Project Status Update 2

Welcome to the second in a long line of project updates. As stated in the first update, production stopped for a long time until the 21st due to RL, but we are now back in business and have a shed load of new features to tell you about.

At the bottom there will be some technical info for all those who are feeling adventurous.

As of June 23rd
Quite a few background features are complete and up and running. Below are is an updates list of features from the 1st update.

• Main client window
• Contains a toolbar where the player can access the market, their factory, their settings, and theire inventory. - and now a logout button :D
  
• Will probably contain a chat room, list of online users, and the players account details. - Now contains an online user list (fully working) and will contain a chat room
  
• "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). - Currently working 100%, the server can send a new headline whenever it wants, and all clients will update their news.
  
• 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. - The basic commands for buying and selling are in place, but not operational at all yet.
  
• 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 * - still need to complete databases, but framework is there.
• Get factory details
• Send message *
  
• Register new user *
  
• However the server cannot yet do anything with these commands as none of the server side databases have been created (players, products etc). - Server can fully use the commands that are *ed
  
• 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. - All works well testing the client when it's running on the same machine as the server, however connecting to the server over the internet is not working right now - we are working on solving the problem.

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. - We're back now and ready to rumble.

The second screenshot

(Click to enlarge)

This is the second 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. - The userlist and logout button can be seen as well. And yes we know the client hasn't changed much to look at, but a lot of code has been added in the background to prepare for the new features.

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.