Dungeon Adventure MOD MOD

[Lutefisk Mafia]

Just a quick note to other modders out there:

If you are designing a mod, one of the essential components is the artwork, since this is what the player sees the whole time. Modders like me can kludge our way through coding, but artwork is not my strong suit.

Never fear! There are two great sources for art that is okay to use.

1. The Civfanatics forum. The modding fora are full of unit models, interface buttons, and other goodies. Courteous practice is to ask the creator if it is okay to use it in your mod. I've never had anyone say "no," usually they just ask to have their contribution acknowledged (which is the right thing to do anyway).

2. Royalty free art sources. Things like clip art, etc. For the splash screen for my mod, I paid a few bucks for a collection of fantasy artwork that specifically states that it is royalty free and okay to use for whatever. Some RPG gaming stores have these resources for book authors or fan newsletters. These are wonderful for people like me. I can use GIMP well, and pasting things together, then blending them and tweaking them, is something that I CAN do.

There are other sources out there, too, but I thought I'd give these two mention.

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

Maybe cephalo can help with a mapscript?

I'm thinking that a modified "maze" script would work. Most of the dungeon would be 1 or 2 tile "corridors" interspersed with larger rooms. Based on the work I've seen in the map scripting forum, it should be doable, I just have no clue how.

 

[xienwolf]

Actually I would propose that you use something that is a cross between Maze and Creation. Instead of forcing the computer to connect each of the Creation sections, you force it to keep them seperate. Then you make it place link "teleport" terrain features which work much like the Maelstrom (without the 25% chance of death).

This would allow you to have "Multiple floors" in your map for the player to cycle through. Either you can link the teleporters, or you can just leave them to go randomly, and introduce another (rarely placed) feature which simulates the effect of "Escape" and will send the player back to his base city tile.

Could be quite interesting, even with randomly generated terrain.


Alternatively, you could take a page from Dungeon Maker (PSP game from ~1 year ago) and allow the city to build "Teraforming" units, which you must send out into a map of nothing but mountains and actually create your own dungeon as you go. The idea here is that as you create new hallways, rooms and other aspects of the map using the Terraformers, you are expanding the "Unrevealed map" area for the computer to automatically generate Barbarian units and traps in. Plus you could have a few randomly placed scripts which cause for a specific reaction if a certain type of hallways/room is placed there, or you can write events for the game as a whole if there are certain conditions met with building your dungeon.

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

Alternatively, you could take a page from Dungeon Maker (PSP game from ~1 year ago) and allow the city to build "Teraforming" units, which you must send out into a map of nothing but mountains and actually create your own dungeon as you go. The idea here is that as you create new hallways, rooms and other aspects of the map using the Terraformers, you are expanding the "Unrevealed map" area for the computer to automatically generate Barbarian units and traps in. Plus you could have a few randomly placed scripts which cause for a specific reaction if a certain type of hallways/room is placed there, or you can write events for the game as a whole if there are certain conditions met with building your dungeon.

This will not be a Dungeon Master type of game, but there will be the opportunity to change features a bit. I am investigating a "pickaxe" equipment item that will allow the unit holding it to dig through a few wall tiles before the pickaxe wears out. (Dwarves, of course, can dig through more tilles than other players.) I may also have a passwall spell for wizards.

In rare instances, it may be possible to create a wall, door or other feature.

And yes, I am trying to implement teleporters. I see them as a special form of trap, possibly a permutation of the glyphs I already have in place.

 

[Demus]

... the idea wasn't from "dungeon maker", it's from the great all-mighty Dungeon Keeper series, created back in the early 90s (if you haven't played them (1 and 2), pick them up somewhere! they're awesome).

sorry for getting off-topic though. Indeed, the teleporters should be a combination of door-like graphics and a trap-like mechanism (could be tough to get a clean copy across though)

 

[woodelf]

Just a quick note to other modders out there:

If you are designing a mod, one of the essential components is the artwork, since this is what the player sees the whole time. Modders like me can kludge our way through coding, but artwork is not my strong suit.

If you need something in 3d just ask and send me a pic. I jump around a lot with projects, but love to help here and there.

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

If you need something in 3d just ask and send me a pic. I jump around a lot with projects, but love to help here and there.

Much appreciated! I am certain that I will take you up on this generous offer at some point!

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

I really needed to take a break from coding for a while, so I decided to get artsy.

After downloading some royalty-free fantasy clipart, firing up GIMP, and acquainting myself with the Vista Windows Movie Maker, I made an intro movie for my mod. After downloading the RAD Video Tools, I "Binked" my WMV file into a BIK file, which now plays beautifully when starting a new game.

To give everyone a peek, I uploaded the video to YouTube. The link is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhFzrzvS5nk

I am using the Arcanum music "The Demise of the Zephyr" as the background music. Building upon that inspiration, I copied the style of the opening movie of Arcanum, which has a an old celluloid projection film quality to it.

I hope that you enjoy it!

 

[Wyrmhero]

Just wondering, will there be an option for multiplayer? I'd quite like to RP this with a few of my friends over the LAN, possibly all starting with an adventurer each, or so... Still, I can't wait!

 

[Bartholomew]

Great video! A rare multi-talented modder. Keep it up!

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

VERY VERY NICE MOVIE!
i cannot say anything else that sums up how cool it is (well except that the old style movie works really well with it )

 

[woodelf]

I have to wait to get home to watch it.

 

[zxcvbnm]

It doesn't load it

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

Just wondering, will there be an option for multiplayer? I'd quite like to RP this with a few of my friends over the LAN, possibly all starting with an adventurer each, or so... Still, I can't wait!

To be honest, I'm not sure. I was under the impression that, if two or more people have the exact same mod installed, they can play MP with it. I confess that I don't know much about MP, so I could be wrong. But if I am right about this, there is no reason why people couldn't play MP with Dungeon Adventure.

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

It doesn't load it

Link works fine for me... You may have an issue with your local settings or drivers.

Try going to YouTube directly at their main page (www.youtube.com).

Then do a search for "dungeon adventure" -- my video should be about the fourth one listed. See if that video works for you. If it doesn't, then you definitely have an issue with certain youtube format videos.

 

[zxcvbnm]

No, it doesn't help. It just shows that circle of circles.

All other youtube videos have worked fine, though

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

No, it doesn't help. It just shows that circle of circles.

All other youtube videos have worked fine, though

Sorry... I don't really know why that would be. Perhaps this info from YouTube help section will resolve it:

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=58129&topic=10560

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=56115&topic=10560

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=74662&topic=10560

 

[woodelf]

Awesome video.

 

[BeefontheBone]

I like it. Reminded me of Fallout

Perhaps a few too many ellipses (...) though. Given the speed at which the text advances, I'd say they weren't necessary except where you want to emphasise a pause - for instance, the last one for sure, and between say Law and Chaos, Good and Evil and so on, but not when it's just in the middle of a sentence which is spread over several pages.

 

[Arctem]

How are you handling healing? I think it would be best if you could only heal via poions or returning to your camp or using a potion. Or using a spell that depletes mana, or some other limited resource.

Also, I think it would be cool if new adventurers could somehow tag along with more experienced ones to gain experience, or maybe retire an older one to gain a new, low-level adventurer with promotions that you couldn't get any other way, with variations depending on what the old unit was (a mage gives a bonus to spellcasting, a warrior gives an extra point or two in strength, etc.).