I've made quite a bit of progress today and yesterday.
There are now three trees available to use in the world, made with the free version of TreeMagik. Although they aren't the best quality, they're better than nothing, and I'd rather not have the prettiest trees and a good framerate (about 120FPS in the shot I'll show you, if I don't cap it at 60). Also, I've made a fairly large cottage you can see in the screenshot as well. You can also now scale objects easily in the world editor, as you may notice by the different tree sizes in the screenshot. Here's a screenshot just showing an arrangement of objects and the new objects in the world editor:
The crafting system has improved in the world editor, now with 11 crafts and counting. Other objects can also be used as components for other crafts. For example, a pair of irons (handcuffs) requires some metal for the loops for the hands, as well as a chain to attach. So you have to craft a chain and then use that to craft handcuffs. Also, certain tools are now required to create objects, for example, to make a mallet, you might need a mallet to shape the metal and a knife to carve the wood. The player also has to have a certain skill level to craft certain items, depending on how complicated they are to make.
I've also drastically improved the framerate while using interfaces by using sprites instead of text for large letters, so now there is a consistent text size throughout the entire engine (which is larger than in the previous video, so you should be able to see it), requiring the "set text size" command, which drastically decreases the FPS, only once.
I've added "prompts" (up to 10 at a time) in the top left hand corner, for things such as "NPC x gave you item y" and "You dropped item x".
Loading and saving in the world editor now works. It worked before, but I had changed so much that it didn't work anymore, so I rewrote it, and haven't had any problems with it.
Lastly, I fixed a bug with the move system and a bug with equipping items, so both work fine now.
As you can see, development is speeding up, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. After the combat engine is complete, all major engines will be functional, and the game will be much closer to completion, or at least a demo. I don't want to promise anything, but I'm thinking that this may be ready for a demo at the end of the summer if the speed of development keeps with it's current pace
. Comments and criticism welcome, as always
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