Development Blog: Week #3

Samnite

Now that the development environment and website are up and running we have started to dig into UE4 and getting things set up.

Development Tools

We added a few new tools for development.

  • NPC Manager: This tool will allow us to create advanced AI behavior for the NPCs of Rome. This ranges from NPC activity depending on the time of day, player interaction, NPC to NPC dialogue and interaction, and scripted events for NPCs. This will also work with the Ascend Combat Framework quest tool so NPCs can give out quests to players.

Gladiator

  • Implemented the first gladiator. While the gladiator model is temporary this will give us a baseline to start building and implementing features. In the near future we plan to use Unreal Engine’s new MetaHuman tool to create all of our gladiators.

Animation

  • Begun implementing our first set of animations for the Samnite gladiator class. The Samnite are masters of one-handed weapons and shields, and are one of 6 classes to choose from for your gladiator.
  • Aside from just importing the animations we have begun to create the animation Blend Space and Blueprint for the Samnite class.
  • Initial implementation of the Samnite animation set and gladiator Skeletal Mesh within the Ascent Combat Framework tool.

Rome

  • Implemented the terrain height map for Rome. As we mentioned last week this was comprised of real world data from Open Street Map. We imported that data into Blender using Blend-OSM to create the 1:1 scale 3D model. Once we had that in Blender we cleaned it up and added it to Rome.

  • We have been experimenting with different grass types for Rome. Foliage will interact with player movement. Here are a few examples.

  • Begun to implement world props and structures for Rome.

  • Added a Day / Night cycle to Rome and begun to experiment with different sky colors.

Want to join the team?

Our team is growing and we are still looking to fill key roles. If you are interested in joining the team please visit the jobs page for more information. https://shadowsofglory.com/careers/

– Benjie