In the last week, the Depths of Erendorn development team made substantial strides across various areas, each contributing to the game’s growing depth and immersive qualities. The 3D Modelling team focused on the intricate sculpting of armour for the heavily armoured Minotaur, establishing a distinct silhouette that strengthens its imposing presence within the game world. Meanwhile, the Server team tackled several longstanding technical issues, including updates to inventory functionality and pathfinding improvements, alongside enhancements to the social system and session switching for smoother gameplay experiences. The Sound team dedicated time to crafting new magic effects and refining the levelling-up sound, aiming to deliver audio that harmonises with visual elements. On the animation front, the Animation team continued refining foundational animation sets to ensure consistent motion quality and responsiveness in character movements. Finally, the VFX team focused on the levelling-up effect, designing it for visibility at various distances, so players can experience a heightened sense of progression during gameplay. 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
Last week, the 3D Modelling team at Depths of Erendorn continued their focus on further refining the heavily armoured Minotaur. The team dedicated significant time to detailed sculpting, enhancing the overall structure of the armour pieces to achieve a bulky aesthetic. These refinements aim to give each armour set an imposing silhouette that will be easily identifiable in the open world of Erendorn. This ongoing work on armour sculpting plays a crucial role in bringing depth and authenticity to the character designs within Erendorn, making the world feel more vibrant and cohesive. An example of the work can be seen below.
Programming
Client
Over the past week, the Server team at Depths of Erendorn has been finalising key fixes to the inventory systems, addressing several longstanding issues to improve gameplay fluidity. First on the list was resolving a refresh event in the vendor window, which previously prevented players from selling multiple items in one visit due to changes introduced with container-based inventory management. Additionally, the team tackled a bug that allowed multiple items to be equipped in the same slot and resolved a display issue that caused the locked slot icon to disappear upon re-opening the inventory with a two-handed weapon equipped. Beyond inventory updates, new tooltip icons were implemented for various damage types, enhancing visual clarity in the UI. The team also resumed work on camera control updates to improve player experience. Parallel efforts have continued on the upgrade to session switching, with progress on integrating friend invites into the Social Panel, ensuring smoother transitions and connectivity between game sessions. Additional work completed by the team can be seen below.
- Sessions now switch while maintaining a single connection, allowing the Server to manage and direct connections between the backend servers for Settlements, Zones and Dungeons.
- Added commands, UI and handler functions for friend invites.
- Players now get a notification for new friend requests and can find and accept or reject outstanding requests in the Social Panel.
Server
This past week, the Server team at Depths of Erendorn made significant strides in enhancing core gameplay mechanics and social features. The team completed the development of new generic abilities for players, broadening the range of strategic options available in the game. Alongside this, improvements were made to enemy pathfinding, addressing issues with inefficient movement across the game world, which has resulted in smoother and more responsive enemy interactions during player exploration. Work also began on refining NavEdits—map alterations triggered by randomly generated events—to ensure seamless integration within the navigation mesh. On the social front, the team finalised backend support for friend commands, allowing players to add or remove friends, as well as accept or reject friend requests. This involved a structural overhaul of friend requests and friends lists to include usernames in addition to account IDs, laying the groundwork for a more connected and interactive player experience. Other work included:
- Added AuthorName to all chat messages so that the sender doesn't need to be in the session for the client to be able to display the name.
- Client records are now correctly removed on player disconnect.
- Reconnections made between servers now correctly updates the 'Closed' status on the wrapper class.
Sound Design
Last week, the Sound team at Depths of Erendorn dedicated their efforts to developing new magic effect sounds, laying the groundwork for enhancing upcoming abilities. By designing and curating a versatile base of sound effects, the team ensured that these audio assets can be easily re-edited and mixed to align with the final VFX and animations. Additionally, the team reviewed the existing levelling-up visual effects, finding that the original levelling-up sound didn’t fully complement the visuals. To address this, they merged elements of the Level-Up and Max XP sound effects, resulting in a better fit. Moving forward, the levelling-up sound will be reworked to more closely match the visuals, delivering a cohesive and impactful player experience.
Animation
Last week, the Animation team at Depths of Erendorn focused on refining animations and constructing the animation set scene to enhance workflow and visual clarity. This setup enables the team to review all available animations and assess their visual impact with ease. Efforts were primarily directed towards polishing the Alpha one animation set, ensuring that each motion achieves a high standard of quality. By concentrating on this foundational animation set, the team is laying the groundwork for consistent and visually engaging animations, which will significantly contribute to the fluidity and immersion of character movements within the game.
Visual Effects
Last week, the VFX team at Depths of Erendorn focused primarily on refining the levelling-up visual effect to ensure it provides clear and dynamic feedback for players. Emphasis was placed on creating an upward motion within the effect that remains visible from varying distances, catering to players who frequently zoom in and out to survey the battlefield. This design consideration ensures that the levelling-up effect feels impactful and noticeable, enhancing the sense of progression and accomplishment during gameplay. The team’s efforts contribute to a more engaging and visually intuitive experience, adding another layer of immersion to the world of Erendorn.
That’s it for this week’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of September yet?!
