Mythruna

Finally got these working mostly like I want... at least enough to move on.

Here is a pic with four different shots in it:
http://i.imgur.com/uFsMO.jpg
(http://i.imgur.com/uFsMO.jpg)

Tonight I spent some time making sure they ends look like that are "rooted" into the ground properly.

Found this exploring.

(http://i.imgur.com/LlpGy.jpg)

I was originally going to keep wood overland bridges short but this looks too cool not to pursue. One or two pillars is all it needs.

Are you going to take into account that poorer/smaller villages might just have dirt paths with no bridges?

That aside, the bridges are looking good. I agree, though, that the really long one needs some supports to look realistic (and hopefully, with physics, to keep from breaking).

These roads are the most expensive ones... the ones that run between cities and other cities or between cities and major towns.

Maybe add arches underneath to add to the feeling :D?

This one will likely get straight pillars.  I'll do something that feels right for the bridge style... but it will have to wait a few more phases... right now the individual bridge parts have no knowledge of each other and supports will be better if the whole span is treated as one object for proper spacing.

The stone and mortar bridges for crossing shallow water will have "arches" underneath similar to the stone and mortar bridge I already posted a couple months ago.

You might also need It to detect under itself so It doesn't have a bridge 50 blocks in the air connecting on mountain from another. But, yet again, this is Mythruna.

I personally won't trust a long wooden bridge over such open land. The smaller bridges look really cool, and I love how they blend with the natural trail. I would say that seeing the smaller bridges in the final version of Mythruna won't be bad at all, but keep on tweaking until you think they are more perfect ;)

A nice addition would be physics ropes+Bridges. Tension = snap + break. And shaking too. This would be awesome. Imagine tons of people crossing a big bridge. :) But supported bridges would also cancel that out. Until someone started a fire at the bottom of it.

Yeah, I'd like to have rope bridges.  I'll have to see if it will bring the physics engine to its knees or not.

Is your physics engine at the point of "Building muscles"? Or still in its infancy?

It's missing proper links.  It's variations of these that are necessary for springs, ropes, hinges, etc..  I started implementing stiff springs before I stopped.

It's also missing proper networking... which is where the real work is left.  I'd have put some of it in the game already if not for the lack of efficient networking support.  It's not a lot of work but it's the kind that I need to concentrate solidly on without interruption.  If I don't find an excuse to do it sooner or a way to break out some of the chunks then I may try to do this over Thanksgiving break.

There are still some stability issues when objects are stacked on top of each other... and this actually affects the links, too.  Working on something else, I think I have a solution to help with that problem but I haven't been able to swing back and try it.

I have some ideas for accelerating physics engine development but I'm still working them over in my head.  I may post about it sometime.

Man, this physics engine your making sounds like quite the undertaking. Your hard work will pay off greatly i'm sure :)

A 3D physics engine is one of the hardest things I've ever done in my entire programming career... and it's not even done yet.

If I can get it working right then it will be cool, though. :)

I hope it works out cuz otherwise i feel like Mythruna won't happen
:'(

There are fallback positions but they are much more "content" heavy.  I could already script objects to do what an RPG expects but I'd have to script lots and lots of objects.

Well in that case i hope it works out so you can do less work for more profit. I imagine you would die a little bit inside if you did so much work for it to just not work out in the end.

Like having a lifelong dream crushed under boot heels. :)

Still, there is lots of middle ground between self-sustaining game company and "failure".

I can't help but ironically smile had your first statement with a smile icon... So where in that middle ground would be your second choice?

I don't know.  Organic growth is one of those fuzzy things.  You spend a lot of time in an area where you try to figure out if continuing is still worth it.  The easier that question is to answer as "keep going" the better life is... whether because finding free time to work is not hard or whether the game is earning enough money+respect+whatever to keep it alive.  It's a balance.  The corollary is that if life makes it too hard to work on the game and there are no tangible benefits to continuing then this starts to weight against the "life long dream" thing and you make hard decisions.

I may be biased, but i think you should "keep going"  :) and for being pre-alpha with little-to-no advertisement, this game already has some buzz. Once the game has actual shape to it, people will most likely start trying it, saying how awesome it is and telling their friends. The ideas have the potential and a veteran like yourself would be one of the few who could pull it off. A good game could almost sell itself. (almost)

Yeah, it's done well at selling itself so far.  I'd like to see how fast that grows when I actually start advertising.  It's all been word of mouth so far... but I will start pushing it for real at or near alpha.  I've story-boarded most of a game trailer... I just need to implement the things for the trailer so I can record it. :)

List for sites you may advertise that may be productive:
Youtube http://youtube.com/
Addicting Games http://addictinggames.com/

Lol fail, that's all I could think of off my back. :) well it is a good start!

I'm interested in seeing what you have up your sleeve for a trailer. actually, I'm interested in whats being added to the game that will be in the trailer  :)

I have resources I can tap in this area.  Don't worry too much about that. :)

I think most of the features are covered in the "what's alpha?" thread: http://mythruna.com/forum/index.php?topic=862.0

But I need populated towns, character animation, some level of fighting, trees/buildings to be able to burn down + fall over, and the ability to have mountains explode in a shower of chunks.  Sort of at a minimum. :)

Oh, and horses.  The beginning of the trailer has a guy racing across various landscapes on horseback.

And thats why i like you paul. To most developers that would be a "maximum"  :)

Heheh... if I do my job right, maybe the "blocks like Minecraft" thing won't even be noticed until the second viewing of the trailer.

Im trying to push this on all my friends, a few being programmers enjoy reading the forums already, even if they are still guests, and a few of my lazy friends are excited over the ai you have planned. Ill keep digging for more people

Well even if they did notice it eventually, the judgement would be skewed in a good way since there are things like cylinders and 12 different "half" blocks, among other variations that make minecraft just plain inferior, even if this was just a building game.

Yep.  That's entirely the point. :)

What amazes me is that Paul's personality online is more "Serious" and fatherly. Makes me feel right at home when talking to Paul. Can't wait for Paul to say "Welcome home, son" ;) *Sarcasm*

Hahah.

*Likes* I wish Paul was my dad  :-[ He's nice. I live w/ my Grandmother so I don't know what it feels like to have a Mom or DAD!!  :-\

I have a nice mom and dad. :). Dad who buys me laptops. Mom who lets us jog with her. Family that = nice. xD

I have a yellin' grandma, brother that has special needs, sister who yells for no reason, nice sister. Family that = Horrible. -__-

Sounds like my family actually. Without the yelling grandma xD. Brother = Little brother who is picky about food. Sister who is controlling. :D