Throughout the week, the Depths of Erendorn development teams demonstrated remarkable progress in their respective areas. The 3D modelling team showcased their dedication by meticulously enhancing the agile armour set, adding flowing material for improved movement, refining wrist guards, and introducing an aesthetic material trim. The client-side team addressed Adventure-breaking bugs, added an Unstuck button, and continued to refine the tutorial system. The server team made strides in setting up a new server instance, implementing entity location change logs, and creating an 'unstuck' command for inaccessible areas. Additionally, they worked on XP distribution, combat bug fixes, and non-player entity despawning. The environment team's focus was on versatility, sculpting and texturing a versatile set of planks and beams for the settlement's construction, along with re-texturing roof tiles for cohesion. Lastly, the animation team meticulously upgraded the human sorceress female character's rig, refined skin weights, and explored dynamic bone integration for improved cloth animations. 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
Continuing their dedicated efforts, the 3D modelling team at Depths of Erendorn achieved notable progress in the past week. Their focus remained on sculpting as they meticulously added initial details to the agile set of armour. The incorporation of a flowing material not only enhances the aesthetics but also provides the user with improved range of movement. In a bid to enhance functionality, wrist guards received new intricate details, reinforcing the strength of the user's wrists. Additionally, the team's attention to aesthetic refinement is evident with the addition of a material trim. Examples of their work can be observed below.
Programming
Client
This week has been about updating the Client with some fixes to a few Adventure breaking bugs as well as adding some information to Item and Active Effect UI. Additional work from the client side team can be seen below.
- Added the Unstuck button and Command - Depths of Erendorn uses pre-generated Navigation Data for character movements, some areas of the environment can cause pathfinding to fail and for players to be stuck. The Unstuck button, found in the settings menu allows players to teleport to a nearby location. This is a temporary solution to allow testing to continue while the pathfinding issue is fixed.
- Fixed a bug that caused the game to crash when leaving a Dungeon Portal before entering.
- Updated how NPCs get removed when despawning to differentiate from player removal and added new RemoveEntity log and Stepper.
- Updated Item Tooltips to show which slots they can be equipped to.
- Added StopMovePoint log handling to Combats. StopMovePoint logs are Server messages that gets sent to connected players when a character's movement ends early. Originally created as a Session log these logs can now also be used during combat to prevent positioning mismatches when certain characters become suddenly unable to reach their target.
- Removed unwanted margins appearing in the backgrounds of windows for character creation and tutorials.
- Readjusted progression display to fix a bug causing the wrong title to display when ending an adventure.
- Further development on the tutorial logbook and popup system, mostly still focused on setting up context based displays in preparation for full implementation.
- Added Duration Type to Active Effect data so their UI can display how each active effect will behave and how it expires. Some different Active Effect Duration Types are:
- Start of Caster or Affected Entity's turn.
- End of Caster or Affected Entity's turn.
- Round End - Meaning when both the players and the enemy team have both finished their turns.
- Instance - Meaning the duration of this Active Effect is determined by external means such as Counter, for example: The Active Effect Counter remains on a player until they have been attacked.
Server
In the last week there has been a mix of things completed. A new server instance has been setup for use with our next milestone. Entity location change logs have been created to give us a tool to move an entity without requiring a normal 'movement'. In addition to this an 'unstuck' command has been created that will move your entity if you manage to get stranded in an inaccessible part of the map. Also the server team worked on fixing how XP is distributed amongst groups in the zones, to encourage number of large groups, rather than single individuals roaming about on their own. Additionally, a new kind of command was created to allow non player entities to be despawned from a zone without dying. Additional work from the server side team can be seen below.
- The first parts of the levelling up code was written which will be finished off next week.
- A bug relating to enemy NPC groups disappearing in combat has been fixed.
- An entity position desync in combat has been fixed.
Environment Art
The environment team achieved good progress in the development of the settlement environment this week. They meticulously crafted a versatile set of planks and beams, intended for widespread use in the settlement's construction. This set was sculpted in high poly and thoughtfully textured using Substance Painter. The resulting material has been thoughtfully saved for future use in Depths of Erendorn (DOE) props. In a bid for comprehensive visual cohesion, the team also executed a re-texturing process for roof tiles, unifying them with the same wood material. The beams and planks were instrumental in the creation of foundational base pieces for the new settlement kit, adding a sturdy and authentic aesthetic. This concerted effort from the environment team is showcased in their accomplished work throughout the week. Examples of the work completed throughout the week can be seen below.
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Animation
The animation team achieved significant milestones this week by focusing on enhancing the human sorceress female character's animations. The team began by upgrading the character's rig to align with proper naming conventions and skeleton hierarchy, optimizing the foundation for subsequent work. Refined skin weights were meticulously applied to ensure optimal deformations during animations, fostering seamless and lifelike movement. The team transferred and fine-tuned animations to the character, employing careful adjustments to ensure precision. They also explored innovative approaches to improve cloth animations, integrating dynamic bones within the 3D animation software. This involved baking simulations onto bones and refining animations to address initial issues. The resulting animations, while not flawless, exude a more natural and organic aesthetic, showcasing the team's dedication to creating dynamic and captivating character movements. Examples of the work completed throughout the week can be seen below.
That’s it for this week’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of July yet?!
