Work Plan for Saturday, 29 March 2008

Lots of little changes done today. I have fixed the WASD movement key problem(where WASD reset chat boxes) by disabling key listeners once the mouse has left the quest.

At the moment, it will notify you with a small message.

The other thing I've done is to improve the profile page action menus. What is that? Well, it is the drop-down menu in the top-right of every player's profile page.

When you mouse-over it, the list grows.

 

 

 

 

I have placed a small shadow on the bottom of the menu, whilst in the minimised state.

As you can see, it is styled to be similar to the menu bars on every page already.

I will be waiting until I am sure there are no serious bug reports before making the change permanent.

One more thing - I may be putting icons to the left of each option in the list too.

Work Plan for Wednesday, 26th March 2008

Well, I have added all of the "Area Info" details to the map, and finished off some of the overview images.

The next step is to connect the Skull Island Hovercraft Bay to the Desert Hideout's Hovercraft Clearing.

Then, I must install the first Merchant NPC(or two) into the Department Store, add the Bartender NPC, Astroport Ticket Desk NPC, etc.

I also need to connect the landing platform of the Astroport to the back of the Astroport Interior map.

Update: I have fixed the few remaining tileset no-walk glitches, and I've almost finished the Hovercraft Captain NPC.

I have a lot of scripting to do in order to connect the two islands. I think there should be a fee for transport. It would make sense.

I still have to sort out the Astroport's landing platform too.

Update: I have implemented a CAPTCHA system to protect the attack pages from macro attacks. I spoke about doing this before, but I had delayed my efforts on it until recently.

I received reports of several players requesting for macro software to auto-attack. This is unacceptable, and I have preempted their efforts with a random CAPTCHA image that will trip macros.

Cheating is NOT acceptable. If you don't want to play properly, don't play at all, and save us the hassle.

The CAPTCHA won't annoy you too much, because it does not appear on every attack. However, it happens frequently enough to trip up cheaters.

There will be even more measures taken to prevent these irritating individuals in the near future.

Work Plan for Tuesday, 25th March 2008

My work plan today is simply to finish the to-do list on the previous post.

Here is a screen shot of the department store. As you can see, I am keeping things simple at the moment.

There is a recurrent theme in these maps - they all have similar design guidelines.

They have a wall, floor texture, and key elements of the building; in this case, it is the till where you can purchase the products sold at the Department Store. I believe there will be more to these maps as things progress, but since I have only a vague idea about the usage of each building, it would be foolish to put anything precise and detailed on the map itself.

For the sake of expansion, there is an elevator on the top-right of the ground floor, so we can support multiple storey departments.

Update: As you will see below, I have completed the Bar interior map now too. I will probably update this blog at least one more time tonight.

The bar is also very simplistic. Walls, parquet floors, tables, a few doors(for expansion), and the counter.

The next task will probably be to clean up the maps, add important NPCs, and install "Area Info" on places of importance.

Update: Well, I've did a lot more work today than expected! I have created the clearing for the Hovercraft that will allow you to leave the Desert Hideout island, and the Desert Underground, among a few other things.

The Desert Underground map is a place where you will be able to speak to smugglers, and illegal merchants.

I wouldn't be surprised if the old Mutant Rats were added too - easy enough to do, and adds familiar storyline elements.

 

You enter/leave the Underground maps with a rope ladder. At the bottom-left of the map, there is a second rope ladder, which leads to the clearing.

A hovercraft will be waiting to pick you up - for a fee, most likely.

As I said in an earlier post Skull Island will be accessible partially, from sea level to the first level(which has most of the buildings anyway).

Final Update of Today: Well, I can honestly say that this has been one of the most productive days of the past 2 month! I have created the overview graphics for the Bar, Department Store, Astro Port, and the Skull Island map itself.

Work Plan for Saturday, 22nd March 2008

Sorry about skipping the blog post for Friday. I was extremely busy, and frankly, there wasn't enough to report upon.

Instead of doing all of the buildings, I have had an idea - I will do all buildings on the First Level of Skull Island, and block off the other levels until I finish them.

The advantage of this is, the main level is finished first, and you can use it whilst the other levels are being completed.

It is foolish to prevent any access to the skull island maps until the full island is done. I guess I thought I'd be finished by now.

I never learn. I always take longer than expected.

Okay, this is the plan for the next few days:

• Create Department Store interior.
• Create Hovercraft transport in dock, and program captain NPC.
• Create Bar and program Bartender NPC.
• Add the "Area Info" mouse-over information to building exteriors, and draw 250x250 pixel overview images.
• Create Desert Underground map.
• Create Desert Clearing map.

After that's done, it is just a matter of thinking of things to do.
What I mean is, have a good amount of 'products' added to the department store, interesting NPCs to interact with, missions(adventures) to embark on, boss NPCs to raid, etc.

Do you realise that this will be the first time we have had a quest feature that had content? Okay, they all had something installed, but it never made any sense to me. This one does, and we have the opportunity to develop a storyline now!

Work Plan for Thursday, 20th March 2008

Today I have the following tasks:

• Bind hotel rooms to hotel floors via passkey plug-in.
• Create Training Ground maps.
• Implement captcha rerouting feature to trip macros and automation scripts.

I will update this post as I progress.

Update: I have finished the first floor of the hotel. Each room has it's own passkey, which can be taken from the receptionist.

Update: I have finished the receptionist NPC's scripting. It will greet you like this, after you have rented a room from it.

The interface will allow you to add additional days to your lease of the room, change passwords, recover the current one, and find out how long you have left before your lease of the room expires.

Update: Time to do the Training Grounds maps! More details will follow, below.

Training Grounds

The Training Ground maps are a place for players to learn a few new tricks, and get advice/weaponry from a combat trainer.

There will be a large mechanical monster on the exterior maps, which players can raid for more experience and weaponry.

This is the initial layout plan of the interior.

Update: Well, that's me done for today:) I have been making some changes the the thumbnailer, and looking into the captcha security feature I mentioned earlier. I also managed to create the tileset for the Training Grounds - more updates tomorrow;)

Update: Why am I still here? I don't know! Just wanted to add, optimised thumbnailer, but revered output mechanism to a redirect instead of header-controlled dynamic include(less controllable, but at least the images don't flicker, and are locally cached now).

Work Plan for Wednesday, 19th March 2008

Today, I will be working on a couple of the quest maps, and a handful of bug fixes.

I may even have time to add the captcha security feature to key pages.

I will update this post as I progress.

Hotel Maps

As you can see from my hasty MSPaint drawing, the hotel's ground floor will consist of an entrance, elevator to the numerous floors, and a reception desk. You will be able to purchase a room in the hotel for any length of time. However, if you stop paying, the room will be given to another player.

So, if you intend to keep your items in your room, make sure you don't forget to pay to keep your room;)

Update: Here is a screen shot of the first attempt at the ground floor.

Update: Here is a screen shot of the first floor.

As you can see,  simplicity is the key for now. You will be able to access your rooms using a passkey given at the reception - you can give this passkey to others if you wish(it can also be changed).

Final update for today: I have finished a hotel room template, and the passkey feature. Tomorrow, I will implement it, and show you the screen shots. After the hotel, I think I'll do the training ground.

Welcome to the FutureRP Development Weblog!

I have decided to start blogging about my progress with the development of FutureRP.

Hopefully it will keep everyone who is interested up to date, and it should allow you to add this blog to your RSS feed!

It is very late here, so I won't go on and on..

Priorities

• Expansion of FutureRP Quest (more items, more maps, more adventures/missions).
• Visual refresh of default web site theme (Usability improvements, browser specific templating).
• RSS Feeds for important news, store contents, raid events (game emails you about the results of your raids, etc).
• Security updates - minor captcha installation to reduce cheating.
• Cleanup of character types and storyline.
• Gallery upgrade - commenting feature, easier browsing, tie-in to player profiles.
• More well-rounded items/assets in guild/player stores (including cheaper items for new players)
• Banking System updates - reconsider purpose/implementation of Bank Allowance variable.
• Greater benefits for referring new players to the game - we need more players. I think we all deserve more popularity, and more competition in-game.
• Send Item/Mod feature - to give other players stuff you don't want!