Aeges Road Weekly Update on Christmas Day

Merry Christmas everybody. I was killing time doing nothing and visiting with people when I decided I may as well check out a few blogs and update mine. I got some nice gifts this year, including an early office chair that has seen a lot of development hours these last few weeks.

I was racing on development this week trying to have some exciting new screenshots, but wound up down some rabbit trails that led to a lot of useless code. That is not to say some keeper code wound up in the mix. Combat is now almost fully animated for every situation as well as with full particle effects, text effects, and the works. There are also new dynamic combat menus that change depending on equipped weapons, items in inventory, and stone combinations. I have been play testing it as I worked on the code all week. It is far more balanced than the original a few months ago, and suffers no crashes and very rare (like once) glitches during combat sequencing (unlike the latter).

I have a huge multiple choice of what needs to be done this week. Bases stats are fully tied into the combat engine calculations. The way it is programed makes it easy for my next few chores. I need to tie together the inventory system with the base character code. I need to tie in the skills system with the stats and inventory system. I need to smooth out the transitions in and out of combat, it is too fast and might leave someone wondering what is going on. I need to finish programming the manipulation system and set up some standard pattens to test with. I need to program some tools in order to mass produce attacks, casts, items, weapons, armor, etc. Hand coding them all is going to take too long.

There is more to this list, and that's without checking it twice. I need to make my final decision on level transitions and some sort of fast travel. The dialog system is going to tie in with a large event system that is in the works. More AI patterns are needed, and I need to decide whether an enemy should try to escape or not, I have the code base sitting there, just not plugged in. There is still a lot of artwork, mainly characters, trees and other objects. There is also a gui I forgot about as well as a re-arranging of a current gui. Finally, I need a few more sound tracks and I am probably going to buy a pack for sound effects.

Aeges Road's Much Delayed Weekly Update

This is the third post I have written, I just haven't posted any. In truth, most of what I am doing with the project right now is so boring to talk about that I could not come up with anything truly interesting. I have been debugging and adding functionality to the engine, and trying to finalize the core code before the end December. Most of the real problem areas have been illiminated, but there are still a few that need some polish. There are also a few features that I have not been able to get to, and I am in the process of adding them right now.

I have also been working on art, mainly NPC's. I am doing NPC's first because I want to get a better grasp of graphics before I nail down my main character animations. I do not expect to have the main character art done until late February. I am still very novice, but making quite a bit of progress. With this bit used as reason, I would rather have a few ugly NPC's than have all my main characters ugly. :-)

Now for something partially worth while. Today I had some free time to get some things out of my head and on to the story board. Even more exciting, I have finally gotten enough of the story done that I can confidently release character bio's and names. The bios are short, and intentionally so. As a role playing game, I feel that it is important for much of this to unravel throughout the game. I have even added some old cliche's to ensure everyone feels right at home. So I'll save the boring stuff for later and get right in to introducing some of the main characters of the game.

Intro.

The hero party is made up of three characters: Keszin, Illindey, and Jade. When they were young children, Elder Macious's wife Elenor found the children alone and brought them into their home. Not only did Elder Macious welcome the children, but he began to teach them of nobility and heroism. It has been rumored that Elder Macious had a vision, warning sign so to speak. Now that the three are becoming adults, Elder Macious is finalizing their training. He obviously has something in mind for them to do, but he refuses to speak of it.

Bio's

Keszin: A brave young boy with a conflict of interests. His heart yearns for patience, but his ambitions often times hurry his actions.

Illindey: A young girl with a heart of gold and an abnormal understanding of the world around her. She only lacks the courage to back her convictions.

Jade: Though she means well, her tenacity and off the cuff attitude is often times repulsive to those who do not know her well. She is trustworthy beyond the convictions of most.

Elder Macious: A cooky old fart who knows too much for his own good. Elder Macious and his wife took the three in as chidren and raised them as their own.

Elenor: Elder Macious's wife. Elenor is the one who found the children. She tried to tell Macious the story, but he wanted to here the unveiling of the story at the same time she told the kids when they were grown. At least this is what Macious told everyone. Most people believe Elenor just wanted to with hold some information from him in an attempt to thwart his know it all attitude. Unfortunately, Elenor's mind is starting to slip, and the story of the children is coming out in babbled pieces. In one of those pieces, Jerricks name came up.

Jerrick: An evil wizard with vast knowledge and power. He is said to be over 300 years old. His current residence is unknown, but recent signs have indicated that it might not be the ground after all.

And

These are all the characters bios for today. There are a few other truly main characters, but these are most of the characters that a player will come to know of very shortly in the game. I wish I had images to post, but they will come next year. I wanted to post a bio for Aeges, but I still have a few questions about her myself. :-)