I’ve added a simple set of forums to the site; logins are shared between this blog and the forum.
Casual comments here on the blog still only require an e-mail address, but you’ll have to actually create an account to post to the forums. Sorry about that; it’s a requirement of the forum software I’m using.
Anyhow, I’m closing off comments to the static game pages to keep them from becoming any more ridiculously lengthy, so we can have some proper threaded discussions now, and hopefully make those static pages load a little faster. 
Check out the new forums. If you’re having trouble with a VectorStorm game, or want to make comments or suggestions, or just make idle chatter with like-minded individuals, then this is the new place to do it!
So now that the PCG competition is over, it’s time to consider future directions for MMORPG Tycoon. Development will be slowish, of course, as it’s really a side project for me. And I do expect to continue to do occasional “Game in a Week”s, just to stay fresh.
But on MMORPG Tycoon, I have a pretty good idea of what I’ll implement for version 1.1.
More beneath the fold.
Continue reading “MMORPG Tycoon development timeline”
The results are in!
I’d like to congratulate everyone who entered the competition; there were lots and lots of really good entries, many of which I’m still playing in my spare time!
So how did MMORPG Tycoon do? Well, by the current count, it looks like it came in seventh out of sixty entrants; not bad at all, considering how badly it needs a hold-you-by-the-hand tutorial to help out starting players!
For those who haven’t yet played the various games entered in the competition, I highly recommend you check them out. Every last one of them is an interesting play!
Just a quick note that I’ve uploaded the final new version in the 1.0 series of MMORPG Tycoon. 1.0.11 adds an “Options” screen which allows you to change the game resolution, enable/disable shaders, modify the music volume, enable/disable the rotating arrow cursor, etc.
I’ve also fixed a bug which occasionally resulted in offline or unsubscribed players appearing on the map, after loading a saved game.
Other little improvements.. I’ve slightly optimised the bloom shader, so it should run a wee bit faster than it did before. There are some improvements to the mouse UI (clicking through the toolbars if you miss a button has been fixed), and the little ‘+’ and ‘-’ buttons on most of the report screens have been replaced with up and down arrow icons. Much more attractive that way, I think.
Saved games from 1.0.10 should be fully compatible with the new 1.0.11 build; just copy the SlotOne.sav (etc) files into the new version’s Data/Saves directory.
It was a little silly that MMORPG Tycoon didn’t support them before, but I’ve just released version 1.0.8, which does now support saved games; your game is automatically saved every time you exit (either using the ‘close’ button on the window, or exitting back to the title screen, within the game).
So if you’re interested in this, go grab it from the link in the sidebar!
Next on my plate is in-game adjustment of resolution, fullscreen, shader, and other options settings. (Yes, music volume and the rotating cursor will both be part of that!). Once all that’s out of the way, I’ll be moving forward on the big new gameplay features planned for version 1.1.
And maybe I’ll even do another Game in a Week, sometime soon.
