Well I decided I would fool around with Esenthel and see what I could come up with. I've been working on a MMO called Rise of Heroes: Online for about 7 or 8 years now. I just haven't been able to find an engine I really felt I could do what I wanted with.

For the past year or so I have been working with the HeroEngine through their HeroCloud service but I really hated the idea of not having control over the source code and Servers.

So that brings me to my attempts with Esenthel... right away I must say the graphical quality of Esenthel right out of the box is way better then I was able to get with Hero. The graphics seem much more realistic then they did with Hero. Plus I love the fact that you get great looking Shadows and post effects with out having to pay for a license like you have to with Unity3D! Also when I am ready to purchase a License I will actually be able to afford it unlike Unity3D's Single Developer License ($99 for Esenthel compared to $1500 for Unity3D)!

Esenthel's Support for DirectX 10 and 11 is also a huge plus though It will be a while before I will have a computer then can handle those kinds of graphics. Hero is still waiting to add DirectX 11 support!

So I bought the Source Code for the MMO Tutorial late in the day on Tuesday so below is a Screenshot of what I have been able to accomplish in less then a days worth of work. Note that yes the Icons did come from WoW but they are just a placeholder for now...

There is also a Screenshot of a Dialog GUI I am working on...

Shaping up really good. Keep it up

I've been playing alot of Mount and Blade: Warband the past few days. That game contains a lot of what I envisioned for Rise of Heroes except set in a MMO Environment. So what I have decided to do is I'm going to work on the first title Rise of Heroes: Kingdoms which will be a Single player game with a possible Multiplayer component added through an expansion. Kingdoms will be an action RPG set in the middle ages where Kings and Queens ruled the land.

As the player you will decide what you want to do. Where Warband you spend a lot of your time on a large World Map clicking on places to go there, Kingdoms will feature a Free Roam Open World where you control your character through the world. You will decide if you want to join a NPC faction OR find a nice spot in the world to lay your first City Center and start constructing your Kingdom's very first town. Towns, Castles, Forts, and other types of settlements are all custom built by you in game unless you capture a Pre-existing Settlement. Choose from Different Walls, Houses, Shops, Defensive Buildings, ect to create your towns just the way you want to.

Just a few quick Features I've been thinking about:

Companion System:
When thinking about Companions I think of them as the Knights of the Round table in King Arthur lore... They will be beside you every step you take on your adventure to give you council and Protect you. There will be a limit to the number of Companions you can actively have with you at any one time though you can leave some behind at a town or Castle to make room for others. Any NPC you meet could potentially be a Companion if asked to join you. They will have their own Leveling System, Skills, and classes.

Military/Army:
In Warband you ALWAYS have your Army with you. In Kingdoms your Companions will fight with and for you under normal circumstances. Your Army will be reserved for times of War and Special Military Operations. A Special Military Operation could for instance be putting down a revolt in one of your towns...

Battles:
In warband I like to micromanage my Troops to allow for different Strategies based on the terrain and number of troops I'm facing. In Kingdoms I will be taking that micromanagement to a whole new level... Battles will consists of 3 stages.

Stage 1 Troop Selection:
The First stage you will get to select a certain number of your active troops to take in to battle with you... You could potential have thousands of troops with you but might only get to use 50 or 100 in a actual battle. The number your allowed will be based on your level and certain skills.

Stage 2 Strategy Planning:
A map of the battlefield will be displayed. On this map you will be able to tell your troops where you want them to go. Each type of troop will have it's own color so for instance let's say Archers were green, Cavalry were blue, and Infantry were Red. You could draw a Red line along your castle walls, Green X in your towers, and a Blue line out front of your castle. Once the battle started your Archers would make their way up to the towers, your Infantry would line up along your castle walls and your Cavalry would line up out front of your castle... This is all subject to change as it's just my initial thoughts... Please comment and give me some ideas on how to really get strategy into battles!

Stage 3 Battle:
The final stage is the actual battle. Battles will be your typical Action RPG style combat... I may use the same Controls that Warband uses not sure though. You will have your choice of first or third person views. Some weapons like Bows may be better in First person view rather then third person but that's up to the player to decide.

That's just a quick run down of a few of the features I've been thinking about. My first step is to work on a Combat Prototype that will be released once it's done so I can get some feedback on combat.