I have sent Chip the module that I created that is the basic exterior of Blood Moon Heights and the Caslte...this is not a complete mod. Only the exterior and it has very few details...I'm gonna try to change the sounds...to a kind of deserted haunted set of sounds and place some encounters with ghosts if at all possible. I also have alot of doors availible to add new areas in with....but snoop around on it a bit and see what you think...see if this kind of goes along with what you all were thinking about or see if you like it enough to replace your imaginings.
Pop, if you have an area that is a city interior area that you have put alot of energy into it can be imported into fairly easily...I have a set of castle "walls" that make up a inner veil of the castle's defenses...within them I've placed some buildings...we could import your area to be in the insides of some of those buildings if need be.
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18 comments:
You know, I wish Dad would post his stuff to the blog. I was just wanting to go respond to him about the comment he made about wanting goats instead of cows, but I can't find that email he sent. Bioware has a graphics importer. We are supposed to be able to use various Graphics programs to make our own graphics and then import them into that .2DA format that Bioware uses. So we could make a goat or two, don't know how many different poses and such you have to do, but we could do it, and import them into that .2DA format and then use them in the modules.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Teague"
To: Wyrm-Raiders-of-the-Blood-Moon@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 6:31 PM
Subject: Re: Blood Moon Castle Mod.
>
> Which tileset are you using. I have been doing a home
> area in a rural setting which is quite beautiful. I
> would like to go there.
> I wish the game would allow placement of goats. all
> we have in the way of livestock, as i recall, are
> cows.
> Maybe we could use it as a retreat. there is a
> village with an inn nearby, and some farms; rumor has
> it that some of their cows have disappeared lately.
> dod
> --- Daniel Teague danielbteague@satx.rr.com wrote:
>
>> just to let everyone know...i have been kind of
>> playing around with the exterior settings...and i
>> think I have a possible exterior "area" of the Blood
>> Moon Castle.
I'm going to post all the info about Castle Blood Moon in this thread Daniel started titled Blood Moon Castle Module Test. You guys should start threads around the other pieces you are doing in the same manner, for feedback and such around each one.
--------------------
From: Daniel Teague [mailto:danielbteague@satx.rr.com]
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 12:05 PM
To: cteague3@cox.net
Subject: updated mod
I put in a silly little transtion so that we can go to the homeland from the cemetary...its on the west zone wall...I made alot on the changes we talked about...fixed those two little mistakes we found and changed the cliff's visual environment...
You know, I was thinking about what we should call the castle again, or did we decide upon a final "name"?
1) Keep of Blood
2) Castle Blood Moon
3) Blood Moon Castle
4) Blood Moon Keep
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From: TeagueCJ@mfr.usmc.mil [mailto:TeagueCJ@mfr.usmc.mil]
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 3:00 PM
To: Wyrm-Raiders-of-the-Blood-Moon@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: [Wyrm Raiders of the Blood Moon] 1/31/2005 12:29:09 PM
ok, i understand; you have imported Dod's homeland into your Mod as one......did his mod show up in your editor as another "area" or another "module"?
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Teague [mailto:danielbteague@satx.rr.com]
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 4:04 PM
To: Wyrm-Raiders-of-the-Blood-Moon@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Wyrm Raiders of the Blood Moon] 1/31/2005 12:29:09 PM
i imported the Homeland are into my module then put in a rather contribed...but temporary are transition between his homeland and my cemetary
----- Original Message -----
From: Teague Capt Christopher J
To: Wyrm-Raiders-of-the-Blood-Moon@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 3:56 PM
Subject: RE: [Wyrm Raiders of the Blood Moon] 1/31/2005 12:29:09 PM
Is Dod's Homeland loaded on the server? If so, how did you tell the portal to send the person to Dod's homeland?
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Teague [mailto:danielbteague@satx.rr.com]
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 3:52 PM
To: Wyrm-Raiders-of-the-Blood-Moon@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Wyrm Raiders of the Blood Moon] 1/31/2005 12:29:09 PM
it is important to point out now that dads Homeland area...that is what i have crystened it...is now attached to the cemetary through a transition point along the western zone boundary...this is not permanent...just there for convieniece so everyone can wander around the homeland and see what they think
It should be more than downhill. It should be down mountain, or cliff, etc. And, there should be secret doors along the base of the mountain that take you to various spots in the Castle/Keep/Veils/etc.
So, that would mean multiple ways to get into the Cemetary, Veils and Castle, but only one is public knowledge.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Daniel Teague [mailto:danielbteague@satx.rr.com]
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 4:17 PM
To: Wyrm-Raiders-of-the-Blood-Moon@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Wyrm Raiders of the Blood Moon] 1/31/2005 12:29:09 PM
i'm not really so worried about that...eventurally we are gonna start combining them all and it will work out...by the way i think that the homeland needs to be downhill from the Castle and the Cemetary...so the transition point should be on some of the higher ground in Homeland
----- Original Message -----
From: Teague Capt Christopher J
To: Wyrm-Raiders-of-the-Blood-Moon@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 4:19 PM
Subject: RE: [Wyrm Raiders of the Blood Moon] 1/31/2005 12:29:09 PM
I like "Castle" just fine; they are all great names; I too can use them interchangeably.....
Daniel, when I refer to plotting out areas geographically, I only mean so we know which exit will open into which area....etc. Not so specific about most other things really. Just so if you want to go to "The Keep", then signs (that will be built) will say, "'Castle Blood' Dead Ahead" and an exit that goes to "Blood Moon Keep" will actually take you to "Keep of Blood" and not to "The Homeland" or to "The Deep Forest" or to the "Northwest Forest" or to "The Lost Area" of the forest.....and so on.
In fact, something really cool would be a river going down the mountain, and into the Homeland, and a waterfall somewhere along the way that has a secret door/cave under/behind it that takes you to somewhere up the mountain. A climbing tunnel would be really cool, with lot's of giant spiders, and webs and maybe some mountain trolls and/or goblins, etc.
Oh, and up and down the mountain we really need to see those goats Pop was talking about.
I really need some good constructive criticism of the Blood Moon Castle Module's mood. Is the fog the right color...are the sounds distant sounding enough to give it that deserted feeling...does the wind sometimes calm down and make you feel like there is a sudden cliff just a couple of hundred meters to the north of you...do you FEEL the waterfall on the northern side of the castle even though you can't see it...Does it feel haunted by long dead spirits but not ravaged by them?
Ok, here goes. Don't shoot me, but I've got some big feedback.
1) The audio is REALLY good. In fact, I think it is perfect and I wouldn't change a thing. Except, maybe, if possible, put about 5% of the time having the wind die down enough to get a dead calm effect, with no theme music along with it to make it really eerie. If it is too hard to sync up the no theme music and the wind dying down at the same time, then I'd just leave it as it is. The ghosts work for me, except The Whistler. If you have a way of informing role-players about The Whistler, then they may catch on, otherwise, I think he will be construed as a misplaced audio clip.
2) I was SO wrong about the magenta fog. I don't like it. I see the effect I was imagining, but it just doesn't work for me, at all. I believe your red was better. But, what I would really like to see is a pitch black night time, with dense rolling fog or clouds (kind of like moors) all over the place. Then, if possible, using a light source, like the moon, for the blood red color, but not the fog. Don't know if that is possible or not.
3) This castle is up in the mountains or in a mountain range. So, I'd get rid of the effect of large bodies of water along the sides. A river along one side may make sense, going down hill, but I get the feel of lots of water all over the place. In fact, I feel as though this castle is on the shore-line of an ocean. I'd use mountains along side it for the edge effects, and maybe one mountain stream/river along one side, or thru the middle, possibly going out toward where we hear the waterfall.
4) The waterfall. I'm trying to figure it out in my head. I feel that the side where the waterfall is needs to be a massive cliff, dead drop down below the clouds toward the base. This castle doesn't sit at the very top of the mountain, but it is way up in the middle of the range somewhere. Perhaps the watefall can be happening from a small river emptying out over the cliff, I don't know.
5) The castle needs to be much bigger, and ominous. Towers need to shoot up REALLY high. I'd still like to see a few ravens flying around here and there, sitting in a window sill, on a headstone, eating the eyeballs out of impaled remains, etc. :-)
Now, while I talked up a lot of stuff, I want you to know, I do like it. :-) Just trying to give you the feedback.
I can change the fog...but making the red come from a different light source is iffy...
THe river...how about i take away the water on the west side...that was it will run down out of the mts from the west...then through the city (remeber the bridge) then around teh castle to the north and over a cliff. The towers can't get any bigger than they are...i can add more mass to the castle but it will basically just have more terraces...there just arn't many options when it comes to this...though i do have an idea that may work with the cliff...though it is gonna require a pretty bad area transition...one side is gonna be a badass castle gate and the other a cheesy little ruin exit...but besides the exit issue i think it will be believable.
I'll look into Crows and Ravens...but i can tell you up front that they arn't gonna fly any higher than you flying familiers...so it may just look cheesy
That's cool. Don't worry about it. Just giving the feedback.
I'll put some Homeland feedback into a Homeland thread.
This is some observations on the whole module...i want to make sure everyone understands that all these areas that we have been calling modules are a single module now...chris and I have combined all of the latest version of each area into one module that will be up on the server sometime this week. SO instead of putting my criticms, suggestions and observations for each in each area's individual post i am combining them...its easier and it makes just as much sense.
The Cliff...you mod builders may want to try just putting in a fence and a gate on the castle side of the transition because the ruin tileset also has a fence and gate...that may make the transition to the cliff more believable.
The cemetary...the volumn of the spooky laughing is too high...move the cursor almost to the off position on the spooky laughing. The Northern most mausalium has a transition to the cliff in its door...that needs to be removed. The cemetary offers us a chance to put tombs and catacombs beneath the castle lands...below those we could add some dungeon areas that could be apart of the underdark.
The Mt. Road...the version of the Mt. Road i sent chris is completely different...I only suggest that you double check the directions and use the "rotate" option in thge edit menu to make sure it is not inconsistant with the ajoining areas. I also think that the Mt. road should connect the homeland to the castle areas.
The Homeland...I think that on that map of the North that the Homeland is west of the Castle, which is in the Mountains, and north of the Neverwinter Woods...I wonder if the Neverwinter Woods are in any of the futuer chapters of the premade mod...if not then Chris's enchanted forest could be the NW Woods.
The Castle...I think that The Whistler works ok...if is volumn is low it comes across as a distant spooky noise...I vote that it stays in. Next off...i put some Ravens in the version I sent Chris...i messed around with waypoints to try to get them to fly in circles and all around the Castle and stuff...its difficult though becasue they get stuck if they go into a wall...even if they are high enough to get over it...they won't...they don't really fly they just hover. The water on the western side of the castle is also gone....see if that helps...mod builders should consider adding water lapping noises along the eastern bottom terrace wall since their is water down below it. Conserning the interior of the castle...I think their should be at least three storys in the upper most keep of the castle and two levels per terrace...so I see there being about 5 levels total...Below the levels should be some tunnels that lead to the ruins of the Netherilian city that fell from the sky on that spot. Then we could go even further and put dungeon levels that are part of the Underdark below those...each of those could have an undetermined amount of levels in them.
The outer veils and entrance...the version i sent chris has an updated eastern outer veil...no green grass and trees.
Daniel:
Please don't combine your feedback. Even though the pieces are currently combined into one module, they won't always be. Once I figure out how to run multiple server instances, I will break up the module into separate modules, just as they were designed. And in the future, any time on eof the sections starts to get too large in comparison to the whole, I will also break those out. For instance: last night I explained to Dad, if in his (giant) Homeland, he were to build a Town Hall/Market/Business area, and this area, with all it's entrances and exits and buildings and rooms and NPC's and scripting and such grow to an extent that it is slowing down the overall module, then it makes a LOT of sense to break it out as its own module.
So, for modularity's sake, please keep all the feedback and such separate, based upon the threads I've created, about each area. For overall Guild World related info, we can create a new Overall Thread, or use the current Module Organization Thread.
Make sense?
Chris said:
Does anyone know the answer to this:
If you all begin playing a mod and save the server game then someone makes changes to the mod and you all go back and open your saved game will it use the updates in the saved game or will it start the mod over? Mainly just curious but, I was thinking that you all could begin a scenario module out of just looking around and getting aquainted and then as that is going someone (me and Dod) can be building onto it and you could theoretically continue from where you left off. I don't know if that would work or not.
Daniel, I will save your needed changes below and make them when I get some time; probably not this week though...
Chris:
You need to go read about that kind of stuff in the forums. There is a forum specifically dedicated to saving settings and information of characters. I am under the impression a lot of that information is saved via scripting, so that when they bring in updates to the modules across the servers of the world, they reload the character/quest saved information via the scripting.
I believe what happens when you save a module, and then reload the new module, you are not loading the saved game, you are loading the new module, so the settings/character/module info that has happened in the old module is not in that module file. The saved file that I load is the file that has the saved changes. This should be inadequate in what it is that you are needing to happen. We'll need to learn how to do it thru scripting.
I'm serious about this. We really need to go investigate the Community Expansion Pack stuff. I believe we need to put a real focus on the scripting capabilities that are out there, the tools that have been made, any community graphics that may be available, and (hi-priority) the DataBase methodology they have come up with. We can use a DB to keep game information/data/character info/etc. across multiple server instances. This is also how, I think, they are reloading this information once they update the modules.
regardless of the actual structure in which the areas are saved in I think we should just combine all of these critique threads into one....there just isn't enough to say for each to have its own thread
Once we start putting in story, characters, camps on the Mt. Road, sub-quests, etc. there will be more than enough info. There will be bugs in the scripting, there will be changes for the characters, there will be new story lines to add, change, remove. Yeah, keep the info separate, it will make a difference for organizationl purposes in the long-term, believe me.
The more I look around that castle, the more I think, wow, Daniel did a good job on that thing.
I looked around at it some more tonight. I think the cliff is a success. I think you did a good job on it, it works for me. I don't suppose it is possible to make the waterfall somehow come over from the river and then off the cliff, hehe :-) Chris, want to look into this?
It looks a little like Daniel increased the fog (or decreased the visibility due to fog). I think I like it better this way. Or, maybe it is just because I took off my last light source, not sure. Either way, the thicker fog makes it even more scarier, and the wind is really good. Yeah, I think this is good to go. The magenta is wearing on me a bit. Daniel, what is your opinion of the magenta fog? Do you like it better or don't really care one way or the other?
I think you are right about the numbers of levels within the castle. It should go down forever underneath the mountain. Maybe, there could even be an old haunted mine way off in there somewhere :-) Not to mention, some areas taken over by the Blood Moon cult(s).
Well...I think that the fog has to be in close...thick otherwise the illusion of the cliff and the waterfall don't work. As far as the color goes I just want it to be red to suggest that the Moonlight is red...now there are some other options conserning this...If i remember correctly there is a moonlight color...maybe we could set the fog to a normal fog color and then set the moonlight to red and see how that looks. As fas as the cliff is conserned though i still think that the "wall" should be turned into a fence...because the transition doors then could be fence gates on both sides creating greater continuity on both sides...this will only work if I am right about there being a fence in the city exterior tileset. I would just rip out the southern wall in the cliff entirely and put a fence up right next to the zone wall...just leave the illusion that the ruin floor continues on forever...do the same to the castle wall in the castle area and I think that the transition will be more believable. ahhh...its chris's and dad's problema now...they will figure it out.
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