Automated area reading and a client

After the problems with the main Hesperia server I got motivated again to work on Hesp2. Last time I got stuck on annoying XML stuff while programming the area reader. Area files will be stored in XML from now on which makes them a lot more readable and manageable. XML is a bit like HTML so it should be easier to write areas:

<mob vnum="1600" level="75" gold="0" sex="f" race="Uyaite">
 <keywords>kylidra scholar sprite uyaite</keywords>
 <shortdesc>Kylidra the Scholar</shortdesc>
 <longdesc>Kylidra the Scholar floats here, chanting spells.</longdesc>
 <mobdesc><!--[CDATA[ Though she appears ... ]]--></mobdesc>
</mob>

I wrote a small program that converts existing area files to this new XML format that Hesp2 can read. It successfully converted the Watchtower and Drakwald Forest so you can actually walk around properly :)

Now that the world itself is taking shape it's time for the client. The client program will run through a website so you can play Hesperia everywhere. Right now it's basically a simple telnet client but at least it works. In the future it will show all output from the game in a visual way instead of text only. It will all be very fluffy.

And of course another screenshot for those who don't want to read everything :P

Mobs

Here is a screenshot showing some basic stuff. I just implemented mobs so you can see Kylidra in the watchtower.

A little progress and some ideas

I extended LOOK a little more to make sure it shows who else is currently in the room and I created the SAY command. Not too exciting yet but it will be... eventually.

As I mentioned before, I'm remaking Hesperia from scratch which is of course a lot of work and probably completely insane so I want to explain why I do it.
First of all because I like it. I love Hesp and I don't want to see it die, but in order to keep it alive we need a bunch of changes. I think we've all come to see that lately. In order to make those changes we can change the current codebase a lot or start over with something new. I was getting sick of C programming and I like Java a lot more so that was another reason to start over. Another problem with the current codebase is the license. It is based on Merc, Envy and Diku which basically means that we can't use it commercially. If we ever want to grow Hesperia into something bigger it would be nice if we could pay artists, do some marketing and all that. In order to do that we need money, so I've been thinking about adding some extra things to Hesperia that you can pay for. That way the game itself will stay free, but we can make some money with it at the same time. It will also be a good motivation to keep things interesting in the future.

Another thing I'd like to do with Hesperia is to make it a lot more direct and easier to access. What I want is that you can insert Hesperia into your website (for example, your Blog, MySpace, Forum or wherever you want). People who visit that website can directly see and play the game. There won't be a registration or character creation thing first. People can walk around Hesperia from the moment they open that website. For example, if I would put such a Hesperia thingy on my website I could make it so visitors of my site would start in my house. They can do some basic things then like walking around, chatting and interacting with the things I've built into my house. Then, if they like the game and want to keep playing they can turn their character which they are playing with into real players. Only then will they pick which race/class etc. they want to be. This way it will be far easier for new players to start with the game. Of course this requires a client that you can embed in a website. This client will also be part of Hesp2. More on that later.

And yes, I did mention Houses... also more on that later, but first I need to do some more coding again.

/Nyx

First Post

In this blog I will write about the game Hesperia and especially the progress of "Hesperia 2" as I've called it so far. Hesp2 will basically be a complete rewrite of the current code. I am programming it completely from the ground up in Java.

So far I have a very basic server that can handle only a couple of commands but it works! =)

Commands that are working are chat, down, east, look, north, quit, shutdown, south, up, west, where and who.

By posting here about my progress I can show the current players of Hesperia what I'm working on and I hope it helps me continue this project.

I will talk about special plans that I have in mind in a later post.

/Nyx