Possible MMO
- Thread starter Ellie
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Wow, this thread is quite out of date. I should update it more.
Todays work was levels.
So there are four Combat disciplines. These are invoked by using Skill types.
Fighter: generally melee abilities.
Archer: long-distance abilities.
Mage: spells that affect the enemy.
Healer: spells that affect the user.
Leveling these up does not make you more powerful, but can give you access to quests, stores or areas in which you could get new spells, so it's worthwhile.
The way the exp system works is: you build up a tally of what kind of spells you have used on a monster.
When the monster's dead (handled server-side) it uses your tallies to distribute the monster's exp proportionately.
So if you used 5 melee abilities and 2 healer abilities, the server will divide the monster's exp by 7, and give you 5x that in Fighter exp, and 2x that in Healer exp.
Todays work was levels.
So there are four Combat disciplines. These are invoked by using Skill types.
Fighter: generally melee abilities.
Archer: long-distance abilities.
Mage: spells that affect the enemy.
Healer: spells that affect the user.
Leveling these up does not make you more powerful, but can give you access to quests, stores or areas in which you could get new spells, so it's worthwhile.
The way the exp system works is: you build up a tally of what kind of spells you have used on a monster.
When the monster's dead (handled server-side) it uses your tallies to distribute the monster's exp proportionately.
So if you used 5 melee abilities and 2 healer abilities, the server will divide the monster's exp by 7, and give you 5x that in Fighter exp, and 2x that in Healer exp.
I'm just gonna copy this from rmweb.
Your three-day update
It's time to get serious. The likelihood is I'll be going back to work soon. As in, 1st June soon.
This is going to impact my development. The first post in this thread was made roughly 7 days after I started work on this project so you can see what I can achieve with time. But I won't have time.
I need to work out my options.
With that out of the way... we'll continue.
Wildlife
I have used the RMXP RTP to nab some little wildlife to use in the game. This is limited to the tinier sprites, and I've given them new pallets that better fit with my existing graphics.
This has been implemented partially as monsters to fight, but also as ambient wildlife that moves around with events, such as rabbits crossing your path, or flying birds.
(If you're fast you can catch these)
They're intentionally small - insignificant little bits of detail to add flavour to forests and such.
This adds to the existing PVGames wildlife -
Giving us this current enemies list:
(This scene is not fully implemented yet)
Quests
The first quest has been implemented. This is because of a quite hefty update which I will talk about later (as it's exciting!).
Quests and Adventures is the name of the menu that will show you what quests you have completed. In future, these will be linked to a Wiki-style guide that opens in the in-game action window space.
The quests above will be the quests in the starter game when that is released. Note that the starter game is just a test-bed designed to show each function in full.
Above is how they chain together to form a coherent storyline.
The final quest there launches an "epoch", which is something I will discuss to greater length at another time; storyline is not an important topic for the moment.
How do you know where to find a quest? The area labels match up with these splashes in-game:
How do you know when you have finished a quest?
Rewards will have to be carefully balanced but will usually include new spells.
Mapping and Areas
I needed to unwind the other day so I mapped another area quickly.
I think what I've found is that small maps are better. They will probably be 50x50 in the actual game, rather than the 100x100 I initially went for. This is 100x50.
https://i.imgur.com/z96LcV2.jpg
Anyway, it's time to come to the actual big update:
Server-Side Switches and Variables
This is important as it actually makes an MMO...
We now have three types of switch (and variable).
Local: these are stored on your computer so if you close and reopen the game they will reset.
Saved: these are stored on the web, in your account, so if you reopen the game they stay stuck.
Global: these are saved variables that affect every player in the game.
This means that we now have functional working things such as levers, gates and doors which require multiplayer participation.
Perhaps a multi-user dungeon where one player has to open a door for another player.
Perhaps a multi-user event where there is a tally of monsters killed and all players must defeat a certain amount to progress the event.
This opens us up to multiplayer cooperative content and I'm really excited to get my teeth into this but I will hold off because it is not important right now.
Security Implications
Because some switches are stored locally, they are hackable.
Ones that are stored globally on the server are protectable by smart systems in the background that I won't go into (because then you will be able to work on ways to defeat them).
The game will be open to modification. There is no way around that with this still being an RPG Maker game. I know the pitfalls and I know the security implications.
Your account is safe. Nobody has access, not even me, to your login details. That is all handled through a secure API.
Your character is safe. That is uneditable by anything other than the server.
You can't make your character look like a tree and have everyone else see it (as has happened in MMO testbeds in the past).
But you could, by quite regularly used means, cheat your way through some battles, flip some switches, and gain advantage that way.
There will be tests server-side, with careful effort not to false-flag. But I cannot guarantee that people will not be able to cheat.
Quick Dirty Website
I've created a quick landing page for the game so that it can be found on Google searches, mainly. Will also point people to project threads in various places: http://afar.ws/
Afar vs Wytches & Wyverns
W&W is just a working title because that was the name of a previous project and I didn't want to waste time on logos to begin with.
Afar is the name of my previous MMORPG.
Afar is the name of the game world, and that's true of W&W. It's a world I've built up over the past 16 years.
W&W however is flexible. For now I like it, but I will gauge public opinion on that matter.
Inspiration
That felt like a wall of text so to finish this round I'll tell you about my inspiration for massive, cooperative events: The Great Fire War.
It ran for a few months when Adventure Quest was very new. Every now and then the story would progress but only with the actions and effort of players against the fire mob.
https://www.battleon.com/events/greatfirewar/
It was the most fun I think I've had in a game, although nostalgia bites and all that.
I would very much like to emulate this kind of event, later on though.
Big events happened, established characters were killed off, me and some guys ran a roleplay thing called Fire War News - in fact it's from there I picked up RPG Maker, back in 2004... So I owe a lot to this event.
Your three-day update
It's time to get serious. The likelihood is I'll be going back to work soon. As in, 1st June soon.
This is going to impact my development. The first post in this thread was made roughly 7 days after I started work on this project so you can see what I can achieve with time. But I won't have time.
I need to work out my options.
With that out of the way... we'll continue.
Wildlife
I have used the RMXP RTP to nab some little wildlife to use in the game. This is limited to the tinier sprites, and I've given them new pallets that better fit with my existing graphics.
This has been implemented partially as monsters to fight, but also as ambient wildlife that moves around with events, such as rabbits crossing your path, or flying birds.
(If you're fast you can catch these)
They're intentionally small - insignificant little bits of detail to add flavour to forests and such.
This adds to the existing PVGames wildlife -
Giving us this current enemies list:
(This scene is not fully implemented yet)
Quests
The first quest has been implemented. This is because of a quite hefty update which I will talk about later (as it's exciting!).
Quests and Adventures is the name of the menu that will show you what quests you have completed. In future, these will be linked to a Wiki-style guide that opens in the in-game action window space.
The quests above will be the quests in the starter game when that is released. Note that the starter game is just a test-bed designed to show each function in full.
Above is how they chain together to form a coherent storyline.
The final quest there launches an "epoch", which is something I will discuss to greater length at another time; storyline is not an important topic for the moment.
How do you know where to find a quest? The area labels match up with these splashes in-game:
How do you know when you have finished a quest?
Rewards will have to be carefully balanced but will usually include new spells.
Mapping and Areas
I needed to unwind the other day so I mapped another area quickly.
I think what I've found is that small maps are better. They will probably be 50x50 in the actual game, rather than the 100x100 I initially went for. This is 100x50.
https://i.imgur.com/z96LcV2.jpg
Anyway, it's time to come to the actual big update:
Server-Side Switches and Variables
This is important as it actually makes an MMO...
We now have three types of switch (and variable).
Local: these are stored on your computer so if you close and reopen the game they will reset.
Saved: these are stored on the web, in your account, so if you reopen the game they stay stuck.
Global: these are saved variables that affect every player in the game.
This means that we now have functional working things such as levers, gates and doors which require multiplayer participation.
Perhaps a multi-user dungeon where one player has to open a door for another player.
Perhaps a multi-user event where there is a tally of monsters killed and all players must defeat a certain amount to progress the event.
This opens us up to multiplayer cooperative content and I'm really excited to get my teeth into this but I will hold off because it is not important right now.
Security Implications
Because some switches are stored locally, they are hackable.
Ones that are stored globally on the server are protectable by smart systems in the background that I won't go into (because then you will be able to work on ways to defeat them).
The game will be open to modification. There is no way around that with this still being an RPG Maker game. I know the pitfalls and I know the security implications.
Your account is safe. Nobody has access, not even me, to your login details. That is all handled through a secure API.
Your character is safe. That is uneditable by anything other than the server.
You can't make your character look like a tree and have everyone else see it (as has happened in MMO testbeds in the past).
But you could, by quite regularly used means, cheat your way through some battles, flip some switches, and gain advantage that way.
There will be tests server-side, with careful effort not to false-flag. But I cannot guarantee that people will not be able to cheat.
Quick Dirty Website
I've created a quick landing page for the game so that it can be found on Google searches, mainly. Will also point people to project threads in various places: http://afar.ws/
Afar vs Wytches & Wyverns
W&W is just a working title because that was the name of a previous project and I didn't want to waste time on logos to begin with.
Afar is the name of my previous MMORPG.
Afar is the name of the game world, and that's true of W&W. It's a world I've built up over the past 16 years.
W&W however is flexible. For now I like it, but I will gauge public opinion on that matter.
Inspiration
That felt like a wall of text so to finish this round I'll tell you about my inspiration for massive, cooperative events: The Great Fire War.
It ran for a few months when Adventure Quest was very new. Every now and then the story would progress but only with the actions and effort of players against the fire mob.
https://www.battleon.com/events/greatfirewar/
It was the most fun I think I've had in a game, although nostalgia bites and all that.
I would very much like to emulate this kind of event, later on though.
Big events happened, established characters were killed off, me and some guys ran a roleplay thing called Fire War News - in fact it's from there I picked up RPG Maker, back in 2004... So I owe a lot to this event.
Ah yeah that stone floor works much better!
Is the update thing going to be something your can customise? I don't think I would want to be updated every single time I kill a spider for example... but for a multiple, like 10 or something.
So the combat skills behave similar to the skill requirements for quests that RS has? I like the xp system though! How does it work in an MMO setting? Can only you / your party tag it? Is the xp split between those players involved, or do they get the full amount each? If it is split, I assume it'll be an even split, instead of say... weighing the % based on the damage / healing done?
I don't know what you mean by 3 day update... are we gonna get updates every 3 days??? :D
I like the whole theming / epoch thing you got going on with the image with the pink background. Really liking the quest stuff too, that seems fully realised! No real critique there.
Your landing page on afar really reminded me of your eZines!
Man, I remember Battleon back in the day... back when it ran on Java and the shop was a separate php page! One attack had the guy jump for like 5 seconds...
I get it is your inspiration for the quests, and don't want to rain on it... but is doing time-exclusive, game-changing content in a MMO a wise decision? It reminds me a lot of the failure that was Living Story 1 for GW2 (and to a lesser extent, WoW reinventing the wheel every xpac).
I could perhaps see it working as a 'trigger' for new content (e.g., the pre-expansion events as found in WoW). But overall, my major problem with it, is spending that much time and effort on something designed to disappear from the game... but if you added a way to experience it again (like a 'visions of the past'?), then I can see it working well!
Is the update thing going to be something your can customise? I don't think I would want to be updated every single time I kill a spider for example... but for a multiple, like 10 or something.
So the combat skills behave similar to the skill requirements for quests that RS has? I like the xp system though! How does it work in an MMO setting? Can only you / your party tag it? Is the xp split between those players involved, or do they get the full amount each? If it is split, I assume it'll be an even split, instead of say... weighing the % based on the damage / healing done?
I don't know what you mean by 3 day update... are we gonna get updates every 3 days??? :D
I like the whole theming / epoch thing you got going on with the image with the pink background. Really liking the quest stuff too, that seems fully realised! No real critique there.
Your landing page on afar really reminded me of your eZines!
Man, I remember Battleon back in the day... back when it ran on Java and the shop was a separate php page! One attack had the guy jump for like 5 seconds...
I get it is your inspiration for the quests, and don't want to rain on it... but is doing time-exclusive, game-changing content in a MMO a wise decision? It reminds me a lot of the failure that was Living Story 1 for GW2 (and to a lesser extent, WoW reinventing the wheel every xpac).
I could perhaps see it working as a 'trigger' for new content (e.g., the pre-expansion events as found in WoW). But overall, my major problem with it, is spending that much time and effort on something designed to disappear from the game... but if you added a way to experience it again (like a 'visions of the past'?), then I can see it working well!
I think to begin with, the system will flag accounts that I can then go and have a look at.
For some things there won't be a rollback as such but there will be automatic respawns if the game thinks you've cheated.
I won't get into details.
But yeah to some extent I need people to try and cheat so I can combat some things, while knowing that other things are a waste of time trying to stop (like I said if RuneScape can't stop it, what hope do I have?).
Because of the nature of my game I basically know the pitfalls and how to hack it. Done in the same way as hacking Adventure Quest, fittingly. But that gives me ideas for combatting it.
More and more is being handled server-side now however. There is a lot of opportunity for catching things.
Today's work:
Like with quests, once we have a game guide online they'll link to their guide pages. Long way off that though.
For some things there won't be a rollback as such but there will be automatic respawns if the game thinks you've cheated.
I won't get into details.
But yeah to some extent I need people to try and cheat so I can combat some things, while knowing that other things are a waste of time trying to stop (like I said if RuneScape can't stop it, what hope do I have?).
Because of the nature of my game I basically know the pitfalls and how to hack it. Done in the same way as hacking Adventure Quest, fittingly. But that gives me ideas for combatting it.
More and more is being handled server-side now however. There is a lot of opportunity for catching things.
Today's work:
Like with quests, once we have a game guide online they'll link to their guide pages. Long way off that though.
^^ It's just a dummy map for now as I don't want to get too bogged down in world design yet.
In-game Wiki-style User Guide
When you click on an enemy name in the bestiary, a quest name in the quests list, various links on the forums, or other places, you are taken to the in-game Wiki-style user guide.
This is edited in the same way as a traditional WIki but very slimmed down and lightweight.
Here is what the player sees:
Red is a link to another page in the guide. Browser forward and back buttons fully work with this.
Here is what I see, so I can edit from on the fly within the game.
This even shows for pages that do not exist, so all I need to do is add a link to a page, follow it, and then create that page.
I have created my own BBCode system for this, just some basics such as:
[Link Text Here|linkname] <-- this creates a link to a guide page.
{imagename|floatdir} <-- this creates an image floated left or right, with padding appropriately formatted.
*text here* <-- this makes text italic.
% <-- this defines a new paragraph.
In-game Wiki-style User Guide
When you click on an enemy name in the bestiary, a quest name in the quests list, various links on the forums, or other places, you are taken to the in-game Wiki-style user guide.
This is edited in the same way as a traditional WIki but very slimmed down and lightweight.
Here is what the player sees:
Red is a link to another page in the guide. Browser forward and back buttons fully work with this.
Here is what I see, so I can edit from on the fly within the game.
This even shows for pages that do not exist, so all I need to do is add a link to a page, follow it, and then create that page.
I have created my own BBCode system for this, just some basics such as:
[Link Text Here|linkname] <-- this creates a link to a guide page.
{imagename|floatdir} <-- this creates an image floated left or right, with padding appropriately formatted.
*text here* <-- this makes text italic.
% <-- this defines a new paragraph.
Nathaniel3W
Member
A little late here, but I really like that map. What did you make it in?
Someone linked me to a software called Inkarnate: https://inkarnate.com/
I bought the $25 a year plan.
I bought the $25 a year plan.
coyotecraft
Sponsor
A yearly plan for a stamp collection? That seems wrong. But maybe it's a big collection with regular updates.
coyotecraft
Sponsor
Is it changing the tiles or is that just some weirdness with the gif?
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