Devlog

[Quentin]

Implemented:
- modular characters (male & female)
- many armor items
- started implementation of the character creator (male hair styles are working so far)
- very basic menu system
- basic steam integration

Currently working on server config, menus and modular character saves + replication

[Quentin]

Modular character slot save/load functionality is in, currently working on a server browser and Steam matches. Also hooked up my custom master server for testing (loosely based on the battle.net 1.0 protocol https://bnetdocs.org), that's a project i did before Project Glaurung.

My server supports:
- Social features (profiles, channels, whisper, friendlist, clans), pretty much like b-net 1.0.
- SRP6 authentication (but i'll probably use Steam for authentication)
- Server listing/finding (Steam does that better, as it has NAT punch-through support)
- Database (the most important thing, i'm pretty sure i'll need to save a bunch of data later on)

That said currently i'm inclined to go mostly with Steam.

Steam pros:
- Everyone has it already, no need to register somewhere (well, i could autoregister the users on my server)
- Sophisticated NAT solutions for server hosting
- Saves development time

Steam cons:
- The game only works with Steam and is very intertwined with Steam services, that's something i don't particularly like.

That are just some initial thoughts, i don't even know yet how many social features i want to support (profiles? global chat? friendlist?). Nox was very bare bones in that regard. But that's something for later development stages anyway.

Also apparently Epic is working on a prediction plugin for UE4. I'm still lowkey waiting for better solutions before implementing the core of my netcode. I mean if everything fails i still can go the Nox way without prediction (that's also really easy to implement) but prediction done right would be very nice i think. I just don't want to half ass it, everyone hates broken netcodes.

[superjack]

Sounds good. A cross-compatibility mode with old NoX also sounds good, ability to join nox 'legacy servers'

[Quentin]

My head just exploded thinking about what it would take to make the games compatible and play on the same servers. Sadly that's close to impossible, it would require reverse engineering and following the Nox architecture very closely from the first line of code. Every hit animation would need to fit the 2D counterpart etc. Besides that it could cause legal trouble if the games are so identical that they can multiplay with each other.

Also while the Nox core gameplay is a huge inspiration because it's close to perfect i won't just copy every spell and every mechanic. There will be many Nox spells missing and other spells added. There will be more elements and most likely an element-counter-system added on top. (not just flat longterm elemental protection like in Nox)

[superjack]

mm fair enough

[Quentin]

I took the long route and implemented Steam authentication functionality into the master server.

Everything is still automatic. On the first login a new account gets created and linked to the SteamID. The server communicates with the Steam Web API for authentication.

This solution has all the Steam advantages in addition to supporting all social features of the master server. Also it's now really easy to support non-Steam accounts if there ever were a non-Steam version of the game.

Can't wait to get back into gameplay programming...

[Quentin]

Version 0.3 - now with sound!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Sd-2iclC4

Also i spent some time to learn how to correctly record gameplay in the best quality possible but it was mostly in vain as the youtube compression algorithm absolutely slaughters the video quality. I uploaded an upscaled 4k version which looks way better even though it's exactly the same 1080p footage. Apparently youtube uses a better compression algorithm for 4k videos.

[Quentin]

Currently i'm taking a bit of a break to work on some other stuff. I still do small bits here and there, mostly searching/organizing new assets and thinking about gameplay mechanics.

[Quentin]

Fooling around with a duel map, it still needs a lot of work though:

https://imgur.com/a/q93nlfL

[Quentin]

The last few days i spent an ungodly amount of hours on refactoring the entire item system. Previously the system emerged out of an iterative process, it wasn't spaghetti but not streamlined either. Now everything is completely data driven, you can read the entire item database from a csv file. On the gameplay site everything is based on bones/sockets which makes it easy to add items without touching any code.

I'm also adding item affixes/mods/(enchantments in nox) while i'm working on the item system.
Mainly so it's future proof, maybe campaign, co-op or battle-royale-like game modes will make it in eventually that could benefit from random loot.

I'm not sure if item mods should be a thing in normal multiplayer. Nox does have quite a bit of enchanted equip in pvp maps, but it feels kind of random to me and just another thing to take into account while balancing the game. Although maybe enchanted items are more fun? I never really paid much attention to it.