Hello and welcome,

Today's update includes some insight on some planning that might have not been discussed in as much detail as I would have hoped, as well as to get some opinions on the ideas presented as well as the "logo" Id like to attack to the top of each post to add some more "style" since I'm getting a bit bored of just text.

This update will be split into several parts, the first part will discuss in details some of the 'For Sure' ideas and by that I mean the ideas we want to include, and are still being developed but never dropped. The Ideas will be presented and with hopes that some of you might be interested enough to voice your opinions.

Random Events:

Random events are not necessarily events at all, they are simply small bits of extra features that can occur over time as you play, some good some bad. All events use a percentage per action equation, the equation for example could be 35% per attack, or even 2% per every 800 attacks it all depends. Information in individual events will be published as we finalize, or at the very least draft them out discuss [s]argue[/s] Debate That sort of thing.

New G.U.I:
Now the new G.U.I was more then just a "toony" look upgrade, the old G.U.I was actually a lot more limited then what we wanted, we want to develop components that can be universal and moved by the player, the wood is just too "fixed." The new G.U.I will feature a more "color" centered style while still trying to keep the theme the idea is to create a color based pattern of sorts that can either be generated or easily altered into several forms as to save both loading time as well as general file size. This new G.U.I is all in all an upgrade that although it may not have been expected or "wanted" is one that I think was going to happen as the game progressed art got better so on so forth, and we hope by bringing in a more modern design we won't have to worry about a redo down the road.


Window Mode:
I gave you a very brief and short summary of how it will work and why it was included, but lets be honest that was just the bare bone reason. The first reason simply is, ease of access, It is a lot easier to debug and test features if I can run a client in a few seconds rather then wait for full screen to load. Other reasons include monitors and video card compatibility, as well as the ability have multiple games running at once, and well its very rare for a online game to be full screen limited. there are other reasons I am sure, and I can bet you can think of a few yourself, but these are my top few and I think that these alone justify my reason for adding it in.


Story Mode:
The story mode has been something I have wanted to add in for ages, but my lack of "ability" has not allowed me to do so for a while. Josh Cole, the extra brain we have recruited however, is a wonderful novelist. He will be the primary brain for the story while I add in my two sense and bring our minds together so we can best steer it in a direction you won't expect. The idea of the story is to give you a reason to play, online yea its fun but well, if your a hermit, whats your motivation to keep playing? The story mode will simple add that reason into the normal survival, we are still debating adding "co-op" and other neat features to it but for now that's I have to share. (Please see my last blog post to see the starting of the story)


Code Updates:
Once again I go to do a complete overhaul on the code, this is primarily because the current screen handle will not work with a windowed mode being added, and well to be honest I have re-thought a few of my major systems so that they can run on separate threads and hopefully make the game load faster, and run smoother. Some of the code updates will also work on adding a custom cursor to the game, some main menu music as well as possibly opening up with some "studio" images, or possibly the opening line or a quote from are story, all possibilities are being considered.


Hidden H.U.D Components:
These are pretty simple actually, these are simply menu items and 'gauges' that will measure the pollution levels of an area around you, they might point out air toxicity and other interesting aspects. the idea behind them was, the world reacts to what you do, and well like a real person we can't just assume you can tell polluted air or ground from non polluted air or ground, so by adding skills that give you the intelligence / the know-how to differentiate these signs and signals, then more advanced skills to get all information using tools to aid. This is both to add realism and to inform the players that "hey this is a world, don't abuse it" if the world becomes too polluted overall, the world will end, resulting in all online player profiles to be cleared of characters and a randomly generated map to be created. All players that were on will receive a "I was a witness" bonus giving them a slight edge or special feature to add incentive to not rage and leave if the world does end, but then again it only ended due to lack of action on the players part as a whole.


How Structures work:
What do I mean?, I mean how exactly do we determine how big this is and what it can do and why it can do this or that of course! Every structure has a formula that determines its size, and its inside size and or the capacity of storage it has and what not. Example Unlike some games a house 10x10 on the outside will be 9.5x9.5 on the inside, this is so that one, it makes sense, and two to retain that realism we would like to have in this game. In my own experience this is worth mentioning only due to as far as I have witnessed most games keep buildings outside and inside separate, no formula or reasoning for why this is what it is.

well, we got that out of the way and well, in my opinion anyway that should explain some ideas and updates that have got very little explanation in the past and needed to be re-explained a much more detail. Now this next bit of text will first off provide you with a bit of an inside peek on how we work, and well in short how I decide what to do, what to add to our small weekend meet ups and such, but before we get to that what else will you see in today's update? Well besides that I got a few questions towards those actually interested in keeping up with the project and such, some of these will slow down the progress of the project while giving you more clarity, while some might speed it up but leave you with vague details, all in due time.

Now Dukandia like any other project, requires inspiration,. My inspiration came from the idea that a game is a false reality created by the developers so that players can experience a world never seen before. Now I myself mostly agree with this idea but wanted to do something you normally might not see, and that is a recreation of sorts of our own "reality." Now obviously this comes with some differences, such as the creates of Dukandia won't all be from this world in fact most stem entirely from our imagination, but for the basic mechanics, how things work, and the basic "science" of the world should remain the same. Now How do I decide what we add and what we don't, well lets start at the well duh, the start. An idea can either be suggested by a friend indirectly, or I could just be staring into space when it appears but when one does, I don't usually let it go I usually develop the bulk of it right there. Once the idea meets my standards of "Ideaship" (yep its a word now) I will either say Its in or if it is one of those ideas where you know it could work it might not, I ask the rest of the "team" is it good, do you like it and then if they say yes or sometimes no, I ask random strangers or people I have met over the years. In the end it is my decision but by taking these opinions I usually side with the majority rules kinda deal. When idea is accepted it is typed, wrote and even sketched to ensure it is there to stay and be further developed.

Questions for you the "fan":

My first question simply is, should I video-tape EVERY moment of the development progress, I have noticed that more then one project does this and well, its not a bad idea; If your into that kind of thing let me know now before progress kicks back off.

When reading my updates and such, do you find my language easy to follow?, I find that sometimes I can be a bit confusing and well completely destroy an update with grammar and spelling issues to let me know now so that I can better myself in the future.

Less of a question and more of a, who is actually interested in this project? Now I know it may seem weird but I'd love to see how many Fans I actually have so that I can better know you know I should get more updates or you know the current update schedule works and such, knowing a number or at least an approximate would really help me out when writing these.

Well, I have to ask this one is the logo alright?, I think it might be a bit much or maybe it should fade into white or transparency I honestly don't know, so let me know!

These are honestly all the updates and then some of what I had planned to talk to you guys about, I would love to hear what you all have to say so like I sated above, if your interested at all let me know, give an opinion don't be a shadow. I hope everything said can help bring clarity as well as give you an idea of what is to come, and hopefully gave you interest if you have none already.

Yours truly,
-Ice