Hello everyone!
It is Friday, and everyone know what Friday means 😀
What has changed?
- Commands:
- /vocation added to /help
- GMs are able to run PTR commands on live
- UI:
- Creature level on the target button is now dynamically positioned
- Whisper channels now show DEV, Helper, and Supporter status
- Player name in all chats now updates when they change vocation
- Player details screen now always shows the active vocation
- Party UI updates with vocation changes
- Friends list updates with vocation changes
- Getting slapped now produces the correct chat output
- AI:
- NPCs are now awake if players are 2 chunks away, up from 1
- Can no longer walk underneath NPCs if timed correctly in town areas
- Passive “wander within bounds from spawn point” behaviour added
- Char now has this behaviour
- Scripting Engine:
- Hooks for:
- Engaging target
- Landing killing blow
- Being killed
- Ember Guards
- Talk when they engage a target
- Talk if they land a killing blow on a target
- Say last words when they are killed
- Have one of two scripted conversations every 60 seconds (leveraging temporal scripting engine)
- Trolls
- 1% chance of saying something when they target a player
- 1% chance of saying something when they die
- 100% chance of saying something when they kill a player
- Can attach scripts to individual NPCs
- Can assign individual NPCs IDs to then retrieve them in scripts
- New temporal script engine
- Can create global scripts that execute over time
- Can create scripts that execute contextually on active NPCs over time
- New sequential script action API
- Allows me to nest and chain actions over time
- Opens the door for seemingly spontaneous scripted stuff happening in the game world
- When used in conjunction with NPCs assigned unique IDs, allows multiple NPCs to interact
- Allows me to handle scripts being interrupted and resuming them neatly
- Hooks for:
What to test?
The big headline here is the new temporal scripting engine that I am feeling quite proud of. The two Ember Guards at the south entrance to Emberton should now have a conversation every 60 seconds (just to make it easy to test and see) where they use emotes, face each other at appropriate times, and go back and forth having a nice, paced conversation. When interrupted for more than 10 seconds they should say something apt like “What were we talking about?” if they were mid conversation when interrupted, and if either are killed or otherwise engaged the conversation should cease until everything is back to normal again. They also say stuff when they engage a target, die, or kill something. I’m using the guards to test a lot of stuff 🙂
I’ve made one of their conversations heavily lore focused, I’d be interested if this kind of in-engine scripted world building lore stuff is something you would like to see more of in the game world.
What is next?
The natural progression for me now we have a sequential scripted engine is to look at patrols… that is to say, NPCs that wander around a specific route. The challenge I have set myself is to add a girl that walks around Emberton, stopping to look at things and interacting with other town NPCs as she goes. I think having NPCs have personalities and interact with each other will go a long way to bringing the realm to life.
I don’t want to rush this as getting the code for patrols in a really nice place will mean we can add them all over the place (think: orcs patrolling the castle, that sort of thing) and start to break away from the static world we have today. I have some decisions to make, such as what happens if an NPC’s path is blocked and that sort of thing… I think I am going to have to modify the engine to support NPCs pushing other players / NPCs out of the way. Interesting stuff.
Anyway, have fun, report any issues on the Discord #ptr-bugs channel, and I’ll see you next Friday for some patrols 🙂
Fhox