21 réponses à ce sujet

[tlvs]

Greetings everyone.

Antaeus is a module under construction set in "no place specific" in Forgotten Realms lore. It is a module about exploration really, player will be set loose in the city of Antaeus with no overarching plot. The city will have numerous questlines for the player to discover and follow. It is a module which will let you explore and be surprised.

Update on 28.10.2011
I wanted to change the screenshot into something more representative of the intended mood. I will probably ditch day/night cycle and the afternoon lighting supports the autumn feel I'm trying to create. You can also see some additional terrain work if you remember how the old one looked


Intended features:
2 exterior areas (City of Antaeus and it's outlying village, crafted with love.)
Throng of unique interiors.
Numerous smaller plot lines with surprising connections.
Memorable NPCs.
Heavy use of conversation skills.
There are no mobs, you choose your fights and your enemies have names.

Antaeus is still very early in production, so don't hold your breath waiting for it. Here's a picture of the city though.


dl.dropbox.com/u/6334282/NWN2_SS_newer.jpg

Modifié par tlvs, 28 octobre 2011 - 01:32 .

[Dorateen]

Nice night time shot. Looks like a fun adventure.

Harumph!

[PJ156]

I'm seeing the love tlvs.

Well done on not having flat ground, the city looks like it is going to be fun to explore.

Nice to have another new announcement too.#

PJ

[M. Rieder]

Sounds great! It's always good to have new projects on the horizon. It sounds like this is shaping up as a sandbox type module. Not many of those have been made, so it is always to have new ones around. Best of luck!

[Dann-J]

what is the point of announcing projects that haven't been completed (or at the very least aren't close to being completed)? And surely posting screen shots and information is just lessening the impact of playing the finished product? You're stealing your own thunder!

[The Fred]

Because it's cool?

[kamal_]

Because the community is dead, haven't you heard?

[Shaughn78]

You need to build up some anticipation for your project, that way when it's released you can have a huge download..............

Plus general feedback and trading of ideas is kinda fun. Dann are you trying to fill a recently created void in pessimism?

btw this looks like an interesting project. I have yet to try a city, there is just so much life and bustle to create. Look forward to reading more as you progress and seeing the screen shots.

[Dann-J]

I advertised an add-on I had planned for an older game once (Heretic II). I was about half way through it when the computer I was working on gave up the ghost, and took my (un-backed-up) work with it. There was no way I could re-do everything I lost, so I had to abandon the project. I suppose I've been loathe to announce anything since then until it's close to being finished.

Plus I learned a valuable lesson in backing up work on a regular basis - which has come in handy with the NWN2 toolset. What infernal gods of chaos conspired to create such an unpredictable toolset I'll never know...

[M. Rieder]

I have always enjoyed posting updates on my project. It gives me encouragement each time I update and am a little closer and hopefully it keeps anyone who may be waiting for it encouraged that it will actually be finished.

It is also hard to labor for 12+ months on something without getting any feedback. It is nice to post a few screenies and have a few people commend. Sort of gets me going a little bit. Making mods is a hell of a lot of work and I take all the encouragement I can get.

[tlvs]

For me, announcing is like setting goals. It's the point where something I've been doing just for fun turns into something I would like to see others experience. Posting features is a great way of collecting feedback that can help you make the thing better. It motivates and makes the whole thing seem less lonely an affair.

I don't take too much of a stress about the bustle of a city. The only game series that has made awesome cities in that sense, is Assassins Creed. No other AAA-title has come even close to that so what chances do modules for an old engine have. Furthermore, Kirkwall of Dragon Age 2 has more bandits than actual population, and there are npcs walking literally circle with three waypoints without doing anything in between. I'll aim to do better than that, but if we'd want to experience the bustle of a city, we'd go out. Instead we play games

[M. Rieder]

How long do you think it will be when finished? Are you using any community content?

[Quixal]

This looks like an interesting project. I look forward to seeing more.

Some of the things kamal_ has been doing for his upcoming mod might be worth looking at as your city takes shape.

[tlvs]

This will probably be 100% my work because, well, I'm like that.

I can't really give any good estimates on the schedule. Right now I am able to spend ridiculous amounts of time on this, due to unemployment. But that too can change at a moments notice. City of Antaeus should be "ready" (nothing is ever ready for artists or programmers, you know how it is ) in few days. Then I will start doing some of the hard work, scripting and writing. I wish I was able to finish it this year, but it depends on many things.

I was also considering building it modular, so that I could release it in two parts, but I'm not sure on that either. But I'm glad there's interest for this!

[dunniteowl]

Even if it turns out 100% your own work, you really should look over some of the latest scripting efforts by kamal and others. It's always useful to gain insight to making whatever you're working on even better. It's that whole feedback and comments thing you mentioned in reverse -- sort of.

Anywho, this sounds very interesting and I look forward to more updates and screenies. I don't see how anyone could say a single screenie or even a baker's dozen, could upstage a moving visually attractive game such as is NWN2. More screenies, please. It just whets my appetite and I get ideas about how to build better looking areas by seeing even better looking areas. Gives me something to strive for.

Bbest of luck and hang in there. I'm hoping my unemployed status will change any minute now for going on a year and a half. Solidarity.
dno

[PJ156]

tlvs wrote...

I was also considering building it modular, so that I could release it in two parts, but I'm not sure on that either. But I'm glad there's interest for this!

I would agree with that, it helps a lot with longer projects to break them down. Arguably I have broken mine down too much but each one you release gives you feedback on your work and, I think, keeps the momentum up on the project as a whole.

I also agree that announcing the mod is a critical part of commiting to its completion. When no one knows or has any expectation it is easier to roll over. We don't all finish what we start and S**t happens sometimes but commiting to a project by annoucing it and the providing updates helps me through some of the lower points of building a mod (that's the bit just after you start up to the bit just before you finish). 

PJ

[Alupinu]

Ah cool a city mod! I could use a few good pointers on building a city. Looking forward to it and good luck.

[Alupinu]

DannJ wrote...

what is the point of announcing projects that haven't been completed (or at the very least aren't close to being completed)? And surely posting screen shots and information is just lessening the impact of playing the finished product? You're stealing your own thunder!

Umm... No. Actually i did think that with MinD and on my opening day I received a whopping 64 downloads. Compared to other mods like IWofD that got on their opening day about 500+ downloads. (May need to talk to the author for an exact number.) All because he posted lot's of screen shots and talked about his project until he was blue in the face.  

[The Fred]

There's an argument that building up hype as it approaches completion is the best option, not so early that you have nothing to show or that people forget and move on before it happens, but early enough to get people interested in advance. Still, it's good to have some discussion and disclosure about things, IMO.

[Dann-J]

The Fred wrote...

There's an argument that building up hype as it approaches completion is the best option, not so early that you have nothing to show or that people forget and move on before it happens, but early enough to get people interested in advance. Still, it's good to have some discussion and disclosure about things, IMO.

Provided of course you don't discuss details of quests or puzzles during the development phase. Otherwise you know pretty much what to expect when you start playing the finished product.

I'm working on a mini-module of my own at the moment. My lips are firmly sealed about any aspects of it.

[kamal_]

You really should look at what the community has already done, it will save a lot of reinventing the wheel and allow you to concentrate on telling your stories. Much of the scripting of cities has already been done by people like Uncle FB (schedules, jobs), Vendalus (the Personal Reputation system including "ownership" of items and areas by npcs), Pain (vastly more efficient ai that can handle hundreds of npcs, even in combat, without problems) and Apep (dynamic commoner spawns). I've been building on those and welding them together with some other things and adding my own things, working towards what the community said they would like to see out of commoners, no further scripting required.

Modifié par kamal_, 28 octobre 2011 - 12:49 .

[tlvs]

Small update on OP.

I'm sure they are good Kamal, but looking for them and ways of implementing them would distract me from the actual work that needs to be done. I'm not aiming for a simulation of a city so I'm not too concerned on making the npc behaviour as believable as possible (I do aim to top Dragon Age 2 though). When I'm done with the core work I'll take a look at the calendar and consider whether or not it's worth to postpone the release for better npcs.

It makes sense to invest strongly on npc behaviour for persistent worlds and sandboxes. Antaeus will still play out more like an adventure though.

Modifié par tlvs, 28 octobre 2011 - 02:26 .