Custom portrait generators
There was very little code written for VERZ Online so far and it was difficult to divide work on so small area. Sylos and DuSTman were working at the back end while Kyoku and Widmo were doing some front end improvements for portraits. A fully random generator turned into a much more custom experience!
Having the ability to finally cycle through combinations it was discovered original algorithm was flawed, creating some weird combinations. It was also difficult to prove correctness because it had special rules using magic numbers. Who knew what really meant rule that said one cannot combine collar-5 with outfit-7. Yes, but why?
Another species, Bur-Zuj (who were then called Gremesi), already started with a dedicated custom generator.
Third generator for yet unnamed species was in works but did not look like much yet.
It was also at this time species theme colours palette was changed to a more distinct set.
Planets, space and the Drifter
Xolarix has been busy working on art. Among his creations were four planet images,
Set of space tiles.
Set of space border tiles (two variants: lighter, darker) which was dubbed æther.
However, probably the most beloved creation was The Drifter. This ship meant for humans embodied their situation and culture well. As nomadic species who had their mother planet Earth destroyed and were without homeworld they build ships from whatever parts are available for scavenging, driven almost sorely by pragmatism. The resulting hulls are (barely) spaceworthy but seldom symmetric.
As noted we also had a prototype for space kelp (or was it coral reef?) which was not used.
First reveal
Sylos has finished crafting first usable prototype. What is below on screenshot is not a game. Even calling it a tech demo is a large stretch. However, whatever it is – it certainly is multiplayer. The two reddish blobs representing ships are controlled from two different tabs in browser, having two separate sessions. The screenshot below is historical because it represents first view of what VERZ Online originally was – not any tools, not side generators not yet integrated, not the website.
Character generation process slowly hatching
At this point we knew the aim was to start with four species named Kodai, Gremesi, Meran, Ta’ac. Theme colours were chosen for them but the last two had red in fairly close shades which was not so good. That said it was enough to start thinking of character generation process. Initial layout of this screen was suggested by Dashlander.
Interesting thing to note we did not have species descriptions yet and barely any lore. Probably the most time consuming element of the screen was literary work of on Kodai as species.
