3.0 Update - 7/10/13
- Thread starter Taryth
- Start date
Nod, a lot of new feature things have already been discussed, but the focus is on migrating existing content. I think Woldaff sits at home and giggles about the things that we can potentially do. That said, we're in the throes of some major steps forward (I will post on this in a bit), and while we're keeping our eye on the prize, I think there's probably both implicit and explicit analysis that everyone is doing going "hmm, what could we do with X feature..."
In short, you're more than free to discuss and propose feature/enhancement requests for 3.0, maybe I'll set up a thread for it. It probably won't get a ton of attention at present - it's not because we're ignoring the suggestions, but merely choosing to power through and get things converted as-is right now. I for one will just be happy if some of the long-term issues like client crashes are a distant, annoying memory.
In short, you're more than free to discuss and propose feature/enhancement requests for 3.0, maybe I'll set up a thread for it. It probably won't get a ton of attention at present - it's not because we're ignoring the suggestions, but merely choosing to power through and get things converted as-is right now. I for one will just be happy if some of the long-term issues like client crashes are a distant, annoying memory.
Not a ton to report on - I wish I could say "yeah, next week is Beta yay!", but we're not even close to that yet.
Now that the groundwork has been laid, more people are able to work on different things. For example, one of the more interesting projects I think right now is getting adepts to work, which one of the dev team has bravely decided to tackle. The other one, that I personally am doing, is the day/night/weather changes along with holidays. It sounds minor, but the tie-in to large amounts of the codebase is pretty amazing. The general approach has been to take minor things, figure out how to move them, then start working on bigger and bigger chunks of harder stuff. When we start tinkering with things like AI or exp, we have to not only do it carefully, but also need to take into account the best approach. It needs to be maintainable, and we can also use the opportunity to fix bugs or question things that may no longer have relevance. If nothing else, we can flag things for future consideration.
While we do this, we have someone else looking for potential flaws in overall base code, and eliminating potential problems there. So not only are we doing the conversion, we're also trying to use this one-time opportunity to review almost the entire codebase for possible problems and head them off. The nice part about that is we can share it back with the upstream folks if it's relevant.
So that's where we're at, steady progress, but nothing too exciting to show yet. Maybe once we get some adepts ready I will post a pic of that. Of course, when we finally DO get ready to get folks into a beta or some such, we'll let you know, but that's still a ways out.
As always, feel free to ask any questions!
Now that the groundwork has been laid, more people are able to work on different things. For example, one of the more interesting projects I think right now is getting adepts to work, which one of the dev team has bravely decided to tackle. The other one, that I personally am doing, is the day/night/weather changes along with holidays. It sounds minor, but the tie-in to large amounts of the codebase is pretty amazing. The general approach has been to take minor things, figure out how to move them, then start working on bigger and bigger chunks of harder stuff. When we start tinkering with things like AI or exp, we have to not only do it carefully, but also need to take into account the best approach. It needs to be maintainable, and we can also use the opportunity to fix bugs or question things that may no longer have relevance. If nothing else, we can flag things for future consideration.
While we do this, we have someone else looking for potential flaws in overall base code, and eliminating potential problems there. So not only are we doing the conversion, we're also trying to use this one-time opportunity to review almost the entire codebase for possible problems and head them off. The nice part about that is we can share it back with the upstream folks if it's relevant.
So that's where we're at, steady progress, but nothing too exciting to show yet. Maybe once we get some adepts ready I will post a pic of that. Of course, when we finally DO get ready to get folks into a beta or some such, we'll let you know, but that's still a ways out.
As always, feel free to ask any questions!
Dinadass
Dalayan Pious Diety
ftfy
But yeah I really doubt any dev work is being done with new ikisith content lately. Last I knew Forest of the Fallen was nearing completion but the dev responsible for that isn't active any longer so I doubt we'll see it any time soon.
There is no anticipated release yet, for a lot of reasons. I personally have a big conference coming up that I do a big show at, and that hardware/software will consume some of my time the next couple of weeks. Vacations and such also make nailing down a date difficult. So right now it's "as fast as we can get it done" heh.
Another thing worth noting is that there are additional "subprojects" going on involving things like the quest engine that are making major strides as we speak. Those have applicability to both 2.0 and 3.0, and they are on the critical path for 3.0 beta. I am not terribly involved in that side of the house, so I only know what I read, but that seems to be coming along very well indeed.
Another thing worth noting is that there are additional "subprojects" going on involving things like the quest engine that are making major strides as we speak. Those have applicability to both 2.0 and 3.0, and they are on the critical path for 3.0 beta. I am not terribly involved in that side of the house, so I only know what I read, but that seems to be coming along very well indeed.
So here we are after a big holiday week. Were we resting on our laurels, gorged on hot dogs and setting off illegal fireworks? Well yes, but we also managed to get some 3.0 stuff done.
So we're hitting a stride now, and we've got a few major things in progress:
So things are moving along quite nicely, moving by feet rather than inches toward our goal. Questions welcome, and I'll do my best to answer them based on what I know and what I can discuss.
So we're hitting a stride now, and we've got a few major things in progress:
- Starting the integration of our quest engine
- Refactoring some existing code to make it more maintainable
- We now have a working build system such that as we commit code, it automatically builds it and lets us know if something fails. This is REALLY cool by the way.
- A central server hooked into the build process. It will ultimately be where we do beta testing and such, though this is still a ways out
- As Slaar mentioned in OOC recently, we also are moving over bits of the database, which is definitely another major task. Mobs and pathing are the first things to be made available, but it's nice to finally have OUR mobs showing up, rather than all these aliens who had been lurking around
So things are moving along quite nicely, moving by feet rather than inches toward our goal. Questions welcome, and I'll do my best to answer them based on what I know and what I can discuss.
Woohoo! Thanks for the update, Taryth. It's so good to see this project progressing at long last. Last night I lurked around the EQEmu forums for a while and came across a post or two that seemed less than appreciative toward SoD simply on account of our not being up to date with the EQEmu servers. I'm convinced this project will even the playing field and our quality content will lure in more players than ever!
cian2
Dalayan Master
just curious, are you saying 3.0 is adding mob pathing to the game, or do you just mean non-aggro grid pathing
Sorry, pathing as it's currently known. But who knows what we'll do in the future!
As for being behind related to EqEmu, it's definitely been a problem, but some non-SoD folks don't really have a sense of just how much customization there is. We're taking painstaking efforts to make sure that's less an issue in the future - that's actually part of what the refactoring is all about - making sure we can take advantage of future upstream EQEmu features when we want to. We've also committed things back to EQEmu as well, and we hope to function as partners well into the future.
As for being behind related to EqEmu, it's definitely been a problem, but some non-SoD folks don't really have a sense of just how much customization there is. We're taking painstaking efforts to make sure that's less an issue in the future - that's actually part of what the refactoring is all about - making sure we can take advantage of future upstream EQEmu features when we want to. We've also committed things back to EQEmu as well, and we hope to function as partners well into the future.
donfolstar3
Dalayan Master
In 3.0 will in game languages function? I could see that being a quick and easy way to supplement some of the more awful collect missions associated with faction augs. On a related, but only loosely thread appropriate, note it would be hi-larious to put -Common mods on items or reduce people's common to zero as punishment for acting like [insert whoever you don't like here].
Actual mob pathing would certainly shake up the current pulling and the constant this-isn't-an-exploit-because-it-isn't of wall splitting. High hopes there.
Actual mob pathing would certainly shake up the current pulling and the constant this-isn't-an-exploit-because-it-isn't of wall splitting. High hopes there.
Dinadass
Dalayan Pious Diety
I was mostly joking; there is a ton of content that is virtually impossible to split by methods other than walling. Plus I've played on other servers that implemented genuine mob pathing and it requires an obscene amount of work to do properly.
I personally would love to see a return of game languages! I honestly don't know about this one - if they did become available, I would think they'd only be for fun initially, as we don't have anything making use of them obviously right now. But a great question! I'll try to remember that one as we move forward.
<3
In game languages would be awesome even if it never passed just the "fun" stage. It's kind of like in game alcohol tolerance except you get to have SECRET MESSAGES in plain sight!
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donfolstar3
Dalayan Master
Or you could do things Sony style and perform a flaming-motorcycle-jumping-buses-backflip-double-fisted-FU to monks by giving bards a bunch of pulling win buttons. No, walling is here to stay I reckon. It is one of those hilarious unintended things that got a shoulder shrug and the before mentioned content was designed/balanced around. If the devs really wanted to improve something about it they could hire an animation studio to create exploding wall graphics and obtain the license to the Koolaid pitcher, or Macho Man, screaming "oh yeah".
Will that be in 3.0?