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Survival MMO Devblog #3

Current Version: v0.2.2a

Graphics and Sound

Shaders & Skin Color

At the start of the project I was tediously respriting and recoloring each skin color. There were three skin colors: White, Tan and Black. I’ve now utilized the power of Shaders! This means I can handle skin color a lot more efficiently, as well as add interesting effects in the game (such as your face turning green when you’re sick, custom item colors, etc). This also means that instead of 3 skin colors, I can add a whole range of skin ‘tones’. This is huge, and I’m sure I’ll find more uses for it than just skin color such as custom colors to items.

I went ahead and added 8 Skin Tones to the game.
I will also be releasing an example of the method I used in an upcoming devblog!

Camera Effects

Some new camera effects were added to the game!
Camera Follows Mouse

Shakey Cam

Procedural Map Generation

Most of my weekend was spent working on the game world. The system works by first generating a large image of what the map should look like. I’d like to thank “Puhloo” for his example on this.

The system will then create 64×64 chunks of every pixel. Each pixel then represents a 32×32 tile. It will then put those chunks into a buffer and save it on a hard drive. Later, when the player is in the game it will load up the chunks from the hard drive around the player.

This has still got a long way to go, and probably won’t be finished until next week.

Game Lore

I’ve started working on the lore for the game. Humans will no longer start on Earth, but on a terraformed Mars 45,000 years into the future. Earth is uninhabitable after a mixture of nuclear fallout and natural disasters devastated much of the planet. Mars is also devastated and barely inhabitable as well after an alien invasion that was provoked by Human meddling on alien planets. Basically, humans have a reason to hate Alien races, and Aliens have a reason to hate Humans. I can provide more lore in future dev blogs, if you’d like.

TL;DR – This game is a survival game on a terraformed Mars. Weeeeeeee…

Other Changes

~ GUI now re-positioned for the new 720p resolution
~ Head were being clipped by armor/shirts. Heads now draw above armor/shirts.
+ Added a new facial expression
+ Screen shakes when you hit a node
+ Particle effect added when you hit a node
+ Added meat item, currently no way to eat it.

So, what do you think ?