Dev Blog
Hi, this is the Stranded III development blog (see also Forum Thread, Comment Thread).
Entry 13 - Switch To UniLua & Character Slots - September 9, 2013
I currently don't have much time to work on Stranded III. So once again sorry for a long time without updates.
Switching the Lua interface
I used the "Unity Lua Interface Library" (http://u3d.as/content/anomalous-underdog/unity-lua-interface-library/1AY) but it seems to have two major drawbacks:
1. It seems to be slow
2. It's not cross-platform
I didn't try to make it work on other platforms (operating systems) than Windows because the speed problems made it quite useless to me. Maybe the speed issue is caused by the reflections it relies on (at least when using it like it's done in the examples) and maybe there are more efficient ways to use it but I didn't try that either.
Instead I stumbled upon "UniLua" (https://github.com/xebecnan/UniLua) It does not require any DLLs but is a plain C# implementation of Lua! That's cool and makes it cross-platform. Moreover it's amazingly fast. So this is what I'll use to support Lua scripting in Stranded III.
Character slots
A feature completely missing in Stranded I and II is the possibility to craft and wear clothes. I'm planning to add this feature to Stranded III.
I planned the following slots for clothes and other equipment:
head: hat, helmet, ...
face: mask, glasses, ...
neck: amulet, cape, ...
left/right shoulder: bag, armor, ...
upper body: shirt, coat, armor, ...
(left/right) hand: gloves
left/right hand ring: rings
belt: belts
lower body: trousers, skirt, armor, ...
feet: shoes
A special thing about this is that certain items may occupy multiple of these slots instead of just one. For example a helmet with a ventail will occupy the head and the face slot. A rucksack will occupy both shoulders while a sling bag will only occupy one shoulder.
Also all of these items may provide additional inventory slots and capacity. For example trousers may provide some space because they have pockets.
I originally planned to have just one big inventory but I'll probably split it up into multiple inventories (max. 1 per equipped item). So when you drop your trousers all the stuff which is in your pockets will be gone as well unless you drag&drop it into another inventory first. Of course there will be buttons to do such stuff quickly. And of course you will get the stuff back when collecting the dropped trousers again.
Participation / Translation
A lot of people already contacted me to offer their help. I'm very thankful for this. Many wanted to translate the game, some wanted to provide music or other stuff. However I'm currently in a development stage where I can't use that help. It's simply too early.
I will develop the game in English (and create a German translation myself) and it probably doesn't make much sense to translate it until it's finished. All strings will be stored externally in text files so everybody will be able to create translations when it's done. Please do not contact me for this until the game is done.
Switching the Lua interface
I used the "Unity Lua Interface Library" (http://u3d.as/content/anomalous-underdog/unity-lua-interface-library/1AY) but it seems to have two major drawbacks:
1. It seems to be slow
2. It's not cross-platform
I didn't try to make it work on other platforms (operating systems) than Windows because the speed problems made it quite useless to me. Maybe the speed issue is caused by the reflections it relies on (at least when using it like it's done in the examples) and maybe there are more efficient ways to use it but I didn't try that either.
Instead I stumbled upon "UniLua" (https://github.com/xebecnan/UniLua) It does not require any DLLs but is a plain C# implementation of Lua! That's cool and makes it cross-platform. Moreover it's amazingly fast. So this is what I'll use to support Lua scripting in Stranded III.
Character slots
A feature completely missing in Stranded I and II is the possibility to craft and wear clothes. I'm planning to add this feature to Stranded III.
I planned the following slots for clothes and other equipment:
head: hat, helmet, ... face: mask, glasses, ... neck: amulet, cape, ... left/right shoulder: bag, armor, ... upper body: shirt, coat, armor, ... (left/right) hand: gloves left/right hand ring: rings belt: belts lower body: trousers, skirt, armor, ... feet: shoesA special thing about this is that certain items may occupy multiple of these slots instead of just one. For example a helmet with a ventail will occupy the head and the face slot. A rucksack will occupy both shoulders while a sling bag will only occupy one shoulder.
Also all of these items may provide additional inventory slots and capacity. For example trousers may provide some space because they have pockets.
I originally planned to have just one big inventory but I'll probably split it up into multiple inventories (max. 1 per equipped item). So when you drop your trousers all the stuff which is in your pockets will be gone as well unless you drag&drop it into another inventory first. Of course there will be buttons to do such stuff quickly. And of course you will get the stuff back when collecting the dropped trousers again.
Participation / Translation
A lot of people already contacted me to offer their help. I'm very thankful for this. Many wanted to translate the game, some wanted to provide music or other stuff. However I'm currently in a development stage where I can't use that help. It's simply too early.
I will develop the game in English (and create a German translation myself) and it probably doesn't make much sense to translate it until it's finished. All strings will be stored externally in text files so everybody will be able to create translations when it's done. Please do not contact me for this until the game is done.