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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11.16.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:42 am by swrittenb
Things have been moving a little more slowly than usual lately due to some RL issues, but Twelve Sands is definitely still progressing! I’ve replaced the separate artifact description page with a hover, and it seems to really save time (and db hits) by allowing you to see the information about artifacts without a page refresh.
I’d like to improve the skills, add a few new zones, and at least drop a few hundred more items in to the game, but once those are done, I’ll feel comfortable opening it up for general registration. Kind of scary, but exciting at the same time. Wonder if anyone will try it..
Thanks to Garrett for hitting level 7 and inspiring Bidwell’s Eatery, Paul for his hardcore testing through the early/mid stages, and for getting in to “Hard Zone” even before I did, and to Buddy for exposing some nasty bugs, and playing from Peru! Crazy!
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11.04.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:37 am by swrittenb
The buff system has gone in, and the first one that’s achievable is a 10 minute +1 con buff gained from eating bread. This is actually nice, because it also shows off the fact that Strength and Dexterity aren’t the only stats being used on the back-end! Constitution now directly ties in to your health, and the more constitution points to rack up, the higher your maximum health is. I actually removed Wisdom a few days ago, because it didn’t seem to fit in as a usable skill – I found myself trying to invent ways to use in, rather than stumbling across clear reasons why it should be there. So it’s gone!
The fourth skill level should be arriving in the next few days, with a new set of character bonuses. If you take the Strength path, for example, there will be bonuses to melee damage and hit rates. Dexterity opens up dodging, and the rogue path, while Constitution is the road for clerics. Intelligence and Charisma are the Mage and Bard roads, and I’m actually really excited to see how they play out in the world. At this early stage, magic points, or mana, or whatever you want to call it doesn’t seem to fit. Maybe it will show up, maybe not, but I’m trying to find good ways of incorporating it without requiring you to rest or conserve magic abilities. It’s not clear if that will work, but it’s worth a shot!
I took a good stab at normalizing the foes with respect to experience points and gold value. If you’re broke, please let me know, and why. You should never have more gold than you know what to do with, and you should never be out of gold unless you’re buying all the Portrait of the King artifacts to top the new leaderboard in the Hall of Records.
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11.01.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:15 am by swrittenb
The fatigue system seems to work really well, and I’ve started adding in ways to allow players the opportunity to either reduce the amount of fatigue they accumulate, or to reduce fatigue in blocks through items. The first batch is simple — there’s a food vendor in the Trade District who will sell you bread. Not very exciting, I know, but it’s a start! Food acts as a healing potion, but also based on your level and your constitution, will allow you to subtract fatigue that you’ve built up over the day. I believe the average new player will be able to get five or six pieces of bread in before they stop seeing fatigue benefits from the food. Next to go in is a buffs system, so if you eat certain special foods, you have the chance to gain temporary bonuses.
Screenshot, or it didn’t happen. Note that armour/weapons are equippable from the inventory list also.
I revamped the skills slightly to better line up with the goals there. The third level doesn’t change much, but the old titles are mostly gone. The fourth skill level will open up some real bonuses that turn the base starting character into a specific type of class. Multi-classing is easy with this system, so I’m really excited to see what happens with it.
In addition, I’ve started writing some helpful tools to keep track of all the data that’s being thrown around. The really nice part of the system for me is that everything is data-driven, and there’s very little dependence on the code when adding new zones, characters, quests, etc.. However, that being said, it’s easy for me to add an artifact to the world and then forget to give it to a vendor or add it to a drop table. Whoops! Needless to say, I found a few artifacts that weren’t accessible, and promptly attached them.
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