Been a while since the last update. I'm still working on Medieval Story, my *long* running project. The engine is more robust and I have changed my windowing framework to the latest glfw-master branch from GitHub. I decided to switch from 3.0.4 in order to get the latest mouse cursor support. Previously I rendered a textured quad and used that as a cursor. With the new cursor support in glfw I get much better mouse response. It is especially noticeable when the frame rate is low.
In regards to gameplay I have also made improvements. Both the mouse and keyboard controls have gotten more precise after tweaking the physics engine. The player slides better along walls and climbs stairs more easily. This is achieved by modifying the friction of the object that the player collides against (bulletphysics only has one friction value for the entire rigid body). When an object is walked upon it has a high friction value, it is treated as a floor. If the player walks up against the same object the friction value changes to a low value, it gets treated as a wall. I know this could be done more elegantly by dividing the objects up by walls and floors... but this would mean the double amount of physics objects.
I guess this sort of problem is not so common in ordinary 3D engines when objects are not treated as a whole. My world objects can often be walked on top of and slide along or against.
The camera has also gotten smarter. Instead of just chasing the player the camera focuses on the area that is ahead of the player. However, when in battle it focuses on the player so it does not to miss any action.
I have come to realize I will have to cut down on the scope of the game. I begin to worry that I might not actually finish it. However... there still are a few mechanics I feel the game should benefit from. One such item are Bows, they can be used to pick off enemies from a distance (*duh*). I might implement more types of ranged weapons in the future (crossbows, magic stuff) but right now I feel they are quite sufficient.
Another of these items are the possibility to sneak around your enemies. I have adjusted the level editor to compensate for this. I can now adjust the awareness radius of an actor right inside the editor (this was hard coded until now). Each actor has a max and minimum radius from where he can spot the player. The maximum radius ([color=#0000ff]blue[/color]) is used when the player runs and the minimum ([color=#008000]green[/color]) when the player uses sneak.
