Alpha Stage V Summary

The fifth stage of alpha testing concentrated on items, including their use and properties. There was also a change of scenery as testing was moved from a forest to that of an ancient ruin.

New functionality was added, and some tweaked following the suggestions of alpha testers. For example, you can now receive more information about built-in aliases using the ingame 'help' or '?' command. In addition, minor tweaks such as the 'communications' command changed to 'speech' as well as being informed whenever you raised or lower your voice were made.

Furthermore, character attributes are now displayed.

Containers of all sorts were also introduced. And they were a necessity indeed, as the characters' newly gained hunger and thirst demanded the testers to carry provisions and collect water to satiate raging thirst. This was greatly aided with the addition of the 'drink' command 8). These commands were appropriately added into the right-click context menus. Here's an impressive list of additions, straight from Shailejron:

quote:
- 100 containers were imported
- the size of containers affect the number of slots in them
- held/worn containers reduce their weight by half, which in turn affects your load
- More container types were added each with its own benefits.
- Liquid containers (i.e. waterskin) can use: collect, empty, drink
- Paper containers (i.e. tome) can be: read
- Coin containers (i.e. purse) can use: collect, count
- Weapon containers (i.e. sheath) can use: draw, return
- Arrow, bullet, dart containers can use: collect
- Ingredient containers (i.e. bowl) can use: eat

Perhaps one of the more significant changes was the merging of the client and patches into one program that automatically detects new updates, and patches the Tildruin software automatically. This made simplified the process and the programs interface was quite nifty as well. Input regarding the interface was implemented and bugs were fixed as they were found. Also according to Shailejron "The data sent between client and server has been slimmed. In short -less data is sent, and less often". With this change, performance was hopefully increased slightly.

This was a particularly significant stage with the merging and simplification of the Tildruin client and introduction of containers, which will surely have an impact among all players. However, the next stage (Stage VI: Graphics) promises to change the face of Tildruin, literally.

[ This article has been reviewed by the Tildruin developers. ]

April 17, 2004 by Dytalorien | 0 Comments