Otimus Alpha 1.0.0 Sub-Collab >>>

Information
Welcome to the Otimus (World MMO) thread. Thank you everyone for viewing and reading this thread! For those who would like to know more about our game and inquire about joining our development team, please leave a post! See below for information on the game, or refer to this link.

Links:
Otimus Alpha 0.0.1 - Alpha 0.0.5 (Original by Itsmomito) (Complete)
Otimus Alpha 0.1.0 - Alpha 0.1.0 (Updated by Itsmomito) (Complete)
Otimus Alpha 0.2.0 - Alpha 1.0.0 (Updated by Tierage) (Incomplete)
Otimus Quests Document
Otimus Item Spreadsheet
Otimus Official Website
Tierage's Blog
Official Otimus Studio

Developers:
Itsmomito (P) (R)
Tierage (S) (G) (P) (R)
TheDusk (G)
SilverEagle (G)
Mewly (G) (T)
Mjd (G) (P) (T)
FremenBill (G)
bobbybee (P)
Kola2 (P)
Alphaslucas (P)
ZenCrafter (P) (S)

Graphics:
TheDusk
SilverEagle
Tierage
Mewly
Mjd
FremenBill

Programming:
Itsmomito
Mjd
Tierage
bobbybee
Kola2
Alphaslucas

Sound Effects & Track:
Mjd
Mewly

RPG Concepts:
Itsmomito
ZenCrafter
Tierage

Lore & Game Design:
Tierage
ZenCrafter

Changelogs:
Alpha 1.0.0: (Upcoming)
- Bug fixes
- Improved graphics
- Quests
- Trading with other players
- Improved chat
- More planned features coming soon!

Alpha 0.3.9.1:
-Many graphical changes
-Performance improvements
-Made logging in automatic
-Removed Scratch guest detector
-Removed turbo mode detector
-Bug fixes

Alpha 0.3.9:
-Revamped the login screen to look epic.

Alpha 0.3.8:
-Minor graphical changes.
-Changed soundtrack from all three parts to the final part.

Alpha 0.3.7:
-The stat bar was improved.

Alpha 0.3.6:
-Yay! 100 views! I would do something special, but I can't think of anything. If you have any ideas, comment and I might add it in Alpha 0.4! In this patch you get some new words, bug fixes, and longer time to show the chat!

Alpha 0.3.5:
-Tweaked Menu Screen
-Added boots to sideways players.
-Bug fixes.

Alpha 0.3.4:
-Added soundtrack from Kevin Macleod.
-Fixed graphical issues.
-Removed the ugly logo intro.

Alpha 0.3.3:
-Added a smoother startup transition.
-Made a loading sprite for the main game startup.
-Preparing scripts for sounds. Possibly sounds in 0.3.4?
-Beginning to change the player sprite. It now has plate boots unless facing left or right.
-Updated the menu screen.

Alpha 0.3.2:
-Modified Safe Chat to look better.
-Improved info bar; now has a time section with this layout:
-HOUR:MINUTE:SECOND AM/PM
-Also is in 12-hour time. Yay.
-Added title screen and a short intro.
-Removed Tierage watermark.

Alpha 0.3.1:
-Otimus now requires a Scratch account to play.
-Added Tierage watermark.
-Changed ‘game’ backdrop.
-Adjusted variables.
-Fixed bug where ‘Message’ variable appeared randomly.

Alpha 0.3:
-A ton of bug fixes from the previous version.
-Added exclusive buttons to Game Masters.
-GM Item: Add or remove an item from the GM's inventory.
-GM Level: Set the GM's level.
-GM Gold: Give Gold to the GM.
-GM Speed: Modify the GM's speed.
-NOTE: A GM is a Game Master, one of the programmers listed in the World Collaboration forum thread. You can't simply become one.
-Modified objects sprite to remove bushes due to graphical glitches.
-Several other small changes. Sorry, but I listed this version during Alpha 0.3.2, so I forgot some of them. Shouldn't be a problem.

Alpha 0.2:
-Added a stone brick HUD/GUI border.
-Added a top bar for information.
-Fixed bugs.
-Tweaked scripts to function better.
-Changed the Momitor World Map completely to the TIERAGESKETCH of Momitor from WM1.

Alpha 0.1.0:
7/6: Changed name to Otimus (MMORPG) Alpha 0.1.0
6/2: Player Icons on Map,
5/22: Major Lag Fixes, Chatting System Functionality, Chat Box
5/17: Chat System Fixes, Player Cloning Efficiency
5/16: Cloning of Players (MMORPG Aspect)
5/15: Disconnection System Bug Fix, Connection Announcements, Fatal Cloud Update Error Fix
5/14: MJD's Inventory System (28 Items, Stored in Cloud)
5/13: Safe Chat (4000+ words, 3 Second Update Delay, Cloud)
5/12: Death Penalty, Local Storage of Cloud Data, Text

Alpha 0.0.5:
- name change: “world” to “Otimus”
- fixed chat displaying “a”
- npc interaction, press space
- user inventory & money
- repositioned chat menu
- draggable map
- character customization system
- fixed fatal state cloud var bug
- fixed house icon & house sprite at loading screen
- increased house size to 399
- disconnection timer reset, npc chat & user chat
- viewData bug fix
- leveling and experience system

Alpha 0.0.4:
- chatting menu
- improved player sprite
- sound button in options menu
- foot step sounds
- improved scrolling system
- improved grass
- npc in front of npc name
- replaced all loops with forevers
- added stop screen

Alpha 0.0.3:
- menu screen planet and space animation
- disconnection detection (auto log out, improved speed)
- full cloning w/ only visible rendering (all users appear if logged in)
- text cloning system (announcements & username display)
- logout & login announcements
- maintenance system (For programmers to disable the game)
- Introduction/Storyline Screen
- Add underscores to username letter lists

Alpha 0.0.2:
- improved user scripts (enhanced player speed)
- smooth scrolling w/cloning (no more white spaces)
- user map (see where other players are at)
- static npc
- menu screen soundtrack: Requiem for A Dream
- static house object
- loading Screen
- title Screen w/ several rendering options
- clone direction (not the player)
- clone animation (No Idle) w/ variable to disable

Alpha 0.0.1:
- Player lag fix!
- scrolling grass/dirt
- last user index glitch fix (error with parsing)
- register & login (secure)
- overall performance
- white screen game load

Screenshots:

Level 98 Player - Itsmomito: Otimus Alpha


World Map: Otimus Alpha


Screen Features - Local Map, Inventory System, Announcements/Safe Chat: Otimus Alpha


Slime Battle: Otimus Alpha


Level 56 Player - Tierage: Tierage's Alpha


Tierage's World Map: Tierage's Alpha

Developer Rules:
1) All suggestions, graphics, etc. will be approved & integrated into the Otimus through the head programmer.
2) Work on the behalf of the development team will be fully credited.
3) Feel free to ask questions & comment on anything.
4) All available tasks will be listed below, post a reply and I will fill the slot with your name.
4) Make sure you have lots of fun! Good luck team! :D

Programming Tasks:

Task Difficulty Status Prerequisite

Inventory System Advanced Closed (Mjd) Encoding/Decoding, Cloning Systems, RPG Concepts

Player Customization Advanced 50% (itsmomito) Encoding/Decoding, Cloning Systems

Friend's List Intermediate 0% (Kola2) Encoding/Decoding, Cloning Systems

Account Deletion Intermediate Open Encoding/Decoding, Cloning Systems

Player Banning Easy Itsmomito Loop-Checking Arrays

Scrolling Collision Detection Easy Open Scrolling Concepts

Quest System Advanced Open Basic Array & Variables, RPG Concepts, Conditional Programming

Safe Chat Intermediate Closed (itsmomito) Encoding/Decoding, Loop-Checking Arrays, String Manipulation

Leveling/Experience System Advanced Closed (itsmomito) Mathematics, Encoding/Decoding, Cloning Systems, RPG Concepts

Object Interactions (i.e PvP) Advanced Open Leveling/Experience System, Advanced Programming Concepts


Graphical Tasks:

Task Difficulty Status

Town Center Sprite (Respawn) Advanced Closed (ZenCrafter)

NPC Sprites Intermediate Closed (Web)

Inventory GUI & Objects Intermediate 90% (Mjd & Web Respectively)

HUD GUI & Displays Easy Open

Introduction Screen Intermediate Closed (ZenCrafter)

Weapon Sprites (Staff, Sword) Intermediate 0% (Mewly)

Scrolling Backgrounds Intermediate Open

Objects: Trees, Rocks, Roads Intermediate Closed (Web)

Sound Tasks:

Task Difficulty Status

World Sound Track Advanced Closed (Mewly)

Interaction Sounds (i.e Punch) Intermediate Open

Please notify the team if any tasks need to modified/added. For more information on a task, post a reply. :)

Healthbars useful?

LiquidMetal wrote:

Healthbars useful?

That's awesome! Definitely, may i use that?

Why else would I give you the link? of course!

Can you try my cloud speedtest and tell me what you get? I want to figure out what different times people have and make a detector for the firewall issue, but I need more data.

Some of the graphics in your project are good, but some are not as good or smooth. I recommend you use a grass sprite which tiles better than that one, like the one used in my infinite scroller.

What are your longterm plans for graphics? The intro graphics, for example, need polishing.

Links to the cloudtest and the infinite scroller with better grass sprite can be found in my signature:

LiquidMetal wrote:

Why else would I give you the link? of course!

Can you try my cloud speedtest and tell me what you get? I want to figure out what different times people have and make a detector for the firewall issue, but I need more data.

Some of the graphics in your project are good, but some are not as good or smooth. I recommend you use a grass sprite which tiles better than that one, like the one used in my infinite scroller.

What are your longterm plans for graphics? The intro graphics, for example, need polishing.

Links to the cloudtest and the infinite scroller with better grass sprite can be found in my signature:

Awesome! Sure I can, that sounds like a very interesting project, I'm interested in seeing the results of your data.

The current sprites are all just placeholders for future professional quality graphics. The introduction graphics will be improved later on as well. As of now, my priority as the programmer is set on increasing the speed and reliability of the game. While our graphical artists release more sprites, they will definitely be replaced & improved. I will check out your scroller too.

Could I join the development team specializing in multiplayer development?

My previous notable projects include:

-DragonThunder, a remote sensor connections based 1.4 MMO virtual world
-Lightning Dragon, a Club Penguin-like clone written in Flash with SmartFoxServer2X (if you would like to test this, message me via comment or something)

Your project seems interesting, and I think I could be helpful now that the base-engine is done.

bobbybee wrote:

Could I join the development team specializing in multiplayer development?

My previous notable projects include:

-DragonThunder, a remote sensor connections based 1.4 MMO virtual world
-Lightning Dragon, a Club Penguin-like clone written in Flash with SmartFoxServer2X (if you would like to test this, message me via comment or something)

Your project seems interesting, and I think I could be helpful now that the base-engine is done.

Sure! I saw you online a few times, It'd be a really nice addition to have you on the team

bobbybee wrote:

Could I join the development team specializing in multiplayer development?

My previous notable projects include:

-DragonThunder, a remote sensor connections based 1.4 MMO virtual world
-Lightning Dragon, a Club Penguin-like clone written in Flash with SmartFoxServer2X (if you would like to test this, message me via comment or something)

Your project seems interesting, and I think I could be helpful now that the base-engine is done.

I'm glad that you liked the project. I will add you to the team as an MMO Systems Programmer. If you have any questions about the project, feel free to ask. Just so you know, our current agenda involves doing the following:

1) Improving the game speed, the frame rate tends to drop quite often.
2) Finding a work around for the cloud variable's issues: This includes the occasional random values that they have and how they are not always changed by the scripts in the programming.
3) Improving the graphics and adding new MMO systems, such as the ability to save character information: Appearance, Inventory, etc.

OK, off the top of my head:

1) I have an odd feeling that is animation issues. If you only render what is close to the player, and perhaps you lower the frame rate of the animations (more time idle=more time free for other tasks), it may help. Also, I suppose having less entities all together (perhaps spread out npc's or something), it would help.

1b) As for networking lag, there is actually a solution that works for all: rather than optimizing work, don't do it! For instance, instead of parsing everything into a list, you can store in a header at the beginning that is fixed length where everything is, and then you only parse data for the players that are around you (when you move, if you get closer to another player, you simply also load that data in locally). I have yet to look deeply at how the vars are encoded, but, you know.

2) This is actually a rather easy quick fix. Essentially what you need to do is put a magic number in front of the vars, as well as using redundancy. By putting a magic number in, it is very unlikely that the new random number will also have the magic number, making it extremely easy to detect a random value variable. As for the redundancy, if you mirror the variables, or back them up every few minutes, once you detect a var is out of the ordinary, you reset to the backed up value (the backups should also have magic numbers)

3) Graphics I can't help with clearly The things you describe I've actually done in my flash game Lightning Dragon, and it's quite trivial to do with cloud variables (especially if you use cloud lists, and judging by the Massively in MMO, you probably already have encoders in place) Since cloud variables are persistent, they are even simpler. First, I'll describe how I do it in a real-world game XYZ123 Online:

a) default value in DB
b) waits for change in value
c) changes db
d) sets user var
e) sends update to all players
f) repeat

Now, the DB causes a lot of extra steps. But with persistence, the DB is already tucked in. So essentially we have to do:

a) default user var
b) change var from scratch
b a) all players already know about the update due to persistence
c) repeat

I like to refer to these types of variables as user data, because all users have them, and they are local to the users.

bobbybee wrote:

OK, off the top of my head:

1) I have an odd feeling that is animation issues. If you only render what is close to the player, and perhaps you lower the frame rate of the animations (more time idle=more time free for other tasks), it may help. Also, I suppose having less entities all together (perhaps spread out npc's or something), it would help.

1b) As for networking lag, there is actually a solution that works for all: rather than optimizing work, don't do it! For instance, instead of parsing everything into a list, you can store in a header at the beginning that is fixed length where everything is, and then you only parse data for the players that are around you (when you move, if you get closer to another player, you simply also load that data in locally). I have yet to look deeply at how the vars are encoded, but, you know.

2) This is actually a rather easy quick fix. Essentially what you need to do is put a magic number in front of the vars, as well as using redundancy. By putting a magic number in, it is very unlikely that the new random number will also have the magic number, making it extremely easy to detect a random value variable. As for the redundancy, if you mirror the variables, or back them up every few minutes, once you detect a var is out of the ordinary, you reset to the backed up value (the backups should also have magic numbers)

3) Graphics I can't help with clearly The things you describe I've actually done in my flash game Lightning Dragon, and it's quite trivial to do with cloud variables (especially if you use cloud lists, and judging by the Massively in MMO, you probably already have encoders in place) Since cloud variables are persistent, they are even simpler. First, I'll describe how I do it in a real-world game XYZ123 Online:

a) default value in DB
b) waits for change in value
c) changes db
d) sets user var
e) sends update to all players
f) repeat

Now, the DB causes a lot of extra steps. But with persistence, the DB is already tucked in. So essentially we have to do:

a) default user var
b) change var from scratch
b a) all players already know about the update due to persistence
c) repeat

I like to refer to these types of variables as user data, because all users have them, and they are local to the users.

Those are some very nice suggestions! The idea of only storing the position values of those currently around the player will definitely eliminate lag. However, i'm not quite sure how to create the header that you are talking about. Could you give a more specific example of how the header would function?

Well, for a fixed-length string, you know the length of the string no matter what. For instance, maybe if your storing fixed length numbers, you could fix it to 2 bytes no matter what, where you can store any value from 0-99, but the value 7 will be padded with zeroes as 07.
(a relative string would be preceded with a fixed-length length number for 0-99/0-999 length strings).

As for the entire record (I'll use the word record to refer to a large variable like a userdata var or a position var), they too have a header consisting of fixed-length “pointers”. If you don't come from a C background, I'll give a quick premise: a pointer is essentially like a finger pointing to another location. I could store 97 in the beginning, and then you know that whatever that header was talking about starts at the 97th character. You may even need to nest headers in which you can have relative length entries for theoretic infinite subrecords (records stored within a record)

bobbybeetest wrote:

Well, for a fixed-length string, you know the length of the string no matter what. For instance, maybe if your storing fixed length numbers, you could fix it to 2 bytes no matter what, where you can store any value from 0-99, but the value 7 will be padded with zeroes as 07.
(a relative string would be preceded with a fixed-length length number for 0-99/0-999 length strings).

As for the entire record (I'll use the word record to refer to a large variable like a userdata var or a position var), they too have a header consisting of fixed-length “pointers”. If you don't come from a C background, I'll give a quick premise: a pointer is essentially like a finger pointing to another location. I could store 97 in the beginning, and then you know that whatever that header was talking about starts at the 97th character. You may even need to nest headers in which you can have relative length entries for theoretic infinite subrecords (records stored within a record)

Ahh! I understand the terminology now Sorry, i'm not experienced in programming. I understand the concept, but how would pointers be used in rendering only the players nearby the current user?

itsmomito wrote:

bobbybeetest wrote:

Well, for a fixed-length string, you know the length of the string no matter what. For instance, maybe if your storing fixed length numbers, you could fix it to 2 bytes no matter what, where you can store any value from 0-99, but the value 7 will be padded with zeroes as 07.
(a relative string would be preceded with a fixed-length length number for 0-99/0-999 length strings).

As for the entire record (I'll use the word record to refer to a large variable like a userdata var or a position var), they too have a header consisting of fixed-length “pointers”. If you don't come from a C background, I'll give a quick premise: a pointer is essentially like a finger pointing to another location. I could store 97 in the beginning, and then you know that whatever that header was talking about starts at the 97th character. You may even need to nest headers in which you can have relative length entries for theoretic infinite subrecords (records stored within a record)

Ahh! I understand the terminology now Sorry, i'm not experienced in programming. I understand the concept, but how would pointers be used in rendering only the players nearby the current user?

You would be able to quickly identify nearby players and only render and old data and perform collision detection on etc. Ideally, the headers provide nth a location and some sort of low resolution position, maybe the actual xy divided by 100 or something similar.

bobbybeetest wrote:

itsmomito wrote:

bobbybeetest wrote:

Well, for a fixed-length string, you know the length of the string no matter what. For instance, maybe if your storing fixed length numbers, you could fix it to 2 bytes no matter what, where you can store any value from 0-99, but the value 7 will be padded with zeroes as 07.
(a relative string would be preceded with a fixed-length length number for 0-99/0-999 length strings).

As for the entire record (I'll use the word record to refer to a large variable like a userdata var or a position var), they too have a header consisting of fixed-length “pointers”. If you don't come from a C background, I'll give a quick premise: a pointer is essentially like a finger pointing to another location. I could store 97 in the beginning, and then you know that whatever that header was talking about starts at the 97th character. You may even need to nest headers in which you can have relative length entries for theoretic infinite subrecords (records stored within a record)

Ahh! I understand the terminology now Sorry, i'm not experienced in programming. I understand the concept, but how would pointers be used in rendering only the players nearby the current user?

You would be able to quickly identify nearby players and only render and old data and perform collision detection on etc. Ideally, the headers provide nth a location and some sort of low resolution position, maybe the actual xy divided by 100 or something similar.

Ahh i see

Ok, I'm going to put down some basic ideas, but I will go more in-depth in the morning.

(All of these ideas I know how to add code into the existing game)

1) Collectable resources (trees that you can chop-down, that kind of thing)
2) Inventory (persistent)
3) Player built constructions (buildings, maybe a house or a sawmill. my suggestion is if we did do something like that, players would only be allowed to build 1 or 2 buildings each, at least until we know how much the game can handle, and how many people will play, but maybe the building will disappear if the player hasn't logged in for 7 days?)
4) crafting (clothes/armour, tools, weapons?)
5) abilities, xp/levels (different skills?)

Tell me if you like any of these idea or if you have any questions (If I made any mistakes I'm sorry, I was very tired when I wrote this)

How does the disconnection sensing work? (I will make an MMORPG also when the cloud lists are added.)

mjd wrote:

Ok, I'm going to put down some basic ideas, but I will go more in-depth in the morning.

(All of these ideas I know how to add code into the existing game)

1) Collectable resources (trees that you can chop-down, that kind of thing)
2) Inventory (persistent)
3) Player built constructions (buildings, maybe a house or a sawmill. my suggestion is if we did do something like that, players would only be allowed to build 1 or 2 buildings each, at least until we know how much the game can handle, and how many people will play, but maybe the building will disappear if the player hasn't logged in for 7 days?)
4) crafting (clothes/armour, tools, weapons?)
5) abilities, xp/levels (different skills?)

Tell me if you like any of these idea or if you have any questions (If I made any mistakes I'm sorry, I was very tired when I wrote this)

Sorry for the late response! All of your ideas are great and really awesome!

1) Very nice suggestion. I'll add this to the list of tasks for our team to do. However, we should create a user inventory before we add this. Another thing to consider would be an in-game economy with fluctuating prices determined by player's market activity.
2) This is already in the list of tasks, it's the next feature that I have on the to-do list after finishing the player customization features.
3) Awesome idea! This would be a really interesting feature to add, i definitely support it!

Both 4 & 5 are already on the list of tasks as well. If you are able to make all this as efficiently as possible, then i say go right ahead! I'd love to see how this turns out. As for the cloud storage systems, I can program that since there are already several predefined routines that we have. I'd also recommend that you begin with the inventory system, when you are finished. I will see how we can integrate it into the game. Really nice ideas, thank you!

itsmomito wrote:

Sorry for the late response! All of your ideas are great and really awesome!

1) Very nice suggestion. I'll add this to the list of tasks for our team to do. However, we should create a user inventory before we add this. Another thing to consider would be an in-game economy with fluctuating prices determined by player's market activity.
2) This is already in the list of tasks, it's the next feature that I have on the to-do list after finishing the player customization features.
3) Awesome idea! This would be a really interesting feature to add, i definitely support it!

Both 4 & 5 are already on the list of tasks as well. If you are able to make all this as efficiently as possible, then i say go right ahead! I'd love to see how this turns out. As for the cloud storage systems, I can program that since there are already several predefined routines that we have. I'd also recommend that you begin with the inventory system, when you are finished. I will see how we can integrate it into the game. Really nice ideas, thank you!

I'm glad you like my ideas I will start working on my version of the inventory system, we will see if its fast and efficient enough once I have a working version.

mjd wrote:

itsmomito wrote:

Sorry for the late response! All of your ideas are great and really awesome!

1) Very nice suggestion. I'll add this to the list of tasks for our team to do. However, we should create a user inventory before we add this. Another thing to consider would be an in-game economy with fluctuating prices determined by player's market activity.
2) This is already in the list of tasks, it's the next feature that I have on the to-do list after finishing the player customization features.
3) Awesome idea! This would be a really interesting feature to add, i definitely support it!

Both 4 & 5 are already on the list of tasks as well. If you are able to make all this as efficiently as possible, then i say go right ahead! I'd love to see how this turns out. As for the cloud storage systems, I can program that since there are already several predefined routines that we have. I'd also recommend that you begin with the inventory system, when you are finished. I will see how we can integrate it into the game. Really nice ideas, thank you!

I'm glad you like my ideas I will start working on my version of the inventory system, we will see if its fast and efficient enough once I have a working version.

Awesome! Keep me updated

Ok, I have made a basic inventory system, feel free to use it (as long as you give me credit ) it dose not currently support multi-player, but it should be a simple conversion (I was hoping you would do that part since you already have a system in place, I think) tell me if you would like to to change or explain anything (for example, if you wanted me to make it so clicking on an item in the inventory interacted with it, that would be very easy).


EDIT: here is the link (fail on my part for not giving it) http://beta.scratch.mit.edu/projects/10099057/