Tombstone MMO - Early dev

[jovial sinew]

I've started working on monetization systems and finished setting up virtual currency and a PayPal payment method. Boy was it a learning curve since i know zero HTML and needed a paypal return page 😄 lol. Will add a few other methods that PlayFab supports, including steam if I can figure out a workaround without needing to release the game on steam first.

Basically 100 bucks (BX) == $1 USD. You buy BX with real money, then you can buy stuff in the cash shop like membership/bonds and cosmetics. Not sure if BX will be tradeable, but it shouldn't matter much since im not planning on adding any pay-to-win (P2W) stuff. Although, some people say tradeable bonds are P2W but that is debatable. Either way, I want to be as ethical as possible with your money, so Cash shop items will be mainly cosmetic, including hats, hairstyles, and weapon skins.

Next, I will probably continue working on Karma and its toggleable buffs. Also, I'm always working on the world map but nothing concrete to show yet.

Hope you all are enjoying the holidays 🙂

[jovial sinew]

Finished adding karma skills (runescape-prayer-like buffs) and a generic buff system for characters. Karma skills will be activated and use either your good or bad karma gauges separately, depending on which skills are activated. You will be able to activate as many as your karma can handle and it will either drained over time or be consumed when applied. I also might wanna add a passive buff for karma skills you use that align with your character's karma, i.e. if you have bad karma, your bad karma buffs will be stronger.

[jovial sinew]

Added following and trading other players. Will probably added more player interactions a bit later on, such as friends, trading posts, gangs, and of course PVP

And you can't tell from the image but Ive made the map load dynamically in chunks. The map is not massive, but its big enough where if all the tiles were placed, itd make the editor lag A LOT and the scene file size unreasonably large. It can be improved, but im satisfied with it for now.

[jovial sinew]

Been working on a bunch of small things here and there since last week:

• the main city (Frontier City) and some of its shops, and other mapping near main city
• preparations for the first boss and quest
• generally formulating ideas, balance sheets for skills, etc.
• adding new skills like bounty hunting, energy weapons, survival(?)
• energy spells (only teleport spells done so far, but working on combat!)
• spruced up login screen
• admin commands
• art, and pickaxes, hairs, and other animations, and some ideas for the first line of skilling and cash shop pets!
• bunch of little bug fixes and optimizations

Since I dont have much new to show, here's the current state of the map for when you first enter Boia after the tutorial 😄

[jovial sinew]

A little background into how much work went into me robbing and fighting this man in Frontier City:

• stun state/animation for when you fail a pilfer
• creating many, many animations, including one for each of the man's layers that i can reuse later for player customization (hair, facial hair, clothes, boots) and one for each of the animations (idle, walk, punch, die, damaged)
• expanding the spawn area so enemies can or cant spawn on water, and optimizing its editor performance
• player animations for wielding and shooting the bow as well as setting up items and recipes to be able to craft and shoot arrows
• realizing crafting was impractical for development so i made admin commands for giving me infinite items of my choice
• "fake" projectiles that are purely visual and fly at the target

And i havent even gotten to doing PVP and multi-combat zones which was my original intention... until i was distracted by the town being empty 😄

[jovial sinew]

Damaging projectile spells 😄 Also added a click effect, fixed the water edges, a better camera zoom, and more!

There isnt much left to do in terms of programming, but lots of game design/content to add. I will probably work on the first boss fight next, then can finally begin some internal beta testing of the game's systems

[jovial sinew]

Here's a little look at one of the first and easier bosses. Note that visual improvements are coming and ignore the lack of damage numbers on me since i had to make myself invincible so it doesn't one-shot me 😄

So I lied about there not being much more programming to do. How naïve of me! A bit of backstory on why this took so long:

• first of all i had to expand the spell system so enemies can also use spells, play animations, etc. so the snake can jump on you and bind you
• this also made me refactor the combat state machine to be more generic and less confusing to read
• I needed to add aggro to the spawn areas so the snake could attack once you stepped inside its arena
• I needed to make an underground map that aligns with the overworld, which required a bit of refactoring of my scene management
• this also needed the pathfinding for each scene to exist on separate grids while coexisting on the server
• And adding generic map variables for changing things like the background color was needed. Some of these will be player specific, so for example if you open a one-time chest underground, it would remain open forever
• Since I use Unity physics to detect the aggro positioning (amongst other things), i needed to setup manual physics simulation to squeeze out a bit more performance, and so you don't get hit by monsters in the overworld if you aren't there

Next up is a lot more map design and maybe swimming? two-tier houses? finishing up some more skills? lots more to come 😄

[jovial sinew]

Added bounty boards for the Bounty Hunter skill! Depending on which area you're in, you will obtain different bounties so obvs the first town will have pretty easy bounties. You can choose one of three bounties to complete, but only do one at a time. You can also see I added a progress ribbon which will inform you on bounty/quest updates and such.

For now, you just kill enemies, but I will add resource gathering bounties as well. I personally think delivery bounties are boring (get X from NPC A and give it to NPC B), but if you guys like it or have any other bounty ideas, let me know in #suggestions

Right now, exp is given per kill/resource and then a fat exp drop when you complete it. I've been debating on whether to give exp only on kill or only give exp on completion, but i think a balance of both might be better

Otherwise, Ive been working on fishing design and will probably try to complete that sooner than later. And I will be busy playing the new PoE gauntlet this weekend so hope yall have a fun weekend as well 😄

[jovial sinew]

Its been a minute since the last update, but Ive had family in town and mostly working on behind-the-scenes things, including mapping, optimizations, game design, lots of data and animation input, and more!

Here's a short video for the intro of the game so far: https://youtu.be/BvfL7p6fU0g
Its come a long way since the first video i recorded about 4 months ago (which you can see here if you'd like: https://youtu.be/sF9lUI3BAjQ)

The tutorial "island" will be changed and I want to add support for multiple characters per account. There are obvious visual issues, most of which are missing animations. I also want to add night/day-time modes and nice content. And I will add more visual flavor, such as jiggly slimes using shaders, environmental effects, and nighttime lighting.

I also realized I need to focus more on adding new enemies and scatter them around. The world felt a bit empty outside of towns. Id like to stick to the axiom that there is shouldnt one screen without something of interest in it.

Im going to begin server deployment and stuff to begin internal testing soon which should expose a bunch more bugs i need to fix!

[jovial sinew]

Instead of combat stances like in OSRS, you may allocate points into which exp you want to gain when dealing damage: Combat, Health, and Defense. Combat will apply to whatever the main combat damage being dealt, like Melee when attacking with swords. By default, its evenly distributed among all 3 allocation types. So you may opt to direct all your exp towards combat or defense, or remove all the points to gain no exp at all!

What about when you get hit? Well, by default you will gain Health exp when you take damage and Defense exp when you avoid damage (i.e. a 0 damage splat). I really liked that Damascus did it this way (although the HP scaling was justtt a bit too high). There is a little crossed-swords icon next to the stat if you wish to disable gaining exp in each one respectively. This also gives the ability to avoid gaining exp in those stats if you do not wish to do so.

My reasoning for this system is to allow customization for your combat stats, such as for making true combat pures. In RPGMO, i loved that you could just train HP and equip nothing but jewelry with HP requirements to give you stats while also being viable. While in OSRS, I disliked that dealing damage was the main source of HP exp and the exp was small. I'm not entirely a fan of combining the UI with the STATS menu, but it'll do for now.

I will be adding passive bonuses based on your allocations as well, such as +1 defense for each point you allocate into defense exp (for a total of +3 passively). On a similar note, there will be long-range toggles for ranged weapons and spells which allow for longer ranged attacks at the cost of those bonuses and possibly damage.

Now I'm off to play Sons of the Forest, have a good weekend! 😄

[jovial sinew]

I created a mailing list for the game. I probably wont email you much, so you dont have to worry about getting spammed with emails. Big updates and announcements only! Id be very greatful if you signed up here 😄

https://zc.vg/hivSQ

[jovial sinew]

Swimming!

The reason I've had trouble setting up internal testing in this last week or so is because my server wouldn't start or was extremely slow on the very weak test servers. It took my way too long to figure out that the A* pathfinding (PF) project I've been using takes up so much memory with this size of a world that the server wouldn't even start lol

So that left me with two options: dynamically load PF graphs in and out when needed, or write my own simpler but more manageable solution. Clearly, I've went with the 2nd option because its just more fun to me. The first option does still have a flaw: what if I need all the graphs loaded at once? Then id be back to square one optimizing the original solution for my game. The A* PF project is fantastic, but its just not a good fit for me or the project at this time.

My own solution is quite simple. I followed a few references online to get the core algorithm down and expanded on it a bit. It uses A*, its multithreaded, it assigns penalties to certain tiles which I can expand on later, and we can swim! Most importantly, I solved the main problem for now: I do not need to cache anything to memory (yet). The tradeoff is of course more CPU intensive pathfinding but since players will mostly be requesting the most intensive paths, I figured its not so bad, especially once I finish the optimizations i have started. The option to go back to the original PF project is there in case i need it, so lets see how this goes.

Just a couple more things left before internal testing begins, which hopefully will start this weekend!

[jovial sinew]

Having quite a bit of fun in internal testing and getting some obvious bugs out of the way and features in the way. You can even demolish a shark while walking on water!

Might need some more testers soon 👀

[jovial sinew]

Working on an actual tutorial island with a starting quest to get players familiarized with the game. Not all skills and gameplay will be able to fit but itll get the gist across of how the game is going to be.

Here is the first iteration of the map! Not sure what ima name the island or its main town yet, maybe Williamsburg?

[jovial sinew]

Been a little while, took a much needed break and back into developing Tombstone! To get back into the swing of things, Ive been working on the tutorial, and added a new option that allows you to custom how right-click menu options are ordered.

[jovial sinew]

Day-night cycle with adaptive lighting for the tutorial town 😄 (it transitions much smoother in game). With the cycle comes unique things that would only occur during the day or night, such as enemy spawns

[jovial sinew]

Added our first pet to the game: Pine Tree Spirit! The gif is just a cosmetic purchase test, but these arboreal beings will be rare drops from skilling, this one specifically by woodcutting a common pine tree. There will be one for each type of tree in the world.

Each pet will be either earned or purchased, not both. Purchased pets will be account-bound while those earned from skilling, for example, will be character-bound.

[jovial sinew]

I made a short intro cutscene for when you first log in to the game. There will be intro music once its ready but here is the first draft 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK6iPlzJyNs

[jovial sinew]

Get hyped! I have started another internal test in preparation for the first OPEN ALPHA WEEKEND. In a couple weeks, I will schedule a weekend with yall via a poll or something. I'm excited to finally share the game with all of you ❤️

One of my goals is to get 100 people in this discord by the first alpha, so please join via the link in my profile, and invite your friends and help me spread the word of Tombstone 🪦

[jovial sinew]

The Open Alpha weekend will be available on Friday July 14th - Monday, July 17! Please join the Discord (link in my profile) where I'll ping everyone the day of with the download link. See you then! 😄

[jovial sinew]

Tombstone Open Alpha is now live! Again, it will end Monday morning. Please join our Discord (linked in my profile) and follow the event link to download the game from itch.io.

[jovial sinew]

Hello again all 😄 The open alpha was great in many ways, including finding me a new pixel artist! Thanks to @link.to.the.past, we now have custom icons for all the stats and they're animated!

[jovial sinew]

We also now have a website thanks to @Shalken's help 😄 More to be added to it as time goes on!
https://tombstonemmo.com/

[jovial sinew]

Hey all, been a while since the last update!

Been re-working a couple core systems in the last month: animation and movement prediction.

Since we got our new pixel artist, we've been working on a bunch of new hairstyles and recolors for the barber shop. This got me (over)thinking about the best way to manage a ton of potential future colors and hairstyles. I decided on rolling my own animation system solution and using palette swaps for the hair colors. This significantly cuts down on the amount of sprites that need to be made and is memory efficient.

You can see a preview of the barber shop in the first gif! 😄

Another system I've been avoiding redoing is movement. Before, movement was entirely handled and dictated by the server. This means that if you had high ping, movement would feel sluggish and overall bad. So I started learning about client-side prediction (CSP) and such techniques and finally implemented a first iteration im happy with!

In the 2nd gif, you can see the blue square using CSP. Note the ping at the top (its not actually 700, more like ~350 ping). The character is using the previous system. The armored dude is struggling, doubling back, and skipping around due to lag, while the blue square fully predicts and follow the path, allowing for smoother movement even at ridiculously high ping!

Next up: finishing the odds and ends of these systems and then continuing work on the main continent of Boia! We plan to get at least half of it done before hosting the next open alpha. There is no set date and I don't want to guess and let people down, so more info on that as we get closer to it!

[jovial sinew]

Currently working on adding a partying system 🎉 You'll probably need to party up in the next alpha 😉

[jovial sinew]

Hey everyone, it's officially been (about) a year in Tombstone's development! It has been a long ride, and we're still going! Thanks everyone for sticking around and playtesting. It has truly been my biggest motivator to keep working on this project.

Here's a glimpse of the first month of development (I was so proud of it too): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF9lUI3BAjQ

I wanted to get a new alpha out for Halloween but it doesn't seem like it's going to happen unfortunately. Still much work needs to be done. We have a made a ton of significant changes, bug fixes, and implemented suggestions in the last few months, so the game is already shaping to be a different experience.

I do want to announce a new $10 Patreon tier that'll give you access to our internal Discord channels and game server if you just can't wait to play (or wanna show a little more support)! More info about that here: https://www.patreon.com/TombstoneMMO/membership

[jovial sinew]

Hey all!

The next Open Alpha will officially be December 1-8 (maybe a little bit longer if I'm capable). You will be able to leave the 1st island and go to a new huge continent named Boia. There will be combat and skilling related content up to level 50. This is a good time to mention experience rates have been massively increased for the Alpha so you can get in and get going quickly! There are new enemies to fight, new loot to hoard, new bosses to farm, a new asymmetric minigame, new cities to explore, and more!

A lot has changed internally which is why it has taken so long. Lot's of system revamps and improvements to try to build the game to be as scalable and performant as possible for both your clients and our server (including my wallet). It has been over a year now working on Tombstone, and I just want to say that I really love the whole game-making process. There are ups and downs with interest and life and time, but I always see myself coming back to this project and work on it as much as possible. I have never been so dedicated to making a game as I am with this one, and it's really all thanks to everyone here and your support 😄 (I know it sounds corny, I'm sorry)

Also, whether this is your first or second alpha in Tombstone, make sure to login at least once to claim your free and unique Alpha pet! You can only get this special pet by logging in to this or any future public Alpha tests. So if you can't make it this time, it's fine! There will be another alpha for you to play in a few more months. When the time for Open Beta comes, I will make sure to announce which alpha is our last.

[jovial sinew]

Hello again, just a reminder that the open alpha has started! You can find it on itch: https://goonby.itch.io/tombstone (and I recommend using their launcher https://itch.io/app). Hope to see some new people!

[jovial sinew]

The open alpha was originally destined to end on Dec.11 morning, but we have decided to leave it open!! Feel free to come try the game out any time, and I will keep you posted with important update!

[jovial sinew]

working on a beekeeping system and its management UI 😄

[jovial sinew]

Today's devlog will be a bit longer and more on the techy side of things. It's been something I've been struggling with and feel the need to vent about as well.

I've been working on updating my workflow with builds, uploading to itch, and uploading the game data (Unity Addressables) to the cloud. With the amount of builds that will need to be done, I can't possible manually do it anymore. In fact, idk how I managed to deal with it for so long either.

My current workflow went like this:

1. Switch platforms in Unity (1-2 mins)
2. Clear addressables cache since it's been broken for months, and will add up to 5 minutes to a given build time if i forget
3. Build the game (5-15 minutes, depending on platform)
4. Clear cache again...
5. Build and Upload addressables (2-3 mins)
6. Zip the build and manually upload to itch (3-4 minutes)

Now multiply that by 6 for every build I need to do... Yeah, it SUCKS. What sucks even more is after doing them all, I find something broken in one or more of them, then i have to do that process again and again. As you can see, this workflow is horrible and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

So I have a couple choices: CI/CD with Unity cloud (automatically does a build every time I make a code change commit), or use a 3rd party tool that will do all of these builds without my input.

So I tried that Unity cloud thing. Turns out each build takes anywhere from 30-50 minutes. Unity charges 2 cents per minutes, so let's be generous and round down to 60 cents per build. Again times 6 for each build. Ideally, this would continuous (hence CI = continuous integration), so if I make changes every couple of days, it really adds up to be more than the monthly cost of the server. At minimum, I would do a weekly build as usual which would not much extra cost. However, this would take more learning on my part to set it up so the addressables and builds are uploaded automatically as well, which will take some time for me to learn and be patient with (on top of everything else I have to do for the game).

With that on the back burner, I decided to use a 3rd party tool called SuperUnityBuild. It's not the automagic builder that Unity devOps provides, but it significantly cuts down on build time and improves my workflow by automating it. Every time I want to do a build, I can press one button and it does all the builds for me and uploads everything. This takes just under and hour on my PC, but honestly it's not so bad in comparison since I could just step away from the PC or do something else while it works. I still need to integrate the server build process into it, but that shouldn't take too long. This new workflow should make my life easier as well as keeping builds more consistently stable.

On another note: the browser version of the game is not functional again. The A* package is either not working for browser but working for all other builds, or vice-versa. And with the aforementioned previous workflow, was very frustrating to realize and deal with. So I'm waiting for that fix to come in any day now. It's also causing issues from upgrading and downgrading constantly, and making me manually reimport the package so it compiles correctly.

Another frustration is Unity (big surprise, I know). The Addressables package has had this bug in it for MONTHS where I need to keep clearing the cache manually. When doing a server build, it would crash unless I manually switch to the server platform and clear it. So who knows how long that will take. They said the end of January, but here we are, still unfixed. Other than that, as mentioned before, not clearing the cache would add an extra few minutes to each build (if it even completes at all) because it gets stuck in a loop or something. Any month now it should be fixed and my workflow can be greatly improved once again.

[jovial sinew]

We started this year off by working with a marketer who has been handling various social media posts, startups, and getting the Steam page started. This means extra work for us too, getting all the related art, posts, website things, and other stuff prepared.

You can find all the relevant platforms at the following links:
Discord: (in my profile)
Steam (please wishlist!): https://store.steampowered.com/app/2796800/Tombstone_MMO/
Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/tombstonemmo/
First teaser trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UHEuJ0DrRQ
And Twitter: https://twitter.com/WellBucketGames/status/1746241408216830125

[jovial sinew]

been neglecting sharing progress on Tombstone in other discords, but i'm still working on it 😄
here's a video of our upcoming gameplay feature for the Mining skill called the Buried Mine
https://youtu.be/-G_aNIH3_X0