09.11.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:14 pm by swrittenb
It would be hard to could all of the number of genuine blog posts that say things like “I’m going to try to post more often now, alllright!”, followed by months of silence. Uh, sorry about that. 
Things have been really exciting here at Twelve Sands, and I’ll try to cover a brief summary of some changes that have occured.
The most exciting addition for me was probably the PVP addition, which leverages the existing combat engine. Thanks to some nice generalized code and some in-page AJAX, you get a real-time combat against someone else who happens to be logged in at the same time. It’ll help iron out some of the inconsistencies between the classes, and should help club-suited players smash as many faces as they see fit. Since all of the buffs and artifacts you can use in a normal fight are still valid, I’m hoping it will help kick the economy forward a little bit when the ranking system goes live.
Things have been really booming on the wiki, where a few players have really helped flesh out the content. It’s been really exciting for me to watch, and to be honest, quite humbling! I’d love to see a community develop, and the collaboration that’s been happening with the wiki has been awesome. If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look here:
http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Twelve_Sands
Please note that it exists totally outside of Twelve Sands, and it completely player-driven. Very cool!
The game is definitely primarily a text-based one, but I’ve started adding in a few small images and icons in a few places. It’s really seemed to help people get a better feel for when artifacts are dropping, when reputation is awarded, and when other neat things are happening. Expect more changes, with custom buff icons, and a badges revamp for players who have earned special rewards.
Leaderboards have been expanded, and the new sets should help intrepid collectors find places to show off their collection. I’d like to expand more on this in-game as well, to help reward people who are interested in completing as many sets of things as possible.
Chat got revamped, UI got improved, and a slew of people came over from Kingdom of Loathing (which if you have not played, you owe it to yourself to do so). It’s a really exciting time for me, if it isn’t obvious, and I’m stoked about the upcoming months. More big changes are on the way, so keep an eye out.
http://www.twelvesands.com
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07.01.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:45 pm by swrittenb
Happy Canada Day! Twelve Sands reopened today, and officially it’s back into beta! I know it’ll probably always be a growing project, and at some point it won’t make sense to call it beta, but that day hasn’t come yet.
The development downtime was a great experience for me, and I managed to get a lot of stuff done that was really bothering me. Mind you, there’s still a ton of work to get done, but at least I can honestly say that there’s a load of content available for people to play through at this point. I’m really happy with how it’s come along, and with the feedback (positive and negative) that people have given.
If you haven’t had a chance to see things yet, I’ll be opening new registrations up again in a couple of days. The only reason I haven’t done it yet is so that an important change to the login and character creation procedure can get finalized. Once that’s in place, it’s open season.
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06.26.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:59 pm by swrittenb
I’ve been thinking lately about bring the blog back to life, and it seems like a good idea. Maybe I’ll be the only one reading it, but if you’ve got an RSS feeder, feel free to add the link! It’s not clear what the blog will become, but I’m interested to have a place other than the forums to chat about ideas or technical issues.
Twelve Sands should be opened for real (again) on Canada Day, so if you’re reading this and wondering when it’ll be available, check back in a few days! I hope you enjoy the improvements, and feel free to fill the forums with comments.
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02.25.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:56 pm by swrittenb
It would be hard to summarize the number of changes that have gone in since the site entered an open beta. There are always new things that need to get done, and players have really been testing out the mechanics and offering great feedback. We’ve exceeded 100 users, expanded the chat system, opened dozens of new zones, added many more artifacts and enemies, and introduced new systems of play. This is just the start though, with much more coming!
Specifically with respect to the blog, the main area of discussion has really been the forums. If you’re reading this, and haven’t had a chance to check them out, please do! You can find them at the link, immediately below:
http://forums.twelvesands.com
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02.04.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:26 pm by swrittenb
It’s been an extremely motivating week, I have to admit! People are starting to sign on to the game, and what’s best is that they’ve got lots of feedback, both good and bad. In that vein, I’ve finally set up some forums for the game, in order to allow me to post more constant information about the mechanics of the game itself, and to allow people to have a better place to discuss things that they found within Twelve Sands. Ideally this will be more interactive than the blog, which is more of a brain dump for my own benefit. That said, the in-game chat seems to be getting some good use.
Check out the forums at http://forums.twelvesands.com – please sign up and leave a message so I know you’re there!
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01.30.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:47 am by swrittenb
Just a quick note, I made a major optimization to the way characters are accessed that should dramatically improve database access, but could have caused problems. If you see anything, please let me know! This change will make it a lot easier to add more character-related options, like profession skills, and it will make a big difference on the amount of SQL calls that are thrown out to the DB. Yay!
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01.25.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:52 am by swrittenb
I just added a link to the registration page, so if people are interested in giving this a shot, please check it out!
http://www.twelvesands.com/
As always, there are things that need fixing, and there is lots of content that hasn’t made it in yet, but there are a lot of places to go and things to do at this early stage. Also, now that it’s open, I’m a lot more motivated to start fleshing out the world. Please write to me with questions, comments, or bugs!
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12.07.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:30 pm by swrittenb
I’ve been spending more time reworking the code to clean it up and hopefully get rid of a few problems. It’s growing so fast right now that some nasty problems have started to sneak in, so it’ll be nice to try to keep on top of that.
The fifth skill set is in now, and the FAQ has been updated to reflect it. Chat seems to be working, and some really annoying CSS problems for IE have been fixed. Also, there’s a whole set of new armour types that now need items. Always something new to work on.
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11.30.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:28 pm by swrittenb
Among other things, the fourth skill level is in place now. The following five skills have been added:
Hammer Fists (+melee dmg)
Roll with the Strike (less dmg taken)
Intense Focus (+xp awarded)
Trustworthiness (+rep awarded)
First Aid (make bandages)
It actually feels kind of validating to have interesting rewards for Intelligence, Charisma, and Constitution, because in the early days, the only thing to do was engage in combat. Now First Aid can provide combat-usable bandages, intense focus aids the leveling process, and rep gains for valuable items can be expedited through charisma. That doesn’t mean that the combat skills aren’t usable – rather, the advantages of high Strength and Dexterity are immediately apparent.
Omor’s region is developing nicely too, and the high level zones are starting to fall in to place. An elemental zone called the Enchanted Nook has been added, with a quest that allows the collection of essences and rewards you with a nice usable tonic.
The FAQ has been updated and broken in to sections, and will be updated as more artifacts and skills go in.
http://www.twelvesands.com/faq/
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11.23.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:19 am by swrittenb
Now that we’re trapped inside with the snow and ice outside here in Ontario, it’s easier to be productive. Here’s a few screenshots to show the hovering system, as well as some of the new features sitting on the server-side.
The artifact interface was refactored a bit to separate things into quest items and usable, weapons, and armours. It might make sense to break this down even further in the future, but this gives a good idea of the range of items available at the time. Also, the hover box is present. Previously, each artifact had a separate page, which was really annoying to use. This seems a lot cleaner, and should save some extra hammering on the database!
Here’s the top area on the character page. The weapons and armour have been cleaned up, and take advantage of the hovering UI instead of wasting real estate. The buff system is in the lower left. Hopefully this concept works well – I’m expecting a bit of problem if the server gets laggy, and the absolute time buffs become less usable. Of course, if that happens, it’s possible to just increment the buff durations and get a better server. We’ll see!
The skill paths are relatively basic right now, but they definitely have an immediate impact on how your character handle themselves in combat. The FAQ page has been updated with the skill paths as they stand now, and in the near future, the next levels of this system should go in. Crafting and more artifact use in general are a big focus right now, as well as adding to the combat content.
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