So, the good news and the bad...
Baaninfstree exists, but it's very buggy. Certain stuff works surprisingly well - like my nifty game notification / dialogue / chat combo box. Certain other stuff doesn't work. Inventory management and even a shade of multiplayer interaction is a persistent nightmare. Plus javascript is notoriously hard to debug.
The other thing that is going to take some busy work is that the UI is still in its infancy. While a minor problem in terms of infrastructure, it's a major problem in terms of You Playing It (which is why there's no alpha test yet
)
So, while I'm working all that out - and no, I've no idea how long it will take, though I do have a summer now where I'm largely not working, which is awesome - I wanted to bring you up to speed on certain aspects of the game. Maybe you can give me some feedback and let me know what you think
1. The World
I've based Baaninfstree off an alternate-universe Rennaisance Europe - somewhere on the border between Spain and France. I'll e-mail you the precise location later. I haven't used any real place names but often there's a very close correlation between areas (and even some people) and history. I did this because it was a challenge for me (I usually work with completely fictional settings) and because it felt Bee-Trainy.
So far I only have plans for the town itself and its environs, but hopefully the engine will be stable enough to expand the world indefinitely.
2. The Characters
I've written substantial references to player characters of the original forum game into the dialogue. Their disappearance has been viewed as highly suspicious...
Most of the characters from the forum game have retained their identities and roles, and most of them are still based (more or less roughly as the case may be) on characters from the Bee Train universe. However, I have had to edit a few minor things because I am bringing it out of the world of Forgotten Realms and into one of my own creation. Thematically, things will stay very much the same, but some of the names will be different. Key figures such as Babiron, Sjarna, and the player characters will not be effected.
3. Party Mechanics
I put substantial thought into how to make a game both single-player and multiplayer, so that you'd have plenty of things to do at least for half an hour or so on your own, but you require the assistance of a party for "big decisions".
The framework I have now (subject to change) is this: the party can elect a given player to make certain decisions on behalf of the party. This might be as simple as exploring an area, or it might involve major quest decisions and leading the party in combat. You might decide this on the basis of who might find a certain task creative or fun, or you might decide it on the basis of who is likely to be online in the near future.That player can then make decisions relavent to that task on his own, and can exercise limited control over other party members in order to do so. Players can continue to communicate through chat while this is going on. They can also (if it works properly) see what's going on directly via the chatbox and certain visual cues in the UI.
If everything goes horribly wrong, or the player gets bored, or he needs to go out for a taco, he can then transfer control of the party (including his character) to another player. I've also created a mechanic whereby if and when this transfer occurs, the party gains a small buff. This should encourage parties to involve several players in an activity if they have the opportunity to do so.
The player in charge of a given task can control party members' movement and actions to a wide extent. But he won't be able to change what equipment they have, or make them do things which they probably would not choose to do themselves. This is meant to represent the player's own character giving directions and acting in a leadership role.
From a design standpoint, this works nicely as well, as it means a great deal of gameplay can be done clientside (locally on your computer) without communicating to a server.
I hope that all makes sense! Please post below if you have any questions or comments
I will continue to update this thread in the near future with more progress and various goodies.
