Devtober Day #17

Welcome back to Day #17 of Devtober, in which I endure a crippling addiction to FFXIV and maybe even work on my game or something.

As you might be able to guess from the title, I may have been a little... preoccupied today. Listening to the words of the devil (my friends), I've made the grave mistake of downloading a new MMO instead of working on my game. I do plan to get back to work once the weekend blows over, but for now, I got a cool bow and it goes pew pew.

In terms of actual work I managed to get done today, I've started the groundwork for the pattern system, which entailed the high-level resource scripts that'll be extended to the more specific component types. Since the goal of smithing is to produce a component we can use to assemble some kind of final product, each pattern and smithing grid will contain a specific component type that determines where it can be used. 

For example, to create a sword, you'd need some kind of sword blade (one or two-handed), a guard (one or two-handed), a grip (one, hand-and-a-half, or two-handed), as well as a pommel, which really only varies in shape rather than size. Components might also have sub-types such as a curved vs. a straight blade, but each overarching component type will have a standardized size to ensure that the final product still looks like a coherent weapon, even though each piece can technically be crafted to look however the player wants. 

As for the pattern system itself, it will essentially provide an outline of the necessary voxels the player will need to create, as well as the subvoxels needed to be removed in order to "complete" the pattern. Of course, limiting the player solely to premade patterns would get a bit boring after a while, so there is also the option of "free smithing," in which the player is free to create whatever shape of blade they'd like, with a few restrictions in place.

First, the smithing grid must be within the standardized bounds for that component type. Second, in place of a strict pattern to follow, there will instead be "key voxels" to fill in that are loosely in the shape of whatever component is being made. And finally, the smithing grid must contain no detached pieces, so no floating swords, unfortunately. 

Additionally, once a player has created a custom component through the use of free smithing, they'll be able to save that component as a pattern for future use, and even export/import custom patterns between games. 

Anyway, that's about it for now. 'Till tomorrow,

- Ian, Lunarium Works