Developer Updates #4

Gelco recently used Tyranx's map and split it up into a graph paper like design to allow Existance and Sevas an easier time in creating the terrain.

Existance and Sevas are now working on the terrain and the normal zone size will be 1/2 x 1/2 miles or 1 x 1 miles (depending on the location). The world is going to be 10 x 7 miles which is 70 square miles (this is larger than the original EverQuest world if that gives any of you an idea of world size).

Toth is working on a side project for me as well as working hard with texturing and animating. He's working on finishing up the Elf animations for the Alpha test next month.

Simking has been working on armor and clothing sets for players, a large task as each piece needs to be drawn 6 times (to fit humans and elfs, minotaur, and panterran and then the two sexes for each.)

Martin F is finishing up the Panterran player character as well as some unique monsters including the Hydra and Cerberus.

The team has been divided up into Departments now with Simking leading t Art Department, Toth leading the Animation/Texturing Department, and R@nsid leading the Modeling Department. The new departments and appropriate forum for each will give a better work flow and professional feel around the team.

The forums had been slow because of exams and finishing up a year at college for many on the team, but now that has all calmed down and work is beginning to return to normal.

Developer Updates #3

The terrain creating tool we were waiting on is finally ready and able to be used so now two of our team members, Existance and Sevas, are working on the terrain for the world.

Gelco and Conquer are still scripting various systems for the game and upcoming alpha test.

Toth has been working on finishing some animations sets including the Eransects and Elf.

Martin began modeling the Panterran male and soon will be moving onto the Panterran Female.

Simking finished the model sheets for the Panterrans and is beginning work on some boss Dragons and the Darke family.

Wildmax began work on a new dungeon that is beginning to look great with multiple rooms and various quests throughout it.

The forums have been kind of slow but the last week or so has been very busy in R/L for myself and I believe a few other of our developers.

Until next time,
Robert

Test Version 1.1.7

Test Version 1.1.7 of the game was released over the weekend which included many new features and abilities as well as the basic systems that Gelco had been working on. Martin F's Elf was added into the game with Toth's texturing and animation, this is our first player made character to be added to the game.

The updates, test zones, models, and systems are all proving to work very well and are providing a great foundation for our Alpha testing which will take place next month. By the Alpha test hopefully there will be some more mobs, some more systems, and maybe some instancing with guild and housing zones.

Everyone around the team is busting it lately to make sure this Alpha test is a huge success. ^_^

Developer Updates #2

It's been a busy week around the developer forums, we are all getting ready for the Alpha test and trying to get in as much content as we can before we launch it.

Gelco has been working hard on programming the systems and has finished all the basic combat systems as well as getting everyone's stuff together and putting it in the test.

Toth is still working on the interfaces and they are looking amazing. After he's done he'll be going back to texturing and animating to see what other models we can bring to life for the test.

Martin F is taking a small break from modeling to try out some texturing on a model he just completed.

DarkRaven just finished some epic weapons and they look great and exactly like the concept art.

We have a new member on the team, Venthe. He is an animator/texturist/3d modeler who will be focusing on animation on the team. Hopefully with his addition to the team we will be able to speed up development some more and be able to add more models to the test before the deadline.

Everything is looking really great and we are all excited about the Alpha Test, hope to see you there!

Robert

Work Log from Gelco (Lead Developer)

Gelco is the Lead Developer on the team who is in charge of putting everything made for the game together as well as programming inside the game and game engine. Here is a work log he posted in the General Chat forums to update everyone about himself and his work:

"Hi everyone. Thought I would make a post on whats happening behind the scenes on Etherea: Dark Genesis, what my job is etc. I dont spend massive amounts of time posting on the forums so quite a lot of you might not know me. Basically Im the guy putting a lot of other peoples hard work together into the game and organising releases etc as well as programming/scripting work. I also organise things like the website and forums.

Currently we are on alpha release 1.1.7. (Its actually the 8th test version I think). These are internal tests for the team only. However they are proving useful and we do have a world you can run around in. We are getting very close on the completion of our first outpost, the human one. A lot of work has gone into it and its beginning to feel more real to us now about what we are making. The other outposts are almost ready and just waiting to go into the game for the most part. We are waiting for a new tool which will help us build our terrains and hopefully then the world will grow in size very fast and we will start thinking about external alphas/betas.

Personally this week I have been working on the combat system, which Im sure you will all agree is important and it's a massive job. It also includes the class and loot systems going in later on aswell but hopefully it will be done in the next month or so. We are also getting close on setting up the guild system. Although we have encountered some problems with the game engine, I think we will get around it. Conquer, one of the scripters, is doing a great job on the guild systems. Im also hoping we can get our first screnshots of the ingame layout out soon, think perhaps at the end of the month.

At the moment Im working on alpha 1.1.8 which will be our next release. Im hoping that by 1.1.10 we will begin having external testers in, hopefully that wont be to far away. Im hoping it will be a lot of fun by that stage for people to see. Anyway, hope you found that reasonably interesting. Just wanted to give you all a bit of reassurance that things are going on in relation to the game not just making models or art work."

A very good and interesting work log. To my understanding and from the looks of things we will start bringing in community members (only a few at first and slowly) at mid-late June on schedule with the timeline we had released earlier.

Thanks Gelco and thank you to everyone reading,
Robert

Newsletter Tomorrow

Toth just sent in some pictures of the models he finished texturing and Gelco will be adding them to the site tomorrow. After he does I'll send out a newsletter with some general updates, reference to the model shots and new concept art, and of course a link to this blog.

The "model shots" you will see are the models that have been created and textured and only lack, if they haven't been already, being animated.

Toth will be working on the user interface before going back to work on animating and texturing other models.