A tale of two Brees 58 Zizuph Keeper 25 Jun
It was the best of Bree, it was the worst of Bree..Oh wait, there are two of
those too?
Much of the work this month has been around cleaning up maps and code, and
trying to get better map coverage throughout the game. You can see maps for
every single ship now, and I am starting to add maps for regions that still do
not have them in the original. My end goal is full map coverage, along with
music, and in the longer term graphical maps.
During the Bree cleanup (oh, hello Hin guild code!), I spotted a major feature
missing from the mudlib. You know those ambient messages you see, birds
chittering, orcs nearby? Every single domain had to build their own
infrastructure for that. But now that I have more effective tooling, I can add
the feature globally, and move every domain over to it. Then I can start to
assess which domains have the least flavor, which areas and rooms, and then
figure out how to add more character to them. This is 30+ years of old code,
and quality standards shifted a lot over the decades (while leaving many areas
simply untouched). Its not showy like adding a new area, so it got ignored.
This one new code feature affected nearly 2000 files. This kind of change was
effectively impossible in the old game. And it rolls out at Armageddon. I have
run tests to verify that it all loads well, and I believe it should go out
smoothly. And each project like this makes it a little easier to attempt the
next big project.
On the web client side, there have been two major releases. First, there is
battle music (can be toggled on/off in settings). This is directly tied to
when you're in combat, and the music ends when your adrenaline fades.
Different regions have different sets of soundtracks, and I will be adding boss
battle music for some of the more memorable fights over time as well. Not all
areas have battle music yet, but I will work on full coverage shortly.
The other big web client feature is the dual-split window. This should help
you go through scrollback while still keeping tabs on what's going on
immediately around you. This can also be toggled on/off if you don't like it.
I am also trying to track down any other lingering bugs in the UI since moving
over to the unlimited-scroll window - if you see something weird, let me know.
My next big focus (beyond all the map work) is going to be on the Season
launch. I am starting to write up the specs and details, and what it may all
entail. I am also considering tying the launch of a new craftsman guild to the
community successfully completing the main quest line. I am also getting to
the point where I need to start thinking about how the game is going to evolve
in terms of new content going forwards. This may end up being a hard fork away
from the original, but I do not want to make major changes for the sake of
major change. I would love to hear from all of you about what you'd like to
see happen here.
I continue to enjoy working on this project, and hope that I am putting enough
focus on high-visibility changes that make the gaming experience better. I
recognize that growing the size of the community is going to need some
significant effort, and am building out the website documents, as well as
setting up social media accounts so I can start engaging with a larger
audience. This will include other players of the original, so there may be
some fireworks in the upcoming months.
Z