Hi everyone!

We are continuing to work hard and have a variety of updates for you.

Networking is coming along. Unfortunately, the networking system we were using seems to be faltering as the developers working on the system disappeared, yet again. Not sure why developers who make systems for Unity seem to give up so easily.  Anyway, Dennis is working with a friend who is developing a custom system.  It is moving along very quickly and this time, we really should have some characters running around. Dennis has hooked up several computers and the client and server are working great together. We just need to integrate our character system and a few other technical issues and all should be well.  It has been a long road, with many disappointments but maybe this is it for us. We will see. There are other ideas out there too but right now, we will keep slogging along.

I am building models for Caeril, which will consist of a series of modular pieces used to build a massive city.  As I have stated before, the city will be built with optimization in mind, giving players the ability to gather as a community in various parts of the city with minimum lag.

For example, Market Square, with it’s colorful market stalls surrounded by shops will be a popular place for players. Some will live above the shops and use the shops to sell their wares. Others will visit the square to sell items in the stalls or to buy from the player shops and other stalls.  During certain times, there may be festivals or special market days available. In another part of town a square where the church and monastery of Light might hold a religious celebration, also drawing players to it’s center. Beyond the main walls, the docks will be a busy place, a home to many who work on ships or who own warehouses for their merchant businesses.

All of these busy places will be free of lag due to the system we are using. Each area will not be affected by outside areas, and be free of loading screens and hopefully, lag. 🙂  As soon as my city is modeled and including on our server/client testing I will looking for issues.

Areas outside the city will be more spread out, less of a problem since there will probably not be large numbers of players in one area. Instead, players will be building their own houses and laying their own fields on land they own. Both of these systems are ready and waiting for testing on the server as well.

Our terrains have been enhanced with some lovely new shaders as well as new water. We have tested a system for streaming in the terrain, avoiding loading screens and creating that open world that everyone loves. It has so far worked flawlessly and as soon as I have the city testing on the server, I will start putting together the environs around Caeril, rich farmland, hills, copses of forest, coastlines, and other areas for player to explore.

Ryan has been working on some other areas to explore, underground, beneath the city, and mysterious places to discover. He has continued to work on animations, putting together controllers for our player characters as well as AI for the NPCs and animals.  He is also managing to squeeze in some skill work including tree chopping. We now have the ability to chop down trees and have them grow back along with seasons that actually have changing grass and tree foliage.

Some pretty pictures with new shaders!  The Bloodlands is looking beautiful!

I will post some city pictures a wee bit later. Putting together Caeril is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle but it is fun! 🙂

Teila