I like the progress! How do you come up with ideas on what to do & what not to do?

I've done quite a bit over the past few days, and have neglected to update my log!

• I've added a coordinate system, health and energy bars.  I've also changed the Score to read as XP.
• Some things that I've done behind the scenes, I've added an Enemy DataTable so that I can configure all my enemies in one place.  A DataTable is a fancy Structure (a variable that can hold different types of variables together).  A DataTable is kinda like a Excel Spreadsheet.  I can read these values in the code, but I don't believe that I can Update any of the information.  This is useful to store an array of Structures and not only see but manipulate the values in one place easily.
• I can randomly spawn Borg Cubes now and they will travel randomly throughout my world.
• I've added an Primary Stats block, that uses my five critical statistics, Agility, Brawn, Cunning, Determination, and Empathy.  Health and Energy are calculated from these values.
• Save and Load game functionality.

This isn't the final location of the Stats Block, this is only a debugging screen so I can see what it looks like during game play. I'm planning on making a dedicated Wizard to create a character.  It's also not quite finished yet, as I need to lock down the total amount of points spent.  (I'm using a method that Asheron's Call used to only give half the number of available points to spend so that a character can't be Over Powered.)

Some bugs I've noticed:

• Laser Bolts don't "Destroy" when they collide with a target.  They do eventually "time out".
• The Targeting is very slightly off mark.

And one thing I thought about doing is reworking the navigation controls.  Currently, I'm using the keyboard and mouse.  I'm thinking of using the mouse exclusively.  I can use the Left mouse button for interface interactions, the Right mouse button to control the direction (left/right rotation) and pitch (ascending/descending) -- yes, I'm planning on adding Flight.  And I'm going to use the Scroll Wheel to determine Speed/Velocity, or Forwards/Backwards movement.  This will allow for more fluid movement as I'm not struggling with the keyboard and mouse.  I can also use icon/buttons on the Interface for character interactions.

Very interesting updates! While I'm not into developing & coding, I can appreciate what all goes into it. Looking back at the updates can help a person keep going with their goals

Forums are so hard to keep going. Niches are more so. I wanted HOST to be JUST eco-friendly but I had to decide if I wanted eco or activity. I chose the latter. But then I found out, some people who post ARE into being eco so it worked out lol
What helps to get activity is your name out there. I've joined, want to say, 150+ forums. Some go by the "I join yours, you join mine" mindset. I also participated in Post Exchanges.
What about free sites? Not Proboards lol We have gone downhill & you can't migrate over or even TO. But I thought some other platforms do free hosting.
It is nice having your own forum but if it doesn't work out, what I've told others if they have that itch to keep contributing, is to look for "job openings" where people "hire" mods to help run their forum. Can maybe incorporate some of what you do into another forum so would be less money & less hassle.
Another option is similar & merge with a forum to combine resources. Would be co-owners.
I hope you find a solution

I didn't have much time this morning before work, but I did manage to add a Coordinate System.  I did this so that I could also figure out where my Laser Bolts are spawning.  I have the weird issue that when I set my Bolt Spawn to the Firing Location (an invisible socket that represents my character's arm being outstretched in front of her), the bolt appears at the location, but fires back towards the camera, instead of to where my crosshairs are.  This is despite the Raycasting working as it should.

I would post the screen shot, but since I turned off a bunch of Windows' Services because my power supply is crap right now, I can't find the screenshot.

I'm going to be pruning the site before May 14, when my website hosting expires.  I'm hoping that I can find a free place to host the site, since I don't have the $130 to renew my [yearly] hosting plan.  And because there is a sufficient lack of activity and participation on the site, I'm going to remove the anime episodes that take up a bulk of the disk space, in an attempt to find a cheaper option (free is my goal).  I'm also going to take this opportunity to prune the message board down and remove ancient posts with no activity and members who have not posted within the last year.

If I can not find a suitable hosting replacement, I will be retaining the domain name ($15) but I'll host on my own computer.  However, the catch with that is that the site will only be active while my computer is on (which is only on my current fluctuating days off.  This is not an ideal situation.  I would do this as an attempt to save the money needed to reapply for web hosting later in the year.  My goal is not to host the site on my own computer, simply because the additional costs that I would incur, and the lack of productive activity on the site doesn't make a sensible choice. (I would have to apply for a Static IP address (usually between $20 and $50 per month, and my monthly electric bill which is already at $150 per month would probably double if not triple.  (We keep as much electrical use to a minimum.)

There is one final option, and that's just to let the site completely die, and that tears a piece of my heart out of me.  I've spent four years attempting to make this site lively, however with such low participation, and most of the participation has nothing to do with either anime or role playing, perhaps this is the best option?  Although, I do like having my own private web space.  I may take this opportunity to totally rebrand the site into something more productive, something I've been thinking about for a while now.

At any rate, my goal of making a safe online space for creativity to thrive that involves anime and role playing seems to have very little interest.  What do you think?

Today was fairly productive.  I added a compass and composed the outer wall of the Maze.  I attached the Dodge Ball Launcher and made a doorway with some stairs.  Applied a mirror finish to all the walls.  This is going to look confusing as hell!

Unfortunately, my computer is still really, really slow.  I am in the process of saving $50 per paycheck in the hopes that I can afford a new power supply ($219) to get my computer back up to working 100%.

I don't really have any sites that I know of off-hand.  I usually just google what I need to know.  However, Chat-GPT may be a useful tool now too.

Not much was done today, as I was fighting with my computer that decided to throttle my CPU to 10%.  I think the power supply may be faulty.  Now I get to spend $219 for a new one.  In the mean time, my computer is limping along with some overclock settings.

I manged to fix the blue print for the dodgeball.  Now when it hits the ground, it bounces and sounds, and doesn't explode, but it will when it hits the player character.  Also the player character now shrinks by 1% with each hit.  Finally I added a score counter and a size indicator to the HUD.

Quote from: Senkusha on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, 20:40Mostly, I've implemented this rule to rule out spammers.  I have the site set up right now, so that when you become a member, the ONLY board you'll see is the Member Introductions board.  It's far easier to catch a spammer there, then have to keep an eye on on EVERY board.  Besides, it's a good etiquette to post an introduction, I believe.

We can put members into groups as well on Proboards & if HOST was bigger, I'd go that route to make it easier.
I do believe it's good etiquette to having an intro thread. Either the newbie creates one or the Staff welcoming them. Never fun going to a forum & nobody welcomes you!