Beacuse of this I’ve been suring up the site, making sure forgotten sections and needed areas get added. I’m also going to be expanding the community aspects of the site, adding a sort of "Around the Community" page where hot topics, news, and information from all the hosted RPGs will form a central hub of activity. I’ll also be updating many of the old tools and clearing out some known bugs over the next few weeks as we get the ball rolling.
 

You may be wondering what’s left to do before the engine is fully complete, so let me detail that briefly. The database architecture is set so this now allows me to build interactive item/equipment shops where you simply click a buy button to add it to your characters inventory. I need to build this up, it should be a quick thing to do overall because all of the tools to actual handle transfering items and equipment are already created.

A profile registration from also has to be created, and will need a lot of checks to make sure users are filling it out right, that they aren’t signing up multiple characters, and all that stuff. There will be some tools that need to be created here to insert all of this data into the profile database but more likely simply designing it to be user friendly and easy to navigate and fill out will be harder than the actual programming side of it. Along with this I also need to integrate all the stat stuff into the forum, and write up some tools to handle all the math for the user.

Finally I need a full backend GUI with more tools to give Admins super easy access to all the data in the databases (profiles, items, equipment, ships, etc) from here Admins will be able to edit any profile quickly and easily when updating (the system will handle all the math when a character levels up and all that jazz) Admins will also be able to adjust the availability and price of all items and equipment and lock down travel to any location (since traveling from planet to planet will be automated as well).

Now moving on from that there has also been some things stirring in RPG development land. Griff is working on a Kingdom Hearts RPG called War of Hearts which you should check out, dunno how long it will take him to complete the site but he’s making progress so let’s keep an eye out for this. There is also some stuff happening with a project of mine, I’ve brought in some help and we’re working on concepts for some stuff and beginnings of design talk. No announcements yet, when we have something real to show, you’ll know. Anyway that’s all for now, you’ll be hearing from me again soon, hopefully with big news.
 

http://dystopiapro.com/rpg-directory

As of now you will only find a few things indexed and there are a couple bugs to fix tomorrow, nothing major that really effects it working or being used. It should be noted that bringing it online now is not just because I’m running behind with things but because hopefully over the next few weeks there are going to be several new projects added to that directory (three possible RPGs in talks that I may be hosting), so keep your eyes peeled for more updates on those.

As a final note: The RPG directory will also be serving as a statistical hub for sites hosting here and as a port of destination to my ever increasing archives of my older RPGs.

What do you guys think?

http://dystopiapro.com/Biohazard
 

First of all I’ve been spending a good deal of time working on the framework of the site, and the framework for the Chimera Engine. In doing that I had to rebuild some aspects of the old alpha build of the engine, which was part of FFviii Annihilation. It took me a few days to get that back together and from that I was able to get a basic idea of where I am and how I move forward which lead me to creating the theme for Jupiter Jazz and updating the projects homepage to reflect this move forward. I’ve begun serious conceptual work on the systems which when complete will allow me to hopefully move pretty fast in building the frontend side of the Chimera Engine.

In other news I have been spending a hefty amount of time working on my archives. My portfolio is up to 24 detailed submissions, with many more than that to go. I try to upload a few a week so that I’m steadily getting more in there. I’ve also brought my MSN Groups page archive up to 61 pages, it’s going pretty nice.

Speaking of MSN Groups I have been working on a MSN Groups like demo, sorta building on the core framework of CPN Groups and adding to it the features that I wanted to have when it was open. These include the What’s New Page, which is nearly complete, with only some design/placement of things left. All the major aspects are complete and working. I’m also looking into a IRC container much like that of MSN Groups chat, this is only in the beginning stages. With these things I intend to put a full group package together eventually for hosting of RPGs for those interested. I will have the package ready to show as soon as possible, no time table though.

With that I also have more work to complete on my MSN Groups archival directory, I’ll get to that when I can. So as you can see there is a lot happening here, hopefully I will have more to show for it soon.