Dungeon Adventure MOD MOD

[xienwolf]

Nifty trick which I just discovered and you might find useful

The XML entry in PromotionInfos <PromotionNextLevel> is used to cause the main promotion to not display in the lower left info box when a unit has the next level promotion. If you should list a promotion as its own Next Level, then it just won't show in the display (unless they get mouseover information).


It might be a simple switch to have even the mouseover information remain un-displayed (copy/paste to the right spot in the SDK), or you could just use a blank .dds file so that instead of seeing any promotion there is a simple empty space (which would work best with making certain that the promotions you hide in the manner will always be at the end of the promotion list. Either that is alphabetical or by order of listing in the XML, each of which is easily controlled).


This way, you can achieve "Ninja Promotions" to have temporary effects hidden from the player.

 

[Ekolite]

A trap that releases gas into the room its in would be cool. The hero is damaged each turn he stays in the room and if he is holding a torch or casts a spell involving fire, it causes an explosion. I would imagine you'd need a lot of little invisible units to get it to work though.

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

you could use terrain improvements like the fallout but recoloured green. and you could use the code for the movement of blizzards in Age of ice to make the clouds of gas move around.

 

[Vehem]

you could use terrain improvements like the fallout but recoloured green. and you could use the code for the movement of blizzards in Age of ice to make the clouds of gas move around.

Better to do the movement code from scratch. I had a look at the code for the blizzards (whilst shamelessly stealing the idea to do something else) and it's quite cleverly coded to provide exactly what Age of Ice needed - safe areas to the east of mountain ranges.

 

[xienwolf]

Awesome buttons PL, I might borrow some for equipment on new Barbarian Heroes when I make some.

I attached them in .dds format in case anyone has problems converting them

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

Awesome buttons PL, I might borrow some for equipment on new Barbarian Heroes when I make some.

I attached them in .dds format in case anyone has problems converting them

@PL: I second the motion. Those buttons are great! Thanks, Xienwolf for offering the converted save.

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

thanks guys feel free to do what you will with them

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

Tonight, I added Afterworld style fog and water to the mod mod. This was way easier than I thought it was going to be.

Screenie of the in-game effects below:

Spoiler :

The fog really adds to the atmosphere (urg.. no pun intended, I swear!) of the mod mod. I think the water looks much better than the default bright blue water, too.

 

[xienwolf]

VERY nice water

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

VERY nice water

Golly, thanks! But all I really did was figure out how to plop Afterworld water into my mod mod. The hard work was already done!

It is kind of odd, though, because I don't remember the water ever being used in the Afterworld scenario. (Was it?)

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

yes that water and fog is VERY nice, way more suited for a dungeon atmposphere. i was also thinking about outdoors terrains, it would be fairly simple to make a few large trees and boulders you could use for outdoor terrain. if your interested i could have a shot at making some large scale outdoor wilderness terrains, maybe also old ruins...

 

[Wyrmhero]

I can't wait for this to be released. Do you have any idea of a possible beta release date?

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

I can't wait for this to be released. Do you have any idea of a possible beta release date?

I anticipate a bundled release with Daikatana and Duke Nuke'em Forever.

Seriously, though, I'd appreciate some feedback from the forum dwellers on this: when is the appropriate time to release a work in progress?

Too late and people get frustrated, but too early and people get turned off by a very rough product.

Right now the mod mod has a few things in place, but absolutely nothing in terms of the tech tree, civs, or unit upgrade paths. It isn't really a playable game right now -- more like an interesting feature demo.

(I also have to figure out where to host such an enormous file. Oh, and how to repack all the art assets!)

 

[Wyrmhero]

Well, personally I'd release it when the bare essentials have been done that the game requires to work as a beta release. Then I'd release a second one later when some known bugs have been done, and with extra content. (Okay, I just want to play )

 

[woodelf]

Release whenever. CTDs and stuff are part of the modding experience.

 

[xienwolf]

I would say wait till you have something fully playable, even if not quite fleshed out.


Maybe a small dungeon with just the features you have implemented so far, and possibly 3 techs in a single branch to research in the time it takes you to "clear" what is done in the dungeon at that point. If you REALLY want to release something now.


But I would imagine right now so much of it is still just design ideas that it isn't really a good idea to release much of anything, because you'll be changing quite a bit still and might have people "outraged" at the loss of some obscure feature which in reality does nothing but make your life hell to program around, all for a minor effect.

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

Regarding the release date:

i personally dont care if there is no tech tree or civs right now. at the moment all i really want to mess around with is the world editor, and just to see what is posible with these new features youve made. im sure that everyone who DL's the pre-release version will realise it is a work in progress and isnt really playable.

following on from my train of thought on outdoor terrain, i had a burst of inspiration and so i made 3 giant trees, and 3 boulders which could be used for wilderness terrain:


(question for graphics guys: do you know if there is a way of making the transparent textures to show whats behind it? in that screenie there is another wizard hidden behind front right tree, but you cant see him because of the transparency)

tell me what you think lutefisk, if you think you could use it id be happy to try and make any other terrain or improvement you think the DA mod will need

also, have you had any luck with that rat of mine?

EDIT: wow a lot of cross posts there, Xienwolf has a good point in his last sentence.

 

[Vehem]

Release whenever. CTDs and stuff are part of the modding experience.

*cough*
CTDs and stuff are the modding experience.

From the coder's side at least

===

That being said - feedback is also vital.

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

(question for graphics guys: do you know if there is a way of making the transparent textures to show whats behind it? in that screenie there is another wizard hidden behind front right tree, but you cant see him because of the transparency)

tell me what you think lutefisk, if you think you could use it id be happy to try and make any other terrain or improvement you think the DA mod will need

also, have you had any luck with that rat of mine?

EDIT: wow a lot of cross posts there, Xienwolf has a good point in his last sentence.

Graphics: sometimes messing around with the alwaysvisible tag can help. Also, make sure that what you think is transparent really is -- I know that sometimes I think that I am rendering a transparent texture and it doesn't quite work out that way. It has to do with alpha channels and other things that I do not understand. (Seriously, I am like monkey with a hammer when it comes to modding...) Also, I have noticed that, for really complex layered textures, like fog and water, there is a "xxx_planes" file in the misc folder for the XML. I'm not totally sure, but I suspect that this file controls the vertical offset for painting the various texture files. That is what give it a deep, complex layered texture effect. I suspect that this is also why the shadows on some terrain features, like the ancient towers, have a jitter effect when you move around -- the shadow is painted too close to the terrain plane, and you end up with a sort of moire effect.

Boulders and trees: These items look great! For the time being, I am focussing solely on "indoor" dungeony stuff -- I may eventually expand to outdoors but that is several versions off. But those boulders are super. I am already getting ideas for cave-ins and whatnot!

The rat: I am still having it crash on me when I try to access it in SceneViewer. For the time being, I am still using my roaring reskinned panthers.

Other improvements: You know, I could really use some ornamental stuff like braziers, torches on floor stands (not wall brackets), potted plants, small statues and the like. Maybe a weapons rack. Tables and chairs. You know, stuff you'd find in a dungeon! One of my grand plans has to do with converting one of the tree flavors into carpeting (we'll see if that ever happens!).

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

Swapped out a floor texture. I never really liked the "stone block" floor I had -- but I figured out a way to use an afterworld "detail" bumpmap on one of my other bland floor coverings and the result was nice.

Below I have posted a screenie that shows the old texture on the left, the new on the right:

Spoiler :

I will likely replace the old stone block texture with something else. Hmnn. But, what?