Development updates

[Captain Deathbeard]

Got some new animations, the new combat ones are a bit "special" though so the gameplay still needs a bit of tuning to accomodate them

shoddy sunsets, still need HDR and proper terrain texturing

Playing with the character editor

I'm doing lots more things too, but its nothing screenshotable. Like limping and procedural breathing.

[Captain Deathbeard]

Working on stumbling and wound-reactions. This completely changes the way mass combat works now, because it means an outnumbered character chops one guy, and then while that guy flinches or stumbles back clutching his wound the character can turn and chop someone else, who then falls over squirting blood or something, and he turns to fight the next guy, and then the first guy recovers and has to be chopped again, and so on... Its gonna look awesome when its finally done.

And then the amount a character flinches will depend on the damage done and his own skill levels.

I'm in a feature-adding frenzy right now because I just did a load of new animations a few weeks back.

[Captain Deathbeard]

Been working on the combat system most of this time, but today I started upgrading the games Construction Set. I finally got the game to run in an editor window, so soon we'll be able to use the editor to create content and then just drag and drop it into the game.

[Captain Deathbeard]

Working on the medical system at the moment. I believe its an important element of the combat for injuries to have a lasting realistic effect, because a real-life battle is about attrition of wounds and exhaustion. Most battles will end up with the participants stumbling around trying to get a last slash at each other. It also greatly blurs the line between life and death allowing for you to keep characters alive without saving and reloading all the time.

Characters can now limp, and I am working on clutching hands to wounds (see screen) on different body areas. Later on I will add limp (ragdoll) arms, crawling (with ragdoll legs), concussion and random stumbling, dropping from exhaustion, carrying wounded buddies, vomiting blood... all kinds of fun stuff.

[wazupwolf]

cool...are u still working on it? havent heard any new news in quite awhile so if u could reply telling me that ur still working on thatd be cool since this game will be awesome

[Captain Deathbeard]

Yeah still working on it, just a little quiet gap, about time I explained in the blog i think.

[Suta]

I'm not sure if this is the place for it. But I would like to say that you did a good job with the terrain so far. I could really imagine an army walking across it, or two armies running into each other on that ground.

[wazupwolf]

yea i completely agree with suta this game is gonna be one of if not the best game ever

[SBLaxer20]

I like the sunset one, IMO it'd make a great wallpaper once it's cleaned up.

[Captain Deathbeard]

Don't worry, it will look a lot better than that verrry soon...

[Hector]

So, any more updates? It has been three months, after all...

Edit: Because apparently I can't count...

[Windexglow]

Not sure on his part, but I've been pretty lazy lately. I put the blame on lack of creativity on how the first towns buildings should be done - the lack of building materials can make this quite difficult.

At the same time, the lack of object manipulation (right now you can't adjust Y rotation, and you can't offset height) is also a challenge - while the starting towns will be known for being technically advanced compared to the rest of the world, the game seems to center on a "mad max" style.

Chris is only one person, and that has limitations. He wants to release a demo come September, but (feel free to delete this Chris if you want to) I feel he won't be able to reach it, unless he wants to release a fairly empty one.

Here's a soon to be scrapped model I made - unfortunately I made about 4 other buildings based on this style. I am scraping it due to
A: Complicated to make.
B: Ugly as fuck
C: High poly for low quality
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/1087 ... 234172.jpg


Overall though, things are going good. I have a few concept papers I need to try out, and I am getting better at texturing.

Just like to add I am not an official voice on the game or anything :p

[Captain Deathbeard]

Yeah I switched to making my updates on the main page now, but I should still do them more often. I'll do a new one.

[Captain Deathbeard]

And yeah, I still expect to make the release but it will be an empty one. The first release certainly won't be a full game, more like a mini-playground.

[Hector]

Looks good so far. Any chance of a monthly update? Just to give us something to talk about while we wait .

[Captain Deathbeard]

Yeah I think so too, for now on there will be an update on the 1st of each month, as a minimum. The one I just did a few days ago counts as today.

Actually that means only one more update, and the next one will be the first release!

Until release date slips.

[RustKnight]

I'm doing lots more things too, but its nothing screenshotable. Like limping and procedural breathing.

Procedural breathing? what did you mean by this? Mouth to mouth resuscitation ?

[Captain Deathbeard]

no, it just means the chest is animated to breathe, based on how exhausted the character is.

[RustKnight]

Oh i understand now...

[yssarile]

on that subject, does the medical system take different actions for treatment, or how exactly does a charecter perform in game healing? and if it is certain things they need to do, would their effectiveness be limited by localized damage?

and on the breathing note, say someone is wearing say, plate mail, and they take a hit in the abdomen, that dents it, would that player consequentially have a harder time breathing because its constricting on his torso?