lot faster ^.^ So I come bearing some nice updates! I'll list em off:
First, the Teleporter System. Unlike in pokemon, our zones are filled with randomly generated trainers and encounters each time you play. This is great for replay value, but it also means that having to trek through an area you've already explored is frustrating, because you have to fight through a new set of trainers each game. We're going to add the option of using fly, but we don't want to completely wreck the game for somebody who doesn't have (or doesn't want to use) fly. Luckily for you, teleporter systems have been installed in most major StarCenters and towns. Once you visit one and turn it on for the first time, it's unlocked forever. Visiting a teleporter machine will allow you to warp to any other previously unlocked teleporter for a small fee. That said, fly is still a better alternative if you manage to get it. In order to use teleporter, you actually have to walk to the nearest one and then you can warp. With fly, you will be able to warp to any unlocked town from anywhere, not just a from teleporters. It's like having to use public transportation verses having your own car. ^.^ We think this creates a nice system for fast travel, because while fly is certainly the superior alternative, you can still get around relatively quickly using teleporter machines.
Second, a visual update in form of the Follower System. Whichever starmon is in your first slot will appear alongside your character in the world, and follow you around (and other players can see this too, it's not instanced like some quest NPCs). It's not anything ground breaking, but we think it's a fun little touch. And of course, if people are annoyed by it, we'll add an option to force the poor little guy back into it's capture core.
We also realized that we'll need to resize some of the starmon...
So, about the blocking guy thing... Yeeeeahhhh, ah, not so thrilled that you did that, but whatevs. Was always annoying when someone blocked me from going past Hearthome city to get a ghost type until I beat the gym leader. My least favorite aspect of Pokemon in a nutshell.
Yeah, but it's important so that the game works, so it had to be there ^.^ We don't plan on overusing it, but since there's no way for us to "instance" pathing (make pathing different for each player), it's the only real way we can block off certain areas.
Ps. Will you be able to link trade? My seccond least favorite aspect was when my graveler wouldn't evolve until I traded it...
Yes, you will be able to trade (although obviously we don't use the old link cable ;) ). The trade system is actually finished, but we haven't placed the "trade machine" into the world yet. But it works just like regular pokemon- you offer a starmon, the other person offers one, you both press a confirm button, and they're swapped (along with any held items they may have). And, just like in the game, starmon that you've received from trades gain experience 50% faster than they would otherwise. And of course, trading a starmon will not remove it from your stardex. As of now we don't have any restrictions for what level you have to be to trade(the original games made traded starmon disobey you until certain gyms were cleared), although we might add some kind of restriction if it's needed for balance.
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You know those annoying people in the original pokemon games who stood in front of doors and yelled at you if you tried to pass? Those are exactly what you wanted in starmon, right? Good, because we've got those now (I know it's not an exciting screenshot, but it's better than lines of code, right? :D).
I got a few things done today- mostly bugfixes and internal improvements. And I started on a small little miniquest- you can't use the shop in town until after you've helped the shopkeeper find the door keys.
I should also mention how we're handling stuff like that (quests with multiple world "states"). Basically, we're "phasing" the world to suit each player's progress. So for somebody who's beaten the quest, the shop door will be open and they can enter freely, but for a new player, that door will be locked and he can't enter. The world itself stays the same, but you will see some different stuff depending on your quest progress. As things intensify later in the game, it means we can do stuff to make your choices as a player feel more important. For one player a town might be full of life and happy people, while another player sees the same town destroyed and taken over by enemies, because of which quests they've completed so far. We think this is a nice way to make your progress feel more important.
The ability to fade in/out for a specific player was added in a recent patch (1.5, maybe?), and I totally forgot about it until you just said that. So I'll fix that up for sure, it's a great suggestion, I totally agree it's a bit choppy. ^.^
Hopefully that will be soon. :P On a side note, we will (hopefully) have some good stuff to show you guys soon(ish). Keep an eye out.
I'm reposting the old to-do list with stuff updated so you can get an idea of our progress (crossed out stuff is totally done):
Finish Moves (Maity's Almost Done with those)Set up move lists for existing starmon (Should be fairly quick once moves are done) and then create more starmon (That's more work but should be way easier than all the moves, since it's mostly just filling out data tables, without much actual trigger or data work)Finalize the "Arena Setup" system. This is what changes the battle arena's terrain to match the zone you're in. So the battles in the forest have grass and trees, battles on the beach have sand and rocks, etc.... The basics for the system are in, but it needs some more work.I wasn't planning on making any zones "permanently rainy" or anything like that. Some zones will definitely have more frequent weather than others (the forest area has frequent rains and the desert has frequent sandstorms), but we probably won't have any permanent weather conditions. And yes, we plan on making at least some type of weather-specific content, although no such content is in yet. That could be rare starmon that only surface when it's rainy, or special quest NPC's like you described.
I know enough about web development to create a simple database like that, but if we went the website route we'd probably want a forum and as well. In that case, we'd probably go with a forum-hosting service that doesn't require us to develop the whole thing ourselves. So the only way I would foresee us developing a database like that would be if this map really catches on, since something like that would require both time for development and money for the hosting, licenses, and domains. So we'd probably wait until the map is finished up before even considering that, even though it would be totally awesome :P That said, we do realize that it's probably not going to happen, or at least it won't happen for quite a while, so we put a lot more information into the stardex than you'll find in the pokedex. You actually get a complete moves list as well as a zone list for each starmon within the game. So hopefully that will make a web-based tool less necessary. There is not a way to sort at the moment, but that's a good idea, so I'll see if it's possible. If it's something that's feasible within the existing engine I'll throw it on a to-do list.
Breeding is not currently a planned feature. That said, we are going to be implementing what's I'll call a "DNA Mixer" for now. Basically, it's a lab which is able to modify any starmon's DNA for a pretty steep price. You can re-roll a single IV, re-roll all 6 IV's, or re-roll a nature. The price is going to be pretty high, so you definitely can't just re-roll your stats over and over to get the best ones, but it should help you make your favorite starmon just a little bit better. We may put the breeder in later if it's a heavily requested feature, but this make getting your "ideal starmon" much less grindy.
A small update from my end today. I can't remember if we've addressed putting natures into the game previously, but either way, they've been added as of today. They work pretty much the same way as they do in the real game- there are 25 different natures your starmon can have, and 20 of them have some effect on your stats. Each one of those 20 natures increases one stat by 10% but lowers another by 10%. For example, a Jolly starmon has 10% extra speed, but 10% lower special attack. A calm starmon has 10% increased special defense but 10% lower special attack.
This should add another layer of depth when it comes to catching your "perfect starmon", but not add too much complexity. We wanted to make sure the nature's effects were clearly relayed to the player, so we're coloring the increased and decreased stats, and also providing information on what the nature of your starmon actually does.
I also worked on some boring internal stuff. In preparation for the alpha I put in a error reporting feature- Basically when a battle crashes (and although things are working great now, they never go so well for the first multiplayer test) the game saves a chunk of information and variables onto your computer, so you can give that to one of us. It should help us diagnose any problems that show up.
Sorry, I don't have tons of fancy screenshots :/
I haven't posted anything too important recently, so I figured I'd give a quick update of what I've been working on. As you saw above, Moz has been working hard to create a beautiful terrain. To make his terrain feel even better, I've implemented a weather system. As you travel around the world, the weather will change over time. This looks awesome, because it actually impacts the environment. If it starts to rain in the forest, for example, the lighting gets much darker, the water level rises, and little puddles start to appear as it continues to rain. It's a small touch, but it's a nice feeling of life that gets added to the world.
Weather also affects the game play itself. For example, if it's raining in the overworld, it's going to be raining in battles as well, so water moves are powered up and some special abilities activate, just like in the games. If you're in the desert and a vicious sandstorm kicks up, your party will begin to take damage the longer you stay in the storm, it becomes hard to see, and sandstorms will also affect moves and apply damage during battle. We haven't totally finished the system, but we'll likely create some unique encounters that only occur during particular weather patterns.
I also added another quest, bringing us to 5 finished sidequests so far, with plenty more on the way.
For now, the plan is to have a few random events spawn each game. So if you find a particular shopkeeper, his prices might be 75% cheaper than the "standard" price for whatever he's selling, but he doesn't always spawn, and even when he does, it's in a difference place. Or perhaps it's a black market that is only open at night. Something like that. Some random events would be more like mini-quests or battles, but the discount shopkeeper would be one of them.
The world is fairly empty now, but when we're closer to release, if you explore the world closely enough you'd be surprised what (and who) you'll be able to find :P
It's definitely going in the game. You'll like what we're doing here a lot, trust me :P But until Alpha that's all I'll say ^.^
Training/borrowing other people's starmon is a neat idea. I'll put in in the idea box :P
I went ahead and put in the quest log today, that was a great idea. It was getting a little tricky to tell what you had to do at times, so this should help alot. It's nothing fancy, just a list of your active quests that tell you what to do next, but it really helps. Maity also made awesome artwork for some more UI elements, which we'll show off once they're properly in-game.
We're definitely putting those in. Some of the "traveling merchants" will have discount deals and are rare, so stock up if you find them :P
A certain awesome terrainer may or may not be placed into the game and have this role exactly. But don't tell him I said that, he doesn't know yet.
No specifics for now, but there might be some stuff like this. We'll let you know.
As neat as that is, it probably won't happen. 2v2's are definitely not coming during the alpha or beta.... There's a small chance they COULD be added in a post-release patch, but if they were added at all, it would likely be in a major game-changing patch or expansion. It's just that the current way the system is set up would make it very difficult to add 2v2 support. If I tried, it would certainly take at least several months with the amount of time I have available.
I'm going to just reiterate the following quote instead of responding in full. We hope you'll like "it" when we reveal "it"- you might even be able to guess what "it" is ^.^ But that's for later.
Heh, oops. I left you guys alone for just one week and you had to go ahead and make the map amazing without me. :P
^ I'm emphasizing this. We really are making progress. Moz needs to create a few more of our starting zones, I need to then populate those zones with quests, and maity needs to....well, like he said, he'll do whatever he wants :P We definitely do rely on each other, and real life stuff can get in the way, but things are looking good....We'll just say that our guess for Alpha is now just a regular old "soon" instead of Blizzard's "soonTM".
And like Maity said, soulfilcher, we really do appreciate what you've already provided. It might not seem like much, but just a few custom assets go a very long way.
First of all, sorry I haven't posted much this week. I've been involved in a team at my school and I haven't been getting home until after 1 AM this whole week. I'm also running on about 4 hours of sleep right now, and I'm going to attempt to respond to the week's postings, so this post might be a little discursive.
Right, so basically, we HAD a day/night system that was working, but then we realized it didn't work with player-specific lighting. So I took out the dynamic lighting and replaced it with static lighting for either day or night. But then blizzard said they'd be fixing the issue, so we putthe dynamic 24-hour lighting back in and left it non-functional, waiting for the fix. And then blizzard said that they changed their minds and it would be coming in a future patch who-knows-when. So the lighting is currently messed up, but it's an easy thing to fix, we just need to remove the time-of-day lighting and replace it with the static day/night lighting.
The intended time duration is the same between day and night. 6 AM to 6 PM is daylight, and 6 PM to 6 AM is night. The cycle will be shorter (I don't remember the time specifically, but it's 5-10 minutes for each phase).
Moz's terrain is awesome :P With any luck, we should have at least a few mostly terrained zones to explore. Now that the terrain is done, we'll go ahead and start adding stuff to do (mostly quests, item boxes, trainers, and random events). This first zone is sort of our "tutorial zone". It's the only zone, other than the city, which you are able to enter until you complete the introduction quest (it's basically requires you to pick your starting starmon, then catch a wild starmon during a tutorial-battle). So it's not too big and will likely have no trainers to fight, making it an easy and safe place to get started.
Yes, a teleporter model would be fantastic. We're using a sensor tower as the temporary model, and even thought I put a lot of work into making teleporting super cool, the sensor tower just doesn't sell it as well as I'd like. I literally spent like 20 minutes just teleporting around because I loved the way it felt. If you're able to animate the model at all, a "charging up" animation would be pretty cool. If not, don't worry about it at all, we can add some kind of sparks via other actors.
Yup, I just overhauled the sidequest system, so it's going to be (hopefully) very easy to add quests. It's not totally "redone" yet, but it's already way easier to add stuff. We just enter the info in the user type (requirements, some info, xp rewards, etc....), copy the "template" quest trigger that I haven't actually made yet, set up the dialog, and then create any quest-specific units or events we might need.
I'll reiterate what TheAlmaity said- we're going to have ONE city, the big "arena city" at the center of the map. There just isn't enough room to put in loads of towns, and we'd rather have more fun content rather than an extra city to talk to people in. We're definitely going to have some "outpost" types of places where you can find trainers to talk to, pick up quests, heal starmon, teleport, and buy items. You'll find places like a small farm, an outpost in the desert, a campsite in the forest....stuff like that.
I understand that from both sides. Obviously we're not able to take every suggestion and implement it, but we really do look at them all, and we really do appreciate it. A lot of times as a developer, you see your project as "your baby", and it takes an outside pair of eyes to point out obvious flaws. I know for runecraft we had this super weird alternate currency and had this placement system that was annoying and confusing, and Eivyn came along and pointed out how stupid those systems were.
Oh no! I wanted to make a special post for number 4000 but I posted that at like 1 AM when I wasn't paying attention :O
Basically that. If Maity was working on the project alone, he'd have the same amount of space as before, but could publish to each region. He'd be able to publish up to 20 MB (I think that was the limit) in each region, just like before, except now he doesn't need to purchase different accounts for different regions. But since there's two of us, BOTH of us can publish to US, and BOTH of us publish to EU, etc.... It essentially doubles the amount of space we've got, and/ allows us to get the project up-to-date on every region easily. Even though cross-region dependencies are not possible, cross-account dependencies are. So maity could publish the actual game, and I publish all the dependencies, for example.
SoulFilcher's models are looking good :) Ignore the sensor tower poking out in the back, that's our temporary model for the teleporter. The PC box isn't totally finished (pokedex stat bars will be added later) but it looked so awesome I had to take a picture :P
Today I put in a feature we've wanted to get done for a while now, which we're calling the mentor. Basically, you've got this old mentor who gives advice to young trainers. The point of the mentor is to give you some direction in the game, but only if you want it. You can ask him basic questions (where can I find water starmon, how do I save, how do teleporters work, etc....), but you can also ask him for things to do. He's very well connected and can point you in the right direction. The mentor will find a quest somewhere in the world that's appropriate for your level and tell you about it. This is intended to give some direction to players who don't like the "Do whatever you want" approach taken by some open-world games, but still allowing experienced players to go wherever they want and do whichever quests they want.
Like TheAlmaity said, it looks awesome :D I know I'm just repeating what he said, but I really wanted to say something ^.^
@BladeOfAiur: Go Helping a novice bug catcher...I like it :P
Wow, the new trigger editor runs fantastic on my computer.... With the update finished, I can get a lot of stuff done a lot faster ^.^ So I come bearing some nice updates! I'll list em off:
First, the Teleporter System. Unlike in pokemon, our zones are filled with randomly generated trainers and encounters each time you play. This is great for replay value, but it also means that having to trek through an area you've already explored is frustrating, because you have to fight through a new set of trainers each game. We're going to add the option of using fly, but we don't want to completely wreck the game for somebody who doesn't have (or doesn't want to use) fly. Luckily for you, teleporter systems have been installed in most major StarCenters and towns. Once you visit one and turn it on for the first time, it's unlocked forever. Visiting a teleporter machine will allow you to warp to any other previously unlocked teleporter for a small fee. That said, fly is still a better alternative if you manage to get it. In order to use teleporter, you actually have to walk to the nearest one and then you can warp. With fly, you will be able to warp to any unlocked town from anywhere, not just a from teleporters. It's like having to use public transportation verses having your own car. ^.^ We think this creates a nice system for fast travel, because while fly is certainly the superior alternative, you can still get around relatively quickly using teleporter machines.
Second, a visual update in form of the Follower System. Whichever starmon is in your first slot will appear alongside your character in the world, and follow you around (and other players can see this too, it's not instanced like some quest NPCs). It's not anything ground breaking, but we think it's a fun little touch. And of course, if people are annoyed by it, we'll add an option to force the poor little guy back into it's capture core.
We also realized that we'll need to resize some of the starmon...
Yeah, but it's important so that the game works, so it had to be there ^.^ We don't plan on overusing it, but since there's no way for us to "instance" pathing (make pathing different for each player), it's the only real way we can block off certain areas.
Yes, you will be able to trade (although obviously we don't use the old link cable ;) ). The trade system is actually finished, but we haven't placed the "trade machine" into the world yet. But it works just like regular pokemon- you offer a starmon, the other person offers one, you both press a confirm button, and they're swapped (along with any held items they may have). And, just like in the game, starmon that you've received from trades gain experience 50% faster than they would otherwise. And of course, trading a starmon will not remove it from your stardex. As of now we don't have any restrictions for what level you have to be to trade(the original games made traded starmon disobey you until certain gyms were cleared), although we might add some kind of restriction if it's needed for balance.
You know those annoying people in the original pokemon games who stood in front of doors and yelled at you if you tried to pass? Those are exactly what you wanted in starmon, right? Good, because we've got those now (I know it's not an exciting screenshot, but it's better than lines of code, right? :D).
I got a few things done today- mostly bugfixes and internal improvements. And I started on a small little miniquest- you can't use the shop in town until after you've helped the shopkeeper find the door keys.
I should also mention how we're handling stuff like that (quests with multiple world "states"). Basically, we're "phasing" the world to suit each player's progress. So for somebody who's beaten the quest, the shop door will be open and they can enter freely, but for a new player, that door will be locked and he can't enter. The world itself stays the same, but you will see some different stuff depending on your quest progress. As things intensify later in the game, it means we can do stuff to make your choices as a player feel more important. For one player a town might be full of life and happy people, while another player sees the same town destroyed and taken over by enemies, because of which quests they've completed so far. We think this is a nice way to make your progress feel more important.