10:21 3/9/2012
I'm making flash games with Tangerine Pop. But I still have downtime. I needed a hobby, so Roaming Dragon just came back up as Full Life Term Hobby Status. This means as a hobby I'm going to work on this game. It is no longer a race, but a marathon, and not even a marathon, but a life goal. I'll work on this game to relax.
My future plans are:
1) I wrote a martial arts move maker in 2011. I'm going to incorporate this into the game.
2) I will database in 10 fighters without fireballs. Quickest this could possibly happen in: 3 months
3) I will write a Traditional Fighter like Tekken with ladder mode :) You can play this to gain bonuses for when the MMOG comes out. Also there will the ability to kickstart me there. Wanna kickstart me now? Email [email protected] subject:Kickstart. I don't check that email often though.
4) I need to make a 3d world editor. I think Minecraft is cute. I might thing of semi-randomly generated terrain for mine, but I don't like the blocky look if I can figure something better.
5) Then I'll make it into a MMOG with gradually increased scope of episodic content.
As always: Looking for artists and 3d modelers. Email:[email protected] Subject:Artist
11:48 PM 7/27/2009
Cleaning up the webpage, looking for a 3d modeler, a level builder and a musician.
Sept 17th 2008, 9:33PM
Everything is going well. I know of a few graphical glitches with the online game, but I'll fix them later. I added joystick support today and killed a bug or two. CYA at 8pm SAT.
Sept 14th 2008, 1 PM
I decided not to do throws, but instead leave in an unblockable move that has the same effect as a throw without the nice graphics. My reasoning is that I just want to see how this plays before getting in depth. Throws are not trivial to code, and I don't want to be closing in to next Saturday's deadline without polished networking code.
I can make all sorts of different games from the code I have now. FPS, MMORPG, Platformer, HackAndSlash, and of course Fighter. I think I'll be making the fighter first because it has the least amount of extra work for me. Still it is nice to be sitting on a bit of code that is flexible. My theory is that if you mimic the reality of Earth that you can build fantasy worlds from it. I am not close to an Earth mimic, but I have enough to be a video game code base.
Sept 11th 2008, 9:18PM
The only major thing I need to add for the demo is throws. I should have them done in the next 5 days. After throws are in, I'm just going to change minor things. I really want to see how the thing plays out. I think the guy doesn't crouch far enough down to avoid high attacks. I know of a couple minor bugs I don't plan on fixing. I think some animations could be done better. I need to consider allowing people to get knocked on the ground. When someone gets knocked on the ground, I need to figure out how I want to manage that. All in all, it is just a lead up for me databasing all the fighters in. That will take me some time, but it will also be fun.
Sept 8th 2008, 9:17PM
This demo coming up is going to be really rough.
There is no blood, sound, or particle effects showing that you are hit or blocked.
The only thing I want to see is how all the moves play out. I'll be running an analyzer in the game to see who has the best (damage dealt)/(damage received) ratio. Then I'll calculate which moves they used the most, and how much (damage dealt)/(times used). I'll then compare all the players so I can balance it out some.
Next, I'll think of how I want to make the rest of the fighters. The fighter you get is made on moves I really didn't put much thought into. I just made the moves so I had something in the game so I could test the game. Now that the game is more developed and solid, I can get a better idea on how I want to make the moves for the other guys.
Also, it is only going to be 10 people to play at once because I didn't enter in my special melee bandwith algorithm. I want to see how the game plays at full speed updates before I start managing bandwith.
Final note: Please do not play if you have a 56k modem. This game is a broadband only game. I don't have the code in it to determine your bandwith just yet so I am just asking this as a favor. When I release the MMOG, I'll have servers based on your bandwith so that 56k modem players can play, but PVP will be choppy for them.
Sept 8th 2008, 7:34PM
Due to unforseen awesomeness, I was able to debug some of the worst bugs plaguing my game. I budgeted 10 days to just stew over the bugs grasping at straws to lessen them, but I managed to remove them completely in only 2 days.
I bought an XBOX 360 controller, and I was able to get it working on one of my Windows machines. After I build everything, I will get it working with the game. Tomorrow I'll work on throws. I'm taking a break and doing light work today because I'm so excited to have nasty bugs behind me.
Sept 3rd 2008, 10:57PM
Fun idea Team attacks - These are special moves that you can launch when you have an ally or more nearby. A formation style attack is launched when both players agree.
I reinstalled Windows on my gaming comp. I installed a video card on my gaming comp. I setup an uninterruptable power supply on my gaming comp/ I didn't get any coding done today, but I asked for help on how to port my Linux code to Windows. It should be pretty easy once someone tells me the syntax.
Sept 1rst 2008, 10:50PM
I was thinking about basic fighter theory. I decided how I want my game to run.
It will work a bit like Street Fighter 2 in that:
*Standing blocks stop standing attacks.
*Throws can grab blocking people if they're standing or crouching.
*Jump kicks hit people who are blocking and crouched.
*You cannot block in the air.
It will work a bit like Tekken in that:
*Fast striking attacks will pre-empt a throw.
*Throws will counter throws.
*There are moves that hit below a standing block.
*There are unblockable moves.
The unique things I am adding are:
*If you press block a split second before their attack lands, you stun them for a short period of time. I hear the latest Street Fighters have this, but they make you press forward which doesn't block if you're off by a bit. My way of doing it will make you block even if you're off on your timing. And if you did it accidentally, they may be unstunned before you realize it.
*You can block a combo in action by pressing block while they are attacking you. I'm doing this in order to allow medium caliber players the ability to negate damage. New players who never block will get beat up far more than someone who realizes they're being hit by a combo so they start to block.
*Some advanced combos may be almost unblockable. You may wonder why combos even need to be in a fighting game when you could just have one move deal all the damage if they're unblockable. The reasoning is more than just pretty graphics. You can have an ally attack the opponent that has you in an unblockable combo thus breaking it up.
*Throws take a fraction of a second struggling with a standing opponent before the throw executes. If the player being thrown presses throw himself, the throw doesn't go off(throw breaker). The reasoning here is that if 3 opponents close the distance on you, they'd have too big of an advantage by throwing that you could not fight them all at once. Keep in mind that a couch/blocker cannot launch a throw breaker because he already has added defense of not being hit by moves that swing over his head or are aimed to hit below a stand blocker.
In addition to the attack animation's hit zone, move speed, move damage, general combos and moves: The above rule set will leave me with a lot of options in creativity of making new moves. Like I say elsewhere,"I want my core combat to be as strong as possible before making a game around it." If there is some sort of basic, game mechanic that I missing that you like, shoot me an email at [email protected]
Aug 30th 2008, 10:50PM
Ok, I'm back. I'm going to finish this game now. For a year I debated with myself if I wanted to make a game if it was brutal combat. I finally decided that yes I do want to make this game. It will be in beta within the next 3-12 months.
Right now the biggest thing I want to see is if my 500-1500 player at once theory is correct. I think I'll open a lot of eyes to the potential to massive online fighters.
As for the boring things. Here is my todo list over the next 12 months:
Get my animation maker done.
Get blocking done.
Make animations for getting hit from behind.
Make a better strafe animation.
Make it so you travel in the direction you're hit.
Upgrade the animation maker to take multiple skeletons for throws.
Make throw animations
Put throws in game.
Make a knockback when landing on people from a jump.
Add in all fighters(should be fun).
Determine how much broadband someone has.
Stress test game(Digg or Rededit anyone?).
Create Battle.net style interface.
Put names overheads->toggle on/off
Make various styles of gaming
Recruit artist(s)
When artists finish, start charging for the game in order to build funds to make MMO
Let fighter run while I make MMO.
Thur July 12th 2007, 5:48PM
I won't lie. I've been procrastinating. I am trying to get my Animation Maker ported up to the new version of CrystalSpace, and because it is annoying, I'm avoiding doing it. I'll slowly get back up to speed someday.
Fri July 6th 10:05AM
Been doing a lot of slacking.
Mon July 2nd 5:24PM
So from what people tell me, my link was down to the actual client. I'll run another demo in a few weeks. Right now, I am having trouble getting players that are hit to recoil every time. My first thing I have to do in order to debug is to get my xyzimation maker working in the latest version of CS. It could be a challenge that could take me three days or so.
Sun July 1rst 2:34AM
No one showed up for my demo. I got some data playing 1v1 on Friday with Ichiban, but no one showed up on Saturday. Bummer.
Fri Jun29th 4:23PM
Tomorrow at this time, the demo will be in full swing. I'm glad I have the thing done. Six months of coding all comes down to one test, but today I don't have to do anything... and it feels kinda nice. I'll go for a walk now.
Wed Jun27 11:14PM
Made some big strides today. I only have to code 1 more thing and the game is fully a functional multi-player game capable of supporting 10 players. Later it will support 500, but for now just 10 at full speed to test if fighting even works at all. This weekend will be the test that I've spent months programming for.
Tue Jun26 1:52AM
I had 3 p2p nodes communicating to each other. I now have an avatar slide around the position where the other nodes are. Tomorrow, I'll fix in the facing, animation, and velocity interpolation.
Wait I mean today when I wake up.
Mon Jun25th 11:10AM
I have the net code coming along well. It now streams data to all the peers. All I need to do is add the player mesh and use the packet data to show it. Then finally do hit detection. And the game is playable over the internet. It is something I could do today if I don't slack, but I am sorta in a slacking mood. At least I'll theorize it.
Fri Jun22nd 4:53PM
Nice. I got confirmation sending working with UDP. I'm not going to confirm everything, just critical packets like logging in. Next step is streaming the information of where the player is and what he's doing, and the step after that is adding in a physical model to display that data, finally checking for collision with attacks will be added. Once collision with attacks is done, we'll start some free for all battles with the moves in the game right now. I'm looking at midway through next week, probably Wednesday or Thursday for it to happen. But it could take three weeks if I get stuck.
Thurs Jun 21rst 11:38PM
Woot. I got timer syncrhonization done so every peer runs at the same clock as the other peers. This is important because moves need to be launched at a precise time and be showing up in relation to that time on all the peers. Basically its just a glorified ping, but it's my pinging and its awesome to start working on the P2P part of the code. Its kinda freaky too. I'm working on networking code that basically sends itself to the same function, only running on a different instance of the same application.
Thurs Jun 21rst 7:07PM
My math was wrong. The game can sustain 500 players fighting in one area, not thousands. Still 500 people is a lot, and as Broadband providers up their bandwith, more people can play... that may take a while.
Other than that, I'm just merrily coding away and haven't hit any major snags in a while
Wed Jun 20th 10:10PM
I found out something very interesting. I did the math. With the networking I am using, there is not an exponential increase in bandwith on a single server. Please oh please don't hack my game by me saying this(I'll have antihacks, but they won't be a challenge to a pro), but... I am using P2P. P2P will allow battles involving more than 64 people... It may even allow battles with 640 or more people at once. Maybe even battles involving 6,400 if your graphics card can handle it. I solved a tough fundamental networking issue, but networking isn't always the bottleneck... And theory is theory, doing is doing. I need to actually code this up and see if it works as theorized. Again please don't hack my game, it won't be a challenge, and I'll try my hardest with lots of antihack one trick ponies to make sure characters that use hacks don't influence the game much. IE: 1rst line of defense: I'll be able to detect hacks and ban people.
Wed Jun 20th 2:45PM
I'm getting anxious to see how this game is going to play, and that is stalling me from taking the small steps needed to get the game rolling.
Tue Jun 19th 10:18PM
I finished creating a Makefile that compiles my video game with all the headers and libraries it needs in an efficient manner so I can compile fast. I am quite happy for the little stuff I accomplished today seeing as how I had to learn another language as my primary goal.
Tue Jun 19th 8:31PM
So I went to the store, and they don't sell ColdFusion books. I had to do some internet browsing for code. I sufficiently feel like I've done enough studying on ColdFusion. If I don't get the job, yay for me. I like coding this 3d video game, and I'm sorta feeling upset of this unwanted waste of time. But if I do get a job, I'd be happy.
Tue Jun 19th 11:08AM
I started figuring out how a Makefile works. I need it to work with CrystalSpace and ASIO. I have it half way done, and I have clues for the 2nd stage. I won't get much coding done today though because I have to study for a Cold Fusion exam tomorrow so I may get a job. I guess one day of not coding won't kill me. I went a whole week last week without coding.
Mon Jun 18th 9:48PM
Today has been a casual day. I coded up a server, and I got a client to compile with Roaming Dragon the game. It should only be a few weeks before I have players fighting in the game. Once I get internet play working then the fun begins.
Mon Jun 18th 1:07PM
I'm starting out my net code.
Sun Jun 17th 10:53PM
Didn't do a whole lot of anything today. I should be coding the first basic internet code this week. The internet code needs to be robust eventually, but my first code will just be enough to fight with two fighters with no monsters and no blocking or throws. It should take me a few weeks.
Sat Jun 16th 5:51 AM
Helped my mom up the lake. Went to my cousin's wedding. It rocked. Now I am considering coding, but I have a mild hangover. Not the kind that is painful, but the kind where you still feel sorta intoxicated. I'll drink a lot of water, that should fix it up in a few hours. I've done some theorizing on internet play in the last few days. I think if I get out of this haze, I'll be able to start right up coding it.
Sun Jun 10th 9:07AM
I'm going to be away from internet connection until Wednesday.
Sat Jun 9th 1:42PM
I was asked if I would go to the lake for the weekend and I said yes. Later it turns out the weekend goes into Wednesday. So I'm desperately trying to install CrystalSpace on my crappy laptop so I have something to do for half the week. It sucks to be excited to do something and then someone to tell you it's time to go relax and party. I don't want to party until my game is done. *sigh*.
Friday Jun 8th 1:26PM
Solved the jump bug. Wanna hear something funny. The bug is so hard to figure out that even Quake 3 had it in it. Yet I fixed it with some help from the CrystalSpace developers. So the only bug left is some weak collision detection. I can move on to the next stage of coding which means internet play! So I budgeted 30 days to learn sockets, and I got it done in 7. I budgeted 60 days for the code port, and got it done in 8. I'm budgeting 90 days for internet play. Lets hope I code faster than I estimate again!
Thursday Jun 7th 8:04AM
Well the demo is up at www.geocities.com/James_Sager5/roam.zip, but you need to compile it with CrystalSpace. I have a 20 meg .zip file on my computer with the windows executable. I'm fairly happy with how it worked. But I am still wondering about problems 1 & 2. So today I'll probably work on them.
Wednesday Jun 6th 11:08PM
Bugs 1&2 are still in the code, but 3 is fixed! Everything works essentially. My first demo (check after midnight) will be found here(download
Wednesday Jun 6th 5:03 PM
I made some progress, but I am presented with some serious problems.
1) If you jump with high frames per second, you go higher, even though I have code that checks how much time has passed between frames.
2) You can get stuck in a wall or on other players. This doesn't happen with my .97 version.
3) I haven't got collision detection by part updated yet, so you can't actually hit or be hit by enemies.
I think 2 & 3 are related. I'm not sure what to think about 1.
Tuesday Jun 5th 7:14PM
I am stuck. I am awaiting help from the CrystalSpace community, specifically Oktal(Matthew). I managed to clean up my code so I have the least amount of warnings as I could manage. I uploaded a partial demo to: http://www.geocities.com/James_Sager5/roam.zip
Today is a very slow day. Should take me 2-8 days to get my code running as nicely as it once did.
Mon Jun 4th 11:58PM
I got the huge code port done. It is a milestone because the code completely compiles with CS 1.1. The trick is getting every piece to work in such a way that the game plays once again. Apparently I didn't port over the code that had throws in it, so I'll have to recode that again when I get the whole thing done. If I get stuck when I am rewiring this code, I'll take a break and refactor my code. I have a lot of warnings and depreciations in my build that I should investigate.
I also figured out how to track down the elusive crash I used to have when the game worked. What I'll do is place lots of printfs all over the code. When the game crashes, I'll see what printf it stopped at, then investigate that part further. I have complete confidence that my code won't lock up anymore. There is even a small chance that upgrading CrystalSpace fixed it.
Time to sleep, and hopefully I'll get the game playable in a day or two.
Sun Jun 3rd 11:28PM
It does seem like tomorrow that I'll do the big code port of 2007. If it works out, it will be a huge step forward, and by tomorrow night I'll have my demo working and up on my webpage. If the big step forward doesn't work out, no worries, I'll just take a few more smaller steps for a few days and try again. I figure no one reads this blog so I have the liberty to ramble on a bit. Today has been a fruitful idea day, but I really want to get to the point where I'm balancing fighters out and making their moves for 100 levels. I already got the levels 10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90,100 "theorized", that is to say I know what I want them to do and the classes will be semi-balanced. Some will be better vs monster play, some better for PVP, some better at taking a mass amount of enemies, another better at weapons. My balancing at this moment is that of just having different skills for different classes. I even theorized something really cool. Combos that only work if you have dual classed or more. There are 10 levels from 101-110, and each of them could have a special combo move that only works with one of the other classes. I want the Charge fighter to have a combo that incorporates 1 move from each of the classes. But that's way down the line... I have A LOT of stuff that is way down the line. It's not like it's going to be impossible to code everything. It's just that some stuff has to be done before I can get to the deeper stuff.
One thing is for certain is that I can make really good AI in this game if I want to go there. You gotta think the only AI you have in a FPS is shooting and scooting, or hiding behind a wall and shoot with the least amount of your body exposed. In a melee fighter, you have a lot of different moves to choose from and open land retreat is an option even when facing an enemy that has fast and slow fighters. You can run, then turn and fight the fast guys, and after you finish the fast guys you can come back and hit the slow ones. That's more of a player's perspective. But for AI, it can be all sorts of stuff from simply patrolling a path for a fight to judging if you're a good character or an evil character to determine to fight you or not.
One thing that I plan on implementing fairly early on is mercenaries and pets. You can hire mercenaries at one of the more seedy camps. They'll cost you money each day, but they'll fight along side you in battles like pets. If they get KOed, you have to buy new ones, as they won't respawn with you. Pets you will be able to buy in the first major town, and I haven't figured out how I want to do it yet, but pets will level up too.
Also the world is going to be somewhere on the huge side I think. I'm thinking the first area will be 25 square miles, so walking from the north side of the map to the south side of the map at 15 minute walking miles, you'll take an hour and 15 minutes. There is a method to this. Firstly I can add lots of secret places to the map. Secret places are interesting because if you claim them, you get bonus stuff like gold and gems each day that you control it, so you don't have much reason to post their coordinates to a webpage. You'll be able to get coordinates by using a "Star Chart"(have to buy one) at night time, but during the day you won't be able to get coordinates.
Another reason for making a huge world is that some people like to explore. Giving people a large world to explore is good even if the main game is dashing from portal zone to portal zone. There will be all sorts of monsters to fight on the landscape, so you can gain some experience and get lost from the main civilization. There is a lot of fun, fighting monsters and getting yourself some basic equipment as you start the game before you find town. Getting lost in a MMORPG isn't always a bad thing because you may come out ahead with gold and experience.
Another reason to give people a large land to explore is that LORTO soured me for small lands. Lord of the Rings told of epic journeys that took days. I know in a MMOG that you shouldn't force a person to sit on a pony for 60 hours straight to get to an encounter site. At the same time, the event locations shouldn't be placed so close together that you complete quests that you weren't even trying to complete by sheer accident of stumbling over them.
Finding town will be easy to do as there will be a road. And in town, there will be several ways to start quests. You can either jump through the mystery portal, or you can sign up with the local army and do all sorts of quests for them. You can talk to certain NPCs who may offer you quests for a party. You may be able to talk with other players to find out quests. Finally you can get directions to quests outside of town too, but these may be hard to get because you'll probably have to buy maps off a vendor.
Even though the first release of Roaming Dragon will be standard quests, it will be fun because it is also an action game. It will be the first MMOG that is a fighter! So people should be able to have fun for the first few months. Some of the extras to be added to the game will be an arena where people can fight and you can gamble on who will win. It will work because of P2P2Broadcasting theory. Basically the 8 or so people fighting will also broadcast to another node AKA a 9th player who really doesn't affect the battle, but just watches. This 9th player will broadcast all the information to a 10th person(2nd watcher), and everyone just passes information on down the line. So the people in the stands see a time delayed version of the fight, but it still plays out like it happens. I think this protocol is not something to be taken lightly so it probably won't be in the release version, but will be the first update.
The second update will be the addition of 16 square miles, with 16 castles governing them. Each castle can be raided, and when the boss is defeated, then a guild can take it over and rule the land with the leader being known as the king. There will be a lot of sim kingdom being played out, and castle control will have a lot to do with how the general play of the game runs its course. I think castle control will really be the hallmark of Roaming Dragon. The game is a MMOG which has all the classic RPG aspects, but is action, yet gives you a sense of living in the place by allowing you to own a house, a castle, or a tower, and later even a farm(Harvest Moon online). I really look forward to castles in the game, but that is like 2-5 years down the pipe from now.
I have a LOT to add to the game. I could go on for another hour of typing. And since no one reads this(yet), what would be the point. The key is that I should be working on the game to get it playable again. Then I should make it multi-player by writing robust net code. Finally on the horizon, I will be making all sorts of attacks for each of the classes. That is all the farther I should be looking right now. Once I make all the attacks for the classes then I'll run balance on them. It should be really exciting to make special moves and balance characters over the course of a year or so. The key is that I have a good deal of boring coding still left to do before I get there. Coding can sap one's creativity away so it is important for me to think about the game from time to time, so I don't lose my creative edge. Even if I am just talking to myself on the blog. I gotta be careful not to post too many spoilers though because there will be a story line to go along with it... It will be like Saturday morning cartoons in a form I think they call machina?
Sun Jun 3rd 7:28 PM
I've been scoping out my code, and it's come to my attention that I have a majority of the code already ported over. Tomorrow, I may be able to port all the rest in one fell swoop. I still would have to manually piece the code back together, and update pieces that changed from CS.97 to CS1.1, but I do have an interesting plan at least.
Sun Jun 3rd 2:43PM
Casual day again. I haven't even coded any yet. I'm just writing down ideas. I think I'll code some.
Sun Jun 3rd 10:46AM
Going to church in a bit. I had some ideas for my company if it takes off. I'll build a cement block castle with towers, and a swimming pool moat. It will be the office. And every Friday will be slack off day where people are mandated to come in for work, but it's a pool party and barbeque.
Sat Jun 2nd 11:55pm
Didn't accomplish much today. I slacked, but I still coded a little.
Fri Jun 1rst 3:26PM
I'm accomplishing a lot today.
Fri Jun 1rst 12:08PM
I made a nice step forward. I was able to get animation working again. Things look good.
Fri Jun 1rst 9:17AM
Day 2 of porting my old code into the latest version of CS.
Thur May 31 1:56PM
So it took me 8 days to play with sockets instead of a month. Now I am up to porting my old code to the new version of CS. This is going to be tedious, but I budgeted 2 months for this. So around August 1rst, I should have my playable demo back in order. I tried to do a rush job and just compile my old code, but there are far too many errors to fix stuff all at once. I'm going to have to code it piece by piece. Well the nice thing is I budgeted 2 months for this. I need to strategize how I'm going to accomplish this, so I figure it's a nice time for a walk.
Thur May 31 7:07AM
thebolt helped me out. I'm no longer stuck. Time to get back to coding.
Wed May 30 9:38 PM
I'm fairly stuck right now. I didn't get much done since noon. :( There are avenues I could code in, but I want to go in a certain direction and it's blocked. So maybe I'll sleep early tonight with hopes that people on the mailing list help out.
Wed May 30 12:40PM
I hit milestone #1. I now have all the compiler and library power to do the job. I made a 3d game that had UDP packets sent as a separate thread.
Milestone #2 will be recoding in Roaming Dragon in the new version of CS... It could take me several weeks.
Milestone #3 will be allowing multi-player to work in Roaming Dragon.
Milestone #4 will be a polished product of multi-player. Once I hit Milestone #4, I'll be able to start adding moves.
Tue May 29
I'm a lot less stuck now. I got avenues to pursue. I was able to make a threaded executable that runs with CrystalSpace. Threaded processes are a must for UDP networking in simultaneous running with CS. So today was productive even though I'm designating this week as my low impact week.
Mon May 28
I'm only mostly stuck now. I'm slowly getting my game back to where it was 4 years ago. This is going much slower than I anticipated.
Mon May 28
Stuck. I'm hoping people on the forums can help me. I hate being stuck.
Mon May 28
I'll be doing another low impact day. I read some documentation yesterday. Today I'll begin porting my old code to the new engine.
Sun May 27
Low impact day. I'm not going to do much except learn some library stuff. I designed what I think the overland should look like, and I theorized what a battle involving many would be like(Players vs Monsters). The players would all lag, but your own character wouldn't, and neither would the monsters. So it won't look spectacular, but it'd work.
Sat May 26 9:26 pm
Got stuck on my P2P server and had to ask for help on the mailing list about 20 hours ago... No reply.
So I started coding the game over again. Coding is boring. Coding stuff you already coded before is very boring.
A nice thing that I accomplished today is that all 10 fighters have a special ability they gain every 10 levels til 100. I also am making it so you must gain 110 levels in each class before you can re-specialize to a new fighter class because if I let people respec at 100, then no one who likes leveling would be able to get to use the level 100 special ability.
Sat May 26 9:14 am
Good morning. Time to code threads, and learn how to use the make command correctly.
Sat May 26 12am: I was able to get my first threaded application to run, with some help from grafikrobot in #boost on irc.freenode.net
Tomorrow when I wake up, I can write code that will help me towards making my P2P chat.
May 25 8:02 PM WOW it took a long time to build. Taking a break to see family and play poker
Fri May 25 7:12 PM
I'm back and Boost is still building. I made a tech tree for the Knight of Order while walking. I'll get back to walking and make another fighter
Fri May 25 6:29 PM
Threads. Before I use them, I need to comiple the library. That's what is going on now. A nice long compile. I guess I'll go for a walk and think up special moves for the fighters.
Fri May 25 2:47 PM
I got the information I needed! Now I have ASIO running in Windows. I also know what I have to do to get my P2P to work: threads. Threads are incredibly difficult, so I'm adding an additional month to my dev time. So its going to be 2 months for my P2P code
Thur May 24, 10:58 PM
I went back to bed at about 10am. I slept in til 2. At least I tried. Today I did a lot with internet networking. I am planning on making the core my peer to peer architecture over the next few days. I thought I'd need a month to play with sockets, but they're coming along fast. :) Tonight I'm going to be trying Windows to Linux communication. It should be a little bit of fun after I get ASIO up and running on Windows. There's some information I need to learn before I get to my P2P architecture.
Thur May 24, 8:51 AM
I only slept 9 hours :) That was a goal of mine. Tonight I sleep only 6-8.
Now the field is wide open for me to crack open some programming libraries. I think I'm going to go with the networking code first. So my next step is downloading and compiling RAKNET. I'll then start playing with tutorials. That's my goal for today. Not a big goal, but after yesterday, I can use a light day.
Wed May 23, 10:43 PM
I would like to say thank you to my friends on IRC that helped me setup Mandriva with CrystalSpace:hucker,Dvalin,Nicku,notech,benja22 and Oktal. Without people to help me just get the OS and compiler setup, I would be Stuck. I'm quite tired, and there's nothing much to do but watch stuff install and compile, so it's time to chill out, and hopefully I'm in bed by midnight. I don't plan on any more of these 30+ hr days. But I do plan on sleeping only 6-8 hours. so I can get long days in. There is a lot of work to do yet.
Wed May 23, 4:45 PM
I had to scrap my Linux installation and start from scratch. I had some problem with graphics drivers. I couldn't get 3d so I couldn't run a CrystalSpace 3d executable. But I could compile! In MinGW for Windows, it takes 3.5 minutes to compile a sample program, but in Linux it only takes 10 seconds! Shorter compile times make me a happy programmer. Installing Linux is no easy task if you plan on developing on it and you're a noob to the OS.
I have a timeline. I'm sure it won't happen one way or another, but it goes like this:
1 month to play with sockets
2 months to update my old code to the modern CS
3 months to merge sockets with my game, so you can play head to head over the net
1 year to add all the fighters moves, balanced every 10 levels to 100. Also weapons and armor will be added during this time. And fighters will be balanced accordingly. Towards the end of balancing, we'll just play around with group combat.
After this year and a half of work done mostly solo, I'll feel like I really accomplished something! I can then have enough work done that I can start looking for a team. The team I'll be looking for are artists, level designers, and musicians.
I'll pay like this: Lets say someone makes a quality dungeon. They spent a few weeks on it, so I'll say the dungeon is worth $3000. I won't be able to pay them immediately, so they'll get a cut of the profits, lets say 1%. They'll continue to get %1 of the profits until they've recieved the full $3000. Anyone who knows how profitable MMORPGS can be may find this a deal, especially since it assures them a future of making more dungeons or landscapes.
I must say that I am not doing this game simply because I need money. I'm doing it out of a creative passion. I have so many stories to tell, so many battles to coreograph, so many ways of differentiating one player from another... I used to play as a game master, and I played many RPGS as a player so I know what its like when a good game is made. I want to be continuously developing on this game until I die, and I have the game drawn out so you can play it for a lifetime.
Because I have this passion, I know others must have it too. I'm a talented programmer and video game designer. I want to find talented artists, level makers, special effects people, game masters, musicians, and programmers. I'm really worried about the next 6 months where it's all work and no play. I know I'll find a team to work with me. That part will be easy.
Depending on how fast I can assemble a team, and what rate everyone's working at, it will be another 2-5 years before the game comes out in beta. I can't see much further than that right now.
Wed May 23, 8:40 AM
Jorrit turned me on to raknet for my UDP socket library. I'll have to check it out.
Wednesday May 23, 7:09 AM
I'm setting up my computer to do some coding. I won't be able to play Command and Conquer 3 anymore :P I'm stuck making a game, no turning back.
Ugh, sockets look confusing, this may take weeks
Wednesday May 23, 4:41 AM.
This is my first blog entry. I'll be blogging all about this game from the exciting to the boring, whatever is on my mind at the time. I will be careful to not reveal spoilers for the game or possible routes to hack my game. My game will have many strengths and will use human game masters to cover for some weaknesses in the code that only rare hackers can exploit. Also when the game gets really rolling, there will be LIVE role play, but that's down the pipe. First I want the game running smoothly without live role play.
I'm going to put some serious effort into getting my Tekken/Virtual Fighter MMORPG in gear. Not only will it be the first MMORPG fighter on the market, but it will have tons of next gen stuff in it too.
I'm psyched. I'm using CrystalSpace 3d for 3d :) and ASIO for my sockets. I have the 3d part down pretty well, so I need to work on my sockets for the next few weeks.
I want to create a P2P Battle.net and then leave it open source so anyone can use it. It won't even require a server at all except to start with, but it can go down and the P2P Battle.net will still be up! It is just an excercise with UDP to see if I can get them down pat. Before I can code this, I need to learn the basics of UDP and punching through NATS. It will be quite complex due to the fact that I may have to use a friend to run the server for me because I don't have enough hardware at home. When you want a plain server, you can't be behind a router. I can either be a server or a router, not both. So this code will be a bit tricky to code, but I've had harder problems to deal with.
Problems problems problems and very little creativity. This is how it is to make a game. It sucks too because when you theorize out a game, you're in creative mode, and you never want to leave. But if you don't get out of creative mode and into objective coding mode, you'll never accomplish anything. And what sucks even worse than that is once you're objectively coding for so long, your creative talent gets rusty! So when you finally get to the part where you're supposed to be adding fun stuff, you're actually stumped. I found this out after years of coding games. For this reason, I'll take time outs during the session and do some creative stuff.
Creative stuff I did during this timeout:
Fighter Class list
Elemental Chart