2010-Dec
Ok, I've been back for a little while now and I'm actually moving things forwards. Reviewing where I left off wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. The database is broken into two parts source and runtime and originally everything was binary format and 1:1 between the two. Change one part and you HAD to change the other. I had already completed the object part of the source database and it had made a big difference so now I'm working on the creature portion. Initially this will be completely invisible to you but it will make it a lot easier for me to create new content.
Where it will affect you is that it allows me to add a lot more variation rather easily. For those of you who know the mordor style of code, each stat variant of a creature had to be specified separately in the source database. With this I can simply specify ranges (where sensible) and let the variations just occur. Originally the ingame instance was simpy a copy of the source, now it is built from the source which is a completely different concept. It means that each instance in game can be contextual, that is the location itself can have an impact on the entity created. As an example, an iron weapon spawned underwater may already be rusting (damaged) or a mage with a water affinity may be weaker if spawned in a fiery domain. It also means I can add new attributes into the database and they simply don't have any impact until the spawn code is updated to be aware of them. This is good news as I won't have to keep a separate database copy based on code versions.
