Spirit Age

Thanks for the new wallpaper, supporting.

This map doesn't look as well done as the demo/video. The map/turfs might be temporary, if so, ignore the following comments. The auto edge method makes it look lazy, and the edging on the turfs look like they just had holes poked through them. In the town (demo/video), the grass edges outlined the blades of grass, I'm not sure why it wasn't used here. It should also be used for the various textures of stone, dirt, etc. The trees also look a little awkward, the trunk looks like it's bathed in light, because of that it also makes the shadow underneath look pasted on to the ground. I'm sure you've noted the shadows overlaying each other, so I don't bother with that, but the shadow doesn't look like it matches the perspective/lighting of the tree.

Maybe I'm needlessly pointing things out... but it sticks out to me so I wrote it anyways.

I agree with the above. I think a lot of the turfs in this game have a lot of detail when they shouldn't. The pallets are so bright they don't need that much detail like the spine of the leaves in the palm trees. Or at least try to blend it in more. Another problem is the lack of yellow where the sun hits the trees. When light hits a leaf it doesn't become a brighter green, it becomes a yellow color.

King-manga-man wrote:

I think you're all just whining and poking holes for the sake of it, i personally think the art looks great, better than any other game on byond by a long shot. i'd challenge the lot of you to see if you could do better.

Right. I personally don't see anything wrong. Nothing is perfect, and as Karasu said, it's definitely way above the norm.

I have to agree with Yut Put the title screen is excellent but I liked the other theme better. Had a better feel to it.

Because we're really pushing to actually release the game, we've had to make some decisions not to go back and fix things that really could do without.I respect everyone's personal opinion and try to see things from their perspective.

@Megablaze: The map seen above was actually made by Chris with the intention of being a tutorial map. I actually haven't had a chance to do any map work for a few months now. The generated turf edges work great but I never intended to have remove mapping by "hand" completely out of the equation.I think it serves its purpose pretty well, which is to guide players along a predetermined course. I Can understand what you're coming from though, This is of course the first map players are likely to see. and it should be a great first impression.with that said, I do intend on polishing a lot of things up After the game is open in public Beta.

As of recently, we've been focusing less on content on more on very important area, Character development and progression.While Zete, a good friend of mine, is helping out with out GUI. Character development had taken longer than we hoped to actually get done, but we had to redesign/revise our notes prior. This is why blogging slowed down.hours of research into what today's ORPG's lack and how we can implement them in a manageable fashion.

An example of this is:
In spirit age, there are no preset classes to choose from. instead we're going for something along the lines of Open-development. where players decide what attributes their character has. From being a warrior type with that specializes casting elemental buffs to himself or a Magician type with some skill with firearms.
I have a pretty early draft of our current intentions. And its a lot more exciting than your average skill tree, in my opinion.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/69/boardb.png/
FYI i should mention that it only depicts strength "tree." remember this is not a finalized model.

Myself or Chris will make a post explaining it in detail once we've finalized and implement this feature.

PS,Wow Egor, now there's a key i haven't seen in years. Welcome back!

Can

Not

Wait

I like it!

There are two types of skills. passive progressive and active.
Passive progressive skills require you to use the skill in order to gain proficiency.(this is the case for weapons and some skills) Active skills are a bit different wherein their effects are seen instantly.

Lets take fire for example. the main damage attribute is basically strength while the actual projectiles require some dexterity in order to actually get a decent hit.(doesn't matter if you can spit fireballs if you cant hit what you're aiming for hehe) so a good build for fire should involve both dexterity and strength. of course this is option you could invest solely in strength for fire's high damaging melee attacks, of course these still need accuracy or you'll miss a lot more than a person who has invested a bit more into accuracy.

Im not completely sure what you're suggesting. Strength is only half of the equation for damage output, other things still have to be taken into account. Why set aside points for investing solely into strength/spirit?

In my model, the consequences of the specific tree is referring to the base amount of spirit. Its a path of choice like a pseudo class. I honestly don't see how this will make player less willing to progress. at all when its a section of the tree that's Optional. If you do decide not to purchase that tree, you still have the option to purchase numerous others to supplement.

Without negative consequences of a projected path diversification would suffer, Warrior-type classes would have equally high damaging magic abilities and vice versa.

The consequences are not game-breaking by a long shot, at least in opinion. What im trying to avoid is removing the mindset that "Pure-builds" would be the build of choice if you if want to be the best in the game.

Think of it like this. If you spent All of your time at the gym,and neglect your studies wouldn't your intelligence suffer? Its the same case here. I'm not saying you cant be both, But you need to invest in both and in the long run you'd proficient in both areas.