Covenstead: Land of Shadow RPG

MuGears Engine and EDEN Codebase Development

Status Update – February 2010

Development is still progressing.  The current boring picture of the life of the staff is that Astera and myself have been exceptionally busy with real-life situations that have caused development to slow somewhat.  I have begun pursuit of my university degree (including a C++ class YAY!) once again in addition to my job and hosting company and Astera is once again a gainfully employed developer.  Dasharyn has had her hands full with a new job, some art commissions and I’ve been keeping Rhaen busy with web development and computer repair tasks.

That said, Dash has been tasked with logo development for EDEN and additional concept art which we will post on the site at some point I’m sure.

Rhaen will hopefully be working a bit more on storyline bits and sorting out Astera and my crazy game development conversations.

Astera is actually working through some more development and tweaks of various parts of the existing code.

I have a chunk of the mathematical calculations for the world handled with a plethora more to go and hope to have some time to sit down and work through some more specifics on database structure… and perhaps… help Astera with some of the less crazy bits of code.

At any rate, thanks to everyone who keeps checking in on us, we look forward to giving you the opportunity to peak at the world of Covenstead: Land of Shadow as soon as we can!

No Comments by Astina on February 23, 2010
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All Life is Not Gone!

I wanted to make a quick post since it’s been several months and say. No, really, we’re not gone. Development has been progressing, thanks to Astera who now has a job again which is a good thing!

I did want to post this though because it’s probably one of the best things (besides code and code discussion) to come out of chit-chat for a while:

(Astina) Of course it’s and… because I’m not doing is equal, I’m doing is NOT equal
(Astera) Sorry, I couldn’t hear you over the sound of how awesome I am :P
(Astina) ROFLMAO!

Cheers!

No Comments by Astina on February 21, 2010
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MuGears, EDEN, Covenstead

Time for another quick update. In our weekly development meeting we went over a number of things and made reasonable progress on several fronts. Astera is working hard on some of the finer details of the interfacing aspects of the engine and codebase; Dasharyn has been working on a few more pieces of concept art (I know drooling to see aren’t you?!?); Rhaen has been fighting to try and keep up with notes on our often random and very… ADHD like discussions and I’ve been working on finishing up some key astrometric calculations which are needed to work out some of the finer points of the game. Such as, how long is a day or year? How bright is our star? How hot is the planet? Yes yes, trivial to some I know. I’m sure there’s plenty of people who are thinking “what the hell? Just pick some numbers and go with it.”, well, I would, but that would be too easy and why would I do something like that when a few calculations later I have mechanics that will help guide some of the finer points of the game?

Enough rambling of that.

One of the biggest changes that has come about as a result of our last meeting is a bit of a split in projects. After some discussion it was agreed that our efforts really needed to be split into three different projects since we really have three separate parts to the entire project with three separate functions. The split has yielded:

  • Project 1 – MuGears Game Engine
    Project 2 – EDEN Codebase
    Project 3 – Covenstead RPG

    • MuGears, as mentioned previously, is the Engine that drives the game. It is the core of the connections to other parts of the game and determines how they can interact.
    EDEN is the codebase that the game runs on. This contains all the game mechanics and dictates how players can interact with each other and the RPG itself.
    Covenstead is the actual game. This is the content, the world, the objects, the items and everything that goes along with it.

    We feel that this approach will help us to better organize information as well as help to define and organize the structure of development throughout the games operations and down the road, allow us to be more granular with access to different portions of the projects as we explore the possibility of adding more members to the development team.

    Now, since I have worked out some of our worlds statistics I thought that I would share a few of them (Disclaimer: details subject to change if we see a need).

    The star that our world orbits, called Remion. Remion is a blue sub-giant. Since it rotates at a moderate rate there is only a slight difference in the radius of the star at the poles vs. at the equator. Because the star is so luminous and its temperature quite high the habitable zone for this star is large, but also starts further away at ~2-5AU. The planet Pyrian is located ~3.5AU from Remion. The planet Kinatus is located ~7AU from Remion. Viewing the star through the atmosphere of Pyrian the star would appear to be slightly bluish in color. Pyrian is the name of the world which is inhabited. Its year is actually 3.8 times longer than the Earths. So it takes Pyrian 3.8 years to orbit Remion. It is a bit larger as well with a circumference of nearly 44,000 km but rotates slightly slower (1044 km/hr) causing Pyrian to have a 42 hour day (1.75 times that of an Earth day). It has two moons and given its extra radius (even though it is slightly more massive) the gravity on the surface is nearly exactly that of Earths. And that is what is known so far. The rest of the calculations are currently being worked out and I’m sure will be complete in the near future allowing us to put together a reasonable time system for the game.

    I think that’s enough rambling for this update so make sure to keep checking back as we push forward with development and closer towards making Covenstead a reality.

    No Comments by Astina on October 5, 2009
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    Covenstead, where art thou?

    Another update directly from Covenstead’s one and only, and thus, most favourite developer.

    From a development standpoint, I’m currently working on designing, implementing and testing the hell out of the Engine<->Scripting layer interface. It’s a slow process, as there are about 100 different potential solutions all with their own pros and cons. Once that’s done, MuGears has all the basic functionality it needs to begin work on our game library which should see some development kick up a notch as it’s not (as) finicky.

    Outside development, I’ve been considering progression within the Covenstead world. That is, determining the speed of advancement, if our focus is going to be constant advancement, or reaching a plateau and having the bulk of our content be end game or (ick) PvP. Personally, I’d like to see a balance of both as I think both the journey and destination should be equally pleasant. Even when you’re being hunted by vicious spider cows.

    Astina has been working on our astronomy model and some back end database work. We’ve discussed some ideas about having a binary star system plus some more esoteric suggestions as to how to make our little world unique. Always nice to have an astronomy buff on the team isn’t it? Unfortunately, that likely means that sooner or later I’m going to get hit with a bunch of mathematical formulas that have to be implemented, eep!

    Our resident lore mistress has been working on gathering and collating the ravings of Astina and myself. She’s putting together our world, designing the creatures that will inhabit it, naming it’s cities, towns and super secret hidden thingies. In short, she’s becoming the local expert on all things Covenstead. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it!

    On top of that, we have our top secret artist working away on things. I’m not sure why they’re top secret, maybe they’re shy? None the less, they’ve put out some very nice pieces that really help to visualize the world. Although I really need to stop throwing out silly ideas around them, I suggested a money demon was responsible for stealing all the change from my wallet and next thing I know there’s a sketch of one of them. Best not mention Cthulhu or the Staypuft Marshmallow Man around super secret artist person…oh no, it’s too late!

    If you need me, I’ll be hiding in a giant mound of C++ and Lua.

    Thanks for reading!

    No Comments by Astera on September 18, 2009
    filed in Covenstead News, MuGears News, Progress Reports

    More Updates

    I thought I’d take a moment to post a bit of an update regarding the general progress being made.  Although it might look a bit like we’ve been somewhat dormant over the past while this is very much not the case.  Astera has been working quite hard on engine code and sooner than later will be working primarily on game code.  On top of this we’ve had some discussion and even some definitions regarding game mechanics (the specifics typically will not be disclosed) and data/scripting mechanisms which are helping to shape the game into a more refined model.

    Even further, we’ve welcomed art work from an entity, yet-to-be-named, whom has produced spectacular works thus far and we anticipate continued progress in this area.  Once we feel it appropriate to do so, we’ll probably begin sharing some of this art work (please note that we are still creating a text-based game, but it never hurts to have some artwork to give a ‘little’ shape to the universe =) right?). While on the topic of staffing updates, another yet-to-be-named individual has begun working on furthering the storyline of the game and general secretarial items such as keeping track of what Astera and I talk about so we can keep things moving.  Last, as is seen by the name used in this post, for a variety of reasons, I will be retiring my long time name Freyja and will furthermore be known as Astina, also a long term name that I’ve used since my days of playing RoD but that has not previously been associated much with Covenstead.

    I think that takes care of most of the general updates for now.  I’m sure we’ll have more in the near future.

    No Comments by Astina on August 24, 2009
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    Champions, Oracles and Immortals, Oh My!

    Myself, Freyja and Aleyhandara had a discussion yesterday on a piece of the Covenstead mythos that I find fascinating, that being the capabilities and role of the Champions, Oracles and Immortals in Covenstead. As a huge fan of mythology in general, I thought it’d be interesting to draw parallels between our ‘roles’ and their existing mythological counterparts.

    We decided that the role of Champions would be quite similar to that of the heroes of Greek legend, like Hercules, Achilles and Jason. Superb and incredible in their own right – but still mortal. Champions are not Covenstead staff, but simply players that have been entrusted with some additional tools to make the world more exciting. They’d be expected to help new players to settle in, called upon to settle disputes and to help other players organize RP events.

    Oracles on the other hand, are Covenstead staff. We decided that their level of power and influence would be similar to biblical figures, such as Moses and Japanese spirits like the Kitsune. They would be a force to be reckoned with and the primary conduit to communicating with the Immortals. Oracles would be expected to perform all the roles that Champions perform, and in addition, would be responsible for helping player characters establish things like guilds and ensuring that the player world continues to tick over smoothly.

    Immortals in Covenstead lore are intended to be very elusive . We decided that an Immortal is more a force of nature, and those that ascend to Immortality are joining something greater than any individual. The position of Immortal is really only intended for the administrators of the game, people like myself and Freyja, who need full access to the inner workings of the game to make sure nothing blows up. They’ll be responsible for making sure the game mechanics continue ticking over, and when required, perform anything an Oracle or Champion would be expected to do.

    Hopefully that was a decent insight into some of our ideas.

    Thanks,

    Astera

    No Comments by Astera on August 10, 2009
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    Progress Update – 3

    Okay, so maybe the whole weekly update thing didn’t work out…

    However, the network library is finally done! At least, as much as needs to be done for now until we get round to writing our own client, and with it our own protocol. For now however, my focus is now shifting to designing the scripting system. We’re planning on implementing a peer review system for new code modules to hopefully increase the quality. It’ll mean more up front planning, but hopefully result in more stable, robust code.

    That’s all for now,

    Astera

    No Comments by Astera on August 10, 2009
    filed in MuGears News, Progress Reports

    Update, because updates are good!

    Thankfully, the addition of spam combating systems has proved successful in halting their registrations on the site.  It’s blocked quite a few so far and I hope it continues to do so.

    On additional notes, things are certainly moving forward with development.  Astera is working hard on MuGears and making sure things are as good as we can get them right now… basically, nothing short of perfection.

    Although we’re certainly not in a position to release details at this point, we’ve also worked on revamping our original storyline.  This has produced very good things.  I feel that we now have a very solid outline which we can build from.  An outline which provides us the reasoning and the back story needed to fill in all the necessary gaps to provide a coherent, comprehensive, interesting and expandable storyline.  Unfortunately for everyone following progress, I don’t anticipate us releasing any storyline information until we’re getting closer to the release of the game play itself.

    Until next time, cheers!

    1 Comment by Astina on April 28, 2009
    filed in Covenstead News, MuGears News
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    Registration Spam Countermeasures

    Since it seems that spam bots can’t leave “any” website alone registration on this site has been locked down somewhat.  You’ll need to prove that you’re a human being now by inputting the letters in a picture and by performing a simple math problem on registration.  My apologies for those of you who don’t like math but it sometimes is a necessary evil.

    That’s all for now, cheers!

    No Comments by Astina on March 13, 2009
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    March Infrastructure Update

    Well, it’s definitely overdue for me to post some information up here.  That said, I’m doing so now.  There’s a few things that need to be announced.

    The first, everything related to Covenstead: Land of Shadow has been moved to the new hosting platform in the new facility.  This is certainly ‘very’ good news when it comes to having everything stable and running in a positive manner.  Most of the actual site was moved with the last post but certain aspects of it had still remained on the old system until now.

    We expect that the other server will be turned off and removed from production within the next 2 weeks, this will allow some time to ensure all the other sites hosted on this server are fully functional and there’s no big bugs that need to be worked through in the mean time.

    Next, it’s looking more and more likely that my involvement in Rennaissance Festival activities will be significantly limited this year due to finances and time restraints.  That said, I expect to have more time to work with Astie on getting all of our aspirations realized before another decade slips before our eyes.  I will begin work on our database structure in in the next few days.  Hopefully beginning with a light specification in order to ensure that things ’stay’ the same in terms of naming conventions and other little tid-bits which might not be a big deal initially but can turn into a nightmare later down the road if things are not adequately defined from the start; at least in my experience.

    At any rate, I think that’s all I have time to update for now.  Hopefully, I’ll be posting another with structure information or at least some little tid-bit of quips in the near future.

    No Comments by Astina on March 13, 2009
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