Greetings, readers! Holiday season is upon us, much to my dismay, as I've been quite busy handling various family-related business and trying to fit Within BYOND into the mix this month was a bit of a challenge, but here we are! However this post finds you, I do hope you're doing well, and I urge you to get comfy and allow me to show you what BYOND's finest have been up to lately.
BYOND
After laying his beloved 2000 Honda Civic to rest, BYOND Developer Lummox JR decided that moving to Direct X 11 would be quite the task, and decided to backlog it, choosing instead to focus upon the map editor upgrades he had planned. Lummox JR also worked on a method to turn appearances into static icons (something the SS13 folk call "GetFlatIcon") and went into great detail in a Patreon post on the subject. More recently, Lummox JR squashed a nasty, ancient bug with moving atoms not behaving correctly on the client, and begun work on optimizing procs like range(), hearers(), viewers(), and others. Another idea, the linking of Z-layers, is on his mind, which would allow one to create a seamless transition between Z-layers, but brings with it a host of developmental problems that still need ironed out. In summary, Lummox JR is very busy building a framework upon which we can build our dreams. Consider purchasing a BYOND membership to help keep these lights on if you feel like giving back to someone who has been performing a sometimes thankless job for us for a very long time now.
BYOND Games
We talked about FEED last time, but that was before Kumorii brought forth an incredibly visually-impressive Halloween event demo! For this demo, Kumorii elected to focus on a singleplayer experience, heightening the spookiness and introducing dialogue and story for this Hallowed eve! Kumorii didn't plan to stop there, though, and intends on putting a focus on multiplayer gameplay in an incoming FEED reboot! Kumorii's utilization of a bunch of BYOND's newest features really made some of the effects in the demo pop, and I'm very excited to see what comes next!
Devourer of Souls has been busy with Sigrogana Legend 2! The most recent update notes aim to flesh the world out a bit more, featuring a new dungeon theme, mirage desert, as well as six new player-owned housing areas in various locations across the world. A bunch of weapon parts got extensive statistical adjustments, and a wide variety of bugs and issues have been patched up. Devourer of Souls also released a massive update back in September, featuring an overhaul of the damage/basic attack systems, enchantment effects, and wide variety of technical combat tweaks.
Dazzer has been dutifully working towards a release of The Wizarding World! This permadeath, lore-rich, RP-centric game filled to the brim with magic and opportunity places you in Willowthorn, ruled by the four major wizarding families: Buckthorn, Octavic, Dovell and Sluka, each with their own special brand of magical prowess passed down the bloodline. Players will create their own character, slotting themselves right into the story, and attempt to make a name for themselves as prolific witches and wizards. After months of development time, Dazzer is hoping to open up The Wizarding World to the public in January, so be sure to keep an eye out for updates!
