Mythaka Development

This blog is dedicated to reporting the ongoing developments of the Mythaka indie MMO project. Comments are encouraged, and will help shape the evolution of the project!

Author: lynnara

Making new winds blow...

The moon we are terraforming is a relative astronomical rarity: it has a rather thick atmosphere, much thicker than one would expect considering the moon's diameter and apparent density. Whatever the reason for the unusually high gravity, this moon has kept virtually all of its primordial gases, only losing the very lightest elements. This moon's atmosphere is not breathable, however. It is mostly composed of noble gases, hydrocarbons, ammonia, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. Only trace amounts of oxygen exist in the atmosphere, due to initial stage vegetation respiration and precipitator operations. In order to prepare the environment for higher forms of life ( including ourselves ), the atmosphere needs to undergo a dramatic transformation.

The first tool for atmospheric transformation we will use is the gas harvester. With this machine, we extract the three main undesirable gases: ammonia, methane, and acetylene. These three gases make up the bulk of the atmosphere, along with elemental nitrogen. Each gas is removed from the air and cracked in separate open reactors, which split each molecule cleanly into its component atoms. In the process of filtering these gases out of the atmosphere, we collect large quantities of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, which we can use later for building useful organic compounds.

In order to raise the atmospheric oxygen levels, we employ oxygen mining machines. These machines use laser drills to heat the ore and centrifuges to separate the materials. The machine targets two relatively abundant materials, silicon dioxide and titanium dioxide. Once these materials are separated, they are fed into subsurface reactors which break off the dioxides. In this way, we generate oxygen while also collecting a useful supply of elemental silicon and titanium.

Its a cold day in the neighborhood...

The thick atmosphere provides a greenhouse effect, trapping heat rather effectively. Unfortunately, there is very little heat to trap. Without secondary heating, only the hardiest low temperature vegetation and micro-organisms can survive. The water vapor generated by the precipitators quickly freezes, rendering the water useless to plant life.

This is not an unusual situation for terraforming colonies. Generating heat is a simple process when using a thermal generator. This machine is one of the least complex systems relying on open-reactor technology. The system simply attracts the most abundant elements of the atmosphere and rhythmically compresses it, generating radiative heat that is focused onto a transfer element by a set of reflectors. From the transfer element, the energy travels along a set of radiator antennae and into the atmosphere. Locally, the temperature is raised significantly with a short gradient roll-off, but it can prevent water vapor freezing for any precipitators within its effective radius. Global temperature changes, however, are only incrementally affected, and will take an extended period of time to raise significantly.

Sewing the seeds of tomorrow...

With each degree of temperature change, more forms of life can be supported. While other processes prepare the atmosphere, we also need to build up a biological foundation. Creating a viable ecosphere requires seeding the air and surface with increasingly complex microorganisms, spores, pollens, feeder carbohydrates, amino acids and nucleic acids. In order to accomplish this, terraforming colonists build programmable organic seeder machines. These machines are able to take raw elements and construct very complex organic systems, from molecules up to complete single cell organisms. Organic seeders have a built-in library of useful synthesis programs, but these are mostly rather generic and not optimized or adapted to any specific environment. For initial terraforming chores, this library is sufficient, but it is recommended that colonists build research systems to configure the organic synthesis programs for more efficient use of resources and higher success rates.

Time flies when you're having fun...

Way too much time has passed between posts. I had a lot of research to do, and building increasingly complex machine prototypes took quite a while. Of course I could also mention taking time off to work on my brother's website and fixing my mother's PC, but that just seems like excuses. Anyway... I have built a decent number of prototypes, including a few I haven't mentioned yet. I will add them all to the encyclopedia on the Mythaka website in the next few days, and I will update this post when I do so.  

In other news, my brother has volunteered to fix up some video clips for uploading to youtube, so that is something to look forward to! It is probably going to be at least a week before I have any video to show off, but I will try to have something prepared for my next post. Please keep the pitchforks in the shed though, I am not making any promises!

Next time, look forward to reading about the metamaterial generator, various research systems, housing, and hopefully more! As always, I appreciate any feedback you all give me...

~Zombri

the Undead Dev

We shall make this rock our home....

Terraforming is a fairly difficult job, and even more so when circumstances do not permit much time to find the most suitable location. It does not help that there are no alternatives and no going back home. If the terraforming fails, so does the colony. The stakes are high, and there is a lot of work to do to stabilize the environment.

Luckily, technology has advanced enough to provide good terraforming tools, and the tools can be upgraded and made to adapt to almost any circumstance. This flexibility was engineered into the base technology widely used for nearly every manufactured item. One only has to devote resources into adaptive research in order to evolve the tools to suit one's need.

The most basic component of this technology is the metamaterial that everything is made from. It is a generated material, typically weaved from a polarized, energized soup of atoms typically extracted from the atmosphere, and is grown into its desired shape. Given trace additions of special molecules, various useful functions can be created directly within the metamaterial. The metamaterial has one significant weakness... it requires a field of a specific energy in order to maintain its quasicrystalline structure for extended periods of time. Lacking this energy field, a structure or item composed of metamaterial will de-energize and dissolve back into its component atoms, typically after four to five days.

Bringing power to the masses...

Having a clean and stable source of power is the top priority. Absolutely nothing else can be accomplished without it. After thousands of years of research into clean energy generation, we have some very interesting technology available to us. This technology is based on a transformative system, taking energy that already exists in one form and converting it through a few phases into a form we can use.

Of special interest is the open-reaction technology. Every type of energy conversion is done in an uncontained reaction. Since long ago, it was deemed criminally irresponsible to produce reactions that were so dangerous that they required shielding and containment. It was well known that such physical systems were subject to inevitable failure and the dangerous reactions and materials could become exposed, poisoning the environment and its inhabitants.

The lack of fuel consumption and waste byproducts is another interesting feature. Typical power conversions begin by attracting specific target atoms or molecules, and concentrating them into a reaction sphere. The material within the sphere is rhythmically compressed at a frequency which excites the atomic soup into a plasma state, itself tuned to excite a different (phase 2) target atom. The phase 2 atoms are specifically targeted for a singular purpose... the ability to absorb great amounts of energy. When enough energy is absorbed into them, they will become heavy enough to fall into the detector surface. Once they strike the detector, they release the accumulated energy into it, where it then is conducted into capacitor systems for storage or transmission.

The transmission system is the final feature of interest. All of the power generated is accumulated in giant capacitors, which discharge when an energy threshold is reached. The discharged pulse of energy is routed into a frequency regulator which transmits the power at a special frequency through an antenna mast. The resulting pulse wave travels through the atmosphere, and is absorbed by metamaterials and tuned receivers within the effective radius of the generator.

Putting our energy to good use...

Our new home has a long way to go before it can be comfortably habitable. One resource that is significantly lacking is water. At this point, a useful source of water has not been found, on the surface or in the initial underground radar surveys. This of course does not deter the typical terraforming colony, as we have some technology for handling such frequent situations.

Typically, one of the first machines built after a power generator is a precipitator. If the power generation seemed a bit complex, the precipitator out does it. Using open-reaction technology, the precipitator attracts specific atoms in the atmosphere and compresses them into a reaction sphere. On the way into the reaction sphere, the atoms are energized to a specific frequency, which is tuned to change the energy state of the neutrons in the atoms, spreading them out slightly. These energized atomic cores are then split into 2 smaller atoms by one set of tuned symmetric attractors. From here, these smaller atoms are then split by a set of asymetric attractors, which creates one large atom and one small atom.

The resulting atoms, hydrogen and oxygen, are combined in another stage to form water vapor, with excess oxygen a byproduct. The high energy water vapor is dispersed into the atmosphere, where slowly the overall humidity rises. Locally, the humidity rises fast enough to create periodic rainfall. The frequency of rainfall and absorption rates give rise to artificial seasons, the lengths of which directly affect the ability to sustain floral life. Only the most basic plant life can survive the very short seasons. Over time, the overall humidity of the atmosphere and eventual ground absorption equilibrium will lengthen the seasons to more conducive periods, which will be able to sustain ever more complex plant life.

Keeping in touch...

While terraforming work progresses, colonists will need to be able to communicate over long distances. In order to keep everyone connected, network nodes need to be constructed. These network nodes have multiple antennas, the main one dedicated to long distance connections to other network nodes. The short range antennas connect to individual colonists, giving them access to shared information, links to research systems, and of course interpersonal messaging. A colonist out of reach of a network node is quite literally on his or her own, and is only able to communicate to others within hearing distance.

The moon being terraformed has only been given an initial survey. There may be hidden dangers anywhere on this rock, even as it appears to be inert. Keeping in contact with others is therefore quite important. When traveling beyond the established network, it would be best to go with friends, just in case something happens!

Terraforming is just the beginning...

There are quite a few more terraforming tools on the way, to be discussed in future posts. But all this terraforming isn't the point of Mythaka, it is simply the beginning of it. As the terraforming progress is made, new plant life and eventually animal life will become available, and even modifiable! Numerous obstacles and dangers await, ready to break the fragile ecosystem or attempt to enslave the colonists! Also, there are other worlds to discover, and the inhabitants may or may not be friendly...

Looking back and Moving forward...

I am having crazy fun creating all of this stuff. Since my last post I have created the three prototype structures I mentioned above. Working with the particle effects system has been kind of awesome, its a little bit too much fun creating eye candy. It has taken a surprisingly long time to create just three prototypes, and this does not even include the construction animations and various upgrades. *sigh* Well it is still progress. I still need to figure out the persistent spawning of these things, but I think I am going to create the rest of the terraforming machines and other basic buildings before worrying too much about that.

I am planning on taking a break from the prototype construction for a bit, to build a sort of encyclopedia on the Mythaka website, with pictures and details of the technology involved in each machine, building, and tool. This is probably going to take me all night, but whenever I get it working I will add a link to it here.

After fixing up the encyclopedia I will get back to prototyping. Up next: a thermal generator, atmosphere transformer, organic molecule seeders, and hopefully more!

[ UPDATE ]

It took me a bit longer than I expected, but I finally got some goodies posted on the Mythaka website. I still have a lot of work to do on it, but here it is:

http://www.mythaka.com/gameinfo.php

As I get more machine and building prototypes built, I will add them to the encyclopedia. I would appreciate some feedback, either here or on the mythaka forums!

Look forward to more insane far future technology, next time...

~Zombri

the Undead Dev

A vortex of indecision...

I had been keeping a pretty good pace while working on pipeline issues. The list of processes was finite, and when one was done, the next was waiting for me to immediately dive into. I did not have to think too much about what to do next. But after all of those things got fixed up, I was once again left wondering what exactly I should work on next... and there is a lot to choose from.

I had previously added a lot of creatures, objects, and items into the game files, but just getting them into the database is only the beginning of making them useful. So much work needs to be done, especially on the creatures, to get them in the game and doing something useful. I spent a few days just poking around and trying to come up with at least a short term plan on what to do. With everything needing attention I had a lot of trouble focusing, even though in the back of my mind I really wanted to work on getting building construction working.

Gathering construction materials...

Even after deciding to go ahead and work on the building construction system, I pretty much found myself right back where I was before making that decision. I need buildings to construct. I need models and particle systems. I have some assets that might be useful at least for testing purposes, and I have been kind of itching to get into creating particle effects anyway. The assets I have available are barely sorted, and I needed to go through a rather tedious process of spawning individual assets in the game world to see which models worked and which might be useful as is or might be easily modified.

Since the original 3D models were made using a rather old version of 3D Studio Max, getting them imported into a (kind of) modern version of 3DS was an extremely tedious task, and unfortunately the processes were not always 100% successful. That import process was completed many moons ago, and I am just now getting around to testing individual models.

A few of the models were a bit broken, but for the most part, I am finding these assets are pretty darn ugly. Almost all of the buildings are in a style that I cannot find a kind word to describe. I could not conceive a way to salvage most of them even with modifications.

Then, a sparkle of inspiration...

At some point in the drudgery, I came across some objects called "spires". They have simple bases, a twisting DNA like construction that spins over the base, and in the middle of this spiral, a mesmerizing combination of particle effects. Actually, the whole object is a collection of particle effects. Even the base was part of the particle system, and the whole thing could be spawned as an effect. This interested me. Of course I am a sucker for blinking lights and sparkles and stuff...

Some of the buildings I want to allow players to build include power generation stations and terraforming facilities like atmosphere generators, precipitation generators, and organic molecule seeders. When I looked at the various combinations of effects these spires were using, I was very much inspired on ways to modify these things to use as some of these generator stations. So now I had a very easy excuse to really get into the particle effects system.

Warps, waves, and glowing goodness...

I am just getting into modifying the particle systems, so I am not any kind of expert on such things. This next week is going to be a lot of fun though. I so far have succeeded in replacing the base of the spire with another model that looks much more techy, and I have modified the spinning DNA-like spiral, but more modifications are yet to come. Seeing how all of the layers of effects in these spires are stacked was educational by itself, but looking into any single particle effect in there was an eye-opener to say the least. Its amazing how complex particle effects can be.

Modifying these systems is of course just the beginning. I found in testing that other characters don't see the effects that I spawn using console commands, and I haven't yet figured out how to spawn these things on the fly in-game any other way. So as soon as I get my fill of tinkering with the glowing and sparkles, I will need to face the source code again and figure out how to get the server to spawn these objects on command, and make them permanent residents of the landscape once spawned.

At least I have direction again!

Hopefully I will get enough done soon to justify posting some screenshots on my forums. My poor forums have gone a bit neglected in the past few weeks.... *sigh*

More news, and hopefully sparkly pictures, next time...

~Zombri

The Undead Dev

Getting to the good stuff...

I finally finished fixing up the last few files I needed. My game client is now 100% built from the build pipeline... no more precompiled assets! So now I can totally concentrate on adding all the good stuff like new gameplay mechanics, items, quests and creatures.

Actually, I have already started adding lots of things, mostly creatures and clothing. The creature models and animations I am using (for now) are all taken from Ryzom's creative commons asset repository. It is quite nice to be able to build gameplay and not worry about artistic work right away. I do intend to commission some original models and animations, and there are also going to be a number of the creative commons models modified for my game. Those things, however, are going to have to wait a bit.

Executing the plan...

My game is going to need lots of artistic work done, but that requires a lot of time, talent, and money. Sadly, there is only one of me, and I'm not crazy rich. I must be completely insane to attempt such a project, right? Well as I may have mentioned in the past, I love insane challenges. There are no roadblocks, there are only speed bumps. So how am I going to manage this?

There are a lot of talented artists with a fair amount of time on their hands, thanks to the depressed economy. Would it not feel nice to farm out some work to people who need it? I am sure their families would appreciate it. I have found a number of websites where many of these individuals bid on freelance work, so the only speed bump in front of me is the money.

Following in the footsteps of others...

There are at least a few examples of games getting funded in non-traditional ways throughout their development cycles. I am attempting to take a lesson from them. I'm not expecting to be quite as successful at such things as Minecraft, but I am sure going to try. I am still working out the exact details, but I do have some specific goals I need to accomplish to make it work.

The first thing of course, is to bring Mythaka out of its cloud of vapor. I have a server running and it is accessible from the internet, but I have allowed a very very few people connect for the most basic of show and tell. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, this game is just a figment of my imagination. Unfortunately for everyone, this is going to continue to be the case for the time being. I have a lot of programming work to do, building all of the basic gameplay systems. Once I have enough of my planned gameplay working, it will be time to show it off to more people. I intend to use the working gameplay to generate interest and financial support for the artistic development.

Dancing to my own rhythm...

I have planned out a number of phases of the game progression, which includes new gameplay elements, landscapes, skills, quests and puzzles with each major update. I am planning against the possibility of a relatively rough start, with proceeds from one phase of the game paying for the development of the next. Actually, since I am planning to have the game phases depend on the players completing certain tasks, I am going to be building two phases ahead ( just in case players complete the objectives faster than I expect, the next phase will be ready to go. )

My goal for getting things started begins with getting all of the gameplay required for phase 1 done before attempting any beta access or fundraising. Money raised during beta trials will be used to commission original audio and graphic assets, which will be farmed out to freelance artists who have good resumes, portfolios, and feedback. Meanwhile, I will be busy creating the gameplay elements for phase 2. When my coding work on phase 2 is done, and all of the graphics and audio have been completed for phase 1, it will be time to open up the game live.

It might be a relatively long beta period, depending on interest, feedback, and financial support... but one way or another it will get done!

Well that is all I have to say for now, I did not really have any other exciting news or anything. I'm going to work on getting some more creatures and items and such working ( and I need to figure out how all my character's clothes mysteriously changed in my latest update )... so I will be signing off for now. If I get any goodies worth showing off none, I'll post some screenshots on my website.

Till next time...

~Zombri

The Undead Dev