It’s actually “ca-leh-tay-oh”, based on my longer IGN Kalightortaio, “kuh-light-tor-taio”
The best example of how to pronounce the name, is tied to the state of California. Kali should not rhyme with alley. (Yes I know that the longer name has a completely different pronunciation.)
I’ve grossly underestimated the amount of work needed for this project. What I guessed to be 15 weeks of programming is closer to 50 weeks. This is partly due to my inexperience with Unreal/C++, and my realistic ambitions. I will be releasing a public alpha and beta, when the game is a half playable state, probably within the next 12 weeks.
Edit: Quests =/= Mark Quests. I’m referring to rpg quests. Kill some things, fetch that thing, exclusive encounters, etc. Etc.
Still a C++ script kiddie, but I’ve started work on the server architecture! I’ve delayed the sprite work, because it’s a pain in the ass, especially when I’m learning to optimize code. I’ll probably get another programmer like Orsome to do that for me in the future. But I’ve figured out how to do server instancing, so that dungeons and realm portals work. After that, I’ll move to my biggest hurdle. Server side validation and client side rendering based on validation. Once I have movement hardcoded into the server, stats will be a piece of cake. I’ve been sick for two weeks now, so the dev cycle is slow. Once I get these things done, I might make a public pre alpha testing server. Though it’ll probably just be a walking simulator in a box room…
I have plans for the Nexus. It’s going to be a mighty bastion against the forces of Oryx, a flourishing city. NPCs, lore, quests, utility, merchants, secrets, etc. A true hub for adventurers. With Unreal Engine, the possibilities are expandable!
Fame, Gold, and Divinity will be the primary currencies. None of which can be acquired with money. Fame will be gained the usual way, but alive fame can be spent as well. Gold can be awarded from quests, found in rare chests, dropped from bosses, and given in player events. Divinity will be awarded from challenging quests. Most Merchant NPCs will be in the Nexus, but some will be found in the towns of the Overworld. All forms of currency can be traded between players.
Fame
Gold
Divinity
Functionality
Music and sounds are really important, I’ve come to realize, as I’m tinkering in this mute game. I doubt we’ll be working on the soundtrack until perhaps the end of the alpha or beta, but I want the music to really add to the environment, and not just be filler content.
Also, as I’ve created the groundwork for the nexus, I’ve come up with a status debuff to prevent nexusing 
I’m sure that will be fun in certain end game fights!~
I’ve stated before that I want this game to be free to play, and I don’t want a p2w system in place. I was leaning towards donationware, and I was thinking of rewards for people who do donate. As I’m investing significant time into this, I’m realizing that I will need some sort of monetary system in place. I am however, adamant on not introducing micro-transactions into the game. Thus, I’ve merged my need for this game (and game company) to grow, with my donation idea, which results in tiers. Those who donate will advance their donation tier on their account. On each milestone, they will receive rewards based on the level met. These tiers will never reset, and will be counted over the lifetime of an account, so you could donate $5, and months down the road still have that count towards your total.
It’s still a little early to say what those tiers will be placed at, or what the appropriate rewards will be, but the following are potential possibilities in no particular order:
Lastly, I’ve decided to expand the player inventory, so that characters will have more than four equipment slots. Uses for these slots will be expanded upon, when the open alpha starts in a few months.
I will have moderation applications open when we enter the public beta in 3 - 7 months. Moderation duties include but are not limited to: investigating tickets, dishing out temp bans, hard bans, etc. Administrators will have greater access to developer commands, but have more responsibilities.
Instead of a replay system, I’m thinking of a player based report system. When a threshold of reports are reached, moderators will be tasked to determine if it is true. Purposeful misuse of the report system will result in moderator action against those involved. Therefore, perhaps only reputable players from the playerbase will be allowed to report. We will log the chat channels, which moderators and administrators can access. There will also be a vanish mode, where your character will not be rendered in game clients. You will not be able to attack or interact with the regularly game state, but you will be able to spectate other players. On our website, we will have tickets open for each reported player beyond a threshold, or players who have triggered the anti-cheat system. Administrators will be more focused on bug reporting, community interaction, moderation of moderators, and keeping the gamestate healthy if intervention is required.
Current planned status effects (in addition the RotMG debuffs):
Currently in development hell, due to how busy my life has become. When I have time to relax, I will come back to this, potentially in a few days. I’ve been planning out a lot of the game mechanics and areas, but I’m still stuck on getting the world and dungeon portals to work. It’s a lot of server architecture in a language I’m learning at the same time. Once I get a simple world running with dungeon instances, then development will start actually moving again.
After more weeks spent in development hell, and the current quarantine in my state, I have spent countless hours writing code, getting stuck with how to implement the terrain, and restarting projects from scratch. I know how to implement movement, the camera, HUDs, Settings, and stats. But getting the unloading and loading of the terrain kept stopping me from developing the game. The way that realm works, and any game of it’s caliber should work, is that what the screen sees, are x tiles by x tiles, say 12 x 12 tiles. Outside the camera vision, tiles are loaded and unloaded based on movement. As I’m both a new programmer to C++ and UE4, I was foolishly creating a ton of static mesh actors, and instanced mesh actors in hopes of texturing each tile. I couldn’t just use a tileset either, though that would end up with the same inefficiency of just making tens upon thousands of actors. From generation programmatically, to level streaming, to world aligned textures, I was beginning to throw in the towel.
But finally, after weeks of slugging through forum post and youtube video, I have come across code that may help me solve this issue.
It’s deeper than developmental hell. Hiatus perhaps?
Currently in finals week, so all my time is spent either working as an essential worker, or studying my butt off for the impending doom. I expect to have a lot more time free after this semester is over. Which is next week.
Programming wise, I’ve not yet mastered C++. I haven’t even really touched Unreal Engine. I need to get a feel for game design oriented programming, and C++. I’ve bought a few books, and I have a fellow programmer as a friend to ask questions and learn from. Down the road, when we have a prototype, I’ll probably even hire her. But I want to actually understand what I’m doing before I officially start a business and build the project as a beta. I’m a Wozniak, not a Jobs.
What I understand:
Player Movement
Collision
Physics
Server syncing
Dungeon Instancing
Stats
Items
Databases
Classes
What I am learning:
Rendering a map using unreal engine
What I don’t know:
Particle Systems
Weapon Shots
Enemy AI
Scripted Events
Absolutely bloody greek to me:
Rendering tiles using unreal engine
Unfortunately for me, that last one, is pretty important for the first build. I get that you store a tilemap, and use an array to store the map details, which tells the client what tile you’re near, and should render. Occlusion is already built into Unreal, and most of the rendering is already pre built. I just need to figure out how do this, programmatically:
And honestly, this comes down to a very light amount of C++, and just general understanding of Unreal’s documentation, which I also, haven’t got a clue in hell about. I mean, I can make a camera arm, for orthographic projection, and manually drag objects into a scene, and manually apply textures or models, but that’s it. I don’t have experience with C++ or the blueprint system. After some headaches and tutorials, I’ve figured out a light amount of C++ related things, but I’m truly tackling two feats at once.
I’m sure an experienced game developer could do this in a day. When I get there, I’ll be able to do it. That day is not anytime soon. I am very thankful for Unreal’s game engine though! If I tried designing my own engine, that would take years. The least I can do, is learn the syntax of unreal.
Hopefully by the end of the month, I can have a basic something or other, something akin to what Deca released perhaps, when they were showing off the Unity client rework.
I apologize for the bump, but I don’t want the thread to close.
The quarantine has fully stopped my development in both this game, and just generally speaking. I’m thankfully working, and I’m in process of moving. Maybe when I’m settled down and not living paycheck to paycheck, I’ll resume my studies in C++.
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
if you don’t mind, i got a question for you and it’s about this.
how are these going to work exactly?
i’m just curious, that’s all.
dusts off notes from months ago
As the other stats, some classes will have higher stat caps than others. And gear, among other game mechanics will allow you to go past the cap. Higher Evasion will result in passive_dodges_, whereas some class abilities may grant an active dodge, such as the Warrior’s dodgeroll. Enemy shots however, will continue to travel past dodges, regardless of piercing. The Evasion stat adds some leniency to the bullet hell of the game. I haven’t implemented a formula proper, however having 40 evasion could equate to a 5% dodge chance. Scaling to 15% at 80. (The more evasion you have, the more effective it becomes).
Whereas Resolve flatly and linearly lowers the duration of debuffs. A higher resolve would cut a status effect like quiet or burning in half. This stat will have diminishing returns beyond 65% however.
A handful of classes will have higher resolve, versus the somewhat even distribution of evasion. Resolve will be more potion oriented, while evasion is a stat that players will have choose to spec into with their gear, enchantments, and other game mechanics.
ok, here’s another question. how does dodge work exactly?(not evasion, dodge)
like, does it remove the damage or does it reduce the damage? or maybe it works some other way, idk.
