Mythruna

So, I felt like I should probably start talking about "What's up with this game mode thing?"

Since I started Mythruna, I've had in my mind some directions I wanted to take the interface.  Working on the combat prototype, I had to solidify a bunch of these designs trying to figure out how that would work.  The fact that I was having to implement a lot of this piece-meal in the combat prototype, along with the recent re-interest in scripting, has spurred me to get it into a more complete state.  Something that could be hooked up to actual scriptable objects and get us "more game" even before physics is working.

The basic idea:
Interactions with the things you are holding in your hands should be based on a few specific controls.  Mainly this is patterned off of the mouse with a wheel but I've so far left the wheel as a secondary control (and will also be available through the ',' and ',' keys like it is now)... not something you'd necessarily need in the heat of battle.

There is one set of control "methods" and a single key directs them to one hand or another.  Right now this is the ctrl key.  So, for example, if you press left-mouse button then you do the default action of the thing you hold in your right hand.  If you hold ctrl and press the left-mouse button then you do the default action of the thing you hold in your left hand.

The "heads up display" (HUD)...
(http://i.imgur.com/vX5F6.jpg)

In general, I try to opt for the most minimal HUD possible.  In the lower left is a "tool orb" showing what is in my left hand.  In the lower right is one showing what is in my right hand.  In this case, I have a pile of wood in my right hand and a torch or match or something in my left.  (This will eventually be augmented with some small stats bars for the player and the orbs may indicate the condition of the tool.  Furthermore, if the tool is something with a visual display then the orb may expand in size... say for a minimap.)

An example scenario would be that I'd left click somewhere on the ground to place the firewood (the default action for plain objects) and then ctrl+left click on the dropped firewood to light it with the match.

If you play with this interface then you can kind of see through the debug output that it sends to the console that this is kind of working.  The message it echos shows the tool used and what was clicked on... and how it was clicked (main click being left mouse button, alternate click being right).

Double clicking an item in the inventory selects it as the right-handed tool.  (So ctrl+double clicking would select the left hand.)  Double clicking on the tool orb with the inventory open will clear it back to just "hand".  Eventually there will be a key to do that, too.

My general guidance is to try to keep these gestures simple and consistent.  In that light, the following "theories" are what drive me:
-the "main" button (left mouse) should generally be the default action.  You should be able to get through a lot of the game just clicking the left button... whether it's to drop an item on the ground, give it to another player, show it to an NPC, picking a lock, whatever.
-the "alternate" button (right mouse) should generally be the "see what my options are" button.  So right clicking a tool on some place or object will present a pop-up with all of the options available.
-the "roll" button (mouse wheel) should be for altering the effect of what I'm doing.  If I'm holding a build wand, it may change the material.  If I'm holding my sword, maybe it switches grips or turns it in my hand so I'm striking with the flat of the blade.  If I'm holding an adjustable light then maybe it makes it brighter or dimmer.  You get the idea.

To some extent, combat breaks one or two of these "rules".  Right clicking in that case me be for an alternate attack (stabbing instead of slicing or something).

Now, how all of that interacts with the scripting system is more complicated than I want to go into here (and will be better with examples anyway).

But hopefully this gives you an idea of where I'm going.

(Note: it's interesting to point out that the current build mode block editing could be redone as a two-handed tool and the controls could be identical... later, I will convert it over but for now regular "build mode" works just fine and I'm not going to "break" it. :))

I should add that the "crosshair" or center "reticle"... in this picture a little glass bubble, will change with the tool and with the available default action.  You can see the beginnings of this when you hover it over objects.  It expands.  This will eventually (soon?) be augmented with visual or textual indication of what the default action would be (for tools that want to indicate it).

Other tools may use this reticle to indicate status of an operation or a different style of interaction.  For example, maybe a bow+arrow would change it to the standard crosshair that we are used to.  Or maybe holding iron in a fire causes the bubble to change colors indicating the heat.  And so on.

Is there a program I missed downloading?
I didn't get the combat prototype, so if that's it, I'm downloading it now.

There is no released combat prototype.

The beginnings of game mode are already in the release.  Just press "g" to get in and out of it.

It just doesn't do much yet.

Ohh..
I was just about to remove my stupid comment when you replied. :P

Wow i didnt expext to read all that but it captivated me lol i like all your ideas and the way of changing atack style with the mouse wheel seems a great idea 

Bit off the topic... but exactly how will item selecting work? Or do have you not quite decided on it yet :D?

Initially, like it does now: double click in inventory.  Or do you mean something else?

Ultimately you will have quick slots also but that will be (hopefully) based on what you are wearing.  (It makes no sense to me for a naked dwarf to have 10 quick-slotted max health potions. ;))  Quick slots will represent the things you have readily at hand.

Keep in mind, too that someday the current inventory screen won't be as restrictive.  a) it will be container based (like all containers except this one you hold), b) you will still be able to move the camera and interact with the world while it's open... though the camera will be in "click to drag" mode.  If you have a backpack then it will be one of your quick-slot items... at least in current design.  You'd hold it in your hand to rummage through it.  Maybe some players don't want a big bulky backpack (thinking of you Avians) and everything they carry is in belt pouches or otherwise holstered for quick-slot access.  Belt pouches may also end up as quick slots.

All of that is subject to change based on playability and of course server admins can nerf what they want and give everyone a huge invisible backpack or whatever.

In my designs, I try to skew towards a certain level of realism first and then scale it back.  There are many reasons.  For one thing, I think it forces a level of role-playing... but more importantly, since I'm trying to design a world with physical effects, where things are held, what they are held in, etc. becomes important.  I potentially get some cool effects for free that I would otherwise have to specifically account for.

I can't seem to get to the inventory screen. I press 'B', and then click on 'inventory', an it goes to a blank screen, like it always has.

'G' switches to game mode.

'i' opens and closes inventory while in "game mode".

The big "Inventory" button doesn't do anything at the moment and I will probably get rid of it anyway.

Also note: the current inventory window is the absolute minimum I had to implement in order to have objects to interact with for scripting.  It's pretty basic.  And right now it's just showing blueprints... which would be a different kind of thing in the real game mode.

Sooo you'll actually be limited in how much you can carry? :D no more carrying enough stone to build an english castle? Pretty sweet. I also love your idea on you can only carry as much as space you have in your backpack, pockets,ect... Btw just a suggestion, mostly eye candy and to make the game more realisitc... you can't INSTANTLY switch weapons and the item at hand... maybe add an animation of the player taking out the items?

Wow, I guess I really missed the memo about this game mode thing. derp.

Switching items will take time... as will juggling your quick slots.  This is one of the cases where your stats/abilities affect your actions.  A high manual dexterity and/or agility means you can ready things a bit quicker than the slow-sluggish oaf.

Regarding the raw materials, I agree that it's silly to be able to carry enough stone to build an english castle but in reality you wouldn't be able to carry _any_ of that stone... not a single cubic meter.  (Even a cubic meter of wood weighs about 500 kg... or over 1000 lbs.  A cubic meter of stone weighs several tons: a fun site I keep bookmarked to define Mythruna material types: http://www.simetric.co.uk/si_materials.htm)

A long time ago, I decided that limits on how much raw material you can carry are silly in general.  Either you can only carry a handful of rocks or I come up with a "story" as to why you can carry an unlimited amount.  Or at least limits that don't require you to juggle stacks of 64 cubic meters of stone.  

In the earliest designs, players would carry a magic "build wand" that would hold their raw materials magically in crystals.  Originally this wand was for digging, too, but I'm not so keen on that anymore.  I like the idea of starting the player out only being able to dig with their hands or their starting equipment.  If digging even a simple hole starts out incredibly painful, then it will send a clear signal that this is not "that other game".  

In fact, the "thing that holds the raw materials" was supposed to be a magic component just like any other.  Diamond is the universal storage crystal in Mythruna.  So lately I'm rather fond of giving the player this object that magically converts their raw materials and stores it in a diamond.  They are then free to dismantle this object and/or sell it... thereby losing the ability to carry more than 50 lbs or so of raw material... basically whatever their pack and encumbrance can hold.  Or maybe they take it apart and use the components to build a different magic device.  Or maybe they take it apart, learn how it works, and upgrade to a larger diamond for more storage.

And bam, suddenly I've turned a ridiculous "feature" into something with role-play elements.

Don't feel bad.  I think I only went into any remote detail on it the changelogs.  Who reads those things anyway? :)

Well, I assume you do :P

Regarding the raw materials, I had an idea that the build wands are really a type of portal that sends the stuff to warehouses somewhere (maybe built/purchased in the playable world, maybe somewhere back where you 'came from')
But I like your diamond idea.

Lol at the part about 1 cube weighing a few tons, theres this prank me n a few mates wana do and it goes like this, find a bed dump it in a public swiming pool laugh at them when they hire a crane to lift it out. Because a king foam matress is about 2-4 cubic meters so 2-4 tons of water obsorbed xD

Very good idea's you always have cool ideas that I could never think of :( But I support the diamond wand... however maybe make the mineral something cheaper? Or even make it a dark stone which normal shop keepers refuse to buy because of it's evil nature, causing the player to seek more sinister methods of changing/getting rid of the crystal... Brain pop make the type of crystal you use have either good or bad effects based on how much it holds and where you found it :)

There will be other gems/crystals that can "store" things but they will be limited.  Diamond is the universal one that does not modify the original energies and does not degrade with time.  Its clarity/purity is what keeps the energies from getting modified and it's cut is what keeps the energy from getting lost over time.  The shape of a gem or crystal is also a factor in what it does.

I think the diamond that the player starts with is large enough to hold a lot of materials but small enough so that any serious material hoarder would want to upgrade eventually.  Maybe half a carat or something... in an egg shape.

Your ideas may be useful for other things but the starting wand will be limited but powerful... and a player who can find a merchant that would afford it (it would be an expensive item) could sell it and decide they never wanted to mine and would rather put that money to special armor or other magic or something.

Thats pretty kewl, I'm curious however to how you will make shapes have certain effects... or if they're just random...

Mostly that will be part of the hard-coding of the magic system.  A gem/crystal will behave differently based on its type, quality, cut, and size.  And I may bend the laws of gem-cutting a little if needed.

Basic idea is that egg-shapes are used for storage (since you can imagine the energy bouncing around inside of there with no place to go). 

Your typical "cone shape" diamond cut (flat on one side, pointy on the other) is probably used for focusing and/or dispersing energy.  Also maybe direct reflection with transistor like-additive properties.  So if you directed energy into the pointy end from various sides it would get focused out a single beam on the flat side. If you also had energy directed into the flat side then it gets bounced back out and mixed.  If you direct energy into the flat side and none into the cone side then the beam is split out the cone side (and weakened).  Something like that.

Prisms can act as diodes and simple splitters/combiners as well.  Real prisms kind of work this way, too... you can shine light in one side that would be reflected if coming back the other way.  So you can imaging combining a prism with a diamond such that some energy beam comes through the prism and into the flat side of the diamond, combines with whatever other energy is being pumped into the cone side, and projected back out the flat side.  It then hits the prism and is directed off to the side... perhaps that is the beam that leaves the device and does damage or whatever.  Maybe you direct your life energy into it and it's combined with low-grade heat energy to become super-charged and shoot out as a beam of fire or something.

These are all still rough ideas and more suitable for another thread under the magic stuff, I guess.  I have lots of separate ideas I just haven't brought them all fully together yet.  (Standard caveats apply: subject to change, may turn out to be impossible, etc.)

I do... :'( . Anyway, maybe in the future you could make a struggle to hold animations since you're holding a big (Probably stone) block in your hands? And it'd be harder to move around when holding blocks in your hands? Oh and a 3rd person view would be great when you get to doing that (And the model is... More appealing).  ;D

The diamond Idea is a little weird in my opinion, but not bad (Don't get me wrong). I hope that it will be VERY VEEERYYYYYYY expensive at least. And at first, it would take ALONG time to carry a single meter of log to your little tiny hole. Also, another idea thats a bit off subject, what about if you start mining a block, bits and pieces come flying off of it, and thats what you pick up. So you you mine a stone block with your pickaxe, you don't get a perfectly square block! You would have to hire someone to put some pieces together to make it a whole block again :3 Making tunneling, less.... Perfectly square.....

Also, on the carrying note. Players should be able to buy carts and wagons, to carry there stuff. I mean WAY WAY WAY before the magical diamonds.

I also hope every diamond I find wont be magical. So if I'm running out of room and I find a diamond, I instantly can carry a bit more. And if you played Ultima Online, UO, I liked there idea of items being infront of another, so you have to move them out of the way before you can get the other stuff out. I still want to have limits on what each bag can hold though xD

If I'm realistic about what a player can carry then no one would ever build anything.  It would be too much trouble.

Diamonds used as storage would have to be cut a certain way and be part of a storage circuit.  They don't just store stuff on their own... they act as the storage crystal in a device that can convert matter.  Diamonds will also be very rare.  You start with one, though... or some way of storing raw materials.

...and there will be no "diamond swords" since such a thing would be completely useless as it would shatter as soon as you used it.

Well, what if diamonds were so powerfull, wouldn't let you carry to many things. You would have to combine your diamonds into pushable carts, or backpacks, or clothing to make it more power full, allowing you to carry 60 meters of stone, instead of 10??? Or whatever numbers are already planned.

The single most annoying thing from Minecraft was the limits on carrying raw material.  "You mean I can carry 5,000 tons of stone but not 1 pound more?"

Mythruna is not really a building/mining game... at least not the full game.  You will  have to juggle items and objects like any regular RPG but raw materials are "magic" because to do otherwise is lame.  You cannot even carry 1 cubic meter of stone.  Nor could you realistically hand make a cart that could.  A cubic meter of stone is 2500 kg... or about 5,500 lbs.  And then you'd need enough horses that could pull it up a 45 degree grade.  You'd have to play for weeks (in game time) before you had enough resources to build the things necessary to move one block of stone... and realistically you'd be lucky if your cart made a full trip with one block.

It would be an interesting exercise in simulation but I don't think it would be very fun.

Better to sweep all of that under the rug, call it "magic", and move on... and hope the player is aware of what they are doing if they choose to sell their wand for 50,000 gold and never mine again. :)  I don't know what the limits will be but for the casual builder it will be in the realm of "never mattering".  Only the semi-dedicated miner will tire of emptying his wand all the time and want to upgrade... and upgrading (doubling) the wand should be the equivalent of about 100,000 gold.

Hmm, okay. How much CAN we carry if we sell the wand? If for some reason its stolen off of us or sold or something. What if its stolen?

That will depend on your strength and/or the kind of backpack that you have.

In general, magic items attached directly to your life energy field will be unstealable.  You'd definitely notice.

Going back, firstly, to the original point in the thread, I think an interface like this is a fantastic idea. I've had one in my head along these lines for a while now where the left and right mouse button refers to the left and right hand:

So a character has a shield equipped in the left and a sword in the right. Clicking the right button will slash with the sword; holding the left button will pull the shield up to cover the body (with reduced movement whilst in this stance). Right clicking whilst holding the shield up will do a stabbing action.

If the the player has a two handed sword or axe, a right click would do a horizontal swing from the right, a left a vertical swing and left and right together a lunging stab (imagining a right hander would hold the sword more over the right shoulder than straight in front if you know what I mean).

Holding the left button with a bow in the same hand would pull it up ready, slowing/stopping the player (and I guess readying an arrow), and the right mouse would pull the string back. Pulling the string back for a longer time would increase the power and affect the accuracy some way(similar to that game I guess) and a release would naturally let the arrow go.

Something along these lines but so a left click refers to a left hand action etc. I also think the use of a modifier via holding ctrl is great, doubling the actions available.

This is more combat focused I guess and I don't know about ... much. Although I do picture using an axe and pick to chop/mine in a similar fashion where different gestures do different swings with different advantages. Maybe a horizontal swing with an axe to fell a tree and a vertical one to chop it in half.

Almost right... I only read through your description briefly but saw a difference early.

(Caveat: this is all based on current design and may be tweaked for playability once I actually get further along.)

All of the normal mouse buttons are used for the right hand actions.  For example, for a sword, left mouse will be slash and right will be stab, or something.  Middle mouse wheel for a sword might rotate object in your hand (so you can hit with the flat instead of the blade)... an action more useful for other types of objects but I think still useful for a sword maybe.

To control the object in your left hand, you'd hold the ctrl key.  So if you want to position your shield then you'd hold the ctrl key down and move the mouse.  If you want to attack while holding the shield then you have to release the ctrl key and then you can use your sword again.  This seems realistic to me since it requires real separation and I don't have to include any artificial "attacking is reduced while holding shield" since it's natural.

The bow I'm less sure about.  My current notes say that the left button alone will slash with the bow... maybe you want to bash someone's head in with it.  Holding both left and right buttons nocks an arrow and puts you in "draw" mode.  Pulling the mouse back will pull the bowstring.  Moving the mouse left or right will aim left or right.  My current notes say that if you pull the string back far enough then you fire automatically but you can also release the right button to set the drawn bow into "aim" mode where now mouse up, down, left, right will aim the bow.  Holding the right button again will change the draw again... and so on.  Releasing the left button will fire the arrow.  This scheme allows both rapid indiscriminate firing (hold both buttons, move mouse forward and back) as well as carefully aimed and powered firing.  (The bow "icon" in the lower left will indicate how far the bow is drawn.)  For example, a really good archer could get pretty precise I think... maybe there could even be some magic means of helping them aim, set power, account for wind, etc..

At least that's the design so far.

I get you. You're spot on with the shield/sword separation bit, thinking about it as well. It would get quite boring if you could just walk about with your shield up stabbing mobs.

I'm trying to imagine the bow... For quite a while now lol, as I wasn't sure at first. But yeah I think that would be quite satisfying pulling the mouse back to fire.

I don't know if it would but can't help but think it might feel a bit awkward having to let go of rmb to go precision. At first I thought just hold ctrl for precision but then you would still have to pull the mouse back and then aim. Interested to see how it goes.

What stats do you have in mind for the bow? Accuracy, as in how true to the crosshair the arrow goes, or, more like the crosshair will be unstable and harder control. Power? Will speed be one or will that be how quick you pull the mouse?

Also, are you concrete about the magic for carrying lots of blocks etc. I'm certain I think you could still make it fun without

The stats of the bow will be based on the materials and craftsmanship.  I hope to have weight, balance, strength, etc. all factor into drawing and aiming.  Maybe a heavy bow will drop more quickly while drawing/aiming than a light bow.  An unbalanced bow would move a bit from side to side while drawing/aiming.  In this case, a light-well-balanced bow would be critical for rapid shooting.  The strength of the string relative to the strength of the wood will determine how much power you can put into it (ie: how far back you could pull it before the string would break)... up to the maximum strength of that bow.  And the power should probably magnify any of the effects of being overweight or out of balance.  Strong strings will take longer to wear out.  Thicker strings may affect the penetration/damage of the arrow (because they will spend a longer part of flight unstable).

We'll see.  The bow will be the trickiest one because it's the one I will have to do the most "faking" in the sense that I will precalculate the stats of a bow based on its construction.  A sword on the other hand, I hope to just use it's natural physical properties at the time it is swung... so no extra book-keeping needed to get really natural effects.


If you look at this page:
http://www.simetric.co.uk/si_materials.htm

You can see the raw mass of certain materials.  Stone, for example, is about 2500 kg for a single "block".  In pounds, that's about 5500 pounds... or almost 3 tons.  A single Mythrunian block of stone therefore weighs way more than the average U.S. car. (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_an_average_car_weigh)

Other than magic, I cannot fathom a satisfying way to make carrying that around in game.  Having to arrange my inventory in Minecraft was one of the single most annoying things.  I understood it but it just bothered me "Oh, I have to drop this bucket so that I can make another 64 block stack of stone." (about 352,000 pounds of stone and I can't still find a place for my bucket)

When I want to have crafted containers with size/weight capacities there is no place for raw materials on the scale needed to build... unless you magic that problem away.

Sounds pretty in depth.

Yeah, with regard to raw materials etc. I have some ideas and so do you and everyone else. You're making the game.

I can't tell but I hope I didn't come off sounding harsh or anything.  I put some amount of thought into this problem so it's easy for me to regurgitate notes and reference material. :)

Haha, no not at all. More like I felt like I was busting in trying to tell you what you can do better blah blah blah.

No, I think it's just I had this game in my head and that your ideas seem like they're going down the routes that I want to see. And was quite excited when you were discussing, a type of 1:1 movement, as that would be the cherry and I'd love to see it. More than good enough that you're very active around here, answering peoples questions anyway.

The trick will be making it playable... but I think there is a lot of room to play in that area and I literally have pages and pages of notes on the subject.  The ideas are only waiting to be implemented and see how they go.  In my dream interface, one might even be able to use something like the PS3's Move or Wii controllers.  Coming up with something that works there, on a mouse + keyboard, and for the joystick/key-mashers without too much of a dumbing down will be the real fun.  For example, as it stands, the design is the left-hold is slash where you have control over the slash... but a simple left-click would do a default slash.  The player that just wants to button mash might have access to all of the learned-stances and things to look cool and vary their attacks... but they would miss out on that perfect slice that hits just that right spot.

(An aside since I haven't mentioned it before... "stances" are sort of a learned default position during battle.  When you complete a move, this is where your character will try to get back to once you release the buttons.  This may be one of the few "skill-driven" things in the game as I intend to have them be learned from books or teachers and the more you use a particular stance, the quicker you will be able to return to it, etc..  They are _relatively_ unimportant except that they would control your whole fighting style and different weapons may prefer different default stances.  For example, some big heavy sword will be more effective held high and striking down where as a rapier would be better in front to parry and strike... but now I'm rambling.)

And anyway, I should point out that much of the 1:1 control scheme is based on taking the physics engine into places it might not easily go.  The button mashing defaults are a nice compromise in the mean time.  Combine that with the stances and I think it would still be interesting combat... just not as cool as I want it to be. :)

Ok yh, I think I'm building a picture of what you mean.

When you say left-hold is a slash you have control of, I get that you pull the sword back and you can aim for the legs or the head and releasing will take the swipe.

Plan is to drag to take the swipe.  The sword will have weight and to some extent follow through on its own if you stop dragging but you can control the whole stroke if you want.  Stabbing will be more like you describe.

I love these ideas for the combat! You might be able to make it so that if you want to just knock an enemy or animal unconscious, you use something like the flat side of your sword to do so. In any case, brilliant! Its going to take some serious willpower in patience to wait for the magic and combat to be realeased. Is there a separate thread for combat ideas and magic ideas?

re: Flat of the blade to knock someone out, that's precisely the idea.

re: A thread on magic, a user named Sunjammer tried to consolidate various posts into one and there was some discussion here: http://mythruna.com/forum/index.php?topic=548.0

...there may be some scattered info elsewhere.  I've been pretty silent on combat since I'm not sure I can make it fun yet and I hate getting people excited about stuff that is iffy.  This is, I think, the most I've posted on it so far.

Glad i got the knocking out thing right. Hope to see updates soon! Looking forward to seeing how all these things come together.

P.S. i fully support trying to make the combat as fun and non-repetitive as possible.

Also, I might as well add that since the combat (in this form) is physics based and since physics engine allows me to adjust how fast time is flowing... the current plan is to slow time down a little during combat.  This will, I think, mitigate many of the "too hard to control" issues and allow fights to be more strategic.  It also means that a surprised player who is really on the ball might be able to parry the first blow... as soon as the other player goes to hit them a local time-slowing bubble is formed and both players will hear their own heartbeats or something.  So if the attackee is really on the ball he might be able to spin and parry a really slow attack or something.  Perhaps there is even magic that would allow you to detect attacks sooner and slow time sooner.  I think it's fair because both players would know it happened.

The interesting thing is that if the time distortion turns out not to be too big (or maybe even so) for spectators outside the bubble I can play the attacks in real time... just pause between to let time catch up.  And since there was a lot of control for the battlers, I think watching others fight could be really interesting for spectators.

There is potentially more I can do here after I see how it pans out.  For example, if both players have committed to their strike (started the drag of their long sword and just let it follow through) then time can be sped up again briefly until the blows connect.  Might end up being too disorienting... but it also might feel like living in your own matrix-style bullet-time battle.

That sounds amazing! though i doubt you'd get to that anytime soon. will you be putting an early, early simple version of combat up soon?

Probably not "soon" by any reasonable definition. :)  I may have an excuse to advance the physics engine a little soon... but we'll see.  Nearly complete physics will be required for the above type of combat.

well the last thing i wanna do is make you feel rushed, so take your time :) the community will be waiting when your ready

You should make combat like skyrim with all kinds of weapons. Maybe magic like shooting fire out of your hand.

Weapons will be player craftable.  As will magic.

http://mythruna.com/forum/index.php?topic=502.0

but ca players craft magic weapons  :P

Also there could be hunger health thirst and
Sickness

I know that hunger, heath, and thirst is planned, not so sure upon sickness. Diseases could be parts of a mod though.

Right from the link posted:  :)
(http://i.imgur.com/dtRDYGL.png)

Probably sickness in the "get disease from some attack" kind of way.  Probably not in the "don't wear a hat in the rain and get a cold" way.

I played an RPG once where some of my dudes caught colds and nearly died because I didn't put a hat on them.  Kind of lame.  :)

This one I think: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realms_of_Arkania:_Star_Trail

...would be trivial to add that kind of thing as a mod when the engine already has hunger/thirst/etc.

oh lol i didnt know that it was a on a list

He has a list, a list bigger than Santa's Good:Naughty list ratio. :P

How many different races are there going to be?

Heheh... oh, you're being serious. :)

7 playable races.  https://mythruna.com/about-mythruna/playable-races/

i'm gonna love when survival is released  :D even more when multi player survival is released (i bought a server creation pass with my donation)

I want to donate, cant because a.) Grandmum doesn't trust internet transactions. b.) She 'has no money'.

Money doesn't grow on trees!  ::)

What is money made of? Paper.
And what is paper made out of? ...

BOOM!

You are suggesting forgery? :P

Actually, the US dollar isn't made out of paper, but cotton, which doesn't grow on trees.
So... BOOM!

Paper = carbon. BOOM!

Discussion = Ridiculous. BOOM!

So the game mode user interface was designed for modders at the pre-alpha state. Nice.
/* Just getting things back on-topic */

Actually it grows in the federal reserve! ^_^ (at any rate desired  >:()

When is the the full game going to come out?

We're not even to alpha yet.  Alpha is at least six months away (kind of a running joke).  The full release would be at least a year later, probably.

See: http://mythruna.com/forum/index.php?topic=862.0

Weren't we at 5 months away? Wait. Haven't I already said this?

We have never been at 5 months away.  We _might_ (repeat: _might_) be at 5 months away when this next release finally goes out.

last time i did the math on paul's time repeat equation i remember it being like 2 or 4 literal years before the full game is released (i forget the actual equation just remember the answer i believe i got the equation from a joke posted on an old thread)

Yeah, unfortunately, we are still 6 months away. I did a full forum search (using the search widget) with the string "5 months away" and Paul never said that we are 5 months away, but maybe close.

Will there be duel weilding with weapons?

Yes, but it will be tricky to control... sort of like in real life.

how much does it cost to buy a team to help you make the game?

Heheh... a lot.

what like 1,000 an hour

I think 12 USD an hour at max.. unless they are willing to work for free, then the price turns into time. :)

No, but there are a lot of factors.  Caveat: this level of frankness may get me in trouble but we'll see.

First of all, a team worth having probably won't work by the hour.  They would need some guarantee of getting paid or they would want to take a cut of the final game, etc..  Usually the latter is a situation where a developer already has friends who can help and ropes them in.  Spontaneously creating such a productive environment is nearly impossible.

A general rule is that an employee will cost about 140% of their salary.  This is due to the required (by law) benefits and various state and federal stuff that must be paid (unemployment insurance, etc.).  Contractors are no better as their multiplier is usually 2x.

Moreover, I do not have time to manage a team without quitting my current job.  Given my situation with family and so on, I would need a solid health insurance package and sustainability for at least a year.  Even cutting my expenses to the bone, this is a decent sum that I don't want to discuss here.

Good developers that would really carry the project would at minimum command salaries around $100k a year.  Junior level developers of decent quality might go for half of that but then I would need more of them.

So you start to see that even trying to fund a small team starts to look like $500k to $1 million.  There is no way that I could even fund that much with Kickstarter given the current state of the game... and Kickstarter comes with some long term downsides that independent organic funding doesn't.  And anyway, even if I went that route to fund the game development I have many months of development ahead of me first.

On the other hand, if the game would be even moderately successful as a Kickstarter then it would also be moderately successful as self-funded through regular donations... which I already accept. 

It's extremely frustrating but every time I work out the math and the long term goals of the game... and believe me I do this about once a week lately... it still works out better for me to continue to try to grow organically as I am now.  I will reserve the option to use kickstarter to fund certain more specific milestones like the mod store and such.  Or maybe down the line to hire artists for specific blocks of work or something.

In the mean time, I will work around my wife's illness and the demands of my day job and try to push the next release out.  Since I have to take a lot of time off from work lately, every donated dollar really does affect how much time I can devote to the game.  My wife and I often refer to life expenses these days in how many "mythruna hours" they cost.  So it's a pervasive theme of direct trade-offs these days.

I wish I lived in a world where I could make the salary I'm making while still being able to find decent software developers for $12 an hour.  I could conquer the world.  The reality is that even data-entry guys make more than that.

Mid level developers will need $45 to $50 an hour as a salaried employee.  $90 and above for contractors.  And these are folks who would be gambles just like any new employee.  The guys I already know are good would need much more than that... but I know 100% that they would push Mythruna forward.

Oh god, lets get back on-topic..
The newest build-mode game mode interface is amazing :D

Heheh... if I didn't already spend an hour+ a week strategizing about money, I might have just said "Eh, it's hard." and left it. :)

you should do a kickstarter when mythruna hits alpha that way there is more of the game done to be enticed by mythruna's awesomeness so you can get lots of money to move faster hrough alpha then you are now in prealpha just a suggestion

It's always an option.  On the other hand, Mythruna by then should be earning decent income since donations get turned off and cycle over to real purchases.  ...and if it's not, then a Kickstarter may not help.

I guess we'll see.

i already bght a server and the game mythruna via donating  :P

Yep... and that's what makes you and the other donators "rock the awesome sauce".

hmm i wonder when i invite people to my mythruna server whether it will be more like having a minecraft or or cubeworld server?

Would depend on what plugins you leave active, I suppose.  The full multiplayer game is likely to be more like Cubeworld, I guess.

ya cubeworld with way better npcs by the way can i work my way to becoming king of  a group of npcs?

There aren't any "kings" in the classic sense but basically yes.

i know this is off topic but what is the process for a player to become ruler of a kingdom of npcs in mythruna?

I think it was discussed in the thread on the property system.  I can look it up later if you don't find it.

Day 231, they still think I am an NPC.

Day 236, I've found out I'm not the only person who isn't an NPC. I am scared.

Day 365, World is deleted.

Heheh.  Though it made me immediately think:

Day 364, Woke up a dragon.  May not sleep again.

♥

Day 1: Uh... What was this thread about again? Oh yea, nevermind.