test server #2 online... (lotsa screens)

[Coke]

To quote my post on the MR forums..

Good morning everyone!

It is with great pleasure I present you with the second community test server, open to all members of the forum who have joined / been pleasant since the community started :]

There is a lot to get your teeth round in this test, however let me start by saying there has been no mapping done whatsoever - this is due to Dugor coding so much I haven't had any personal alone time with the client and server ;D

Right then! First things first:

The NPC Trade system
None player characters who are marked as tradesmen can now no-longer be targeted, instead on hover they will display their name, and a speech bubble emote. Depending on the emote, you are standing too far away or close enough to interact with the tradesman, in order to interact you must be standing a minimum of 2 squares away. Observe:

I am too far away to talk to Kumar:



I move inside his interaction range so I can speak to him:



If I click on him while I am in range, the new trade window comes up:



To find out more about what he is selling, and more importantly what he wants in return, I hover over the items:



I decide I want a short sword for me and my friend, so by double clicking on the item it purchases one. I grab two, note the confirmation of the trade is currently printed to the chat screen in yellow, there are plans to change this so don't worry about that for now :]



So there is the new NPC trade system. On the test server, there are two trade-outlets. Dazzie's Abode (the magic shop) and The armoury (Ben and Kumar's as shown here). Don't ask me why everyone wants coal, its a test xD

Speaking of magic..

The Visual Spell system

To point out a few things quickly. Tab will cycle across current enemies on the map, escape will cancel any targets you have, and end will cast the currently selected spell. The spell hotkey bar and graphical user interface are not even started, so ignore the current ability section's nasty looks - the player versus environment spell system however, works like a charm!

Firstly, allow me to introduce to you the magic man himself, Dazzie ;D (named after my cat).



On the test server, there are three spells to buy. He stocks all three. One is a healing spell, one is an offensive spell, and one is an epic spell ^_^.



Once you have purchased a magical item from Dazzie, you can see what spell it teaches you by hovering over it on the visual inventory (note now the visual inventory hover statistics will no longer overlap the game-screen):



Double click the spell to learn it. Once you have learnt your spells, you can use them! To use a spell, select it in the inventory, and press the end key on your keyboard. If you have no target, or your target is an enemy, when you cast a healing spell it will cast on yourself. If you have a friendly player targeted however, it will cast the friendly spell on them.



If you target an enemy and use an offensive spell..



There is of course the larger spells that have a much bigger 'graphical effect'. There is one included on the test server called storm, but I'll leave it as something for you guys to see yourselves as its quite something ^_^

The Guild system

Something I know a lot of you from the last test were eager to have put in. The visual and tidy side of it is not yet implemented, however there is a command based bare-bones guild system now :]!

Guilds have their own MOTD, their own chat (use F4 to access it), and a three letter abbreviation in front of all members names.



The guild commands are as follows:

Found guild:
/gcreate xxx xxxxxxxxxx
(xxx is the three letter abreviation, xxxxxxxxxxx is the 10 letter guild name, this is not so important. It costs 50 coal on the test server to found a guild).

Change guild MOTD
/gmotd Message of the day

Quit guild
/gquit

Delete guild
/gdelete

Kick member
/gkick membername

Promote member
/gpromote membername

Demote member
/gdemote membername

Invite member
/ginvite membername

Accept invitation
/gjoin

Decline invitation
/gdecline

Right then. That just about covers most of the new stuff... here is a quick list of fixes and changes from the last test I can think of from the top of my head:

- Player names can't go off the top of the screen
- All overhead messages (damage etc) are tile-based now, so they won't follow the player/npc around the screen
- Same goes for spell animations
- Inventory hover information can't overlap the game screen
- Server side handling has changed to no longer use timers, should fix login hangs

Noted issues:

- Stacks of '1' display a number in the trade window
- If an NPC is targeted, 75% of the time casting healing spells on yourself won't work

Please report all bugs on the community-test server launch thread, not here.

Good luck, have fun! The test will be launched shortly :]

Regards,
Fox
Lead Developer

Members of the MR forums who I have approved can see the download section, are you one of them? ;O

[Hikaru]

Fox... I love you.

[SteveKro1]

The test was really fun, looking forward to next one.

[toomuchcaffeine]

Omg... I just found out about your new project, and I have to say I'm impressed. The GUI is great- I've always loved it, even back in the days of Konfuze. The stretched out retro graphics are unique to say the least. I think I like the 16x16 style better, though.

Keep up the good work Fox!