Bearing up

 

Another minor glitch on the server caused this cave to spawn bears like there was no tomorrow - which there wasn't for the bears.

Trivia aside, the server's looking pretty robust. A little more local testing and then on to the closed live tests, and after that - at last - Playtesting! Are you ready folks?

The music is courtesy of NoSoapRadio some of which I'm thinking of using in the game.

FP view and compass

 

I've put in an optional first-person view. It's not very useful for battles but it does make exploring much more exciting! I've also added a compass (not that easy to see in the video - it's just above the bottom panel).

Invisible Zombie Ghosts!

OK, so my archers are attacked by a bear, which they kill, but then it's the Attack of the Invisible Zombie Ghosts! The archers keep dying even though nothing can be seen. Cree-py! Anyone who says this is just a bug on the server needs to open their minds to the realms of the supernatural! o_O

Civil war

Though it doesn't look like they're being very civil!
The server is much cleaner now, so to test it I planted loads of enemy villages close to each other to see what happened. Instant carnage! Everything seems to be holding up under the strain, but look at that frame rate - ouch! Still playable though (just). More optimisation called for, I wist.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible

I'm doing a pretty major re-factoring of the server, so I'm taking my time - I don't want to swap one load of problems for another!
In the meantime here is some music...

You couldn't see far for paste...

Been called away on decorating duty so little new to report - seems pretty calm in SMW2 land also, though I notice those pesky bears have nibbled away at my archers while I was wasn't looking...

Interwebitis

Sorry for the no posts, I've had trouble with my ISP, but I *think* I'm good now. Every so often they mess me around so I have to spend hours on the phone to them, then they deluxe my service just when I've sworn to ditch them. Almost like being married!
Having no interwebs is an uncomfortable experience. It makes you realise just how dependent on it you really are...

Cursory inspections

One very apparent problem which emerged from the battle tests was that selecting and directing units wasn't very easy, so today I've been looking at improving that. Now there are contextual cursors (see the hand over the cavalry in the picture?) and you can select a unit by clicking on any of its soldiers instead of just on their banner. Lots easier, and now means you can attack animals - you couldn't before because they don't have a banner...

Battle testing

In this battle test the plan was to push forward the infantry backed by the archers, then flank the enemy archers with my cavalry while they're busy with my infantry.
That was the plan...

All my infantry bunched up! I'm being attacked by bears! My archers have just wandered off somewhere! Oops, erm...
This is useful stuff as it shows up problems with the control system and the AI, but to restore my battered pride I made another attempt against a *cough* slightly smaller foe;

Whew! Total annihilation of the enemy. This control system needs some serious work though, as does the camera. I'm also not quite sure why my cavalry do a triumphalist lap of the enemy king before they kill him. Cute though.

When three tribes go to war

Lots of under-the-bonnet work today. I've shortened the night and made it rain a bit less. The weather system seems pretty solid now!
Mostly though I've been fixing it for players to be able to choose their allegiance from 'Empire', 'Republic' or 'Anarchist'. I'm not completely happy with these - any suggestions anyone?
As things stand you can change allegiance by logging out and logging back in with a different allegiance - I don't think I've thought through the full possible consequences of this...

A hard rain's gonna fall

Theoretically it's only supposed to rain 25% of the time on average, but it seems like every time I log in it's heaving it down! Seems like it's dark a lot of the time as well - I think I'm going to make the nights shorter...

Weathermongering

 

Sorry for the late posting but testing the weather system is a pain - it takes ages. Worse still, because it's a chaotic system you never know when it'll rain or be sunny - this the first out of five time-lapse vids where it didn't either rain constantly or not rain at all!

Where is my mind?

OK, I swore I wasn't going to use fogging when I started on this game because it's so often used as a cheap device to hide the edges of the map and I wanted to be different. I've changed my mind and now I totally like it - it really adds atmosphere (as it were) and edge - the mist gets thicker and suddenly you're thinking: "Where was that village again?"

Rain stopped play

Can't really do much in this weather...
(Actually this is just a mock-up. I'm still pondering the implementation!)

OK, I'm really getting quite wet now, and I can't see much either!
I very much like this - you've just made your plan of attack and got your troops positioned when suddenly  - wham - rainstorm! Can't see a bloody thing!
I wonder if I can make this happen...

Things you'll never see in the game #3

Floating chests. I reckon I'm going to have to rethink the terraforming aspect of the game...