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Written by Mike Drop

Greetings Travellers, 

It's hard to believe that it's been three months since I've last written. Between work, home-improvement projects, and more recently my yearly road trip, I haven't had as much time as I'd like to work on Traveller. In my absence the team has been working diligently toward being able to present the demo; you'll be the first to know once there's a release date.

In my last post I detailed how I was working on rigging a character. Blender is a fantastic program and its capabilities are truly astounding. So much so that, at times, the program can be overwhelming. Week after week I would attempt to merge two objects, a human character and a jumpsuit, in order for the two to move together. After countless tutorials and endless troubleshooting, one day I decided to delete the character's eyeballs. Somehow, this one simple step worked. 

Though now the character is eye-less, the jumpsuit, body, and rigging move as one. Something as simple as having a character move with clothing took only a few steps, yet the frustration lasted weeks. If one component doesn't work (the same holds true for programming/scripts), then that part of the project doesn't necessarily grind to a halt but slows just enough that our arrival at each waypoint may be set back a bit.

For all those worried about characters being eyeless (myself included), please remember that this is and forever will be a work in progress. The characters will have eyes; it's just a matter of being able to correctly Parent each object in order, then Parent everything to the Rig.

Who knows, though. You might find yourself travelling through an unknown sector and a distress signal is received: a crew of Solomani sent on an expedition to the far-reaches of their sub-sector are marooned and need your help. Low on fuel, you and your crew have a heated debate: help the distressed crew or head for a station to refuel. In this case, you make the decision to help, only to find that the crew you're to rescue is, due to unforeseen circumstances, eyeless. After briefing your crew on the situation, a moral dilemma arises: the eyeless crew is better equipped than yours and has a higher tech level. Whether you rob them or assist all depends on your situation as well as your moral compass. However, that choice, as with anything in Traveller, is up to you. 

How they became eyeless and their inability to defend themselves is for another time, but therein lies the beauty of Traveller as well as setbacks during development; one man's eyeless character has the potential to be another man's horrifying campaign.

However, to get to the point where a campaign will be able to be played will take time. In roughly two months time I'll have been working on this project for two years. Though there have been times I've been frustrated, whether with rigging or otherwise, I'm still excited as ever. The farther we progress toward our goal, that excitement will only grow.

We continue to plot the course and will maintain said course until we arrive at each waypoint. From each waypoint we will adjust navigation as necessary and continue on until our final destination is reached, no matter how many light years away that destination lies. 

Your support as well as your patience means everything to us. As always, I hope you're fairing well, Travellers, and if you have any questions, concerns, comments, or just want to say hello, please feel free to reach out on our Facebook page. 

Until next time, Travellers.