The Ancients

[azkanan]


Better? :D

[evilbunnie]

Caaaaaaauuuuttteee! I love it!

[Dark Crusade]

I've seen you improve so much over the years Azkazan, I am looking forward to the end product, don't let me down!

[azkanan]

@Kreator:

> I've seen you improve so much over the years Azkazan, I am looking forward to the end product, don't let me down!

And you **still** can't spell my fucking name.


But really, you were a grand help every time I needed help, so it's partially down to you for helping me get this far. Yet the journey is far from over! D:

[Dark Crusade]

@Azkanan:

> And you **still** can't spell my ducking name.

Trollolololol

[Sickey]

@Azkanan:

> 
>
> Better? :D

Yeah! Looks, epic. No more spinning.. :]

[azkanan]

Mwuha… Mwuhahahaha! It begins!


[azkanan]

Keep in mind that these are still first-draft graphics, so please don't judge us too harshly! :)

Well, here they are, the first graphic-icon representations of the skills that can be experienced in-game.
By the time people are playing however, some of these may be removed and others added.


I'll leave it to you guys to try and work out what they are! :)

[JeffSventora]

That's a hell of a start. Keep up the good work!

[Keebler Elf]

@Azkanan:

> I'll leave it to you guys to try and work out what they are! :)

Starting with the black hood working my way left and down I would assume they are.

Theivery
Hurting hand on wood
Law?
First Aid
Alchemy
Odd looking bottles
Pagan Ritualthingy
Opposite of pagan ritalthingy
Brewing
Cheese making
Brick laying/building
Jewlery shiz
Trapping
cooking
farming
Burning Ants with magnifying glass
tanning leather…
fishing
writing...
mining
sewing
foraging
mass murdering chef tool
glass blowing
leather working
loom making cloth...
carpentry
woodcutting
smelting
wool,silk,scroll?
rope O_o
anvils with lots of differnt bars!

Tells me how close I am!

[Sickey]

1\. Stealth
2\. Pickpocket
3\. Merchant(thingie)
4\. Healing/regeneration.
5\. Alchemy
6\. -
7\. Ritualism/sacrificing/offering (to le gods)
8\. Divinity
9\. Brewing.
10\. Cheese making.
11\. Building brick walls/houses, thingie.
12\. Jewelry cutting, (cutting emeralds so they look nice.)
13\. Trapping
14\. Cooking.
15\. Farming
16\. Searching
17\. Leather tanning
18\. Fishing.
19\. Scribing/writing?
20\. Mining
21\. Cloth Crafting.
22\. Foraging/mushroom picking.
23\. Butchering
24\. Glass Blowing
25\. Leather working.
26\. Loom, herpaderp thingie..
27\. Carpentry
28\. Woodcutting
29\. Ore melting.
30\. Pot making.
31\. Pot smoking.
The rest are smithing with different ores.

[azkanan]

Keep trying :D.

* * *

Introducing; Lightning's Map Editor, in action :3.

>! http://puu.sh/dtpO
>! 

[Dark Crusade]

CAN I GUESS?

trollface.jpeg

[azkanan]

@Kreator:

> CAN I GUESS?
>
> trollface.jpeg

No.

[azkanan]

Good news, everyone! Project Terra (Now "The Ancients") has just posted its first news in quite a while.We go over what we've been doing, and a couple of things we intend to do. =]

http://www.moddb.com/games/the-ancients/news/the-ancients-rome

[draginvoke5]

@Azkanan:

> Good news, everyone! Project Terra (Now "The Ancients") has just posted its first news in quite a while.We go over what we've been doing, and a couple of things we intend to do. =]
>
> http://www.moddb.com/games/the-ancients/news/the-ancients-rome

Sounds and looks fantastic… Although I really don't have any money for a few weeks... I gotta pay bills. Also I don't feel like paying for this game, but I'm sure it will rise to the top!

[azkanan]

This is Dave.


Say Hi, Dave.


Dave will be helping us today to see how big the world of The Ancients really is.

The above image is our Subject, Dave. Dave is made up of things called "Pixels". Pixels are what makes up your screen; when you set your screen resolution to, say, 1024*768, that means your screen is now displaying 1024*768 pixels - that's 786,432 pixels!

Pixels are individually coloured to make up a larger image - like Lego!

Dave is very small, and is 32*64 pixels. In fact, all the people of The Ancients are 32*64 pixels.

The Ancients team uses one pixel to represent one tile in image planning, and in case you're wondering, one tile is 32x32 pixels - that means that Dave is two tiles tall!

Here is a picture of dave, represented as two tiles large in our reference image of the world;


Now here is another picture of Dave in a "Segment", which is 50*50 tiles.


We call these areas "Segments".

When a player is in a Segment, the segment is active, which allows the player to function and interact in that area. However, when a segment has not been visited by a player for some time, the segment goes Inactive, which saves the Server immeasurable space - meaning a better, smoother experience for players!

Now, let's zoom out a little more… The next image is of 10x10 Segments, which we call an "Area".


_Can you still see Dave?_
We are very far away now, and looking over what will be the area of Rome - more or less. The blue blob to the left is the Tiber River.

The next image is what we call a "Region"… which is made up of 10*10 Areas.


When we first release the game, this will be the explorable world in Alpha gameplay. From this, we will expand to include further Regions. On the scale of things though, here's an approximate overlay of the above image as a box over the real world…


And again, zoomed out. Remember; this black box is one region, the alpha region.

So, suffice to say, it's a _**pretty big world**_.

In fact, just a moment ago, me and Lightning were talking about how in the future with ship-based traveling, if you were to set off from Ostia and land on any shore, you'd be disembarking into another region - another region that, if you wanted, you could walk all the way back to Rome!
_(Unless of course if you disembarked on an island, hah)_

[Keebler Elf]

Poor dave… I hope he has good shoes.

[cheatking]

@Keebler:

> Poor dave… I hope he has good shoes.

I lol'd hard. xD

[azkanan]

Howdy folks, here's a news piece on how the creation of Rome will be planned out. Hopefully it will go smoothly.

First of all, let's get this out of the way: The city won't be historically correct. Not completely, at least. I need to find a balance between making the game historically correct, feasible by time allowed and the space it consumes and by how usable the city itself is for players.
As much as I'd love the city to be 100% accurate, it's just not possible. Sorry Super Rome Fans. :(

* * *

So, dev-side, we have an image that is 5000x5000 pixels big. We've modelled it to the size of an in-game Region, which is 5000x5000 tiles. As a result, one tile = one pixel.

Regions are split into "Segments", which are 50x50 tiles. That's 10,000 segments per region.

By using this, we can draw out a rough idea of how the city will plan out, which helps, considering how packed it is… being one tile off in-game can turn out pretty messy. Mapping has a tendency for a Snowball affect in situations like this.

Here is the city of Rome, as planned. **[(Click Here](http://puu.sh/edCQ))**

Key

**Red Lines: Roads**

Orange: Commercial Buildings (Retail and Process locations)
Pink - Purple: Housing; the darker it is, the larger the building.
Brown: Warehouses.
Blue: "Guild Housing".
Rainbow: Baths

Red: Senate
Violet-purple: Temples/Rostra

Here are some base building templates. [**(Click Here)**](http://puu.sh/edHQ)

Commercial Buildings
These are where players and NPCs process supplier's goods or sell them as a retailer. The Ancients' economy goes by the basic principle of "Supply, Process, Retail". The large orange block in the center is an indoor market.
Commercial Buildings with a smaller block inside in the corner is a Restaurant, whilst all others are general stores.

Housing
Most housing are Insulae, as found around and near the indoor marketplace, the small pink blocks. These also double up as more store space, albeit small. Insulae housing itself is pretty much just a bed to sleep in.
Meanwhile, the larger pink blocks (Most of which are crammed next to each other) are Domus, which I've crafted into four varying sizes. The smallest is what I guess you can call a Bachelor's Pad; it has one bedroom, dining room, kitchen, two spare rooms, an Atrium (A hole in the ceiling with a pool under it; rainwater gathers here) and a Garden (Like an Atrium, but a grass/dirt area surrounded by pillars. These can be used for setting up Training or growing herbs).

Houses then expand in size and content from here, up till the largest Domus, which offers five spare rooms, the Atrium, a dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms, a garden room and an indoor Garden.

All Domii have the possibility to also have attached stores to their front which the house-owner can rent out.

Warehouses
In most MMOs when you want to store things safely, you put all the items into your backpack and head off to the local Community Warehouse that is always crammed. You then throw your backpacks contents onto the counter and they safely disappear.
In The Ancients, there are a few differences;
- You can't chuck as much as you can carry into your backpack. You can't fit a halberd into your backpack, but you can fit it in your hand.
- Buildings have capacities. You can't just shovel it all in one location.

So, if you want to store something in The Ancients, you'll have to purchase some place to hide your things or hide them some place. This is where warehouses come into use; large, empty buildings waiting for your goodies. In addition to this, if you wanted to shift a large number of goods from one location to another, you'd need to hire, own or build a Cart or other type of vehicle.
Also, if you were a shopkeeper, you'd likely want a warehouse for your goods to be delivered to if your shop is too small. Although, the larger shops have large spaces out back for your goods to be stored in.

Guild Housing
Players need to buy one of these in the Collegia Founding process. This system is still on the table of design, but the idea is that you need to send off an Application Form with at least three signaturees to the Senate, where the Senate then discuss if the application should be passed or not. From there, the Senators agree on a "Collegia Founding Fund" that is used by the applicants on buying a Collegia.
Established Collegia emit an "Influence" around them. Each influence on a tile has a strength. People who's housing or stores are within this influence then have a chance to come to the guild and request for goods to be made by that Collegia. Collegia must specialise in a Major and Minor skill.
When the goods are then accomplished and delivered, the Collegia is rewarded with a financial payment and an "Influence Bump". The better quality the goods delivered, the bigger "Bump". This then expands the Influence.

As I said, this is still in the discussion phase, but this is what we are aiming for; a working, fully-rotating reputation and taxable system.

Baths
The design of the Baths was so complex, for what it is, that I had to colour-code it!

The green room is the entrance and where bathers would strip and leave their items. Romans were encouraged to use the bathroom before going any further into the baths, which is what the brown room is.
The purple room is simply a corridor. Romans would then have the choice of going for a Bath or going to the Steam room, which is alike to our Saunas. In the case of the Sauna, which is the gold room, players can simply relax, socialise and let the steam do all the work.
Otherwise, players can advance to the yellow room. In here, the temperature is kept quite warm. Slaves or servants would oil the Roman down and then scrape it the oil off; bringing out any dirt and muck from the pores. After this, they would advance to the main baths to relax and clean off any last bits, the Red room.
After either Sauna or bathing, the player advanced to the "Cold Plunge" room, which is a cold tub of water. This is used to close the pores of the skin. Then they return to the room where they undressed, dress and leave.

Senate
The Senate is where senators gather to discuss city and national topics. We hope to create a system where players can also become senators and therefore, affecting these discussions; possibly affecting taxes, the construction and expansion of buildings, national funds and war-matters.

Rostra
The Rostra is where people gather to hear from the Town Crier on the results of the Senate discussions. The Rostra was historically a round depression into the ground with steps for Romans to city and listen to the Town Crier from a raised platform.
However, due to our top-down game, we've had to reform this to be rectangular.

Temples
The temples are places for people to worship and offer sacrifices to the gods, although, people mainly did this at home at their personal shrine.

Atrium Vestae
The Atrium Vestae is the Temple and Home of the Vestal Virgins. The Vestal Virgins were women who pledged themselves to Chastity and to worship the goddess, Vesta.
They played a number of roles. Their most important role was to keep the Hearth of Vesta alit at all times, as it was thought that as long as the fire was alight, the city of Rome was safe from any danger.
Not only that, but it was their duty to store and keep artifacts of Rome in prime condition, as well as to store important documents related to Senators and other high-end citizens.

**So, that's my introduction to the City of Rome.**

* * *

As for the actual mapping itself, I'm working on the tiles as I go along. Here's a couple of screenshots;

Props to Lightning for how quickly he's responded to bugs with the Map Editor.



For now, I just want to get the basic structure of the City built. From there, I can tweak details in.
If I were to detail every sector to it's perfection from the get-go, and I found an inconsistency with the layout later on, I'd have to rebuild the city! That would be bad for my Psyche and sleeping pattern.

[ZoSo]

You guys are really mapping those many maps :P?
Sheeesh, anyway looks interesting. Hope it makes it out someday.

[Yxxe]

@ZoSo:

> You guys are really mapping those many maps :P?
> Sheeesh, anyway looks interesting. Hope it makes it out someday.

I'm not, Azk is. He said he's happy to do it all himself. xD

[Myron]

inb4 he's going spam his MSN friend list for someone to help him. :P

[azkanan]

@Rusher:

> inb4 he's going spam his MSN friend list for someone to help him. :P

No. I need every map to be quality. Not saying I can do that myself, but I am saying having multiple people mapping is going to be a collision of styles and a decentralisation of control.

Besides, the map editor is only designed for a one-man flight team.

[Myron]

Eh, I can understand that. Good luck ;)