Merricksdad's Darks Gate Module

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

So this module will be specifically to show off some of my unreleased models, as well as my minis tilesets.

 

If you have worked with me before, you know I have a lot going on, but over the last few months, I've had more than usual. But in between I've been working on a special half scale tileset idea where people are 3 feet tall, not 6 feet tall. It requires that a lot of creatures be rescaled, or even redone, but what a great opportunity this has been to try my hand at more simple models, especially when altering animations.

 

What I plan to do is release a tiny adventure as a display of the tiny tiles and tiny characters. I'd like to start people off with my upcoming module featuring the young Drow god, Selvetarm, and a strange cast of other adventurers, as they explore a demi-plane floating in some unknown astral-like space. It will be single player, mostly linear, and fairly short, as it is just a single module of a much larger story line I've been holding back for over 10 years. It started as PNP notes back in 1997 and has made it to campaign status twice for a year each. I even wrote a novel for NaNoWriMo a few years ago based on the first few modules I am now finishing for NWN.

 

This will give me a great proving ground to display large battles and fantastic locations. Being smaller, the characters don't need as much articulation, so I've removed the hand, merged it to the arm, and dumbed down other parts of the body. At the same time, Ive created a fully working system of simple base skins, with all location parts now being overlain. It looks sweet, and seems to be the method a lot of games are currently using, but I am keeping it visually hush hush at the moment. Certain people cannot see, and they would on here.

 

I've stepped backward on the creation of individual character detail, removing all the jiggly bits and extra mechanics I had previously added, especially to the female chest, and the male bicep area, but keeping a bone structure which can still make use of those GMAX scripts at a later date. I'm going retro.

 

You have a base skin which is always on, which includes almost every part of the body, including underclothes, face, etc. I've removed the cape slot and it is now used as a part B skin, which may contain a cape/cloak, but is not cape/cloak only.

 

The helmet is also unique now, not interfering with the head or hair, for any sex, class, or race. Hair is adjustable as a style now, similar to helmets, for when you really do want to be more creative with your character.

 

All other armor parts go OVER the first skin, or under the second skin.

 

I've also restored my three phenotype idea from a few years back, but since this module will be linear, you'll be playing with world characters, viewing the world from their point of view, not the point of view of your unique character, so the characters will derive from those three phenotypes.

 

The majority of NWN mechanics have been entirely changed for this series of modules, and you won't have any interest in moving these characters to another server, ever. They simply won't work. For instance, the game now dynamically switches you to an entirely different character with different stats when you move from one view point to another. There are 6 playable characters in the first module. The second module introduces the module 1 town as a character, and the skills and feats you take when playing that character improve the surrounding area against enemy factions. More playable characters arrive at each module, and you can even play the "opposing" "team" instead of the module 1 units.


This is no orcs vs dwarves stuff. This is much more in depth, as both teams struggle to figure out what is even going on, and collect allies.

 

So you can tell by the description, this isn't completely about the tileset, but also about showing people what you can do with the 2da system. It is amazing when you really get to playing with that. You can change almost everything about NWN.


I may release a few pictures as the summer drags out, but for the most part, no pictures of the characters, character body models, or game areas, will be shown. You may see abstracts, or blanks from GMAX.


At, or just before release of this module, I will release all the monster character animations I have been working on, as low end replacements for existing models, as well as for new animations I'm certain you will all enjoy.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Here's a list of stuff the module will be packed with:

 

Custom Male Elf Model with new casting animations, non-generic character-specific gear related to the storyline, and a new appear/disappear animation. This character is a rogue-ish cleric, and all his equipment models will reflect that.

 

Custom Female Elf Model with new attack animations, more character specific gear, and some interesting casting graphics for use as a warlord character from 4e. This is a warlord type character with heavy military background. Think a female Elrond from LotR in battle gear all the time.

 

Custom Male Human Wizard model with special casting animations.

 

Custom Female Human Paladin with a very special arm. (Yes Mark) This model comes with a lot of "hand" selections, because not everybody has a normal hand. This one has some very special casting graphics as well as custom attacks.

 

Custom Female Teen model which doubles as a rogue and as a sorcerer. Special casting graphics for a sorcerer type are included as well as custom melee combat animations.

 

Custom goblin model with location parts.

 

Custom orc model with location parts.

 

Custom drider model with increased casting graphics and location parts.

 

Three more custom drider models for various use '>

 

Custom dwarf male and female models for two playable characters.

 

Most of my drow models from the vault will be included, updated, and more unique.

 

Custom skeleton model with location parts.

 

Custom young tiefling male very close to human.

 

Custom young tiefling male closer to a demon.

 

 

 

When I say a model has locational parts, it will be able to equip gear to change its appearance. But its appearance will not be similar to playable characters using the same locational part index. For instance, a skeleton using chest slot 1 might not be the same type of armor used by a PC on chest slot 1. But this saves a lot of time and effort making a lot of hard-coded skeletons with various appearances. Creatures like this use a combination of PLT and non-PLT textures, so they don't have to use the same PLT file as PC models. The gear that these creatures use should be made non-loot-able.


The way I am building the character parts, and the PLT files, all the characters will have different looking equipment at the same index. I want this to be a door opener to create games for NWN similar in the way characters are used in games like League of Legends. When you go to hire mercenaries, they all have stages of armor, but you know that character is a specific person. It won't make this character model usable as a replacement for OC humans or elves, it just offers an alternative.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_CaveGnome]

               

Very interesting and ambitious project... Strangely, your text summoned awld memories; happy mid-forgotten times when i furiously played beloved arcade games like Gauntlet or Golden Axe '> 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

I was raised on gauntlet and golden axe '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_YeoldeFog]

               

We won't believe anything until we see some pictures! '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_rjshae]

               

Mmm... is it "Darks Gate" or "Dark's Gate"? '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

You could go either way '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

I was going to finish a new dragon model, but I'm throwing that out until a later module. I don't think I can pull off that module anyway with the current resources.

 

Final update on anything before leaving for my trip:

 

New plant graphics are based not on a down-to-the-leaf model as last year's fall foliage, but as a new growth section. Due to the inherent differences in conifers and deciduous trees, the conifers package of foliage will include not just new growth, but the previous year's growth below. Deciduous foliage includes only new growth, sometimes with flower or seed. All foliage kits will come with 5 "leaf" varieties, rather than the 25 that the fall foliage packaged with last year.

 

Final model node layout for my skinned story characters:

 

RootDummy

-lower torso (not the pelvis. this gives more movement in the stomach area for new roll animations, as well as a crouching rogue walk/run)

--upper torso

---lower neck at torso (improves upper back movement on attacks over head, as well as animations for bending over and falling forward)

----upper neck and head (the bend is at the adam's apple, and will rotate with the head-look animation)

-----jaw (unused on these characters)

---clavicle-shoulder (for shrugging, casting graphics, and overall less stiff physical attacks)

----bicep

-----forearm-elbow (rotation on the forearm is mostly moved to the next node, this helps with skin movement)

------forearm-wrist (handles wrist rotation as well as additional elbow to wrist movement, this node is also has the welded hand)

-------hand dummy (animation handles placement of weapon when not in combat, when casting, etc, as many npcs will cast from a focus item)

----breast node A (not active on these models, but handles the rotation of female breast left to right, as well as pectoral play on male emotes)

-----breast node B (not active on these models, but handles female breast bounce)

-pelvis fork (same as OC)

--thigh (same as OC, except corrected position of rotation to correct ball joint)

---knee anchor (an intermediate bone for proper skin flex in knee area)

----shin (same as OC, except truncates higher above the foot node)

-----footA (top of the foot, also handles rotation of shin)

------footB (bottom portion of foot, handles bend mid foot, or entire section of front armored boot)

 

I've probably forgot something. Even after two large coffees, I have run out of steam.

 

Visible nodes are as follows:

-pants, underwear, and anything from the waist on down are part of skin#1 or "robe" slot. This includes anything that requires the leg bones from pelvis on down, such as dresses (however long dresses and cape-like skins can appear on skin2)

-thigh node allows for an armor part to be placed on the upper leg over skin1 and under skin2. In place of armor, a rogue may sport a sheath, or a wizard may have a tome holster or potion rack.

-shin node is primary boot appearance, up to and including the knee region, but not flexing into the thigh region (all thigh-high boots are part of the pants skin, but may be supplemented at non-bending areas by the shin node)

-footA requires a part which fits with the primary boot appearance. footA and footB are assumed to be merged, and additional space is left inside the boot area, making all boots somewhat high of heel

-bicep will contain the shoulder elements, as before, except that the bicep now IS the shoulder element, as well as anything which would hang down from the shoulder on that side

-chest will contain a visible necklace spot, other chest appearances, from shirts to full armor, are handled by a skin#2, or the "cloak" slot. This may include pauldrons which have a different flex point than the shoulder/bicep connection

-old shoulder slots will be re-purposed as trinkets, and I have not yet decided exactly where they will be.

-head slot will be customizable hair or other head-affixed items with or without hair included. head and face base graphics are handled by the upper skin, but come as bald/shorn.

-pelvis slot allows for a fancy belt overlay in the non-bending pants region and/or large enough to cover any skin collisions with the belt.

-forearm-wrist will contain a bracer/gauntlet part, with a fixed hand. since a hand will be visible from the upper skin, open finger gloves are possible, as are bare hands with bracers

-hand will include the weapon node as before, but may also parent a new trinket node which allows for "permanent" placement of special casting visual effects. Hand itself will not be a visible part, except that hand may be repurposed.

 

This leaves 3-5 unused nodes which will be repurposed as various trinkets or effects: Neck, rHand, lHand, rShoulder, lShoulder

 

Animation changes:

 

-casting will be faster, and not take a whole 1-5 seconds of casting "dance" before actual casting occurs. A round is too damn long anyway.

-characters will cast from new stances, but animation names will remain similar to how the casting is done. Overall casting will look more interesting, even if shorter and less strenuous.

-attack right and attack left animations will be repurposed to account for two types of primary button-based attacks. Characters no longer do the painfully slow dance of who will attack next.

-attack animations are shorter, allowing more smooth transition from one animation to another when multiple attacks occur in a single round. This also helps with skin malfunctions

-full walk and run animation fixes have been made to replace the internal patch job which occurs in the male and female human model when carrying weapons/shields. This also helps with skin malfunctions

-kick and whirlwind are completely redone/repurposed

-I don't use mounts, so I have done nothing to mount graphics

-appear and disappear animations have been fixed to allow for more fluid teleportation/blink visuals.

 

 

I'd like to show one model, but I really feel that will give a lot away, both in story line, and surprise. All I can say is that these characters are very unique. Very. I know some players will feel railroaded by the module plot, but it is a story of the characters, not the player, so I think you will adjust. It will only be temporary anyway.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

While taking some time off from NWN modeling, I stumbled across some interesting information from 4 months ago about WotC bringing back at least two of the drow pantheon in 5E FR. This module may actually tie right in with what WotC has planned when I bring Selvetarm back from the dead in this module.

 

Anybody hearing anything?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Verilazic]

               

I'm curious about how you're making the game dynamically switch the player to different characters. I've always preferred the RPGs where you're controlling a whole party, rather than one character, and that seems a bit closer to it.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

well, it is story driven, and the characters are non-standard dnd characters. Basically what I'm doing is converting feats to two systems for the module. One group of feats is used to progress the town you are in in act one. Instead of just improving your character, you are improving an "army" as you explore a new world, countered by another team exploring the same world for a different reason. Not so much in the manner of like warcraft or starcraft, but with some "city bonuses" being very similar. Each of these kinds of feats gives your entire group certain bonuses, and can be used to unlock new types of recruits and henchmen, as well as new sold spells and items.

 

The other type of feat is coded onto your behind-the-scenes gear on a skin when you switch. Everything else is programmatically handled. Additional gear adds feat like powers, such as wands/staves/rods/crystal balls, yada yada.

 

Most characters you will play, such as Belril, Jenica, Caldur, "the twins", and others from act one may be selected as a main character, and you play from their perspective predominantly. You get a set of feats for each of them. Other characters you will use as story characters, or if you switch to the main characters as alts, you will poly morph to them and acquire their attacks via that method, converting your selection of attacks to the normal polymorph display. In that form, you'll play the character much like a unit than a character. You'll have a set of attacks similar to 4th edition combat, or more accurately, more like League of Legends active skills.

 

Yeah, I have no problem at this time telling you the character names. The secret is out. Not to slow myself down on the tileset progress, I will refrain from showing the character models. Some of you already saw the outdated Jennica3 model I posted on the fault. That is the basis for all the female skinned characters in this. Wait til you see Jennica's arm! woot!

 

The whole mechanics stems from all the sorcerer class work I did with the 4E mod I was working on, but failed (so far) to complete. And now we're a whole generation of rules beyond that. Yet I did make some really interesting progress with 2da modification and wanted to show that off.

 

Many of the units in certain battle zones will be heavily scripted and will follow communication based commands, but there isn't a lot of role play going on with that area type.

 

The rest is heavy story as you explore a growing world. And by growing, I really mean growing: from a dimensional seed floating around in an unknown place in realmspace. All this comes up in the first part of the story line, so I don't want to go much further than that.

 

One thing is certain, and that is many times you will have only one character as you struggle along in the shoes of that one guy. Other times you will be playing normal NWN style with your chosen primary.


So to set it up, you create your primary character by picking a certain class I will describe later. This sets up the regenerative functions of your primary unit by using the modified sorcerer class, which is hard coded in how it works is is needed to make this mechanism function. No other class works the same internally.

 

After the story begins, you make a choice and the game dishes you a character based on that choice. You either do something so that you play one of two twin sisters (or kinda both), an aging wizard with some really interesting relatives and relics (not elminster ffs), an elf cleric with a sex problem, or you delay the primary start of the game by first using the wizard to open the other character. Later you can use secondary characters related to the first set, including a dwarf weaponsmith who used to have another job (or his wife), a tiefling teenager with some serious daddy issues, or a female elven commander who has to manage a large detachment vs some strange enemies. And you might see traces of the old PW characters in there, even though this isn't a full match on where they came from, such as the dwarven cleric of bahamut, or the elven werebear.


Tertiary characters are common henchmen, summonables, or positionable war machines (if I leave that in). Those run either like henchmen, or as completely script driven teams.


Act I features cut scenes into the character set of Act 2 where you play the other "side" racing against the clock to figure out the same mystery with different plot twists. Act two offers a Drider Priest, a drow arch wizard, a large drow warrior with a particular magical artifact and supernatural depression, and an ******* quickling. Five other characters are dropping out of the solution from 7 total other characters as I change the second part of the story a bit, reducing some doubled up traits, and will be the secondary characters for act 2. This will NOT be your normal drow excursion from the underdark kinda setting.

 

Tertiary characters in act 2 are about the same.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Verilazic]

               

O.o

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

I've been at writing the story since national novel writing month 2004 '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Verilazic]

               

I've been at writing the story since national novel writing month 2004 '>

Hah, funny coincidence, my wife was just brought up doing that. I was like "I'd love to do that too, but are you comfortable with setting aside all your free time for the month?"

 

No offense, I'm not surprised at the depth of the story ideas you mention above. What I'm impressed at are the ideas you're sharing on how you want to implement said story. I've had similar ideas, and figured they weren't possible in the NWN engine. Still much to learn apparently.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Many things are possible, if you think outside the box '> Fortunately a lot of the NWN engine is still alterable from just 2da files, and if you can make use of those hard-coded parts, especially in unprecedented ways, you can totally change the game. The challenge is, I think, what kept me going. While I was offline for 5 years, nobody was there to tell me I could not try to do something, because they had previously failed at it. It's like I went off to my own continent and evolved separately, and then only then did I come back to mix what I found with what was already done. Strange how some of the hard stuff for me was already done by others, and that things said impossible are not really, depending on how you look at the box. Is a box a 6 sided cube? Or is it really a twinned 3 sided cylinder? Things you learn in mineralogy class.