New Addition & Update!

Morning folks!

So recently there's been no new content to Yonder I'm afraid. This is because of a lot of issues we've run into with databases and having to make a lot of background changes to improve the general performance and offer some better support for things like having lots of items on a single game-tile. 

We also had to consider a lot of changes to offer better future support for better database integration for things like being able to move players across servers (A feature we'd prefer not to have to give up on).

However! Things are not all bad recently. We've officially taken on David "Dalobo" Lobo as a new character / animation artist for Yonder!

What does this mean in the future? Well for starters we'll be replacing our existing character-model with a fresh makeover to get rid of some of the issues we had with the older one. After that, we'll be looking to get some animations for the existing actions in the game (Now you'll be able to tell if you're actually mining!)

In the coming weeks, we're hoping to be finished with the code-changes so that we can continue pressing on with new features, which will hopefully include some new character-content as well!

Until then, stay tuned, subscribe, and like us on  facebook via the side of this blog!

Alpha v0.1 - Saturday 14th Public Test!

Today we have the official info on the v0.1 of Alpha!
This saturday, 7.30PM GMT, we will be launching into another evening of Yonder public testing!

There will be a full update log of the game on Saturday, but the overview of new features are as follows:

• Crafting & Construction UI - New menus to show you what you can build and what you can craft!
• Crafting - New items can be made (Planks, Bricks, Iron Ingots)
• Tools - New animations for all in-game tools, along with new ones as well. These will be used in crafting.
• Paving - For those who get bored of grass and dirt, you can now make Cobblestone, Slab and Floorboard tiles (Through crafting and the new paving-system)
• New Mining - Iron Ore! You'll now be able to mine iron ore underground (Some searching may be required!)
• New Containers -  Your mined rock, iron ore and piles of logs will all have new container models!
• Heat-System and Campfires - Now you can create campfires and heat up iron ore to turn it into Iron Ingots
• Saplings - You can now get saplings when chopping down trees and can replant them later (As some earlier testers will know, the issue of tree-conservation is rather critical).
• And plenty of Bug-Fixes!

As stated above, the test begins around 7.30pm GMT on Saturday. We'll post links to the appropriate places (Facebook and Forums) before-hand.

Until then, stay tuned to our updates and we hope to see people on Saturday!

Facebook: www.facebook.com/InfiDesigns

Forums: http://infinitus-designs.com/forum/

The Beginning of Alpha - Upcoming Developments

Evening folks!

It's been a busy past few days for us, from overhauling databases to upgrading to the new Unity 5 engine. As such, we've been a little quiet on the public front. But never fear, we have returned, with more info about the Alpha, current development and what is coming up.

Alpha Now. What's Next?

Now that we are into alpha, we can work on some more advanced features for Yonder that we haven't covered in the past. Of course, much of the future development remains behind closed doors, but for now we have a summarized list of what we are covering in the next couple of months:

• Construction
• The first versions of the construction system will be coming in the next couple of updates, allowing players to build certain items (Albeit limited amounts of items for now) by adding resources and construction timers to make something a finished product.
• Campfires - A Basic Construction item for early crafting, primarily basic smithing.
• Mine-Entrance  -  Players will be able to start chipping away at the stone layer to create entrances into the mining-layer of Yonder!
• Bridges - For those who want to create moats or just generally have an access-point to their home, the bridges will be wooden at first and the players will be able to choose their start and end points and then build the bridge across the gap between them.
• Walls / Gates - To help show where your land is and give access-points. Will not have locks on them *yet*.
• Crafting-Tables  -  From anvils to workbenches, this will provide the player access to more advanced (Either larger-scale or more complex) crafting options specific to that crafting-table.
• Crafting
• Players will now require tools in order to do their crafting and resource-harvesting, and for now there will be six tools to do this with:
• Axe
• Shovel
• Pickaxe
• Chisel
• Hammer
• Saw
• Basic Materials - The player will be able to craft some basic components like planks, bricks, iron ingots and nails.
• Flooring - Now the player can craft types of flooring to replace grass/dirt to make the world feel more like home! (Or at least your ancestor's home)
• Mobile-Storage (Hand-Cart)  -  For the goods-peddler you've always longed to be! Also for those who wish to actually carry more than their pockets allow.
• User Interface (UI)
• Player will now have a tab for construction, crafting and skills, the construction tab lets them choose constructions to place, the crafting tab lets them select crafting recipes and the skills tab will let them see the progress of skills
• There is now a 1x4 tab on the inventory specifically for tools to be placed (They only work if you have them in there!)
• NPCs & Settlements
• NPCs - Players will be able to buy and sell items to NPC merchants in the starting-settlement in the game, specifically to help afford tools if they can't craft them yet or to buy settlement-deeds.
• Settlements - Players will be able to own land and pay for it to keep being owned by them. Will offer them some land-protection and they can invite others to join them. Settlements will get their own chats eventually, too.
• Music & SFX
• We'll be getting our first piece of ambiance music for Yonder in the next month or so and we'll also be adding in sound-effects for the in-game actions like tools being used, walking, building structures, etc!
• And Lots More!

This is just an overview of what we'll be adding as the updates progress. We'll also be looking to do regular public testing periods throughout the Alpha, hopefully beginning next week (And then perhaps weekly or bi-weekly updates from there!)

Until then, stay tuned via this blog, our facebook (www.facebook.com/InfiDesigns) and we'll give you more info about Yonder as time goes on!

The End of Pre-Alpha: Stress Time!

Well folks, it's official:

Pre-Alpha is finished on Yonder!

Earlier this week we finished up on the last key additions to the Pre-Alpha build of Yonder MMO and now we are adding some polishing changes and fixing a few errors here and there.

With that being said, this Saturday at 7.30pm GMT (UK Time), we will be having an official mini stress-test of our existing server system! This means anyone is invited to come check out the game in its current end-of-pre-alpha state.

Some of the developers will be present for an hour or two of stress-testing and you can ask questions, check out a couple of the existing features, and get a feel for the game's direction.

An hour or two before the stress-launch, we'll be posting links to download the final Pre-Alpha build of Yonder to download, and we'll run the announcements via our Facebook page.


Until then, we'll keep everyone updated on our Facebook page regarding the stress-test:

https://www.facebook.com/InfiDesigns


Hope to see a few folks there o/

The First Preview - PreAlpha #01

That's right folks! The first official preview for Yonder MMO is here now!

Be sure to subscribe, follow and like our social media and keep in touch with the updates!



More updates to come later in the week.

16/02/2015 - Starting Up

The Regrowth System

Lately we've been testing this new idea for Pre-Alpha called the Regrowth System. This is a key part in how plan to make Yonder a dynamic and ever-changing world. This mechanic involves allowing the game's servers to process the over-time changes in a lot of the game's natural features. For now, it works in two forms: Trees and Grass.

For trees, they go through a natural life-cycle in Yonder. From a young sapling they grow into a young tree, and then mature into much larger trees. Over-time these trees will even die off, potentially replanting their tree on the same area and potentially causing more trees to grow around them, allowing for the trees to naturally spread around. This ability to influence the age of trees means we can help players grow their own trees in the future and they will need to gauge when the right time is to get the most logs from a tree, so that it's not too small a tree but isn't going to die before you cut it down!

Second of all is grass, which is part of how Yonder can maintain a natural aesthetic in many places. When players leave exposed dirt for long periods of time, it will have chances to become grass again. This means that the world can naturally return to its normal state if players are no longer present in that particular area!

For now, combining these features means the world can return to forming grasslands and forests, and later on players will be able to prevent this by using other terrain-types (For example, placing sand), or in Alpha they will also be able to pave to make the world more civilized.

On top of this, we've also been performing work on our startup-client so that players will be able to see recent update news and check their client-versions before logging in. It will also serve as a good spot to add some help for new players and add links to registering and forums.

That's all the news for today, but stay tuned for more updates on these systems and more later in the week.

For all the updates and more concept images, like us on Facebook too!

Pre-Alpha Update - 11/02/2015

Evening folks (Well. Evening here in the UK)

Today we made some changes regarding some features:

Firstly, we added the ability to change tile-types. When you dig a grass-tile, it will change to dirt, and when you dig deep enough, you'll hit rock.

After that, players can now create a mine-entrance! You clear out a 2x2 area of exposed rock and place it down (No construction until Alpha).

After that, the game sets it up and you can climb down into the mining-layer. Unfortunately that just looks too awful to display right now, but it'll be fixed up later in the week into a far more presentable form!


For now we're working on getting some more mining improvements done, alongside implementing the 'Regrowth' System to our server design. We'll post more news about the new mechanics in the next few updates.

Meanwhile, Pre-Alpha draws ever closer to its finished state. At the current time, we're hoping it will be finished around the end of February, and we can march on into Alpha for March. Soon after that, we'll clear up some more important features and be able to officially open up some testing to the public.

Until then, stay tuned, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and keep up to date with all the info!