I agree it wasn't what I expected either, but so far so good..my browser is being slightly annoying with Javascript at the moment! so it was abit slow for the battle system, but I just need to reset my computer... So far it is looking really good, and is even more impressive to know that you did it all via PHP, which is purely impressive! Looking good Amelia Pond lol
"Phase 1" of the southern expansion is now complete. A long, winding path following one of the Great Lakes, leading to a new location on the world map, "Faygrin's Fayre".
The Fayre will eventually have a merchant to buy goods.
This update involves 23 new maps or finished shell maps and several new graphics.
The World Map system now allows the map to be resized in the future to allow more content - as you can see it's already been expanded quite a bit! All of the map has plans which will be coming in the future.
---
The merchant at Faygrin's Fayre is now open for business with some brand new items that will become usable soon.
There are also several new rare items to be found from battle - no more said. :]
This post has been edited by Amy Pond: May 18 2011, 12:43 AM
I started playing your game today. It's still a bit early for me to give any super constructive feed back.
However, I was having a good bit of fun with what I was doing. I'm treating this as though it is in the very beginning of the fleshing out stages.
The battle system sometimes skips animations, and when damage is done it shows up on the very bottom portion of the screen.
I left a comment on a sign I found in the woods, however, leaving a comment caused me to leave where I was exploring as well.
I saw that I was getting experience for killing monsters, but I wasn't sure where to look to see where this would be applied.
I found a red cape(?) on a sprite or fairy in the forest area around the camp. When I equipped it, it removed my shield and took over that slot.
I didn't run into any bugs or problems that were game breaking, and I was enjoying exploring the world and discovering everything you've put into it thus far.
I have bookmarked the site and will continue to play from time to time. I'll be sure to post my thoughts here when I've had more time to really explore and see the world you've created.
As things stand right now, I look forward to the next time I get to log in. Unfortunately, I have finals and they demand I study for them at least for another hour or 2 tonight.
__________________________
~Zortik
Designer of Classika! A work in progress. Please click the link below to view the topic thread.
Beneath is a wonderful title made by Stern. If you're looking for a superb project to try, please click this link! An adaption of a novel that LIterarygoth wrote. Loads of custom work and carefully thought out materials.
Capes: go in the shield slot, at the moment. I could add an extra slot I guess but currently there are only like, two shields in the game...
If everyone wants it I'll do it. :]
Experience: click "Character" and you can see your exp.
Melee: kill an enemy using a sword Sight: kill an enemy using a bow Perception: not currently in use Constitution: eat food (not in battle) Agility: gained by exploring the world
Damage: thanks, will fix. (Not sure why it skips animations).
Sign in woods: ah, sorry, I'll add a link back. If you ever find yourself taken away from the map though, click "home" and then click "resume game" on the left - it will take you to the last "map" you visited.
You now get community points for discussing the game on the discussion boards.
Community points will be spendable in a unique store soon, which will contain items only available from collecting these points.
Please adhere to the forum rules when posting (http://afar.ws/v/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=233) and do not spam.
You can view your community points by clicking "Character" in the top navbar.
We welcome any suggestions for a new name for "community points"!
Dragons
New enemy - located near to Faygrin's Fayre (the new area). An orange dragon, has some good drop rates and gives good exp and gold. Low respawn rate.
Preloader
I have received feedback that on slower computers images can take a while to load.
The gadget I am currently working on is a preloader. You run it before playing the game for the first time and it saves all of the images to your computer.
You will still be able to play both ways.
Preloader: better for slow connections. Normal: better for fast connections and people who clear their cache daily.
The images will be stored in your cache, so when you clear your temporary internet files the preloader will be deleted.
- - -
Anybody who was having trouble playing Afar due to slow connections, this script here will load all image directories in the game, you can run it before playing the first time. Note that clearing your cache will negate the effect of running the script.
You're walking from town to town and see various trees along the way. A small lake lies in your path, and there are some ripe, pretty berries on a bush that look particularly inviting.
But you can't do anything with them but stare...
What if you could interact with the scenery along the way?
I am going to be introducing several "key items" to the game: axes, fishing rods, spades; that sort of thing. These will allow you to then click various parts of images in maps, to perform actions gaining items or doing other things.
I hope to make it more interesting than just a clickspam-grind, and am going to look into constructing cool, dynamic minigames to go with them.
So, I figured this meant I was either sorely unprepared for it, the dragon got super lucky, or the balance might be a bit off.
I decided to steal the zeppelin(?) after that. And I went to the dark forest, where I believe I shouldn't have been able to get too. I killed a few monsters, but during a fight with a bat It took me to the main menu and I got a series of beeping error noises. it was 3 long times, then 3 long tones again.
I'm not sure if you're able, but are you working on a method that will allow us to see what benefits we gain from equipping [x] weapon or armor? Also, when selling any items I cannot read what they are while hovering, and I was a bit concerned that it might be including my equipment in the listing as well. I do not know for certain about that last part though.
I have to wait a little bit, but I'm gonna give that dragon another go. I'm expecting to be demolished, but who knows. Maybe it just got lucky.
Edit: It took him 4 hits this time. ^^
This post has been edited by Zortik: May 22 2011, 01:30 AM
__________________________
~Zortik
Designer of Classika! A work in progress. Please click the link below to view the topic thread.
Beneath is a wonderful title made by Stern. If you're looking for a superb project to try, please click this link! An adaption of a novel that LIterarygoth wrote. Loads of custom work and carefully thought out materials.
Got playing this earlier and I'm actually really enjoying it, you've done wonders.
EDIT: How long does it usually take for the signatures to update by the way?
__________________________
I'm running the Great North Run in September in aid of NACC. A condition my wife has in it's severe form. Please sponsor me with whatever you can, thank you. If you'd like to help spread the word please share the image and link to my fundraising page.
Signatures update every four hours I think, it might be more regularly. You have to play the game for it to update though. So for example:
- your signature updates - you wait four hours - play the game, your sig updates again
It is to reduce strain on the server, as having live signatures was completely eating it up.
I might come up with a better system in the future - if anybody has ideas let me know!
------------------
PLANS FOR JUNE
The past month has been weird update-wise. Firstly, with University coming to an end, it was exam season once more. Secondly most of the updates being worked on were behind the scenes things which you don't necessarily notice.
Well, this month is going to be a Big Month™.
Plans in a nutshell:
Client
The standalone client will be released this month. It is just a way of playing the game outside of the web browser - so without the toolbars and bookmarks and whatever else cluttering up your game. It will also have a few useful features in it on top of that.
Graphics
Towns, outposts, and other World Map spawn points are going to be given a graphical facelift, with hand drawn maps digitally coloured. They might not be very well made, but they are distinctly Afar and unique to the game. They are currently being worked on and we are seeking C&C on the various forums we post on around the web.
Expansion
The world is going to be expanded rather vastly, in every direction. I know that might not interest people much - but with the other updates this is a Good Thing™
Forced Battles
Bosses. Battles you have to fight to get from map A to map B. These are going to become more commonplace, at least when traveling to higher leveled areas of the world.
Quests
There are ten quests planned to be added this month, if all goes well.
Knighthoods
Knighthood will launch - paid content. The cost will probably be $12, current thinking. This money will help pay for a better server to run the game, and keep us going strong. Knights get no ads, more areas, more quests, etc. With the two quests in the game currently, there will be seven free and five paid quests on launch of Knighthood.
More enemies
There are over 30 planned enemies if all goes well.
More advertising
We plan to try and spread the word of Afar more. We haven't been putting much effort into getting people to play, as it's not "finished" to the standard we want people to remember.
This post has been edited by Amy Pond: Jun 3 2011, 12:42 PM
The client is going to include an option which is currently available, but not easily accessible. It is for slow Internet connections; basically instead of graphics loading when you use them, you load all the graphics at the start of the game (as and when needed). These are cached on your computer. That means pages load much, much quicker, so people on slow connections get a better gameplay.
On top of that graphics are undergoing an overhaul this month to reduce the size without loss of quality. I didn't take this into consideration when making them - the size can be significantly reduced.
Well, I thought it was going to be a game like the old Vengeance you were working on back in the day, like a MMO, not text based Not exactly my style, is all I'm saying
Still, I welcome any criticism or suggestions you have that would make your experience better.
Our Own Server
Afar was previously on shared hosting, which was proving both inadequate and unreliable, involving even being hacked through another site on the system.
We are now on a Virtual Private Server, at a cost of course. This is essentially our own server which only we are on (for information on VPS systems and how they work, see Wikipedia/Google). While this means we are paying more, and are also responsible for our own maintenance, it does mean we aren't sharing resources with potentially thousands of other websites as before.
You should see faster load times and such, and better uptime. I understand there was quite a bit of downtime while I wasn't online.
I must stress the importance of this switch however with regards to bugs. There will most likely be bugs we haven't caught yet pertaining to the switch. I am sorry for the inconvenience this may cause.
Should you encounter any problems, please feel free to post on the forums here or to chat with AmyPond on the IRC channel (irc.synirc.com #afar). We appreciate any concerns you have and are happy to help.
The new server by the way is hereby christened "Miranda".
This post has been edited by Amy Pond: Jun 6 2011, 02:23 PM
There are times when programming for Afar that something big is created that reshapes the game. Today was one of those times, with the creation of Interactive Scenery.
Anyone who has roamed the fields of Tiben knows that a map is basically created using just a simple image - usually detailed a bit, some trees here and there, but in the end just an image.
Interactive scenery uses the notion of map objects, which are placed in certain spots. They are interactive in that they can be clicked, performing various actions depending on what type of object it is.
Trees can be cut down for logs. Treasure chests can spawn in random places and be opened to give items. The implications are huge, it just all needs to be programmed and added.
At the moment, trees have been created, which can be placed on maps. Each tree is a unique object. You can cut a tree and it will take a set amount of time to grow back. You get logs for cutting down a tree.
This, in a way both replaces and compliments the "Time Events" system of the past where you can obtain items from certain spots in the game.
As always suggestions are more than welcome.
Oh, it's worth pointing out that the system is done but nothing has been mapped yet! Watch this space. The first update will be to switch out all the static trees for "real" interactive ones in the near future.
I realise it has been a long, long time since I've updated this thread (over a year!), but the game has progressed strongly. Following a brief period of stagnation due to University (which is now over) we've moved into BIG AFAR - promising daily updates with large aims and some serious content addition.
There's a big list but I won't bore you with it. For now I'll try and summarise The State of Afar - where are we?
Afar is a free MMORPG playable from your browser. It is created using PHP, HTML, CSS and Javascript.
Stats: 280+ "maps"/"scenes" (whatever you want to call them) 70+ interactive areas using 49 objects that do stuff (will make sense when you play) 30+ graphical scenes (towns, interiors, etc) 70+ enemies 200+ items to collect 11+ spells 5+ quests
966+ players
The game is pretty hefty and has tons of functionality. Most of the current updates are aimed at directing players to said functionalty, because it can be confusing. Currently I am working on an extensive tutorial that will be given when players start the game.
Over the year and a half the game has ran most updates have been around the input of one or two steady players who have shaped the game to suit them. Join them, post suggestions, get direct chat to the sole developer: I will make this game around you.
Man, this has really come a long way over the past few years. Are there any plans to monetize it? If not (or even if so), how about open sourcing the code for people who are curious about how it's built?
I hope that it gets big (i.e. active, tons of users) and if that happens I will add a paid account to pay for development and for the server(s) (I'm paying $19.99 a month at the moment). People are free to donate if they want to etc.
I won't be releasing the source because it could compromise the game but, if anybody wants to know how anything is made, they're free to ask and I'll probably tell them / explain it / post some code. I'm all for supporting other people but I'd rather not let people know potential loopholes or etc
Today's Update
The snow fields have been expanded with ten new maps and a new interior which will form the basis of a future quest, several new interactive map objects and some new items. We now have more than 200 items.
The login page has been remade giving more emphasis to how to skip loading and showing a cookie disclaimer.
Games
Resources
RPG Maker VX
RPG Maker XP
Scripts
Tutorials
Downloads
Afar MMO | Daily Updates, IT'S HERE - Daily Updates
Submit Your Article
May 16 2011, 10:04 AM
definitely looking forward to the client, I'd like to see what you can do with it.
Not exactly my style, is all I'm saying 
