Afar ~ 1,000 Players

[Ellie]

This is a draft of my "Player Agreement", I'm trying to think if there's anything I've left off. I'm trying to cover all bases here to try and deter at least some people from cheating. I mean yeah if it was offline it wouldn't be a problem, but here there are leaderboards concerned and shit.

Spoiler

By downloading Vengeance Online RPG in any form you must agree to this Player Agreement.

Usage of Vengeance Online RPG or any other nx:media games is a service not a right. nx:media reserve the right to withdraw this service from users if they are deemed to have broken this Player Agreement.

1. Distribution

Vengeance Online RPG may only be distributed through www.vengeance-rpg.com. Any other download links should be seen as illegal, unofficial downloads, and should not be used. We cannot guarantee the safety of any files downloaded elsewhere.

1.1. Activation Codes

Activation codes may not be transfered between players. They are often one-time use, such as premium content, and will not work more than once. Paying for such an activation code from any site other than www.vengeance-rpg.com means said activation code is likely illegal, unofficial, and risks your account being disabled or banned and further action being taken.

2. Decryption of Game Files

It is against this Player Agreement to decrypt any of the game files distrubuted with Vengeance Online RPG, including, but not limited to, the RGSSAD.exe file.

While we cannot stop this 100%, be aware that we have detection and prevention measures in place both in the client and the server, and decrypting the game to change or better your account will risk your account being disabled or banned and further action being taken.

The scripts, music, and graphics of Vengeance Online RPG may not be distributed elsewhere other than by nx:media team members in certain circumstances. The majority of the graphics, scripts, and music used in Vengeance Online RPG may be available from these forums, so there is no excuse.

If you would like to learn from events or scripts in Vengeance Online RPG ask Daniel via private message or a post in the RMXP/VX support forums and he will be more than happy to even provide you with the event listing that you wish to learn from.

There is no excuse to decrypt the game files.

3. Game Rules

It is given that any game rules are seen as a part of this Player Agreement and must be adhered to.

4. Private Servers

Running private servers for Vengeance Online RPG would at this time break section (2.) of this Player Agreement.

Services may be available in the future for running your own private server.

5. Amendments to this Player Agreement

It is the responsibility of the player to check for updates to this Player Agreement, though any amendments will usually be posted in the form of an Announcement in the News and Downloads forum.

6. Last Amendment

This Player Agreement was last amended on December 24th 2008 at 13:52 GMT.

Also a list of things to do whynot.

Spoiler

Get some activity

It's pointless doing the Omega launch without anyone to play it, I want to get a lot of people together so I can stress-test Aurora (i.e. as many people online as possible)

(I want to know the limits of this machine so I know if I have to save up any cash for anything)

Get Aurora booted up

I installed Windows Server 2003, but sadly my activation code had expired (it's a multi-client lease from my Dad's work, but it must have expired or something, I guess it's a subscription or something like that?)

So I need to get Xubuntu reinstalled, and Ruby set up, should be simple (it was last time bar I didn't have the network cable plugged in during installation so it took FOREVER to setup the network)

Get some game content finished

Heh. Well, there's quite a bit there, but I'd like to have a few more quests and a decent sized game area ready for the Omega.

Beta-test the Omega

I don't want to release it without everything fully working

At the moment I'm thinking maps will all be 50x50 in size, no more, no less. That way they fit the screen size sort of well and shouldn't lag as much as the 100x100 maps I used last time (or the 200x200 maps i was initially using).

I also want to get some competitions in line for some cash prizes (yes, to get people playing the game ).

I don't think they'll be leaderboard related; I'll add a difficult quest or something and the first person to complete it will get some dough.


I'm gonna work on a new project thread when the Omega is released, and maybe this can be moved to Completed Games then. (It depends how much gameplay there's deemed to be). I want to do a stress test on Aurora to see how many players she can handle; I can upgrade it in the future but for now I'd like to think it was a good investment. Over a year and a half since I bought it >:|

Dual core 3800+ AMD Athlon X2 64-Bit
2 GB RAM
160 GB Hard Drive (not really important, I guess speed is though and it's only 7,200 RPM)

 

[Ellie]

Design Notes - 28th December 2008

I'm a Lumberjack and I'm ok, I sleep all night and I work all day

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/ ... lumber.png[/img]

(Probably best to ignore the unfinished map in the background, but that's part of Disgate)

Well, it's sortof done-ish. I'm not sure about the background yet; at the moment it's just the map darkened.

You move the mouse from top-right to bottom-left, across the tree, and depending on how hard you swing the axe it cuts the tree with the axe (with sound effects). Once it's cut the tree falls down and you get some wood that can then be used to do stuff (not decided yet).

The axe is the mouse cursor.





Design Notes - 29th December 2008

Byrneshire and Disgate

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/dudemaster/byrnesmall.png[/img]

They say the best work is done when there are no distractions.

My Internet was down all day yesterday (lucky it's up at all today in fact), so I worked on Vengeance - mapping, in fact. The three maps above are what I have to show for it; yes, there are three; with any luck it's impossible to tell the borders (though each map is essentially 800x800 pixels; 400x400 in that 1/2 size screenshot; 50x50 tiles).

This is the start of Byrneshire, which includes various small hamlets as well as the minute town of Disgate. Disgate continues to the right of this screenshot (not yet made).

My current thoughts are these three maps, one more to the right to finish off Disgate, then four maps above this featuring snow-type areas, possibly some below this.

Clarkson

Clarkson is a good author.

I just felt like plugging that.

Lumber

All small trees in Byrneshire are now cuttable using the Lumber part of Farming. The farming spots you see will soon be farmable.

Thinking of renaming this merchant skill to "Agriculture".

Database stuff

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/ ... essbox.png[/img]

Yah, kinda crude, but this shows some progress on the database. That's all read from my forum account and can be manipulated in the game.

Merchant Skills

This be mainly for my reference as I keep forgetting. We have now:

Fishing
Mining
Agriculture
Lockpicking - really needs a new name, any suggestions are welcome
Cooking
Herbalism
Literature

Forum activity

Insert rant/praise about forum activity here as per usual.

Tileset work

Done a fair bit of spriting for the exterior tileset, on top of the Refmap graphics. This includes the vertical bridges, house variants, edits to the cliffs making them more aesthetically pleasing (i.e. less blocky), etc.

Header goes here

Content goes here

Omega deadline report

Things are looking good, everything seems to be on target. (For a March 30th 2009 release, or earlier)

Other than my shitty Internet supplier. Though if BskyB do a free Sky+ box offer I'll be moving to Sky Broadband (if I can get enough cash together I could pay for the highest service they offer).

Items

Added lots of items and chests to be picked up or just... picked.

Also I'm hoping my lag-free respawn system is going to be... lag-free.

Other scripting includes streamlining the Lumber system and a core module for merchant skills with some handy methods, and some work on seperate limits for item max amounts.

Game filesize

The game is currently 75 mb, but there is a lot of unneeded graphics (at least 25 mb worth), I reckon I could even get it as low as 25 mb without hindering anything.

The Beta was, I believe, 60 mb.

 

[Clangers]

Glad to see you're still working on this after all this time!

Everything's looking very sound and looks to be coming along nicely  :smile:

With the Player Agreement, should it maybe be worth stating that nx:media or the server owners reserve the right to take the server down at any time for maintenence issues and whatnot?

Easiest example I can find right now is from the World of Warcraft EULA:

Spoiler: Blizzard WoW EULA

This Game is an 'on-line' game that must be played over the Internet through the Service, as provided by Blizzard Entertainment. It is your entire responsibility to secure an Internet connection and all fees related thereto shall be at your own charge. Blizzard Entertainment will use reasonable efforts to provide the Service all day, every day. However, Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to temporarily suspend the Service for maintenance, testing, replacement and repair of the telecommunications equipment related to World of Warcraft, as well as for transmission interruption or any other operational needs of the system.

(source: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/legal/eula.html )

Otherwise looks pretty solid!  :thumb:

 

[Aerif]

Erm... I'm not entirely sure that some of your 'Player Agreement' is a good idea. Particuarly the following bit:

It is against this Player Agreement to decrypt any of the game files distrubuted with Vengeance Online RPG, including, but not limited to, the RGSSAD.exe file.

If you mention that it is capable of messing with the game isn't that just going to tempt people to do so - now that you've given them the exact program they should look for?

 

[Xaixis]

I was curious if this game could run on a mac, natively that is without bootcamp? I remember trying it once before but never actually getting to play because the serve was never up. But Also once I did began I like started in a town with no idea what to do. But this looks like everything was revamped and really want to try it again but then again I have a mac =/

 

[Mr_Smith]

Pfft read until end of page 34, from 33, and I go with the non-rtp if you zoom out, if you dont I stick with rtp, cus it looks better. Gl on the game, and I hope you make it!

 

[Nachos]

Wyatt, this game would be THE BEST if you finish it. I mean, you'd get tons of players with the right
advertising. I could add it to my website and tell my mmorpg friends about it :specs:
~post 1000

 

[Ellie]

@Clangers: Thanks, yah the player agreement needs a lot of work.

@Aerif: Hmm, well the RGSSAD file is just the game project file, but I guess I could take that part out.

@Xaixis: Sorry I have absolutely no experience with Macs, so I have no idea whether it would work or not. It would be nice if it did though.

@Mr Smith: Thanks! Yah it will be zoomed out.

@Nachos: Thanks, I really want to get this one finished. The Beta got around 100 registered players I think, maybe in the Omega we can go for 250?



Just some shit I made for no apparent reason. Shows the current world, and what I'd like the Omega world to be.

On the maps, the desaturated regions are areas not made yet, the bright colourful bits have been (i.e. 4 maps).

 

[Mr_Smith]

Looks good, and you have already 1 player more for the Omega, I wasnt in Beta but Im sure not to miss Omega!

EDIT: Wyatt, why not rename Lockpicking Thieving? Thieving is a far larger branche, so you can add alot more stuff than just lockpicking.

 

[Ellie]

Thieving sounds good. I'm worried people might associate that with RuneScape though, while our thieving is completely different :/ (RuneScape is pickpocketing, this is more... lockpicking)

 

[Mr_Smith]

Yep I know, but still, Thieving is a normal name, and if you associate everything with everything... You can't call it nothing. RuneScape also contains Fishing, Mining and Cooking, so...

 

[Ellie]

Fair enough, I guess.

Anyway. Mapping's going well, should have all 16 done in time for the Omega. I'm hoping for a release before 30th March 2009, but I think that's a good deadline myself.

I want each map to have an actual purpose though. There'll be quite a few quests delving into the storyline of the game, and then class trainers, lots of variations of enemies, and so on.

I won't be doing much work on Vengeance in the next two weeks however; two 20-hour ICT exams (COMPLETELY pointless mind, one is making a spreadsheet, the other making a really simple Visual Basic "program" (and I use the term lightly)).

On a side note I really need to update the first post - hell, we aren't even using RTP any more.

 

[Mr_Smith]

Hehe, good luck on the exams, Wyatt. And good luck on updating the first post :straightthumb:

 

[Ellie]

Thanks to Me(tm) and Nowayskill, Visual Equipment is now fully working, even across the network (so you see other players' armour)!

This is a big step forward, although I was in the middle of making this myself (to no avail).

I'm also reorganising and streamlining the mass amount of scripts in the game, to reduce lag, and removing any unecessary scripts such as the minimap.

 

[HavanaAffair08]

looks good even tho games dat take place in modern times r way better cus swords an axes r stupid but looks good can i have da online scrip??

 

[Ellie]

My scripts would be no good to you as they're all tailored to my game, but just search for "Netplay" or look around or something.

Someone just released one for VX I believe, in "Script Analysis".

But thanks (I think) though I'm sticking with the medieval theme as I don't think modern games would work well in RMXP. If you have guns and shootins then you need good AI and 360 degree shooting angles, and heights and whatnot.

 

[Martinez]

Hey, I still want to play this game.
Make it work =)
Im back from a short leave to play dofus and school so,
Ill be bothering you about getting on the ball, again.

 

[LostPetal]

"The scripts, music, and graphics of Vengeance Online RPG may not be distributed elsewhere other than by nx:media team members in certain circumstances"

Haven't you been borrowing resources here and there? I mean, really.. I've seen you numerous times post asking permission to use this or that in a commercial game.


"There is no excuse to decrypt the game files."

Sure there is. Many script kiddies have been cracking professional games to see what makes it tick, even on RMXP forums. Ripping resources has not been taboo to this day.. Im pretty sure the mainstream artists didn't want their resources ripped and games cracked as well.

If those guys cant stop everyone and their rich, you're pretty much screwed if a script kiddy becomes interested in your project. Which I highly doubt.. of course you've known that already. However, don't be surprised if when you release this game you see your resources in other projects.

 

[Ellie]

Haven't you been borrowing resources here and there? I mean, really.. I've seen you numerous times post asking permission to use this or that in a commercial game.

This game's been in production since January 2007, things have changed a lot in 2 years. It's now a mix of Refmap graphics (which allow commercial use) and my own graphics.

Sure there is. Many script kiddies have been cracking professional games to see what makes it tick, even on RMXP forums. Ripping resources has not been taboo to this day.. Im pretty sure the mainstream artists didn't want their resources ripped and games cracked as well.

If those guys cant stop everyone and their rich, you're pretty much screwed if a script kiddy becomes interested in your project. Which I highly doubt.. of course you've known that already. However, don't be surprised if when you release this game you see your resources in other projects.

Look, I know this is going to sound arrogant, but this is my game and I can allow or disallow what I want.

I understand some people want to learn from my game. As I said in the Player Agreement, I will even tell them how I did whatever it is they are after, if they ask me rather than just decrypting the game themselves.

I'd even share the graphics in the game if they asked me and told me where they were using them rather than ripping them or decrypting the game to get them.

 

[Jason]

Haven't you been borrowing resources here and there? I mean, really.. I've seen you numerous times post asking permission to use this or that in a commercial game.

This game's been in production since January 2007, things have changed a lot in 2 years. It's now a mix of Refmap graphics (which allow commercial use) and my own graphics.

Sure there is. Many script kiddies have been cracking professional games to see what makes it tick, even on RMXP forums. Ripping resources has not been taboo to this day.. Im pretty sure the mainstream artists didn't want their resources ripped and games cracked as well.

If those guys cant stop everyone and their rich, you're pretty much screwed if a script kiddy becomes interested in your project. Which I highly doubt.. of course you've known that already. However, don't be surprised if when you release this game you see your resources in other projects.

Look, I know this is going to sound arrogant, but this is my game and I can allow or disallow what I want.

I understand some people want to learn from my game. As I said in the Player Agreement, I will even tell them how I did whatever it is they are after, if they ask me rather than just decrypting the game themselves.

I'd even share the graphics in the game if they asked me and told me where they were using them rather than ripping them or decrypting the game to get them.

Looks like you got it all under control :thumb:

Just wondering, could you maybe keep us updated with a screenshot of the new graphics ?