November 2, 2008
Quick update —
We've added some channels to IRC on irc.freenode.net. You can connect to #legendofmazzeroth for general chat and support as well as #lom-developers for more technical questions reguarding the software itself.
Note that these channels are completely new and so chances are you're only going to see me in there. As I have limited time available to answer questions (or even be near a computer) you may not get a response.
Anyway, if you don't have an IRC Client you can use the nav links to use the Mibbit client. We've also added links to the LoM project page on newagesoftware.org and to the Forum pages as well. Both of those links will pop up a small IRC chat window which should function without any problems.
In other news, we've decided to dump Guichan as our GUI library in favor of writing our own. This is primarily because the Windows build just doesn't work properly and Guichan may just be too big for what we actually need it to do anyway.
October 22, 2008
Hey everyone! I have made a great effort today to redesign the graphics for our forum to better match our website! These changes have been uploaded, and while not complete yet, will be completed by the end of this week.
Please let us know what you think of this new theme and any suggestions you might have via our forums!
News on coding progress will be posted soon!
September 27th, 2008
Since the last post, we’ve made a lot of headway in terms of development and planning. We’ve laid out the roadmap for the project development into four phases, the first of which we’ve already completed (minus a few loose ends that need to be tied up).
Phase 1 was put in place to discuss and design the New Age code base before we started any coding. We wanted to avoid the pitfalls that plague and often doom open-source projects such as poor planning and resist the urge to ‘just get something working’. Bad code is not worth trying to fix and it seemed logical to have a good idea of what we were going to do before we actually did it.
Phase 2 of our development process (which we just now entered) will focus on the Client itself. We don’t have the manpower to develop both a Client and Server simultaneously so we opted to instead focus on the Client itself. However, much of the code that will go into the single-player mode (such as NPC/Monster Logic, player handling, weather systems, etc.) can later be transplanted into a stand-alone server that can then take over the task of dictating where things are and how they are behaving. Enter Phase 3.
Phase 3 of the development process, as mentioned earlier, will essentially be transplanting the network, logic and message protocol code developed during Phase 2 and building stand-alone server software around it. It should be a fairly straight-forward and quick process and modifying the Client code to ‘plug in’ to the Server software should be trivial. This phase will focus on developing the inter-server message protocol, database storage engines and web-based administrative back-ends. Most of this development process will not be public and so will be heavily tested by the development team itself. We will also be developing the MMO content so that we can test out all important areas of MMO’s like quests, scripts, events, battles and so on.
Phase 4 is the point where we will finish the single-player mode and complete our offline testing and open up public test servers. From here we will iron out any additional protocol problems that may arise including performance bottlenecks and major bugs. This is the point where most of our MMO content will begin major development and we can begin to see some real tangible evidence that we’ve got ourselves a fully-realized MMORPG.
Beyond the roadmap, we’ve finally got ourselves our very own domain name and host! It includes our Community Forums and Wiki as well as project related documentation. You can visit here: http://www.newagesoftware.org
Thank you to everybody who’s supported us from the beginning. Here’s to a successful development process!
September 23rd, 2008
First ground has been broken in development of the New Age Client Code! It's not much but it's there (all of an hour's worth of work plus documentation, tweaking, etc.).
Framework code compiles on Win32 and MacOS X.
Doxygen documentation is also available: http://www.newagesoftware.org/projects/lom/doc/
September 18th, 2008
We've finally been able to acquire our very own domain name and so we're now in the transition of moving over from Wikidot to our new Wiki software.
In the mean time, our Community and Developer Forums have been moved to our new host and domain. The database should be intact although there may be a few issues that crop up. We'll resolve them as we find them.
The Wiki will remain here for now until we are able to port all of the data over. It will take some time but for now Wikidot will work just fine.
September 10th, 2008
After a very long outage, the public prototype server has been brought back online. This will allow users and potential developers the time to try out the game and see what we have been trying to accomplish.
Please note, however, that there is a severe movement glitche that has cropped up in the legacy code. It is an issue that has not found any resolutions at this point. However, with our new Client/Server software, we don't expect to encounter a similar error.
Any suggestions are welcome. As always, we are still in need of tileset and pixel artists. Please contact us if you are interested.
September 1st, 2008
A lot has been happening with LoM since the last news post. In particular, we have officially labeled all of the TMW code base as 'legacy' and have made a lot of headway into the design of the new software code base entitled 'New Age'.
A number of developers have joined the team including the writer of the original story that the game is based on.
We've decided that we are going to write the Client first and focus on the server at a later date. The development of the Client should allow us to develop many components that can be transplanted into the Server Software.
We are still in search of additional artists particularly for tilesets, the Player animation and some introductory monsters. Contact Leeor or Trevor if you're interested.
August 13th, 2008
I have added a Calendar to the website and modified via public calendar on google, this way we can keep track and better plan developer meetings.
August 6th, 2008
We have gained a couple new members and a new artist. Our software designs are coming along nicely and we are nearing the final design stages.
Our forums have been opened up to anyone willing to register on them so that you can checkout our latest discussions and even let us know what you think!
For all of you who have been following our progress I would like to thank you all for your support!
-Trevor
July 17th, 2008
Our programming team has grown to include 7 programmers. We've delved into the new software design and have made some progress. We hope to start coding the new Client and Server software soon.
While we are working out the actual software, we have a working prototype (well, mostly working). It will allow us to develop the content that will be used by the new software.
To that end, we are in need of additional Concept Artists and Pixel Artists.
Anybody interested in working on Pixel Art should take a look at the Pixel Art section, choose an item and go right ahead and draw it. At that point you can then e-mail it to Leeor — he will then review and critique your work. We will be setting up a Pixel Art Guidelines page but in the meantime, the general guidelines are item images can't be larger than 32x32 pixels with a light direction from the upper left. See some of our existing items in the Items section of Pixel Art to get a general idea of the style we are looking for.
Concept artists will be needed to develop environments, structures and equipment. Le Phan's specialties lie in monsters and people however she is no longer able to put in much time to the project so we will need someone to fill this position.
June 29th, 2008
It has been decided to completely rewrite the software for The Legend of Mazzeroth. Development has already been started on the design of the new software and further details will be kept in the Client, Server and Tools & Utilities topics.
June 24th, 2008
Today marks another milestone as we announce our official departure from The Mana World's development line.
June 21st, 2008
It's been awhile since our last release but we finally have it ready — v0.0.5 of the Game Client! We've released both the Client and Server packages as a Windows (2000/XP/Vista) and a MacOS X Universal Pacakge. You can get them from the Downloads page.
The new Client includes the following changes:
- Build & Link against Guichan GUI Library 0.8.0.
- MiniMap will now display the name of a Map instead of just 'MiniMap'.
- Better UI Fonts added.
- Item ToolTips implemented for the Inventory Window.
- Preliminary internal support for WorldMap.
- Speech Bubbles Implemented.
- Basic GUI Skinning implemented.
- Updates/News Window activated.
- Check for Content Updates from the Server.
- Passwords are now submitted to the server using an SHA-256 encryption.
- 'Item Received' message bug has been corrected.
- 'Interface' tab added to Setup Window.
- Player and NPC names can now be hidden through the Setup Window.
- Added support for Footwear Visuals.
- Party Support added.
- Guild Support added.
- Users can change their password.
- Users can change their e-mail address.
- Net message optimizations.
- New Wiki-based website!
Enjoy!
The Legend of Mazzeroth Development Team
June 18th, 2008
The Mapping section has been updated with new information to get you started with creating your very own maps for LoM. More information will be added soon.
The Legend of Mazzeroth team has expanded once again and now has a roster of 9 developers. Over the next few days everyone who hasn't already will be given some items to start working on.
This work will be the last updates for v0.0.5 before official release!
June 11th, 2008
Just a quick project update! We have gained two more members! Bovine (Lua Scripting) and Zachari (Story & Lore). Our team is growing every week and with it organization is increased. We look forward to working with both of you and will get things going within the next couple of days.
June 8th, 2008
The project's activity has increased lately. Trevor has been hard at work developing our in-house Accounts Maintence Application, updated information can be found at LoM Admin Backend.
Another developer has joined the team with some interesting new and exciting developments which we will reveal at a later date!
Many changes have been made to the code including a couple bug fixes that have plagued the project since release. A full change log for the current development release is at LoM v0.0.5.
The Legend of Mazzeroth has called for any and all pixel artists and tileset artists to come aid in the development of this great project! If anyone is interested please send contact any of the developers.
May 31st, 2008
A serious issue has been identified with the Client that causes serious desynchronizations of both players and other beings (mobs, npc's, etc.). This makes the game frustrating to play… at best. While this is an issue that will be corrected, it's possible that the corrections will not make it into v0.0.5 of the Client.
In other news, we have two new members of the Development Team, Le Phan (Concept Artwork) and Brandon (Sound FX). Both have already developed some new content that will really help LoM begin to take on its own life.
May 18th, 2008
The public game server was down this weekend due to a database instability issue. As there is currently no administrative backend for the database for maintenance, removing obsolete test accounts caused orphaned records which ultimately resulted in the account server not functioning properly.
This problem illustrates two issues — 1.) that the account server needs redundancy checks for orphaned record sets in the database without finding the need to barf and 2.) an administrative backend program to aid in properly maintaining the server database files.
The administrative backend program will end up being a sub-project of LoM that will probably take the name of lom_server_admin.
May 12th, 2008
A lot has been added to this site so everyone can see what we have been up to. We are getting everything ready so when this project officially branches off we can hit the ground running!
Changes:
- TODO pages
- Maps
- Story (updated)
- Change logs (released and planned)
April 21st, 2008
A MacOS X Universal Package of the Game Client v0.0.4 has been built and tested to work. It is available for download from the Downloads page.
March 30th, 2008
A new version of the Game Client, v0.0.4, is now available from the Download page! This update includes the following changes:
- Security Update: Passwords are now sent to the Game Server as an MD5 Hash instead of plain text.
- Added 'Creatures'. These are animated moving objects like monsters except that they can't be attacked and won't block NPC, Player or Monster paths.
- Completed several outdoor area maps.
- Gem Vendor NPC will now create Complete Crystals from Crystal Fragments.
- Lots of internal code clean up.
- New application Icons.
- MiniMap Window now sets itself properly when the program starts for the first time.