Possible MMO

[Ellie]

I think I will hunt through and mask anything I don't need then use that mask on each spritesheet. I would splice into a smaller sheet, but I'd have to do that for every sheet...

The space is needed for visual equipment overlays unfortunately. Although I can get rid of the redundant bottom rows.

 

[Ellie]

So I've gone through like a governemnt censor and got rid of the animations I don't need. This has brought us down to 530kb per sprite sheet (less for hair and such as this one is a whole body) which I think might do.

http://www.afar.ws/merge/redacted.png

Leaves us with 8 frames for a variety of different movements and battle animations, but removes a lot of the unnecessary sprites like the 72 or so down sprites and things like climbing in 8 directions which I would never use.

 

[Ellie]

So here's the sitch.

- Before, was using PVGames Medieval graphics, with nothing lopped off. Each character had 576 frames but I was missing important animations like battle anims, climbing, etc.

- Moved to PVGames 2.5D which have 2,088 frames of animation.

- Trimmed off what I don't need, leaving me with 474 frames.

So, in moving to a spritesheet with MORE animation, I have actually REDUCED the size of my files, if I can collapse them and remove all of the redundant frames (will outsource a script for that later).

So we're in a better situation but have actually saved animation frames. Makes me wonder what was in the old spritesheets that I wasn't using?

Anyway. The animations I have now are as thus, each one 3 frames in 8 directions unless stated otherwise:

Move (8 frames)
3 different idle animations
Kneel
Lie
Sit
Down (1 frame, 8 styles)
Sulk

Throw
Self-cast
Cast
Punch
Kick
Attack
Rifle
Pickaxe
Bow

Jump (4 directions)
Climb (3 directions)

Of course that's just what they're meant to be, a lot of them will be repurposable, and I can hack a few together to make more complicated animations like special attacks and cutscenes.


Next tasks

1. accumulate all the 2.5D graphics together so I know what I've got
2. Merge all the spritesheets together for each set
3. Apply my filter to remove redundant unused sprites
4. Set up visual equipment
5. Set up character creation, including database elements

This is unfortunately going to take a while, so don't expect any pretties for a fair bit.

 

[Xhukari]

Now that sounds like a lot of work! Though I guess you've got the time, eh? :cheers:

Even the non-pretty stuff is interesting.

 

[Fayte]

I AM LOVING ALL THIS PROGRESS... keep us updated even on the little shit. I know creatives like to shout each baby step of an accomplishment and we’re hear as your motivational ear.

 

[Ellie]

Success!

So I haven't been able to edit every file - it takes so long that I will do it each time I actually want to add some content.

I have set up all of the animations however which is the important part. I needed it for what I was actually programming (merchant skills) so I can continue with that now tomorrow.

Anyway, here are all of the animations I now have available to me. Again other than a few exceptions all are available in 8 directions!

Fully visual equipment and server-side save/load compatible.

I just have to remake all of my character creation parts... Eventually.

I am happy with this!

Obviously some like pickaxe or rifle shoot, imagine them with that equipment in thier hand.

 

[Ellie]

So I chose Merchant Skills as the next task, which led me to have to implement the above which took forever, because I needed one animation! But now that that's done I can continue.

I have set up 20 new items, 2 new armours and 3 new weapons, all just for merchant skills. Specifically, so that each skill has at least one Thing To Do that ties it into another skill and so that all skills are ultimately connected.

I have ditched cooking as a separate skill. A few reasons:

1. To avoid comparisons with that game
2. Fits better in with the Hunter skill
3. Leaves me with four gathering and four processing skills, which sit nicely

For now then they sit nicely in one screen without scrolling. I can add more at a much, much later date if necessary, but for now consider this the base game.

So when you "use" a craftable item in the inventory you will get this screen:

Trick will be making this modular so that I can call it with a simple function, rather than making a new scene for each item...

So I've got some working out to do.

How it could look if level requirements are implemented, which I am unsure of yet.

And if multiple ingredients are used:

 

[Ellie]

Since there is only one equipment slot I am thinking of having body, gloves, helmet and boots as a way of using more items and processes to make armour. So better, more expensive armour will be made of more "bits".

Crafting should be finished tomorrow, at which point I can then sign off merchant skills if I get around to creating a few nodes.

One thing I am stuck on is fire. Fire links so many of my skills, but how should it be used? Is letting the player start their own fires too RuneScapy? (But it might extend the lumberjack skill into a Woodsman one and give it more umph).

 

[coyotecraft]

You are on FIRE

 

[ZenVirZan]

i dont think players starting their own fires is runescapey, but if i saw a dedicated firemaking stat id immediately think its a runescape clone, i dont really feel like the skill warrants its own entire skill level etc.

 

[Ellie]

Thanks, I'll make it part of the Lumberjack skill and maybe change its name to Woodsman.

I'll do that later though because that requires NODES (another project for another day).

Major update coming today as I have done hella workz ;D

 

[Ellie]

In retrospect "merchant skills" as a single task is a bit silly, and this is gradually developing into just "game making", but that's a good thing. As I stumble upon a task I'm focusing on that as such.

So looking at the eight skills I have, I want "something to do" for each of the first five levels, for now. These can change and move around later, or be tweaked, but for now my task is to create "something to to" for levels 1 through 5.

So for starters we now have 55 items, 7 armours and 5 weapons in the game.

Using these we have 24 recipes, which range from as simple as "wood + axe = plank", to more complex such as:

Cotton plus knife = thread
Thread plus needle = cloth
Cloth plus needle = armour lining
Cow hide + oil + knife = leather
Tin ingot + hammer = tin studs
Leather + needle = leather boots
Leather + needle + armour lining + tin studs = leather body
Leather + needle + armour lining = leather legs
Leather legs + leather body + leather boots = Leather Armour

So to make one set of armour we've used three skills. That means if you're trying to train one skill you can buy things from other players, motivating the economy. Or if you want a rounded character and solo play you can use all your skills together.

Anyway, crafting is just one element of merchant skills. We have to create:

- Nodes (trees, rocks, etc)
- Spawnable nodes (fires for example)
- Utilities (fireplaces, stoves, furnaces, etc)

And then work out leveling prestige and exp and such.

My next task now that all the recipes are set up, I have decided, is to look into Fire.

Fire is something that ties together most skills. For example it could be used for:

- Lumberjack: light a wood fire
- Metalwork: heat up ore to remove impurities and make an ingot
- Leatherwork: maybe we need a fire to make leather?
- Hunter: use a fire to cook food
- Gatherer: light a shrub fire

There has to be some use for it in mining that I haven't thought of.

Do do.

So I've been trying to find some fire graphics for PVGames and I stumbled upon the MV RTP fires, which actually don't look too bad in this setting:

With a little work maybe.

So above are different "levels" of fire. A shrub fire will last enough time to maybe do one action, whereas a log fire will last a few. I think perhaps instead of a timer it could be based on number of actions performed.

I'm thinking, to distinguish this from RuneScape's firemaking:

1. fires last a number of actions rather than a number of seconds. So a shrub fire will last one action.
2. there is no "fire making" skill, it's a subsection of lumberjack
C. fires have other effects like lighting up a dungeon, perhaps revealing new mining nodes and such
and IV. you can only have one fire active at a time
so no filling the screen with firez

None of this is done yet. I'm trying to work out how to animate them and how to spawn them, for now.

Then fires themselves will need their own crafting system. Perhaps I can piggyback on my existing crafting system, and use "fire" as a consumable hidden item.

 

[Ellie]

I think I've stumbled upon the answer to the Utilities question.

Virtual ingredients.

So these are items that "exist" in your inventory if you are stood on a particular tile.

If you're next to a fire, you "own" the item fire, and can use it.

So then I can piggyback on my crafting system, merely plugging "Fire", "Stove", "Furnace", etc, into it as items in the ingredients or tools part.

AH, but then I need to put some "or" into my ingredients. Which is gonna be some work! So you can use a "fire" or a "stove" or a "furnace".

But is that overcomplicating things?

Maybe a stove is just a fire that isn't consumed on use?

Anyway, I can start thinking of utilities now that can be used.

Mockup:

 

[Xhukari]

I don't know how suitable it would be for the game... But perhaps Mining's use for fire could be something like Dynamite to 'soften up' particularly hard rocks to then mine? Or something like an oil lantern if you have dark caves for them to mine in... For Leatherwork, maybe fire could be used to make Tannin, which is used to tan hide into leather.

But is that overcomplicating things?

Perhaps a bit. Stove and Fire seem pretty interchangeable, so could simplify that by using the same Fire tag, but of course Stove could have infinite uses. If you're doing the limited-actions approach to fires, you may want to limit it's use to the creator or something. I wouldn't want someone using up a fire I made for my own use...

I do like the idea of the proximity thing though. Helps remove some needless clicking, which is good since it's on mobile too. I don't think I would have the hidden-ingredients invisible to the player when in the crafting UI. Maybe make it so it is context sensitive? Add something needs to be cooked, the UI would then display the fire icon, or a different icon denoting that the player is not near the suitable heat source in order to cook?

 

[Ellie]

Progress likely seems slow the last few days because a lot of this is background mechanics. But I did a thing. This can be applied to so many objects in the game that it's hugely important.

Basically, created an item that spawns nodes when used.

Credit: YEP Event Spawner.

Not as easy as it sounds. The game has to see if there is a space available to plonk your node before it can place it. If not it rotates the character and tries again. If after a quick spin around you can't place it, it returns false, and then I have to work out what to do in that situaton. (But really there should be at least one direction you can walk so this should never occur)

Also had to apply this to both 8 dir movement and pixel movement; so the player has to collapse their position to a tile in order for the event to be placed on an adjacent tile, etc.

But yeah, now this is working so much can be implemented.



Edit:

Just realised this creates functionality for Summons and Necromancy, instantly adding dozens of options for new spells!

 

[Xhukari]

Looking good, Ellie!

(But really there should be at least one direction you can walk so this should never occur)

What if they were surrounded by spawned nodes? Or can can they occupy the same space?

 

[Ellie]

Yeah that's a good point.

Nodes are impassible by design, though this may cause problems with creating barricades for enemies (maybe that's a good thing / unexpected feature?)

They're impassible so that the player is encouraged to dismantle them (which is as simple as a right click). When you dismantle a node you get rewards, like ash and charcoal from a fire.

This is to discourage people from filling their screen with nodes and completely slowing down their game...



Quick mockups of high scores to see how I should go about creating these scenes.

Landing page:

Individual skill:

When you click the hunter icon you'll see this menu slide down:

Trophies will be things such as "player has been #1/2 in this skill", "player's guild has been #1", etc.

 

[Xhukari]

Couldn't that encourage them to put down all the nodes they possibly can though? Presuming if like the fire node, it gives them items that they can't get except from other players...

Not sure I understand the purpose of the highscores for skills? I like the trophy aspect though!

Perhaps this is a bit on the semantic-side of things, but maybe some of the skills could use renaming? Some sound like jobs (Miner, Fighter, etc) whilst others sound like a skill by itself (the Craftwork line). But something like Mage mostly makes me think of elemental magic (which could be problematic, if you do wish to expand into Necromancy, etc). So some possible ideas...

• Hunting, Foraging, Mining, Logging.
• No changes.
• Close Quarters, Projectiles, Magics, Aids

Loving the progress!

 

[Ellie]

Hey guys does 12 fps ring a bell for anything?

I'm having a lag issue where it seems any time the enemy engages with the player (QABS) the frame rate drops to exactly 12 fps. Not just "slow" but exactly 12 and hits 12 every time without fail.

I thought perhaps it slows it down to 12 in order to play the spell animations maybe? Would that even make sense?

My mega 3,840x16,000 spritesheet, fully animated in many ways, keeps at a constant 59-60 fps (that 1 fps is an annoyance but not noticable) so it's not me. I can animate the player however I want and keep at 59-60 fps.

It just seems weird this is a constant, obviously measured, 12fps that I drop down to and I can't for the life of me think why.

 

[Xhukari]

It only rings a bell as Adobe Flash's old default FPS. I've never really touched RPG Maker, let alone extra scripts...
So all I can suggest is some basic troubleshooting:

• Try it on another computer.
• Try isolating the QABS functionality outside of your current project.
• Try changing the spell animation frame count, if possible.