[Twine][Text]Whisper - a management game concept inspired by a few others [Hiatus]

[Noli Timere]

Quick Update

Progress is going for rebuilding the base game, details are as usual updated in the updates section of the Discord.

The game is going steadily (Although slow), the mission system that i setup for preview has also had a few additions to mechanics, however will still need more work before its considered complete (and will be a ongoing work alongside the base game and any other minigames added to the system along side the mission system)

 

[Noli Timere]

Quick Update

Rebuild of basegame is at the settlement desk, rebuilding the research/construction bits.

Edit: Should also add, that prior work done for the rebuild so far has been

- redoing internal variables

- World Generation (Currently builds 600+NPC's and 3 Settlements, with prep work done for other Generation like forests, mountains, etc; Current generation time is 400ms)

- setting up databases for everything from NPC's to World Locations, and internal locations in each world location(IE; Settlements containing various locations per, as well as various other world locations such as forests, mountains, etc containing there own possible internal locations; Settlements is the only one currently fully setup)

- setting up the ability to move around locations (within settlements only atm)

- Actions/Movement Button system that builds itself on the fly(Movement Buttons used in the above move around locations bit)

 

[Noli Timere]

quick update

Getting closer and closer to getting back on track with the economy milestone, as ive gotten through a good portion of the major issues found, as well as getting the basics of npc joining and work areas within settlements setup, to name a few.

also as im using discord for majority of my updates/time with PR, I have put up a public ideas area that im adding my current ideas/directions for various parts, as both a reminder to myself, as well as for people to leave emojis to state there feelings towards each idea, if anyone is at all interested in expressing themselves about them.

 

[Noli Timere]

quick update

One last bit of sprint till i have the orignal content all setup in the new system, and im switching over to twee, which will take a bit, but seems to be going smoother then i had thought it would, once all the new code is converted and working in the twee project, ill be where i was prior (majority wise) for the economy milestone, this change should HOPFULLY fix any lag issues in firefox, as well as hopfully some of the normal performance drop when mousing around in the basegame itself.

I have also switched over to firefox for dev testing, to make sure i see any issues that still remain (hopfully none will), and if any are still remaining, ill try to deal with them as best as my knowledge can allow, Im just hoping no more rewrites of large ammounts are necessary to fix it, as ive been stagnating at this spot too much already, and want to get back to progress.

 

[Noli Timere]

Quick update

I had hit a wall for how many objects could be contained with sugarcube databases, and had to work out how to deal with it, as it involves a massive rewrite of the base code, im still lagging behind in work.

However the issue is resolved (Saddly using sugarcube saving is very slow with higher ammounts of objects still, but the gameplay is now smooth with millions of objects, so I think its a win)

Saving at a much much later date will also be redone as sugarcube saving seems to be poorly implemented when involving tons of objects, however as i havent taken the time to figure out all that stuff, there could be very little i can do to fix this, but once im done most of the game ill backtrack and have a look at if i can improve it.

The rewrite is currently ongoing, and should fix a bunch of issues, as well as help me audit some of the less needed/obsolete code thats been piling up.

I am also taking the time to spruce up the world generation a bit, so that my rewrite isnt a complete waste of just redoing stuff, as this project has had quite alot of walls to get past that involved rewrites, and I am getting very anxious to move on from all of this back to a healthy production route.

 

[Noli Timere]

Quick Update

As im waiting on text bits to be finished, ive started onto some of the AI, and have decided on a simple Step by Step Priority AI (For the NPC's not the AI Director), and have also decided on giving NPC's hunger/tiredness/loneliness/anger/sadness, which will slowly rise, giving multiplyer bonuses to the priorities, depending on the weight of those values, as well as there traits (still deciding which will affect various parts, for the current small ammount of traits gainable by npcs in generation)

Once the text stuff is going well or finished, ill be moving back to world generation coding.

 

[Noli Timere]

Quick Update

Finished the basic NPC AI earlier today, it still needs some work, and balancing, but it can be seen in the sandbox preview, found on the discord, it only shows what the npc wants to do (as the basegame still needs a rewrite, and i am unable to hook into it fully to sandbox the movement, till the world generation code is mostly done).

It is using a super simple setup atm, and I will likely redo it into a more refined method of the same kind of AI processing, but once this happens it will work the same, just will likely be easier for me to add stuff to it, and hopfully cleaner in the code view, the current methods used were simply done this way so i could quickly get something in and working, just to check and make sure this specific processing doesnt slow down the turns at all, as I will have much more processor heavy AI and other various parts happening later on, which will likely cause something, and my goal atm is still to make sure performance doesnt go too out there like the previous basegame.

 

[Noli Timere]

Quick Update

I am back on the world generation coding.

Working on various Unifications of processes used in world locations, like ID and Name Generation, so that locations all will have unique id's and naming, as well as moving onto city generation, which ill likely be keeping rather simple with the portal location (fast travel location) will be the entry point, and have access to all of the internal locations for the player to go to (will limit how many locations a city can contain itself, but each location will be able to have up to 9 missions able to spawn in them for now), later on I will work on the generation code more and make it so that each city will have there internal locations setup in a maze like generation, connecting to one another, however as that would take alot more time then i want to put into the basic generation code atm, the simple route is better, so i can progress a bit faster to actually getting missions setup in the new format, as well as getting all the underlying functionality built.

 

[Noli Timere]

Games still going, npc AI is now the main focus, world generation will return as the focus once the AI is working as much as i need it to be.


Should probly state that, world generation is finished to the point where it creates cities, mountains, and forests, no missions yet, since it will be better to work on those once im at the visual code layer.

 

[Lone Wolf115]

Race

Sorry I reduced what you said to one word will there be some kind of anthro and race like catgirls.
High strength, Above Average Dexterity, Above Average Intelligence, High Constitution, below average Charisma.

Just spitballing (ideas.)

 

[Noli Timere]

Species will likely have many variations, and there will be a slightly robust modding method of adding your own from the get go.

 

[Lone Wolf115]

Species will likely have many variations, and there will be a slightly robust modding method of adding your own from the get go.

Okay well I'm no coder or writer just an idea for you to run with.

Android?

Not to be that guy. Will I get credit for this in the credits?

 

[Noli Timere]

We are still a bit early for crediting, I havent given much thought on it yet, since the games gone through alot of issues prior, and my focus has been on trying to fix all the problems with the languages(s) and middleman engines ive started working on this with.

but atm im unsure of what other species will be added, and for the modding it wont be complicated for adding new species, theres a idea of it on the discord under the modder-haven channel (outdated due to changes but very close to what it will be like)

 

[Lone Wolf115]

Okay got it I'm gonna keep watching this thread for further details. ;3

 

[Noli Timere]

As for Cell phones, I am unsure on compatibility, the prior version showed me that accomodating cell phone screens may be a issue for various parts of the game, but its a maybe, once the games got through a bunch of its issues, and have gotten gameplay added, mobiles can be looked at, the only issue is I dont use cell phones for a number of reasons, one major one being privacy, so testing will likely be a very long process, as i will need to wait for people to test for me.

 

[Lone Wolf115]

As for Cell phones, I am unsure on compatibility, the prior version showed me that accomodating cell phone screens may be a issue for various parts of the game, but its a maybe, once the games got through a bunch of its issues, and have gotten gameplay added, mobiles can be looked at, the only issue is I dont use cell phones for a number of reasons, one major one being privacy, so testing will likely be a very long process, as i will need to wait for people to test for me.

If you get it on phones ill help be one of the first start a conversation with me if and when you got it onto phones if not then it is what it is. Try not to burn your self out along with anyone working with you.

 

[Noli Timere]

Saddly phones may be a bigger issue due to having to make my own save/load situation, as i reached a wall which held me back quite a bit of time.

basicly save files atm are 100's of megs for a large gameworld, maxing out around 800-900 megs currently (this is with slight compression) the problem is adding more compression will slow down the save times which is currently less then a minute.

reasons for the change in as much detail thats needed is, sugarcube saves could only save a max of maybe 5000 complex objects (not including npcs as they are much more complex then majority of the objects in the game space atm) NPC's it could save around 400-800 max with out any real room for any other kind of object, also the save times around that were around 2-4 minutes, which was god awful

the new method with light compression, which to be honest is about the same compression that sugarcube could do, but maybe a little better, is 10 times faster and can hold around 7 million complex objects, and for npcs its around 2500 (Plus extra room for other smaller complex objects) before the save/load system can no longer save effectively (i think due to the save file size, and possible browser limitations, I will likely try and learn some to do with compression and try to work on the compression library im currently using, but the only changes i was able to make that actually did something, didnt do much of it, and only increased the speed that saves can save, which again is under a minute for 800 megs, compared to 2-4 minutes for less then 100 megs

if somehow i can find a secondary compression library that works with my primary, that doesnt degrade the speed at which it saves but makes the saves smaller, then i would be fine with adding it in, and hopfully that would work for mobiles, atm though as ive finally gotten out of that data restriction, my primary focus is back onto the creative side and finishing the rewrite, to get everything working again, with all the changes/additions to the games framework.

So ya atm, likely not to be mobile friendly once there is gameplay available, but it doesnt mean i wont at some point take another look at the parts that i think will likely cause mobile users the most issues.

 

[Lone Wolf115]

Saddly phones may be a bigger issue due to having to make my own save/load situation, as i reached a wall which held me back quite a bit of time.

basicly save files atm are 100's of megs for a large gameworld, maxing out around 800-900 megs currently (this is with slight compression) the problem is adding more compression will slow down the save times which is currently less then a minute.

reasons for the change in as much detail thats needed is, sugarcube saves could only save a max of maybe 5000 complex objects (not including npcs as they are much more complex then majority of the objects in the game space atm) NPC's it could save around 400-800 max with out any real room for any other kind of object, also the save times around that were around 2-4 minutes, which was god awful

the new method with light compression, which to be honest is about the same compression that sugarcube could do, but maybe a little better, is 10 times faster and can hold around 7 million complex objects, and for npcs its around 2500 (Plus extra room for other smaller complex objects) before the save/load system can no longer save effectively (i think due to the save file size, and possible browser limitations, I will likely try and learn some to do with compression and try to work on the compression library im currently using, but the only changes i was able to make that actually did something, didnt do much of it, and only increased the speed that saves can save, which again is under a minute for 800 megs, compared to 2-4 minutes for less then 100 megs

if somehow i can find a secondary compression library that works with my primary, that doesnt degrade the speed at which it saves but makes the saves smaller, then i would be fine with adding it in, and hopfully that would work for mobiles, atm though as ive finally gotten out of that data restriction, my primary focus is back onto the creative side and finishing the rewrite, to get everything working again, with all the changes/additions to the games framework.

So ya atm, likely not to be mobile friendly once there is gameplay available, but it doesnt mean i wont at some point take another look at the parts that i think will likely cause mobile users the most issues.

If it happens it happens if not then all well.

 

[Noli Timere]

Well ill likely want to see if I can make the save/load better later on, so if it ends up with a much smaller save file, I'm sure it would work with mobiles, barring any incompatibilities with the method for decompression/compression on the phone itself, atm saving is super fast, but loading is a bit slower then the sugarcube version, but its also having to load ten times more, but ill still be looking back to it later down the road, to see if anything can be done with it to make it better.

anyways;

quick update

the "prototype" for NPC AI is done, however i ran into a issue with it that was causing freezes on high volumes of npcs (2000+) and sometimes on lower amounts, I fixed the freezes with a temporary fix, so the original prototype works, and can be seen on the discords preview client, however I'm going to be rebuilding the process to make it cleaner, and more closed off from other attempts on the same function, which the issue I was guessing was due to using a handler process where the variables were shared for some of the parts, which when dealing with large volumes of npcs or when spamming the end turn, could result in said shared variables sharing the wrong values for the said npcs, however as I couldn't actually figure out the issue, it could also be another reason; IE: forgetting some syntax on one of the connecting functions, or in the function itself (not likely), or just bad coding on my part (seeing as I'm still learning new does and don'ts for JS, and am still likely a beginner-intermediate in terms with what I understand about the language(s) I'm using), so will just have to get through this redo on it, and see if it still has issues, which would lead to one of the alternatives above rather then the first thought.

Aside from that I had also finished off the basic modder functions for species, and also added in a template for character classes and also finished off the basic modder functions for those too, along side a bunch of cleaning/needed additions to various parts of the systems in place, there has also been some (small) preperations for a NPC Dialogue system, and Dungeons, and I have gotten some of the beginnings for the old mission system into the new rewrite, still alot of work to do for the missions to be able to be hooked into a visual layer though, and same goes for most of the other parts added, some are again just templates, and wont have purpose till i get around to the stuff that will likely be using it most.

 

[Noli Timere]

quick update,

npcs ai has been finished enough and is working as its ment too (minus some wonky balancing for there wants)

I have decided to put missions as a whole off of my main focus, as I cant really test them very well, will likely get them prepped for generation in the game world, but thats about it till i get to the visual code layer, or get more energy to work on something i wont be able to test till its able to be visualized.

As such, ill be moving onto more npc stuff, as its become apparent that getting alot of there stuff out of the way now will be easier then later, so i have started on getting the dialogue system out of the way, and have gotten a basic personality based dialogue tree setup with 5-6 questions (as not all questions that the player asks will need to be personalized per personality, and can be generic in a sense to cut down on excess work) once most of it is done the sandbox preview client will be updated with a conversation layer which will work on whichever npc you are currently viewing (this is just heresay atm, as im not close to setting it up yet)

Aside from the conversation stuff, ill also be looking at settlements a bit more, and npc leader AI; Settlement stuff will be adding in the research, bits for use by the leader (Construction stuff for the most part is already in there minus a few non building based parts).

I have also been working through bugs in various parts of the project, and the project should be very stable now, only issues remaining (that i know about) now are the messy wants/needs for the npc ai which is to do with balancing, not actual code fault.

 

[Noli Timere]

Also should point out, that even if art is on the side lines, I am making sure to use methods that will work better with the paperdoll, as well as have researched how to add moddable CSS for use with the coloring method used in the paperdoll, so there will still be art capability in the modding system, just will need its own modding tool to tell the modder how to create the color there trying to create, figured since i havent really said a thing about art due to our artist being too busy with real life situations to work on the project with us, that id put a quick update on that to aleviate anyone who was looking forward to the art portion.

this means people will be able to create there own art packs for modded and base game races. (the images used still use a strict color scheme, which i will probly add a helper text file in the graphics folder, stating what colors to use for various parts).

 

[Lone Wolf115]

I may have missed it but where are the downloads?

 

[Noli Timere]

The preview client which is currently a sandbox for the current npc/world generation, is under client-preview on the discord, the projects undergoing a large rewrite/refactor to deal with performance issues that occured with the earlier build(s)

also should add the preview client up atm is the older ai with a fix, not the newest update, as im still dealing with some balancing issues with the want/needs function.

 

[Lone Wolf115]

Ok thanks.

 

[Noli Timere]

If you want to preview the newest, please send me a PM on the discord, and i can send the newest with the wonky needs/wants balancing (Discord user: Loki)

the one up had a issue where the AI could become locked up due to how it was written, which was fixed in the newest method.

 

[Noli Timere]

Quick update

Prelim Dialogue Systems been added, probly needs more parts added, but i went with the illusion Artifical academy method and made it so each personality has there own dialogue libraries per trait, will take a long ass time to fill them all but that will come with time, I added a generic dialog library and added some basic entries per current part for the time being.

will be moving onto building the AI Directors sections for controlling the AI Settlements leaders, as well as looking at what all is still needed for research/construction within the settlements, will leave the law stuff till later however as I am thinking I need to redo some of the ideas for it.

 

[Noli Timere]

Real life took a pretty major turn during this year, and ive gotten rather busy, the whisper project is on hiatus, and ive started on a smaller side project based on a text based anime (in terms of environment/story) interactive kinetic sandbox (not sure if theres a proper term for it) this isnt taking the place of whisper, as ill be retuning to whisper when i get actual time to work on a large project, however i need something to keep my knowledge in JS and sugarcube up, so this side project is where my time will be going

if anyone has interest in this kind of project feel free to check the discord, as i setup a small section with information on it, and updates for it.

 

[Noli Timere]

Switching to Steam for the communication end, as had some issues with discord, due to not wanting to use cell phones.

Dev Group Link: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/NTDevelop/