Countdown to the Battle

Today marks one week until the player vs. player battle demo is released for TMJ, so I thought I'd write a nightly summary of progress for those interested. It's sort of like a blog or diary of status. I will add a post each night before going to bed. The final night of this thread will be Mar 31st, the launch of the demo. I will then open it up for all to comment.

I'm predestined to have free will.

I didn't make as must progress as I would've liked tonight, but a few milestones were passed.

First, I've been working out the sequence of battles. It can get complicated because of the asynchronous nature of multiplayer gaming. The browser for both players have to keep checking the server every second or so to determine if anything new is happening. As the same time, the server has to coordinate that communication and tell the players if anything is going on, all while interfacing with the database to load and store player stats and overall battle mechanics. It will take a little trial and error master the formula here, which I hope to get by this weekend.

Second, I've been working on the layout of the menus and sprite positions in the battle screen. The person playing will appear on the left of the screen, and the opposing player will show on the right. Stats sit just below the character sprites in the menu area. The actual menu sits in the center bottom. The entire top is filled with the interaction between character sprites.

So, to summarize, nothing really functional has been put in place tonight. It's all been framework that will allow future progress.

I'm predestined to have free will.

Tonight's update made some small but critical steps to the final product.

The most important update was the ability for the fight screen to load character stats in real-time and update them on the menus, similar to how the chatrooms constantly load new text.
In the background, the battle counter updates. This counter will tie to the characters' speeds to determine when each player attacks.

I've also made some tweaks to the database for player characters to store all the stats.
At the moment, the character stats that will be used in battles are:

name
hp / hp_max
mp /mp_max
power / mpower
dodge / mdodge
speed
critical
evade

These status ailments will be part of the final game, too:

blind
mute
poison
zombie

I'm predestined to have free will.

Today I started working on the battle select menu. The menu will show one or two members for a match. If there is one member, then another can join to fight. If there are two members, anyone else can join as a spectator.
This menu will be accessible by entering Mt. Hildar and heading to the upcoming coliseum room.

My aim for TMJ is for the player to forget that the game is running in a Web browser, so the interface is key.
The matchups are a row of wood-grained buttons with the players' avatars on the left and right and the names in the middle. Clicking a button will impress and highlight it. 4 random battles will show in the screen at a time for selection.

I'm predestined to have free will.

I've been tweaking the battle formulas and running tests on them today. The back-end implementation of fighting math is nearly done. Some changes have to be made to the magic math yet. Without all of this math being calculated right, battles will not be enjoyable. Thus, I have to be careful with the formulas before proceeding further in the development process.

I'm predestined to have free will.

Most of today's updates were related to the interface for the actual battles. This comes in the form of a menu with the choices "Fight", "Magic", "Items", and "Evade". I also have the animation in place for the player on the left attacking the player on the right with a sword.

I'm predestined to have free will.

The "Magic" selection now opens a sub-menu that gives the choice of two magics so far: Quake and Glacier. These magics are both functional for the demo. Also, Evade is functional. Tomorrow will probably be focused on the hit calculations from performing all the battle actions and maybe some item usage. We will see what gets ready in time for Wednesday. I want to pack in all I can to the demo. I may save the matchup lobby for the weekend, though.

I'm predestined to have free will.

Tonight I primarily worked on the character menu and battle set up.
On the first load of the PvP demo, the character select screen comes up, where the player gets to choose who to use for all future battles. After this initial selection, the character screen will be skipped.
The battle select screen now gives the option to create a new battle, join a battle, or watch an existing battle.

All that remains tomorrow is integration of the battle system. Hopefully I can pull it off before everyone gets to sleep!

I'm predestined to have free will.

Well, I hated to do it, but I had to delay the PvP demo a few days. It will be out Saturday with even more features than I had planned for tonight, just to make the extra wait worthwhile. I plan on adding more magics, item usage, and both experience points and gold pieces.

Tonight's development involved the actual communication between characters, meaning that clicking the Fight button for one character will have the same action show on the other screen. I was having some trouble getting this communication to be reliable, so I decided to work out the kinks before release. Also, damage is not properly being recorded, but I have to add in that aspect.

I'm predestined to have free will.

I've been staying up until about 1:00am working on TMJ for the past week. I've decided to get to sleep at a decent time tonight and take a break from the game. Development will resume tomorrow for the release this weekend.

I'm predestined to have free will.

I have most of the battle mechanics in place now. I just have to work out a few bugs with the interaction between players and tweak the damage calculations to bring the demo to the level I originally wanted. If I have time, I will pack anything else possible into the demo before the release.

I'm predestined to have free will.

Well, it's out! I wasn't able to get battle damage calculations in place, but simple fighting, magics, and evasion, are all part of it. Enjoy!

I'm predestined to have free will.

Excellent, HullBreach! There are some MAJOR bugs and without battle calculations it's a bit pointless. Will you add them?

One bread ahead of the bread. Two bread; too much bread.

Nice job none the less cant wait till the next one!^_^

Lifes like a game there are those who are good at it and those who need practice.

there is a lot of glitches in the demo.... But nice job

----------*[EPIC_RAPIERS]*----------

awsome... it always says ran from battle. other wise good job.

money greeses the corporate cogs, its ment to be spent ,cuz money makes the world go wround.

I tryed that didt work at ALL!!

Lifes like a game there are those who are good at it and those who need practice.

My character is a wuss, he keeps running... -~-

I dream of a world where chickens can cross the road, without being questioned.

One thing i saw that i liked.... Y is my character have higher HP/MP then most ppl?

Lifes like a game there are those who are good at it and those who need practice.

my person has 80 hp and 20 other thing. is that wierd?

♪But there's no use crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.♪