Last weekend I finally added a new kind of hair/face stylist to Gekkeiju. In the Old World the changing of hair and hair color happened through potions that would either drop as rare drops or be bought from shops. The biggest problem with these was that there was no way to preview the hair before buying and applying the potion.
The new stylist-interface shows a preview of the player's head that rotates around. It shows the selected hairstyle, hair color and face style. The hair color can easily be changed with red, green and blue slides. While there's currently just one face-texture, there's plans to add more eventually. This system will allow a lot better customization of characters. Currently this mode only works with the shader mode, and will most likely remain so as the old non-shader mode is too slow for smooth hair color changes.
Once player has created the style they like, they can buy the style for 2k gold coins. The price is relatively low to offer this service for new players as well.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
New Trees
The New World used to have a lot nicer trees than the currently running version. However, for some reason the tree generator that was used to make them, always made the medium level of detail model kinda horrific. All the brances were flying in the air etc. While something like this could've been expected from the Old World, I'd rather avoid such things in the new one.
After some evaluating and thinking, I came to the conclusion that it's better to do a small investment and get trees that will look good in all levels of detail yet still have the same or smaller polycount than the generated ones. The trees have now been replaced in the New World with a lot nicer ones that were even made in such a way that I can use most of the old trees' textures in them if I so want to.
Even something as minor as trees can have a hyge impact on the overall graphics of the game.
After some evaluating and thinking, I came to the conclusion that it's better to do a small investment and get trees that will look good in all levels of detail yet still have the same or smaller polycount than the generated ones. The trees have now been replaced in the New World with a lot nicer ones that were even made in such a way that I can use most of the old trees' textures in them if I so want to.Even something as minor as trees can have a hyge impact on the overall graphics of the game.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Changes to the user interface
After some user interface testing (a month or so ago) and trying several free MMORPGs, I came to the conclusion that Gekkeiju's user interface still requires some major changes. Mostly to make it a lot more user friendlier.
The first change was to move the skill chanting counter from the upper left corner to the bottom center part of the screen. I also added a text to the counter showing what skill/action the player was doing. This was definitely a big help for everyone as tracking the skill timer has been kinda problematic.
Other change was first suggested to me by my brother few months ago. Gekkeiju is actually missing a simple x-button in the windows to close them. This might not seem too important but after thinking about it some more, I noticed that I also seem to search somekinda closing button from the upper right corner. Addition of this should make the interface a lot more friendlier.. at least for windows users.
Finally one more change that I came up with was to make the current energy bar smaller by at least removing character's name from it. There's not much reason to show the character's name as player usually should be aware of what character they're using. The energy bar could also contain the player's level but that may also not be necessary.
The first change was to move the skill chanting counter from the upper left corner to the bottom center part of the screen. I also added a text to the counter showing what skill/action the player was doing. This was definitely a big help for everyone as tracking the skill timer has been kinda problematic.
Other change was first suggested to me by my brother few months ago. Gekkeiju is actually missing a simple x-button in the windows to close them. This might not seem too important but after thinking about it some more, I noticed that I also seem to search somekinda closing button from the upper right corner. Addition of this should make the interface a lot more friendlier.. at least for windows users.
Finally one more change that I came up with was to make the current energy bar smaller by at least removing character's name from it. There's not much reason to show the character's name as player usually should be aware of what character they're using. The energy bar could also contain the player's level but that may also not be necessary.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
A new gathering profession, Herbalist
The gathering professions in Gekkeiju Online are professions that harvest different kinds of resources that spawn randomly around the game world. They can then process the resources into something that is usable by crafting professions.
Gekkeiju Online has a plant system planned that basically spawns different plants around the world. These plants can then be used by the sage-profession to make different kinds of potions. At first I was planning on making sages able to harvest the plants as I couldn't think of anything the plants could be processed into. However, I finally figured that they could be processed into plant bundles. Thanks to this, I can now implement a new gathering profession called the Herbalist.
Herbalists will be able to buy harvesting and processing tools from their crafter npc in the crafting halls. These tools can then be used to harvest the randomly spawning plants in the same manner as ores and wood etc.
Gekkeiju Online has a plant system planned that basically spawns different plants around the world. These plants can then be used by the sage-profession to make different kinds of potions. At first I was planning on making sages able to harvest the plants as I couldn't think of anything the plants could be processed into. However, I finally figured that they could be processed into plant bundles. Thanks to this, I can now implement a new gathering profession called the Herbalist.
Herbalists will be able to buy harvesting and processing tools from their crafter npc in the crafting halls. These tools can then be used to harvest the randomly spawning plants in the same manner as ores and wood etc.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Worshipped Deity and Astrology-system
In Gekkeiju Online it's possible to choose the deity the characters worship. The choice of deities is based on the characters' alignment so good characters cannot worship evil gods. This feature has, however, so far not done anything except added some roleplay-factor to the game. Quite many players have been wanting for it to have some effect in their characters so I have planned up a new astrology-system.
Basically each deity in Gekkeiju has its own constellation. The world also has 3 major elements in the sky: sun, and the moons, Luna and Selena. The astrology-system will basically calculate how these 3 major elements are lined up with the deities' constellations. This will affect the player either positively or negatively. For example the moon, Luna, increases negative effects while sun and Selena have positive ones.
To make the system less confusing, there'll be some sage npcs placed around the continent who will be able to tell the players' horoscope for the next ingame week or so. There are also plans for Astrology-skill than can tell how the elements are lined up. This skill, however, will not tell how they affect the player.
The astrology-system will be implemented into the New World, hopefully before the opening of the public beta.
Basically each deity in Gekkeiju has its own constellation. The world also has 3 major elements in the sky: sun, and the moons, Luna and Selena. The astrology-system will basically calculate how these 3 major elements are lined up with the deities' constellations. This will affect the player either positively or negatively. For example the moon, Luna, increases negative effects while sun and Selena have positive ones.
To make the system less confusing, there'll be some sage npcs placed around the continent who will be able to tell the players' horoscope for the next ingame week or so. There are also plans for Astrology-skill than can tell how the elements are lined up. This skill, however, will not tell how they affect the player.
The astrology-system will be implemented into the New World, hopefully before the opening of the public beta.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Tier 1 Weaponsmiths operational
All the missing tier 1 weaponsmith recipes were added yesterday. The patch added weapons such as Flammenschwert and Tjunkuletti. I wonder how much trouble our players will have pronouncing those names (as most cannot even write the game's name correctly).
After this patch we now have tier 1 ready for tailors, armoursmiths and weaponsmiths. This is of course only a small part of all the crafting professions. However, I think it's a good time to start implementing advancement quests.
When player maxes a tier in crafting profession (not a collecting profession), the tier won't be advanced automatically. Instead the player will need to finish an advancement quest. With some professions the first one will be something as simple as finding some NPC in some other town and talking to it. However, some quests can go as far as requiring the player to craft some specialized item.
Addition of these quests will finally allow players to start crafting tier 2 items that quite many of the testers are already requiring in order to keep advancing.
After this patch we now have tier 1 ready for tailors, armoursmiths and weaponsmiths. This is of course only a small part of all the crafting professions. However, I think it's a good time to start implementing advancement quests.
When player maxes a tier in crafting profession (not a collecting profession), the tier won't be advanced automatically. Instead the player will need to finish an advancement quest. With some professions the first one will be something as simple as finding some NPC in some other town and talking to it. However, some quests can go as far as requiring the player to craft some specialized item.
Addition of these quests will finally allow players to start crafting tier 2 items that quite many of the testers are already requiring in order to keep advancing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
