Revolutionizing Faction Terminal

Faction management, isn't it the main and central thing of this game? Or wait, shouldn't it be? After all it's common knowledge, that it's been called Faction Mod from the beginning. And one of the first thing implemented, was that 'handy' faction terminal that allowed you to invite other players to the base, build structures of your gang, store data about outer world (other players).

But it has not worked as expected, and many things changed since then. First and foremost, it was build around the standard dialog interface functionality, due to the limitations that was imposed during that time. Because of that, managing faction became tedious and annoying task. Also, it turned out that players do not need all those functionality - not always they need to have four ranks for their members, sometimes maybe they would like to have more than one leader, maybe they would also like to have their radio channel changing randomly automatically. Maybe they also would like to have customized messaging system, in which everyone could post a message on the terminal, to be later read by others. Lots of possibilities, but the main issue was usability. That meant it required changes, or even complete overhaul.

Lots of time has passed, and the engine has grown up to the point almost everything is possible (with varying amount of work). But still, we have not improved that core functionality - chasing other stuff, or simply because of lack of time.

I started to think about the changes quite time ago, and wanted also to expose that stuff to the world by providing web interface for players (along with account management). First, I wanted to put emphasis on that, so that once registered playername always belong to some account, and it cannot be taken after wipe. And on top of that, I wanted to reimplement the very same functionality we've got in faction terminal, but also expose it to the web interface and store data in some persistent, wipe-safe storage (SQL database to be precise).

I started implementing it, but soon I realized it needs some amount of customization, otherwise it might just fail the same way as old system did - providing some useless functionality, being used only partially etc. Of course, I began to think how to inject some flexibility into it - that seemed to be lot of work. Then I stumbled upon something, that entirely changed my ideas and made me to start implementing it almost from a scratch again.

Document databases, namely - CouchDB.

To those interested, CouchDB is non-relational database, that allows you to store your data in form of documents in JSON format (Javascript Object Notation). That means - no relations, only documents. Hey - that sounds good, after all, faction terminal is just a database where you store documents, right? In traditional SQL approach, you would have something like:

table Factions
table Players

connected with relation 1 to many. Then, if you want to fetch all players records stored in faction A, you need to join those 2 tables to prepare output records. Oh nice, this is what the world is doing since ages, it works. But why to impose such rigidness on that, in non-relational database, you would just create database for faction A, and store documents about players there. Nice!

But that's not all. It turned out that CouchDB, because of the fact its protocol is HTTP, is able to serve HTML (and other HTTP content) directly. So I can build web interface (web application) in it, no need for additional tier, no need for additional dependencies. Great? Yeah, I started to love it.

Now, another surprise - it's designed in a way, that each web application is stored in some database, right? And previously, we stated that we will do it the way that each faction would have its own database. That means, each faction could have its own, fully customized web interface (of course, default one is gonna be provided). And it requires only HTML + Javascript knowledge.

Ok, that all sounds fine, but also it feels a bit dangerous. We are allowing players to store the data they want, and we also want to server (gameworld) react to it in proper way. So we need some way of communication, between CouchDB and FOnline server. Seems hard, but part of it already works.

Hopefully, this is the first part of the series about new factions interface. Please note, that's not yet stated when it's gonna be finalized and introduced. To my excuse, I've got real reasons why it's taking so long:)

In next post we will dissect how it might work and how the data will be synchronized, or maybe I'm gonna throw in some technical details, just for fun.

The Vault Dweller dissects FOnline: 2238!

It took months after the launch of FOnline: 2238 before The Vault Dweller of the NMA decided to try it out. One way or another, his FOnline: 2238 review is finally up on the NMA. The review itself did get old in the meantime, simply because everlasting new features were added recently, while publishing of the review was delayed for the reasons unknown to us - nonetheless, it is good to hear an opinion of such an unbiased reviewer, no matter what.


We appreciate the effort the VD made in order to write this article; the least we can do to show our appreciation is to read it ourselves, as well as to recommend it to you. In the end, we also do hope that our endeavors shall inspire him during his perilous article writing journeys in the days to come.

Development Diary: These damn animations

So, this one is a small one. Everyone is waiting for the next smaller update-- hey, we too! Anyway, to not abandon this place, here is some insight on what is the reason why it takes and took us so long:


Right now, we are fighting some little ugly problems with the animations of killed critters. That is, flipping around on death, not working flamethrower attack animations and so on and so on. This is, in fact, the last thing we have to do until the next update can get out of the cage. We aren't sure if we can handle the flamer attack animation in the short time, but at least killed critters will stop flipping around while getting killed.

Also as the one or the other might have heard already, we are adding a new armor item. It's a sand colored robe, created by x'il (who also worked on the long hair and bald head dude), some of you might know it already from the Fallout modding community.


The robe will be available for cheap money at most of the traders in the wasteland. Let's not be that blue anymore all together! Switch yer bluesuit to the new sandsuit and be a hipster too!

Additionally and as always, we made lots of map changes, dialog fixes and so on. I'll guess various changes on the maps will be the most obvious ones. You for sure will recognize it in the game after the update has been done.

So far, that's it for now.

Stay tuned for more.

WIP: 3D Model Screenshots

To post something new in here, we got three screenshots of some of the new work in progress 3d models for you guys. Animations and models are 100% community work.

Update and a new video by Cryofluid

After weeks of quirky bugs in the town control system, we are happy to notify our faithful community that we finally have managed to squish them. After the server maintenance and the latest restart, as of yesterday, it's not only the town control that has been fixed - the server stability has been vastly improved as well. Due to occasional crashes we had to start an investigation of the problems. The issues have been addressed and certain updates for several OS components were installed, which, in return, have brought some additional stability to the server.

We would also like to use this opportunity to announce the implementation of the first big faction in 2238: the Brotherhood of Steel. Although somewhat 'modest' update with 'only' 6 new quests and a further faction development line depending on the global events, this is the first step into the new direction the development of this game is about to take. You will be, of course, notified abut any changes in good time, so everyone can test the new feature(s) intensively, providing us the valuable feedback needed for the necessary adjustments in the future.

So, there is a reason for celebration, right? Just when we needed it most, Cryofluid stroke again with his new video. There is a bit of everything in it: FOnline 2238 factions history, current relations between new and old gangs on the server, a Christmas note, an homage to a great movie (or maybe two), a parody. Not sure what the hell is that all about? Seek the knowledge. Alternatively, you can always visit www.fonline.fr and browse through the virtual room created by our supporters from France. Anyway, long story short - here's the new video we all have been waiting for:

In other news, the community has been working on various art presentations, inspired by the world of FOnline 2238, but we shall leave this for another update. Merry Christmas and see you again with the next update just before the 2010 ends!

FOnline: 2238 among 100 best indie games 2010

Even in 2010, FOnline: 2238 has managed once again to find its place among the best indie games of the year. We have made it to the top 100, being placed in the Massively Multiplayer category along with "MoonForge", thus reaching the second voting phase.



Although it already was a great success for this game to be chosen by the players to be the 4th best indie game in 2009, thus winning the unofficial title of the best released indie title in the same year, it would be honour for everyone - the faithful players, the lazy developers, the corrupted game masters, the bizzare community - to confirm how rock-solid FOnline: 2238 is.

Moreover, I would be personally more than happy if all of us could show it to the current game industry that fun and gaming is not always necessarily pegged to shiny graphics, furious action, sheer amount of explosions or unstoppable corporational propaganda channeled through the modern video gaming "journalism". This is a good opportunity to send them a message that the fun factor is determined by players themselves and not by in-the-face served products and biased reviews. Come on you apes, you wanna live forever?! (Jean Rasczak)

You can vote for FOnline:2238 on our ModDB/IndieDB profile pages. There is exactly 12 days, 23 hours, 05 minutes and 47 seconds of time at your disposal (and counting).

As always, thank you for your support.

Community strikes back

The creativity of our faithful community can't be hindered, it can't be disputed. That very same creativity gave the birth to the new fan video based on the world of FOnline: 2238 - On the Way to Broken Hills by Cryofluid.

It is just too cool not to put it here. Enjoy! (High quality versions can be found here)