The UI is all changeable through scripts. It just depends on much time the dev wants to focus on it and at what priority because it does take some time.  If the UI is functional and working then I personally rate it at the very bottom of my list.  Adding new technology, quests, art, etc. ranks higher.  He has changed the UI from the original but I wouldn't see any reason to change the UI during each test phase either.

Originally posted by momodig

Ken always has great ideas, problem with his games -- they never stick around -- he constantly working on a new game -- he must have a short attention span... it's really hard to fall in love with his games now -- knowing months from now he will come up with a new idea... :(

I've watched Ken's progress for 3-4 years now and it is definitely true the game has taken a few changes over the years. He started out learning the technology and restricted by what he could do, then he was able to break away and start making his own design. I think the ideas have changed from what looked marketable, to what players said they wanted, to finally looking for that dev sweet spot of making a game the dev would want to play. The latter is the best if you want the dev to have unlimited passion for their creation. His new technology(twitch combat, huge terrains, etc) are pretty cool compared to what technology he started out with. If anything, it is always fun to see what he comes up with next.

Been in Closed Beta and ran into some bugs, so while slowly test fixes, decided to play with the new Torque T3D and see what FoHO looked like in it. Not totally sure if I am switching but if client/server is pretty stable with no crashing I probably will be. If performance is too much on lower end clients, I would have a FoHO Lite world using the current version I am using now. Both would use the same master and character server, so you could play your character in either world. But hopefully performance will be good enough I only need one world.

Just curious on the reason of not wanting? Religious views or other?

Originally posted by Daywolf

Probably using a lot of VM, but really the specs are just a bit low for even non-gamer avg.

 It is almost. I actually have people playing with laptops one step higher than this and even Geforce 5500 cards that won't even take dx 9c.  But really just making the point that the game client is capable of running on some low stuff and now with shaders able to give the higher end cards a little bit more to chew on.

It was a test of how low the client would go. The fact that it got 15FPS on a 32 mb vid card is pretty good to me. I was impressed the game even loaded let alone was somewhat playable.

I always design on a Geforce 7100 and make sure FPS is above 20 and usually all other cards are pretty safe. 

Starting to play with shaders. I know, just now?  It just hasn't been on my priority list.  Low end client framerates, technological implementation, and gameplay have been the focus.  But now that redoing zones and working on the art side of things getting ready for Beta, I decided to get the shaders implemented for Beta as well.  I am still using an old client so not next Gen or anything but still takes the game to a new level for the higher end video cards.  The cool thing is last week I ran FoHO on my old Dell D600 with 32mb vid card and 500mb ram.  Graphics and visibility were all set to low, and definitely no shaders, but it still ran around 15 FPS.

The shaders are implemented on that same client and are just checked to turn the functionality on.  This gives one client with and without shaders all connecting to the same world.  The client and shaders can also be ported to MacOS when I get to that point.  Only running shaders for water and DRL but still looks nice. Need to implement a slide bar of DRL settings and someday will implement shaders for buildings, NPCs, and players. Hopefully be able to patch this out in a week or two for clients to start testing.

These are some of the different looks of the playable dragons in the Bayou zone.

Most in the Torque community will know of Repopulation. Much of Xerves technology he released to the community(I use alot of it). They did decide to move to BigWorld for the server technology but had to start pretty much from scratch. I don't think their previous Alpha even had any swords, it just a BigWorld thing probably as they build the new RPG logic to handle the guns.  It will be one of the Indie MMOs to watch.

Updated the last five pics and adding two more.  I've been on a journey the last week trying to find the look of a game I would like to play.   I always pictured FoHO with realism like Vanguard or DAoC but their screenshots just seem washed out to me. The art side of me really wanted some color.  I brightened the pines, added some more color to the terrain, and ugh, I like it. It crosses more into the cartoony feel than I really expected out of myself to like, but the buildings pull back some realism but the environment gives the color I want.  Any games with a realistic but bright feel to them?  Would like to check out other game screenshots witha  similar feel.

Implemented an occlusion technology. Implemented it into the terrains and an invisible object I can place into walls. So have been reworking my very first zone and taking advantage of this new technology. Will redo many of the early zones since I was just learning back then and really wasn't focused on the art aspects.

This is the Old City section of this zone. Going for a feel of a forest and the land is taking back the city and the buildings are all a secondary aspects.

Thanks.  My goal is to have one or two videos out before Beta.  I want to have a video for each of the three realms(Dragons, Humans, Saurians) with a point of view on the war through their eyes. I'll probably do the Dragon's video first to show off the new models, the aging and new skin choices.

Spent ALOT of time redoing the models and implementing some character customization. At creation can now pick stature size(thin, fit, muscular) as well as 5 height sizes. The choices make a stat difference as well as look difference. There are also five different skintones to choose from.  Hair and beards are for now bought a vendor so that you can change the look you want and not stuck with the original one at character creation.  Plus this allows me to patch out better looking or more hair models.

Implemented new armor technology(mesh hiding and more mount points) to go beyond basic texture armor. Just haven't implemented any armor for it yet.

There are now three different dragon races to choose from 21 different skin textures to choose for them.

My second test at learning video making.  This is a trailer for the Spiritual Warfare sections. All from game videos and that creepy laugh as the video enters the realm is part of the ambient sound of these realms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW6H_SIeTKs

Yep, could do that.  Had never thought about it.

But having weapons still gives variety and personality.  I'd rather give the players more options than less.  More of the weapon choices are a few pages back if curious.  About half way down the page.

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/219476/page/3

Thanks.  Actually there is multiple reasons for dragons having weapons.

#1)  While there are claw weapons, there are also multiple style weapons for the dragons(swords, axes, etc).  They would not be able to compete head to head with other realms without them because of the weapon damage increase.  I don't have ranged weapons yet for the dragons but will soon.  It'd be like a crossbow on their hands. 

#2)  Time sink.  Need the dragons to craft or else they'd just level like crazy and go through all the content to quickly.  This probably the biggest one.

#3) Variety and personality for the players.  Alot use claws others like some of the other options.

Still learning how to do videos. New format uploaded. Now with an HD option. Trying to create a book/story feel to the videos. Think this works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juAX7n-7DY4

Also more pics

Moving onto critters. Many will be duplicated between the Lost World, Caves, Mines, and lava zone just using different textures. This is an adult dragon and a regular human model would be slightly up the dragons leg if that gives you a size comparison.

I love the days that can just slam through content.  Tiring but good.  Now time to work on the critters.

Swamp cavern:

Last cavern that leads into the lava zone.

This is the tropical/lagoon cavern. Next is the swamp cavern then the rocky cavern leading into the Lava zone. Probably be done with these today and move on to making the critters.

This is the next cavern. You'll notice each cavern will go from a forest to a tropical to a swamp and then dry desolate area that leads into the lava zone. The Lost World zone is actually an interesting design. I had to start really high in altitude with the first cavern then keep circling each cavern down so that I can have room in the zone and had also terrain to work with. The desolate cavern will be where I had to punch a hole through the terrain so don't have the terrain to play with.