News Update: Work And Progress. Week 12

[RedBaron_Johan 2,853]

Hello Fellow Wurmians!

 

So this week I wanted to give you further information on what is currently being prioritized.

We do have further factors which will be crucial for the next steps in the progress of Wurm we are looking into.

But for now, I will let you in on the current situation.

But first, an update on the Shark!

 

Shark

First I want to make clear that the Shark is not a big priority for implementation competing with the other topics, not necessarily time consuming either and will be added as we find the time.

I brought the feedback about the Shark to a meeting and we came up with a solution that will probably enrich the game experience for everyone.

Keep in mind this can still be subject to some minor changes.

As there is no creatures currently visually populating the more open sea, we wanted to make the shark an iconic part of the environment and more common.

So first of, they will be cruising the surface showing their dorsal fin.

Secondly, as the game is being played in many cases without the focus on fighting, we do not want to force battling the sharks on anyone as they would potentially be hard to avoid.

We want to implement them more as a priced and challenging prey for hunters/fisherman and they will be non aggressive until attacked.

We have yet to discuss how dangerous they will be and if there might be some big and nasty variations of it which has more powerful attacks.

 

Current Priorities

 

The Tutorial Area

This is as most of you know something that is currently being worked on and we are progressing rapidly with realizing.

Right now the area, which will look like a village, is being populated with assets and themed zones which upon exploration will trigger notifications.

We will cower all of the basics from the current tutorial and some further areas.

A new place to explore for aspiring smiths!

 

Adding to the crafting interface functionality

Two of our developers ErikN and Haradur are currently working on expanding the interfaces functionality to include fences, hedges, flowerbeds and house building.

According to our calculations this will drastically decrease the amounts of clicks needed to finalize especially buildings.

You will be able to right click tile borders and building plans to add them to the crafting window.

After starting the build they automatically change to unfinished items in the interface and you will be able to continue them from there as long as you have materials in your inventory.

If you would have some further tweaks to the interface you can suggest them in the comments bellow and we might be able to get them in whilst the work is in progress.

 

Optimization

This is as always a work in progress and we constantly have developers devoted to this area both in terms of graphics engine and fixing bugs.

We are in the process of hiring a full time graphics engine developer which will be starting work in April.

That will greatly speed up the process and we are hopeful this will take us leaps further with both running smoother and looking better then ever.

 

Connectivity

There are still players having problems with their connectivity to the new servers due to bottlenecks between their regions and to the server location in Germany.

Companies like Blizzard are also having these issues right now which shows that this is a bigger problem over all.

This will hopefully mean the problem is getting more attention due to more pressure then we can put on the network companies. And that we will benefit from a more major and general solution to it.

We have gotten quite a bit of information from our players and we have used it to give the different network companies like Level3 and Internode more insight.

The problem with a company like Level3 is that we are not conducting busyness with them directly and our traffic does not amount to much in their eyes.

Which in turn makes it very hard to pressure them into addressing our concerns.

But MaxC is collecting more data to further the case and also he is getting his Propper British rage on and is threatening their PR department to take their neglect to the press.

Anyone who is having these issues can help MaxC stick it to the man by following the link bellow and help collect more data.

 

Max Instructions

 

Areas still being worked on but with secondary priority

 

Bridges

The work on bridges is progressing though finalizing it is proving quite complex with all variables involved.

Currently, getting 3d collisions done which is a major and time consuming project all in itself.

Also artificial intelligence for creatures path finding on and around bridges is what is taking time.

The project will be ongoing and I will announce further information as we progress.

 

Boats

Boats are very near completion but we need a final push and full attention of our developers as soon as they get time.

This is because there are some new aspects to their functionality and positioning.

 

Synchronization

This is something that will be very important for the game going forward for better interaction both with players and the environment.

The core here is getting quicker and more correct updates of where all players and creatures are located in relation to each other in the world.

Also making actions and reactions more direct in the process.

 

We have several more areas we are looking into and awaiting further information about which are to early to announce.

But as you might realize we are keeping quite busy.

In the plan is also a new developer diary video where we will announce the next focus more formally and personally to you all.

 

Anyways, we will do our best to finish this as soon as we can as long as you, 

Keep on Wurming!

[Pwent 113]

All great news, especially about non-aggro sharks!

As a sidenote to the connection issues, Wargaming also has suffered from these issues for a long time now, on servers which have 200k+ people online during peak time, so I doubt its something the great Wurm developers can solve.

[Mattown 349]

Always enjoy reading these.

[Slickshot 1,195]

SHARK!

 

EDIT:  CHAMPION SHARKS PLEASE!  The size of a Knarr or Cog!

Edited March 20, 2014 by Slickshot

[AlphaWolfen 160]

The mentioning of Synchronization in there would be great if one day a more player control combat and not too heavily focused on skill vs skill.

[Belrindor 663]

 

 

Shark

Secondly, as the game is being played in many cases without the focus on fighting, we do not want to force battling the sharks on anyone as they would potentially be hard to avoid.

We want to implement them more as a priced and challenging prey for hunters/fisherman and they will be non aggressive until attacked.

.

 

 

That's all ya had to say from the outset, and it would have saved a whole thread of worry and grey hairs!

[McGarnicle 1,463]

One addition to the crafting window I would like to see is healing covers.

[Slickshot 1,195]

That's all ya had to say from the outset, and it would have saved a whole thread of worry and grey hairs!

 

This is why I told people not to assume so much, on so little information!

[Kegan 3,926]

The crafting window needs a few things like repair for tools would be nice and when you add more in your inventory that the stack update too.

 

Now i know that might be hard to do but maybe a right click on the stack and add to crafting window feature could be an option? This way you can add the whole "stack" or drag over to have more control and the drag does not update kind of thing. This way when the stack gets new items it updates in the crafting window too if the "stack" was added and not just the items..idk

 

Might be too much but would be nice. 

Edited March 20, 2014 by Kegan

[Pingpong 1,070]

Great to hear the devs listened to the players concerns about sharks and came up with a working solution, thanks!

[Amadee 1,543]

Yay!!  All good, especially the non-aggro sharks.  

 

Great news on the crafting interface too.  

 

Not a big deal, but would it be possible to add a crafting button to the old hot bar?  I don't use the new one because I prefer how the old one tucks in nicely under the chat window. The new tips say to use "B" to open the crafting window, but that doesn't work for me even though I've never keybound anything to B so I have to use the main menu. (don't know if this has already been done. Still waiting on new comp so I can get back to playing which I'll have by next week so haven't tried it since it first went in. If you did that already, thanks.)  But like I said, it's not really a big deal. 

[Radni 1,089]

Why not make sharks like hell horses? Enemies, but only occasionally attack if you get close :/

[Elen 1,013]

Awww, I'm not going to need a bigger boat afterall

 

Huge props for the click reduction initiatives

Edited March 20, 2014 by Elen

[silakka 2,360]

Excited about the boats, not dyeing my knarr before the new textures.

[Coastis 321]

Any news on the vynora colossus?

[joedobo 1,187]

sharks   GREAT NEWS! I'm now excited to see where this goes

 

 

crafting UI

- Make repair keybind  work on anyone of the two tool windows. Repairing is important, wouldn't it be a good idea to make it more convenient to repair your tool while you work?

- When you add pile items, say bricks, to the craft UI further adding more to the same inventory stack doesn't update the craft UI's stack count.

- Make the Craft UI automaticly us the heaviest item in stack. 

- (This might be a pipe dream) Drag stacks from external containers like bulk bin to a craft UI box and the ui will automatically take x-number-queued items from that container.

- SMALLER VERSION! Here is an example made with my awful art skills: http://i.imgur.com/e07btV5.jpg. 1) click round things to initiate a que of that many. Maybe replace those round things with numbers inside circles. 2) Take special note of the size change in the lower right which can change the size of vertically only. 3) right and left justify the right and left inputs boxes, retrospectively.

- Maybe a key bind to clear both input boxes. I've found the keybind "ADD_TO_CRAFTING_WINDOW" to be very useful.

[Telvanni 185]

Allow us to improve items from the crafting interface.

 

For example, you switch from crafting mode into imping mode where you have 5 slots, one for each item used in imping basically everything, then directly below that you have the item to be improved, make it one at a time so it isn't so complex. And as now have a button you click that says improve instead of craft. Let it just autoselect the tool needed so all you have to do is click the button.

 

For those that think this would make it too easy to improve here is a revision, keep everything the same except have the slots numbered like a toolbelt and force the user to choose the tool needed.

[Valdor 1,426]

Red Baron, these public updates are getting better and better. They both keep the impatient players more patient (I hope) and the rest of us well informed and constantly excited about the future. What really works, as well, is your information about what challenges the developers are experiencing in their aeas of development. Far from making the Wurm team look incompentent (quite the opposite), they let us know about the complexity of some projects and make us realize the talent that goes into solving them. Keep it up!

[Deathangel 427]

Make it so that we can add tile/cave walls/ceilings to the crafting window so that we can use it to queue max actions instead of clicking/pushing a button x times. I don't know about others but I dig/mine in the thousands, it gets very tedious.

[McGarnicle 1,463]

Thought of another functionality for the crafting window...make it so you can imp stuff with the crafting interface.

[Kegan 3,926]

If we could drag tools from our toolbelt onto the crafting window that would be helpful too.

[Slickshot 1,195]

Please make the shark a stupid level of huge and awesome.  When I fight one I really want to think that I need a bigger boat.  I'm talking closer to the size of carcharodon megalodon, and not just the size of a great white.

[Kruggan 519]

Please make the crafting window resizeable or smaller. Otherwise great update

[Audrel 2,223]

Allow us to improve items from the crafting interface.

 

For example, you switch from crafting mode into imping mode where you have 5 slots, one for each item used in imping basically everything, then directly below that you have the item to be improved, make it one at a time so it isn't so complex. And as now have a button you click that says improve instead of craft. Let it just autoselect the tool needed so all you have to do is click the button.

 

For those that think this would make it too easy to improve here is a revision, keep everything the same except have the slots numbered like a toolbelt and force the user to choose the tool needed.

 

I was thinking what you finished with then you finished with it! As long as I have to activate the next item, either in the interface or in my toolbelt or inventory, this would be great. It's the right clicking and such. But we still have the issue of repair on fail. Even so, it would be a lot less clicky to repair in inventory also.

[Ballad 79]

Also artificial intelligence for creatures path finding on and around bridges is what is taking time.

 

 

Alright.

 

What about giving those artificial intelligences a good brain wash?

 

On a 120+ tiles farm, all my horses are piling up on top of each other on a 3 tiles patch of land. 3 !! not 3x3, just 3 !!!

 

Do you have any idea how annoying it can be?