Hello,
Today, I hit a milestone of coding, one that I've been trying to make a MMO before they were known as MMO or even existed: 1992. I've been coding MMOs for more hours than anyone alive likely even though I have not released one I had working publicly. So I'm releasing the foundation code, which is the base of which a strongly architected MMO will be built upon.
Most game developers are fly by night slap dash coders who look for effect and cash in. As they try and update, they realize their code was not ready for it and they have trouble patching. They build akin to a house of cards on top of a stack of jello. I've been coding since I was 3, and I have been through that, and now I'm a grand masterful renaissance style software engineer and designer. Many who know me know me as the greatest of skill in playing video games #1 in a lot of video games I played world even prestigious ones. But not a lot of people know how much this translates into the insight of the core of making video games and what they are about... So I have a foundation... The foundation is humble, and so is my creator, but he's bestowed upon me some really outrageous creativity and software engineering skills. I'm bragging on my creator in hopes he helps me create this new universe.
That said... Your character progression will be saved. The dimensional alignment (change until the Prime Dimension is focused and stable) will have you go through strange realms. As you collect items and level up your character(s), your progression stays into live version. There is no reverting in this beta unless serious database corruptions happen.
This makes things exciting! It's like the old RPG that you could carry your character into the next... So you spend weeks grinding just so you're stronger for the next patch/update/world. We have this going here.
I'm going to give it to you straight: LOTS of features are stripped out. Your fun might be just you logging in, checking out the new world, collecting some gear and waiting for the next patch. And this should be fun since the space zones will be wild to look at, at least. I want to be pushing patches every day or about that... This is a target I know I'll stumble from time to time as life hits me, but this is the plan.
Expect the first world tomorrow. I could launch today, but I want to make some sort of zone that is pretty neet at least. All the working techs for the game are in as of this hour... I put about 5000-7000 hours into this game so far depending on metrics... And it is all investment for the long haul, a strong foundation, and you can build on it for a long time. I want this to be an MMO you play casually or hardcore for a lifetime, and for it to grow into the original vision and beyond.
Take care, and I hope to have a patch out tomorrow, assuming life doesn't hit. I could bust tail and get one out tonight, but I want to take it easy for a bit. Thanks for following along this long, shooting for the moon is fun, for even if you miss and get sent out to the stars, you're going really fast and its a rush!
,Jim