Kevin Fishburne has posted yet another progress report for Sanctimonia, his Ultima-inspired, PvE MMORPG. The report is labeled “Month 27” — has it really been that long? — and it re-caps a number of progress milestones that the Ultima Codex has reported on either directly or via the addition of downloads to The Digital Lycaeum.

For example, he remarks thusly about the creation of sound effects:

Create mic stand for all-weather outdoor recording

While I’m still using some environmental audio effects from an unlicensed commercial sound effect library, my intention is to eventually use exclusively original sound effects. In order to accomplish this it was necessary to create a recording stand for my microphone capable of withstanding most inclement weather conditions such as rain and heavy wind. I modified an existing wooden construct by adding a canopy made from a large bath towel at a 45 degree angle. The towel diffuses the sound from direct raindrop impacts to the platform and its angle carries water away from the microphone to prevent damage. The stand has been tested in storm conditions for periods exceeding six hours and the microphone stayed dry and functional.

Record and edit multiple nature sound effects

Using my mic stand and a 20 foot USB extension cable I recorded several up to 14-hour sessions of various natural sound effects from my backyard. These included insects at night, birds (calls, chatter and initial flight/takeoff), dogs barking, rainfall, thunder and trees touching under wind. Most of these recordings still need to be edited but several have been already.

The in-game cloth map has seen some refinements:

Refine and expand cloth map

Initially the cloth map data was calculated server side as an image before being sent to the client. Now the server creates a cloth map data set from the five elevation layers using their elevation data, stretching the bedrock data from -32,768 – 32,768 to 0 – 255 so it may be sent as a string of bytes. The client receives these layers as separate transactions and creates the final cloth map image locally.

I later took one step back to take two steps forward in that the server now constructs the final cloth map image, saves it to disk as a jpeg, then sends it to connecting clients. The cloth map size was expanded to 512×512 pixels and the server ensures the compressed jpeg is small enough to be sent as a single transaction (less than 64 KiB as per UDP protocol limitations).

And, of course, the crafting system:

Begin initial implementation of crafting system

Crafting is the process by which players may use PWOs (objects) to create new objects and will be the foundation of much of the gameplay. It includes things as basic as cracking a coconut to harvest its meat and milk to things as complex as the construction of a masonry arch or mechanical device such as a padlock. Basic crafting is defined as “tinkering” and will allow the player to experiment with objects using at least three different equations (use, bind and deconstruct). Advanced crafting will initially require a design document or blueprint, but after several implementations of such the crafter’s memory of the document alone will be sufficient.

I first created the basic mechanics of crafting in a text file, then drew a “tinkering” mockup on paper representing the on-screen GUI layout. Next I created a CraftingGUI procedure in the Render module to draw the tinkering GUI in-game. Tinkering involves the use of three panes: inventory, environment and equations. Inventory shows the player’s gear, or equipped objects. Environment shows objects within a six foot radius of the player. The equations lay out the framework for performing specific actions using one or more objects.

I created a Craft module in which crafting procedures not related to rendering are contained, and arrays of crafting item structures for the storage of a client player’s inventory, environment and equation items. A player maintains most input functionality while crafting, although movement clears the environment and equation crafting panes. Movement also repopulates the environment crafting pane, which means a player may “scout” for items in the environment by monitoring which items appear in the environment pane as they move about. The reason for this mechanic is primarily to allow a player to quickly respond to a dangerous situation (being attacked for example) even if while in the midst of crafting.

The report contains many other notes, of a largely technical nature, about other bits of progress made on Sanctimonia and supporting tools. Click on through and give it a read if you’re curious about the nitty-gritty of the game’s development over the last month!

Oh, and as a bonus, Kevin has uploaded a new video showing off some of the thunder sound effects he has been working on: