Community-Built COH Style MMORPG

[Aviticus Gladius]

I'm old haha. I remember programming in BASIC, PASCAL, and Cobol. Those were the days when programming required so much work. I remember having reference sheets that I used to maintain things down to the very byte! Nowadays, you could have a memory going on for days without restarting and you probably wouldn't even notice anything haha.

[Triplash]

OK, I haven't looked it up, yet, but is there some Internet Rule that says every forum/BB discussion about coding or programming must eventually mention the C64? (not denying that I've done it)

Is that like how any conversation that uses the phrase "when I was your age" must also, by law, contain the phrase "uphill in the snow, both ways"?

[Styrj]

AG:  The Unity thingy looked very impressive.  Can't wait to see it in-game!  Quick question:  Will there be any options to select keys for left/right directions instead of the mouse?  Using the mouse for LR directions (for me) is a bit unwieldy (some of us are in our 6th decade)  .

[Segev]

Is it bad that I learned on Apple Basic, moved to TI Graphing Calculator programming, and now do most of my work in MatLab and LabView? ^^;

(Needless to say, most of my work involves prototyping code, not final product.)

[Aviticus Gladius]

@TDGeorge, that's one of the things we are changing up with Valiance Online. Instead of using the mouse as a modifier for looking/strafing, the game will always use asdw as it would if you held the mouse-click modifier in most MMOs; freeing up the mouse buttons for combat. In VO, there will be a crosshair that works as the mouse-pointer, as the player hovers it over objects and characters those elements become highlighted. The player can press the f-key to open the interaction menu, which shows interactivity options and/or information about the target. If it is a combatant, they simply press a hotkey or mouse click to attack. Since right-click and left-click are now added to the hotkey bar, you're able to easily and more quickly initiate your most used attacks. This system has been tested a lot recently and seems to work great. The community will decide most definitely though.

@Segev, we all have to start somewhere haha. I've always wanted to research Apple BASIC just to see what underlying difference was between that and IBM-based BASIC. I never really found a reason to go digging, but out of curiosity I will now go do some quick research haha.

[Styrj]

AG:  I was mainly referring to movement in regards to using the "Q" & "E" keys for turning left/right.

[dwturducken]

Is it bad that I learned on Apple Basic, moved to TI Graphing Calculator programming, and now do most of my work in MatLab and LabView? ^^;

(Needless to say, most of my work involves prototyping code, not final product.)

This made me smile a bit. No, it's not bad.

As to the Unity demo, the only control problem I had was turning while moving, but I was doing it on my laptop with the Thinkpad Ultranav (the little red "eraser mouse" in the middle of the keyboard), which probably made it more difficult for myself than it should have. I really loved the I Am Legend feel of it, though. Even on my laptop, it was as immersive as my first time spawning in Atlas Park, only the area was more spacious. What I have not done is explore. I wandered a bit, "walked" up one of the bridge approaches, and looked around from the higher vantage point, but I have not tried to see how "big" the world is. Even if it's only a few "blocks" (the "edge" of the Champions maps is abrupt and far from the edge of what is visible), the feel of immenseness is still impressive.

[Aviticus Gladius]

@TDGeorge, Ahh ok. That should have covered it then. They are now covered by A & D, and the player now switches between orbit mode and play mode in the event they want to circle around their player.

@Dwturducken, that only represents 1/4 of Pendulum City too. I'm adding cars tonight!

[jendragon]

A Skype conference has just began with the new development group soon to work on our new Super Hero MMORPG. We've planned most of the execution today, and are about to further direct the team. Very soon the structure will be in place and the plan will take action. I'll be sharing more information regarding our plan and actions here soon.

Skype?!

I RP with people from CoH in Skype.
I am also one of those paying Founders for Neverwinter. I have been pulled into SWtOR by my husband. And I only have GW2 because a friend paid for a copy and gave me the key to activate it.

But, of all the things I miss about CoH is the ability to make a hero/villain with the backstory you want and the look you want. Plus the ability to Create and Build and Grow a base of operations.

[Aviticus Gladius]

@Jendragon, that is great to hear. Our project has launched already and started to garnish great feedback and support. We're are getting ready to begin open public testing soon. You can find more here:

http://valiance.shogn.net
http://www.facebook.com/ValianceOnline

We're hard at work, hope you like what we have to offer so far.

Also, to those who have emailed me about positions amongst the Valiance Online team, I've responded to all of them. I'm now sending messages to those who PM'd me, today. More updates are on the way!

[Aviticus Gladius]

Our recent Facebook update:

THE UPDATE:
In my frantic move to get the different builds uploaded yesterday, I made a few mistakes, but here is my redemption:

(Windows 32-bit) http://www.shogn.net/gamebuild/Valiance_32-bit.zip
(Windows 64-bit) http://www.shogn.net/gamebuild/Valiance_64-bit.zip
(Mac) http://www.shogn.net/gamebuild/Valiance_Mac.zip

TO INSTALL:
1) Install decompressing software (7-zip is great for Windows users)
2) Extract all the contents to a unique folder
3) Run the executable file.

ISSUES TO NOTE:
- Don't use a password that you use anywhere else. We haven't implemented secure context encryption so a virus or hack can acquire your information as it flows to and from our verification/authentication servers. I hate typing in all caps, so forgive me but, DON'T USE A PASSWORD UNLESS IT'S ONE YOU DON'T MIND LOSING! Thanks you.

- In my failed attempt at UI design I didn't notice some resolutions hide parts of the registration buttons, this will be fixed today. I'll add a scroll bar to the UI frame for those with lower resolutions.

- Also, you need to register in-game as a separete account from your website account. Once we can finance our web coder we'll be able to have someone dedicated to integrating a system that securely passes data to a third party server and then securely between the network account and the game server account.

- Also, all the art aside from the city content is placeholder; the UI, the characters, the toon generator, and a lot of other features. These will be pulled out and updated this weekend through to next week.

- Movement is stiff and we know. We currently implemented something very basic at the moment to get things moving. Next week is completely dedicate to the recreation of the CoH movement system. Trust me that CoH jump is not easy to implement by any standard; hell we may need to tap into the use of our physics server to make it feel as good. I'm working hard and watching many videos to recapture how it feels to jump around, move, and aim.

- I also have to re-enable combat which will make it's way into the next build, with mobs that can be killed. So players will be able to level up and unlock new skills much like CoH.

I'll release more updates and information later today. It also appears the male character is being prepped for it's first outfit now. So players using female characters will experience the first true Valiance player model, with the proper toon creator. Sorry male players, we won't have our model in-game til sometime around the end of next week; maybe a bit later. Also, Linux users I'll have your build up later this weekend.

[dwturducken]

Also, the female toon is topless. I have no problem with it, but I know there are some here who might. Forewarned is forearmed.


Edit:(For some reason, the "R" key on my laptop is iffy.)

[JaguarX]

Also, the female toon is topless. I have no problem with it, but I know there ae some here who might. Forewarned is forearmed.

ACK! Boob! How dare you!!! REPENT!! 

yeah, what Dwturducken said.


I've been to Europe where some saunas are co-ed. boobs are nothing special to see to me personally.


(update-checking out the stuff out now.)

[dwturducken]

I was very disappointed that there was nothing special about the red building in the corner, and I wanted to fly. Neither of those is a criticism. I think this is an amazing proof of concept. It's just that, in a modern, urban environment, my instinct is to want to fly.

Also, the walking mechanic is a little bizarre, particularly in the butt area, but I stopped noticing it very quickly.

[Aviticus Gladius]

Dwturducken, we recently finished teleportation, the next travel power is flight! We won't be working on it for a few weeks as we are focused on finishing our character creator and importing our new characters. While we're doing that, our coders will be improving movement, jumping, and implementing our updated UI. We'll be making large weekly updates, so stay tuned to the page and Facebook for the latest.

[JaguarX]

Dwturducken, we recently finished teleportation, the next travel power is flight! We won't be working on it for a few weeks as we are focused on finishing our character creator and importing our new characters. While we're doing that, our coders will be improving movement, jumping, and implementing our updated UI. We'll be making large weekly updates, so stay tuned to the page and Facebook for the latest.

While not directed at me.

I just have to say, awesome.

[Heroette]

I downloaded it and logged in yesterday.  I got to say, that it is really awesome.  It reminds me of Atlas Park and Skyway combined.  The only thing that was distracting (for me) was the nature sounds in the middle of the city.  But I do realize that there is still a lot of work to be done to make it complete.  So far, Great Job!!!!  I appreciate all the work you guys are doing to get us a place to call home again.

[damienray]

It does look good. Yeah, the bird sounds were a bit overwhelming. Looking forward to updates as they come. Great work !

[Alpha Series]

Wow..that is great progress. The UI is working so much better. This zone is being developed very quickly. Really well done on getting this all together! Thank you for all your hard work!

[Nebularian]

Very impressive.  Got in and looked around a bit.  Good City layout.

Yeah, I can see that some work still needs to be done on the characters...but hey...it's a pre-alpha version, Ain't it?  LOL.

Definitely going to keep my Eyes on this one!