Game Development: Surveyor's Delight

[jorb]

We've been developing, and here's what's new.



New Implementations
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• Implemented client-side authority surveys.
  
  • The client can now arbitrarily set and transfer the desired height of individual survey points to the server.
  • Used that to implement some basic sculpting tools.
  • You can pull a corner point of a survey to raise the slope of the surveyed area relative to that point.
  • You can pull any other point to move the survey area generally.
  • You can hold shift to select/create a sub-area of multiple survey points, which can be similarily modified as the survey generally.
  • Realize fully that this is not the full 3d-modelling tool required to perfectly terraform, but it is perhaps a start, and it should allow custom client makers to create their own tools to aid in surveying.

Key Fixes
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• Significant server side optimization work has been performed on hittesting, object delta transfers, protocol object lists, &c, which should imply significant performance gains not least in terms of peak user capacity.
• Fixed a bug, active since the attribute modifier remake, by which the loss of knockout protection from murderous raged failed to apply correctly.
• Fixed a bug, active since the attribute modifier remake, by which the attributes previously buffed by various alchemical ingredients accidentally changed. Previously modified attributes have now been restored.

Small Fixes
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• Redrew several icons, mostly under the "Crafting" submenu, in higher resolution.

As always, if you liked what we did here: Support the patch.

Today's Patch Item, for the fair price of $7 is the "Flower Cup Cap".

$7Blooming in spring, sprouting to a full head of flowery fragrance and beauty.

All Gold & Silver subscribers have been awarded the "Flower Cup Cap", free of charge.

In the Pipe
-----------------------

• Our primary development direction is toward object-controlled-objects.
• Time to... like us on Facebook?
• Time to... follow us on Twitter?

Enjoy!

[Ganhart]

pog

[Josioshane]

Sounds like a small update. Now the pyramid can be properly surveyed for tax write offs.

[nachtmaerie]

Awesome. Thanks for your work Jorb and Loftar.

[Arbys]

Neat!

[Dondy]

Okay, how do I fill a hole, assuming some of the side of the survey is the right level?

[loftar]

Okay, how do I fill a hole, assuming some of the side of the survey is the right level?

Not sure exactly what you mean, but if you just want to level an area, it works pretty much exactly as previously, except you set the level by click-and-dragging on a point instead of using the previous slider in the survey window.

[xyzzy57]

And how do I select a level, if there isn't a handy reference already present?

[xyzzy57]

Okay, how do I fill a hole, assuming some of the side of the survey is the right level?

Not sure exactly what you mean, but if you just want to level an area, it works pretty much exactly as previously, except you set the level by click-and-dragging on a point instead of using the previous slider in the survey window.

The slider was a bit annoying, because it would often move 2 steps when I only wanted one, but it was easy to understand, and didn't require me to have something in survey range that was already the desired level. I could easily do "make this whole area one notch lower/higher" - something I did routinely when I wanted earth to level elsewhere, or wanted to dispose of earth without making an unsightly mess.

Is there any way to perform either function - make area 1 notch higher or lower - with the new UI?

[loftar]

The slider was a bit annoying, because it would often move 2 steps when I only wanted one, but it was easy to understand, and didn't require me to have something in survey range that was already the desired level. I could easily do "make this whole area one notch lower/higher" - something I did routinely when I wanted earth to level elsewhere, or wanted to dispose of earth without making an unsightly mess.

Is this effectively a complaint that it's hard to make fine adjustments to the level, or am I misunderstanding you? The current setting is that 10 pixels of vertical mouse movement causes a change of one Z unit to the point(s) being dragged. I will admit it never even crossed my mind that this would be too course. Are you using a somewhat bad mouse or something that causes this to be a problem for you? I don't mean that in a rude manner, nor that I couldn't be persuaded to support bad mice, mind you, just trying to figure out what the problem is.

And how do I select a level, if there isn't a handy reference already present?

Did the previous leveling tool provide a handy reference that the new one doesn't? It wasn't the intention to remove anything.