The Adventurers' Guild

Working on the bard......

So, I started on my module from scratch. Right now, I'm just working on all my excel master lists (if anyone wants copies of my xml sheets for each of the editors, let me know.), but I'm testing out classes and spells and ran into a few walls (no pun intended.) I have a couple of requests for engine upgrades. Any or all would be greatly appreciated.


SPELL EDITOR


Magic Type Tag - A tag that represents a specific type of magic. For example, Summoning or Fire.

Effect Only Magic Type - An Effect Only that targets specific types of spells, based on a Magic Type Tag. For example a Block Spells that only works on Summoning spells or a Save Bonus spell that only works on Level Drain Effects.

Block Move Effect - When cast on a group or the party, prevents them from Advancing in combat.


ITEM EDITOR


Random Use - True/False Flag that randomizes the number of charges, based off the Times Usable.

Show Use - True/False flag that shows the number of charges in the Inventory screen.

Stackable - True/False flag that allows stacking of the same item, based off name.

Type - Item Types soft-coded in external xml file, so we can create new item types.

Tag - If we can't have the types soft-coded, so we can make our own (I'm trying to make slings and crossbows), a Tag feature tied to Bows/Arrows would be awesome.


MONSTER EDITOR


Attack Actions - Encapsulated Attacks, similar to how Spell Effects work in the Spell Editor. Each attack will have defined all the parameters of the Ranged Attack, Ranged Message, Range, Ranged Damage, Ranged X-Damage, grouped under each Attack, but modified to work for Melee, Ranged and Spell Attacks. Combat Actions stay the same, but now, the engine will choose one of the listed attacks, randomly, based on the Rate of Attacks. This will allow 2 Claws/1 Bite + Breath Weapon type attacks.

Attack types are None, Physical 1:Foe, Physical:Group, Physical:All, Spell and Doppleganger.

Tag - Multiple Tags. This way, we can have "Outsider" and "Fire" for use with spells.


MAP EDITOR COMMANDS


(P) Parameters

Wandering Monsters - Wandering Monsters based off list created by Module Creator. Each Map can have it's own list of monsters specific for that Map, based on the Level. No Wandering Monster List, means default and uses any/all monsters specific for that level.

Magic Item Chance - Chance of dropped items, per combat. Works just like Encounter Chance, but instead of 1 group, it's one item per Encounter Chance. Items found are picked from a Treasure list, similar to the shop list, based off Dungeon Level.

Light - Support for light 0-4, with 0 being full light. I can create new horizon maps very quickly. A spell or item that casts a Light of 1, will produce light for 1 square, a Light of 2 will produce light for 2 squares, etc.

Horizon maps would be as follows: horizon_map, horizon_map1, horizon_map2, horizon_map3, horizon_map4.

(D) Drop Wall Tile

Drops a specified Wall tile directly in front of view, regardless of of the tileset. Walls are selected from a list, based off the front1.ngs inside each folder within the tilesets folder.

(F) Drop Floor Tile

Adds ability to drop a tile on the floor, to cover up the horizon maps. This will allow module makers the ability to add sand, water, etc. I can create simple tiles that have masks to blend in with the horizon maps.



Treasure List.xml - A treasure list for each Dungeon Level (based off Dungeon Name) that works exactly like the shops.xml.

Conditions List.xml - An external xml file that has all the conditions encapsulated, so we can create more. Within each capsule, has the name of the Conditional, the condition parameters it sets, the shortened name for the Character list (e.g., Psnd, OLD, Blnd), as well as the effect text, "and poisons", "and blinds", etc.

Guild.xml - The (optional) ability to increase spells levels based on the spell level, not the Job.

Cleaning up the Bard animation. Yes, he's playing actual chords (one of the benefits of being a guitar player. ;P) Question, do people want them singing or not? It's no big deal to me, but if you want it, I'll animate them actually singing something, as well.

Personally, I don't have a preference either way. In the game Bard Songs have always been rendered as instrumental - no voice, so I don't think the animation not having any singing would come across as strange. On the other hand the "behind the scenes" assumption is that they *do* actually sing (hence the need for a drink after playing a bunch of songs) - and many of the classic game animations actually have the portraits animating "vocalizations." So I think you're golden either way.

Final Bard animation, with vocals for Caars! (He's synced to my singing 'Men In Tights' - I'm sure we're all around the same age bracket.) I'll start working on the female Bard now.

You guessed right, sir! Haven't seen that movie in probably close to a decade, yet still occasionally quote lines from it.

Here's a weird observation ... I actually liked it better when he didn't make "eye contact" (i.e. when he tended to keep is gaze just a bit off to the side). Not entirely sure why...

I think it's a little strange that I noticed that. Like I said, not sure why that jumped out as a preference.

Loving the pics. Keep 'em coming!

caars wrote:You guessed right, sir! Haven't seen that movie in probably close to a decade, yet still occasionally quote lines from it.

Here's a weird observation ... I actually liked it better when he didn't make "eye contact" (i.e. when he tended to keep is gaze just a bit off to the side). Not entirely sure why...

I think it's a little strange that I noticed that. Like I said, not sure why that jumped out as a preference.

Loving the pics. Keep 'em coming!

You're killing me, Smalls.......



Female bard. Same animation.

Keep it mind, Guys, that I value your opinions on the animations. After all, these are for all of us. I'm not scrapping animations that aren't popular. I'll just change hair, skin, clothes and use the old ones to fill slots of the previous non-gpl slots.

That being said, if you don't like something, tell me. If consensus is that it's awful, I'll change it.

Has anyone else played around with Dulsi's Sample Module? I was just messing around with it and realized he added a wolf den. Can't have a wolf den without wolves, can we?

Pick a ghoul.... any ghoul. (Actually, pick two, 'cos there's two slots open for a ghoul picture.)

Ghoul 1



Ghoul 2



Ghoul 3



Ghoul 4

Working on shaders for Dwarves.



A Zombie. I don't really like the animation, though.

I like 1 and 3 for the ghouls.

Let's see, I like 3 and 4 for the ghouls (3 strikes me as closer to what most art depicts them as looking like in D&D, but 4 reminds me most of their artwork in the red box D&D Basic Set - my first exposure to PnP role playing games).

Interesting ... I actually like the zombie animation. In fact, when I first saw it while scrolling down I *immediately* thought "Ah, that must be the zombie" (as opposed to some other form of undead), and the animation certainly played a part...

Ghoul 1 ( I think I need to change back to the original mouth textures, though. Thoughts?)




Ghoul 3




So......

I felt kinda bad that I picked one of each that you both liked, but ended up choosing the two that Dulsi liked, so I made a compromise.



We never had a Wight slot (I based it roughly off the original image from the 1st Ed Monster Manual). Now we do. Don't expect the animation anytime soon, though. This render took about 45 minutes. The animation, which I finished last night, is roughly 80 frames. It'll take 2 and half days to render.

Yeah, I'd definitely go with the original mouth for Ghoul 1. On the upside: I actually really, really like the Ghoul 3 animation, so my favorite of the animations went to my favorite Ghoul!

Wow, that wight is great! You definitely captured exactly what I'd expect a wight to look like (which, not surprisingly, is also strongly based on what it looks like in the 1st edition monster manual).

caars wrote:Yeah, I'd definitely go with the original mouth for Ghoul 1. On the upside: I actually really, really like the Ghoul 3 animation, so my favorite of the animations went to my favorite Ghoul!

Yeah, I already changed it back. I kept the rotten teeth, though. Okay. That's one vote for the 2nd animation. The first one is actually my "goblin" animation. I just haven't modeled the goblins yet. If Dulsi likes the 2nd one, I'll swap it over.

Wow, that wight is great! You definitely captured exactly what I'd expect a wight to look like (which, not surprisingly, is also strongly based on what it looks like in the 1st edition monster manual).

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. I felt bad that I didn't use the fourth texture, so I started thinking of ways to use it. Then, I checked and realized I never did find a wight picture and since my module will eventually use them, here we are. I think the wight animation is pretty rad.