A splash of colour has been given to the Druid tier one armour, while the corrupted brazier gets some fancy new visual effects. Additionally, the programming team have been working on refining the dialogue system and gameplay loop. The Skeleton enemy gets the focus of a few teams as they now have audio and animation to go with the visual effects from the week prior. Finally, the Environment team worked on the coastline of Erendorn and brings some amazing landscape shots from the engine. As always, join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit for daily updates on Depths of Erendorn. Alternatively, join our Discord for all the latest! - now let’s get into it!
3D Modelling
The 3D modelling team have started texturing the tier one armour for the Druid throughout the last week. Continuing to use the natural aesthetic of the Druid, the team have used greens, blues and browns to colour the armour. This design is only a work in progress as the team will continue to work on it through the coming weeks. This armour is the first of three tiers that will indicate the level of power the Druid has, giving the player a visual representation of the danger the Druid poses. The team will also start to create the other tiers of protective armour for the Druid over the coming weeks.
Set Piece Design
The set design team have had a busy week, refining the 3D models and creating visual effects for the corrupted brazier. To start the process, the team updated the corrupted brazier assets to give them more presence within the world. As the events with Erendorn can spawn randomly, the brazier should be as noticeable as possible so players will know to interact with it. The team then implemented the new asset into the engine, and then applied the cast iron texture, giving us an example of the visual representation for the brazier within the world of Erendorn.
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The team has also been working on visual effects to accompany the brazier when placed in the engine. This VFX can be customised, giving the possibility of multiple different events that could associate with the corrupted brazier. The visual effects are created with a combination of flames and embers. This VFX can be altered in many ways, size, colour, glow strength and the direction that embers float. All of these variations will differentiate the braziers when placed within the world and dungeons. Examples of the visual effects and how they will appear with the asset in the engine are below.
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Programming
Client
In continuation of the efforts to bring World Combat to the DoE Client, the Dungeon's Room Manager and Room Builder classes and their World Session counterparts (The World Environment Manager and Region Builder mentioned in the last devlog) have all seen improvements to their Combat functions. In addition to this, a new batch of Client-to-Server Commands and Server-to-Client Logs have been added to get us ready for implementing gameplay actions for dialogue, vendors and 'Interactables'. More work completed by the client-side team can be seen below.
- Added new and updated existing shared functions for getting grid tile, root and height information on Room Manager and World Environment managers.
- Project-wide update and refactoring for spawning, movement, basic attacking and ability targeting methods to make use of the new Environment Manager functions.
- Added Events, Logs and equivalent Action Steps for Dialogue and Activity Server messages. These messages have been added to give players ways to interact with the world of Erendorn that don't involve a sword or a fireball.
- Added Client Commands for dialogue, interacting with 'Interactables', buying/selling to vendors and leaving combats and adventures.
- Created Vendor UI mock-up.
- Continued work on setting up NPC dialogue.
- Further updated the login screen and core widgets to be more in line with new designs.
- Added Client Dialogue Manager Class.
- Added Client Dialogue Class.
- Added Client Dialogue Response Class.
- Added Client Dialogue History.
- Added Client Parsing functions for dialogue.
- Added Client Dialogue log parsing functions.
Updated inventory UI with the following:
- Added new grid graphics.
- Replaced "equipped" text with visual highlights.
- Item stats now correctly show on tooltips.
- Context Menus no longer conflict on layering with tooltips.
- Inventory populates with empty slots if below a certain size.
- Core widgets no longer share screen space.
Server
The server team have been working to ensure the server can retain information, allowing the player to now collect loot as they advance through the dungeons. Some tweaks have also been made to combat between the player and enemies, now ensuring that the enemies will take at least 1 damage when they are attacked. Additional work completed by the server-side team can be seen below.
- Fixed WorldSession Progression Data not being instantiated.
- Added a minimum damage of 1 damage when an entity takes damage (Pre-shield reductions).
- Gaining loot from dungeons.
- Servers now keeps track of all known server infos and can retrieve a connection to them.
- Register Adventure function refactored.
- Refactored Dialogue classes to track the history of a dialogue, allowing clients that join after the dialogue has started to see the dialogue history.
- Added Interactables to SessionData.
Sound Design
The sound team have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes over the past few weeks. Working on implementing and optimising some of the audio for the updated engine. Once completed, the team worked on some visual effects finalised throughout the last month. Audio for the Jaguar Stealth, Wasp Sting, Skeleton Awaken and Lionman Frightening Roar were all constructed through the week. Using a variety of primary resources, the team have been able to layer together audio that is distinct for each ability. Giving players audio feedback as to when danger may arise. Once these effects were completed the team also implemented them into the engine, ready for gameplay.
Environment Art
The environment team have continued to work on rock formations for the land of Erendorn. The main focus of the past week has been on creating more detailed rocks to use on a larger scale throughout the landscape. One of the main problems when creating digital assets for landscape is that the rock faces can look very plain and boring if they have a large flat area. To combat this, the team have added different layers to the rock to mimic a formation that wouldn't be out of place in our world. The Houdini program is used to create the initial rock formations, this program gives the team the ability to generate interesting rock faces that can be used on a larger scale. Taking the newly generated rock, the team implemented it into the engine to use as a cliff face for the stretching coastline of Erendorn. Examples of the initial rock design in Houdini and the coastline it became are below.
Animation
The animations team have also been working behind the scenes, cleaning up rigs and animations for the Zentragal and the Druid. This is a necessary process as both of these Character Classes have new protective gear. Not all of the work has been done behind the scenes though, as the team have also worked with the Skeleton enemy. Off the back of new visual effects created throughout the month, the team have created an Awakening animation for the undead enemy. This animation will be utilised when the skeleton is attacked multiple times, along with the visual effects, giving the player feedback that the skeleton is now Awakened! An example of the new animation is below.
That’s it for this week’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of July yet?!
