Wanna contribute to a map?

[DM Cross]

Hmm, if you're really thinking of going planar with your map, I could probably come in very handy...I, myself, have had some experience messing around with stuff like that, being a DnD fan (I have the Planes Guide, actually! )...Also, a little known fact about me: I'm a writer, mostly fantasy. One of my idol author's was Tolkien for creating his own world. Another idol (or idols, I should say) are the makers of Warcraft! The world is very well created. For my books (I'm rewriting 2, currently...Have many other ideas to later write out) I created my own little world of Kranin. I've even got a history, somewhere in the mess of a room I reside in...So, yeah, if you'd like some help with Planes and stuff, I'd love to help! (Got nothing better to do)

 

[Rinpun]

Same.

Except, I don't bother with stories. All of mine are just little drafted ideas that I soon throw away.

Also, Tolkien was a great writer (he and C.S. Lewis are fabulous...and don't forget Frank Peretti, though he's a bit off the charts in strangeness), but really, consider that he was inspired by the tales of the Bible. If you'll look closely, you'll notice such and give him credit for putting it into such a fantasy world.

 

[SD_Ryoko]

Hum. Okay.

I don't understand what you mean, going planar. Enlighten if you wish.

Second note, this is a giant castle. I can't say I don't apreciate the time spend to develope 'lightning mountain', but it would have to be more like.... a "giant castle-like structure you have to climb while being struck with lightning" concept. Which isn't bad. But remember, 10 cliffs is the limit in warcraft.

Basically, there are three areas, with no real name yet. They will though. Then sometimes sub areas, like part 1 has jails, and sewers. Hmmmm

1 - Jail & Sewers
With basic enemies, traps, rooms,etc.

2 - (Main body of castle)
Introduces harder enemies, more requirements, more magic, etc. Better items to be found, trickier things like the 'teleporter' puzzle.

3 - (Final area)
This is the most challenging, with the upper level creatures, dangerous platforms, and of course, the worst magic enemies. Bridges from area to area, hard requirements, etc.

I started in the middle, so I have like a main room, which branches into the three. Odd, I am working inside out, but its the BEST way to NOT run out of map room MAYBE, some will take place outside, like outskirt areas. But I don't plan to do an entire outside.

Needed for terrain
Puzzle ideas, how to get in secrets ideas, etc.

Lastly.

The only way to encorporate allllll the ideas here, is to make a campaign with multiple levels. Even now, the tileset is exhausted with castle stuff. And campaigns don't provide multiplayer support.

The work continues.......

 

[DM Cross]

By going Planar, I meant diving into the idea of planes of existance...Fire/Earth/Water/Air, among things like Positive and Negative energy...I'll find my Planes manual later and give you a really good run down

 

[Rinpun]

Well Ryoko, one of these days I considered that you and I would perhaps make a Campaign since I can work on the story details and mapping details while you throw the rest together. One could possible control an army of heroes with different abilities.

------------------

But that's off-topic. Here are a few (unique I think) puzzles on my mind.

Mouse Trap

HAHAHA! Why not incorporate this into your game? To get a special staff for your mage, he has to find a secret trap door that leads to a small room with some piles of junk and a small mouse and a little hole. The mage takes mind control of the mouse and voila, you go through the hole and out the other end to face a fiery dungeon of death. Seen through the eyes of the mouse (special camera), it's quite fiery, but I should mention that the flames are about three inches high

Anyway, on the side note, you have to navigate through a maze of grated flooring where flame traps will burst through and hurt your poor mouse. You should be able to navigate him with the arrow keys.

Also, if your mouse keeps on moving for a while without bumping into things, he can break wooden crates that lie here and there. And some will release Cheese, which restores some health to your mouse.

After you pass the fire traps of death, you have to pass the wrecking balls of...death. At the end of here is a switch that after pressing reveals a secret door behind some of the junk in the mages room. The control breaks and you can go through the door. Through the door is yet another small room, but this one has a chest beside a mouse and hole. Problem is, the chest is locked with a magical seal that you just can't seem to break. Time to control that little mouse.

Through the hole and the camera will flip behind the mouse as a GIGANTIC (well to the mouse it is) warrior of the castle on her trusty cat chase after you through what is now a sidescroller path of flaming and wrecking ball doom (the warrior has an invulnerability aura to the wrecking balls).

At the end of the level, the mouse slides into the little mouse hole just before the cat pounces to eat it. Inside the little room the mouse pulls the lever and the seal is released. The control breaks, and the chest opens to reveal the staff.

Potions of Mischief

One of the mages has cast a spell upon your party to make them small! As you retreat into a hidden laboratory, you have to fight with the gigantic lab assitant and his trusty dynamite packs, which mysteriously don't blow up the room. Anyway, after beating him up by hacking and slashing, you have to use mix the potions to create a size up tonic. Failure might create Frankensock (an evil large bunny of doom...don't ask) or damage your characters some. After figuring out the tonic via the clues patched on the bottles (game -- message with a select unit or something event), your characters get back to their original size.

Sewer Mess

Not a good name, but I think it's a good idea.

You split up--the mage takes the sewer water and you the sidewalk, and you both need to help each other out.

The Mage moves rapidly around in a game like snake (if you can trigger it correctly). Basically, he moves through the green water automatically and you have to turn him via the arrow keys. He will collect bits of magic (which have to destroy a barrier at the end and can unlock extra items if you have more than needed) as he moves through and he can't hit the walls more than twice or the iron barred gates, which the heroes on the sidewalk have to open via their triggers. Now as the mage collects more bits of magic, openings in the walls along the sewer sidewalk allow the heroes on land to traverse to more guarded levers which open more doors. Finally, the mage crashes into the magic barrier at the end of the sewer and wrecks it with all of his collected magic. Based on how many more bits of magic the mage had, the more chance of breaking some otherwise invulnerable secret wall rocks behind the barrier, which lead to lots of treasure chests and goodies.

 

[SD_Ryoko]

Heh heh

Trap door! Modelling it now.

Doh...it seems those two are very hero-specific...wouldn't you want anyone to be able to get secret rooms? Solo or multiplayer?

 

[Rinpun]

What do you mean? The mice one could be changed to be multiplayer, and everyone has their own mice in a cooperative yet competitive "Stay off the Grass"-like game.

The Sewer one is pure multiplayer, but you could also forget the heroes on the sidewalk for a solo and make it all snake game-based with magic bit gathering and smashing barriers.

And the potion one can easily be both.

 

[SD_Ryoko]

And.... here it is! Slides back and forth, and an event object gives it a good rumble sound.

 

[Rinpun]

Nice, but why triangles? Surely you could make it a faster load by making it from squares, but alas, just a thought.

 

[SD_Ryoko]

1. Its triangles because WC3 and MDL only support triangles.

2. Its four sections because it uses the cliff tile texture, as we discussed before

 

[XXXconanXXX]

The texture on the trap door looks awesome, did you make it? You surely didn't get it from Warcraft III, becuase they have no such texture.

 

[Rinpun]

1. That's right. You need to create your own engine if you want to support various polygons :banghead:

2. Yep, I knew that. I was just asking why it was triangular, and I was being stupid, forgetting my Graphic Artist common sense

 

[SD_Ryoko]

Yes I did make it.

Bah, trouble though.

When he steps off cliff, and onto trap door, he stumbles a bit, no matter how much I over lap it.

Plus, WC renders it as a seperate object, so there is a difference in lighting, even when flush.

We'll see what we can do.

[edit]

Hmmmm..... lightning.....bah

[edit2]

Okay, I added a giant, walkable, invisible rectangle to the model, to overlap the cliff edges. Now he doesn't stumble quite so much. Just a little jolt. Looks good.

 

[Rinpun]

How did you do that? Aka, how can he walk on the trap door but not go off the cliff?

 

[SD_Ryoko]

Check 'Walkable' in the destructable editor.
Give it a 'Walkable' pathing map (I made a custom 20x20Unbuildable.tga)

Walkable texture must extend over cliff edges.

Just like elevators.

You can hit CTRL-D to see the actual names of the path textures. Then they are kinda 'hidden', you see you can pull down units, doodads, etc.

Still is the Stand animation
Open is the death animation
Close is the birth animation.

 

[Rinpun]

So THAT's how you make a bridge without the standard cliff stuff :banghead:

Well either way, smart thinking on your part. You can have a very small or nothing pathing map for when it opens, like a gate.

 

[SD_Ryoko]

Ya well, he gonna go down into the hole, so in this case anyway, it still needs to be walkable. There are stairs there now Looks a little bit unrealistic, but nice. I can't make the hole deeper; I've hit the bottom level..... sooooo....

Amazing the tricks you can pull with doodads and pathing maps.

In Ryoko TD, where I did not want to allow people to build, I made a 'Buildable Blocker' (kind of like a pathing blocker) that just makes large patches unbuildable, and placed them over the grass.

 

[DM Cross]

Basics of Cosmology

Ok, listen up because I'm going to teach you all a little bit of cosmology. Naturally, as you can probably assume from the name, cosmology is the study of the cosmo. Now, what IS the cosmo? The cosmo is made up of many Planes of Existance, each one unique. We live on the "Material Plane" where things are solid and gravity exists. Naturally, these characteristics don't exist on all the planes.

The cosmo is made up of three types of planes.
The Transitive Planes
The Inner Planes
The Outer Planes

The Transitive Planes:
These are like the cosmological glue of the universe. There are three:
Astral Plane
Shadow Plane
Ethereal Plane
The Astral Plane holds ALL the Transitive and Inner Planes. (The Outer Planes exist outside of the Astral Plane, probably why they're called Outer Planes) The Shadow and Ethereal Planes, however, mirror the Material Plane, which lies between them. Each one of the Transitive Planes is like an altered version of our Material Plane.

The Inner Planes:
These are the 6 main elements of the universe. They are as follows:
Elemental Plane of Air
Elemental Plane of Water
Elemental Plane of Earth
Elemental Plane of Fire
Negative Energy Plane
Positive Energy Plane
These make up all the aspects of the world. They're held in place by the Astral Plane, and like the Transitive Planes, they mirror our world, altered to their respective element.

The Outer Planes:
The Outer Planes are unique to each world. They don't hold a certain element, so they're not required. They're typically there to spice up the world a bit. In DnD, the Outer Planes include:
Limbo
Hades
The Abyss
Baator
And many others. These realms are home to the Gods of the world, and the otherworldly monsters. Warcraft itself has one that comes to mind: The Twisting Nether.

Also, there are as many Demiplanes as one desires. Most common are Elemental Demiplanes. Crosses between this elemental and that. This is where Ice, Magma, and other such elements come from. These, like the Inner Planes, are held within the Astral Plane.

That's the basics of the universe. If you want, I can tell you more, but it's up to you. I don't know if you can use this type of thing in a map, but it never hurts to keep an open mind!

 

[Rinpun]

So you start a story by basic guidelines like the above, or do you start from scratch like myself?

My basis for my fantasy world is always Creation with only 1 ultra super-being who usually finds his way of dodging out of the world description. Why? Because it reduces the many contradictions and the many Ifs you need to create a fantasy world. And it gives you 10-100 more pages worth of describing the world itself

(Sorry, off-topic I know. I'll bring it into General Discussion if need be.)

On the more on-topic side, what IS your world going to be Ryoko? Will you depend on him or me to totally fabricate it with suggestions/total placements of text? Or do you have a basic plan to go along with your map?

 

[DM Cross]

Um, if you're talking to me, about my books, then I started my world of Kranin from scratch...I have my own outer planes, and a history to the creation...I even have my gods and a god above all of them...If i ever rewrite that damn timeline in a good fashion, i'll be sure to post it...

If you weren't talking to me, then nevermind