First things first, I finally purchased a .co.uk domain for The Matrix Unplugged today, and I have redirected the old site to it, which means that you can now find us at Matrixunplugged.co.uk !
More interestingly, though, I've implemented a number of new features and countless changes to the game - some visible, some not. A couple of the changes include:
- Added a centralized Explore system to the game. The backbone of any text-based MMO is its navigational system, and I thought the sidebar navigation menu simply wasn't quite cutting it for players, so I redesigned it a little, in order to support a centralized Explore page, where all of the game's modules (and all features which aren't directly part of the core) can be accessed more easily. Here's a basic view of the page at present, with a couple of the test modules which I've managed to add:
- Implemented the first draft of the in-game combat system. This is still very much in active testing, and is far from stable at the moment, but since a lot of The Matrix Unplugged is going to revolve around combat, I wanted to get it working as quickly as possible. Right now, the system supports two types of combat: PvP (which can be accessed through the links in a user's profile page), and NPC (which can be accessed through the "NPC Battles" link in the Explore page). I have only had time to implement close-range interlock combat so far, but I am working on coding a long-range freefire combat so that players can stage large-scale gun battles. Here's the basic User Interface for in-game combat so far (I'm redesigning it to make it a bit more user-friendly, and less painful to look at :P ):
- Added the ability to teleport between MegaCity districts via Hardlines. I thought it was kind of dull how everyone was in Downtown MegaCity, so I added the ability for players to teleport between districts (for a small fee) via the Hardline phone system. I may add more districts than the three (technically four, if you include the starting District) which are depicted here, since I want The Matrix Unplugged to be a rich and diverse place, in order to cancel out some of the monotony of being a text-based game :P . Here's the Hardline Teleportation interface:
There were a few other features added this week, but these were the main ones, and the ones which were easiest to show in screenshot form. I plan on doing more work on the game's core next week, so hopefully there'll be some interesting additions and screenshots along the way. Click here to sign up for The Matrix Unplugged now, for free!
I hope to see you in-game. Have a terrific day!
