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[Toady One]

Here is the immediate plan using UBB Code:

• Better Faces:  I'm sick of looking
  at those weird ones I've got now...  going
  to spend a little time on it.  This includes
  hair and beards and manes and stuff.  Can't
  have wizards without beards, even if we won't have robes for a while.  People who can't see leaves might not be able to see hair, unless I can figure out the leaves bug.
  
• Special Abilities:  Essentially spells that come from your species.  I'll add in some more spell effects for this.  Might do fireballs at this point.  I'll also code the weird skin materials we were talking about before in reference to gargoyles and shadowy creatures here, as well as possession of some kind.
  
• More Magic:  Then I'll put in some more spell effects, and other aspects of magic arts which are missing.
  
• Universe Editor:  This will replace the universe editor at the beginning of the game.  Eventually this thing will be used to create your stock universes from your RPGs, Earth, etc.  It will be quite limited at this point.
  
• Field Effects:  Temperature and other reactions...  floating gasses and things...  then the detonation spell can also leave behind a puff of sap vapor or something (if you use it on a tree, slightly different otherwise).  Lots of other field things...  flows...  terrain as power sources for spells...  working temperature ranges for creatures...
  

Then I just fix bugs until it is playable.  That's the Magic Release.  Then clothes/missile weapons.  Then Quaint Thorpe.  Then caves.  Then the combat release, which Skeletony has been waiting for for a very long time.  Then water.  Then flying.  Then social stuff.  Then more plot/history ambiance.  Then food!

He he he.  Then food?  The Plan might need slight revision at some point.

[ March 02, 2003: Message edited by: Toady One ]

[Denim Sk8r]

yeah, I think that finding this whole XP-leaf bug deal is gonna be important.

[spelguru]

Two things that needs changing, and that is the leaf bug, and the plan. How will empires be built without farmers growing crops? The entire economical structure will either collapse or be severly mutiliated without food income and trade...

[Denim Sk8r]

well, we have trees and shrubs, build the economy on that.

Hm......it would work out better it the trees could have some sort of fruit on them....I don't think that we can make that complicated of a growth yet. Of course, I wouldn't be able to see it, it would inevitably have the same XP bug as the leaves do.

[Toady One]

I've simply been avoiding eating and fruit because of the massive revisions that will be required in the creature code.

Empires can be built without food at first.  It just won't matter...  they won't be sustainable without it eventually, but that isn't what I'm shooting for with Quaint Thorpe.  Food will be bumped up...  maybe I'll do it when I add water.  That seems somehow fitting.

I'll try for the leaf bug, but I can't guarantee anything.  Something strange is going on, and it is hard to test without a malfunctioning program of my own.

[Toady One]

Going to bed now...  I have to wake up at 10:30 EST (note that I'm on the west coast) to get ready for teaching...

This is one reason I'd rather work longer tonight:

Yes, it looks like the bald thing has mascara on or something.  He has the eyes of a girl seeking intercourse with the devil, as someone would say.

In any case, face resolution has gone up 16 times.  Should be much better...  once I get the hair on and tweak the shading it might look fine.  The eyes and mouths are tiny BMP files.  Mixing and matching them, along with the head deformations that are already in place, should produce tons of possible faces.  Then I'll need some generic BMPs to cover other species and the most general random parts.

[Denim Sk8r]

Wow!

just "Wow!"

[Captain_Action]

I want Zippy the pinhead's head!

[Toady One]

He he he.  It was weird too -- due to a former stupidity on my part, I'm actually using much less texture memory on these humans than on the low-res humans.  I figured out how I might do hair/beards on the way to school today.  It will involve making the model editor more involved, unfortunately.  Since it will be a headache for me to then put the hair on, maybe the editor will get some more functionality and user-friendliness while I'm at it.  Maybe not.  Anyway, should have hairy people today or tomorrow or something.  Then I'll send it off to my brother to see if he sees the hair or not (he has the leaf problem).

[spelguru]

How is everything going? It has been quite quiet in the last few days... Everyone post more. Makes my cat so much happier to read posts...

[Toady One]

What sort of cat?  I found pictures of a 50 pound (25ish kilogram) cat on CBBC.

Anyway, I'm almost done with the hair code.  The model editor now has a frill editor in it, so you can draw in different things that get glued on to the model.  This will be very general...  it solves most of the problems I had been thinking of, with the exception of the Denim Sk8r wing-webbing problem, which will have to involve some kind of inter-model glueing...  come to think of it, a small tweak to the new frill stuff could handle that...  maybe webbing will be realized at some point (probably for the water release and definitely for flying).

So in any case, there are these new frills on the models.  If I draw up a few of them, you'll be able to, say, put your hair in a pony-tail during the game and have it reflected on your model.  Or shave your head.  Or whatever.  If you are underwater, your hair will be able to float around freely...  of course, this is mostly cosmetic nonsense.  I will be back to special abilities in a few days.

Spring break is coming up in a few weeks here.  During my last spring break, I did the following:

March 24, 2002:  Started basic structures for 3D models.
March 25, 2002:  Continued working on 3D models.
March 26, 2002:  Continued working on 3D models...
March 27, 2002:  Continued working on 3D models......
March 28, 2002:  Finished basic 3D creature models.  Gave creatures a facing.

Probably won't be able to top that this time...  and some people wanted curses things.  There are currently...  lemme see...
6 curses games at some level of coding, including a LCS revision, 16 more games that are under consideration in the idea phase, and 3 additional graphicsy games with some code on them (one has been completed for more than a year, but it is stupid).

Are any of you programming games, by the way?  I know Elven Ranger was...

[Renaxer]

Wait.... you have a game thats done.... and havent given it to us because its stupid... 8(
What happen to the Curses game thats suppose to "please me quite a bit"    

[Toady One]

It's really stupid.  I mean, that's fine for the curses games, since there are already lots of stupid games up there.  But since it isn't a curses game, I'd have to give it a place of its own.  It would stand out too much.  And it's really stupid.  I need another graphics game to put with it first.  Or maybe I can just hide it in a section called "Other Games" below the curses arcade on the main page...  I mean, this is one of those "three hour knockoffs".  I used a clock to time myself.  It shows.  The game sucks.

That other curses game is still underway.  The basics are done to some extent, but a lot of the interpersonal stuff will take a long time to iron out to the point where the game is actually fun.  I need more time to finish all of these things.  Three of the upcoming games will be really good if I can get them done right.  Many of the others are trash, but this is normal.

[Renaxer]

Oh alright.... I thought you were holding back a curses game...  but since its not... I dont really care....

<.<

>.>

any details?    

[Toady One]

Well, a few new non-curses ones have been up on the main page for a few days.  But they suck.  Don't get them.  Ever.

Umm...  yes...  many curses projects...  many details...  maybe I'll write up a discussion-of-future-ideas-page, or put a post on the forum.  In a way, I didn't want to go far into it, since the concepts might work better on paper than in a game, and I didn't want to build hopes for any releases if I scuttle the projects later on.  Many unmentioned projects have been scuttled in the past few years.