Okay, so my goal had been to make some kind of update or fix or whatever to the server every day in August, and I was going to call it "The Month of Updates" or something grand like that. Unfortunately, the graphics card on my laptop gave out on me last Saturday night, so I wasn't able to make those last two days. Still, I did update 29 days in a row, which I do think is quite an achievement! At any rate, I finally got my laptop fixed this morning (That is, Sept 3) so I am finally back in business!
That's the majority of what I wanted to post about, just an update on my situation. There weren't any huge new features, but I did do some work since the last post. Mostly it was bug fixes, but I did add in a "Heal" Effect. Skills with "Heal" effect will require a target, but not a combat target. The specifics on the implementation for this are still a little unclear, but I'm sure I'll work something out. At any rate, skills like "heal soandso" -- in other words, non-combat skills with a target -- are now possible. Previously, the system was only prepared to handle basic combat-type (Or, as previously mentioned, powerup-type) skills.
That's basically it.
Server version: 10.6.0.2 alpha
Friday, September 4, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
More progress
I have continued to work on the server a little bit every day, making this the 26th straight day of updates!
I haven't done a whole lot, and most updates have been quite small. But, there has still been progress. Adding/removing friends is now in, for one. I've also been working on a few behind-the-scenes features that will help speed up room creation and such. I've also "finished" the Scripting system, adding the last few bits that I'd had planned. More interestingly to the user, I have added the "pose" command (like "emote" in some games), which lets you describe an action your character does (for use in role playing, mostly). Furthermore, you can now look at NPCs and other players, and there is a (as of yet unmodifiable) field for a custom description. This also lets you see how much health someone has left, in case you want to heal them, for example.
Last, I went back and did a bit more work on the Skills system. I won't go too much into the details, but skills that have a lasting effect get stored differently now, allowing for Effects that cause damage over time, for example.
That's about it.
Server version: 10.2.3.4 alpha
I haven't done a whole lot, and most updates have been quite small. But, there has still been progress. Adding/removing friends is now in, for one. I've also been working on a few behind-the-scenes features that will help speed up room creation and such. I've also "finished" the Scripting system, adding the last few bits that I'd had planned. More interestingly to the user, I have added the "pose" command (like "emote" in some games), which lets you describe an action your character does (for use in role playing, mostly). Furthermore, you can now look at NPCs and other players, and there is a (as of yet unmodifiable) field for a custom description. This also lets you see how much health someone has left, in case you want to heal them, for example.
Last, I went back and did a bit more work on the Skills system. I won't go too much into the details, but skills that have a lasting effect get stored differently now, allowing for Effects that cause damage over time, for example.
That's about it.
Server version: 10.2.3.4 alpha
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Friends
This may not be the last update today, but I decided to take a break and go ahead and talk about what I've done.
At long last, I've gone to work on the Friends List. While I haven't bothered with adding and removing friends yet -- it should be fairly trivial -- the friends list is working, as is private chat.
Private chat is basically a feature of the interface, and an extension to the "tell" command. If someone is your friend, you can open a private chat window and talk with them in there, using a (somewhat) nice graphic interface, much (read: vaguely) like those used in AIM or MSN messenger. Instead of having to type "tell soandso" all the time, you can just chat like normal. Another nice use for this is that you don't have to worry about your conversation getting lost if you get caught up in a hectic battle with lots of stuff scrolling by on your screen -- it will be separate in your nice little chat window.
Right now the tells only show up in a window if you have the window open already, but eventually I plan to set it up so that when you get a tell from a friend, the text will be hilighted somehow, and you can click on it to pull it into a private chat window.
That's about it.
Server version: 8.11.3.0 alpha
At long last, I've gone to work on the Friends List. While I haven't bothered with adding and removing friends yet -- it should be fairly trivial -- the friends list is working, as is private chat.
Private chat is basically a feature of the interface, and an extension to the "tell" command. If someone is your friend, you can open a private chat window and talk with them in there, using a (somewhat) nice graphic interface, much (read: vaguely) like those used in AIM or MSN messenger. Instead of having to type "tell soandso" all the time, you can just chat like normal. Another nice use for this is that you don't have to worry about your conversation getting lost if you get caught up in a hectic battle with lots of stuff scrolling by on your screen -- it will be separate in your nice little chat window.
Right now the tells only show up in a window if you have the window open already, but eventually I plan to set it up so that when you get a tell from a friend, the text will be hilighted somehow, and you can click on it to pull it into a private chat window.
That's about it.
Server version: 8.11.3.0 alpha
Powerups!
Today has one of the most updates to the server of any, ever. Maybe even the most. Be sure to check it out in the version number. It's pretty sweet.
But that's not what's exciting about this update. What is exciting is that I've added several Effects, which are the backbone of the custom skills system. Effects are what make skills do what they do. For example, if you have a Skill that's supposed to, say, be some fancy sword technique, it would have a Damage Effect. If you have a skill that would attack someone with a poisoned dagger, you would have Damage Effect and a Poison Effect.
Now, I don't have Poison yet, but I do have Stun. Stun can be used to prevent the enemy from attacking you for a few turns, giving you time to heal or just get in a couple extra attacks. In addition, perhaps more interestingly, I have StatBoost and StatMultiplier. These two are for use only on Powerup skills, which is where the title of this post came from.
A Powerup skill is one which temporarily boosts your power, as its name implies. If you have seen Dragonball or Bleach, you can think of these sort of skills like Super Saiyajin, or Bankai. Well, these sort of skills are now possible as of this update. And, it gets saved correctly over sessions as well -- if you are powered-up when you log off, you should be totally powered-up when you log back in!
Less interestingly, I added the "alist" command, which lists all race skills that you can learn, with the powerlevel requirement, if there is one. I just figured it might be useful.
That's about it.
Server version: 8.10.9.7
But that's not what's exciting about this update. What is exciting is that I've added several Effects, which are the backbone of the custom skills system. Effects are what make skills do what they do. For example, if you have a Skill that's supposed to, say, be some fancy sword technique, it would have a Damage Effect. If you have a skill that would attack someone with a poisoned dagger, you would have Damage Effect and a Poison Effect.
Now, I don't have Poison yet, but I do have Stun. Stun can be used to prevent the enemy from attacking you for a few turns, giving you time to heal or just get in a couple extra attacks. In addition, perhaps more interestingly, I have StatBoost and StatMultiplier. These two are for use only on Powerup skills, which is where the title of this post came from.
A Powerup skill is one which temporarily boosts your power, as its name implies. If you have seen Dragonball or Bleach, you can think of these sort of skills like Super Saiyajin, or Bankai. Well, these sort of skills are now possible as of this update. And, it gets saved correctly over sessions as well -- if you are powered-up when you log off, you should be totally powered-up when you log back in!
Less interestingly, I added the "alist" command, which lists all race skills that you can learn, with the powerlevel requirement, if there is one. I just figured it might be useful.
That's about it.
Server version: 8.10.9.7
Monday, August 17, 2009
Small update
Another small update, because there's not a whole lot of visible changes. A lot has changed under the hood, though, with a nearly complete redesign of one of the basic data storage items, to be more flexible and easier to use.
In addition, the issue of multiple people fighting the same enemy has been fixed, as well as another bizarre bug that I discovered the other day. There was a little bit of reworking with the combat system to accommodate this, but it was for the better, and I won't go into details.
Also, as a minor point, if someone sends you a 'tell,' you can simply use 'reply' to respond to them, instead of having to use another tell. This is pretty much a basic command that I just forgot to implement, and remembered it the other day.
That's about it. This marks the 17th day of consistent updates!
Server version: 8.9.1.4
In addition, the issue of multiple people fighting the same enemy has been fixed, as well as another bizarre bug that I discovered the other day. There was a little bit of reworking with the combat system to accommodate this, but it was for the better, and I won't go into details.
Also, as a minor point, if someone sends you a 'tell,' you can simply use 'reply' to respond to them, instead of having to use another tell. This is pretty much a basic command that I just forgot to implement, and remembered it the other day.
That's about it. This marks the 17th day of consistent updates!
Server version: 8.9.1.4
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Quick (but interesting) Update
Power gaining is now IN! I think I'm pretty happy with the formula, but more testing will be necessary once I've gotten more done overall anyway, so further testing on this will wait. I just thought this was exciting, so I posted.
Server version: 8.7.1.3 alpha
Server version: 8.7.1.3 alpha
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Doors
Not a major update in terms of obvious content, but still interesting. Doors have now been implemented, including locks and keys. Also, characters now have a gender, which will help output not refer to people in the neutral "they" or "them," but rather "she" or "him." I think this lends to a more involved experience. Other than that, the usual handful of bug fixes.
The real update is not visible, but it's still exciting. All of the text output-related code (including part of the scripting system) have been updated to use a new, more efficient system. Not only will it improve the speed of the server in general (a very central part to this game is text output!) but it should reduce bugs, and increase development speed, as well as reduce memory usage. Probably not by a lot, in any of the cases, but enough to make me happy, which is important :) It's unfortunate that there's not a whole lot I can say about it besides this, but that's the nature of programming some times. I still think it's exciting.
In other news, I have made updates to the server every day for the past two weeks. And, today was my last day of work. With any luck, some updates coming up will be even more substantial!
Server version: 8.6.0.1 alpha
The real update is not visible, but it's still exciting. All of the text output-related code (including part of the scripting system) have been updated to use a new, more efficient system. Not only will it improve the speed of the server in general (a very central part to this game is text output!) but it should reduce bugs, and increase development speed, as well as reduce memory usage. Probably not by a lot, in any of the cases, but enough to make me happy, which is important :) It's unfortunate that there's not a whole lot I can say about it besides this, but that's the nature of programming some times. I still think it's exciting.
In other news, I have made updates to the server every day for the past two weeks. And, today was my last day of work. With any luck, some updates coming up will be even more substantial!
Server version: 8.6.0.1 alpha
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