Why hello, sweetlings.  It is time for another week of development diary entries for Haulin’ Oats and The Dope Game.  Also I will be taking the following week off of development to do some real-life stuff instead and will be changing the dev diary schedule to twice a month (every other week).  Yes, the applause is deafening but please remain calm… here are this week’s updates.

Haulin’ Oats

This week was all about getting that multiplayer up and running.  As you can see below, something that was visible in the current alpha (I think) is the hosting settings.  These are now functional.

All of the lobby set-up functionality as well as server list functionality is now in the next alpha build.  In-lobby chat also works.  Still tinkering with kicking players from the lobby though.  Avatars should show up next to each player too.

Now the focus is shifting to making the game playable.  Luckily there were hooks already for bots / remote players, so it’s just all about adding in the client-server functions to talk to these.

When the next alpha version hits, this should all be ready to go.  Expect that, probably, in August at some point.

The Dope Game Remaster

Combat was the name of the game this week.  And a lot of changes were made since the last version, like armor, multiple enemies, better healing, etc.

So yes, armor is now a thing.  It will be depleted before health except on criticals.  It can be purchased from Pinky or the Shady Merchant.

You can also now heal your crew in combat from the heal menu.  This will hopefully keep them in better shape during rough fights.  And speaking of rough fights, NPCs can now call in allies; there can be up to five different opponents in one fight.

There were also some minor tweaks to rewards, how buttons are laid out (no more accidental surrender), and more.

That’s it for now.  More in two weeks!