Let's look at where we are...

Hey all-- it's been a while since I've posted here, so this is mostly just to let you all know that everything is alive and well. I'd been unable to dedicate massive amounts of time towards this in the past week or so, but progress is still being made.

Mostly, as of late, I've been (re)doing a lot of the background work of the game... stuff that isn't immediately, if at all, noticable to the player.

I've rebuilt the input stack to allow the game to handle more input states (keyup, keydown, keystilldown, etc..) Should've done that at the start, but at the time, I just wanted something functional.

I've also almost finished recoding the loading bar setup to properly reflect everything [virtually] that's being loaded. Until now, all the world data wasn't being shown in the loading bars. I've also put in place the framework to allow me to throw in the "advanced loading bar" that I've been planning for a while now. It'll be a purely aesthetic option that the player can set, to give them all sorts of fun data (and different graphics!) for the loading bar, instead of the normal "Here's a bar- watch it move!" mode.

Fixing lots of bugs (well, more like rudimentary features that weren't implemented yet...) in the world map mode. Even tho this portion is -technically- working correctly, it's kinda funny to walk around the world right now because the character's animation is a LOT slower than it moves, so Terra looks like she's rollerblading over the hills and whatnot^^

I also went thru and did an overhaul on most of the graphics that I'm 95.3% sure I'll be keeping (mostly GUI stuff), and now it looks a lot crisper and cleaner (read: sexier).

Been toying with some concept art to help decide ultimately what "style" I want the game to have (most specifically, how the characters will look...)

I've dropped the idea of using Quake3 maps for towns, as the visibility information wouldn't work very well AT ALL like that, which would result in -horrible- framerates in town. I'm about 75% sure I'll be keeping the Quake3 map format for the battle sequences tho, as the visibility information works fine for that situation. I've decided, at least tentatively, on using a compiled dotScene format (a compiled version of a common XML based format that many 3d modelling programs can output to), and I've given up on MS3D altogether for a better alternative: Blender. (I -highly- recommend this wonderful program to all bargain-bin 3d modellers out there!)

I've also implemented a rudimentary sky. Very simple, currently. All I did was map a fisheye sky image to a hemishere skydome. I'll worry about fancy stuff later. Just got sick of that blue/green.


Soon to be added list:
Sound & Music (this is my next major step, likely)

Collision detection & infinitization on the world map (you won't be able to run up mountains anymore, and the world map will loop, just like in the original game)

Background loading (this will hopefully eliminate any (or at least, 99% of them... depends on the situation..) of the loading screens that currently exist when entering a battle state. This'll give the player more of the classic "oh crap, battle time! *adrenaline*" feeling, instead of "hm... loading, I'll get some chips.")

An external setup dialog, so you have at least -some- way to setup the video settings and whatnot without entering the game (I've always hated those catch 22s when you have an unsupported res set in the options, but can't load into the game to change it!)

Menus! (yes, the heart and soul of final fantasy! Coming soon, to a computer near me! This'll be a big step. I'll be allowing both keyboard [classic], and mouse controls for this.. I have some interesting control schemes in mind for this combination that I think will go over quite smoothly, both for the computer gamer, and the classic console diehards.. *crosses fingers*)

Monster! (Yes, singular. It'll probably be a guard. Kinda need something to beat on if I'll get battles to work properly, ne?)

Yah, that's the most immediate roadmap currently. A couple other farther down the line things I'm looking at are Battle scripts, Internal configuration menu, Cinematic modes & cameras, Magitek Armour, and Events(oh, now -THAT'S- a mouthful.. this is the only one that scares me, currently...).

With any luck, I'm hoping to have some more screenshots to show off some of the more visible stuff for you guys sometime in the near future. We'll see how the time:progress ratio works it's way out.

Questions? Comments? Poo-flinging? Offers of first born? All are welcome.. except maybe for the first born. Dern kids. Glad I never was one. ^-^v