Afar is a free online RPG game. The focus is on exploration, storyline, and battles.
Released in the last quarter of 2010, Afar is the child of the Vengeance project (2007-2010) and various other games. The game was restarted as a PHP browser game in late 2010 and quickly released - since then it has grown to over 400 players, with a record of 100 online at once.
This thread is out of date and will be remade soon.
Live News from Twitter
[ The twitter box is currently disabled. You can access this twitter profile at: @afarrpg ]
The State of Afar
Since the game is updated as much as daily, it is hard to keep a project thread updated!
I'll try and keep it all up to date as much as possible but the best way is to play the game. It's simple - you just need a username and password. Signup literally takes a few seconds!
We are currently in the second build of the battle system - unique to Afar - which now features skills and battle items.
The World
As it currently stands, this is our world map:
You navigate the world using the four arrows shown on the screenshot above, but you can also access some key areas via the world map, once you have unlocked travel to them.
Storyline
I haven't done the best at exploring the storyline I have planned, I'll admit. I hope to introduce more in quests in the future.
There are three books in the game at the moment (freely available) which provide some insight:
History Book
and that is that, plain and simply, we owe our existence purely to the boredom of the old Gods.
They have since left our lands although some would argue otherwise, or that they can never truly be gone because as ascended beings they do not exist in the same way you or I would. I however disagree, and can see that they have plainly left our mortal realms.
This now concludes the chapter and I shall finish with a timeline running from the day the world was created up until the present day. ~ * ~ I.L (Ivesus' Land)
999 Present Day 998 Tiben explorers begin to move North East 947 End of the Western Wars The Westerners resort to Vampirism 942 The Western Wars begin Great Western Wall is erected 935 Humans arrive in Tiben by boat 902 Humans pupulate the Damascan desert 891 Volcano at Ivesar; survivors exodus by boat and foot 760 Popn' of Ivesar: 100,000 657 Popn' of Ivesar: 10,000 274 Ivesar founded, a township in the old South
0 Ivesus first preaches in Sellesby village
B.E (Before Enlightenment)
20 The Gods get bored and decide to no longer exist 27 The Gods create magic but don't tell anybody 302 Fall of the Sedisian Empire; Dalks are free 349 Invasion of Dalkland by the Sedisians 437 The Sedisian Empire is formed 1647 The Gods decide they now exist and create the world
CHAPTER 7 - THE FUTURE
One can only speculate on the events of the future but it is clear Tiben is intent on expanding, with vanguards heading North-East and plans to head West retaking land lost in the Western Wars not completely out of the question.
Personally I believe Tiben will attempt to invade Straupuft and the desert cities once the time is right.
There is no doubt in my mind that there is a lot of land that can be recovered from the old city of Ivesar, which now lies in ruin. The chance of another volcano is unlikely, and I am sure that wizards will find a way to combat the effects and reclaim the land.
Book of Ivesus
THE BOOK OF IVESUS VOLUME I APPERASIS
At first there was nothing.
And then the Gods decided to exist, and exist they did.
And then the Gods decided the world should exist, and exist did the world, and it was marvellous.
And then the Gods decided people should exist, and exist they did, and they populated the world and spread their seed, as was the will of the Gods.
And then the Gods decided to party, and party they did, but did not become drunk (for that is an unholy thing to do), but instead they did not drink.
And then the Gods decided the world should be pretty, and pretty was the world, for the light had appeared in the heavens and it was bright forever more.
And then the Gods decided it would be dark at night and light at day, and dark it was in the night, and light it was in the day, and that was the best way to be.
And the Gods did rest.
THE COMING OF THE TIDES
The Gods did decide that the world should be unique to the other worlds that may or may not exist. And so the Gods decided the world should be wet, but not completely wet, just a bit wet, albeit very wet in some places.
And then the Gods decided it should rain from the sky, and what should it rain but water, for that was the best way to be and such was the will of the Gods.
And then the Gods did order the people to build churches where they could pray and drink and party, for such was the will of the Gods.
And then the Gods passed down their commandments for what is right and wrong.
THE GREAT FLOOD
The Gods decided while it was indeed wet, it was not quite wet enough.
And so the Gods did decide that a man should build a boat, and that the world would be wetter.
And then the Gods instructed the man to put some animals on the boat for otherwise they might get wet. Such was the will of the Gods.
Textbook
on his back.
Juliet watched the human. Barbarically he sat, flame burning bright as the evil sun, with the meat of his kill roasting above on a curious contraption. The human did not seem to care, for this is how they feed.
"Why do you kill this animal so?" asked Juliet.
The human scowled at her and continued his feast on the soul of the animal he had killed.
This is not their fault; one has to understand that the mind of a human is not complex enough to understand nature and the concept of a soul. They cannot comprehend what they are doing and indeed consider our ways to be similarly "evil".
Learn from Juliet: stay away from the human scum. Do not let them push their ways onto us, for their ways are more evil than anything we have ever faced.
They call us "Vampires", and consider us a threat - an enemy of their uncivilised world. Their "West Gate" (a structure designed to keep us out, mind) similarly keeps them away from our lands. Defend it with your life.
In the next chapter we shall be looking at human procreation, though this chapter is not advised for child minds as the matters discussed are truly more foul than anything you have studied so far.
Questions - Chapter 2
1. What should you do if you see a human? 2. A human approaches you. Where should you bite? 3. "Humans are evil". Discuss.
The Western Wars
THE WESTERN WARS
~ CHAPTER ONE ~ A BRIEF SUMMARY
Following Our arrival in the Tiben area in 935 I.L several camps were set up for Our refugees. Over time as it became clear we were here to stay these grew into villages, and then some further into townships. One such is, as I'm sure you know, Tiben. Straupuft in the East is a relatively new settlement, though there was also a town to the West of Tiben, which we do not oft speak of.
Kaven was the name of this forgotten town, built mostly of wooden structures. In 941, six years after it's foundation as a settlement, the then leader of Kaven, Richard the Foul introduced the Five Laws, governing the town in ways which Tiben saw as immoral. Tiben ceased all trading with Kaven, which lead to the battle of Erin's Field in 942 I.L - the beginning of what has become known as "The Western Wars" from the Tiben perspective.
The battle was but the start of many, and Tiben was grossly overpowered with respect to it's rival. Even without the ease at which the town of Kaven burned we had better weaponry and much better leadership at hand.
As a quick summary, the wars ended when the West turned to guerrilla tactics - there was not much we could do but for the Great Western Wall to be erected, to keep the Kavenites out of our realm. This was not a civil war for the Kavenites were not civilised people! Lack of trade between the two townships - and the complete destruction of Kaven that the war created - lead to an extreme poverty and famine across Kaven. We do not know how many survived, but it was in the year 947 I.L that the wars were officially declared over and the West resorted to "Vampirism", which we have not bothered to understand much. One cannot try and understand, you see Vampirism is a foul way of living and not one that one should talk about.
~ CHAPTER TWO ~ THE BEGINNINGS OF WAR
There had long been a rivalry between two factions of the refugees of Ivesar to whom we owe our existence. Upon arrival in the Tiben region, they quickly split in two forming two main settlements amongst the various others that cropped up over time. Tiben was the largest, though Kaven was definitely notable in size and power.
The first and only ruler of Kaven was a man called Richard Nevis, twenty seven years of age and none the wiser. He became known colloquially as "Richard the Foul", for mainly his move towards turning Kaven into essentially a pariah state. The moralic code which he created with the Five Laws was so utterly outside of what the people of Tiben were used to that the two towns quickly grew in their distrust and hatred of one another, from what was merely akin to sibling rivalry back in Ivesar.
You gain gold as you play or by defeating enemies, of which there are currently over fifty. I am not revealing the algorithms and they are ever changing as I tweak and balance the game. You can spend this money on items in shops.
You can also gain gold by referring other players; how to do this is shown in game on the main screen.
Structure
Afar is created using PHP and javascript, with phpBB providing a base for account authentication and forum posting. It uses graphics provided by First Seed Material, Enterbrain, and others created by myself.
The amount of my own code has risen a lot since last time I spoke to you. The battle system was created entirely from scratch for example, as well as various other systems. Most of the game aspects are my own code, with the phpbb backbone merely serving as a good base for authentication, forums, and moderation as well as the admin cp.
Quests
Quests are the current big production area; at the moment there is one completable quest and one almost-completable (just no ending). There are ten planned for release this month (June 2011).
System Requirements
You must have javascript enabled for the domains:
afar.ws jquery.com
jquery is a javascript library, visit the jquery.com website for more information.
Otherwise your gameplay will be severely hindered. I may block users who do not have javascript activated in future because this may cause unfair advantages; it doesn't at the moment (other than making screens such as the inventory just not work).
High Scores
Because of our now large userbase we now have highscores. You are rated on either your gold amount, or your cumulative exp from all stats.
Stat signatures are available which update regularly:
If somebody registers from your sig, you get gold!
The Netplay project for getting me into creating MMOs, VDex for making me realise my old idea of making games using forums could actually work W3schools for teaching me PHP Tomas for helping me with javascript and showing me better ways of doing things Everyone who helped me with Vengeance before <3
Last edited by Anonymous on Fri Nov 28, 2008 11:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
[QUOTE=Digimon Readerusama;199359]OMG!!!!!! You make yourself scripts for your MMORPG ok? But i never see the Scripts in another place, VERY GOOD BOY!!!!![/QUOTE]
馬鹿ã§ã‚ã‚‹
Nuff said.
_________________
Truth Today
Take a look at people's reaction to the truth and you will soon realize that in modern society, honesty is no longer a virtue. --Me
More Quotes on Truth
Some people will not tolerate such emotional honesty in communication. They would rather defend their dishonesty on the grounds that it might hurt others. Therefore, having rationalized their phoniness into nobility, they settle for superficial relationships. --Author Unknown
Let us then be what we are, and speak what we think, and in all things keep ourselves loyal to truth. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. --Abraham Lincoln.
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. --Andre Gide
The different editions idea sounds nice, but if you're gonna be spending your own money, that might be a little costly. If some people don't purchase some of the other non-free editions, then you'll be losing money. That's what I don't like to happen.
I like the general idea of the game. It appears that you've put a tremendous amount of time and effort into making it what it is now. I just hope you don't lose sight or track of this project. (since you plan on making it commercial)
Personally I would p2p if it's good enough.
I would suggest, and I'm not saying for you to do it, that you make a free-play download, or even a trial version like most MMO's tend to do. Then make it a 1 time fee to purchase the full game with different options for them.
Just a thought.
Free edition Contains a limited amount of gameplay, around 10-20% maybe ?FREE
Download edition Contains the full game but no added extras ?7, download only
Standard boxed edition In a box, sent through mail, with extra shiz ?10 + p&p (Basically, the cost to produce the stuff would amount to around ?4 taking VAT into account).
Collector's boxed edition Same as standard but with lots of extra stuff ?20 + p&p (The cost of making this would be around ?10, based on my thoughts at the moment).
Quote:
OMG!!!!!! You make yourself scripts for your MMORPG ok? But i never see the Scripts in another place, VERY GOOD BOY!!!!!
OMFG!!1!!!1oneone!!!1!!!! I not make scripts by myself, ok? Base system by Netplay+ created by Meâ„¢, Mr.Mo, Trebor777, and others, as it says in the credits, ok? The scripts are in another place if you look hard enough, VERY GOOD BOY TO YOU TOO!!!111oneone!!
[QUOTE=Wyatt;199653]Basically, what I was thinking of for cost was:
Free edition Contains a limited amount of gameplay, around 10-20% maybe
?FREE
Download edition Contains the full game but no added extras
?7, download only
Standard boxed edition In a box, sent through mail, with extra shiz
?10 + p&p
(Basically, the cost to produce the stuff would amount to around ?4 taking VAT into account).
Collector's boxed edition Same as standard but with lots of extra stuff
?20 + p&p
(The cost of making this would be around ?10, based on my thoughts at the moment).
OMFG!!1!!!1oneone!!!1!!!! I not make scripts by myself, ok? Base system by Netplay+ created by Me?, Mr.Mo, Trebor777, and others, as it says in the credits, ok? The scripts are in another place if you look hard enough, VERY GOOD BOY TO YOU TOO!!!111oneone!![/QUOTE]
I shall sponsor this with my massive credit card max limit! O_O
_________________
Truth Today
Take a look at people's reaction to the truth and you will soon realize that in modern society, honesty is no longer a virtue. --Me
More Quotes on Truth
Some people will not tolerate such emotional honesty in communication. They would rather defend their dishonesty on the grounds that it might hurt others. Therefore, having rationalized their phoniness into nobility, they settle for superficial relationships. --Author Unknown
Let us then be what we are, and speak what we think, and in all things keep ourselves loyal to truth. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. --Abraham Lincoln.
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. --Andre Gide
The free version will be slightly more than just a demo as unlike a demo, it will still be updated and expanded over time, and wont be discluded from special events etc.
Imagine like this: the paid version will be updated 5x more than the free version. Or something like that.
-Debug It checks to see if the $DEBUG flag has been taken off, and if so, posts a message, closes the game, and *will* send your IP address to the moderating team. (Can't do the last bit 'till 2.0 comes out).
-Unencrypting the game The game now checks to see if the game is encrypted or not, if it isn't, it shows a message, closes the game, and *will* send your IP address to the moderating team.
In case you are thinking well, I'll just unencrypt it and delete the script, it's done like this:
In one large script,
class Some_Name def initialize do_next_method end end
In another,
class Some_Name def do_next_method do_3rd_method end end
...and so on, and each is duplicated. So, if you did find one of the script chunks and deleted it, it would get a noMethodError anyway, either that or one of the duplicated would run instead.
The game looks good. I like the whole idea behind it. Fighting same levels is alright i guess. I would rather fight in a level range, like 5 levels lower or higher.
I've found someone who is making the game's music for free. I also found someone who might be making the graphics for payment.
So, music and graphics should be alright.
This is an early draft of a few pages of the campaign book for the first campaign, "Inquisition".
campaign information
Campaigns
A campaign in Vengeance is like an expansion pack, but actually included free with the game. Imagine it as a series of quests, like a whole game, but part of the game.
The first campaign is called INQUISITION.
Info on campaigns:
-Each campaign will have around 20 main quests, and many more shorter quests. -Think of it as an epic series of quests linked together. -With each campaign, merchandise will be available - a 100+ page "Campaign Book", possibly a T-shirt, etc. -There will likely be one campaign released every 6 months.
What happens about weekly releases, etc?
The game will be updated weekly with "Update Nights" every (Friday?) from around 7:00 to around 12:00 GMT. This will include small updates, sneak previews, new weapons, etc.
But the main things being done will be working on the campaigns.
So... the game will be constantly updated small-ly, with large updates around 6 month periods, called campaigns, which you don't have to pay anything for.
Any time between around October '07 to January '08 sounds reasonable. After September I'll be getting paid ?20 a week, and I need ?200 for a server, ?60 for a web host, ?10 for a domain name, that sort of thing, I think around ?350 is needed but I'm not sure. But basically as soon as the server is bought, graphics paid for, and a decent amount of the game is made, it should be ready.
A Beta might come sooner though.
? = GBP, for some reason pound signs don't work.
Updates Did some more mapping on the second 200x200 map. Almost 1/4 of the map is covered by "dense forest", similar to the first map but more er... dense. There's also the Archipelagos, a string of islands all connected by rope bridges and protected by a great sea fortress.
Also, finished the second quest - "The Beginning". Lame name I know, but this is the first quest of the Inquisition campaign basically.
Last edited by Amy on Tue May 15, 2007 7:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
Release date announced The game will be released during the week beginning 17th December 2007. This gives time for saving money, making the game, alpha testing, and bug fixing.
Record of Progress - 16th May 2007 Estimated only
Campaign book: 13/100 pages written 13% Campaign: 2/20 quests made 10% Quests total: 3/(50?) made Map 1: 100% made Map 2: 33% made (Not sure how many maps there will be, but by "map" I am referring to 200x200 exterior maps, not counting the many hundred interior maps which exist already).
Money saved: ?0 / ?250 0%
Last edited by Amy on Sat May 19, 2007 10:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
Something I always liked about a game called RuneScape I used to play was the idea of skills... Then I saw it used in many, many other online games. But this whole concept is terribly flawed, and there is one thing that ties up all these flaws: grinding. I don't want people to have to mine 2,048 iron ore and 4,096 coal to advance to the next area; I don't want people to have to kill a certain amount of fish to become the best player in the game.
So, skills are coming into Vengeance, but a lot differently.
-Every time you use your merchant skills, you gain something which has a trade value. I.e. rocks you have mined, fish you have caught, materials you have "dug up".
-You do not however gain "EXP" from this.
-You gain "EXP" in those skills in the form of rating. You get this only from completing quests.
-So, constant grinding may get you money, but it wont make you the "best player in the game" - that must be done by completing quests.
-There are going to be daily limits to the amount of "stuff" you can "get" from merchant skills, and this "cap" rises every time you reach the next rank. So, even if you are a macro-er, you can't get as much in a day than somebody who has completed a lot of quests and become good that way!
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