- Thread starter RobinP
- Start date
Version 1.3.4 Released. First of all, sorry about the lack of actual game updates over the last few days. The website itself is now pretty acceptable so I'm taking a break from it to concentrate on game updates.
Patch Notes v1.3.4
• You can now see other players attack.
• Faster fade on login.
• Player & NPC shadows now rendered separately.
• Fixed targetting lag.
• Cursor selection positions updated on move.
• Can now move with directional arrows as well as WASD.
• Pressing 'Tab' will now target the nearest attackable NPC.
Patch Notes v1.3.4
• You can now see other players attack.
• Faster fade on login.
• Player & NPC shadows now rendered separately.
• Fixed targetting lag.
• Cursor selection positions updated on move.
• Can now move with directional arrows as well as WASD.
• Pressing 'Tab' will now target the nearest attackable NPC.
Official announcement: Thread link.
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Once again I need to apologise for the lack of posts regarding what I'm doing. Stuff has been going on both on the internet and in real life which was completely out of my hands and has caused delays on all planned systems. So for that I'm sorry.
You all know by now that I've been working on bridging the forum software with the game engine to make it so you log in to the game using your forum account. That is now done. It did, however, take nearly 5 days to sort out the remote access needed with my web host, Evan. Due to our timezone differences and the fact that he's been very busy in real life it took us a while to sort it all out and during that time I couldn't really do anything. I didn't want to work on any other systems on a source code which might have had to be ditched if we couldn't get it all working and so all development was put on hold whilst we sorted out these issues.
Anyway, the authentication server and the database handler have been created and can easily be released live when needed. I have not, however, found a way to create a satisfactory system for merging old game accounts with the new system. As I'm doing such low-level changes to the account system I decided I might as well do some other large changes whilst I'm here and these will make it far too time consuming to convert old account data over to the new system with an autonomous system integrated in to the forum software. Don't get me wrong, it's not something I couldn't do but I don't want to spend a long time developing a system which would basically be live for a week or so before being ditched. I think we can all agree it's better that I spend my time working on the game.
One of these changes is allowing multiple characters per account. It's something we all agree is needed. Juggling multiple accounts is bad enough in the current account system. It'd be a nightmare having to register a different e-mail address to each account just to try a new class. As such you'll now log in to a little character portal which will allow you to manage your little array of characters. For now I'm thinking of letting you have three - one of each class.
That's just something I pulled up quickly in Photoshop to test the system out. It's subject to change. As you can see this will also add in character deletion. Another complaint a lot of people had was not being able to re-allocate their preferred name to another character. No one wants to use their normal character name on a class they don't feel comfortable playing and no way to delete that character and use that name on a new one.
This did get me thinking about confirmation. It's pretty damn easy to accidentally delete your character with that kind of button layout. The same can be said for accidentally doing a lot of things. As such I think I need a custom dialogue system in place. Both to allow for confirmation boxes and to also get rid of those default Windows dialogues we have for error messages. As such I came up with a custom system.
Again, the GUI is subject to change. It'll also have a normal 'Okay' variation which will be used purely for alerting you about an error. We have these already but they're ugly as sin. It'll also be much more noticeable now as the entire screen will fade out when you get one.
As well as all this I want to also release the new game design changes I've been working on. I won't get in to the details till they're live and set in stone, but it should make the game much more enjoyable and balanced.
Oh, and let's not forget those two systems I've been putting off for the last couple of months. Banks and P2P trading. With us releasing more and more rare items which you can't just farm yourself there is a much greater need for trading. It also encourages player interaction. The core system from EOv2 is still in place, I simply need to get around to implementing the GUI for it. Same with banks. Once these relatively low-level systems are out I'll probably take a little break from the more complicated stuff and just do some nice and easy interfacing.
Anyway, end essay. Hopefully that'll make up for me dropping out of contact for a week or so.
---
Once again I need to apologise for the lack of posts regarding what I'm doing. Stuff has been going on both on the internet and in real life which was completely out of my hands and has caused delays on all planned systems. So for that I'm sorry.
You all know by now that I've been working on bridging the forum software with the game engine to make it so you log in to the game using your forum account. That is now done. It did, however, take nearly 5 days to sort out the remote access needed with my web host, Evan. Due to our timezone differences and the fact that he's been very busy in real life it took us a while to sort it all out and during that time I couldn't really do anything. I didn't want to work on any other systems on a source code which might have had to be ditched if we couldn't get it all working and so all development was put on hold whilst we sorted out these issues.
Anyway, the authentication server and the database handler have been created and can easily be released live when needed. I have not, however, found a way to create a satisfactory system for merging old game accounts with the new system. As I'm doing such low-level changes to the account system I decided I might as well do some other large changes whilst I'm here and these will make it far too time consuming to convert old account data over to the new system with an autonomous system integrated in to the forum software. Don't get me wrong, it's not something I couldn't do but I don't want to spend a long time developing a system which would basically be live for a week or so before being ditched. I think we can all agree it's better that I spend my time working on the game.
One of these changes is allowing multiple characters per account. It's something we all agree is needed. Juggling multiple accounts is bad enough in the current account system. It'd be a nightmare having to register a different e-mail address to each account just to try a new class. As such you'll now log in to a little character portal which will allow you to manage your little array of characters. For now I'm thinking of letting you have three - one of each class.
That's just something I pulled up quickly in Photoshop to test the system out. It's subject to change. As you can see this will also add in character deletion. Another complaint a lot of people had was not being able to re-allocate their preferred name to another character. No one wants to use their normal character name on a class they don't feel comfortable playing and no way to delete that character and use that name on a new one.
This did get me thinking about confirmation. It's pretty damn easy to accidentally delete your character with that kind of button layout. The same can be said for accidentally doing a lot of things. As such I think I need a custom dialogue system in place. Both to allow for confirmation boxes and to also get rid of those default Windows dialogues we have for error messages. As such I came up with a custom system.
Again, the GUI is subject to change. It'll also have a normal 'Okay' variation which will be used purely for alerting you about an error. We have these already but they're ugly as sin. It'll also be much more noticeable now as the entire screen will fade out when you get one.
As well as all this I want to also release the new game design changes I've been working on. I won't get in to the details till they're live and set in stone, but it should make the game much more enjoyable and balanced.
Oh, and let's not forget those two systems I've been putting off for the last couple of months. Banks and P2P trading. With us releasing more and more rare items which you can't just farm yourself there is a much greater need for trading. It also encourages player interaction. The core system from EOv2 is still in place, I simply need to get around to implementing the GUI for it. Same with banks. Once these relatively low-level systems are out I'll probably take a little break from the more complicated stuff and just do some nice and easy interfacing.
Anyway, end essay. Hopefully that'll make up for me dropping out of contact for a week or so.
Patch Notes v1.4.0:
• Bridged game server with website. You now log on to the game with your Crystalshire.com account.
• You can now have up to 3 different characters on your account.
• For the next month or so you can click the 'Merge' button on your character portal to merge your old game characters with your new game account - this will permanently destroy your old account.
• Added in a custom dialogue box.
• Added a loading screen.
• Bridged game server with website. You now log on to the game with your Crystalshire.com account.
• You can now have up to 3 different characters on your account.
• For the next month or so you can click the 'Merge' button on your character portal to merge your old game characters with your new game account - this will permanently destroy your old account.
• Added in a custom dialogue box.
• Added a loading screen.
Patch Notes v1.4.1:
• Added food. These items will heal you for a lot of health/spirit over time as long as you're outside of combat. This will be used to replace time-based regeneration.
• Herbs were changed in to food by the magical inventory faery.
• Aggressive npcs which have a grey name are no longer aggressive.
• Severely nerfed regeneration. Use food to minimise downtime.
• Price of food lowered.
• 50+ new animations.
• Added food. These items will heal you for a lot of health/spirit over time as long as you're outside of combat. This will be used to replace time-based regeneration.
• Herbs were changed in to food by the magical inventory faery.
• Aggressive npcs which have a grey name are no longer aggressive.
• Severely nerfed regeneration. Use food to minimise downtime.
• Price of food lowered.
• 50+ new animations.
Patch Notes v1.4.2:
• Level cap raised to 20.
• New proficiency system. To stop unneeded item cloning each class now has an equipment proficiency which can be shared by the other classes.
• Duplicate items removed. Some items re-fashioned to be used by multiple classes using the proficiency system. The inventory faery will replace all removed items with a new item type.
• New item type - "Faery Note". It serves absolutely no purpose at all other than to replace old items and give you the chance to get your cash back by selling them to a shop.
• 50+ new character sprites
• New tier of equipment.
• New tier of food.
• Completely new areas to explore, including a dwarven village.
• New npcs to fight.
• The Little Boy outside of Glenvale has finally finished his tunnel! Talk to him to sneak in to Glenvale.
• "Supporter" account type created. Donating a certain amount of cash will automatically convert your account. All characters in your account will be shown with a gold name.
• Administrators are now pink.
• Level cap raised to 20.
• New proficiency system. To stop unneeded item cloning each class now has an equipment proficiency which can be shared by the other classes.
• Duplicate items removed. Some items re-fashioned to be used by multiple classes using the proficiency system. The inventory faery will replace all removed items with a new item type.
• New item type - "Faery Note". It serves absolutely no purpose at all other than to replace old items and give you the chance to get your cash back by selling them to a shop.
• 50+ new character sprites
• New tier of equipment.
• New tier of food.
• Completely new areas to explore, including a dwarven village.
• New npcs to fight.
• The Little Boy outside of Glenvale has finally finished his tunnel! Talk to him to sneak in to Glenvale.
• "Supporter" account type created. Donating a certain amount of cash will automatically convert your account. All characters in your account will be shown with a gold name.
• Administrators are now pink.
Patch Notes v1.4.3:
• Internal account name length limit removed.
• Npcs can no longer heal over their max health.
• Boss chamber npcs are now ALWAYS aggressive. As such all bosses and boss adds have had their levels reset to what they should be.
• Dwarven City unlocked north of Glenvale.
• Level 17-20 whites now available in the Dwarven City.
• Level 10-20 spell ranks unlocked.
Also got a new update preview thingy on the main page.
• Internal account name length limit removed.
• Npcs can no longer heal over their max health.
• Boss chamber npcs are now ALWAYS aggressive. As such all bosses and boss adds have had their levels reset to what they should be.
• Dwarven City unlocked north of Glenvale.
• Level 17-20 whites now available in the Dwarven City.
• Level 10-20 spell ranks unlocked.
Also got a new update preview thingy on the main page.
Updated the first post with more information.
Here are the last few updates;
Crystalshire v1.5.0 is here! Huge thanks to everyone who helped test out the last release. Thanks to the debugging skills of a couple of people I believe I've fixed all the CTDs people were getting.
The new version requires you to re-download the game from the 'Downloads' page.
Here's a small changelog;
• New interface added.
• New interface system added.
• Can now select character sprite when creating a new character.
• Can now select gender when creating a new character.
• Added 'esc' menu.
• Can now exit to main menu rather than having to re-boot the entire game.
• Menu changed to icons with tooltips.
• Can now load ingame windows with keyboard shortcuts.
• Chat messages will dissappear after 20 seconds.
• Pressing 'Enter' will bring up the full chat box.
• Chat colours & channels added.
• Fixed CTDs.
• New graphics engine.
Hope to see you all in the game.
Fixed a few release day issues we had with v1.5.0. Especially that big bug which screwed up deleting characters and left the server down overnight. Also noticed how important information dialogues weren't showing and people were being met with just a blank screen when something went wrong. This has also been fixed.
Changelog:
• Fixed deleting characters.
• Important dialogues now show properly.
• Fixed chatbox width not updating properly.
• Fixed word wrapping in the chatbox.
• Fixed grammar and spelling issues.
• Patched a server crash problem.
• Wrote a new method for clearing data.
• Added labels to the vital bars.
• Slightly increased vital bar size.
• Fixed de-sync issue.
New patch is out. Although it fixes a few small issues the main focus was re-introducing the party system. Some functions still haven't been added in (being able to actually leave the party without logging out is a big one) but it should be pretty function.
Changelog;
• Disabled unused menu buttons.
• Fixed mouse-over effect removal of buttons.
• Added party system.
• Added party GUI.
• Fixed '+0 Exp' problem.
• Replaced party invitation system.
• Fixed party vital updates.
• Finally added functions to the right-click menu.
• Removed PM/Guild/Trade invitations for now.
• Started work on elastic party bars.
Here are the last few updates;
Crystalshire v1.5.0 is here! Huge thanks to everyone who helped test out the last release. Thanks to the debugging skills of a couple of people I believe I've fixed all the CTDs people were getting.
The new version requires you to re-download the game from the 'Downloads' page.
Here's a small changelog;
• New interface added.
• New interface system added.
• Can now select character sprite when creating a new character.
• Can now select gender when creating a new character.
• Added 'esc' menu.
• Can now exit to main menu rather than having to re-boot the entire game.
• Menu changed to icons with tooltips.
• Can now load ingame windows with keyboard shortcuts.
• Chat messages will dissappear after 20 seconds.
• Pressing 'Enter' will bring up the full chat box.
• Chat colours & channels added.
• Fixed CTDs.
• New graphics engine.
Hope to see you all in the game.
Fixed a few release day issues we had with v1.5.0. Especially that big bug which screwed up deleting characters and left the server down overnight. Also noticed how important information dialogues weren't showing and people were being met with just a blank screen when something went wrong. This has also been fixed.
Changelog:
• Fixed deleting characters.
• Important dialogues now show properly.
• Fixed chatbox width not updating properly.
• Fixed word wrapping in the chatbox.
• Fixed grammar and spelling issues.
• Patched a server crash problem.
• Wrote a new method for clearing data.
• Added labels to the vital bars.
• Slightly increased vital bar size.
• Fixed de-sync issue.
New patch is out. Although it fixes a few small issues the main focus was re-introducing the party system. Some functions still haven't been added in (being able to actually leave the party without logging out is a big one) but it should be pretty function.
Changelog;
• Disabled unused menu buttons.
• Fixed mouse-over effect removal of buttons.
• Added party system.
• Added party GUI.
• Fixed '+0 Exp' problem.
• Replaced party invitation system.
• Fixed party vital updates.
• Finally added functions to the right-click menu.
• Removed PM/Guild/Trade invitations for now.
• Started work on elastic party bars.
Yet another update here. This one was focusing on fixing a few long-standing annoyances as well as bringing back the trade system which has been absent for far too long. Luckily most of the system was still intact from March so it was just a case of creating an invitation system, adding an interface and adding a few extra security checks.
Here's the changelog;
• PKers now have red names.
• Trade system added.
• Can now drop currency items.
• Fixed dropped items despawning early.
• Fixed issue with party member data.
• Items now despawn after 10 minutes.
• Certain logic checks are now much more frequent.
• Added new dialogue type which allows input.
• Trade system now checks if you've got enough inventory spaces to receive the items rather than them simply disappearing.
And a little look at the trade system itself!
Here's the changelog;
• PKers now have red names.
• Trade system added.
• Can now drop currency items.
• Fixed dropped items despawning early.
• Fixed issue with party member data.
• Items now despawn after 10 minutes.
• Certain logic checks are now much more frequent.
• Added new dialogue type which allows input.
• Trade system now checks if you've got enough inventory spaces to receive the items rather than them simply disappearing.
And a little look at the trade system itself!
Version 1.5.5 brings in a whole host of things to try and make your experience on Crystalshire as comfortable as possible.
Resolution selection has been brought in so people with all monitor sizes can enjoy the game. The current list has the main industry standard sizes, but I'll add more as time goes by. Keep in mind that due to a few restrictions in the engine you can only change resolution on the fly whilst running in windowed mode. If you want to change the resolution whilst in fullscreen mode you'll need to make a selection then re-start the game. The same is true for switching between fullscreen and windowed mode.
Oh, and on that note I brought in fullscreen mode as well.
I also made it so you can select your DirectX rendering style in the options screen. This is important for people who have a very low FPS due to their poor graphics card. Running in 'Software' more should give you a hefty boost. At the moment I can only really get enough feedback from your machine to determine whether you can run in hardware mode or not. This doesn't really work well for people who can run the game with hardware acceleration but can't do it well. I'll probably bring in some sort of benchmark system which I can use to determine the best mode for each player.
I also made it so you can access the escape menu from the main menu so you can change your settings before you log in.
Here is the full changelog:
• New options screen.
• Can now access options in menu.
• Can now select game resolution.
• Can now select rendering mode.
• Added fullscreen support.
• Created combobox window control.
• Walking will now cancel a spell casting.
• Can no longer accept requests from players who logged out.
• Health updates are now sent properly.
• New options database system.
• Can no longer save password due to security.
Resolution selection has been brought in so people with all monitor sizes can enjoy the game. The current list has the main industry standard sizes, but I'll add more as time goes by. Keep in mind that due to a few restrictions in the engine you can only change resolution on the fly whilst running in windowed mode. If you want to change the resolution whilst in fullscreen mode you'll need to make a selection then re-start the game. The same is true for switching between fullscreen and windowed mode.
Oh, and on that note I brought in fullscreen mode as well.
I also made it so you can select your DirectX rendering style in the options screen. This is important for people who have a very low FPS due to their poor graphics card. Running in 'Software' more should give you a hefty boost. At the moment I can only really get enough feedback from your machine to determine whether you can run in hardware mode or not. This doesn't really work well for people who can run the game with hardware acceleration but can't do it well. I'll probably bring in some sort of benchmark system which I can use to determine the best mode for each player.
I also made it so you can access the escape menu from the main menu so you can change your settings before you log in.
Here is the full changelog:
• New options screen.
• Can now access options in menu.
• Can now select game resolution.
• Can now select rendering mode.
• Added fullscreen support.
• Created combobox window control.
• Walking will now cancel a spell casting.
• Can no longer accept requests from players who logged out.
• Health updates are now sent properly.
• New options database system.
• Can no longer save password due to security.
homefellas87
Member
Robin, really you have great job dear. thanks dear, this information will provide us to more help....