This week, the development team at Depths of Erendorn made substantial progress across multiple facets of the game, focusing on optimisation, system enhancements, and the creation of new content. The 3D modelling team expanded character customisation options by completing a new ponytail hairstyle, while the client team worked on refining movement logs, adjusting the movement manager system, and implementing NPC groups for future gameplay mechanics. The server team made significant backend improvements, including refactoring the login server for queue skipping, enhancing zone density for better world exploration, and progressing with the client-server upgrade project. Meanwhile, the VFX team concentrated on optimising abilities like Comet Calling and streamlining visual effects to reduce performance load, ensuring a smoother and more immersive gameplay experience. These updates continue to push Depths of Erendorn closer to its goal of delivering a dynamic and engaging world for players. As always, join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit for daily updates on Depths of Erendorn. Alternatively, join our Discord for all the latest! - now let’s get into it!
3D Modelling
This week, the 3D modelling team at Depths of Erendorn completed work on a new ponytail hairstyle, which now sits elegantly at the back of the head, gathering all the hair into a tied-up point. This hairstyle brings further customisation options for players, adding to the growing roster of character creation choices within the game. With this addition, players will now have even more flexibility in designing unique avatars, enhancing the overall personalisation and immersion as they explore the world of Erendorn. The ponytail is now ready to be implemented into the game. An example of the hairstyle can be seen below.
Programming
Client
This week, the client team at Depths of Erendorn focused on refining several key systems within the game. Progress was made on movement logs within the dry testing environment, though some challenges were encountered, particularly with data not being correctly inputted into the logs. As a result, attention shifted to adjusting the movement manager system to ensure it functions properly in the dry test environment, which had previously been overlooked. In parallel, adjustments were made to assist with level-up notifications, though this feature is on hold until dry movement is resolved. Additionally, the team finished off several functions for the map panel and introduced the concept of NPC groups, allowing combinations of enemies to appear together in the world. The ability to spawn NPC groups during testing was also added, giving the team the ability to test specific enemies in gameplay. Additional work from the team can be seen below.
- Added the ability to track interactables based on type, fast travel locations are now visible on the map when adventuring.
- Added UI for selecting/displaying members of different NPC groups.
- Added the cheat function for spawning specific NPC groups.
- Added the ability to use either the spawn location's XP or override with a specific XP value to inform the size/difficulty of the group.
- Linked ping location to cheat command parameters.
Server
This week, the server team at Depths of Erendorn made significant progress across multiple areas of the game’s backend. The team completed the refactoring of the login server to work with the per-cluster segmented cache layout, a crucial step towards enabling queue skipping for users reconnecting or recently assigned to a server. An important fix was also added during account registration to prevent duplicate email usage. Additionally, the zone density was increased to experiment with enemy group population in various areas, enhancing the feel of world exploration. While testing this, ongoing investigations into a bug preventing player movement at the end of adventures continued. The team also completed a major remap of the zone after addressing errors that had previously caused issues, ensuring smoother transitions for future updates. Work on the client-server upgrade project progressed, with foundational code put in place for further development next week. Lastly, balance changes and reworks were finalised, including updates to server code and new effect blocks, while final preparations were made to re-enable dungeons within adventures, pending the integration of a key variable in the generator.
Visual Effects
This week, the VFX team at Depths of Erendorn focused on optimising existing effects and reducing the overall performance load. The Comet Calling ability was finalised, and several Level 3 effects were adjusted to improve efficiency. This involved removing excess emitters and streamlining the effects to significantly reduce their impact on performance without sacrificing visual quality. These updates are essential in ensuring that the game runs smoothly while maintaining the visual richness and immersion that players expect. Examples of the visual effects optimised by the team can be seen below.
That’s it for this week’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of August yet?!
