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.

Networking

Work to refactor and improve Antilia's core networking for multiplayer continued along this week. The ClientConnection and ClientConnectionPool classes on the server have been refactored to use my cleanest coding and design practices. They are now better designed to handle compact binary packets, automatically log statistical information (such as packet types, frequencies, and sizes), and provide a better solution for associating network connections to user and game data.

There's still quite of ground to cover converting all of Antilia's network traffic to compact binary packets, which I'll continue working on this week.

Character Creation

Another item on my list of things that must be fixed before Antilia can enter alpha testing is to improve the character creation process. The current code was brought in from the Antilia Character Creation Demo I made available a few years back. I've been working on updating the UI theme to match the current Antilia style, fix up a number of small glitches, add a few missing features, and reduce the number of speculative options that were included in the Character Creation Demo which don't do anything.

A work-in-progress screenshot of the Character Creation screens in the process of being updated and fixed.

I've fixed the most important bug: A few months back clicking the "save" button after the final step broke and was returning to the Character Select screen without creating the new character. With that fixed I can finally design characters again. The window on the right displaying character statistics will need to be replaced with a newer window I've designed to display the same information (you've seen it to the left of the skill grid in previous shots). Also several steps in the process which display initial stats or suggesting initial equipment will need to be considered when the final character is generated.

I would like it if when you created a new character it would also be saved locally. Then players would be able to "Import" from a local collection. I don't know if I'll have that working in time for the alpha tests. Having it would reduce the frustration of re-creating characters after a server reset or testing in another scenario.

Swamp Tree Improvements

I created a new "tall" Faykala tree variation for use in the Tangled Lands and also fixed the distant tree sprites for several trees which weren't scaled quite right.

These taller Fakalya trees now appear near the center of the Tangled Lands.

Felling one of these trees should eventually require a team effort, with some members of the party defending the lumberjacks from wandering  Iichii while others deal damage to the tree.

Lexicon - Taipii Guilds

In last week's developer meeting (to which Patreon supporters are invited to listen in) I brought up the topic of Taipii culture for a bit of brainstorming. It still feels a bit unclear to me what the majority of Taipii spend most of their time doing, and so I wanted to start defining the Taipii Guilds.

Here are a couple of new pages I've been working on in the lexicon:

•  Taipii Guilds provides a list of Taipii Guilds I've started brainstorming. Some of them will be renamed and there are a few (such as the Daura au'lii) that I'm still determining how I wish to categorize. All but one of the child pages are currently blank.
  
•  Taipii Alchemists Guild has a list of ranks/roles I've started for Taipii alchemists. There's still plenty more to brainstorm and mentally explore with the alchemists (and I may add a couple more ranks), but it's a start.
  

That's all for this week, thanks for reading!