Rise of Heroes: Online - Prototype - PlayerIO

I am working on a Prototype MMO called Rise of Heroes: Online. I've been working on different parts of the game for over 7 years now.

RoH is a Sandbox MMO where players can build their own cities and fight over power and land.

I've got a Test Server online and I will be uploading a Prototype client in a Day or so. Right now I am mostly just checking out some of my assets in Unity3D Below are some screenshots from the Unity Editor. I am using the free version of Unity right now so there aren't any shadows.

Patches:

Alpha 0.0.1 - Released: Saturday June 9th 2012
Features:
- Demo of Login Screen
- User Registration
- User Login

Bug Fixes:
- None

Alpha 0.0.2 - Released: Sunday June 10th 2012
Features:
- More advanced Login Screen
- Launcher/Patcher to update the Client

Bug Fixes:
- None

Alpha 0.0.3 - Release Date: TBD
Features:
- Character Creation
- Character Selection
- A Networked Single Player Test Area with Networked Zones and Asset Loading Zones

Bug Fixes:
- TBD


- Latest Screenshots -

Patcher:


The Testing Area


- Older Screenshots -

 

I am using PlayerIO for my new game also... but how are you doing an MMO with it? They only allow 45 people in a room..

 

I've got the world broken up into Geographical Regions which is the size of one of the Unity3D Terrain pieces. Regions are loaded on the client as the player moves around using triggers. Then each Geographical Region is broken down into 4 (Still playing around with this number) Network Zones which are the PlayerIO Rooms. As the player moves around the region they will seamless connect to these different Zones. If there are more then 45 players in a Zone then they will be loaded into a new Instance of that Zone. Player Parties will be kept in the same instance and if the player isn't in a Party then They will be kept in the same instance as any Guild Members.

I'm still working on all this but that's how I am planning on doing it. So each Geographical Region Can handle 180 players connected at once in the same instance though players will only see the 45 currently connected to their same Network Zone.

 

Sounds good! ... if you got that many players playing... hopefully you are making some money

By the way.. I think asset store madness has a rigged character cheap (instead of using that unity worker guy)...

Do you have any other info about the game?

 

There is some out dated info on the game's website - http://www.riseofheroesmmo.com but like I said most of the info there is out dated. I haven't updated the site in a while.

I have bought a Male Player Character which will also be used for NPCs but I don't think it's animated. It contains several different faces, body types, outfits, ect.

 

Here are a couple versions of the Character model I have. There are many different outfits, Hair styles, faces, and other things to choose from!

I am not using it as the player model yet because it isn't animated but as soon as I find some one who can animate it I will be switching it over to the player model.

 

this is a PC release then, not mobile? Is that 45 person limit across all of Unity or is there a way around that at all?

 

7 years...

now thats commitment

 

Yes it will be a PC and possibly a Web Release.

The 45 person per room limit is a limit on the Cluster they give you. I have a free account with them for right now. The 45 player limit has nothing to do with Unity3D it has to do with PlayerIO which is the networking engine I am using. If you purchase an account with them then they are willing to work with you to increase that limit but chances are you will need to purchase a Dedicated Cluster from them in order to do it. The Free accounts and the normal premium accounts are hosted on Shared Clusters.

 

I decided to get a Free Demo License of Unity Pro so I could see how things would look with shadows! Here is a screenshot. In this screenshot you can also see some of my tests with Particles. The Smoke is all animated Particles. I'm also working on Different aspects of the Environment. Day/Night Cycle, Weather, ect!

When I release the client at this time the player Spawning point is kind of messy with different particles, props, ect. The spawning spot sort of became a dumping grounds for me to test out different things! lol

 

Hey James nice to see you are still progressing with MMO. Anyone who is thinking about starting MMO project should consider yourself as example, it clearly shows that even good programmer needs very long time to produce something working for MMO game.

 

Well Today I've been working on a few different things.

I now have each Geographical Region broken up into 16 different overlapping Asset Zones. These asset zones are responsible for Loading and Unloading the assets with in it's area. They overlap so that the assets can be loaded before you get into the area it's responsible for. This way you won't be walking and all of a sudden have a Building popup in front of you.

I've also done some network programming. New players now spawn and can see each other correctly. Basic Movement is in place though alot more work needs to go into the Character Controller.

 

Not a huge fan that you are just using arteria models. Hopefully that changes soon. But to be fair this sounds pretty awesome.

 

Thanks for your interest Johny... I've bought a life time membership to Arteria3D so I have access to all of their model packs (Past, Present, and Future) which is why I am using them.

I'm a programmer not a 3D Modeller and I don't feel like trying to manage a full team at this point. Having access to thousands of Dollars of top quality models is great for me because it let's me focus on programming!

So I just set up the Network Zones for the first Geographical Region. I'm using the same layout as the Asset Zones for the Network Zones so I've got 16 Network Zones in the region. Doing the math that means that each Region could support up to 720 players in the default Instance and Phase. The Zones are large enough too that I could easily picture each zone supporting the maximum 45 players. I could picture each zone supporting as high as 60 or 70 players or more.

 

Seven years!! wow that is amazing, and it looks like you have made a huge progress. The game sounds very intriguing as well, and your zones idea is ingenious.

 

Thanks nofosu for your interest! I've only been using Unity3D for this prototype for a couple days now but yeah I think I'm making good progress. Hopefully I'll be seeing alot of you guys in game here shortly!

I was going to release a Client here this week but I've got so many assets that the client is already over 400mb so I would rather hold off and only release updates when there is something worth showing off... Once I've got it fully networked and PvP working I'll then release the first Alpha Build of the client.

Until then though here are some more screenshots showing off a Farm, Shadows, HDR, ect:

 

I've been working on the Login Screen tonight and I think it's looking pretty good!

You are able to register a new account from the login screen as well. If your signing in then you just need your username and password. If you are registering a new Account then you need your email address as well.

 

It's 11:06am and I'm currently uploading a Demo of the Login Screen. It's fully Networked so if you were to try and login it would come back with an error and if you were to register a new Account it would really register the account for you so when the game is finally in a playable state you would be able to use the account.

There is about half an hour before the client is fully uploaded but once it is you can download it from the following Link:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/n41l21twt1ooxue/0Mm8PDSW5m/Client

 

Ok the client is uploaded - Here is the direct link:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/n41l21twt1ooxue/B8M0j9qlHP/Client/Client.rar

At this time it's Windows Only but I may release a Web Client at some point.

 

I hope people don't get mad and lose interest in RoH by me posting so much but I post when I've got a update!

I now have a fully working Launcher/Patcher. You start the Launcher and it downloads a Patch file (My own design for the Patch file), The Patch file contains the latest Patch version as the very first line and then the files needed for the patch below that. Each file consists of 3 lines. The top line is the name of the file, the 2nd line is the URL of the file on the patch Server, and the 3rd line is the Relative Location on the user's computer to save the file.

The Patcher then checks the Patch Version against the User's Current Version and then if the versions don't match then it downloads the required files.

Once the game is fully up to date the Launch button becomes enabled and your able to click on it to launch the Client at which point the patcher shuts down once the client is launched.

 

How do I join your team.

 

Sorry but right now I'm not looking for members. At the moment I'm working alone so I don't have to worry about managing a team.

 

Looking nice! Keep up the great work!

 

Thinking about it the only thing I really need help with at this point is Character Modeling. I have a Human Male Model but I need a Human Female Model made that would be the same quality as the Male model and I would need it rigged and Animated as well. If any one is capable of doing that and would be interested in joining please contact me! I will be able to provide the Male model for reference. It would also be nice to have some other animations created for the Male Model as well as some more outfits and armor sets!

 

Thanks UnityWarrior for your kind words and encouragement... Hopefully one day soon we will be able to battle each other in PvP Combat!

My Goal is to be able to have our first special in Game events around Christmas time this year... We shall see if I can keep to that goal or not!

 

I almost have the Launcher squared away. I'm in the process of adding a zip library so that I can have the larger files zipped up into multi-part zip files for easier download and then the launcher will unzip the files once they are downloaded. I could even add the ability for the files to be password protected. However at this point they won't be. I'm uploading the latest patch now and then I will be ready to give it a try and see if it's working.

Once the Launcher is ready I'll then start working on character Creation. To start with only Human Males will be available since that's all I have the assets for. I have a Human Female but there is completely no customization for her.

I will be uploading a new version of the Client Once the Launcher is ready. This will be the Official Client and Once you download it the Launcher will take care of keeping it up to date.

We are now getting closer and closer to making my Goal of a Festive Holiday season later this year a Reality. Still alot to be done but the next few months should prove to be very exciting for RoH!

 

Ok the Launcher is now working! It will need some work before we get into Beta Testing but for during Alpha testing it get's the job done!

The Latest Client can be downloaded at: http://www.riseofheroesmmo.com/Download/Client.rar

 

It's been a day since I updated this post.

Today I worked on being able to select mobs, npcs, and other players. I've got a pretty straight forward way of selecting them in script. I will be adding a Call to the server so that the server can make sure that what your trying to select is valid. I've also got some basic combat working once again though I still need to add in the networking aspect of it. However it certainly is starting to feel more like a game now that you can fight!

 

I just downloaded and tried to play and it crashed. In the output log it says

(Filename: C:/BuildAgent/work/b0bcff80449a48aa/Runtime/Misc/ResourceManager.cpp Line: 766)

The resource UnitySplash.png could not be loaded from the resource file!

I fixed it by replacing the unity default assets file with one from another unity game

 

Yeah for some reason the Launcher doesn't download the unity default assets file correctly... Not sure why since it's just that single file that doesn't work. on my FTP Server the file is the correct size. It could be the spaces in the file name...

 

Yeah could be man
Hope you manage to fix it no probs

 

Looking good, much better than before. The programming has come along way in the last few days. Mind if I ask what language its in?
That auto patcher is really nice as well. I understand that the basic premise is that players 'create the world' but what happens when the builder of a town goes offline?

 

Thanks!

Building towns and cities will mostly be a job for Guilds... With enough resources a Guild will be able to purchase Guards and Defenses for their towns and cities for when everyone is offline.

For individual players they will be able to build small outposts which will serve as centers of trade. They won't be affiliated with any government/guild and will be neutral until the player joins a guild.

There will be bonuses and perks awarded to players for different size outposts, villages, towns, and cities. They get their status of one of those 4 based on the number and types of buildings as well as based on the amount of land owned by that particular place. Different Guards and Defenses will be available to different size areas.

I haven't started working on any of this yet so it's ALL subject to change. At the moment I'm just trying to get something playable online.

For Programming Language it's all C#
and For Spoken Language it's English. Once I get the English Version to a 1.0 release if there is an interest in having it translated to other languages I will consider it if I can find some people who can do it.

 

Is there a way to play the actual game yet? Or is there no way past the login screen at the current time? (Just asking so I know Im not missing out!)

 

There is no way yet... Next patch there will be something more to do though... Depending on how much time I get to work on it this week the next patch should be ready by Friday or Saturday. Prob. won't have multiplayer yet but it will have a test area that is all networked and will have Server controlled PvM combat. Maybe even the start of a Quest System.

 

If you have space on your team I am newer to 3d modeling and I would love to learn and grow developing models for you.

 

Is it possible for you to do character modeling? We have plenty of Buildings and props for the moment. The only prop I am currently using a fill in for is Out door Lamp Posts. I could also use some fence pieces for along the paths.

Now for a little update on my work yesterday... I started recreating the Day/Night Cycle. I had been using the Day/Night cycle from the Hack and Slash RPG Tutorial and while that is a great day/night cycle it wasn't made to be synced with a server. I've personally always liked real time day/night cycles so the cycle I am creating is based on the real time at the Server. Once an hour roughly the server will broadcast a Sync cycle message giving the correct time at the server. A player just logging in will also receive an initial Sync cycle message. Between syncs the cycle will use the player's computer time (minute and second) to run the cycle.

I also started trying to play around with moving weather systems... I created a large snow storm using the snow particle effect that comes with Unity, enlarged it alot, then added it to a empty game object that had a script attached to it that would move it slowly along the x-axis. It resulted in a long duration snow storm that slowly moved over the starting area dumping snow on us and then moved off just like it would in real life. Still more testing and work left to be done on this system though.

I also started working on a basic GUI. I've got a minimap, player status bar, and fully networked chatbox. Still more GUI windows to create though.

 

Here is a screenshot of the GUI. This version of the Server is currently on my Test Server but will be going Live along with a Patch prob. by Friday.

 

Here is another Screenshot from the next Patch: Alpha 0.0.3

 

So they'll be sort of like... I dunno.... Osgiliath?

 

I can make Fence posts and Lamp Lights ... as for character I am not that advanced to make something that detailed ... I can make a character but it wont look very good. I will practice characters though.

Here is a SS of the unfinished fence I am creating for you
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/lotmoo/Fence.png

The fence still needs textures and some touching up so it doesn't look so block like

 

Well I ran into a bit of a snag today that slowed things down. I was working on the GUI and GUI Buttons and other elements when clicked on would also register in my other non-GUI scripts. That resulted in the mouse clicks not being picked up by the GUI scripts correctly because my camera would mess it up. As a fix for now I disabled the ability to turn the Camera around the Character by holding down the left mouse button.

I also have added Player Movement Syncing so you can now see others online as well as chat with them. This still needs to be tested and I am sure things will need to be adjusted but it's working as well as can be expected for an Alpha test!

This Patch is shaping up to be fairly large patch, clocking in at over 400mb!

 

A New screenshot showing the GUI:

 

Well this just SUCKS! lol I tried to use the latest version of TerrainEdge to stitch my terrain together and it ended up crashing my testing environment. Now everytime I try to open my testing environment Unity Editor crashes. So back to using L3DT to generate terrains... I'm pretty sure I'll be able to use TerrainEdge to nicely texture my terrain though once I get it imported. But this prob. will set the patch back some.

 

Well Since I had my game crash I have been playing around with different Multiplayer ideas. I have pretty much decided to try my hand at a sort of Multiplayer Tower Defense Facebook Application.

How the game will work is that Once you join a Game or Create a new game you will enter the map in a 3rd person perspective. The objective is to Capture the opposing team's flag. Right around your flag you will have 2 mounts where you can place Towers to protect the flag. Then around the map there will be mount point that you can capture by building towers on them. Once a Tower is built in order for the opposing team to capture that control point they must destroy the tower and build a tower of their own on it. Team Members will be able upgrade towers to increase their shooting speed, increase the damage their attack does, ect. Towers can be Projectile based, Buff based, AoE based, defensive or offensive, ect. Some towers will require a control point across from them like Towers that create a gate across the path. I'll create a new thread for this once It's further along for now though I'll just use this thread.

Here is a little demo showing 2 of the tower types and a possible style of map... - http://www.riseofheroesmmo.com/tower/