Over the past week, Depths of Erendorn's development teams have been hard at work on various aspects. The 3D modelling team focused on refining the Agility-based armour set, concluding the sculpting phase and moving on to the crucial retopology stage, ensuring optimal mesh topology for fluid character animations. Meanwhile, the client-side team dedicated efforts to enhancing the in-game Help Book system, introducing UI overlays for help pages and improving inventory stat displays. The server team delved into updating AI intentions for various creatures, fine-tuning movement systems, and laying the groundwork for queued events. In the audio domain, the sound team tackled engine-related issues, collaborating on VFX assets and working on UI sounds and ambiance. Simultaneously, the environment team made significant strides in the settlement's construction, creating unique architectural elements and refining the settlement's aesthetics. The animation team prioritised character animation enhancements, focusing on cloth dynamics for the Twilight Elf and beginning rigging and skinning processes for Human Male armour. Collectively, these endeavors demonstrate the team's dedication to crafting an immersive and visually captivating gaming experience in Depths of Erendorn. 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
Over the past week, the 3D modelling team at Depths of Erendorn achieved significant milestones in the design of the Agility based armour set. Their meticulous work led to the completion of the sculpting phase, where they added intricate details to refine the character's appearance. Currently, the team is actively engaged in the retopology process. Retopology is a crucial step in character modelling, involving the creation of a new, optimised mesh with clean topology. This optimised mesh ensures that the character deforms properly during animation, making movements appear smooth and realistic. Examples of their work on the agility set can be seen below.
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Programming
Client
This week has involved continued development of the content of the help book, as well as some cleaning up of asset names to remove some headaches over allocation. Gold display has been added to the inventory and after chasing some confused IDs the inventory stat display now sorts the player stats into categories relating to general function, offensive and defensive uses. Additional work completed by the client-side team can be seen below.
- Added the ability to trigger UI overlay for Help Pages.
- Added Basic UI Help Page overlay to show new players key UI elements when starting the game or viewing the page in the Help Book.
- Added input icons for Help Page text for mouse events and keyboard buttons.
- Updated the Log Book (Combat and Chat Logs) with a new background and Send button.
- Fixed a bug where Adventure Quests were not being cleared from the Activity Panel when ending Adventure.
- Fixed a bug where Dungeon Room Panels would not clear after Reroll Ballots are concluded.
- Added Centre Panel events for UI pages opening and closing to allow Help Pages to trigger.
- Fixed a bug that prevented Dungeon Combats being found while performing queued updates during setup.
- Updated the Swing Cost calculation while hovering an enemy, the swing cost will now change colour if the attacker's current energy is modified. Previously players had to re-hover an enemy to get an updated visual.
- Added the triggering of the Dungeon Lobby help page.
Server
This week, the server team has been busy updating multiple AI Intentions (the code that dictates when and how an enemy casts their abilities), including Turtles casting hardened shell when they drop to low hp, skeletons correctly awakening after taking an exact number of damage instances, and druids being able to intelligently cast birds of prey on players who aren't already assailed by one. Additionally, more work has been done on future server tech, this time Queued Events. This system means that an event being spawned can queue another event up, like a sequel. Additionally, the team worked on bug fixing and tweaking the movement system, a time consuming exercise of going over logs, adjusting what gets printed, recompiling code making small changes to get it to a point where we have eliminated all the currently known bugs. Additional work completed by the team can be seen below.
- Fixed some Configuration issues due to some changes to our setup.
- Tuned the movement interrupting code.
- Fixed an issue with first step start positioning on movements.
- Server path optimisation code improved to stop a 'boomerang' effect.
Sound Design
During the past week, the sound team at Depths of Erendorn encountered some challenges related to engine issues. However, they have made significant progress in resolving these issues and have been actively engaged in testing to ensure that the engine is running smoothly once more. Additionally, the sound team collaborated with the VFX team on various visual effects (VFX) assets. This collaborative effort involves both creating VFX and planning future effects that will be seamlessly integrated into the game engine once it is fully operational. The assets generated for these effects encompass a range of elements, including electric spells, magical impacts, and ominous energy hums. These assets are essential for enhancing the visual and auditory aspects of the game, contributing to the overall immersive experience for players. Examples of the work from the sound design team can be seen below.
Environment Art
In the past week, the environment team at Depths of Erendorn achieved significant progress in enhancing the settlement's visual appeal and architectural diversity. Their focus was on crafting a shingles roof texture in Substance Designer, ensuring authenticity and detail in the settlement's buildings. Simultaneously, they dedicated efforts to refine the roof structure and general dimensions of the structures, aiming to create visually intriguing shapes while addressing the limitations of the building kit. With the process drawing to a close the team will soon move on to the next step in the overhaul of the initial area's settlement! Examples of the work completed throughout the week can be seen below.
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Animation
Throughout the week, the animation team at Depths of Erendorn has been dedicated to enhancing character animations, particularly for the Twilight Elf and Human Male characters. For the Twilight Elf, their focus remained on adding dynamic motion to cloth elements in various animations, ensuring a more realistic and immersive character movement. Simultaneously, work commenced on the rigging and skinning process for Human Male character armours. The team conducted animation tests to evaluate how the armours appear during character movement. These initial tests are pivotal in planning the required rig updates to seamlessly integrate all armour features and guarantee smooth animation transitions. Examples of the work completed throughout the week can be seen below.
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That’s it for this week’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of August yet?!
