Getting Crafty With It
by Ted Southard · 01/21/2009 (9:03 pm) · 3 comments
I'm pretty tired and still need to take the garbage out before I go to bed tonight, but I'm happy enough that I need to write a blog. First, a screenshot for reference:
A bit confusing, that, so let me explain to you what that is: The lower-left portion of the screen where I dump game messages to the player. The first line is my encumbrance check working correctly, and the following lines are me creating chunks of Steel from iron and carbon in my inventory. You can see the icon as the gray bar with the 5 in the second row of icons on the right of the text (the icon to the left of it being some glass I crafted in the first test).
A few more functions will be done tomorrow, such as to modify, repair, and breakdown an item into its base materials. I'll probably put in support for the material properties tags, and maybe some logic for generalizing the materials that can be used in a recipe. But aside from rounding out functionality, I'm most likely going to start generating content for crafting, since it's going to need literally tens of thousands of items to be a real feature.
So that's it, aside from some work I did on fear/desire modeling for NPC AI, but since I don't have a video of me chasing an NPC away from me (I put my player as a fear condition, hehe) and I have to do more work on that structure (I revamped the AI data structures in the database to be more centralized), I won't talk too much about it.
I also uploaded my Epic Frontiers dev videos that were hosted on Vimeo to YouTube. Though the resolution is a bit lower and the text isn't as clear anymore, YouTube is friendlier to my videos, as Vimeo had taken two of mine down with a vague admonishment of violating its ToS (which had been amended prior to them being taken down to allow game development videos). It's not something to cry about, so I simply did something about it.
A bit confusing, that, so let me explain to you what that is: The lower-left portion of the screen where I dump game messages to the player. The first line is my encumbrance check working correctly, and the following lines are me creating chunks of Steel from iron and carbon in my inventory. You can see the icon as the gray bar with the 5 in the second row of icons on the right of the text (the icon to the left of it being some glass I crafted in the first test).
A few more functions will be done tomorrow, such as to modify, repair, and breakdown an item into its base materials. I'll probably put in support for the material properties tags, and maybe some logic for generalizing the materials that can be used in a recipe. But aside from rounding out functionality, I'm most likely going to start generating content for crafting, since it's going to need literally tens of thousands of items to be a real feature.
So that's it, aside from some work I did on fear/desire modeling for NPC AI, but since I don't have a video of me chasing an NPC away from me (I put my player as a fear condition, hehe) and I have to do more work on that structure (I revamped the AI data structures in the database to be more centralized), I won't talk too much about it.
I also uploaded my Epic Frontiers dev videos that were hosted on Vimeo to YouTube. Though the resolution is a bit lower and the text isn't as clear anymore, YouTube is friendlier to my videos, as Vimeo had taken two of mine down with a vague admonishment of violating its ToS (which had been amended prior to them being taken down to allow game development videos). It's not something to cry about, so I simply did something about it.
About the author
Started with indie games over a decade ago, and now creates tools and tech for games. Currently working as a contractor for startups and game studios.
#2
Well done on "crafting-base-properties" idea.
01/22/2009 (7:28 am)
Quote:some work I did on fear/desire modeling for NPC AI .... nd I have to do more work on that structure (I revamped the AI data structures in the database to be more centralized)Sounds interesting.
Quote:I won't talk too much about it.awwww...
Well done on "crafting-base-properties" idea.
#3
@Steve: Well, I will talk about it, but not right now. That has to do as much with the lack of testing as the newness of my idea (not that it's new to the world, but that it's new to me). The AI was sort of grafted together from several methods, and that had to be consolidated somewhat so it would be less unwieldy. A big theme in my design and scripting/coding is to repeatedly go over code and data structures to try and optimize things, because this game will be much heavier on the back end than previous games.
It's one thing to have 200 MOBs running around a zone just doing container searches for aggro, but when you start making them think on their ticks (or even every X ticks), then things get a lot harder. Some of it can be cheated by using database functions that can reference and pull data in ways to make that part of the logic, but then you also have to now split (or be able to split) that part of the database off to another physical server to handle the load.
So yeah, some of that is still in the air until I get the AI pieces together... Soon, though!
01/22/2009 (8:36 am)
@Konrad: Thanks! I'd like to see yours when it's ready to be shown :) It's always good seeing others working on this kind of stuff.@Steve: Well, I will talk about it, but not right now. That has to do as much with the lack of testing as the newness of my idea (not that it's new to the world, but that it's new to me). The AI was sort of grafted together from several methods, and that had to be consolidated somewhat so it would be less unwieldy. A big theme in my design and scripting/coding is to repeatedly go over code and data structures to try and optimize things, because this game will be much heavier on the back end than previous games.
It's one thing to have 200 MOBs running around a zone just doing container searches for aggro, but when you start making them think on their ticks (or even every X ticks), then things get a lot harder. Some of it can be cheated by using database functions that can reference and pull data in ways to make that part of the logic, but then you also have to now split (or be able to split) that part of the database off to another physical server to handle the load.
So yeah, some of that is still in the air until I get the AI pieces together... Soon, though!
Associate Konrad Kiss
Bitgap Games
I'm hoping Vimeo's not gonna get rid of my videos, though I'm also considering a move only because many people have reported Vimeo taking their stuff down.
I wish GG would host all our videos, resources and images.