Really well done!

This forum thread is moving this way -----> to page 4 to post progress. We will post pics when we're ready to. Page 1 has a lot of pics to get an idea of what we're doing. It also has pics of some stuff at the 20 second mark. The levels on this server might be detailed but thats just the way it is. We're now in the progress mode and if people don't play the server just because of the grass then we defiantly have a lot more problems then detail.

This whole gmap levels were made by 1 person. Me. Which is quite a lot of work regarding the content we have as far as levels. When your actually walking around on the server everything fits in a lot better. Graal hasnt seen this style of a gmap ever.

so how many 100 level castles will this server have?

xD We're not sure yet but we're almost to making that stuff. Do you still have all that stuff written out and mind sending it to me?

nah i don't have that anymore

the gmap is 36x36
1296 levels. lol

about 1/4 of the levels is the horizon
We wanted our mounts, boats, and player wings purpose for travel. Actual oceans separating continents also take quite a bit of levels. The continent i'm working on now is 7 x 13 which is quite large compared to other servers.

We will have approx. 4-5 continents.

I just hope you wont have 1296 levels, and people only stay in 2-3 levels like UN

no developer seems to think keeping servers small is a good idea

New "Chatbox" as well call it (the bottom-left box).

It can handle messages to players, masses, guild messages, and more!

I'll include this items functionality among others on my future video of our systems, which is coming soon!

New inventory. Separated by categories so it's easier to narrow down want you want, just like the classic q menu does with folders for the most part. Side buttons select the category. You can also right click to drop an item or do other things I'll mention later on.

The right will have "key" items, such as collectables, quest keys, ect that don't really need much of anything but a count.

I am posting this with it not finished to ask what kinds of things you guys would like to see as extra information in an inventory though. Creative ideas to make something new as an item or system is good advice as well!

Let us know! We ARE making this server for you in the end anyways.

Also the levels are not done and I probably could have taken a screenshot in a better place where tiles werent near finished yet among other things, so just ignore that. :)

Looks good guys.

Neato! Good luck on the server :)

We've been working hard, trying to release enough content to show off some progress on our development. As far as the gmap goes, i'm just about done with our 2nd continent. We will post a small trailer showing off its areas with screenshots soon. I also went ahead and re-detailed the whole server ( all the grass layers everyone was talking about). I'm thankful for the advise and the server looks so much better. Also remade quite a bit of the tileset, including our trees top/bottom, grass, and some other pieces. I'm going to go ahead and post a map of the huge continent, so you can see the "layout" kinda...

more coming soon!

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...roak-cont1.png

****in right

Just a little update:

We've built upon a mail system and now have that finished and tailored to our server. We are working on the npc chat right now, and then moving on to the quest systems.

Other things in the near future are:
- A finished inventory
- Complete player movement system done right
- Shop system
- Extra stuff affiliated with the shop system and economy (will be released when it's done)
- A complete quest with levels and all
- Baddies/Monsters AI
- Tidy up of the current weapons to work complete
- Spar room systems

These are just the things we are looking to finish within the next few weeks in scripting. For levels an entire second continent is near finished, with mostly only insides left. Decus (I think) is then moving to the main continent. Hopefully we will be ready for yet another "preview" within a month. We need a lot more content to really show what we're trying to do still so, hopefully...

I know I haven't shown much of our old or revamped systems off too much yet. I'm waiting on getting enough to do a little video so you all can see how it will actually work together.

Lookin' good. :)

because it isn't

On topic, the quality of work you guys are putting out is amazing. I would come back to Graal to play this server if the quality is as high as it seems.

When I was working on Arca I had this idea that there would just be the main city that you could wander around freely. For dungeons and other areas you'd select them from a list and get transported to the first level. Depending on what it was, it would be instanced for you and your party.

Also, WOW. I really like that. Especially how you have the sky and then the mountains. Maybe have the water coming out of the side of the mountain for that waterfall? Seems kinda weird to just have a little puddle feeding that lake. Maybe also make the waterfall kinda stair stepped too.

i'm sure similar ideas have been suggested, and yet it's never actually implemented anywhere

your amazing reason and persuasion skills have made me seen the light!

****ing idiot

awesome map, but you should design the map around the story/dungeons, and not the other way around.

I never explained my reasoning because your post was almost three weeks old and it seemed like a waste to explain something if you might not read it. I replied to test the waters and to see if you were still active.

Now I don't even want to debate it because I feel all your reply would be is an insult riddled with profanity.

You're right. We have a basic story line, and it fits perfectly with the map created. Our story will actually relate to the tile set in some areas on the gmap. This is why we/i will not hire lats until the structure of the gmap is finished. That continent posted is 100% now besides monsters roaming.

We have a floating island main town for players who do not want to be involved with the story, or quests. People who want to get on and spar/pk don't even have to go anywhere besides the main town. Although, not doing quest, content like guild houses, player wings, mounts, money, story, items, weapons, some events and more will be missed out.

As far as levels/gfx go, I've redone almost everything, and now i'm working on inside levels. Once we finish some scripts, the insides for all the outside created, we will request a preview.

This is pretty much how we're doing Roak. But we have other towns to interact with the story. Quests will be instanced, and we will have guild / group quests also. I just want to point out, this server is an improvement of graal CLASSIC style gameplay. We will not have any type of level up systems for pking, everyone is equal when it comes to sparring/pking. We will have a level system that fits in with the classic style, like the lv1-lv4 glove, but we will have higher levels for the hammer, and gathering. For example, a LV4 shovel can dig through ice. Other Improvements would be your shield can block hits, smart npcs who "can spar good" for quests, bows, bombs, hookshot, dash, sword charge spin, all have important reasons to roaks gameplay, the ideas that made graal fun in the past, are back with improvements and purpose.

Sounds Awesome :)

It's nice to see that I inspired other artists :)

dat sky man. really cool stuff here

so you responded without thinking i would respond?

yea, ok

I'd like to see something better for the UI and inventory visual design. The colors seem lacking feeling and it just seems clunky/unrefined. Good things happening here though, keep it going. Send me a forum PM.

Finished our npc dialog. We're probably going to end up improving on it later but it is complete, fits the server, and works.

Next up is the quests and quest trackers. I'm also working on the movement system when I get sick of this other stuff. It will really piece what we are doing together and show how much you can interact with the world compared to a typical graal server.

I've also added a 2nd selected weapon to fire as well, and a few little things here and there like moving npcs (which I'm still adding to as well).

I'm also going to revamp our guild system, auction house, shop system, and are continuing to clean up as much as possible the weapons and code that are already there to make them quicker and more effecient (any experienced people want to help please forum pm me, it's just me and one other guy that is one when he can be).

All in all, progress is good and steady it seems. Once I can get these things out of the way I'm going to move on to events and such.

Looking good, man. Looking really good. Keep it up!

No, I expected a reply but I didn't expect you to be so hostile. What I expected was your reasons why a small overworld was a good idea, and then I would go from there.

what you originally quoted me responding to is the reason. overworlds are typically big, and yet most players only really use maybe 5 of them. especially in regards to under construction servers, why waste time making this gigantic overworld when players won't actually use them?

if you have a good reason for it, like exploration or something, then it can work. but typically it is just a waste of space and development time.

also if you reread your original response, you are not exactly friendly. hurr obv. no dev think it gud cuz duh l0l its not

I dunno if you remember but we do have plans for a large OW to matter. Especially for quests and guilds. Like Decus said we have a "floating island" with almost everything any normal player would use there to just sit, spar, and pk.

Granted most players do the latter; sit, spar, and pk. We're not going to leave multiple plans for quests, a story, and guild events out though and it requires quite a good size of OW to accomplish what we need.

I do understand what you're saying but it's not just wasted space, most of it is necessary to what we are doing on the server.

it might feel necessary for what you plan for the server, but does it fit into your plan to get onto the classic tab? as long as it seems feasible, then i guess go for it. but if that island is not completed and instead you're focusing mostly on the large overworld which may or may not be used regularly, it may end up being a waste of time if you don't actually make it.

as long as it's within reach of both completing what you envision for the server and getting onto the classic tab, then it's fine. but i'd say the latter is more important because the former can be worked on once the foundation is done.

It in fact does fit into the plan to get on classic tab, thus is why it is necessary...

I'm really not trying to argue about it. The plan me and Decus have for the server is a complete plan, so we are following through on all of those levels of development and not just one?

Again, don't feel like arguing about it. This is neither the thread nor do I really have time. If you want to continue discussion on the topic please use forum PM.

it's just my opinion. even when i was helping you guys out you disregarded it, so i'm not really thinking you would change anything even if we did argue about it.

you guys like gigantic levels and such, and that's fine. it's part of your style. if the project gets completed then it doesn't matter.

See that's condescending. It's not that we just "disregarded" your idea, and it's not that we like "gigantic levels and such". I can't stand that UN is so big and wasted. We're doing it because, like I've been saying, there is a meaning for it to our playerworld. Again dude, I know your look on it, but you don't actually know what we're doing at this point because it's been years since you were helping us out now, I believe.

How do you think mounts, pets, ships, and such type things will work out on 6 levels total? We're doing it because it's needed for how we're going towards the server. You don't have to be so negative or anything, because at this point it's not us ignoring your criticism...we have an area for what you are saying that has been nearly completely done for quite some time now. The rest of what we are doing is the vision of our server, so it's not wasted time it's the reason we're doing this server (we're not making 10 levels to simply spar and chill, we had an idea from the start).

This isn't your typical server where there's a bunch of houses everywhere that no one goes in. We don't have a spar rooms every 10 levels or player houses littering the gmap. We will have a specific continent for player houses, and guildhouses, aligned to the server fittings. We're planning for a high playercount so we're making sure we have room to fit the needs of the server, also we plan to release server expansions after release.

Most of the continent is forest, highlands, ect with monsters roaming. Monsters will have drop rates for quests, or simply harvesting or ingredients for cooking and other features that we're not ready to disclose. So cutting that continent in half would crowd single player questing by limiting the monster count, limiting the town sizes, limit the separation of environment (meaning 2 level forest suddenly turning into a 4 level desert looks ridiculous) and limiting the adventuring on the server. I hope this shines some light on your concerns regarding the server size.

like i said, it's fine if it fits into the project and is actually utilized.

we've seen that a lot of the time UC servers spend quite a bit of time making giant overworlds, and then never see fruition. it makes no sense to create these oversize spaces, or to waste money on rental time in which to finish them, and then have players only stick to the same few levels. but really, if you can make it work, then work it.

Just a little update...

We are basically finished with the movement system. Maybe small things here and there but it's done. Our NPC Dialog is also complete. Also Decus has been updating some of our 4-5 year old levels and images before moving on to finishing the 2 continents we have so far. Things are moving well and smooth.

Next up for systems is the quest trackers. It's just so the player can pick up, view, follow, and complete quests. From there we will be adding in monsters/baddies. On top of this I will be finishing all the weapons and systems that were either incomplete or crappy from our last attempt.

I will also be redoing our ganis to match the new systems in place. Pretty much every single gani is going to be redone because they are crappy or out of date lol.

Again things are running quite smooth. Things are getting completed at a great level compared to our last run at this. I'm hoping to post a video of our core systems and a few extra by Jan 12th. It's not a promise but that is my goal since classes start the 14th and my time is limited again until May.

Stay tuned and hopefully you guys are getting excited because we are pretty close to doing an open preview with way more to offer than our previous previews.