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Posted

It's a chicken and egg thing. Or, "if you build it, they will come". I would have included such assets in my released map where they fit if they already existed.

 

But without assets, I don't even think of such things. One can only work with the tools they have, the legos in the box as it were.

 

It's like making missions, no point creating a map if nobody is playing. But nobody can play a mission if there's no map to play. Got to create a map first. Similarly, nobody started designing a map saying, "hopefully someone will come along and create Egyptian assets for me someday". ;-)

 

That being said, of course it's optimal if you can create assets for your own or a currently being created map, so you get the satisfaction of knowing they are used within months instead of years down the road. But aside from the psychology, the net effect is the same benefit of available resources.

"The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out."

- Baron Thomas Babington Macauley

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...
Posted

Sad I didn't find this thread earlier, as this is something I would really love to see! Especially if the mission takes place in a town, and we could play the first TDM mission in an Arab location! Now that we have the moor guards, this should certainly be a little easier to achieve. Hope bumping this makes someone consider it as a TDM mission for 2016 :)

Posted

This would make TDM a bit more Tomb Raider alike, wouldn't it? :D
Anyroad... I would love to see the moors become more used in the future FMs too :)

"Einen giftigen Trank aus Kräutern und Wurzeln für die närrischen Städter wollen wir brauen." - Text aus einem verlassenen Heidenlager

Posted

Personally I'd like to see a Japan based ninja FM, because I think that aesthetic plays to TDM's strengths. But an Egypt based one would be cool too.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

Posted

The first thing I got reminded of was Prince of Persia. One of the best arabian themed games trilogy I remember (and the movie was surpringly good for what the shot was for).

"I really perceive that vanity about which most men merely prate — the vanity of the human or temporal life. I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass."

- 2 July 1844 letter to James Russell Lowell from Edgar Allan Poe.

  • 3 years later...
Posted (edited)

I know this is an ancient thread and aren't looking to upset anyone by necroposting. Just wanted to bump this one more time, since it's still an initiative I think is valid. Most FM's look very similar, especially the urban ones... I've been eagerly awaiting more missions taking place in different themes and representing different cultures. If anyone plans on creating a new FM anytime soon, maybe this inspires them to give this a shot.

Edited by MirceaKitsune
  • Like 1
Posted

This is an idea I’m putting on the back burner for between missions in my campaign. Side missions that could take place before or after my story. An ancient tomb on another continent would be dope indeed. Why don’t you learn DR? It’s not that hard, just a bit of a learning curve.

  • Like 1

As my father used to say, "A grenade a day, keeps the enemy at bay!"

My one FM so far: Paying the Bills: 0 - Moving Day

Posted
13 minutes ago, Jedi_Wannabe said:

This is an idea I’m putting on the back burner for between missions in my campaign. Side missions that could take place before or after my story. An ancient tomb on another continent would be dope indeed. Why don’t you learn DR? It’s not that hard, just a bit of a learning curve.

Oh, I have worked with Radiant for years and have a few WIP FM's in the making. Problem is I just didn't have time and energy to work on that as well.

  • Like 1
Posted
15 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

I know this is an ancient thread and aren't looking to upset anyone by necroposting. Just wanted to bump this one more time, since it's still an initiative I think is valid. Most FM's look very similar, especially the urban ones... I've been eagerly awaiting more missions taking place in different themes and representing different cultures. If anyone plans on creating a new FM anytime soon, maybe this inspires them to give this a shot.

If it's any consolation my next mission (CoS 3) is set in the "deep empire" basically renaissance Tuscany, and should see a release in the spring. But it's only using already existing textures and such.

I would love to make an egyptian pyramid mission or similar, but it really does require adding some more assets to make it believable I think. Maybe I can learn how to make and import textures at some point.

  • Like 3

My Fan Missions:

   Series:                                                                           Standalone:

Chronicles of Skulduggery 0: To Catch a Thief                     The Night of Reluctant Benefaction

Chronicles of Skulduggery 1: Pearls and Swine                    Langhorne Lodge

Chronicles of Skulduggery 2: A Precarious Position              

Chronicles of Skulduggery 3: Sacricide

 

 

 

Posted
3 hours ago, Bienie said:

If it's any consolation my next mission (CoS 3) is set in the "deep empire" basically renaissance Tuscany, and should see a release in the spring. But it's only using already existing textures and such.

I would love to make an egyptian pyramid mission or similar, but it really does require adding some more assets to make it believable I think. Maybe I can learn how to make and import textures at some point.

That does sound very good! Maybe drop a link here as well please, so those of us who subscribed can see it right away.

As for assets, TDM kind of has them? There's the greatly underused moor characters, which can replace many guards and civilians there. The rest is about how we design the architecture... textures should be fine though I admit we could use more static meshes for decorating the world that match other cultures. It's a shame the weapon models aren't as straightforward to customize either, so for instance the shortsword can be made to look like an Arab sword for these levels.

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)
8 hours ago, Bienie said:

Maybe I can learn how to make and import textures at some point.

Anybody around here know if it’s terribly hard? I wish to learn this. There’s a dope history museum near me but doubt they allow flash photography, regardless it’s something I’m interested in for this very reason. They have a permanent Egypt exhibit with sarcophagi, embalming tools, hieroglyph carvings, organ jars, tons of cool shit.

Down in the Bonehoard was one of my favs back in the day so I would like to see similar style mission, and placing it on a different continent would be really unique.

New hobby for next year is definitely gonna be textures, seems like it’d be fun.

Edited by Jedi_Wannabe
  • Like 3

As my father used to say, "A grenade a day, keeps the enemy at bay!"

My one FM so far: Paying the Bills: 0 - Moving Day

Posted
21 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

I know this is an ancient thread and aren't looking to upset anyone by necroposting. Just wanted to bump this one more time, since it's still an initiative I think is valid. Most FM's look very similar, especially the urban ones... I've been eagerly awaiting more missions taking place in different themes and representing different cultures. If anyone plans on creating a new FM anytime soon, maybe this inspires them to give this a shot.

Well, if you haven´t played Cauldron of Gods, you just might be pleasantly surprised ;) 

I think many of those assets might be reused in an wholly Egyptian-styled mission :)

  • Like 1
Posted

RE the moor AI characters being underutilized, I recall when I was doing a casual look-see of AI character in DR, the moor had "Shader Not Found", which discouraged further consideration... probably contributes to under-utilization.

Posted
33 minutes ago, Geep said:

RE the moor AI characters being underutilized, I recall when I was doing a casual look-see of AI character in DR, the moor had "Shader Not Found", which discouraged further consideration... probably contributes to under-utilization.

The Moor works fine, the problem is it's singular, I.E. one head and one voice. That doesn't really make for a whole mission unless there's only a single AI in it. Would be nice to have a female version too.

 

5 hours ago, Tarhiel said:

Well, if you haven´t played Cauldron of Gods, you just might be pleasantly surprised ;) 

I think many of those assets might be reused in an wholly Egyptian-styled mission :)

I may have to revisit Cauldron of the Gods at some point then, I don't remember specifically seeing egyptian themed assets but I do remember a large section of it being reminiscent of The Lost City, which had that kind of feel to it. It is a very eclectic and expansive mission though, so it wouldn't surprise me.

 

8 hours ago, Jedi_Wannabe said:

Anybody around here know if it’s terribly hard? I wish to learn this. There’s a dope history museum near me but doubt they allow flash photography, regardless it’s something I’m interested in for this very reason. They have a permanent Egypt exhibit with sarcophagi, embalming tools, hieroglyph carvings, organ jars, tons of cool shit.

Down in the Bonehoard was one of my favs back in the day so I would like to see similar style mission, and placing it on a different continent would be really unique.

New hobby for next year is definitely gonna be textures, seems like it’d be fun.

I don't have a very good experience trying before, though I was trying to make decals and they seem to be extra hard. There are quite a few free textures out there that are mostly ready to import I would think and that should be a lot easier.

  • Like 1

My Fan Missions:

   Series:                                                                           Standalone:

Chronicles of Skulduggery 0: To Catch a Thief                     The Night of Reluctant Benefaction

Chronicles of Skulduggery 1: Pearls and Swine                    Langhorne Lodge

Chronicles of Skulduggery 2: A Precarious Position              

Chronicles of Skulduggery 3: Sacricide

 

 

 

Posted
1 hour ago, Bienie said:

The Moor works fine, the problem is it's singular, I.E. one head and one voice. That doesn't really make for a whole mission unless there's only a single AI in it. Would be nice to have a female version too.

Idea: Try mixing the moor head + voice with different types of bodies, such as the guards and gang members. There are some combinations that might work well!

Posted (edited)

FYI, textures based on photos, especially with flash, are a bad idea. Not only do you need photos with as little shadows as possible, but even then you'll always have some ISO noise, perspective correction problems etc. For years now, textures have been made with a mix of procedurally-generated patterns, like bricks, cobblestones, etc. and proper materials like stone, moss or other. There are online libraries full of those base materials, e.g. for Substance tools, but you should be able to find some free sites as well:

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Texture_Sources

Edited by peter_spy
  • Like 2
Posted
16 hours ago, Bienie said:

The Moor works fine, the problem is it's singular, I.E. one head and one voice. That doesn't really make for a whole mission unless there's only a single AI in it. Would be nice to have a female version too

Ah, I mis-remembered. Yup, DR does show it correctly. Under 'Commoners, Armed/Foreigner' there are two bodies available, but only one visage (with or without helmet). Also a moor sorcerer body under 'Mages'.

14 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

Idea: Try mixing the moor head + voice with different types of bodies, such as the guards and gang members. There are some combinations that might work well!

This is limited, because in most cases you have an obvious mismatch of skin tone between face and hands (plus exposed skin). I only found 3 sufficiently gloved/covered ai bodies that might work (but didn't try them to see if physiques match well enough with head-offset tweaks):

  • Commoners, unarmed/ai_townsfolk_engineer
  • Commoners, armed/ai_guard_elite
  • Builders/ai_builder_forger

I suppose you could also put a human head (moor or otherwise) on a reverent body [heh]

The problem of an obvious mismatch of skin tone between head and body is a wider problem. For instance, the limited selection of female characters are further constrained from head-swaps due to commoner=tanned, noble=pale differentiation (with prostitutes in-between).

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