Next up: The big Square Trail update!

So summer has pretty much started and the Lone and Prologue mini-updates have hit, here are some of my goals for this summer.

1. Get the next Square Trail update, version 2, pushed out in the coming weeks.
2. Get some levels done for Prologue, revise gifting system.
3. I doubt I'll be able to get Outskirts part 2 for Lone this summer, SO I'M MAKING IT A 4 PART UPDATE WOOO. parts 2 and 3 will probably come out next month. Finishing the forest area and adding more to the Pier. Actual ferry would be in part 4.

Pretty much: Big updates for all 3 games. But Square Trail will be my main focus. I had to revise my goals for it a bit, but here's what I want as of now:

• Complete UI overhaul, big enough to fit...
• New customization tools!
• Credit system, points are aggregated with bonuses to create Coins each round.
• Coins are spent on items and skins for your Square.
• Items give small "mini-abilities" such as a bomb. They are not limited to your ability choice. You can use Ghost as your ability and carry a few Bomb items. Items are ALWAYS weaker than Abilities.
• Abilities will most likely not be locked out. You won't have to buy them with Coins.
• Skins are different, completely cosmetic designs for your Square. They always have the same size and speed.

A while back I talked about a Ranking system, where you can level up and such. While this seems like a good idea and all, I fear it's a bit overused. Leveling puts interesting RPG aspects into non-RPG games nowadays. Look at Call of Duty (4 and up) and Battlefield 3. Square Trail is not supposed to be an RPG, and I will leave this out until I can come up with an idea better than simple Levels. For now, it'll play similar to Prologue's "MyPro". Collect credits -> buy items for new gameplay -> earn more credits.

Minor lone update!

Here's the update!
Now, the changelog.

• Sound-related bug fixes.
• Sound files compressed to take up less space.
• A few changes to the interface, specifically startup.

Q&A: Better graphics in Prologue, Points.ini editing, Bugfixes

Editing the Prologue Points.ini file.
Eventually I'll release a mini app (probably bundled with Prologue) that'll let you create your own Points.ini's. It'll be simple and user friendly, letting you give yourself weapons, gear, propoints, etc. I'm considering it as part of an app called "tae.OPEN" I want in the future, it'll allow editing of this, and all games running tae (Reminder: Trevor's Advanced Engine) that support it. Which will hopefully be all.


Is there any chance of better graphics in Prologue?
Probably not. I'm talking about taeHD's High Res Display feature, it won't be in Prologue any time soon, if ever.

I just tried it out, upgrading would require me to change pretty much everything. All objects look to small with HRD on, All UI elements are intended for the current screen size... which means I'd have to redo all of that. It's just too much at this point, so don't expect High Res Display in Prologue.

Any PR2 bugfixes coming soon?
There are a few bugs I found fixed. Probably will be in the next nightly, and then the next Prerelease. This includes:

• Super Shield doesn't show up as equipped in the home screen.
• Super Shield is too weak (too much drain)
• Recieving gift codes multiple times (expect Gift changes in PR3)
• Survival STILL doesn't reward enough points for the effort.
• Some badges aren't giving notifications.

Let's go into tae.OPEN details!

For Prologue it'll be a Points.ini editor. Hopefully for lone it'll be a user content creator (SHHHHH, more on that after Outskirts is done...) and in the upcoming Square Trail v1.3 (I'm trying to upgrade it to tae for better playability) some sort of game editor.

Happy Tuesday! Lone Outskirts p1 is RELEASED!

The first part of the lone Outskirts expansion will be released today! Most stuff is finished, but some more stuff needs to be added to the map, ePhone, and some of the new buildings.

It's been a long time since a lone update was released, so it's about time this came out.  Check this post later on today for the installer link! Be sure to uninstall your old Nightlife version. Expect patch notes, too.


UPDATE: Download via my Dropbox HERE!

PATCH NOTES

THE OUTSKIRTS EXPANSION: PART 1 UPDATE NOTES:

• INTRODUCING TWO NEW AREAS: East Bay and Bay Street!
• The Outskirts (East Bay) is a massive extension across the beautiful new Bay Bridge, currently it has 1 subway station, a forest with a dirt track, a beach with water you can swim in, a gas station, and a boardwalk.
• Bay Street introduces a waterside pier into the City. In Part 2 this will have a ferry you can take across to East Bay, as well as a new hub for citizens in the city to hang out. In Part 1 the outside is mostly done, but not completely populated or put into peoples schedules.
• The ePhone, with a press of the Tab key your character takes out the ePhone which displays the current time. It also has apps for Current Events in the city Day or Night, and a Speedometer so you can check your current speed while moving in a car/on foot.
• New buildings in the city! Featuring the CineCorp workplace, and a new appartment (meant for the not publicy released, Co-op mode.)
• Tons of new sound effects.

 BUG FIXES / CHANGES

• A few movement fixes and tweaks, slower walking speed, improved collisions.
• New characters and sprite changes.
• Headlights have been removed for now, due to glitches in the East Bay area.
• Changes to subway stations to make them bigger, in Part 2 they will have small businesses/stalls.
• Day and Night now exists in the cinematic intro.

By the way... I'm still working on Lone!

I just added Night to the main menus, sometimes it's the subtle little things. :D

I'm baackkkkk.

I RETURNNN! Yup, I've been on break from gamedev-ing for a while. Mostly due to my laptop needing to be sent back for repairs and school.

I'll be getting back to work on Lone: Outskirts Expansion pretty soon! I also want to see what I can do with Revelations. I also have a new ideas for the future of taeHD (tae3D just isn't viable for being done in Multimedia Fusion 2, the app I use for my game development) including a way to manage seamless "Frame" transitions, future Open World games will switch between areas much better than ever before, this hasn't been necessary for  any of the current set of games, though. Revelations or Lone. Nations will probably use this, as well another game concept I'm still thinking about. I'll say this much, I want to try making an RPG. I'll post about it later on.

Outskirts Expansion: Let's go over this...

Hey all, it's time for a recap of what I've got done with the update so far, expect it to release publicly by sometime next week.

Yeah. It blows 'Nightlife' out of the water.

New
Two Super-massive new map expansions (districts), East Bay and Bay Street
One new subway station. (East Bay)
Improvements to previous subway stations.
New 'CineCorp' office building, with 1 office so far.
New Apartment building in midtown (For player 2)
Cooperative Mode (Private release, won't be uploaded yet. IS AWESOME.)
"24/7" Gas Convience shop in East Bay.
Non-Realtime Mode (With a critical bug, but not gamebreaking. I'll describe it at release if it isn't fixed.)
New Launcher screen.
Press Space to skip the splash screen.
East Bay Beach.
Parking lots.
East Bay Forest. (RV Lot and Campgrounds not done yet)
Bay Street Seaport (No ferry service yet.)
East Bay Bridge.
"3D Display" on the launcher menu, it just shows the 3D effects for the heck of a tech demo.
Street signs in some places.
It now has a chance to stop raining, and then continue again.
ePhone has been added, with 'eEvents' and 'Speedometer!' apps.
Framework for improved GamePage support.

Fixed / Changed
The new lighting system brought in from Nightlife has been built upon even further, for spectacular effects.
Players walk slower, but sprint has the same effect.
Sound related fixes!
Upped maxobj in the City to 2000+. Slow downs might pop up now and then on low power computers.
Midtown Station was moved a bit.

I am doing work!

SEEE?! I'm just going to put this right here...

Welcome to the Outskirts: It's beautiful!

Welcome to both a Nite Note and WttO article, in one! Plus some todo-ness.


LOOK AT THAT PICTURE. Yup, the Launcher now has the first serious amount of 3D graphics featured in any of my games, in-game Lone does have some 3D on the East Bay Bridge, but still! The sky scrolls, as does the sea below. It looks amazing in motion.

SO WHAT THE EFF IS DONE?
A lot! The land layout for East Bay is complete. A good amount of the forest is done, the bridge is done, new lighting systems are done, Midtown subway overhaul at 50%, the Bay Street Pier is done, but unfurnished. No RV park yet, no campsites yet, no East Bay subway yet, and no Central City Ferry yet.

So, about those activities...
yeahtheywon'tbecominginthisupdate.
In fact they're pretty low on my list. Expect them in the distant future.

FFFFF, well, What was that CSI 2: Nations thing about?
Before CSI 2 Revelations I was working on CSI: Nations, the expansion pack to CSI: The Game. It was meant to be open world mayhem, a-la Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row, where you can run around, drive vehicles at your whim, shoot things up, and blow up whatever you want. Sadly the development of it was impossible past a certain point without the new taeHD 2 engine I'm using today. CSI 2: Nations is basically my second crack at it, and it WILL come out. However, a long time from now. Expect it in Autumn/Winter this year, or at least for the project to start then (hopefully the summer) It'll run Lone's taeHD 2 and is a prequel to CSI 2: Revelations.

SO HOW ABOUT THEM LONE GRAPHICS
I really should work on an update to lone graphics wise at some point, it seems like a weird halfbreed at this point, some parts look absolutely FANTASTIC (The Launcher, Bay Bridge) while others look pretty dang bad (Downtown) so I'll have to get to work on evening it all out at some point, not in this update though.

Some notes for the upcoming lone expansion!
I moved the Park's station to be more between the Park and Bay Street, as opposed to adding another station a few feet away. (Like I did with Midtown Station)

A ton of new lighting effects are hanging around spots, including streetlights!

I started working on the new Midtown Station's interiooor!

Street signs in a few places telling you locations, look forward to more.

The night is darker.

Weather can now be clear or rainy, real randomization is expected to be added at some point today.

The sky, when the weather is clear will be blue during the day and dark at night. :O

Really neat ambient effects have been added to East Bay Beach, including seagulls.

A lot of sound-related bug fixes, like driving your car and walking/running.

The player's walking speed has been lowered, but sprint has stayed the same.

There are some minor lag issues by the water on East Bay Bridg, but it goes away as soon as the water is out of scene, this is on my computer only so far so I need to do more testing.

The phone is pretty much complete besides the flashlight at this point.

Welcome to the Outskirts: DEAR GOD WEATHER

Yup, today I put WEATHER into Lone, it'll now not rain past the 30th minute of every hour, but will before it.
Chances are I'll add more randomization later on, but this was the easiest way to do it. Yay!

Welcome to the Outskirts: A new district.

The Bay Street Seaport District will be added in this update!
It's a whole new district in the city. Modeled after the South Street Seaport of Manhattan, you'll be able to get something to eat at a restaurant, hang out by the water, or catch a boat ride.

The boat may or may not be in this update, or a mini patch after release. We'll see.

There are no screenshots yet, but what will come with this district is more interiors, another subway station, and docks for a boat to be used out of. As well as many new NPC's to add to the atmosphere.

Welcome to the Outskirts: Dev news.

Busy weekend, the 3DS came out! So yeah, not much progress on the update. But here's some news:

Activities will be delayed for another update, it'd take weeks more to release if I tried to put them in now!
A yacht ride around the city will be added either in this update or a mini-patch after the big Outskirts expansion releases, you'll get on from the park (or something) in Central City and arrive when you want at the East Bay docks.

Welcome to the Outskirts: Far from home.

Welcome to part two of the Outskirts Expansion coverage, today we step across the bridge and take our first steps in East Bay Forest.


Some big notes today:
Car headlights have been removed due to REALLY annoying graphical errors. (something will be added to replace it... read on riiiiight now)
Major new app added to the ePhone: A flashlight app, with it on there'll be a small light ahead of you.

Alright, so on to the article.
You can enter the forest from anywhere, like parking your car on the road, or just driving into it, but there are plenty of dirt road entrances and exits from areas around the forest. These dirt roads will be a big network around the area, with plenty of turns and straights so you can drive all over like a rally track and have some fun.

Welcome to the Outskirts: A whole new world.

Welcome to the "Welcome to the Outskirts." blog section, every day until this expansion is released, there'll be at least one WttO post, showing you the experience you'll encounter as you take your first steps out of Central City in Lone!


In this post: How you get to the massive new zone
After the break!

Outskirts Expansion: Progress report.

Good news, so far, the bridge is just about done, and bug fixes to the city as well as some improvements have already been made! The bridge even supports my first instance of Parallax 3D in use, so the ocean looks like it's moving and goes on far ahead. It looks great.

Now, other improvements you'll see... This update will include the 'ePhone'! At anytime in the game you'll be able to pull up a phone at the bottom right side of the screen, controlling it with the number keys. It supports 'Apps' and  that's the main feature of it. Right now, it's primarily just used for immersion, but I have some good ideas to extend it later on. It comes VERY EASILY expandable as a UI. It'll release with two apps,

'eEvents' that just highlights places you should visit depending on the time of day.
'Speedometer!' shows your character - or car's current speed whenever, mainly for development purposes, but it's still neat!

ALSO: The in-game clock showing the time of day has been moved TO YOUR PHONE. It'll always be displayed on the top right of your ePhone when you have it out.

NEED MOAR UPDATES.

Now that the Nightlife update has been out for a while, it's time to discuss the NEXT revision.

The Outskirts Update
 New:
Massive map extension, with the all new CENTRAL FOREST area! (You MIGHT have to cross a bridge to get there)
Campgrounds! (RV parking area, maybe with a few interiors)
Campsites! (Tents, campfires, etc)
Activities! Actually DO things, might include mini-games, quests, not sure yet!
A huge forest to explore! (and hopefully activities to do there)
Parking lots!
Graphics changes!
Bug fixes!
EVEN MORE NPC's added to the world!
Some sort of way to handle the city load time!

This'll probably take more than one night to make, so enjoy that Nightlife update!

In depth:
this update's goal is to add functionality on top of the tech demo that is lone. Things to do. Real exploration outside of a few spots in the city. While making it look a better experience to play. Expect texture updates to various objects and elements in the game, and the new textures. My idea is to have the player cross a bridge to get out of the city, or take the metro to the furthest station. The bridge will hopefully be the shining gem of lone.'s graphical experience, featuring some perspective angling (I hope) many layers of the bridge (for some depth) and the water below moving about. It'll be a big undertaking just for me (who, remember, sucks at graphics) to draw and animate all that, so thats why this update will most likely be released sometime after tonight, as opposed to the nightly updating we've had before. This won't be as much as a overhaul as the Nightlife update was (with the addition of tutorials, sprinting, a launcher screen, and many graphical improvements) but will be an attempt to build on that. I'm comfortable with the lone. Formula we've been experiencing so far, so expect more of the casualness. But first, activities. This'll be hard, too. Though not as difficult as the graphics, I'm sure. Lone. is a decent overworld and all but there's nothing to do as far as an actual game goes, besides your imagination. I'll find a way eventually.

What will the Outskirts area be like?:
Much different from the city, there'll probably be only one building, a lodge next to the subway station, and the rest of it is focused on the outdoors. You can drive out to the Center City Campgrounds, find a spot to park your car, then set out and explore the forest at sunset and stop at your campsite by the campfire and relax for the night, imagination! As for stuff going on in there, the answer is there won't be much going on. I might add caves and things later on, but right off the bat it's nothing other than a forest for the sake of exploring and letting the player camp out. Once you cross the bridge, you'll hopefully have access to a beach-like area where you can hang out, and NPC's will be around (including older-version NPC's at certain times of the day.) You alsos can expect some sort of swimming ability for certain bodies of water! (like the pond and the beach, later on hopefully a pool.)

The Outskirts are nice... but what's after that?:
The world will already be MASSIVE by then, and I don't want this to become another CSI Nations flop due to size. After this I'm focusing on three things: NPC's. Buildings. and A.I. as in more civilians, car traffic, and much more NPC schedules.

ALSO...
Your player should have a Phone by the time this is released. The CenterWireless "ePhone".
It'll support 'apps' extensions later on, but at first it will only have an Events page showing places to go at day or night, depending on when you use it.

The all-new lone.

okay, not ALL new, but mostly! IT'S A MASSIVE UPDATE.
The download will be posted as soon as the upload finishes, here's ya' log.

DOWNLOAD HERE!

Note: There are some bugs in this version that you'll probably encounter, there'll be a a bugfix version either later tonight or early tomorrow afternoon. But nothing breaks the game, so just restart!
NEW:

• Tutorial for beginners! Includes movement, driving, and sprint controls. (Everything)
• Launcher after the cinematic intro, with gamepage link!
• Many more NPC's!
• NPC 'schedules'. At certain times of the day they'll be one place, then later they'll be somewhere else. Moving throughout the day and night.
• A nightclub building, third one down, first row! (It's small)
• Sprint ability! Hold down shift when running to run faster.
• Headlights in front of your car at night.
• Ambient light emitted from populated areas at night!
• TREES IN THE PARK.
• MINOR GRAPHICS UPDATE: Vignette filter around the screen.

FIXES / CHANGES:

• Sound related fixes, rain in car SFX now playing.
• Volume changes depending on area more accurately than before.
• Driving a car under the lake is no longer allowed!
• Midtown Station has been moved slightly more into the MIDDLE of town.
• Texture and skin changes to various objects/npc's to promote uniqueness.

Time exclusivity in lone.

So in tonight's 'Nightlife' update. I'll also be adding... A nightclub! As a plus, it'll only be open after nightfall, unless I decide to go back on my decision later on.
What does this mean? Well, I'm kind of overruling my position earlier saying day and night will have no effect on gameplay. But... Night just feels sort of blah right now. It's exactly the same as daytime save for some lighting stuff. But this means lone will also need some Daytime-only things. Let's look at some ideas!

1. I might make the cafe closed at night.
2. Future businesses could be day-exclusive.
... Yes, I'm low on ideas here, give feedback!

ponderings of a mad man

Okeh SO. We have the Nightlife Update being released tonight at some point, hopefully before 6 PM's nightfall.
Let us recap what will be in it!

1. Buildings have been given more detailed textures.2. A new, more dynamic lighting engine. Populated areas will be light up in the night. Your car will also give off headlights now. Spice up the night!3. Second of the row buildings will hopefully be done.4. Vignette around the display, adding to the look of the game5. Sprinting! Returns from CSI 2. Hold down shift!6. TREES?!7. Adjusted Midtown Station location to be... more in the middle.8. A new room in the first building.9. Tweaked sounds and sound related bug fixes (rain in car sfx now playing, different volumes)10. Many more NPC's, let's make the world feel alive!
11. And probably more stuff.

 Yeah, it's pretty big. Bigger than the Monday Night update, I'd say. Now, what should be done after all this? Well here are my goals in order.

1. Some sort of phone, PDA, navigator, or whatever-like device the player can open up on top of the game, hopefully it'll have resources for various things in the game. Not sure of what yet...
2. Improve the graphics overall. My original goal with lone was for it to be my first 3D game, but that obviously hasn't worked out with the program I'm using to develop with. Might as well make the textures look nicer.
3. Of course, make the world feel more alive. This means NPC's, traffic, more furniture in houses, the whole nine yards. Look forward to a movie theatre showing something that I have no clue of eventually, or some sort of television.
4. Make subway stations cooler, like real life. Have vendors, gates, ticket booths, etc.
5. MAYBE a weather system, again, I love the rain and I'm still on the fence about this.
6. More things in the park to add to the exploration aspect, not sure yet.
7. Some sort of customization method in the players apartment.
8. A LOT MORE INTERIOR FURNITURE.
9. Some more floor textures, even though the game is already leaps and bounds ahead of CSI 2 in that department.
10. Performance optimizations. This game runs in one massive frame, where everything is loaded at once. This can be a bit problematic...

Now, some fun facts!
 - lone.'s city has over 500 objects loaded at all times.
 - The rain actually only has 4 frames.
 - Trees in the Nightlife update have some serious layer problems.

derp, Trevor signing out.

Nite Note: March 21st

Welcome to the second Nite Note! We still got a lot of lone coverage to deal with tonight.

First of all, updates for now on will have titles, and lone will not have any set version number, hopefully it'll constantly grow, constantly expand. So what REALLY is in the next update?

THE NIGHTLIFE UPDATE
1. Buildings have been given more detailed textures.
2. A new, more dynamic lighting engine. Populated areas will be light up in the night. Your car will also give off headlights now. Spice up the night!
3. Second of the row buildings will hopefully be done.
4. Vignette around the display, adding to the look of the game
5. Sprinting! Returns from CSI 2. Hold down shift!
6. TREES?!
7. Adjusted Midtown Station location to be... more in the middle.
8. A new room in the first building.
9. Tweaked sounds and sound related bug fixes (rain in car sfx now playing, different volumes)
10. Many more NPC's, let's make the world feel alive!
11. More stuff, check back as this develops.