First approximation of equipment
Pracitcally we do not have ships. We only have characters who are represented by ship’s picture on screen. Any equipment would be also fake at this point but this does not stop us from trying. For now, the properties get attached to characters themselves. Under ship tab one can see one of three drawn ship models we have, a possibilitiy to change scanner (thus viewport – how many tiles around you see) and interstellar drive.
The three drives are not for speed of travel but being able to cross wormholes, jump gates and making use of warpspace travel. In future if a trader has little reason to leave a large sector it could be argued the freighter best not invest in hyper drive and save space for something else. We are looking forward to varied equipment customisation options. Below a jump gate on screen.
Combat simulator
First toy piece of combat engine was skill test simulator. We are able to input skill values, modifiers, value to beat and roll to see if such test was successful. Of note is we save margin of success/failure to determine if failed hit against building module may still hit the building for example. Similarly more successful hits might then have a chance to do extra damage.
So called minimally viable product or a sobering thought
In middle of October, after a six and half month of working on VERZ Online we have reached minimal scope of a technical demo. This included the following things:
- A single sector surrounded by borders which one cannot cross.
- It is possible to move around the sector and see other players.
- In that sector, a planet and a starbase visible.
- Planet and starbase have minimal interaction – saying hi or something.
It is great joy to see this milestone reached! On the other hand this is not much, right? The fact we took more than half year to get there is a bucket of cold water poured over hopeful heads. VERZ Online is not coming to the world fast. Among team members Widmo thinks at this pace the project is practically doomed, Sylos counters longevity is an indicator of success and Kyoku reminds of a self-fulfilling prophecy, urging to go forward.
Little wonder that one of our main discussions this months was how to rein in wild ambotions and get a game. Everyone has ideas what could go into VERZ Online. Kyoku warned that he has seen startups crashing and failing before actually releasing anything. We may be in danger of the same because what we have is not playable. The result of that team call was a list of things we need for a functional game.
Big planets, small stars
Another development this month was use of large planets, some 2×2 tiles large and gas giants at 3×3 tiles large.
Is it tile that is missing or sector done wrong?
As we designed sectors it turned out some æther border tiles are not displayed because they were not drawn in the first place.
User interface design
Did you know how redesign began for main screen?
VERZ Online 