Sonnheim - A place in the sun. / News: Recent posts

Again it's been a long time since the last release and quite some things changed. This release is mostly a development snapshot to give an idea of the current state. It works for me, but I have no real idea how stable it is, or how many bugs are in there.

The most notable changes since Sonnheim 0.1.6:

- Containers can now change appearance whether empty or full.
- Enchanted items support.
- Player speech icons improved.
- Improved color coding of messages.
- User definable player stats for mod makers.
- Consumable items (e.g. potions or food).
- Narrative items, like signs that pop up a message if pointed to by the mouse.
- A "look" command (Ctrl-L or &look) to inspect objects in more detail.
- Added a new example "geomorph" type dungeon to the desert.
- Support for simple animations as attack or spell effects.
- Account manager can now delete characters.
- Most tools can now load custom tilesets.
- Config option to give new characters default equipment (not used in the Sonnheim core module yet).
- Moving NPC beings supported (none included in the Sonnheim core module yet).
- Loot tables for easer management of item drops.
- Natural language parser framework - not really used yet.... read more

It's been a long time since the last release and many things changed. This release is mostly a development snapshot to give an idea of the current state. It works for me, but I have no real idea how stable it is, or how many bugs are in there. Of course I hope there are no bugs, but only in paradise there is bug free software ;)

The most notable changes since Sonnheim 0.1.5:

- New account management system supersedes old
character management.
- Sign-like items that display a message on the main map.
- Support for semi-transparent images.
- Items can now have different images in inventory
view than on map.
- Items with time-based effects (e.g. a ring of healing
that will heal slowly when worn.)
- Consumable items (e.g. mushroom of healing)
- Buy/Sell values of items now displayed in trade view.
- New general store map.
- Account Manager loads player items to show overlays
correctly when editing a character.
- Ignore list commands added.
- New items and recipes.
- Improved some overlay images.
- Improved "walk by mouse"
- Improved player speech icons.
- Map editor supports brush size setting.
- Counter attacks for beings.
- Party system.
- Simple monster AI.
- Login procedure changed to account based character
management.
- First steps towards a simple combat system.
- Instanced maps can now get populations, too.
- Geomorph based map builder.
- Support for instanced maps (common maps still exist).... read more

Sonnheim 0.1.5.5 was up on the projected server, and a friend and me ran around and tested the various features. We found some quirks and minor bugs, but the server was up and stable from start to end of the test when we logged off, calling the test complete.

Admitted, two players online for about 45 minutes isn't that much, but hey, it worked and didn't crash!

Load on the server was rather low, usually between 2% and 7%, which is hard to distinguish from "background noise" caused by other processes. Also two players are not really many, and extrapolation may be risky. For the start the values look good enough, though.... read more

Sonnheim now has got a homepage with more up to date screenshots and a few introductive words:

http://sonnheim.sourceforge.net

Documentation will be kept in the Wiki, the homepage is meant to give a quick overview over the project and links to more detailed information.

Small but growing, there is now some documentation about the project in the Sonnheim Wiki:

http://sonnheim.wiki.sourceforge.net/

A very first version of Sonnheim has been released. Merely more than a demonstrator of the core functions, this can already give an impression of the project.

This is an alpha release, just developed so far to have all core tools included, to have a running server, a client to connect to this server, a few maps to explore and graphics to display.

From this to a production quality system it'll be a long way, and particularly all RPG features are still missing.