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In July and August I focused on creating more content on Antilia.
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In July and August I've been focusing on creating more content for Antilia, and I would say the results have been a little mixed. Some content projects worked out while others had to go back to the drawing board a few times. A part of me thought that by taking a break from programming (and the long compile times that are slowing development on that front) Antilia would see a bunch of new content get added. So far however I've focused primarily on a few large content projects which have required a lot of time.
Maulei Beach
The first content project I started work on was to find a better style for Maulei Beach. I ended up trying out a couple different styles, and I think I've found one I prefer. This is still a work in progress as I experiment with some new building, tree, and plant designs to go with the red crystals.
I prefer this red crystal style as it is distinct from other regions of the Isle of Kasau, and looks like a beach.
The red crystals really lend themselves well to platforming challenges, and the large bridge in front of the cave was replaced with a series of stepping stones.
Another style I tried for Maulei Beach involved large blue crystals, but as I thought about it the Isle of Kasau already has a region named the "Blue Coast" that needs another pass. I'll try the blue crystal theme in that region and see how that works out.
Craftable Weapons
Next I worked on more sword parts for Antilia's new crafting system, and started working on bow parts.
This dual-blade sword blade demonstrates multiple morphs and material selections.
The creative potential of Antilia's crafting system expands with each part and texture option I add.
Craftable Clothing
In the past month I've closed a few technical gaps so that Antilia can now have craftable clothing. The Taipii have been standing around in the same pants and shirts (often gray) for too long now, and I am very eager to see them in some new clothes. Along the way some programming work sneaked in that allows fabric selection to affect the color and sheen of the object (though that is not demonstrated in these screenshots).
The new clothes are still a work-in-progress, and I still have quite a bit more work to do before unveiling them. I've designed about 30 clothing parts in total so far, spread across pants, shirt, linauteifo, and robeapron.
New pants craftable with base and leg options. I plan to put some better texturing on these.
Linau worn over pants. The linau is equipped separately in the "waist" slot. Still working on some clipping issues and the linau is not textured in this shot.
Wranglers Guild Hall
I've added guild halls for the Taipii  Lumberjack and  Mason guilds recently, and this month I designed another for the  Tapii Wranglers Guild. The new guild hall is located in the Jidou Grazelands where it can monitor the wild Jidou and allow domesticated jidou to graze.
Having the locations and a bit of lore established for each of the guild halls present on the Isle of Kasau makes it easier to write quests with confidence.
The new Wranglers Guild chapter in the Jidou Grazelands.
Storm and Weather Experiments
And finally I'd like to share some images of an experiment I did inspired by a story/game I occasionally post to on the Discord server. Antilia has weather spawners and small weather systems that are spawned in, but currently the only weather system is a small cluster of clouds that lazily moves across the sky. Recently I experimented with an alternate weather system - this time a dangerous whirlwind effect. This isn't ready for inclusion in the game yet, but it demonstrated that spawning in different weather effects and letting them move slowly across the map for a while before dissipating is a good fit for our engine and is easy to implement.
Before reaching the storm the sky starts to turn gray.
At mid-day and closer to the storm the sky turns a dusty brown.
I'm still deciding if the center of the storm should damage the player or throw them up into the air...
Next Steps
The content I need for craftable weapons an clothing are not done yet, so in September I will continue to work on those things. The end of the year (and presumably a new update video) are approaching fast, and I'm thinking a lot lately about what I'd like to have working for that video and what the plan will be in 2025.
That's all for this update. Thanks for reading!
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