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The future of Alicia Online: multiplayer development has begun!
Dear players! Today we are happy to make a special announcement: the development of multiplayer functionality has now officially begun! As you all know, a lot of development work has already been done, however, the current version of the Alicia server should be rather considered a temporary prototype, as it does not support multiplayer by design. The temporary version however has very well fulfilled its purpose and helped us test basic game functionality such as shop, horse care and interaction with the bots. Now the time has come to make the next step. For quite a while we have been looking for an efficient server technology, which could both fit our current needs and let us extend the game functionality in the future. We are now glad to inform you that the right solution has been finally found. This week we have conducted the first successful experiment of simple multiplayer interaction, which gives us very high hopes for the future server implementation. Although you are not able to experience it yourself in the game at the moment, we would like to let you know that starting from this week we will be fully focused on mutiplayer development. According to the plan, first, all the current functionality should be fully rewritten using new server technology and all your personal player data should be migrated to the new system. This part of the process is very important and challenging, even though you will not be able to see the immediate results of it in the game until the actual multiplayer comes. So it might require some patience from you. Secondly, the messaging system should be upgraded (which includes chat, guild system, friend list and private messages), as this is the messaging system that gives you ability to search for other players online, add them to your lists and visit their ranches. Please pay attention that currently we do not have a test server (although we might consider creating one in the future), so you might experience temporary service and chat interruptions during the following weeks. On the other hand, those interruptions will inform you that important work is being done and we are all getting a bit closer to our dream of having multiplayer in the game~
The future of Alicia Online: Models and Animation
Dear Alicians! From the first days of bringing Alicia back, many of you have been asking whether it would be possible to extend the content of the game, to add models from Alicia 2.0 or even to create new ones. There was no certainty about this until now. Transferring models from one version of the game to another appeared to be quite a challenging task. For example, there are a lot new types of horse armor in version 2.0, however, the problem is that in version 1.0 head and saddle parts come in one peace, while in version 2.0 those are two separate parts of horse armor. Therefore those models could not be directly transferred from one version to another. Nevertheless, recently we made a breakthrough in analyzing internal game data. As you can see on the attached video, we managed to successfully extract game models and animation. Moreover, we are now able to modify models and put them back into the game. A lot of work has yet to be done, but even now we can say for sure that extention of the game content will be very much possible, both with transferring character clothes and horse armor from 2.0 and probably even adding our own. P.S. It has been a while since the last update, but you should know that Alicia development continues and we hope that future updates will appear more regularly. "Greetings from the Alicia team staff.
First off, we'd like to apologize for the long wait. Though we want to inform our players that we didn't forget about Alicia and our programmer is handling things in this moment. There's some difficult coding involved and it's something that isn't resolved easilly. We will update although it might not be soon as we're still in the middle of the troubles. So don't expect an update too soon but be informed that we are working on it, and doing the best we can. Once again, we apologize for the long wait and ask for our dear players' patience." "Dear Players.
We do not have any game update for today, but we got some very good news. As you all probably know, the biggest issue that has been blocking the development of the multiplayer version of Alicia Online were our limited server resources. Luckily we were able to resolve this issue and the next week we are moving to a new very powerful server, which should be fast enough to handle the future multiplayer version of the game. There might therefore be some interruptions of the service during the next week. Thank you for your understanding. P.S. Considering the latest changes in the development schedule, we are not sure if any multiplayer functionality may appear by the end of this year or not, however, with moving the new powerful server, the game development now gets to a completely new level." "Dear Alicians.
Due to the time limitations, we are currently not capable to provide updates on regular basis. The server will work as usual and the game development continues. As soon as we get new functionality implemented we will publish the update. Thank you for your understanding and support." Hello everyone, Sorkary here!
I was able to finally fix my issue with the lack of internet in my new room, yay! So this allowed me to do an updated requested by a fan, Aurora, to add each Pet Color into the Pet page. The way is was added is simple, there is a picture below the main pictures (how a pet looks in each level) with each color that they can have and how they look in that exact level. I hope it helps someone to find out their "perfect" pet in the game. Remember, colors are random so good luck getting the one you wish! "Dear players, unfortunately our programmer is still on the trip and did not have any free minute to work on the game update this week. Let's hope the situation will change in the near future~" Please for those who will be upset about this and cry about it, just don't! People have their lives and need to organize them first before paying attention to the game. Respect him since he respects you as well. Ass: Sorkary Hello everyone! Sorkary here,
Once again life is making things a little bit harder to make me focus on the website. I have moved to another house which took my weekends away for a while and I have a few issues with internet which I am trying to solve, such as internet speed (solved) and having internet reaching my room (unsolved... why router so far T.T). This last one is taking a while simply because I can't have a internet rope go all over the house so I am currently studying if I should go for a Wifi Repeater, an Acess Point or a Powerline. So I am not even certain if by the end of this week I will have the issue solved... Sucks... Nonetheless one Alician asked if we could update the Pet Page and add each Pet Color. Just to say we will do so once I can load properly the website without interference and we have already each picture organized on a folder ready to be posted. See you next time guys! "Notification: Update postponed.
Hello dear Alicians. I know you were expecting an update, but unfortunately it can not be delivered today. I am the main programmer working on this project and currently I am on a long-term trip. I don't have my main pc with me so I have to improvise and try to work on the updates remotely, which appears to be quite complicated. The last time it worked pretty well as the previous update did not rely on the actual gameplay data (of course, adding Windows 10 support was not a big achievement, but considering the circumstances is was quite challenging). I was really hoping that today I will be able to finish the next one, but due to the technical limitations it just appears to be not possible. Anyway, I gonna try to setup my new environment and get back to working on Alicia, delivering new content for our community. I assume that the next update may appear somewhere the middle of the next week, and in the meantime you may continue collecting the eggs and getting new pets and take care of your horses. See you soon~"
Hey guys, Sorkary here.
Unfortunately I was not able to keep up my word on just having the contact page down for a week since I am having some personal issues taking out all my energy and time has well has my family, which makes me sadder. They are not yet fully solved but I think that the contact page has been gone far to long and with the newest updates there will always be questions. Only now will I check past conversation such has an affiliation, and overall any question that got into the email, even the previous one, that had to be changed because Weebly was giving some issues on my main one. So yes, there is one email just for this website and nothing else. Back to work
Hello everyone, Sorkary here
Since I am the one that answers the questions when you post something on the Contacts page I have the urge to inform you that I will be on vacations for the following week. I will hide the page and who ever can somehow make questions those will not be answered until the beginning of September. Not only that but for those that have been sending questions this week I have to apologize the fact that I have not answered a single question, recently some family problems have been taking all my time and patience so when I finally get time to rest I usually play just to forget everything. It is not that I don't care about you all it is simply that having to recall everything and answer the same questions over and over becomes annoying and my speech can sound rather aggressive, so I prefer to play safe for your sake.
"Shopping: Hats and Dresses.
Dear Players! We continue to work on reconstructing the shopping database and today we preset two new categories - Hats and Dresses (Suits), which now make the character clothes page complete. At first you might find that the set of clothes that you are able to buy is a bit limited. But, as your level grows, the more and more items in the shop will become unlocked for you and available for purchase. When and how will the players be able to get the advanced currency (former cash)? This is a very common question these days. Currently we are considering several different ways to give the players this possibility, but before this happens we would first like to complete the reconstruction of the shopping database. By the way, many players think that this is the currency that is limiting them from buying their favorite clothes in the shop, but this is actually not the case. Originally, all the items in the shop had their level requirement. The more advances is the item, the higher level requirement it has. However, if an item was sold for cash, then the level requirement for that item was removed. Meaning that even if we changed the currency type of some item to Carrots, then according to the original game logic, that item would also get quite a high level requirement (some items sold for carrots actually have level 57 requirement). So the advanced currency actually makes your life easier, it gives you an opportunity to buy some really amazing items in the shop without having to level up. Will there be an option to customize the clothes in the shop? This is a really great idea proposed by the Alicia players. Although there is no such option in the game interface, but this is very much possible to add some additional pre-customized versions of the items to the shop, for example a differently colored standard clothes or a long dark hair. If performed professionally, then such modification should have the same quality as the original item. Moreover, as this only involves some minor modification of the texture color space, all the physical aspects of the original item will be fully preserved. We really think that this idea has a big potential and we will surely consider it after the main functionality of the game is reconstructed~" "There has been a server crash. Don't worry all your data is safe, but we need some time to recover it. This might take several hours. Please be patient."
"Shopping: Hairstyles, Tops and Bottoms.
Dear Alicians! Today for the first time you will be able to do real shopping. We have reconstructed the Hairstyles, Tops and Bottoms categories of the shopping database and these items are now available for purchase. After you purchase an item you will see an "Own" label over it. You can then open your inventory and put it on (in the future the system will be improved and you will be able to put the items on directly in the shop). Note that while we are reconstructing other parts of the shopping database, you can still use the horse armor for free. Refunding: The shopping system appeared to be much more sophisticated than we initially expected, and it also uses a lot of server resources. Our preliminary tests have shown that we need a more powerful server to support such a huge number of players. We are not able to perform the upgrade right now, but this might be resolved in the nearest weeks. Until then the shopping system may work not very stable and some of your orders might be processed incorrectly due to the possible overloads. Especially for such cases we have implemented a magic "Refund" button, which you can find in your profile at the website. If you encounter any issue with your orders, just click the "Refund" button, give a short description of what happened, press "OK" and restart the game - your inventory will be reset and all your spent carrots will be returned to your account. This functionality will be available all the time during the shop reconstruction and your queries will help us to improve the service. Cash items: In original version of the game there were two types of items - sold for carrots and sold for cash. As you all know, we are trying to make the game free, so there are no plans to use cash in Alicia. Nevertheless, we think that the very idea of multiple currencies in the game is quite successful, so we would like to preserve it. The new game currency will be given another name (for example, "Candy"). You will be able to get this new currency while participating in special game events, carnivals and contests. Or maybe you got you own ideas about it? Let us know what you think~" Ok from our part, we edited the Magic Page again and now it is fully updated with the Fire Dragon and other criticals.
"Magic Races: Fire Dragon. Dear Alicians! Today we are adding a very special magic item - the Fire Dragon, which now makes the single magic races complete. Once you are set on fire, it will start counting from one to five. After the counting the Fire Dragon materializes in front of you and attacks. The Fire Dragon magic is quite unique - this is the only magic that you can transfer to another player! Just touch another player before the counting stops and the fire will be transferred. Note that a shield can protect you from the final fire dragon hit, but it can not protect you from being set on fire, either by throwing or touching. Bonus items added today: Critical Fire Dragon - even more powerful version that can be distinguished by bluish color of the fire. Can penetrate an ordinary shield. Critical Feather of Phoenix - lasts longer, gives you amazing speed, and can also protect you from critical attacks. Critical Lightning - probably the most powerful weapon in the game, even a critical shield can not protect you from it! Now, when all the magic items are added to the game, we can focus on balancing them properly. We do realize that there are still a lot of things that should be improved and adjusted. We are carefully reviewing all your reports and we are doing our best to resolve all the mentioned issues. Some game situations appear to be quite rare and can not be fixed immediately, but you may expect them to be resolved in the future updates. Thank you very much for all your feedback and support - it really helps us a lot~ P.S. As you may already know, there are two types of races in Alicia - Single races and Team races. In team races the players are divided into red and blue teams, which compete with each other. So there are actually 2 more magic items in the game - the scepter and the book, which only appear in the team magic races. By design the bots were not able to participate in team races, so we can not add those magic items to the game right now, they will be added later when multiplayer comes. But, well, in original version the bots were also not able to use fireballs, but now they can. Who knows, maybe some day the bots will be able to participate in the team races as well~" Ok so we have been updating the Magic Race page lately and today it was added to more magic spells into the game. Those can now be seen on the page at
http://aliciaonheart.weebly.com/magic-race.html Here is what the programmer said about the new update: Magic Races: Phoenix Feather and Lightning. Are you ready for new magic items? Today we are introducing Phoenix Feather and Lightning. Phoenix Feather gives you powerful acceleration and, more importantly, also protects you from attacks, acting as a combination of booster and shield. Phoenix Feather is very efficient for catching up with other players, so you will most probably get it when you are running the last. Lightning is a fascinating weapon designed for attacking the leader of the race. A dark cloud appears over your head and then a powerful lightning strike stops you immediately. The lightning strike may also affect other players running close to the leader. Lightning is so powerful, that it can penetrate an ordinary shield. Bonus items added today: Critical Booster - gives you even higher speed. Critical Shackles - work longer and can penetrate an ordinary shield. During the last weeks we have done a significant progress on implementing the magic items and now we are getting close to the last ones. Magic races now start to look like their original version. As you may notice, the probability of getting a specific magic item is currently different from the original. For example, the last added magic items are given higher probability intentionally, so that they can be tested more easily. However we are now getting closer to the point when the game should be properly balanced and you can help us with this. The players "feeling" of the game is much more important than any statistical analysis, so if you think, for example, that some magic item appears too often or too rare during the race - feel free to give us your feedback~ To Alicia facebook page |
Sorkary
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