Update 24/07/13

Spears, daggers and clubs have been added. Spears and daggers have their own attack animations separate from the regular animations most weapons use. Also bugfixes!

Update 01/07/13

Apologies for a lack of updates, but work on the game slowed to a crawl due to real life issues.

Since the last update a new type of monster was added, the Curators. They're designed as a replacement to the skeletons so they basically offer the same challenge, but they can't normally be permanently killed. They only take a single hit to knock down but they'll get up after 30 seconds. You have to find the book that acts as their phylactery and set fire to it with a lit torch.

I also added clumsy attack animations for when you don't meet the stat requirements for a weapon. You can still do damage with a clumsy attack, if you somehow manage to hit with that animation, but it can never penetrate armour so it's pretty useless.

By far the biggest thing I added though was saving and loading of the game. Not exactly the most exciting feature, but it had to be done at some point. I spent 3 weeks working on it but that was on a very part-time basis. By far the majority of implementing this was fixing the bugs it caused but I think I got them all in the end, and managed to fix every crash-related bug that I'm aware of in the process. Now I'll have to add something new so it can cause brand new bugs, and so the cycle continues.

Update 21/05/13

Added framework for character creation. It's just the first screen, there's two other screens after this still to be created (skills and companions) and the race/classes/gods don't have their models or abilities yet either (which will be a long time coming because they'll need modelling work beyond my meagre skills, and the abilities are just something that'll get implemented piecemeal over the course of the game's development). It's just stats and flavour text. I also added basic support for languages.

I added leather armour and redid the plate armour, although they both still need some work as they're not even at the low standard I set for my placeholder art.

I also did some more work on item descriptions.

Also bug fixes and general tweaks to gameplay, the usual.

Update 11/04/13

Today was spent adding item descriptions, and also trying to fix a really annoying bug to do with NPCs changing map levels and their items getting bugged and crashing the game when they do. I still haven't fixed it after about 6 hours. Oh well, writing stupid item descriptions made up for it.

Update 10/05/13

This week started with some additions to the sound system, such as random pitch on footsteps, background ambient noise, and button clicking sound effects.

Most of the work was done on the AI systems though. It won't be apparent until more tasks are added, because currently there's only a searching task, rally allies task, and hit stuff with a melee weapon task, but the underlying system allows for some smart decision making.

It also allowed for me to add in a friendly AI human really easily. You can control him by pressing enter and typing a command, but since the talking system isn't properly implemented yet all he knows is "follow" and "stop following". The AI looks for keywords in sentences and acts according to those, so you can construct any kind of sentence you like and so long as it contains the keywords somewhere the game knows what you mean. The sentence in the picture below is valid, for example.

Later on you'll be able to issue complex commands, including asking NPCs to explore areas of the dungeon you haven't been to yet or to otherwise move to faraway locations, but for now he's pretty dumb. I don't expect you'll be able to keep him alive past a single fight either, but you have to start somewhere!

Update 03/05/13

I've done some work on improving some of the more egregious animations, added a health indicator, some tweaking with the inventory to make it easier to shuffle items about, allowed players to switch between targeted enemies with the scroll wheel, and bug fixing.

Update 30/04/13

I did a pass on a whole bunch of polish, which includes stuff like smooth dampening of the camera for certain actions and transitionary periods between attacking and moving. Nothing grandiose, but it feels a lot better to control.

Ragdolls were removed until I can properly implement them and there are placeholder death animations now instead.

Shield bashing was implemented. Shield bashing does no damage but knocks a target down. A target that has been knocked down can be hurt with weapons that would normally be ineffective, such as swords against a skeleton.

Also new attack animations for 1 handed weapons.

Shield bash into 3-hit combo

Update 23/04/13

The dungeon entrance model was completed. The first room of the first level of the dungeon is now a large bridge. It has what will be the first safe-point, a location where you can sleep, save the game, eat and change armour, although the mechanics for that hasn't been implemented yet. Probably all safe-points will be at static locations like this, rather than being dumped in randomly generated rooms.

A few other little things were also either finished or started. Roadmap updates;

BUGS

* fix weapon swings

* fix rolling so it properly accounts for movement direction during attacks

* fix doors so they properly lock (also when stopping normally or only when at rest pos?)

* fix navmesh behaviour so it properly updates upon interactable changes (problem only occurs when map is first created?)

* fix interactable effects when changing state (inventory and debug state both crash if an effect was active in play state)

MECHANICAL

* create a formal system for AI handling paths during navmesh updates

* move searchForEnemy AI to separate task (currently in meleeAttack task)

* add reaction/warning task upon discovering enemy (plus animation for reactions)

* create character creation screen (something basic so you can at least select equipment)

* create info screen for items in inventory (detailed image + flavour text when you right click items)

* create stat system for armour/weapons

MODELS AND TEXTURES

* redo textures with compression and reduced sizes

* redo doorway arch model

* create dungeon entrance model

* create proper clutter models

* create proper chasm tiles

* redo all skulls to use texture instead of model

* create pouch

* create lantern

* create torch

* create plate body armour

* create plate head armour

* create plate leg armour

* create chainmail body armour (redo with a longer tabard)

* create chainmail head armour

* create chainmail leg armour

* create leather body armour

* create leather head armour

* create leather leg armour

* create boots

* create shield

* create sword

* create bastard sword

* create axe

* create spear

* create mace

* create dagger

* create claymore

* create great axe

* create heavy mace

ANIMATIONS

* fix human sprinting/running animations so held objects aren’t obscuring view in first person

* create human 1H animations

* create human spear animations

* create human dagger animations

* create shield-bashing animations

* create human 2H animations

* create parry animation for when wielding 2 parryable items together

* redo skeleton attack animations so they have greater reach (leap forward slightly?), also give secondary attacks

* create cumbersome rolling animation for when wearing medium armour

 

Entrance + bridge

Update 18/04/13

Work was done on some animations, notably headway was made into skeleton attack animations so they now pose a threat.

Update 14/03/13

Implemented the first batch of weapon and armour stats.

Attack animations are divided into swinging, thrusting or overhead attacks. Armour is divided into those categories too, so when an attack connects it check's the attack's type against all of the armour that belongs to that type (assuming the weapon itself is capable of damaging with that attack type - you can thrust with an axe or mace but it won't do any damage).

Armour is also divided into light, medium and heavy (and inorganic for skeletons). If a weapon penetrates that armour type then you do 1 wound of damage, otherwise the weapon only knocks them down and you have to hit them again to do damage. If a weapon is ineffective then it doesn't even knock them down and you have to find some other method of knocking them down to do damage.

Also equipment now has requirements for use. If you become encumbered you must walk everywhere. I still need to do a clumsy-attack animation when you aren't strong enough to use a weapon though. Equipment can also modify a whole bunch of other stuff, such as changing your attack speed, movement speed, hampering or disabling rolling and jumping, and stat changes.

All of this has visual cues in game so you don't need to know it to play. It's obvious when some piece of armour is slowing your movement, or an attack isn't doing damage to a target.

This all extends the modding system that the game has. It's easy for others to change or add new weapons and armour. Here's examples of the files that define the axe and plate body armour.

[item:AXE]
[name:axe:axes]
[icon:axe_icon]
[mesh:axe:box:0.2,1.2,0.1]
[statrequired:might:5]
[statrequired:vigor:3]
[weapon:lethal:1H_SWING:1H_SWING2]
[twohanded:2H:2H_SWING]
[armourpenetration:light]
[armourpenetration:inorganic]
[armourineffective:heavy]
[attacktype:swing]
[attacktype:overhead]
[hit:spark_small:clang.ogg]
[contact:0,-0.5,0]
[contact:0,0,0]
[contact:0,0.5,0]
[heldoffset:0,0.35,0]
[parry]
[attachable:weapon]

[equipment:PLATE_BODY]
[name:plate armour:plate armour]
[icon:armour_icon]
[mesh:packageditem:box:0.6,0.6,0.4]
[statrequired:might:3]
[statrequired:vigor:6]
[defensepool:swing]
[defensepool:overhead]
[defensepool:thrust]
[movementspeedmodifier:-15]
[hamperrolling:2]
[attackspeedmodifier:-10]
[equipped:Body:plate_body]
[hiddensubmeshes:body:armright:armleft]

Update 13/04/13

The first 4 weapons have been finished/redone (sword, axe, mace, and bastard sword) and weapon swing arcs were fixed. Next up is actually implementing weapon and armour stats into the game, and the interactions between them (currently weapons all function identically, and armour does nothing to protect you).

Update 09/04/13

The lantern model was finished, as were the clutter models. First person moving animations were fixed. I also made a ceiling grate tile that wasn't on the list but needed doing at some point. Updated roadmap with a few more tasks;

BUGS

* fix weapon swings

* fix rolling so it properly accounts for movement direction during attacks

* fix doors so they properly lock

* fix navmesh behaviour so it properly updates upon interactable changes

* fix interactable effects when changing state (inventory and debug state both crash if an effect was active in play state)

MECHANICAL

* create a formal system for AI handling paths during navmesh updates

* move searchForEnemy AI to separate task (currently in meleeAttack task)

* add reaction/warning task upon discovering enemy (plus animation for reactions)

* create character creation screen (something basic so you can at least select equipment)

* create info screen for items in inventory (detailed image + flavour text when you right click items)

* create stat system for armour/weapons

MODELS AND TEXTURES

* redo textures with compression and reduced sizes

* redo doorway arch model

* create dungeon entrance tile model

* create proper clutter models

* redo all skulls to use texture instead of model

* create pouch

* create lantern

* create torch

* create plate body armour

* create plate head armour

* create plate leg armour

* create chainmail body armour (redo with a longer tabard)

* create chainmail head armour

* create chainmail leg armour

* create leather body armour

* create leather head armour

* create leather leg armour

* create boots

* create shield

* create sword

* create bastard sword

* create axe

* create spear

* create mace

* create dagger

* create claymore

* create great axe

* create heavy mace

ANIMATIONS

* fix human sprinting/running animations so held objects aren’t obscuring view in first person

* create human 1H animations (secondary attacks still need to be finished)

* create human spear animations

* create human dagger animations

* create shield-bashing animations

* create human 2H animations

* redo skeleton attack animations so they have greater reach (too easy to dodge)

* create cumbersome rolling animation for when wearing medium armour

New ceiling tile...

Weapons and Armour content roadmap

Current state of the game video: link

It's time to add the first round of content! Up until now everything added to the game has been the systems necessary for the game to work, and the only content added was that which was needed to test those systems.

The new content will focus on adding different types of weapons and armour. The new models added will still be placeholders, but they'll allow for structuring how the game will play. Below is the development roadmap for this round of content, which I'll keep updated as progress is made. Green text represents a finished task, yellow represents a task underway.

BUGS

* fix weapon swings

* fix rolling so it properly accounts for movement direction during attacks

* fix doors so they properly lock

* fix navmesh behaviour so it properly updates upon interactable changes

MECHANICAL

* create a formal system for AI handling paths during navmesh updates

* move searchForEnemy AI to separate task (currently in meleeAttack task)

* add reactionToEnemy/warningAlliesOfEnemy tasks upon discovering the player (plus animation for reactions)

* create character creation screen (something basic so you can at least select equipment)

* create info screen for items in inventory (detailed image + flavour text when you right click items)

* create stat system for armour/weapons

MODELS AND TEXTURES

* redo textures with compression and reduced sizes to increase performance

* redo doorway arch model

* create proper clutter models

* redo all skulls to use texture instead of model

* create pouch

* create lantern

* create torch

* create plate body armour

* create plate head armour

* create plate leg armour

* create chainmail body armour (redo with a longer tabard)

* create chainmail head armour

* create chainmail leg armour

* create leather body armour

* create leather head armour

* create leather leg armour

* create boots

* create shield

* create sword

* create bastard sword

* create axe

* create spear

* create mace

* create dagger

* create claymore

* create great axe

* create heavy mace

ANIMATIONS

* fix human sprinting/running animations so held objects aren’t obscuring view in first person

* create human 1H animations (secondary attacks still need to be finished)

* create human spear animations

* create human dagger animations

* create human 2H animations

* redo skeleton attack animations so they have greater reach (too easy to dodge)

* create cumbersome rolling animation (for when wearing medium armour)

Current state of our adventurer...