Folks,

It is time for another “end of sprint” update. Unfortunately, this sprint was not as successful as the last one. Due to illness and travel, a number of items either were not fully completed or in a couple of cases, didn’t get started. Life, as always, has its own plans. I have always been honest with the Community regardless of whether it is good news or bad news so expect these little hiccups over the next two years. Now, we still had a good sprint but it wasn’t as good as the last one. Here is the breakdown:

• Working on infrastructure to support rendering in the editor, paperdoll views, GM and stats views, and other non-gameplay contexts.
  Miss. While we have made a lot of progress on it, it’s still a Miss. I’m pleased with the progress we made, especially considering the whole “life” thing.
• Improving prediction and smoothing for character movement.
  Miss.
• Basic combat up and working, with triggerable abilities that have cooldowns, can be cancelled, etc.
  Completed.
• Building the framework for very-low-latency communication with the server on these, for that extra-tight game feel.
  Completed.
• Last bit of initial work on data stream encryption.
  Completed.
• Logins and accounts in patcher and game, and connected to the persistent character work from last sprint.
  Completed.
• Ongoing character animation and editor work.
  Completed.
• Continued work/fixes to pledge transfer system after internal test with usability and UI changes.
  Completed.

  –

  Finish work of functionality review with feature lock for initial testing of PTS.

• Create a Transfer log viewer.
  Completed.
• Evaluation of third party software for possible inclusion in game.
  Miss.
• Environment artwork: Tree set with LODs (Level of Detail).
  Completed.
• Next producer letter to the community.
  Completed.
• Evaluate survey tools for use in collecting Founder feedback.
  Completed.
• Finish new CU video with new logo.
  Completed.
• Animate generic Arthurian male.
  Completed.
• Produce higher resolution vids from past updates for use on YouTube and elsewhere.
  Completed.
• Initial concepting for new race.
  Completed.
• Begin armor design research for concept artists and modelers.
  Completed.
• Second pass magic system including vfx concepting.
  Completed.
• Create vfx for future use with our editor when it comes online.
  Completed.
• Bust of Valkyrie with first pass of ‘feather hair.’
  Completed.
• First pass high res Valkyrie.
  Completed.
• Final editing of the next Becoming tale for TDD race.
  Completed.
• Final editing of the first Becoming tale for TDD NPC/PC.
  Completed.
• First draft final TDD race.
  Completed.
• 2nd pass stats skills.
  Completed.
• Meet with team to discuss next pass on the magic system.
  Completed.

So, not a bad update but we did miss out on a few items that we hoped to take care of this sprint but so it goes. We’ll be a little lighter on the tech side next sprint as we do have to take care of the old items first but we are still on track for the opening of our IT testing in January as scheduled. Here’s a look at our next sprint.

• Complete missed tasks from last sprint.
• Begin integration of Havoc physics engine for the server.
• In-scene rendering of UI – text over heads, etc., focusing on maximizing performance.
• Animation 3D Player integration.
• Continued work on account editor based on initial feedback from team.
• Update website with race/models/concept art/lore collections.
• Update website with all additional shown concept art and models.
• Update Dvergr model with basic animation on new rig.
• Update Viking female model with basic animation on new rig.
• Update Hamadryad model with basic animation on new rig.
• Animation editor prop parenting solution.
• First pass at shared falling animations for current models.
• 1st pass armor concepts.
• 1st pass low-res Valkyrie texture.
• Create assets for testing against vfx editor.
• Finish high res Valkyrie model.
• Create low-res Valkryie model.
• Re-weight low-res older models as time allows.
• 1st pass Environment for January play test.
• First draft of Combat Vision Doc.
• Finish TDD race Becoming story and end current race cycle.
• Get invites out to guild members to join their guild leaders.

That covers our next sprint. It’s still a pretty hefty one even with some catch-up work we need to do. In terms of the next TDD race, we’ll reveal that on Monday along with some cool concept work from Sandra and Michelle.

 
Have a great weekend everyone!
 
-Mark