Well boys...

I just wanted to bring attention to the forum again, the summer is almost here and once it arrives work needs to be done.

This little break has given me time to think some things over, do some writing, etc. All of this will be posted the day after exams.

I am wondering if Nate will buy a copy of the engine, if you will please PM me, or we'll talk on Monday.


I'm serious about this guys, I want some work being cranked out over the summer. I know I'm not the project lead, but this is one of my dreams I would like to see a reality.

Hear, hear. I share your thoughts and dreams, probably to your relief. I've essentially planned out my summer based on this (and maybe a couple other ventures, darn parental units).

i dont have plans this summer cept for hilton head the week of the 4th of july and seeing hannah as much as possible and if the meetings are in hollysprings, it could work to my advantage And i am co-head of this and believe me, i'm going to work as much as possible, and me and nates project is also riding on this, if we dont do something we dont pass, which is not cool

Alright, when can the next meeting be....

Su-ti-van?

well nates out of town for this week and next, me and him will be gone for a week after these two, and that puts both of us here. ian u doing anything? ryan? su-ti-van XD? chris?(if he got his ass on the forum) the only thing i hate is that he has so much experience in the 3-D field that could help us SO much but w/e maybe we need to find some1. DONT JUMP ON ME FOR THAT COMMENT! if not then just say no and okay, we'll get the exp. our selfs

I can meet up with you guys soon.

But, I do agree fully with sean. Chris hasn't really done any contribution or anything of the sort. We have yet to see any of his models, animations, or anything else for that matter. A modeller is easily replacable, infact, I have a friend who would do it for us. We just need to send him an idea and he can model it. Chris hasn't even contributed to the idea of the game really, which leads me to believe he doesn't give two shits.

ian, just invite your friend to the next meeting and we'll see. Do any of us know him yet? anyways, we should plan to meet in about a months time, i know it seems far away but thats th next best time for EVERYONE to be there, and its summer so im sure some1 can stay at some1 elses house if necessary(most likely me and my lack of not living i knightdale XD)

Well, it's certainly been a while, but I'm back and committed to the project. A few things about our current conversation:

Sutivan is AFK for a while; he needs to buy a replacement laptop, and even if he did so immediately, he has job training that is occupying his weekdays for about 2 more weeks.

As for Chris, let me start by saying this: I've always viewed this as somewhat of a rock band; the lineup changes. If we kick Chris (and I use the term "kick" lightly), I think he would have no real problem with that. He has not substantially contributed to the concept phase, and, while he has a wealth of 3D modeling experience, he's not a true asset to the team. If this friend of yours can model, by all means, let him model.

Now, on how to move forward:

We really need to move out of the concept phase, and that can only be done by answering three questions regarding the player character: "Who am I?", "What can I do?", and "How do I develop?"

These three questions are essential to every aspect of the game, from quest structure and plotline to camera view and fighting equations. If we answer all of these questions we a decent degree of detail, we will be able to actually begin development.

That's not to say there isn't dev work we can do immediately. Ian can obviously continue working on a general plotline. I can start researching different regional/ethnic fighting styles to get a feel of how each culture can move. Since Sean is texturing, he can start looking at regional style of dress so we can recreate these cultures visually.

Nathaniel, as our scripting/coding lead, you have a huge job. I'm willing and able to assist with the coding as much as possible, but the task is still huge, so we should get a foundation as soon as possible.

First, we need to firmly establish what language we are coding in, whether we are using an engine, any outside software, etcetera. Once we do that, I see the coding as two interactions: Interaction between the player and what he sees onscreen, and between his computer and our server. So learning how to display and manipulate 3D models, animations, and our GUI is imperative. Simple network code such as sending messages or small packets of data is the first step to making the project an MMO.

So that is the work ahead of us. It may be daunting, but not impossible. And if we pull this off, we will be gods among insects.

god among insects! i am already XD jk anyway, um if anything is chris IS willing to work on this then we can keep him, there is no reason we cant have 2 designers, that just makes work easier. i have to check what all the regions are again because i forgots. and i think we are getting the MMO thingy and we have to pitch in to buy it. if we arent then w/e but note to ryan, me and nathaniel, after comp sci 3+4 are taking comp sci seminar, i think its called, we're skipping AP, johnson said we could, and that would give us time and place to practice and work on this(that'll be senior year) but none the less, we do have a lot of work to do and once i get back from the beach after this coming week, i'll be dedicated to it, though i live in knightdale and will probably be spending plenty of time at others houses XD

Well I'm back, but heading to Colorado in 5 days.

I am getting upgrades for a cheap desktop I bought soon, so any engine work we need done could easily be done on that.

Dual Core, 2.6 ghz. Nvidia 8200. 2.6 gigs of RAM. Some more random stats that don't matter xD

If we're going to be coding in the Unreal Engine (or any engine), it will have to be liscensed to us. I would highly recommend using an engine since it would include built-in tools that we would otherwise be unable to create ourselves. Now, there seems to be snag: the company only liscenses games to "experienced professional developers". I'm sure we could work around that by emphasizing that this is an academic project. I would begin drafting an email to Mark Rein, VP of Epic, if we want to go in this direction.

Additional information:
Unreal Technology
Epic Games

Hey, I thought we were going to use RealmCrafter. The engine that you can buy a license to for 100$....

if we do use unreal, don't send an email to their lead yet. I know the level designer there and he could tell me how much he thinks it would cost, as well as if we could actually license it. Someone needs to tell me if we are going to use unreal, I could enlist a lot of help from this guy.

i really think using realmcrafter would be the best idea for the fact that its made for an MMO and that takes a lot of learning how to be able to send info across many peoples computers at one time, sure id be like AIM and what not but using RealmCrafter would make this job a HELL of a lot easier.

Yeah. I think RealmCrafter would be the better idea, especially since we are trying to accomplish this within a timeframe.

well i wont be able to do anything this week for i will be in Ohio(which is news to me) I really dont want to go but my GP is old and had quadruple bi-pass surgery so yeah, i would like to go see him