[Exult Mod] Savage Empire Total Conversion, Bello!!! Opzioni

[The Ancient One]

Dopo una lunga pausa di oltre un anno, sono ripresi (come già annunciato qualche settimana fa anche su queste pagine) i lavori su questo promettente mod.
Per ora si trova in una fase iniziale, dedicata alla creazione della grafica.

Prima discussione sul Phorum di Exult
Stato di avanzamento del progetto

Stato dei lavori

During the past few days, I have been tinkering with Gimp and shape files. I'm not ready to show anything yet, but I will soon. I will list the objects currently completed/almost (needs tweaked) completed:

1.)Stone Oven - as seen in the Kurak village. It is based off of the original, but modified. The colors are different, and there is more detail. I am considering making separate frames to animate the fire when the player/npc uses it. I am very pleased with how this shape turned out.

2.)Bow - based off of the original, but applied to the Ultima VII bow frames. Again, I am quite pleased, but one frame needs tweaked.

3.)Bamboo Endtable - uses U7 wooden endtable as a base. IMO, it looks better than the original, but maybe to bright a green...

4.)Bedroll - both inventory and in use positions are done. They are based off of the ones used by the pc/npc's while resting in the original.

5.)Jaguar Skin Rug - based off of the S.I. leopard rug, modifed to look like the original. I am thinking of making a bedroll with that and the folded skin, just for different options for the player. There will be frames for each cardinal direction. Many items will get this treatment.

6.)Jaguar cloak - just a recolored leopard cloak. I create or recolor extra items here and there, which weren't in the original, but might be added for more depth.

7.) 2 Large and 2 Small Mats - I tried to give them a basket-weave look. One large and small mat retain colors similar to the original, while the other two are much more dark and green in color.

8.)One Large and One Small Stalk of Bamboo - These are basically finished, maybe a tad bit more tweaking to go. They both have leaves. I'm considering making more frames with the leaves in different positions, for a more varied look. I'm also tempted to animate leaves slowly falling from the stalks. I haven't worked on animating anything with them falling after attacked yet, but I have some ideas...

9.)Crate - wooden crates that are very similar to the ones in Rafkin's lab are complete, with a recolored ship's hold gump. I used the ship's hold gump, since it is wooden and square.

10.)Basket - recolored U7 basket to look like the original. I used the basket gump from Ultima VIII, moved the handles on it to match the actual item, and used the bag gump as a base. Actually, I had to move the handles, because the checkmark overlapped the handle, but now its better. I also recolored the U8 gump to match the basket.

11.)Metal Buckets - three frames- empty, water, and tar. Complete.

12.)Inventory Bamboo Poles - for making rifles and stuff. When harvested, the pole will be green, and must be kiln-dried in the oven, turning it yellow and making it usable for projects(well, thats the idea anyway!).

13.)3 Main Shields - The 3 main shields are done, but the frames for leaning or hanging them need work. I want to have shields and spears hanging on the walls of certain dwellings.

14.)Spear - 90% complete, needs tweaked. I tried to make the spearhead look either like obsidian or flint.

15.) Player Gumps -

a.)Paperdoll Gump - Beta version is complete. I call it a beta, because I might change the style a bit, but I haven't decided. All of the icons are replaced with S.E. interface-icons. They animate like the originals, and they all function properly. The stone head from the top of the screen in the original is used in certain parts of the GUI. He replaces the Disk Icon, and blinks with red eyes when you click him.

b.)Stat Tab- Complete.

c.)Tactics Tab - Complete. Halo is replaced with the Stone Head. Unprotected=eyes closed, Protected=eyes open and blue in color.

d.)Check mark - recolored to green.

...and the last item to mention for now is............


16.)Bamboo Walls - Nearly complete. I have something I am finally pleased with, but I have to finish the corner-pillar piece. After that, I'll do the thatched roof tiles, tweak the door, and create a curtain and shutter for the windows, wall hangings, etc. I'm going to create another wall set that is similar, but with vertical bamboo instead of horizontal bamboo. This is due to my idea of giving each tribe unique dwellings.

I have alpha versions (one frame each) of Rafkin, the default S.E. Avatar. I have decided that each tribe will have unique clothing (what little they will be wearing). For example, the Kuraks clothing will be all made of jaguar skin. I'm still working with the swing bridge. I may go with one that looks more like the original (using U7 boards), but either way, I'll be using the rope railings, since they are working so well. I also have a log graphic from Ultima VIII that I'm going to modify for this T.C.

I think thats it for now. I have a few things started but not finished yet. I have a .gif of all of the original tiles, and I black out each item that I complete, sort of like a checklist. When all of the objects are done, I'll start experimenting with chunk tiles and mountain tiles. I have decided that I will use some items from the SNES version as a base, but everything will be tweaked.

More info to come soon!

Scythifuge

[The Ancient One]

Il progetto va avanti ed inizia ad assumere una sua fisionomia precisa.
Adesso si cercano ufficialmente aiutanti. Grafici e coders per primi.

Greetings!

Here is the status of the project. It is not on hiatus, but is rather moving slowly. I am working on this or that and touching up or redoing some of the graphics here and there. I took a vacation from stuff like that over the summer for the most part, but still thought of the project often. Some aspects were getting frustrating, and I don't want to get burned out. Little things like breaking up a large object into smaller tiles, then trying to get them to arrange properly in E.S., and then edit the properties of each one so that they behave properly can take many hours on some occasions. Often I have fun because when something works, it feels great! But when it gets tedious, its time to work on something else or take a break.

At the moment, some of the mountain tiles still need some tweaking, and copies with various differences need to be made. They are heavily based off of the original Savage Empire tiles, and do not use the SNES version's at all. Some of them have vines, steps, and bamboo/stick ladders that are passable. Problems still include getting proper bridge-end tiles, which will require some rework on a nearly completed rope bridge. The ropes are tide to the tops of long posts with human skulls attached to them! But I have to break them up into smaller tiles and try to make them passable.

Many objects are completed, some new plants are in the works, and a lot of work on the Avatar has been done. One of the very tedious things is creating the 8x8 pixel tiles that make up the chunks. I have water tiles almost completed, and I have ground textures (modified from screenies of an unreleased Ultima game ;-) ) that need to be broken up into 8x8 tiles. I am having some difficulty in making the shoreline tiles and the "transition-from-one-terrain-to-the-other" tiles.

If anyone who can draw wants to help out with the ground tiles, let me know!!!

In the meantime, in order to get more practice drawing and using E.S., I have been working during the past four days on a project codenamed "Ultima 81". All I'm saying for now, is that it isn't a medieval-type rpg...

I would be more than happy at this stage to receive help in certain areas of the project! What I'm probably going to do over the next few days is go over all of the assets for the project, determine what I need help on and prioritize each item. The first thing I'm probably going to seek help to accomplish is the ground tiles.

I'll definitely need help with usecode, since I'm clueless about it at this time. But my main focus (phase I) is to get all of the graphical assets done. Phase II would be world building. Phase III would be game creating with usecode implementation. Phase IV would be music and sound effects. Phase V would be beta testing, with Phase VI being an official release.

One thing that people can do if interested is draw random tropical plants (that would appear on Earth between the Yucatan and the edges of the Amazon, for example I will no longer be including bananas, but rather plantains). I just don't want any hard feelings if something isn't used, is all. I have graphics that I decided against using, or set aside for other projects. Maybe someday we can have a huge amount of graphic assets that can be used for any Exult project! There are many things I am itching to show to the public, but am unwilling until I can create the scenes I have envisioned. However, if artists jump on board , I will of course share the graphics with them. Maybe we can get an official team started, and get another Ultima remade like the Lazarus team did with Ultima V!

Another thing worth mentioning is that I finally acquired a Savage Empire Cluebook!!!!!!!! As I was hoping, it goes into a little more detail than the game itself does, plus having all of the maps in one book is handy, even though some maps will be different from the original.

One other thing. Not to sound stingy, but all original images that I have created that appear in this thread, aren't to be used without my permission. I only say this because I don't want them used in other projects until this one is completed! Of course, this doesn't include the graphics that I merely tweaked, only the ones I have drawn from scratch. After Phase VI, I will consider all of my S.E.T.C. graphics freely available for everyone on Earth to use for their Exult projects!