Pondera

by AERProductions
Pondera
Construct your lineage in a living world.
ID:2538400
 
This is a continuation of the original update thread: About Pondera

This thread will feature the patch notes and progress reports from now on, rather than posting in my shoutbox and in every relevant thread I can find.

Here are the most recent Patchnotes:

1/20/20 Week:

Another pass over torches finishes the code off and adds a torch overlay onto the player instead of only in inventory. Created icons and Applied to all hand lamps as well. Diag frames need finished. Now the torch&lamps function as intended. You can light, snuff, relight up to 5 times before it is no longer viable and discarded.

Fixed "Hands Full" message appearing when equipping flint before carving knife.

Corrected lighting ambient values to fix Torches not having light at midnight.


1/13/20 Week:
Additional Updates since last:

Chromed the Get and Use buttons.

Fixed garbage collector for log in/out and load character for sound and light. No more runtimes on server side associated with being unable to attach a soundmob or light to a mob on login or load!

Tried to fix sound skip and add dyn light to spells, wasn't successful. Maybe next time.

Hardcoded the lighting ambient values, this should make day/night more resilient to the lighting system breaking due to user interaction with the world (logging in and out/etc). This also makes the lighting persistent regardless of what time of in-game day a player logs in.

Using the NPC dialogue system I have added a wikia/tutorial book to all player inventory that can explain how to survive and exist in the game, including in-game knowledge base.

Fixed up the hand torch. Should work better now...

Added more furnishings to the build menu, including Chair, Table, Crates, Bed, and Water Fountain. More soon!

Updated the interface sun dial graphic again, its chromed out! Looks good. Sky viewer!

Set the spellbook spawner up with my own code and added two unique items to the spawner.

Corrected incorrect icons for Stone House Door in build menu.

Made it so spells Telekinesis and Cascade lightning must be found in the wilds instead of granted to any class, as they are very powerful.

After finding telekinesis it can be used to gain even more powerful items, like two legendary swords waiting to be found if you know their real-life lore, you might know where to look.


Currently filling up the in-game wikia with information, but much more to come soon!


week (1/6/20):
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Added bloodspill for dead enemies/creatures.

Fixed all the spells in the game. Also improved and expanded the spell icons and display during combat.
Added spell buttons to interface (again). Spell buttons and the rest of the interface buttons have all been given graphics, a nice touch.

Final touch to spells included allowing users without them to find them on the map and learn them.
Updated spellbook icon to open upon usage and added better messaging.
Set icons of all spellbooks to correlate.
Added unique icons for cascade lightning and fixed it. It also has the chance to "hold a charge" on the player and emit again!
Fixed Telekinesis. Could use more refining.
Made it so players can't create one class and reboot to create another for all of the interface spell buttons associated with both classes.
Working on adding dynamic lighting to the spells.

Fixed the combat, you can defend yourself again. Creatures drop food, materials and potions. Some times rare loot!

Setup afterlife and spell to revive those from it (including yourself). Affinity (killing players or helping players, basically) determines where you go in the afterlife.

Fixed the sound in the game thanks to Higoten. More SFX soon! The additional fix I found for the skipping sound made it so sound didn't update, so the sound still skips while you move! Drats.

Fixed world status thanks to Kozuma3, also helped to add a meteor shower that adds spellbooks (known as Ancient Tomes or Scrolls in game) to the map for players who don't start with spells to be able to learn new ones.

Added all ranks to the statpanel and colored all text.

Added containers to build menu, they store logs, food, or ore. (Prob need tested and refined)

Adjusted the colors of mining ore rocks to better differentiate.

PVP needs testing. While fixing combat and spells I took account for player PVP. Just needs tested.

Turned weather on, probably needs layers adjusted.

Cleaned the map up, too many spawned enemies and spawn points saved. Heavily reduced.

Adjusted first spawn to put you anywhere on the map, to avoid griefing.

Added "Destroy Property" and "Sod Grass" verbs to remove built objects or turfs.

Set all the resistances and weaknesses to one variable subset class (so all equipment and spells can recognize it across all functions). This added some I had hidden away, like Poison element. Set resistances and weakness for all enemies.

Set plant (bush/berry) growth to grow with seasons, same as the Ueik tree.

Created new interface icons for the build/smith/smelt/sow/plant buttons.

Refined fishing proc a bit.

Changed all large .pngs to .jpgs for faster initialization.

This update was huge.

Much more on the way!
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week 25 3rd Quarter (10/25-10/31/2020)
Fixed login and logout bugs
Fixed Character handling issues
Fixed Character saving placement issues
Fixed Sound system garbage collection
Fixed sound related saving and loading bugs
Removed some unnecessary code

Much more to come! Stay Hydrated.



week 25 3rd quarter to week 29 4th Quarter (11/29/2020-ongoing)

Injected more information into the tutorial, now with picture images in the knowledge base!

Added a proper ranking system for the armors/shields/weapons. Rarity and attributes are now handled by a procedure instead of hardcoded.

Implemented a time/calendar saving system.
Created a method to create a jar from clay that you bake in a fire.

Added the ability to fill the jar with water-bearing vines and cacti as oppose to only ponds.

Updated a lot of the graphics in the game.

Consolidated everything player-made in sandbox mode to begin implementing the map save/load system.

Implemented the map save/load system, debugging in progress.

Converted the calendar and holidays to Judaic and changed growth to be based on month/season.

Added autumn and winter plant sprites and updated the Ancient and Hallow Ueik tree sprites.

Fixed a bug that prevented finding thorns and fir from Ancient Ueik tree.

Working on the land generator again to bring it to the next level and create more interesting and naturally flowing landscapes.

Until next time, stay hydrated!


Most recent updates to the game have implemented procedural generation. Now lakes and mountains are randomly created in the world, thanks to F0lak for helping to make that possible. Eventually, this procedural generation will be allowed to expand on the edges of the map, meaning that Pondera will be infinitely procedural generated, facilitating real exploration of the game world that will be different every time (but persistent in worlds that choose to do so). Currently, work is being done to implement ore walls on the cliffs. Item Stacking and Map Save/load has been implemented, bringing Pondera that much closer to a public release! Play testing will occur so that bugs or refinements may be put into place, harboring a more favorable public release which will mean keeping the server up longer and not having to take it down to correct or fix issues as often. Thanks for your interest! Until next time, stay aware of your surroundings and stay hydrated.



Last update on this thread. I have to post a new thread to post in 'Game Updates' forum so I will be doing that from now on, keep an eye on Pondera Forums and Byond Game Updates forum section for future updates.