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[PJ156]

I’ve been thinking for a while what my next project might look like and I think I have it nailed now. Still work in progress but writing it down as I have now has solidified it for me.

My new project was to be more of a sandbox but I cannot leave my story roots behind so I am going to create a new story led campaign based on threads I left open at the end of the current one. The player may take a new PC or the same one and only one npc will carry forward. The campaign as a whole will be called The Soul Cages and will be split into three modules, Loose ends, Ironclad and Heretic.


Loose Ends will be set in the fleshpots and taverns of the dockside slums in Waterdeep it will tell the story of Honour and her mother. I want it to feel something like a cross between Oliver and gangs of New York. Close and dark, a feeling of constant threat … but no singing “consider yourself”. It’s going to be fairly adult

Ironclad will take the party (still of two) to a fortress dedicated to Tyr, high in the sword mountains. Here the party will enter the power struggle between the warrior and cleric factions within the fortress while trying to find a mysterious lost temple. The only place left on Faerun where they can get the text Honour found in the vault of the Damned translated. The only people who still speak the language of the elder gods. They will also meet Caris and Arganar the two new npc’s

Heretic will deal with the final part of Honours quest, to find one of the ten lost soul cages, the only vessel she can use to summon her father from the wall of the faithless. The only one she can find is located in the spine of the world and unfortunately it already has an occupant … and he’s there for a very good reason.

The modules will be short at 3 - 4 hours with the last being closer to 6. In any case I think I will break them down in to 1.5 hour mini modules to help with play testing. 12 - 14 hours total, so it will half the length of tales making it around 2 years worth of work.

I plan to level the player each gameplay hour so they should finish around level 24 – 25. That’s going to be hard to balance but it should help to break the whole thing down and test in small bites.

In time honoured fashion I am going to blog the whole process here.

Wish me luck I’m going in  <_<

Modifié par PJ156, 16 juin 2013 - 05:01 .

[OfficerDonNZ]

Good luck PJ!

You know by the time you're done I wouldn't be at all surprised that your three mods have gained at least an extra mod ::ducks and runs::

Look forward to play testing for you.

[kamal_]

PJ156 wrote...
The campaign as a whole will be called The Soul Cages

Soundtrack by Sting?

[PJ156]

Thanks gents, I do hope it does not grow but you never know

You're right Kamal_ I do hate naming mods. Any names I like seem to have been done somewhere before which is probably why they are in my head in the first place. I think there's another game called heretic, and Ironclad is a well trodden naming path ... ah well, hope fully the content will be mine.

However, if I can just find some footage of sting singing "consider yourself" I could work that in

PJ

[Tchos]

I could make up some goofy puns for titles if you want. I'd need to know more about them, though.

[AllThatJazz]

Ooooh, already looking forward to it *hoping for a few Oliver-esque NPCs in the Waterdeep slums, at least a Nancy!*

[manageri]

Sounds good, especially with a skilled builder behind it.

[Arkalezth]

PJ156 wrote...
The player may take a new PC or the same one and only one npc will carry forward.

How does this work? Will you level up new PCs at the start (I finished your other campaign at 14 or so)? Does the story assume that you're using the same character?

Looking forward for this too, but I guess it'll take a while.

[PJ156]

Thanks for the support everyone. I will put this together as a campaign from the start but I may well release it in modules/parts. I think there is two years here but I don't want to wait that long to release something. I will get bored and stop doing it.

I will set it up starting in Thunder bay ... or rather I have set it up starting in the Thunder Bay. It will really make sense to have you current character but any 14th level character will do. I will put a level up for those who want it but the first combat is likely to be before the first shopping trip so I may have to do a lobby.

I've been thinking and I have a Nancy, I can also do a gang of street children. I can have some fun with that area

PJ

[PJ156]

It lives ....



Waterdeep Rivergate.

This is a transisition area to give the player the feeling that they are entering the city rather than just jumping them into the first city area. Thus my three days work to date is for 5 mins game play if I'm lucky ....

Oh the joy of story based module creation.

PJ

[OfficerDonNZ]

Looks good PJ! But yes it would be a bit jarring just to be in Waterdeep suddenly.

[Frosty44]

I'll look forward to your next campaign, but I hope it does get longer lol!

[PJ156]

This is Mistshore, a part of Waterdeep which used to be the navy docks and now is a derelict area where the poor and destitute of Waterdeep live side by side with the thugs, the street ladies; and the people with something to hide.


Right now it’s a big green patch of pixels and I am at, what is for me, the lowest point in the modding process. From a creative perspective it is draining and it is the only time I seriously think about giving up module making and taking up quilting.


In reality it is an exciting area to build, I work with ships and it is going to be interesting to create some tip of the hat area that historically refers to that. The area has a beach and a dock, it needs to have a network of at least three streets and buildings that allow a network of upper walkways in one part of the area. On the beach will be a dry dock with hulks pulled up where people live (roll out the RWS tiles for ships) on the docks a disused rope factory and carpentry shops (some will still be in use). Also some traditional store type warehouses. It must have at least three taverns. It will have a network of lofts, the reverse of a sewer and it will have some secret places where the secret people reside (more on them in a later entry perhaps)


It’s a 16 x 24 area right now and it won’t get much bigger so lots to fit in. This is the only significant outdoor area in the mod and it will be visited a lot. I am going to have to compromise build for load time to a certain extent, we will see as the build progresses. I also intend to use the lofts to transport the character about rather than constant trips outside. That will help with keeping away the loadscreen image. Some of the areas, like the rope factory and the warfs, have a huge potential to be great and a pitched battle in the rope factory interior is a must.

These are my inspirations though the dry docks will be more like the ones I saw in Oporto than in the picture which looks more like the military dock I will be doing but that will be flooded.


Rope factory interior





Mediaeval dry dock






So now to the toolset ….

Modifié par PJ156, 15 juin 2013 - 08:15 .

[Tchos]

PJ156 wrote...


This is Mistshore

That really says it all!  I fully sympathise with you in looking at this formidable green expanse and trying to figure out what to do with it.  But at least you have those reference photos to start from!

[kamal_]

Have you looked at the Crimmor prefabs? The docks would need some work to meet that description but it might save you time.

[PJ156]

I did consider the Crimmor prefabs and will look at those, if only to see how they are put together.

I also have in mind only two areas to the city. If it grows I will most certainly use a prefab to save time., and these things have a habit of growing as Tsongo points out

PJ

[PJ156]

I have started to develop the area a bit. For a start off it is too large, I need to split it in two and perhaps trim it. For that reason I have walled in the old Navy docks. The walls form a natural barrier to split the area on. I will built it now at this size till all the major buidings and textures are in then split it and flesh out the walkable area properly on each side.

The mud beach is to the right the old navy dockyard to the left with the rope factory in the middle



I tidied up the walls and trimmed the area to 12 x 24 which should be large enough for my needs. In the end it will be two 12 x 12 which hopefully will not give me area opening crashes and long loading time in game. I hope that heeds ships are not animated. I need another ship on the mud foreshore and all the stock ships have the animation.



Next I am going to work on heights, the area is predominatly flat but the dock and beaches need to be at different levels. I toyed with having the tide go in and out but I think I would rather have fishing boats come and go. Of the two I think the boats would give the area more movement and me less stress.

I also need to work on making the building more my own rather than stock. That may mean playing with the textures so expect some questions soon.

 

PJ

Modifié par PJ156, 16 juin 2013 - 05:18 .

[PJ156]

Good point Tsongo, I remember a sinking cow I had in my first mod. I really could not work out where it disappeared to in game .

I will do that here as I will need to have movement out to the limit of vision.

PJ

[Tchos]

Heed's ships are not animated, so that they don't sway underfoot as you walk on the unchanging surface of the walkmesh.

[PJ156]

Thanks Tchos, I hoped that would be the case.

I'm going to connect the hak up tonight and look at those.

PJ

[PJ156]

i've been into other things this week so progress has been slow. Tonight I felt like being creative again so I got some creativity juice out of the fridge and got stuck in.

I have defined the docks much better now and thrown some building down to look at the scale of the area. It could do with being smaller agian but I will wait and see when I have split it once. I think I will work up the tide line then work inland.



I have also been looking at the warehouses. Inevitably the area will have a lot of stock content and it will likely be the slum buildings but I have built the dock warehouse from scratch. Below is the first draft; it looks the part but contains 109 placeables which is going to drag the area back a bit. That said they are mostly BCK so the poly count is low.



I am also a bit concerned anout the lighting so I need to test that all the parts of the building take light and shadow okay.

Still happy with it though

I need some seaweed so I am going to make my first foray into Gmax, while I am in there I may try to drop the poly count on the sea wall as I will need a lot of it.

PJ

[ColorsFade]

Outdoor areas are work. No question. 

I am down to the last two ourdoor areas for my prologue. One can be fairly small, but the other needs some size. I'm not excited about starting, but I always find motivation about halfway through when things start to take form. 

Trod on.