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I only really know Ruby (hence I'm taking a games programming course to learn the real stuff). It was trying to make a game from scratch in Ruby that was proving difficult.
Maybe when I've learnt C++ this year I'll make a game from scratch; until then my knowledge is just Ruby.
Never been a fan of Ruby. Ruby on Rails is fantastic for web development, but I've never seen the attraction to it for application development.
If I were you, I'd create the server in C and the client in Java, AS3 or Canvas. Accessibility is everything now-a-days. People want to run everything through HTTP for some bizarre reason, and it'd really give you a much wider audience.
I assume you're taking some sort of University course. If you are, you're not going to learn enough through the lectures to get enough understanding of C++ to make a decent game engine. If you really want to go through with it, set yourself some goals and do at least one personal project a year. Developing games would be a fantastic thing to do. It gives you a huge amount of experience in a wide range of programming areas and it looks very pretty in your portfolio.
Of course, I'm being a massive hypocrite here by using vb6 myself, but life's too short.
I am [possibly] going to try and get Vengeance online tonight.
This means working out the right server and purchasing it.
It will not be a complete game. The purpose will be solely to test the system and make sure it works, and to see how many players this server could manage at one time.
It will, however, be running from an actual server, 24/7, VPS, not hosted on my personal computer.
If this works it will be a really great morality boost and hey, Vengeance could be good
If anybody is interested in testing the system I am going to create a priv subforum for Vengeance.
Ok sorry this is taking a while. Uni work ramped up and I didn't get this done over the weekend.
- Server is online (ohdear.vengeance-rpg.com) it's a VPS
- Ruby installed, Netplay+ Ruby server installed
- Tested Vengeance, can connect (just doesn't have the right funcs to play over the Ruby server)
The plan was to install Wine and run the C++ Netplay server but that seems too difficult, I don't know how the hell that would work. Need an X server, etc, and for someone who is very inexperienced at Linux, that's probably beyond me. So the plan is to edit the Ruby Server - fix the SQL vulnerabilities (don't worry it's not connected atm), recreate my SSS ServerSideSave funcs from Lua to Ruby, and get a basic shell of a game online.
Thanks ever so much to Dahrkael who made an autoupdater which I will be trying out with Vengeance. (If you want a share of profits let me know)
Sorry this is taking so long and that I broke my promise of "tonight" :p but know that I am working on it this time and there are legit reasons why it's not online yet!
Afar is a free online RPG game. The focus is on exploration, storyline, and battles.
Released in the last quarter of 2010, Afar is the child of the Vengeance project (2007-2010) and various other games. The game was restarted as a PHP browser game in late 2010 and quickly released - since then it has grown to over 400 players, with a record of 100 online at once.
This thread is out of date and will be remade soon.
Live News from Twitter
&npsb; The State of Afar
Since the game is updated as much as daily, it is hard to keep a project thread updated!
I'll try and keep it all up to date as much as possible but the best way is to play the game. It's simple - you just need a username and password. Signup literally takes a few seconds!
We are currently in the second build of the battle system - unique to Afar - which now features skills and battle items.
The World
As it currently stands, this is our world map:
You navigate the world using the four arrows shown on the screenshot above, but you can also access some key areas via the world map, once you have unlocked travel to them.
Storyline
I haven't done the best at exploring the storyline I have planned, I'll admit. I hope to introduce more in quests in the future.
There are three books in the game at the moment (freely available) which provide some insight:
and that is that, plain and simply, we owe our existence purely to the boredom of the old Gods.
They have since left our lands although some would argue otherwise, or that they can never truly be gone because as ascended beings they do not exist in the same way you or I would. I however disagree, and can see that they have plainly left our mortal realms.
This now concludes the chapter and I shall finish with a timeline running from the day the world was created up until the present day.
~ * ~
I.L (Ivesus' Land)
999 Present Day
998 Tiben explorers begin to move North East
947 End of the Western Wars
The Westerners resort to Vampirism
942 The Western Wars begin
Great Western Wall is erected
935 Humans arrive in Tiben by boat
902 Humans pupulate the Damascan desert
891 Volcano at Ivesar; survivors exodus by boat and foot
760 Popn' of Ivesar: 100,000
657 Popn' of Ivesar: 10,000
274 Ivesar founded, a township in the old South
0 Ivesus first preaches in Sellesby village
B.E (Before Enlightenment)
20 The Gods get bored and decide to no longer exist
27 The Gods create magic but don't tell anybody
302 Fall of the Sedisian Empire; Dalks are free
349 Invasion of Dalkland by the Sedisians
437 The Sedisian Empire is formed
1647 The Gods decide they now exist and create the world
CHAPTER 7 - THE FUTURE
One can only speculate on the events of the future but it is clear Tiben is intent on expanding, with vanguards heading North-East and plans to head West retaking land lost in the Western Wars not completely out of the question.
Personally I believe Tiben will attempt to invade Straupuft and the desert cities once the time is right.
There is no doubt in my mind that there is a lot of land that can be recovered from the old city of Ivesar, which now lies in ruin. The chance of another volcano is unlikely, and I am sure that wizards will find a way to combat the effects and reclaim the land.
THE BOOK OF IVESUS
VOLUME I
APPERASIS
At first there was nothing.
And then the Gods decided to exist, and exist they did.
And then the Gods decided the world should exist, and exist did the world, and it was marvellous.
And then the Gods decided people should exist, and exist they did, and they populated the world and spread their seed, as was the will of the Gods.
And then the Gods decided to party, and party they did, but did not become drunk (for that is an unholy thing to do), but instead they did not drink.
And then the Gods decided the world should be pretty, and pretty was the world, for the light had appeared in the heavens and it was bright forever more.
And then the Gods decided it would be dark at night and light at day, and dark it was in the night, and light it was in the day, and that was the best way to be.
And the Gods did rest.
THE COMING OF THE TIDES
The Gods did decide that the world should be unique to the other worlds that may or may not exist. And so the Gods decided the world should be wet, but not completely wet, just a bit wet, albeit very wet in some places.
And then the Gods decided it should rain from the sky, and what should it rain but water, for that was the best way to be and such was the will of the Gods.
And then the Gods did order the people to build churches where they could pray and drink and party, for such was the will of the Gods.
And then the Gods passed down their commandments for what is right and wrong.
THE GREAT FLOOD
The Gods decided while it was indeed wet, it was not quite wet enough.
And so the Gods did decide that a man should build a boat, and that the world would be wetter.
And then the Gods instructed the man to put some animals on the boat for otherwise they might get wet. Such was the will of the Gods.
on his back.
Juliet watched the human. Barbarically he sat, flame burning bright as the evil sun, with the meat of his kill roasting above on a curious contraption. The human did not seem to care, for this is how they feed.
"Why do you kill this animal so?" asked Juliet.
The human scowled at her and continued his feast on the soul of the animal he had killed.
This is not their fault; one has to understand that the mind of a human is not complex enough to understand nature and the concept of a soul. They cannot comprehend what they are doing and indeed consider our ways to be similarly "evil".
Learn from Juliet: stay away from the human scum. Do not let them push their ways onto us,
for their ways are more evil than anything we have ever faced.
They call us "Vampires", and consider us a threat - an enemy of their uncivilised world. Their "West Gate" (a structure designed to keep us out, mind) similarly keeps them away from our lands. Defend it with your life.
In the next chapter we shall be looking at human procreation, though this chapter is not advised for child minds as the matters discussed are truly more foul than anything you have studied so far.
Questions - Chapter 2
1. What should you do if you see a human?
2. A human approaches you. Where should you bite?
3. "Humans are evil". Discuss.
THE WESTERN WARS
~ CHAPTER ONE ~
A BRIEF SUMMARY
Following Our arrival in the Tiben area in 935 I.L several camps were set up for Our refugees. Over time as it became clear we were here to stay these grew into villages, and then some further into townships. One such is, as I'm sure you know, Tiben. Straupuft in the East is a relatively new settlement, though there was also a town to the West of Tiben, which we do not oft speak of.
Kaven was the name of this forgotten town, built mostly of wooden structures. In 941, six years after it's foundation as a settlement, the then leader of Kaven, Richard the Foul introduced the Five Laws, governing the town in ways which Tiben saw as immoral. Tiben ceased all trading with Kaven, which lead to the battle of Erin's Field in 942 I.L - the beginning of what has become known as "The Western Wars" from the Tiben perspective.
The battle was but the start of many, and Tiben was grossly overpowered with respect to it's rival. Even without the ease at which the town of Kaven burned we had better weaponry and much better leadership at hand.
As a quick summary, the wars ended when the West turned to guerrilla tactics - there was not much we could do but for the Great Western Wall to be erected, to keep the Kavenites out of our realm. This was not a civil war for the Kavenites were not civilised people!
Lack of trade between the two townships - and the complete destruction of Kaven that the war created - lead to an extreme poverty and famine across Kaven. We do not know how many survived, but it was in the year 947 I.L that the wars were officially declared over and the West resorted to "Vampirism", which we have not bothered to understand much. One cannot try and understand, you see Vampirism is a foul way of living and not one that one should talk about.
~ CHAPTER TWO ~
THE BEGINNINGS OF WAR
There had long been a rivalry between two factions of the refugees of Ivesar to whom we owe our existence. Upon arrival in the Tiben region, they quickly split in two forming two main settlements amongst the various others that cropped up over time. Tiben was the largest, though Kaven was definitely notable in size and power.
The first and only ruler of Kaven was a man called Richard Nevis, twenty seven years of age and none the wiser. He became known colloquially as "Richard the Foul", for mainly his move towards turning Kaven into essentially a pariah state. The moralic code which he created with the Five Laws was so utterly outside of what the people of Tiben were used to that the two towns quickly grew in their distrust and hatred of one another, from what was merely akin to sibling rivalry back in Ivesar.
You gain gold as you play or by defeating enemies, of which there are currently over fifty. I am not revealing the algorithms and they are ever changing as I tweak and balance the game. You can spend this money on items in shops.
You can also gain gold by referring other players; how to do this is shown in game on the main screen.
Structure
Afar is created using PHP and javascript, with phpBB providing a base for account authentication and forum posting. It uses graphics provided by First Seed Material, Enterbrain, and others created by myself.
The amount of my own code has risen a lot since last time I spoke to you. The battle system was created entirely from scratch for example, as well as various other systems. Most of the game aspects are my own code, with the phpbb backbone merely serving as a good base for authentication, forums, and moderation as well as the admin cp.
Quests
Quests are the current big production area; at the moment there is one completable quest and one almost-completable (just no ending). There are ten planned for release this month (June 2011).
System Requirements
You must have javascript enabled for the domains:
afar.ws
jquery.com
jquery is a javascript library, visit the jquery.com website for more information.
Otherwise your gameplay will be severely hindered. I may block users who do not have javascript activated in future because this may cause unfair advantages; it doesn't at the moment (other than making screens such as the inventory just not work).
High Scores
Because of our now large userbase we now have highscores. You are rated on either your gold amount, or your cumulative exp from all stats.
Stat signatures are available which update regularly:
If somebody registers from your sig, you get gold!
The Netplay project for getting me into creating MMOs,
VDex for making me realise my old idea of making games using forums could actually work
W3schools for teaching me PHP
Tomas for helping me with javascript and showing me better ways of doing things
Everyone who helped me with Vengeance before <3
I think he means the registration page. Some of the text is blue, on what I assume is dark blue ... or grey perhaps. I could only see the text when I rolled over them with the cursor.
I wish most of this text were larger! I'm having quite a time trying to read it. If I zoom in with the browser, all the images go blurry. But of course not everyone is as blind as me :D
"Click to continue" should actually be hyperlinkish.
edit: And buying things from a shop should take you back to the shopkeeper screen or the town map, not the WORLD map. edit edit: And world map locations where there's "nothing to do/see" should have a link back to the world map.
Like the soup place, the scrap heap never actually gives a message that you got something from clicking it. It just shows up in your inventory and I end up clicking the heap again to be told that I've already gotten something.
At the very least, it would be nice to see a mouseover description of my inventory items.
