Product Status Update 1

Ok this is the first in a series of updates, revealing the progress we are making with the game. At the bottom there will be some technical info for all those who are feeling adventurous.

As of June 5th
The game production has been running much faster than expected and we currently have the following features started:

• Main client window
• Contains a toolbar where the player can access the market, their factory, their settings, and theire inventory.
• Will probably contain a chat room, list of online users, and the players account details.
  
• "Today's News" headline bar (which updates every 10 minutes)
• Will reveal news about global events (such as wars, or famines etc) and also personal player events (such as when a user contributes a certain amount to the game and gains a rank).
  
• Market section
• Currently we are in the process of perfecting the buy and sell commands, and are constantly coming up with new ideas for resources and goods.
• Client-to-server communication
• This is obviously a major part of the game, and is what will require the most work. Currently the server can recognise the following commands from the client:
• Login
• Logout
• Buy
• Sell
• Get product details
• Get factory details
• However the server cannot yet do anything with these commands as none of the server side databases have been created (players, products etc).
• The client can recognise responses from the server for the above commands, and can act on most.

Tech Talk
After having a lot of problems with the winsock control used to communicate between client and server, we have finally created a control that works for our needs. It allows the server to log the amount of users that has been connected, and send and receive files.

The Future
Production on the actual client will stop until roughly June 21st because of RL stuff. However we will still be discussing features behind the scenes, such as resources, factories, and how the game will work in general.

The first screenshot

(Click to enlarge)

This is the first released screenshot of the game client as it looks now. The picture shows the main client window, with the market open. The news bar can be seen at the bottom of the picture.

And Finally...
Please note that any features and ideas discussed here can and probably will change before the game is released, nothing is set in stone yet.