Triple post O_O
Greetings friends! Artix here with the latest AdventureQuest Worlds: Unity (For Mobile & PC) news. As always, I copy/pasta'd the team's meeting notes below for you to read. This is the most transparent way for you to see what is going on. A lot of fixing/restructuring work is happening as we start building using these new tools. Spider wrapped up his AdventureQuest 3D work and is now focused on this game project. He is likely going to be gutting our combat system and replacing it with the new, and highly versatile node system. Also, the dialog cutscene system is coming together.... and it brings back "Mr. Guy.". Long time DragonFable players will recognize Mr. Guy as the placeholder guy that we use in cutscenes. He is a stand in for you... the hero and player of the game when we are building new cutscenes.
Here we go....
2022.09.07.Letttttssssss Go!
- Tunik
- Fixed bug in Dialogue editor caused by custom NPCs
- Timer in UI movement transform that only pays attention when things start moving. The timer was also determining if it was listening to scale commands. Was a timing bug - fixed both problems.
- Fixed drop down menu for enhancement menu
- Started working on graphics in settings menu
- Full screen and resolution settings -- these things do not need to show on mobile (so they have been removed if you are on mobile)
- Going to add Diogon's new graphics and fix new APOP issues
- Warlic
- Last week, before the meeting we had an issue where Artix and Reens were trying to setup a new map and the avatars were not showing. Discovered that the characters was not spawning its entity because it had not loaded its prefab yet-- and was getting stuck. So, I made a fix to that kep running until the prefabs were ready. This lead to the discovery of some map flow issues and the loading of NPCs issue. Zhoom and I have been on a separate branch going through the map loading-- ripping it apart and simplifying it. We moved things around so Monsters are now managing their own loading and will only attempt to spawn themselves once.
- It should be noted that AQW:U and AQ3D have very different messaging protocol and order. At this point in the project, the code bases are so completely different that there is no way to share code between them.
- Yorumi
- Been working on the Quest System.
- Item drops are now working as quest turn ins
- Reens managed to break it immediately XD Will be working on this after this meeting.
- UI suggestion: It is hard to tell when you get a non-real item drop. The notification needs to be stronger to let you know when you got something. We should drop loot bags on the ground so you can pick them up (this would be more immersive too)
- Reens
- Quest data entry error issue on admin
- When you build quests and added the objectives-- would like if it just automatically put it on to the monster.
- In the Admin.... Ref ID = Monster ID or TurnIn ID depending
- The name should change automatically on type
- If the look up is invalid, it should give a big RED error message next to it like AQ3D does
- At this point in the meeting Captain Rhubarb joined in and we had a 30 minute deep dive on the quest drop system. I have been in loot drop meetings for 20 years... and this is the first time I had ever heard anyone bring up automated distribution curves O_O. Capt is a genius.
- For MapIDs = monsters only drop the quest items in these maps. If it is 0, -1, or null then ANY MAP is fine.
- Add Min & Max for QTY. (i.e. 5 to 10)
- For MobIDs keep the comma separated list... show them in a table below and allow the user to override the drop %s and min/max quantity and export to JSON
- Spider
- Getting ready to work on the new Node system. This is a new way to do class skills, monster AI, and lots of either combat stuff. You can control the entire game just using skills.... theoretically.
2022.09.14.(The Loot Meeting)
- Tunik
- Added New Menu Graphics from Diogon (snazzy)
- If you get new loot, it will shake the icon a little so you know
- Bug: Everything in the dialogs were loading twice (was an editor specific bug) This has been fixed.
- Fixed 0 index error on the farming zard man. Reens' test uncovered this obscure bug.
- Duplicates in resolution menu caused because of multiple hertz per resolution. We are just going to show all of the hertz per resolution.
- Next up... going to work on loot flow. Need Diogon to make us some gold and bags.
- Warlic
- Support work! Refactors with Zhoom and fixes w/ Tunik.
- No more loading issues. Avatars are looking food.
- Flame load added to monsters
- Updated APP icon ("Thank you Warlic!!!!! - Artix)
- ID 20 is a customizable human-looking monster which we can use as a dummy when building dioloags. In game, it will use the actual player. (Like Mr. Guy from Dragonfable.... Oh, he is actually named Mr. Dude! LOL.)
- Zhoom / Reens / Captain Rhubarb
- List of Monster IDs added in the quest objective!
- You now get a table where you can custom edit the drop rates on specific monsters for the same quest.... (i.e. this monster is easy but drops less, this monster is super hard, but drops alot!)
- Deleting an objective w/ mobs will also remove the mobs from the drop table! (super slick)
- Yorumi
- Lots of quest stuff! (Note from Artix: I was late to the meeting and missed their bit, sorry!)
- Notes & Feature Requests
- Quest popups need black outlineand thicker text so you can see them
- Gray out skills when you are out of mana and just show the out of mana message right above the skill (so it is more obvious)
- Loot Drop
- Monsters will physically drop orbs (loot) and gold in game
- When they fall on the floor, you can walk over them to put them in your temporary loot. They will fly up to your loot bag while showing you the name of the item
- Pets can be used to run around and pick up loot for you
- Once you have item in your loot bag... you can choose to keep, keep & equip, trash, or keep all
- Add an "undo" tab is you accidentally delete something good.
- Show previews on loot (use same detail)
- By default can hold like 50-ish drops (expandable?) and should ask you to clean up if you run out of loot space.
- Future: Add options to customize what you loot (set minimum quality threshold, send alert notification if you find a specific item, auto destory items of a quality if you hit your limit, etc
- Need another Reens & Artix quest sync!
2022.09.21.(Player Character in Cutscenes)
- Warlic
- Player character now working in dialog cutscenes!
- Custom NPCs now working in APOPS
- Asset completion flag added
- Bad item data fixed
- Notifications are more visible now
- Compatibility flag is now in the inventory list (but they are pretty much wrong, so we need to review that)
- ID #20 is always the player character now in cutscenes (Mr. Guy)
- Shadow flickering issue (needs addressed)
- Ready to move onto content tools
- Spider
- Officially on AQWorlds Combat now!
- Been studying the combat flow.... Before tearing it down and rebuilding it from scratch XD (New Node based system)
- Will be building this in his branch.
- Reens
- After finishing this week's normal AQWorlds release, will be dedicating time to using the new tools for AQW:Unity
- Yorumi
- Clear Commands working (live server updates)
- Clear Quest
- Clear Item
- Reload Map (almost finished)
- Tunik
- FEATURES:
- Added graphics for loot / trash tabs
- Added graphics for the buttons at the bottom of the loot menu to keep all / discard all
- Added graphics for the buttons used to keep / discard items
- Made the discard all button work
- Added data structures for the “discarded” list and make the tabs work
- BUGS
- Fixed a bug: Custom NPCs have colliders and jitter up and down if a textbox happens to be onscreen.
- Fixed a bug: The popup buttons on textboxes in the dialogue editor don't re-scale with the box properly.
- Fixed a bug: There's no “Move Direct” button on the popup dialogue box controls.
- Fixed a bug: The dialogger setup screen has trouble booting up when the user loads a saved file.
- Fixed a bug: Z order is borked in cutscenes when viewed in game.
- Fixed a bug: items in the loot menu no longer have the level text cut off. (They use to say “leve” instead of “'level”)
- Fixed a bug: The UI combat reward window graphics were messed up due to the graphics overhaul we did some time ago.
- CHANGES:
- Made a new test cutscene with a custom NPC.
Major Project Goals
AdventureQuest Worlds: Unity is a complex project. Really good progress has steadily been made on it. But we are always open to and looking for wards to speed up the process. A few weeks ago we talked with a player who had made a new way of converting our game assets to unity. Upon deep investigation, we ran into all of the same issues. There really is no way around the manual conversion of the vast majority of our items, monsters, maps, and other content. The automated tools that Warlic has already built combined with a skilled artists review and touch-up make it reasonable to rapidly convert stuff. Spider had a few good ideas on how to improve that further using Flash's JSFL scripts.
Also, a lot of players have been asking me "When is the Kickstarter gonna happen!?" The 100% super transparent answer is-- as soon as the game is ready to mass convert monsters, armors, items, and maps.... and for the public Alpha Tests to begin. Which makes sense. Everyone who backs the game will want to jump in and help be a part of its creation right after the campaign is successful. If history repeats itself, it will be an extremely fun era of our gaming community. (But.... between us, I really do with there was some magic "finish game" button I could just press. This has been a lot of work for the team!)
The Big 3
- Reens & Artix using the tools to create maps, cutscenes, and adventures.... and getting feedback to the coders to make fixes and improvements where needed. (This is the most important step to get us ready)
- Combat System (The new node system.... going to take combat & monster AI to the next level)
- Content Creation System Improvements (for exporting)
Follow us before it's too late!
AQWorlds
Artix Krieger
| Wednesday, September 21, 2022
