Last week brings fresh faces to the world of Erendorn with updated models for the Stone and Venomspitter Frogs, while the Sound team worked on the ancient Watertarg's abilities. Our environment artists continue to work on the modular kit for the castle ruins and the animation team tackles cycles for the Draconian race. Finally, the coding team has worked on allowing parties to roam the Overworld of Erendorn seamlessly. As always, join us on Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit for daily updates on Depths of Erendorn - now let’s get into it!
3D Modelling
Work has continued on the Venomspitter and Stong frog models. After the models got a touch up the artists have been focusing on creating textures for both models. Taking inspiration from the real world the artists have used bright colours on the Venomspitter Frog to show predators that they are not to be messed with. The team has used gradients to add multiple colours into the colour scheme, this gives a more distinct outline to the model and makes it easier on the eye. Additionally, the team has used a colour pallet of greys and brown to complete the textures for the Stone Frog, these colours will help the enemy blend with its surroundings with effective camouflage. Examples of these new textures can be seen below.
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Programming
Client
Last week, the client team's work has been focused on allowing parties of players to leave the settlement and begin an Adventure in the zone surrounding. This has meant updating how World Sessions are handled, from using a single World Session to having the ability to switch and connect to different World Sessions responsible for the different zones in the world of Erendorn. More work completed by the client-side team can be seen below.
- Added the ability to create and reference multiple different World Sessions.
- Updated the clearing method for Sessions to fully despawn managers and remove old connections.
- Updated burst message collation and compression methods in line with Server changes, this should allow update messages to contain much more information while keeping the number of characters sent manageable.
- Implemented a fix for a bug where players joining dungeons late would not receive ballot conclusions blocking the screen with the reroll vote.
- Updated how Party UI displays when the local player leaves.
- Added new Zone1 navigation data.
- Fixed zone transition problems so now we can add more zones game world.
Server
Last week, the server team has been focused on implementing a new system we've been wanting to include for a while; stat subscriptions. While we already have a system for specific triggers (i.e Trigger this ability when an enemy dies, or when you are hit by a basic attack), we needed this system to work for stats changing as well for the Knight's Zeal and many other future abilities. (i.e Trigger when your mana changes, etc). This required a little bit of rewriting the original system to be able to allow this under the hood, but worked remarkably cleanly once it was completed. Additionally, Aggressive AI was found to have their turn-taking logic setup slightly incorrectly, causing them to be trying to select a new target in every loop of their logic, rather than just at the beginning of their turn, and also causing them to prematurely end their turn without good reason. Finally, we found the servers weren't loading the Item Database correctly, causing the maths on item power to be... a little off. Does anyone want a sword that does minus 9 million damage? A breakdown of work completed by the server-side team can be seen below!
- Fixed zone server connection issues.
- The zone server no longer crashes on generating a second instance.
- Refactored ballots to include the ballot ID in the logs when it completes.
- Refactored the code ran when character data is passed between servers.
- Refactored session joining logic to have a more logical process.
- Uploaded zone 1 nav file and updated the config files.
- Added player spawning when a player enters a new zone.
- Fixed an issue where joining a zone didn't remove relevant leave timers.
- Updated the message compression to enable testing of large player groups (>4).
Sound Design
Last week, the sound team has been working with the Watertarg abilities that were created weeks prior. To create the audio needed for these new abilities the team has recorded fresh and unique effects using water splashes and drips. Combining these new effects in different ways brings the abilities to life and gives them the aquatic presence that corresponds with the lore of the Watertarg. The audio that has been created over the last week is currently a work in progress and will go through some more iterations before the team is satisfied. The team will focus on making the audio clearer and more distinct over the coming days. An example of the audio can be seen in the video below.
Environment Art
Last week, the environment art team finalised the modular kit for the castle ruins that will be placed through Erendorn. These pieces will now be added to the engine so the team can build up the castle ruins as they desire through the world. Using these pieces the team will be able to create multiple unique structures that players can explore. These structures will become the next points of interest in the initial area of Erendorn. Using the assets created in the modelling program the team can also create collision meshes, these will be used to make the assets solid in the engine so players will not be able to walk through any of the castle walls. Examples of these finalised assets and collision meshes can be seen below.
Animation
The animation has continued their work with the Draconian through the past week. The team has focused on animation unique to the Draconian race. Taking into consideration the background story, the animation team has created cycles for Flame Breath and death. A race shrouded in mystery, the Draconians are known for their immense power and cunning, with many abilities that still may be unknown to those outside of the species itself. The animation team has created these cycles with this cryptic background in mind. Giving the Draconian a lower to the ground pose will give the impression that the character is sneaking around and maybe doesn't want to be seen by others in the world. Examples of these new animations can be seen below.
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That’s it for this week’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of April yet?!
