823 replies to this topic

[kevL]

absolutely.

I make things for the pleasure of seeing them through to completion. If one other person uses it, that covers the cost of making it public  _!

[kamal_]

Releasing this will probably generate even more press than the BGR release. Should do something to take advantage of that publicity window.

[Tchos]

Twenty year old games, what's are they things like space invaders ?

 

Lots of famous games turned 20 this year, like System Shock, Warcraft, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Need For Speed, Earthbound, Master of Orion, Doom 2, Darkstalkers, Wing Commander 3 (starring good old Mark Hamill, and currently free), Jagged Alliance, Final Fantasy 6, Earthworm Jim, etc.

 

[-Semper-]

make nostalgic fans of the original happy to see it looking a hundred times better.

 

nothing looks better then pre-rendered 2d backgrounds

[Tchos]

I agree about Morrigan. 

[drechner]

Sorry, I've been away for so long; I was on vacation (and not ignoring you for Facebook like Shallina said! ). 

As far as the amount of time the project will take, we're not releasing any time estimates other than we want to have a long beta in which the game is already feature and content complete so we can make it as stable and balanced as possible. Also, with the amount of experience we have with the toolset and our much improved planning (not to mention an online repository), we're looking at a significantly less amount of time than BGR's development. 

 

While the scripting is much more difficult, the lesser amount of areas will help quite a bit too. While I think Shallina is underestimating the amount of time area-building took in BGR and will take in SOAR (especially since the quality of areas in SOAR will be higher), it's true that BG2 was a very script-heavy game. Of course, that's extremely exciting considering the power of NWN2's scripting

I've already created the blockouts for a few modules, though I'm currently working on the Docks district in Athkatla. Instead of just a blockout though, I'm going to go through all the stages of area-building to 1) get an idea for how much time taking an area from blockout to final polish takes and 2) ensure we have the right art and other support we need to make an awesome-looking game. I should have some pictures of the whole process soon

[olnorton]

Lots of famous games turned 20 this year, like System Shock, Warcraft, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Need For Speed, Earthbound, Master of Orion, Doom 2, Darkstalkers, Wing Commander 3

I was a big Doom fan. I made my own WAD files & spent hours uploading them to a BBS. (almost like modding)
Then Doom 2 came out with it's fancy super shotgun & new bigger enemies & bigger maps.
Too complicated & barely run on my SX chip 386.
Couldn't truly be called a sequel, more a bloated expansion.
I could never make the transition & lost interest in the whole thing.

Back on topic. I look forward to playing SOAR.

[Tchos]

Too complicated & barely run on my SX chip 386.

 

I had a 386SX, too.  No math co-processor included, so it was a poor choice for games like Doom, but cheap.  I added a "u" to it, and called it my 386SUX, also as a nod to Robocop.

[olnorton]

Well I had just bought my first home (17 3/4% Interest rate) so a DX-2 66 with 4 meg of ram was out of the question.
I lied about not liking Doom 2, I played many hours of it.
I was just taking the mick out of people who take two very similar games, like one & hate the other for there minor differences.

[Dann-J]

Twenty years ago I was still using a Commodore 64.

 

My first PC (about 18 years ago) was a mighty 686, complete with turbo button. I tripled the RAM it came with, bumping it up to an awesome 24 MB. It even had a sound card! I still had it a couple of years later when I bought the original Baldur's Gate. It got rebuilt a couple of times, but it's still in working order (running Windows 98). It's seen many more powerful computers come and go, each one dying after a couple of years and being cheaper to replace than to repair. It's currently serving as a monitor stand - so you could say I'm still using it.

[Eguintir Eligard]

Iveforgotmypassword, on 02 Sept 2014 - 04:06 AM, said:
"make nostalgic fans of the original happy to see it looking a hundred times better."

Pass the crack, it sounds like it's good.

[Tchos]

I was just taking the mick out of people who take two very similar games, like one & hate the other for there minor differences.

 

Can't believe I missed that one... 

[drechner]

WIP Screenshot time! 

 

Haer'Dalis

 

Harpers Hold

 

Thieves Guild

 

There's still a lot of work to do on these, but I'm going to move onto finishing the blockout for the Docks. I'll post some more screenshots soon, though hopefully you'll see the final-ish quality then.

[rjshae]

WIP Screenshot time! 

 

Haer'Dalis

 

 

I'm hesitant to say this since I don't want to seem critical of the wonderful work you're doing, but all of the head models you've shown us thus far seem to have an overly large lower lip. It seems to be missing the normal upturn toward the sides that forms the bottom of the lower lip. Is that just a texturing problem with the lip outline?

[drechner]

Is it that much different than the concept though?

 

It may be difficult to see in the picture of the model, but the bottom lip does turn up quite sharply to meet the upper lip. Hopefully with texturing, too, it'll look even more like the original.

[Shallina]

Isn't it a feint smile that I see in the original portrait ?

[rjshae]

Is it that much different than the concept though?

 

It may be difficult to see in the picture of the model, but the bottom lip does turn up quite sharply to meet the upper lip. Hopefully with texturing, too, it'll look even more like the original.

 

Mmm, okay. Well it's just an impression I had. Maybe the artist likes bulbous lower lips?

[kamal_]

Jan Jansen needs the special ability of summoning a mobile vegetable stand. It doesn't have to actually do anything, in fact it would be better if it didn't.

[Shallina]

A summon turnip feat ?

[BartjeD]

Jan should be a black market merchant. You encounter him selling illicit wares in the government district, right? So why won't he buy anything during your travels? The turnip thing is just to distract you from the real issue: The gnome mob family that secretly rules Atkhkathla. Or perhaps 'Turnips' are code word for people who cross the family becoming 'vegetables'. Kind of puts a new twist in the phrase 'pushing daisies'. 

He's a real dark piece of work, our Jan Jansen.