An exciting week for the team as the Zentragal gets a block-out of some new armour. The animators continue to bring the Mantisar to life while the VFX team start to concept some brand-new visual effects. Finally, the coding wizards get the World Combat Sessions Log in place and start work on the code for the vendors of Erendorn. As always, join us on Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit for daily updates on Depths of Erendorn - now let’s get into it!
3D Modelling
Moving on from the Draconian model, the team has turned their focus to blocking out the armour that will be worn by the Zentragal. Working with concept pieces, the team has focused on covering the essential parts of the Zentragal so they are safe while traversing the world and its depths. The team has taken extra care to add more detail along the spine, following the natural exoskeleton that the character has on their back. The team will continue working on the armour for our illusionist through the coming weeks. The block-out for the armour can be seen below.
Programming
Client
This week has been about resolving any problems the team have had that have arisen as a result of transferring to the UE5.0.2 engine and project version. The main focus has been on resolving conflicts and working through the process of pushing and updating engine instances that have already been downloaded. Work has also begun on getting some of the new World Combat Session Logs implemented ready to begin allowing players to enter combat in the open world. Below is some of the other work completed by the client-side team through the past week.
- Dealt with various team members build issues regarding UE5.0.2 and the new project download.
- Successfully packaged in the new engine, updating deprecated functions.
- Added Session Logs for combat related messages for World Sessions.
Server
This week the server team have been focused on the first instances of a few new features, as well as a couple of important bugs fixed. The foundational code for Shops and Vendors has been created, with Vendors being assigned to a location, as well as having pseudo-randomly generated prices for items based on their power, chosen from a list tied to the location itself. A basic buy and sell command has been created as well. Additionally, a few new Effect Blocks have been created to allow us to create Magic Gland, an innate ability to the Watertarg that can copy enemy's spells. This required a bit of refactoring to allow this as previously Entities couldn't cast spells they didn't have attached to them in the database. Finally, Ambushing teams had an issue fixed where they counted as being on the Ambushing team as well as their normal team, meaning certain abilities could hit them twice (once for each team they were on). A breakdown of other work completed by the team can be seen below.
- Worked on NPC Vendors/Shop code.
- Re-implemented XP painting in zones.
- Planned the concept of cross-zone movement.
- Planned non-rectangle shaped zones.
- Adventure end implemented ready for testing.
- Planned world partition changes.
- Added the ability to highlight areas of the world to debug XP painting/values in a zone.
Animation
The work on the Mantisar animations continues, with cycles for idle, walk, run, attack, damage taken and death all completed throughout the last week. The team has focused on giving the Mantisar a very bug-like feel to its movements, quick jerky motion conveys a synonymous impression with insects in our world. The smaller details within these animations also add to solidify the Mantisar with its insect cousins, the twitching of the antenna conveys that the oversized bug is using them to search for prey. In addition to this, the flickering of the lower abdomen is used as a defence mechanism within the Praying Mantis family, which our animators have utilised within the Mantisar's animations. Examples of the cycles completed over the last week can be seen below.
Visual Effects
Whilst the team are setting up within the new engine, the VFX team have taken their time working on more concepts for a variety of character class's visual effects. Using a variety of classes during this phase gives the team the chance to visualise many of the VFX together, this will ensure that all the effects follow a similar pattern making the overall experience of the game well-rounded. The team has taken the time to include lots of interesting shapes and textures in these concepts. This work will give the team reference for more extravagant VFX that will be created over the following weeks. The concepts from last week can be seen below.
That’s it for this week’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of June yet?!
