Dev Log 002 — I Bring You S̶h̶a̶r̶d̶l̶a̶n̶d̶s̶ Chronicles of the Sigilarium

There has been a minor development.

Apparently, Shardlands is not an available domain name.

Which obviously is the most important consideration when creating a sprawling fantasy MMO.

So... I bring you:

Chronicles of the Sigilarium

Much shorter. Much easier to spell. Absolutely no chance anyone will ever mistype it. Perfect!

With that monumentally important issue settled, I have been spending a fair amount of time thinking about some slightly less important things.

You know:

• Combat;
• Death;
• Perspective;
• Networking;
• The actual game loop;
• Whether any of this should be remotely fun.

Minor details.

Because while it is very easy to sit down and say: “I want to make an MMO.”

It turns out that immediately creates somewhere in the region of seventeen thousand follow-up questions. And unfortunately, at some point, you do actually have to answer some of them.

First Person or Third Person?

This seems like a reasonable place to start.

• Immersion → First person

• Check out my gluteus maximus while I run → Third person

Both have their merits.

Personally, I lean heavily towards first person.

I want the world to feel like somewhere you're actually standing, rather than somewhere you're hovering six feet behind your own head.

Dark caves should feel dark, cliffs should feel high, someone swinging a mace at your face should ideally feel like someone is swinging a mace at your face.

So, first person. I'm sure this will create absolutely no controversy in the future.

How Should Combat Work?

The safe option would be familiar MMO combat.

Skills, cooldowns, rotations.

Press 1 → Press 2 → Press 3 → press 1 again.

It works. It has worked for a very long time. But it does feel a little... 2004.

I much prefer the idea of something closer to Kingdom Come or Mount & Blade, where direction, timing, positioning and the actual movement of the weapon matter.

Swing from the right → Strike overhead → Thrust → Block in the correct direction → Miss because you are incompetent.

That sort of thing.

This will probably create a magnificent headache involving hit detection, latency, animation, collision and server validation.

But if it works, it could be beautiful.

Or horrible... Possibly horrible... We'll find out!

Should Armour Actually Armour?

This is another one. A lot of RPG armour effectively works like:

Steel Breastplate +47 DEFENCE

Excellent.

But if I stab you in the thigh, what exactly is the breastplate contributing to the situation? I'd rather armour behave in a reasonably sensible way.

Plate should protect the bits covered by plate. Mail should behave like mail. Padding should matter. Weapon type should matter.

A sword, spear and hammer should not all interact with armour in exactly the same way.

A shield should ideally protect you because there is physically a shield between you and the thing trying to ruin your afternoon.

Not simply because:

DEF NUMBER GO BOOM

Again, this creates considerably more work. I'm beginning to notice a pattern.

Should Death Be Inconvenient?

I think it should. Not in the same manner as hooking your nuts to a boulder and trying to drag it cross-country. But also not:

Whoopsie daisy. I'll just have another go.

If death has absolutely no consequence, danger starts becoming rather meaningless.

At the same time, I don't want some brutal permadeath system where Dave from Birmingham hides behind a tree with a crossbow and deletes six months of your life.

There is presumably a middle ground:

• Maybe your body remains.
• Maybe your possessions matter.
• Maybe unconsciousness and death aren't the same thing.
• Maybe friends can recover you.
• Maybe strangers can recover your boots.

Exactly how inconvenient death should be remains to be seen. Once again, I foresee absolutely no disagreement about this whatsoever.

Manny Has Suffered... Extensively...

At the moment, much of this is being tested on Manny (Manny is Unreal Engine's mannequin).

Manny has suffered. Oh, how he has suffered.

He has been:

• Hit;
• Stabbed;
• Crushed;
• Shot;
• Knocked over;
• Killed;
• Searched;
• Robbed;
• Used to test armour;
• Used to test weapons;
• Used to test... death!?

And generally subjected to things that would probably result in a fairly impressive workplace tribunal. Or a visit to the Hague.

He has handled it admirably. Mostly because he isn't real.

Probably... Hopefully...

None of This Is the Game

This is probably the important bit. What you're looking at in these screenshots isn't an early level from Chronicles of the Sigilarium. It's a laboratory.

The grey walls aren't architecture. The floating cubes aren't lore. The enormous yellow surfaces are not an exciting new artistic direction.

They're test objects.

Right now, pretty is not particularly useful.

A cube can tell me whether something works just as effectively as a beautifully modelled oak chest.

• Can I pick it up?
• Can I drop it?
• Can another player take it?
• Can I hit Manny with it?
• What happens if I set it on fire?
• What happens if I set Manny on fire?
• What happens if two people interact with it at exactly the same time?
• What happens if I do something profoundly stupid that no sensible player would ever attempt?

That last one is particularly important. Players are inventive.

Eventually there will be forests, towns, mountains, ruins, workshops, roads and things that look considerably less like industrial accident prevention training.

But first, the rules need to work.

• Combat;
• Armour;
• Death;
• Inventory;
• Interaction;
• Movement;
• Networking;

The boring bits underneath the exciting bits. For now, we're building those.... And abusing Manny.

Progress!