Pre-Alpha 1.47

Well. This is a new latest, and I can say with almost absolute certainty that it will be the latest a post will ever be. I had stayed up all night the previous night to be awake with my wife to go to her doctor time. I even forgot that yesterday was Friday. :p
But...

This weeks change log is rather short, I should honestly start keeping a list of bugs that I fix or exactly what I update, since that is what has been done mostly this week again. I'm not even going to include the "Items, Cards, Enemies, Quests..." thing since it is all the same; none.


Change log, 1.47

-Added the freezing status effect

-Dealt with some errors in the main menu

-Finished Ardor's influence levels

-Updated a few spawns, Vulpine Tricksters really don't need to be ambushing you at your camp. :p

-Finally got the skill menu up and running

-Sooo many bugs

As mentioned, I did get the skills up and running, and while the menu isn't pretty yet it is fully functional. It will need to be tested, but as of now, skill points aren't awarded at every level up; they may very well be in the future, but that is as yet to be seen. 

With the addition of the skill system, we are now just two major features away from becoming feature complete and moving into the alpha phase of the games development, so, yay. :D 

The two, uncoded features are: transformation cards, which do as you'd guess, transform the player into something else, and rituals, which are things that were originally going to be cards, but I decided it didn't make much sense for the to be as such; think out-of-combat utilities, teleportation, passives that cannot stack, stuff that would generally ruin the game play loop by forcing you to shuffle through your deck in order to find them. 

Now, onto our other matter; the game is still not packaging properly, but I have opened a ticket and we have thus-far narrowed it down to the actual packaging process as the culprit through this and that test. I am hopeful (ain't I always?) about getting it up and out by next week. 

Now, screenshots; I didn't have much to show, but I did find a few random things to take shots of. :p

It was an odd feeling today, getting lost in my own game, both literally and figuratively. It was a nice feeling. 

Until next week,

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Pre-Alpha 1.46

Hello all. I apologize for the lateness of this post, I didn't sleep well and failed to set an alarm. Unreal updated to 4.15. I downloaded it, and after a 14 hour work day, found out that the problem, without a doubt, is with some of the settings within our project. Other than this revelation, I haven't gotten much done. But today, after the update, I'll do a bit of work trying to get the game ready to package.
Anywho, to the changelog.

Change log, 1.46

-Updated the grass and the grass ground texture
-Updated the particle systems for fire all around
-General updated to the graphics and atmosphere
-Added a couple new random encounters


Items Added:


-Vulpine Garb, clothing


Cards Added:

-Scale Tornado, tier 3, last final upgrade to the scale storm card


Enemies Added:


-Updated the Dragonbone Shaman, it can now summon allies in the form of ritualists


Quests Added:


None :(


Coming Up:


I am going to get the damn thing working, or die trying. :p

And a couple of screenshots:

The reworked grass along with a couple of bushes. A bit more indicative of the style that I am eventually hoping for.

A shot of the coastline.

I've reworked the way that caves work as well; they;re streamed like the rest of levels now. I probably won't make a huge number of them, they were never my favorite part of these kinds of games.

It's a bit too dark here, me thinks.

That wraps up this update. I am so very hopeful that I'll be able to finally announce that we have a demo next week; I can almost taste it at this point. 

Until next week...

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Pre-Alpha 1.45

Hello all! This weeks change log is a bit light, I spent Monday and Tuesday this week attempting to smash my head against a wall to get the game to package properly. Alas, I feel that we are going to have to wait for the next UE4 update, which should be coming relatively soon. And after I get a version of the engine that will package the game I will not upgrade ever again, regardless of the fancy bells and whistles that they promise with each change. :/
But, to the change log!

Edit: Right, right; as you may have noticed, we are now behind a "This is an adult site blah blah blah" warning. That is because the blog was taken down temporarily for a terms of service violation and I believe that that was it. I will try to post less nudity in the future as to be able to remove the warning.


Change log, 1.45


-Added a small mesh to construction points indicating whether or not it is a necessary build
-Bug fixes, of course
-Added a widget to inform the player of the name of the city that they are entering
-Ardor, a Leonen forward camp resting atop a mesa, it is encroaching on Lizard land
-reworked the experience needed to level and the health/mana gains from leveling

Items Added:


-Crystal Ball, accessory, an ultra pure mana crystal which adds to card using abilities, only available to those who choose the "Theologic" path
-Salesman's Love, accessory, a few dyed burlap sacks that a budding salesman can easily toss over his back, increases his love for his craft, only available to those who choose the "Economic" path

Cards Added:


-The Iron Eye, tier 3, one of the last upgrades of the Shimmering Bubble card
-Metal Pool, tier 2, the last tier 2 upgrade of Shimmering Bubble

Enemies Added:


-Leonen Ironhead, the first Leonen enemy, a caster specializing in the Shimmering Bubble tree, a bit of a hassle to deal with :p

Quests Added:


-Feeding Ardor

Coming Up:

I wasted A LOT of time this week. I wasted two days in my frustration and I'm not going to even try to get it packaged this week, or any week until the next UE4 update comes. So, that means:

-damn skills, I just need to make the skills menu, that's it, everything else is in place, but oh how I hate huge widgets like that u.u

-more items, cards, enemies, bug fixes, etc.

I've not really a specific plan for the next week, just general work as I look for another shitty job to keep the money flowing. 

And without further ado, screenshots:

Leonen Forward Camp, Ardor; not particularly inviting, it seems.

The Leonen race is a race of explorers, their scholarly specialization being stone shaping magics. Long before the Lizards lost their tidal marsh to the Leonen, the Leonen found and befriended a small race of satyr-like cervines who to this day aid them with their wood shaping. The Leonen are incapable of creating the twisting roots circling the towers alone, so they leave that to their cervine friends. 

As you can see, the Leonen Ironhead is a bit of a problem, even for a higher level character. Though I only had one card. :p

The Iron Eye card, rather subtle, but the effects are not. It increases the users armor to nigh invulnerability, but slows them down to almost the point of immobility. You may see a floating particle effect there, it is supposed to snap with the rest of the eye to the players forehead; I'll get that sucker to work eventually. :p

And that is it for this week. I'm a bit bummed that I wasted so much time on nothing this week, but at least the stuff that I got done I'm relatively proud of. 

But, until next week.

-Lucas Cady

Project Director

Pre-Alpha 1.44

Good morning, all! My goal this week was really to make the game more stable and livable, if that makes any sense. As such, most of the things that I accomplished are updates, bug fixes, and optimizations. I did add a few things, but mostly in the spirit of ambiance.
That isn't to say that I didn't do more than updates, however as there are a few brand new things that were added.
Now, for the change log:

Change log, 1.44

-Finished the influence levels for the Vulpine home village of Kerankohora, also named the Vulpine home village Kerankohora :p
-Added a small Vulpine fishing village, Tonorhanko
-Updated a few spawners to work randomly
-Added a few more random NPCs, for ambiance :p
-Increased the stability of the loading system
-All the bugs ever (found the problem with the left scythe arm, to name only one)
-Increased world size by about 20%
-Updated the Follower class
-Dealt with map tears
-Quite a few optimizations, mostly dealing with render distances
-Added a simple health widget for followers


Items Added:

-Chewing Leaf, accessory


Cards Added:

-Cloak of Scales, tier 3 card, one of the six final cards derived from the Little Lizard
-Fennec Meteor, tier 3, one of the final upgrades of Fennec Fire
-Vulpine Poisondrinker, tier 2, one of the first upgrades for the Vulpine Ritualist summons card
-Crystalline Wave, tier 2, last planned tier 2 upgrade of Crystalline Barrage


Enemies Added:

-Updated the Little Lizard (which still to this day needs a new name :p)
-Updated Brindlebark (along with the new name, originally Stumpy Steve)
-Updated the Vulpine Poisondrinker
-Updated the Vulpine Trickster, removing its infinite teleport loop :p


Quests Added:

-The Windy Seas


Coming Up:

As I am sure you are aware, I did not get UE4 to properly package the game last week, and that hasn't changed for this week either. It is really quite frustrating, because the game is in a perfectly testable state, and for whatever reason that is eluding me, it will simply not play after packaging. At least I have yet to find another shitty job. :p

So, tentatively:

-probably more bugs

-work on the influence levels for the Lizard home

-add a sort of forward camp for the Leonine race, I've the perfect place for it all planned out

-hopefully touch on the skill system a bit, I left it out this week feeling like I needed to tighten up they systems that I have already in place, which I did. I fixed a lot of nagging problems with the AI, both friendly and not so, I dealt with a few problems with the inventory and deck system, all in all, I tightened and strengthened the whole of the game that was already there. But... after that rant... yes, I would like to try and get the skill system in place for next week. :p

-any amount of other random stuff that I decide to do

Now, with that out of the way, a few screenshots:

The cloak of scales card!

I loved the feel of this one, it essentially allows you to cast Scale Dance an infinite number of times over it duration. Good for travel and for slippery combat.

It however does have its downsides... like when I accidentally teleported through the map. I have since dealt with the error that caused it. :p

Crystalline Wave, a wave of crystals. About all I have to say about that.

A few things: the health widget up top, which needs a bit of work, a swarm of friendly Vulpine Poisondancers all confusedly trying to find a single enemy Trickster, and the remnants of the smoke particle that the Trickster leaves behind when it teleports. 

Just a random shot of the player's home in the distance. I found it a beautiful sight.

Kerankohora in its flourishing state as of now. I'll certainly add more to it; more quests that require certain influence levels, for one.

Next up, we have a small set of pictures, showing the development of Tonorhanko. First, the empty plot where it would eventually stand.

Second, just a single building standing in the background.

Then a small community.

And lastly a bit of fortification. The whole village will continue to grow through the ages assuming the Shaman continues to aid them and nothing else interferes... A side note, if the village were to fall to squalor after having been built, the citizens will simply up and leave, the area returning to the Haljuhurtta as it was before the Shaman's interference. 

And lastly, a shot of the new map size. It's starting to look more like an actual map with each passing iteration. 

And that's that for this week folks; though how I wish I could have gotten the damn demo up. I've still more things to try, getting to the long-shot point of it, though. I might even have to simply wait for the dang engine to update again and hope that the problem is fixed... But!

Until next week...

-Lucas Cady

Project Director