Atlas Devlogs 2021

[Iyoforeayo]

Assorted Devlog #3

Written by Tyrriel

Similar to last month, while good progress is being made on larger systems and projects, it’s not quite complete enough to show off in a devlog. However there are a couple of smaller, but important systems that also got some love / attention.

Chat
In the grand scheme of things, not a particularly impressive feature, but players literally interact with it all the time. So it needs to be reliable and work. Main changes here were simplification and better integration with other systems.

Simplification was primarily removing the “radio” channel system (typing /ch 100 and such). Frankly the system wasn’t used enough to warrant it and with the improved alliance chat there really wasn’t a need for it anymore.

Better integration with other systems primarily included changing the dependency order between the chat system and Diplomacy. Previously Diplomacy depended on the chat plugin and registered a channel, this was a bit of a hack. Now the chat plugin depends on Diplomacy and figures out how to send the channels to who.

Custom Status Effects
Last month, Desert talked about the custom status effects that are coming with foods. Along with this Magic also introduced custom status effects like Mark of the Valderkal and Crosswinds. We realized that we needed / wanted a centralized system to add / manage these effects on entities. And so, StatusEffectAPI was born. This will allow for better integration between any systems that add custom status effects.

[Iyoforeayo]

World Regen Devlog #1

Written by Tyrriel

World Regeneration is arguably one of the most complex systems on the server. The code itself isn’t particularly complicated, however there are a number of things that must have careful consideration. In the previous iteration of World Regeneration, the primary focus was to build a system that had little to no performance impact on the server. And to a large degree, we did succeed in that endeavor. However, there were still glaring issues with the system. Namely the aesthetic of “regenerated” areas.

In this devlog, we have a few samples of the new tech that we have to help remedy that particular issue. Alongside this, we also wanted to touch on the arguably minor, but important changes that are coming to World Regeneration. First things first, the amount of days that an area has to be “abandoned” (no player has loaded the chunks) is now 30 days. This number has been reduced from 45 days because we have done away from the “effective regeneration pass” system to a more rigid 4 regeneration pass system (more details will be shared later in this devlog) - with the first pass of this new regen system keeping the structure almost entirely intact.

The more rigid “4 passes of regen” system was primarily put in place because it better allowed us to control what each phase of regen actually looked like. And without further ado, here are some pictures:

Reference:


Pass 1: “Abandoned”


Pass 2: “Collapse”

(Note: the collapse pass is still very much a work in progress, this is not the final iteration)

Pass 3: “Rubble”


Pass 4: “Restore”


Obviously some of these are still very much so a work in progress, but the workflow that we now have allows us to more carefully tune what each regeneration pass looks like. Alongside this, there have been a whole host of other changes, primarily with how we actually query for these “abandoned” areas. Previously, the time calculation was based off of milliseconds and was queried in the Java code. Now, it uses actual date objects and is queried in SQL which ends up with a smaller number of rows queried. Additionally, there are now safeguards with new Minecraft tech that allows us to “flag” or store data on a chunk. Specifically we store the last time a chunk was updated, this allows the system to verify that a chunk is not being regenerated before it is supposed to be (and I have more monitoring tools for debugging purposes).

TL;DR: More tech, more stable, no more swiss cheese.

[Iyoforeayo]

New Nauru Devlog #4

Written by Iyoforeayo

As the city of New Nauru fast approaches completion, we wanted to show off some of the new buildings you’ll be able to visit, and what gameplay aspects they’ll provide - specifically in the Government District:

Hall of Nations


Players who were active during the last iteration of Atlas will likely be familiar with this building’s purpose. The Hall of Nations is the epicenter for all Player Nations on Atlas - not only will it be the place that you’re able to found your own Nation, it will be a building that houses the collection of displays for all Player Nations on the server! 

New players looking to join existing Nations will be directed to this building, and be able to view all Player Nations’ banners, descriptions, etc. in order to choose which Nation to join (unless they choose to start their own!)

Hall of Victors


With Leaderboards now evolving into the more in-depth Atheran Council, we needed a building to be the epicenter of that mechanic - where players will not only be able to view the current leaders of the Atheran Council, but also interact with the mechanic itself in terms of voting, viewing the laws to vote on, etc. Details on the gameplay aspects of the Atheran Council are still being discussed, and we’ll have a separate devlog about that in the future…

Hall of Heroes

The Hall of Heroes will be an area to view the names of devs and staff that have contributed to the server - more of a “museum” than an interactive area like the other buildings.

Valderkal Embassy

The dwarven embassy within New Nauru is a major political epicenter, but players will likely be more interested in its other purpose - housing the entrance to The Trials!

The Trials are Atlas’ procedurally-generated, endless dungeon - and while we’ve mentioned details about it in previous States of the Server, we’ll also have a devlog detailing this mechanic in-depth in the near future - so stay tuned!

[Iyoforeayo]

Assorted Devlog #4

Written by Iyoforeayo & Tyrriel

You’ll likely be seeing a lot more of these Assorted Devlogs, since a lot of smaller projects are being worked on, refined, polished, etc. Atlas obviously has its major gameplay elements and features (like Nations and Dungeons) but there’s a whole host of minor elements that help tie everything together succinctly - or are specific aspects of larger mechanics:

Landmarks, Citizens, & Perks
From a backend standpoint, this system has been entirely rewritten. From the player’s standpoint, Landmarks, Citizens, and Perks should now work similarly to how they did before, but with a number of Quality-of-Life improvements.

Moving Landmarks and Citizens has been standardized, which should make editing these buildings/NPCs within your Towns much easier.

New menus have been created for better managing your Town’s Landmarks and Citizens.

Town Perks now support level advancements, as well as a handful of new Perks that have been added.

Nation Embassy System
One thing mentioned in the latest New Nauru devlog was the Hall of Nations building in New Nauru. Player Nations will now have their own lectern and banner display here, that is configurable through a new Nations permission: “Manage Embassy.”

Story Campaign Progress
With the New Nauru, Purelaker, and Vantian story campaign quests in the testing phase, the Shen-Cirilian Alliance campaign is nearing completion. We plan to have this 4th main campaign testable by the end of the month, at which point the only remaining major quest development will be the 5th and final campaign for Xar’akul: the nether continent! Speaking of which…

Xar’akul Progress
A couple months back we previewed our working map for the nether continent, Xar’akul - and since then, our builders have been working on unique biome designs for this new and chaotic world. With the actual in-game map finally taking shape, we’ll be incorporating quests, mobs, and of course our endgame dungeon to the continent.

[Iyoforeayo]

Itemization Devlog #5

Written by Wizardteepot

As we continue refining Atlas, we keep looking towards endgame content and specifically rewards. Tyr approached me with an idea for some randomness in our unique and legendary items for certain content, and we settled on the idea of “Named Uniques” and “Affixed Items”. 

Named Uniques are things that have already been in the game, but we’re just rebranding them. Think of items like Karag’s Sabre or the Grappling Hook. These were set items given out as quest rewards and were the same no matter who got it. Enchantments, Attributes, and item abilities would stay the same (for example the Grappling Hook would provide you the ability to grapple to blocks).

Affixed Items
Affixed items, on the other hand, have a small amount of randomness to them. Loot can drop and have ranges of attributes and enchantments set to them. For example, here is an example of two different items you might find:



Note how the two weapons, both called Blink Blade, have their enchantments and attributes randomly rolled, with some stats going up or down between the two. The Blinking effect would be the Affix here, and wouldn’t change between items.

Alternatively, there are some affixes that can change within themselves. For example, we have a Mob Charm planned that can change the Mob that it affects. For example if you get a Zombie Charm, zombies no longer target the player who has it. A different version of it would be a Skeleton Charm, where skeletons no longer target the player instead.

Where will Affixed Items be?
In endgame content, such as dungeons, trials, or world bosses, there will be chances to drop these affixed items. This will give dedicated players the chance to perfect their builds in finding the stats that are more suitable to them for their gear.

Named Uniques, however, will still remain as rewards for quest chains, or more common items like the Groundshaker can be found in some specific Vendors such as Dungeon Currency Shops.

[Iyoforeayo]

Assorted Devlog #5

Written by Iyoforeayo & Tyrriel

Diplomacy & War Updates
No major changes to the gameplay aspects of Diplomacy and Wars, but a lot of backend updates for these mechanics, including tying them in with the new aspects of Sieges, Nations, and the brand new Outpost Battles.

Quest Coding & Bugfixing
Lots of work on the Shen-Cirilian Alliance campaign quests, and general bugfixing across the board for things like NPC phasing, combat quests, and journal entries w/ cartography questpoints.

Nations Updates
More backend work on nation founding, town leveling, Landmarks, and Citizens. 

Also implemented a new Banner Creation Menu for Nations!



New Nauru Updates
Tons of work on the city’s few remaining build projects, making New Nauru nearly complete!

[Iyoforeayo]

Agriculture Devlog #1

Written by Tyrriel

Agriculture is a unique system in that it was one of the only systems that expanded the gatherable things in the world of Atlas. With the inclusion of a resource pack in this iteration of Atlas and some changes to entities that Mojang made recently, we decided to overhaul our expansion to farming.

From a technical standpoint, there were a number of changes. For example, Agriculture used to interact with our MySQL database, it no longer does as the data for the crop is stored directly in the world now. Agriculture used to also utilize armor stands with custom player heads and existing block states to achieve the physical appearance of the crop. However, with the power of a resource pack and some sneaking invisible item frames, we have brand new crop block models that fit better with the base vanilla game.

Some pictures for viewing pleasure:

The farmland crops (in order from left to right): Cabbage, Corn, Cotton, Eggplant, Lettuce, Onion, Radish, Squash, Tomato, and Turnip


The berry bushes (in order from left to right): Techaberry, Snowberry, Razzberry, Pitaya, Pinaberry, Lychiberry, White Grape, Red Grape, Purple Grape, and Cheriberry

And here we have some of the new item sprites:




Note: A number of these textures, both sprites and block models are WIP placeholder textures that are there simply for development purposes (to see the stages of growth). These will be changing.

Moving away from the armor stand system proves to be beneficial not only in the way of looking better with the custom models, but it is also more performant. Which means that there will no longer be an arbitrary restriction on the amount of Agriculture crops that you will be able to have in your town. Which, some of you may remember, existed under the old system.

[Iyoforeayo]

Assorted Devlog #6

Written by Iyoforeayo

New Nauru Updates
Save for a few odds and ends, the city of New Nauru has been finished!





This has been our most ambitious build project in Atlas history, and we can’t wait for you all to experience the (vastly) improved spawn city!

Quest Updates
Another major item mostly-completed this month was the Shen-Cirilian Alliance campaign! (One of the reasons these devlogs are a bit late is that we spent a good chunk of today testing these quests.)

With this done, the New Nauru, Purelaker Republic, Vantian Empire, and SCA story campaigns are all working beginning to end! There’s obviously a fair amount of polish to be done across the board, but our main quests as a whole are in a solid place.


Dungeon Updates
Layout and level design for a brand new dungeon has been completed, and mob/boss design is underway. Not too much to reveal about this one yet, but we’re looking forward to releasing a Dungeon Devlog on it soon!

[Iyoforeayo]

Mounts & Pets Devlog #1

Written by Tyrriel

For our OGs, you may remember the old Pets system that we used to have on Atlas. It was bugged out more often than not, and frankly wonk when it came to balancing. As we’ve been bringing all of the combat related / adjacent systems in-house, this too got the same treatment. It should be noted (by the title of this devlog) that the old Pets system has now been split into two different plugins / systems. This month, we’ll be taking a look at Mounts, from a gameplay mechanic wise, to some more technical bits.

Mechanics
In the old system, you would acquire (the admittedly absolutely OP and broken) mount by taming a given mob and hopefully rolling the mount skill tree on the pet. However, like I said previously, we have divorced our mounts system from our pet system. So, in this iteration of Atlas, you will be given a mount fairly early on in your journey on Atlas. The old system also had a leveling system for pets which allowed you to dramatically increase the attributes of your mount, which while cool didn’t really fit all that well within the design principles of Atlas. The new system will work more like traditional MMOs where a mount gives you a flat percentage increase in movement speed (from base, not based off of your armor attributes). In other words, all mounts will mechanically be the same. The “coolness” factor will come with the new skin system, which I will touch on in a bit.

Summoning your mount can be done through the action menu (one of the 4 new buttons in your inventory). Upon the mount’s death, there will be a minimum 90 second cooldown before you may summon your mount again. Mounts will be restricted to the “survival” worlds on Atlas (Athera, Xar’akul). In the cosmetics menu (which is a button in the action menu), you can also select a skin for your mount. Mount skins are cosmetics that can be acquired not only through coin purchases (our premium currency) but specific skins can be acquired through questing and rare dungeon drops.


Here is an example of the new tech that allows us to have completely custom mounts!

Technical Stuff
Be warned, the following will be highly technical with some of the actual code from the plugin.

We’ll be diving into some of the complexities that came with writing our own Mounts plugin specifically around the skins system. Because as you can imagine, leaning on the vanilla horse system is fairly straightforward and simple. One of the main hurdles with Mount skins was making it so that any mob type can be ridden and controlled using the WASD keys.

Now if you have spent any time in the Minecraft modding scene you know that there are client-bound packets (packets that are sent from the server to the client) and there are server-bound packets (packets that are sent from the client to the server). The Minecraft client sends a lot of different packets to the server, but every keypress is not one of them. However there is a packet called the Player Input packet which does get sent to the server from the client. This packet includes where W, A, S, D, SHIFT, and/or SPACE was pressed.

Here is a link to the actual code that enables any mob to be controlled using WASD

Using this packet, we can easily check if the player is riding a mob type that is not normally controllable by WASD and simply modify the velocity of the vehicle entity appropriately to get the desired “controllable” effect that we are aiming for.

[Iyoforeayo]

Quest Devlog #5

Written by Iyoforeayo

In a previous Assorted Devlog, I mentioned that the Shen-Cirilian Alliance story campaign had been completed, making it the 4th (out of 5) main story campaigns to be programmed. Since then, those 4 campaigns have been undergoing a lot of bug testing, level design, mob design, and polish. (With the 5th campaign being Xar’akul, we’re holding off on adding it until the nether continent has been completed.)

Quests have been a major focus of mine since the inception of Atlas - and throughout each iteration of the server, they’ve undergone a lot of changes. With every iteration, I’ve gotten a lot of useful feedback from players regarding not only what type of gameplay content they want to see from quests, but what sorts of rewards and in-game consequences that content should provide. Additionally, the depth of Atlas lore has been ever-increasing, and I’ve been trying to include as much of that story into the gameplay experience as possible for players to experience - which I believe the new Story Campaign Quests will provide.

That being said, I wanted to give a preview of the quest names for all the new Story Campaign Quests that are currently in the testing phase. I know I’ve previewed the Chapter titles in the past, but I wanted to reveal a bit more granular info on the main quests (without spoiling the story itself) to give an idea (or at least spark some speculation) of the types of adventures players will be embarking upon when they quest on Atlas:

Campaign #1: New Nauru

Chapter 1: The Arson

1. The New City
   
2. A Matter of Great Importance
   
3. Scene of the Crime
   
4. Elder Beloc
   
5. A Shady Favor
   
6. Whodunnit?
   

Chapter 2: Infiltration
(At this point, the story diverges into 3 branches. All 3 branches must be completed in order to complete this chapter.)
A.) The Sons of Drakmar

1. The Sons of Drakmar
   
2. A Test of Strength
   
3. Protection Racket
   
4. The Great Mushroom Robbery
   
5. A Chat with Drakmar
   
6. Recruiting Mercenaries
   
7. Preparing the Ship
   
8. Report: The Sons of Drakmar
   

B.) The Argent Coalition

1. The Argent Coalition
   
2. Proving Your Worth
   
3. A Mother in Mourning
   
4. Slow Progress
   
5. The Elders’ Archives
   
6. Admiral Hargram
   
7. The Island
   
8. Report: The Argent Coalition
   

C.) The Magisters

1. The Magisters
   
2. An Unexpected Welcome
   
3. The Valderkal Tablet
   
4. Alternative Magic
   
5. Finding New Leads
   
6. Teenage Mutant New Naurulian Turtles
   
7. The Bloodstone
   
8. Report: The Magisters
   

Chapter 3: The Night It Happened

1. A Last Resort
   
2. The Night Of
   
3. Torian’s Research
   
4. Attempted Theft
   
5. The True Threat
   
6. Torian’s Legacy
   

Campaign #2: The Purelaker Republic

Chapter 1: Unrest in Telaria

1. Public Works
   
2. Rooting Out the Rioters
   
3. Suspicious Sources
   
4. Telarian Agitators
   
5. The Council of Telaria
   
6. The Battle of Galewind Bridge (Group)
   
7. Finding the Council
   
8. Choosing Sides
   

(At this point, the story temporarily diverges into 2 branches. Players will only be able to choose ONE branch, which will dictate this Campaign’s story moving forward.)
A.)

1. Alerting the Brass
   
2. Securing the Guard
   
3. Springing the Trap
   
4. The Battle of Blue Ridge (Group)
   

B.)

1. Testing the Waters
   
2. Poisoncraft
   
3. Vial Deeds
   
4. The Battle of Blue Ridge (Group)
   

Chapter 2: Rallying the North

1. Peace Talks
   
2. The Broken Council
   
3. Clearing the Area
   
4. Northern Reinforcements
   
5. Mysterious Disappearances
   
6. Kimara Cave
   
7. Kidnappings in Takental?
   
8. Eyes in the Mountains
   
9. Target: Ayeli-Odalvi
   
10. The Timberlands Beachhead
    
11. News for the Council
    
12. The Election
    

Chapter 3: Enemies at the Gates

1. Preparing Our Defenses
   
2. A Call for Aid
   
3. The Devshire Rift
   
4. Liliana’s Tale
   
5. A Daughter’s Return
   
6. The Sellsword’s Bargain
   
7. The Southern Fleet
   
8. Telarian Kidnappings
   
9. The Kairosiliri
   
10. Arkay’alinor
    
11. Signs of Life
    
12. The Battle of Telaria (Group)
    

Campaign #3: The Vantian Empire

Chapter 1: Making a Name

1. Starting at the Bottom
   
2. Getting Noticed
   
3. “Are You Not Entertained?”
   
4. Lord Sabinius
   
5. Game of Homes
   
6. No Witnesses
   
7. Captain Kizra
   
8. Battle of the Waygate (Group)
   
9. Rebel Rebel
   
10. A “Friend” in Eastwind
    
11. Tying It All Together
    
12. A Royal Summons
    

Chapter 2: The Eye of Kazius

1. Blessings of the Four
   
2. Trial by Combat
   
3. Kazius and the War Council
   
4. The Redspire Canal
   
5. Taken in the Night
   
6. The Traitor of Redspire
   
7. The Western Front
   
8. The Battle of Blue Ridge (Group)
   
9. Aid from Karagport
   
10. Project Cloudbreaker
    
11. Counterespionage
    
12. The Rogue Admiral
    

Chapter 3: The Prophecy

1. Will of the Four
   
2. Distraction Tactics
   
3. A City Divided
   
4. A Palaver with the King
   
5. An Old Friend
   
6. The Party
   
7. Frame Job
   
8. Zashkiir
   
9. The Sunken Temple
   
10. Early Retirement
    
11. Prison Break
    
12. Purging Eastwind (Group)
    

Campaign #4: The Shen-Cirilian Alliance

Chapter 1: Echoes of the Tas’Akram

1. All Hands
   
2. Take One
   
3. Locked Up
   
4. The Rift Plague
   
5. Suspicious Reagents
   
6. The Hermit of the Grey Isles
   
7. Supply Run
   
8. The Battle of Galewind Bridge (Group)
   
9. Patient Zero
   
10. Keeping Up Appearances
    
11. The Qi’Shen Bloodline
    
12. The New Shen Empire
    

Chapter 2: The Greymar Syndicate

1. The Battle of Beswin Lake (Group)
   
2. Cirilian Commendations
   
3. War Profiteering
   
4. A Rat in Karagport
   
5. Disinformation Campaign
   
6. Battle of the Waygate (Group)
   
7. Status Report
   
8. Macroeconomics
   
9. Destabilizing the North
   
10. The Turncoat
    
11. Going Undercover
    
12. The Escape
    

Chapter 3: The Dawnfleet

1. The Future Pride of the South Seas
   
2. Another Round!
   
3. The Reektall Heist
   
4. Crew Recruitment
   
5. Grand Theft Ship
   
6. Trouble on the Homefront
   
7. Illegal Magic
   
8. The Secret Shipyards
   
9. Silencing the Outsiders
   
10. The New Guard
    
11. Rallying the Fleet
    
12. The Dawnfleet Assault (Group)
    

Note: These 4 campaigns can be done in any order - however, all 4 campaigns must be completed in order to unlock the 5th and final campaign.

With these quests transitioning from active development to the test/polish phase this past month, this will likely be my last Quest Devlog for awhile. But I’m thrilled with how far quests have come in this latest dev period, and can’t wait for players to experience the new main story of Atlas!