Technopolies

[rolz]

Strange. Where did it stuck, again ? was it JWS loader ?

[Raven]

Yeah, it get's stuck 'Starting application...'.

However I just upgraded java5 to the latest release and I'm going to try it again as soon as the gamesfactory starts responding again.

EDIT: Hrmpf. Still no luck. just gets forvever stuck while starting the app. Hopefully it's just something wrong with my mac, and not all macs.

-Raven

[CinergyStudios]

thats sweet was checkin it out. so u have it multiplayer already, because i actually found another user in it lol.. if u need any help with models (3D) just let me know, i cant help out to much because im pretty busy but i can do some stuff for ya!

[rolz]

Available at
http://javagamesfactory.org/jnlp/Technopolies/alpha.jnlp

-added startup screen at which you can set video/detalization options and player name.

[rolz]

- added new building (bunker), added "labels" on building walls
- added concrete walls
- fixed hickups ~every 2 sec., thanks to Helge for pointing out the problem
- applied JPCT patch (thanks 2 Helge) - fixed near clipping/culling problem

[EgonOlsen]

I've played it for some time today. Here are my thoughts:

- It's quite laggy from time to time. You click to move or attack and the command is executed up to one second later. That's quite annoying but i assume that it's due to my bad pings to the server (ranging from 90 to 700ms). It plays ok when pings are around 100ms, but 200 and above is noticable laggy.

- I got stuck two times. The game was still running, but i couldn't move. One time, it seemed to be related to collision detection. I tried to walk through two tents in the Muton area above the starting point. I failed to pass them but i couldn't go back either. The other time, i somehow screwed up the inventory.  The upper left box was always highlighted when entering the menu and i was able to highlight all others too by clicking into them. But i wasn't able to use the inventory itself and i couldn't move anymore after leaving it.

- Sometimes, my character ran right into a Muton when i was actually trying to attack him...:?

- I think that you should change the background color from black to the same light brown that the fog has.

- You can talk to NPCs and buy things as soon as they come into view. That should be limited to a smaller area around them IMHO.

- At times where the pings were better, i enjoyed playing it. You should make it possible to store the character on the server when leaving and let the NPCs only train you when you've enough experience points. That way, it's possible to concentrate on character development as a starting point to extend the gameplay and explore the world.

- I'm loving the forests. I'm always looking for trees in the sectors and run right to them when i found some. I usually skip sectors without any trees... :wink:

Edit: Maybe changing the sort offset on the shadows of the decorations helps to avoid the flickering between them and the plants. Something like Object3D.setSortOffset(100)...i'm not sure if it's really a good idea but it's worth a try.

[EgonOlsen]

BTW: Here's a good posting about the current state of MMORPGs...he has some good points IMHO. Albeit it's quite long, it's worth a read: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=361091

[rolz]

Whoa Helge, thanks for such thorough personal analysis of the game, i really appreciate you spending so much time to evaluate it  

- It's quite laggy from time to time. You click to move or attack and the command is executed up to one second later. That's quite annoying but i assume that it's due to my bad pings to the server (ranging from 90 to 700ms). It plays ok when pings are around 100ms, but 200 and above is noticable laggy.

Yes, the game server is on 128k line, i plan to move it to another location for the next build.

- I got stuck two times. The game was still running, but i couldn't move. One time, it seemed to be related to collision detection. I tried to walk through two tents in the Muton area above the starting point. I failed to pass them but i couldn't go back either. The other time, i somehow screwed up the inventory.  The upper left box was always highlighted when entering the menu and i was able to highlight all others too by clicking into them. But i wasn't able to use the inventory itself and i couldn't move anymore after leaving it.

Yes, i get this sometimes too, have to review collision detection for the next build.

- Sometimes, my character ran right into a Muton when i was actually trying to attack him...:?

Umm. not sure. Gonna check this out. There is a hotkey 'A' assigned to 'Attack nearest enemy' - it should be most handy for situattions when it might be too difficult to click on certain enemy to attack. I also plan to add a "AI control panel" from which player could define "autopilot" behaviour such as auto atacking enemies or auto flee, party settings etc. This is a low priority task for now.

- I think that you should change the background color from black to the same light brown that the fog has.

Agreed. Done. looks much better now;)

- You can talk to NPCs and buy things as soon as they come into view. That should be limited to a smaller area around them IMHO.

Agreed. Should be corrected in the next build.

- At times where the pings were better, i enjoyed playing it. You should make it possible to store the character on the server when leaving and let the NPCs only train you when you've enough experience points. That way, it's possible to concentrate on character development as a starting point to extend the gameplay and explore the world.

Agreed. I plan to elaborate experience / skill points/levels for the next build and make the gameplay closer to desired state. I also plan to make players persistent on server in the next build (actually it was always there, but it was easier to debug/develop without persistence)

- I'm loving the forests. I'm always looking for trees in the sectors and run right to them when i found some. I usually skip sectors without any trees... :wink:
Edit: Maybe changing the sort offset on the shadows of the decorations helps to avoid the flickering between them and the plants. Something like Object3D.setSortOffset(100)...i'm not sure if it's really a good idea but it's worth a try.

Yes, game content and appearance are top priority for the next build. I plan to add several buildings, more new areas, more in-game items and new creature - to fill gaps in gameplay. I also plan to add indoor locations (military base) and make indoor locations accessible from outdoors (player comes to the bunker's door and enters bunker location).
Additionally, i plan to add quests into game and and assign one more guy to writing some quests, and probable a a tutorial that should help newbies to get accustomed with the game.

So far, the list of priorities for the next build

- add buildings
- add walls
- add interior elements
- add new tiles for indoor locations
- add some furniture
- add indoor locations
- add teleports from outdoor to indoor locations
- work some time on indoor locations - put trees / objects to make them more unique
- add quests
- add persistence for players
- .. more todos, low priority

[rolz]

-relief and texture maps has been redesigned to be stored on server and transfered to client when player enters new location (~3kb per location). This will give ability to add new levels to server "on the fly" without storing anything on client.



a couple of teasers:

outside bunker: (outdoor)


inside bunker: (indoor)

[Raven]

Looks awesome!

Regards,
-Raven

[rolz]

-added doors. You have to click on door to go to another location


Level editing in Visio:


This is how it looks in 3D

[Anonymous]

looks good i have a few questions:

are you just hosting this off a spare comp u have right now.. like bandwidth wise how many people do you think it can host?

and another thing is did u just lay down a base texture in areas and put stuff like a rock or dirt texture over top, or did u just replace the polygon already there with the new texture of a rock or dirt.

and last question.. how many polygons do u have on each character like without the armor and stuff.. and do u directly replace the entire upper body with an armored upper body when he puts it on, or does it just get pilled on top of the naked part.

[rolz]

looks good i have a few questions:

are you just hosting this off a spare comp u have right now.. like bandwidth wise how many people do you think it can host?

Yes, it's spare box on 64/64kbit channel. Should be enough to serve 15-20 players providing the average bandwidth is ~100-300b/s. The next build will be hosted on a more responsive host with 256kb channel.
Mock tests show that server handles 1000 clients pretty well without going beyound 10%cpu but i did not had the opportunity to test against real world coditions so far.
 

and another thing is did u just lay down a base texture in areas and put stuff like a rock or dirt texture over top, or did u just replace the polygon already there with the new texture of a rock or dirt.

Textures are pre-generated and assigned per polygon. There should be more detailы on this here in this forum, a couple of months ago.

and last question.. how many polygons do u have on each character like without the armor and stuff.. and do u directly replace the entire upper body with an armored upper body when he puts it on, or does it just get pilled on top of the naked part.

some ~100-120. Some items just replace textures of body parts (t-shirts, pants), other are "bound" to body parts (helmets, heavy armor).

[rolz]

- added reception desks
- added doorways
- added guards to Coalition Bunker location. Makes it look more similar to military base now

[Anonymous]

thanx for the hels its looking really great... so on the rebuild are u renting a server? like the one that can host 1000 clients?