The last week and a half has seen me almost entirely stop playing Vanguard. Not because it's a bad game (some would argue that it is, though) - but because my friends aren't really playing much anymore.
Instead, I have started tinkering with WoW again - playing a Belfadin. Not too far along, but level 13 in 4.5 hours isn't too bad I suppose.
Anyhow, I have not had a lot of time to do much in the way of game development - but every night when I lay my head on my pillow I start playing with ideas for a game world. And now, I think I have one. It's not very novel or unique - but it's not something that has been overdone. I am still in the very early preliminary stages and need to get some basic lore drafted up.
With this new world in mind, I definitely think I will be working on some kind of a 3/4 (isometric) single player RPG. It's the type of setting that reveals itself as you progress through a story. I am getting a bit excited, as it's a concept that I have had in mind but not for a game. I can't give many details right now, but once I have a game done, I can relate how it's been a concept I (and some others) have had for a while :p
An idea takes shape
Time to tinker!
Well, I downloaded c#.net express along with XNA game studio express from Microsoft last night. I have not had a chance to really check it out yet, but looking over some of the code for their example spacewars game, I am liking what I see.
I think I am going to try my hand at a Isometric single player RPG. Something small, possibly just a prototype I can build upon as time passes. I need to work on some design as far as laying out objects and such - and also play the game designer role and work on a game environment and world, classes, skills, abilities and all the other yumyum stuff that will be in the game.
As stated previously, it is my aim to get into the game dev industry. I do have a friend locally with some connections - and he himself is a developer and has spoken to be about working on something together. So we shall see. If I wasn't making the salary I am making now (and barely scraping by) as a developer working on US Navy stuff, I would be applying for entry level game development stuff (like, testing). But I simply cannot survive in California making like 20k a year. Hell I can barely survive, thanks to my ex wife, at over 2x that now in Virginia :(
Anyhow, back on topic - I will be starting the initial design process here in the next couple weeks. I am pretty excited :D
Chunky monkey
So whilst sitting here at work, unable to really do anything productive due to waiting on other people - as usual - I have been perusing the various VG community forums and websites. One of the issues that I have seen brought up, and addressed today was that of "Chunking". This is similar to "zoning" in other games.
In Vanguard, the map is broken up into 2km x 2km segments. Each segment is dubbed a chunk, and I would imagine each chunk has its own server process (based on how Brad described this today on the FOH boards).
There are some downsides to this - in that you can only exist in one chunk at a time. Now this sounds like this is working as it should, as you should not be able to be in more than one place or chunk at a time. However, this creates invisible barriers in the world. This does not create a "seamless" world; at least not in the sense most gamers think when they hear the term. DAoC and WoW are both seamless worlds. You can run from one side of a continent to another without ever really noticing where one zone line ends and another begins.
Some will argue that WoW still has small entry ways to different zones - and they do. However, the movement between adjacent zones - and their connecting pathways - are truly fluid and seamless. You can easily kite mobs from zone to zone, engage in combat (both PvE and PvP) across these zone lines and not notice you are crossing them at all. So yes, while technically you are moving from one distinct zone to another - while in a given zone, you are not encased in some plot of land with obvious zone borders (mountains and such aside).
In Vanguard however, you can easily see most of these seams. Especially if you have a torch lit, as the light from the torch does not pass by the seam line. As well, if you happen to see someone "chunk", it's very easy to spot. They stop moving forward, but continue to run in place until they "pop" through to the other side. There are also problems chunking, where certain aspects of your current game state changes. For example:
- Torches that you had lit will become unlit
- Pets might disappear
- Auto-follow is disengaged
- Mobs that have aggro on you do not chunk with you
- Some people experience "falling through the world" immediately after chunking
Obviously, I do not have access to the game code to see how this is implemented, but it's a nice experiment in guess-work. I would think this can be improved somewhat. One major thing I think could be done is to do pre-transfers. A few yards from the chunk line, you pass the user info off to the nearest chunk(s), and when they hit the line, you issue a single instruction that tells the new chunk you have passed the line, and to make you active in this new chunk. Depending on how user data is stored on a machine, it might be possible to simply pass a memory address over, then the instruction to "chunk". When the data is pre-transferred over, the user's client program (vgclient) would then start pre-loading any assets needed. It seems this step is already done - else you would not be able to see the critters and players in another chunk moving around.
It just seems that, while the current system is pretty interesting and I am sure required a lot of coding to make it work, it could be done much better. Something to keep in mind for games I might develop in the future :)
I think DAoC had the basic overland stuff down pat in this regard. I don't remember every noticing when I ran across "zone lines" in that game. Of course, I only played for a few months - maybe they did stuff differently in the newer content areas.
Crafting prices
So I am focusing on crafting a bit more over the next few days, while my normal adventuring partner is out of town for his birthday (Happy Bday btw man). I am now a level 14 armorsmith, and while this is not very high - it's about time for to start making some items for sale, instead of just completing work order after work order.
I suppose I need to sit down with some form of pen and paper, or a spreadsheet, and figure out how much it costs to make my various craftable items.
Though, we have another double experience weekend this weekend, so I am sure I will be unable to fight the urge to go level some ><
First experiences post VG Update #1
Well today sure was a debacle for Sigil. They pushed content update #1 to the live servers today, along with a hefty patch - and managed to leave several things out. Apparently Temnwar's Shield, a dam and small quest area in central Thestra, was without textures so it appeared the dam disappeared. Many reports of weapons without models, so players were attacking with empty hands - the weapon was equipped, players just could not visually see the weapon. This required a patch for the patch - which brought the servers down another 3+ hours.
Along with that, they made a pretty significant change to ability-based DPS. It seems abilities now do less dps than before, due to a "bug" where auto-attack damage was added into the equation. So I am assuming for example, that if you normally auto attacked for 50, and Ability001 says it hits for 100-125, then you were actually hitting for something like 150-175. That's how the explanation Nino gave on the FoH boards sounds, anyhow.
Supposedly, in some cases, this was allowing players to do up to 2x the amount of damage they should be doing. Ok, I can see where that would be a problem. However, if this is indeed a problem, why did quest XP get a significant boost recently because players were not leveling at the pace Sigil thought they should? Quest XP affects solo or duo players much more than it affects a full group, as a full group is most likely dungeon crawling and getting a very nice chunk of experience. So they effectively severely hurt the solo players with this change. I happen to be a predominately solo/duo player at this time. That said, I didn't see a significant drop in my damage output. Though, I am also using a crazy hot weapon for my level, so I put out a buttload of damage as it is with auto attack.
Warrior Bugs
I only noticed one bug so far due to the patch changes:
-Infurating Shot now hits for a roflpwning 2-5 damage against mobs around my level (14-18). Apparently, according to Verge, this seems to be a known bug and a fix is already done or in the works. On the flip side, my normal "ranged attack" ability hits for ~180.
I did not get a chance to see how the changes to mitigation affect warriors at my level, as I soloed only today, and I only adventured for about 15 minutes - then went off to craft.
Speaking of, I found a really nice NPC to get work orders from Bordinar's Cleft, and it's not the normal refining or finishing taskmasters ;)
Welcome
Welcome to my new little space on the web. I will be focusing this blog primarily on gaming and development topics. A few side topics might sneak in from time to time, but my goal is to have a relatively narrow focus for this blog.
Currently, MMOs are taking up most of my gaming time with WoW taking a backseat to Vanguard. While I like the fluidity that WoW exhibits in its gameplay, Vanguard has been piquing my interest more and more due to the more complex mechanics and general content of the game.
My highest level character right now in Vanguard is a level 18 Dwarven Warrior. Over the next several weeks, I will be posting about my adventures in Telon - including some independent testing I will be doing. I have a few items in mind to write about, mainly to do with the mechanics of the game and the warrior class - and more will pile up as I continue to play.
I also tinker around in my free time with various development projects and items. In the past, I was tinkering more and more with game development - but that tailed off as my day job focused on database programming. As a result, most of my tinkerings were with database related projects - mostly web based systems - and eventually found me as one of the original four founders of the PostNuke project back in 2000 or 2001. It has been so long now since I have been involved with that project, that I don't even know where they are in terms of features and such. That said, I am looking to get my focus back on game development - as gaming is a passion for me, and creating games is something I have wanted to do for over ten years now.