Hello Adventurers! I hope you are doing well!
2024 is coming to an end, so I thought I would share with you all the things that have been added to AEGIS Kingdoms over the last year. I will preface this by saying that AEGIS Kingdoms has been progressing well over the last year, and I am looking forward to starting 2025 off strong.
The first thing I should talk about is that the current focus for AEGIS Kingdoms is the Battlegrounds update, which will be releasing alongside Open Weekends. The focus is presently to have monthly events (Battlegrounds) organised by the Game Masters, with you being able to play AEGIS Kingdoms at the weekends in the meantime. This will be an opportunity to provide feedback, fix bugs and watch the world grow around you.
So what’s happened over the last year?
ROADMAP UPDATES
- The AEGIS Kingdoms Roadmap has been updated to reflect the next updates on its way.
- You can find more information by visiting the roadmap.
RANGED COMBAT PROGRESS
- Three new weapon types have been implemented into the game.
- All require some form of ammunition which can either be purchased or crafted.
- Niche and alternative versions of ammunition can also be crafted and purchased / used at higher mastery levels.
- Competitive, yet niche also.
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Wrist Crossbows (firing Bolts)
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Bow & Arrows (firing Arrows)
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Heavy Crossbows (firing Longbolts)
Each ranged weapon type has various factors affecting it:
- Rate of fire
- Rate of spread
- Min / Max damage
- Missile speed
- Reload speed
- Clip capacity
All of these are setup to ensure ranged is a competitive option, but is balanced for both PvP and PvE. Feedback from testing is welcome and I will be monitoring your thoughts on it closely.
DAY/NIGHT CYCLE PROFILES
- A work in progress day/night cycle has been implemented, with various celestial phenonemon.
- The 24 hour cycle has been broken down into chunks and various profiles have been created to play during this times, as represented by the in-game clock.
Morning / Sun Rise Profile
Day Time Profile
Evening / Sun Set Profile
Night Time Profile
BATTLEGROUNDS PROGRESS
- Battlegrounds (formerly Community Clashes) progress is coming along well.
- There isn’t a great deal to show just yet, but the island in which you will be playing on has now had it’s terrain finished, and buildings are now being added.
- You will capture settlements as you battle other players in this PvPvGMvE game mode.
ARMOUR PROGRESS
- Something I have neglected until recently, I am now weight painting all the armours.
- Below you can see my progress with the Iron armour.
- Do note that these are not the final colours, as armour colour is controlled via shaders within the game engine.
- In the future armour dyeing will be possible.
NEW PLAYER CONTROLLER
- Traditionally this type of character controller is known as Tank Turning because the character rotates on the spot or “shuffles”, rather than strafing. However when making this sort of character controller, it’s important to ensure that you account for unexpected logic… For example what happens when you try to run backwards (and you realise it wasn’t implemented…).
- The main reason for moving to tank turn controls for characters is purely selfish on my part. It reminds me of Warcraft, and I really enjoy orbiting the camera around my character when I’m running. There’s still a few bits to fix, but should be nice and polished in the coming weeks.
- There’s also an accessibility function when holding RMB (or bound to whatever button you like) where the character will always face the direction of the camera. Feedback on this is required to improve accessibility for players, so please share your thoughts when you get a chance to try it!
- Finally this change is also one step closer to the Battlegrounds Update which is making good progress. I am hopeful to share more on it this side of the New Year.
MASTERY UPDATES
- All combat masteries have been added. Level up your proficiency with weapons to unlock access to better looking weapons.
- Most trade skill masteries (crafting & gathering) have been implemented at a base level, though more crafting recipes and items need to be implemented. Likewise additional content like quests are needed to fully flesh out the varied gameplay.
- Faction masteries have been added at a base level, allowing you to gain faction reputation for completing faction-specific activities and quests.
OVERALL QUALITY OF LIFE UPDATES
- Weapon Sheathing has been added. Sheathed weapons appear on your character model.
- Weapon Sets have been added. Switch between them freely depending on the situation.
- Chatbox Retention has been implemented. Pressing up and down on the arrow keys allows you to cycle through message you’ve sent in your current session.
- WIP new UI has been implemented.
- New compass bar has been added. Vanishes when not needed, flashes up when an area of interest is nearby.
- Hide/show your own characters name.
- Click to move has now gained a flashing ground effect to show you where you clicked.
- Level Agnostic gameplay rules have been implemented. This improves horizontal combat progression and gameplay, putting more emphasis on skill.
OTHER FUN STUFF
- XP lamps have been added! Rub the lamp, get XP for your mastery.
- Local flora adopts the colour of the ground beneath it, unifying the overall colour palette.
- Wind rustles grass and trees.
- New roads and areas added.
- New Battlegrounds Port location added for players looking to travel to the Battlegrounds Hub.
Quite a lot has happened in the background, so it’s nice to be able to start showing off some visible progress. The biggest of which will be the Battlegrounds update which I cannot wait to share more on. I am aiming to post again before the new year about this, but I am still waiting for a tad more progress on Battlegrounds before I share anything.
Thank you for reading and I will catch you again soon!
If you want to weekly updates, join us on Discord for WIP Monday posts! Catch you in the next post!
Five
