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Welcome to Antilia!
Antilia is a sandbox-style RPG which is currently in development. It features an open world, single and multiplayer modes, and customizable characters! Click on "Features" in the overhead menu to learn more!
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Latest Video Update
Here is Antilia's most recent video update. Be sure to scroll down for the latest weekly updates!
Weekly Update - Skills, Special FX, Projectiles
Work to add combat to Antilia is continuing along, with AI Behaviors and creature spawning now mostly complete (there are still a lot of AI behavior nodes to add and probably some surprises still lurking). Lately my attention has turned more toward the game's Skill system, combat mechanics, visual effects, and getting projectiles to work.
Skills System
While the Skill Grid was added to Antilia quite some time ago now, there haven't been a lot of skills added to it since then. It is good to finally see all the pieces I need coming together and I am excited to put them to use soon. Skills are now capable of triggering effects and launching projectiles, projectiles are flying around on the client, and those can trigger more effects when they hit something.
| Note: | I don't have any suitable effects designed yet for the iichii to attack with. What you see in today's screen captures include a variety of ClientEffects (see heading below) being tested. The  iichii may eventually get a 'spit acid' attack - but they won't be shooting magic crystals at you like you see in some of the images below. Magic crystals were a handy way to test that projectiles orient correctly and were easier to see than using arrows. And those explosions? Those are pearls with a bit of animation. :)) |
All the parts are coming together, now I just need to arrange them into a working combat system. The response time of the multi-threaded server does have me a little concerned about how combat will play and feel, but after a bit of discussion a couple weeks back I think I've got some good ideas for that.
AI Behaviors can now invoke characters and creatures to use combat skills against hostile targets.
Special FX (ClientEffects)
The effect system isn't only useful for combat - in just a couple weeks of development it's become one of my favorite new tools. I wish I could have implemented it sooner as it provides features that would have made developing systems like fishing a fair bit easier (I plan to go back and clean up that code to use effects for things like casting and hooking fish.) I expect this system to see a lot of use in the future as I polish things up more. I can trigger an effect in response to anything - running, jumping, landing... Passive skills like double-jump might trigger an alternate effect to play at the character's feet when used to jump mid-air. Eating food or drinking a potion could trigger an effect (with the effect resource file being specified by the food or potion).. I don't know if it's coming across in this writing, but I am super excited by the new effects system and I am spotting use cases for it everywhere.
A snippet of what an effects file looks like. It's probably more exciting for me than anyone else, but oh boy is it exciting!
A great thing about the effects system is that once I build up a library of effect files to use, playing them only requires a single line of code from the client or server like playEffect(effect_filename, target_id) or playEffect(effect_filename, world_position).
Effect Animation System
One thing I discovered quickly is that effects frequently need a bit of simple animation. Initially I started out with a few layer types offering animations on key properties (such as adding a setting to lights that causes them to fade in or out after being activated), but as I continued to add effect layer types I realized there was a better way. The Toi Engine features an ancient practically forgotten system for animation that I haven't been making good use of. I decided to reacquaint myself with it and in just a few hours of development I had a very robust system of animation working for all current and future effect layers.
I don't have an editor for these files, but I was able to come up with a straightforward way of describing animation in the json file. (If these effects get too complicated I may consider an editor later on down the road.) It is a full-fledged animation system in that it provides support for multiple channels, keyframes, seamless looping, different keyframe interpolation types (trigger, linear, or spline) as well as simple ease-in/ease-out options. All of the advanced animation features are now supported in the json file, although for simple animations you typically don't need to specify them.
Adding animation to an effect layer is as simple as adding an "animation" section to the json file and listing keyframe values indexed by time for the layer properties that change.
Effect Layers
So what can an effect file do? A lot! Here are the layer types I have currently have working (the "bread and butter" effect layers):
- Audio - Play an audio file at a location. Gain and Pitch can be animated.
- Light - Add a point light to a location. Light color, range, and intensity can be animated.
- Mesh - Display a mesh at a location. I can't yet animate individual material parameters but I plan to look into adding support for that soon.
- Particle Field - Displays a particle field. Most parameters that go into the particle system can be animated.
- Chat Bubble - Used mostly for testing/debugging, but it might have other uses.
And here are some more effects I'd like to add soon:
- Damage Indicator - Add a damage indicator in front of a target to indicate damage or a status effect has been inflicted.
- Play Animations - Cue an animation to play on a creature or character after a fixed delay. Use of this might have some caveats if two effects try to play an animation on the same character at once, so I'm still brainstorming this a bit.
- Camera Shake - Shake the camera around in response to events or as part of the "footstep" effect for larger creatures.
- Projected Texture - Project a texture onto static world geometry. (For impact marks, footprints, etc.)
- Environment Settings - Temporarily override environmental settings like fog and global lighting in a local region.
- Post Effects - Temporarily add a post effect filter on the camera.
Projectiles
As you've already seen in the screenshots above projectiles have been added as well. There is an action layer that can be added to Skills called LaunchProjetileAction that will launch one or more projectiles, and it can be used multiple times with different settings to create complex patterns of projectiles launching in different directions. Projectiles have settings for air resistance and gravity, and use the effect system to play an effect at launch, for the flying projectiles themselves, and upon impact.
There are a few more things I'd still like to add to projectiles, such as homing projectiles and better control over the collision boxes.
That's all for this week, thanks for reading!
Article Link: Weekly Update - Skills, Special FX, ProjectilesNews Article Page
Weekly Update - Skills, Special FX, Projectiles
Over the past few weeks I've been working on the Skills, Client Special Effects, and Projectile systems - and those systems are finally starting to work well in concert together.
Weekly Update - Combat Decisions
Work on creature AI and the Behavior Editor continues to march along. Hostile creatures are attacking the player now, but I have some decision to make as to what style of player control is the best fit for Antilia and its server.
Weekly Update - Eggs are Hatching, Clothing
This week I finished up work on the creature nests with eggs now incubating, and hatching. Jidou and iichii now hatch, grow, and then die. I also spent a little time on the side working on clothing and equipment.
Weekly Update - Creature Nests, Eggs, and Spawning
Last week my attention shifted from the AI Behavior Editor to the creatures themselves. While my intent was to start building a nice behavior tree for the jidou and iichii, I first needed to get them spawning and de-spawning from the world in a well-tracked manner.
Weekly Update - AI Behavior Editor is Functioning!
For the past few weeks I've been working on the AI behavior editor, and this week I am happy to report that it is now functional!
Weekly Update - Character Switching, Behavior Editor
This week I started work on an editor for AI Behaviors, with as many questions rising from the work as solutions. I also spent some time working on the user interfaces and restored the switch characters function.
Weekly Update - Combat, Server Improvements
Last week I started planning and working on Antilia's combat system, including enemy detection, an AI behavior to follow/chase another creature, and made some server improvements.
Weekly Update - Teleporting, Floating Islands
With the video update having stalled, here are a few things I've been working on in the meantime and an update on what I'll be working on next.
Weekly Update - Plans for 2023
In this week's update I'd like to present my plans for 2023 and what's next for Antilia.
Weekly Update - NPC Conversations, Stylized Text Rendering, Bug Fixes
This week I continued work on the NPC conversation system, stylized text rendering, and fixed some bugs that were in the way of the next test build.
Weekly Update - NPC Conversations, More Fishing Poles
Last week I resumed working on Antilia, adding in some new fishing poles and starting on the NPC conversation system.
Weekly Update - AMD Radeon Support, Development Pause
Last week I solved a variety of bugs and glitches when running Antilia on an AMD Radeon card, but now need to place Antilia development on a temporary pause.
Weekly Update - Cave Improvements!
This week I took a little break from bug fixes and optimizations while waiting for a new GPU for testing to arrive. Instead I worked on improving the terrain engine when used to create caves so I can complete a rough pass across the entirety of the Isle of Kasau.
Weekly Update - Reducing FPS Drops, Optimizing, and Terrain Changes
Last week I focused primarily on reducing FPS drops when crossing terrain page boundaries and making a few optimizations. I also started on some improvements to the terrain system that'll finally allow for collisions with the cave walls and ceiling, and placing clutter on it.
Weekly Update - Detail Settings, NPC Conversations
This week I focused on issues that came out of last weeks test, a settings window, and a system for NPC conversations.
Weekly Update - Setting up a Test Server
Last week I wrapped up the remaining tasks and set up our initial test server!
Weekly Update - More Bug Fixes, Merchant Shops
My focus this week was to resolve the remaining issues that would prevent us from testing, and then I also added a system to buy things from merchants and worked on the Isle of Kasau some.
Weekly Update - Bug Fixes, Request Batches, Merchant NPCs
My priority continues to be preparing Antilia for initial multiplayer testing, but along the way I took the time to add merchants you can sell excess items to.
Weekly Update - Testing Preparations, Crossbows, and Blunderbusses
This week I've been debugging and preparing Antilia for initial testing, reworked the item selection code, and added decorative crossbows and blunderbusses!
Weekly Update - Testing Plans, Respawn Character, Polearms
This week's update includes some details about our first upcoming test phase, development work on character respawning, improvements to the scene object editor, and some new polearm weapons!
Weekly Update - Mushroom Forest, Caves, Hammers & Staves
This week I worked on the Mushroom Forest area (Moivalau Forest), the caves under Gajoi's Claw, and added decorative Hammers, Maces, and Staves
Weekly Update - The Columns, Maulei Beach, Decorative Daggers
Last week I was inspired to do quite a lot of world design, with a new design for Maulei Beach and new regions for the western side of the Isle of Kasau.
Weekly Update - Server Login Changes, Decorative Weapons
More work on the network code with a focus on the login system, and I've added some temporary decorative weapons to the game.
Weekly Update - More Networking, Character Creation, Taipii Guilds
This week I continued my work refactoring the network code, debugged tine character creation process, and spent some time working on the Taipii Guilds.
Weekly Update - Wei Garden, Interface Fixes, Networking
This week I (mostly) finished up Wei Garden, started some needed optimizations to the networking code, and fixed some user interface issues. I focused primarily on refactoring and UI fixes this week, so this update will be brief.
Weekly Update - Chat Window, Takadynns, The List
This week I tried to wrap up work on the Chat Window, made improvements to the games teleport/respawn points, and started on a list of everything that needs to be done to get back into alpha testing.
Weekly Update - More Chat, Scripting, Desert Ruins
This week I continued working on that chat system and added a new set of ruins to the Burning Sands
Weekly Update - Chat Window, Bug Fixes
This week I started work on the chat system, and continued general preparations for multiplayer testing.
Weekly Update - Multiplayer Progress, World Scale
This week I started work on Antilia v0.12, with a focus on multiplayer and preparations for alpha.
Weekly Update - More Web Content and Fixes
This was the second week of my c++ programming break, and as a change of pace I continued work on the lexicon and website!
Weekly Update - Website Fixes, Lexicon Content
This week I made improvements to the website, and roughed in more pages to the lexicon!
Video Update - 0.11.0 Pathfinding and AI Behaviors
I just posted a new update video with a look at Antilia's new pathfinding and AI behavior systems. Characters and creatures are moving around on the Isle of Kasau now, and the Taipii are starting to work together as a simulated community!
Weekly Update - Tree Fade, Bug Fixes
Last week I focused on testing and fixing bugs in preparation for the upcoming video, and managed to implement a few small improvements I've been wanting.
Weekly Update - AI Cooking and Deliveries
As the mid-year point closes in I spent time this week trying to wrap up the foundational NPC behaviors and get a few new behaviors in place. As I transition to working on a video update over the next few weeks these updates will likely look a little different - with tasks related more to debugging and video production and less world building.
Weekly Update - AI Tasks, Southern Kasau Design Pass
This week I worked on a new "Task" system to compliment AI Behaviors, gave the southern side of the Isle of Kasau some preliminary layout passes, and improved the sea rendering.
Weekly Update - Burning Sands, Treasure Chests, Topo Map
This week I added two new regions to the game and improved a third, added treasure chests to make exploration more fun, and experimented with a new topographic style map.
Weekly Update - Fell Trees Behavior, Logging Camp, Bamboo Ponds
This week I implemented a new AI Behavior for felling trees, improved the area around the logging camp, and added a new "Bamboo Ponds" area nearby.
New Antilia Website Now Live!
The new Antilia website is now (mostly) live!