Foundations of Hope Online goes SciFi
by Leathel Grody · 11/16/2009 (8:19 pm) · 4 comments
Game Name: Foundations of Hope Online
Technology: TGE + Torque MMO Kit
Genre: Christian Fantasy MMORPG
Company: Lethal Games Corporation
Game Website: Foundations of Hope Online
Background:
Foundations of Hope is a fantasy book series based on a future earth where technology is not possible because of constant sun storms. There is some technology in the Saurian(lizard species) underground cities but that is failing now. For the game I am taking the zones back deep within the Earth where some SciFi technology still exist. Haven't gotten to the point where lights and technology will flicker on and off but that will be an end goal to give that feel. Some zones are old Saurian cities others will be secret Unites States facitilies that were able to make it through the storms.
The Human players have the PvE Spiritual Warfare zones that only they can access. The Saurians will have the SciFi zones as their PvE zones and only accessible by them. Most of the upper "physical" world zones(except starting zones) where the battle between Humans, Saurians, and Dragons is taking place will probably be turned to PvP with XP increase for those zones.
The Science Fiction aspect has been a fun get away for me. When dealing with a future Earth, I try and keep realistic to what shows up in the upper physical world. The Spiritual Warfare zones let me first break away and get unrealistic. Now back into the SciFi zones I was again able to implement some strange and crazy things.
Next will be the Dragon PvE zones which will take place in some caves, mines, and other underground scenarios. Will again allow me to break away from reality for a bit in what I do so looking forward to that. Once completed with those, FoHO will be running with about 30 zones.
I am in a push to go live in 6 months so need to go back and redo many of the textures on these but right now trying to basis ready and then chisel away at the details later. Have to really focus on the quests so I can push the Beta out in a couple months. Then fix the details during that stage before release.
Currently, players don't have access to the weapons(guns) in these zones yet, but I need to look at coding that will allow them to use the skills or items in specific zones, but not others. That way if they take a gun out of the SciFi zones it will not work. Should be possible though and will probably work on it in Beta.
I've only implemented one zone(using Alan James's beautiful SciFi pack) and primarly focused on the model creation or implementation, so all models are showing up in there. There are a few more like regular army guys with guns, spider robots, little ground drones, etc. not listed but these are the more cool ones.
I want this to be more like a white space suit looking thing for the humans, but didn't have the textures for it. Another on to fix later.
Got the sphere in the middle to circle as part of the animations. This one trying to mess with the eyes. Definitely one of the ones needing some texture help.
Need to have the saws rotate still and this will be a pretty sweet little critter.
Plasma Rifle Projectile
What happens when you get hit by a Plasma Rifle
And what it will look like when players can carry around guns.
#2
11/17/2009 (5:21 pm)
I wished I could say rigging was fun :) But it is very enjoyable to see a inanimate object come to life once completed. Thankfully a few models were purchased, just had to redo the UV naming and most others I modified current models and retextured them. Saved me the time of remodelling and rigging from scratch. 
#3
11/18/2009 (6:46 am)
This has to be the widest ranging array of characters in a game I've seen in a while. Mechs, aliens, humans, and robot scorpions with buzzsaws. Just plain awesome.
#4
11/18/2009 (6:52 am)
Thanks. You did remind me, need to go record some circular saw sounds tomorrow for those saws :) That should be a nice touch. 
#5
11/18/2009 (10:04 pm)
Don't get the Mic too close to the saw now. That would be bad. 
#6
You do have some awesome monsters there (like the scorpion for sure). My only complaint would be that all in all the monsters/characters look just as they are pulled from here and there. As in to me I feel like the poly counts per characters should stay about the same otherwise you end up looking like things where just thrown together. I understand this is hard given the shear vastness of what you are accomplishing all on your own (which is astounding), but to me it just makes the game flow better.
Looking forward to playing more, esp. once you've implemented the quests. Great job on all the work as I've already said it's astounding that one person would ever try to tackle an mmo alone.
--Sidikian
11/25/2009 (5:23 am)
Cool Stuff Leathel. As I've already told you bud the game can be a blast at times even though it's still in the works.You do have some awesome monsters there (like the scorpion for sure). My only complaint would be that all in all the monsters/characters look just as they are pulled from here and there. As in to me I feel like the poly counts per characters should stay about the same otherwise you end up looking like things where just thrown together. I understand this is hard given the shear vastness of what you are accomplishing all on your own (which is astounding), but to me it just makes the game flow better.
Looking forward to playing more, esp. once you've implemented the quests. Great job on all the work as I've already said it's astounding that one person would ever try to tackle an mmo alone.
--Sidikian
Torque 3D Owner Alan James
That's a whole lot of creatures/characters! I bet getting them all rigged up an running smoothly in TGE has been a blast! =)
Anyway, looking good...keep at it!