Survivors of Ragnarok

Set up some indicators for healing and taking damage on the Dwarfs and Mobs. This is of course only secondary to some secret new features ;)

This first picture was a first attempt.

Now it's time to find a nice font for these indicators.

Biomes are a pretty big deal in procedurally generated games and they will be a really big deal when it comes to Survivors of Ragnarok as well. I've thought about setting up the biomes to be small chunks of the game world, but that simply left a lot to be desired.

Now what if each biome was a completely separate game world?

That's what we have in mind.

Take a look. Now, we spent a fair bit of time working on the isometric engine for this new world and there is still plenty to be done.

For one thing, this new isometric world needs to be randomly generated. These photo's are just some stuff I put together by hand once the engine work was finished.

After that, the saving and loading of each game world needs to be done. It shouldn't be an incredible feat to accomplish, but it will require some interesting file structures. (Think about how many maps will need to be saved in a 50x50x10 isometric game world!)

Finally, it is important to note, that each biome will need it's own generation algorithms to insure every biome has it's own unique look and feel. That very well may be the most time consuming task of them all.

So, although we don't have an update for you quite yet, we have big things in the works for you.

...And you all deserve to know what’s been going on.

Why haven’t we been updating?

There is no excuse for such a long break from updates, but our supporters should know why we haven’t updated. Simply speaking, Genel and I have been experiencing some big transitions in our life. As some of you may know already, we both have been attending university while working on SoR. I’m happy to say that I have finally finished.

“Now I have a piece of paper that says I’m a programmer”

The normal stresses of completing a degree, like taking a few more credits than usual to graduate on time and passing, really strapped me for time. Add switching jobs to that mix and you get unfortunately late updates such as this. Genel too was in a similar boat(although he still has some college left to come), but luckily he has found an interesting position doing graphic design that has better hours than his previous job.

All of this means we have more time that SoR, and all of you, deserve.

Give us new stuff to play with already!

Coming out in alpha 27 we have a big crafting rework. The system now keeps track of all items in stockpiles and automatically removes them when a dwarf crafts an item. Now instead of spending minutes walking back and forth collecting the items to craft, a fraction of the time is spent walking over to the proper craft building to create the object. This won’t take away from the strategy or simulation aspects, as your dwarfs still need all the supplies gathered up into the stockpile before crafting will finish. This new system is possible because now, all items in the game world are kept track of in a persistent list.

In alpha 26 we talked about our combat and stat system. Both systems are fleshed out, but mean very little without weapons and armor to equip. The above crafting system changes should make it easier to stockpile your armories and weaponize your dwarves.

  Looking Ahead

We have a few secret ideas we’ve been keeping for a special update in the future and we still want to keep some of that as a surprise, but I think you’ll all appreciate a glimpse of what our plan is for moving ahead.

Better and more complex map generation, including caves, dungeons, and unique biomes, is very high up on our list. More complex inter-dwarf and dwarf society features are going to be getting worked on as well. Things like dwarf house zones, hangout zones, etc. I have also taken a personal interest in working out some sort of system that would allow players to add custom items, weapons and armor, but that will have to wait until the core game is mostly finished(Free DLC?).

I sincerely hope this post clarified our situation and put your concerns at ease. I assure you that we are not dead and that we are committed to making SoR great.

Zap! Zap! Zap! Here at French Rice Games one of our many jobs is to bring you bug fixes for unfinished games that need a lot of work in a relatively late manner. We could give you some boring details about life and only being being developed by two individuals who both are full-time students and have part time jobs... but we won’t bore you with all those boring bits. We’ll simply just copy and paste some wonderful patch notes you guys might find entertaining and continue on with development.

Added New tree that is part of the plant system.

Fixed Plants growth better managed.

Fixed Aggressive mob pathfinding.

Fixed Aggressive mob graphical glitches.

Alongside some minor bug fixes we are gearing up our combat system for use with equipment. Here’s what we have in mind.

SoR Stat System

Base Stats:

Vitality (health, ammount of food and sleep needed)

Strength (damage, and a few jobs.)

Endurance(base armor, length of time a dwarf can be starving or tired)

Willpower(Magical skill and defence)

Agility (Critical Hits, Acuracy and speed, some jobs)

Luck

These start out randomly between 10 and 15. 50% of the Exp given for every other task(skill usage) will be given to the Dwarfs main level. The Dwarfs main level take 3x to 5x as much Exp to level up. Base Stats increase with the dwarfs level, NOT by usage. Base Stat Level Calculation: level = ((maxLevel + geneBonus + personalityBonus) /maxLevel)*dwarfLevel) Static Values: maxLevel = 1000 geneBonus = (0<->10)*20 personalityBonus = (100 if it is the dwarfs personality)

Personalities:

Energetic - Vitality

Hotheaded- Strength

Stubborn- Endurance

Reserved- Willpower

Lively- Agility

Perky- Luck

Each personality will increase a base stat improvement rate by about 10%.

Genetics:

Genes effect base stats by 0 to 10%. A random value will be determined that will create a number between 0 and 5. That value is the dwarfs gene for that particular stat. The gene multiplied by 20 equals the bonus.

Skills:

Gatherer

Hunter

Woodsman

Miner

Carpenter

Smith

StoneCutter

Cook

BrewMaster

Tanner

(Comming soon, skills for each weapon class and type)

Skills level with usage following the function: (4*(x^3))/5Genes that control this function may be added later.

Equiptment Slots:

Head

Neck

Chest

Ring (left hand)

Ring (right hand)

Right Hand

Left Hand

Ragnarok Ecology 101 - Lamprospora

If you are reading this we can safely assume you have survived Ragnarok, alongside a new gregorian calendar year. Quite a lot to go through in just a few short days. Meanwhile in Midgard vegetation has been reported to have been propagating throughout the world. Which is quite lovely considering the real life Winter’s air.

Added Farming/Plant Life.

Added 9 Plants: Bamboo, Grapes, Bitterhumle(hops), Huskycap, Strawberry, Sugarcane, Tomato, Wheat, Grass.

Added 8 Consumables: Bamboo Planks, Grapes, Hops, Husky Caps, Strawberries, Sugar Cane, Tomatoes, Wheat Grain.

Changed Save games now properly reflect plant growth.

Changed Buildings now drop some of the materials that they were built with.

Fixed Resolution Menu and Game Menu now properly close when a selection is made.

Fixed Multi-tile buildings no longer keep tiles tagged as buildings when removed.

Winter is coming men! Bring out those bear fur coats, brush off your moose leather boots, and let your body hair grow to shield yourself against the sharp winter air. Winter post-Ragnarok is not a place for the faint of heart. Fortunately for everyone, along with their winter apparel we have a wonderful new build just in time as the Winter’s air makes its way. 

Added Parallax layers.

Added Global water physics.

Added Grass now grows overtime on dirt.

Changed Dirt tiles now absorb water to prevent flooding.

Changed New cloud sprites and different types of clouds.

Changed Water now spawns throughout the map.

Added The parallax layers are now on the intro menu.

So decided on polishing up and working on the new dwarf UI. When you click the dwarf there would be this the compact version.

The items to the left would be his top 3 highest professions clicking the icon on the bottom left would pop up the full view for the dwarf UI.

Parallax In Action

Morbidly obscure reference aside... Alpha 23! An update so soon? That’s what happens when one sits on an update for quite some time. Literally we propped up a foot rest and relaxed and worked on Alpha 23 while Alpha 22 was comfortably underneath us. And updates the game shall have for the next couple weeks. Deadlines for this years Indepedant Game Festival are due October 17th and we will be submitting Survivors of Ragnarok.  So what can you guys expect by that time? Well....

Weapons and Armor.

Set up a good progression through trees(weapons) and create unique armor based on each mob.

Activity Zone.

Farming.

Plants with growth cycles.

Similar to mobs, in fact, the mob class might be usable here.

Fishing.

Dwarfs goto water sources and get fish.

Herding

Herd cows, chickens, etc..

Dwarf Zones

Home

Bedrooms

Party Rooms

... Profit?

Whether or not those goals will be achieved in time is a different story entirely. However what is finite is the amount of sleep we will have in the coming month; or rather the lack of sleep. We also have a much more instantly gratifying list below of features that have already been implemented. Oh yeah, Mac users the game works now.

Fixed Bug for Mac launch issues.

Fixed Bug that was causing crashes due to the new dwarf pathfinding.

Added New in game interface to modify resolution.

Removed The old preloader was removed.

Added preliminary code for clouds.

Implemented multi-block buildings.

If you haven’t heard by now there is a huge bundle going on at GamersGate. At least that’s what the word on the street is. If you are a little late to the party fortunately for everyone you still have 9 more days before the bundle is over! There are literally a ton of great games in this bundle. Okay maybe not literally in terms of the colloquial British usage of ton. However literally two dozen incredible games.

What a coincidence look what game is in the Bundle? And how convenient a new update.

Added Settlers will join a healthy settlement.

Added Goblins will invade in groups at night.

Added Full save support.

Added In-game menu options for saving and loading games.

Changed New hot-keys Z -Inventory, X -Stockpiles, C -Activity Zones, V -Crafting, B -Information Panel.