Gubbins are Great

November 6th 2006 – Test Worlds RC Engine

Added - Buccaneer’s coat
- I have started to decorate the character just to get a small feel for the pirate theme. I will be adding more colours at a later date but for now its a brown colour.
Added -Cutless Sword
- I have added the stereo typical sword “Cutless” to the game. This is a typical pirates sword and I have added it for show purpose at the moment. Its stats will be worked out when working on combat.
Added - Observation Balloon
- As many games have spectators, why cant MMOs? Well hopefully I have got a step closer to getting the type of spectator view on the world, via a hot air balloon. Texture is just a basic at the moment.
Added - First Signs of a NPC Pirate
- A Small test added using a NPC dressed in a pirate clothing. Here I have worked on the capabilities on combat more than the actual stats on the system. This is just a tiny test compared to what I plan to do.

Noted - At the moment balloons are just static, so they are going to need to be some kind of mount for the players. Also I have looked into an idea of having a viewing balcony like an air sip static above many islands were players can observe from a safe distance battles etc.

Ship A'hoy!

November 2nd 2006 - Test Worlds - RC Engine

Added – Pirate galleon (none cannon)
- I have just finished off modelling the pirate galleon. Just doing the final touches. Will start to work on the mount system soon.
Added – Pirate Galleon Cannons
- I have just finished off the cannon type of the galleon mount. I haven’t worked out how to allow the player to use the cannons to fire on other players. I’m looking into this.
Added – Pirate Captains Hat
- I have now started to look into adding some gubbins to start getting the game contented, once I have a suitable number of clothing ill start to decorate the pirate theme.

Noted – Come up with a small idea to alternative levelling system. Still exploring it at the moment but I plan to give players an open freedom as well as huge terrain. More coming soon.

Housing - Just an Idea

October 30th 2006 – Test Worlds – RC Engine

Added – Small Pirate islands, Five so far.
- The small pirate islands were the mini treasure hunting game will be played on. They are placed near the middle of the ocean.

Noted – Allowing the player to have a choice within test worlds on were they want to live I have come up with a game lobby for the game. Were the player would create there character and then get warped to this lobby. Were like a space port players would be able to choose were they want to start off (which island).

Noted – Player housing. I came across a small little bug (I would state it as) were you can drop items on the terrain (in game) and they would stay there. Even if the server reset the items would not budge. As Test Worlds will be a small type game. I am going to keep this small error. I found there’s a file which logs these items dropped. What I plan on doing is searching through the file every night and finding all the items which are not player houses, the player house model will be called for example;

P_House_Small
P_House_Medium

This would give me an advantage of looking for just the items without the P_ in front for a model name. I could locate by using the find tool all the items that are not houses and delete them. Thus leaving only the player houses. I will at a later date look into an automatic system that would do this for me.

Space - Another Big Zone

October 25th – Test Worlds – RC Engine

Added - Space “Named to Omega9”
- Space theme I have decided to add to give a good extensive test on what the RC engine can do.
Added - 4 Planets within the “Space – Omega9”
- Four planets have been added, only earth at the moment will be a planet able to be landed onto. I will be announcing at a later date and give more information on the other three planets.
Added - Sun (Yellow texture at the moment)
- Just a basic sphere with yellow texture attached to it.
Added - Earth Space Station

Noted - Linking from land to space. This will be done by using the space port idea. Were players will book flights from the space port to the space station. Then at the space station travel between other space stations using public transport or players buy there own craft.

Noted – Player craft landing on planets. As RC has the restriction of not being able to go straight into the planets atmosphere I have devised a way for a player to land onto a planet. Involves two gates. Gate one would be an Exit gate, gate two a Entrance gate. A script will run when coming near the gates. A NPC will ask would you like to land, you accept yes and then are warped into the “Sky of the planet” there you can fly down to the land. You can find local cities by using your map or looking for the name tags above the villages and cities. Same as flying out into space, there will be space gates above each city, there you approach the gate and then the NPC will ask would you like to travel into space. You say yes and then you are loaded back into space outside the planet.

Noted – Orbiting animations. I would love to give the feel of movement of the planets, I will start to have a test on static animation of each of the planets orbiting the sun in a very slow motion, also the space stations will orbit with the planets, and some GPS sats will orbit the planets as well as the moons

Horse or Space Craft?

October 20th 2006 – Test Worlds Project – RC Engine

Added - Island Two “Renamed to Red West”
- Island two I made to have a sort of western feel to it. With small grand canyon type terrain and also some grassy areas. This defiantly seems to give a western appeal to the player.
Added - Island Three “Renamed to Treasure Cove”
- Island three is a main island for the pirate theme. A small treasure hunt can be between the pirate islands. A good in game mini quest.

Noted – Pirate Islands, treasure hunting seems to be a good thing especially for the pirate theme. I will get onto getting around 10 scattered islands throughout the ocean.

Noted – Giving the ability to have players control galleons and fire cannons, Maybe have players stand on the galleon (controlled by the Driver player). This would also come into play on the real pirate feel of boarding another ship.

Noted – Transport within Test Worlds needs to comply to many of the themes. A small list such as:

Wild Western: Horse mainly, although horse and cart will be added at a later date. Note that a western horse usually is brown with white spots, different to a stereotype of a medieval horse.
Medieval: Horse mainly, colours such as; browns, whites, greys to be applied.
Space: Space ship is the main transport. There will be 3 types planned.
Pirate: Small rowing boat, none cannon galleon, galleon with cannon.
Egyptian: Horse, horse and cart.

First Dev Log Post

October 13th 2006 – Test Worlds Project – RC Engine

Added - 4x Main islands generated
- Main islands have been generated using L3DT. I will be adding the final decals to them then get them ready for import into GE.
Added - Added ocean
- I have added the Ocean. Scaled it to a ridiculous size (meaning its huge). I have also changed the water texture to a Mediterranean colour and also the scale has been altered.
Added - Island One “Renamed to Egyptian Islands”
- The Desert island which I want the Egyptian theme to take place on I have renamed Egyptian Islands.

Noted - Come up with an idea to make name tags using alpha textures on a billboard type model. So the name of the city/village will appear above the city/village. This will allow players on land and sea to mark out towns and cities.

Noted – Come up with the idea of adding the “space” sci-fi theme to Test Worlds. Still an idea at the moment but will discuss more soon.