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> Diablo 1, Yes, it belongs here!
ghastley
post Oct 14 2019, 02:22 PM
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I added a starter quest to the Bounty quest list for Markarth (as the Monastery is in the Reach) and that part works as intended. Manually setting completion processes the reward properly.

I'm adding triggers to step the rescue quest itself, so you'll see progress in your journal. And I've pieced together another level of mines, so that I have somewhere for the vanilla Succubi. The Soul burners, Hell Spawn, and Frost Witches each have a mini-boss cell to showcase them, so the population is out of balance right now.

The mines have a straight-line path through them, that is not available to the player, who has to take a round-about route to bypass a locked (actually a static) door in the middle. I got that idea from the realisation that the Abyss level was like that. The victim could walk straight through, but the player must take all the side-paths to unlock the direct one. So now the mines are the same.

It needs nav-meshing before I can add the Succubi (or any mobs), and before that, clutter, as it affects the nav-mesh. And lighting, and dust effects etc., which at least can be done at any time.

I'm unsure what other enemies should accompany the Succubi. In Diablo's mine level, there were a large variety of gargoyle-like creatures, and poison-spitting "beasts". I don't want the latter to be chaurus, as those only appear with Falmer, and they don't really belong with Succubi, who'd like enough light to be clearly seen and admired. Maybe another critter will get the chaurus spit attack, just for this.


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Sakiri
post Oct 14 2019, 07:33 PM
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Hm. Interesting.

Could maybe scale the existing gargoyles down? I'm not sure what the poison splitters look like as I've never played Diablo 1.


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ghastley
post Oct 14 2019, 07:59 PM
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QUOTE(Sakiri @ Oct 14 2019, 02:33 PM) *

Hm. Interesting.

Could maybe scale the existing gargoyles down? I'm not sure what the poison splitters look like as I've never played Diablo 1.

Since the sprites were quite small, it doesn't help much if you've seen one. tongue.gif

They were quadrupeds, roughly dog-sized, and probably intended to look like the SI skinned hound. The only other quadrupedal monster in Diablo was a skeever-like animal in the easier levels, with a regular bite attack.

I'm leery of adding gargoyles, because that requires Dawnguard as a master. More players can use the mod if I don't. Some of the atronachs might be viable, with some scaling and other tweaks. There was one mob that resembled a storm atronach (rock beast, rather than lightning chucker). I need a melee mob, as the Succubi are pure magic-users. One that combines a spit with a bite attack would make a third, without losing balance.


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ghastley
post Oct 17 2019, 03:40 PM
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I'm just using draugr until I come up with a better idea. I connected the new level into the chain, between the crypts and the abyss, and ran a test character through with god-mode on, just make sure there were no holes in the walls, that the nav-mesh worked, and none of the mobs got stuck. It's looking quite functional so far.

The scene that links trying to release Greta from the pillory to unlocking the door to the boss' lair is still to do. So any run-through blocks at the end of the abyss level, but I've already checked that part out before I locked the door. So this is all that remains from the mechanical viewpoint.

Then there will be a lot of cosmetic work, with clutter, dust effects, cobwebs, etc. before it can be released. That's time-consuming, but not challenging. I also need to grind through duplicating the remaining levels of each enemy. The succubi have only three levels, so far, and need at least double that many. That means higher-level spells, more hit points, as they go up. At least the draugr already have that, so I don't have to do the work.

Not all enemies level, and the game uses leveled lists containing multiple types of creature to compensate. So if I wanted wolves, I'd get them replaced by bears at higher levels, and then maybe trolls. That makes the choice harder for a leveled dungeon, where one creature in the list might work, but another wouldn't. The gargoyles have three levels, so they were promising. I'd still have needed to add another creature to the list below them.

Directional ambient lighting is still confusing me. The light in the mines is acceptable in level, but it currently has an illogical source direction, rather than being omni-directional. I may never fix that.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Jul 8 2021, 07:06 PM


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ghastley
post Oct 21 2019, 02:01 PM
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Because I'm working on the quests, and their scripts, I'm running into save-bake issues, and have to restart often. So I'm now running a fresh character (Orcubus) through it all. I had to console her through getting real Bounty quests before receiving the right one. And she probably needs a decent bow before she can handle the dungeon, which definitely seems to favour the sneaky archer type. We did go get one from Kolskeggr, but she hasn't improved it yet. I may also want to make some more of the early skeletons archers, so there's a supply of arrows in the dungeon itself.

But the mechanisms all work. The scenes run, the costume swaps happen at the right times, and the triggers update the progress as required. All the keys work the doors, or they get unlocked by the quest. Clutter and fx are still sparse, but I may be able to package a beta soon. You'd have to turn on subtitles until there are voice files for Azura and Nocturnal, but nobody else needs any.

Greta ends up returned to Markarth, and I'm leaving myself the choice of having her become a potential follower. She's still wearing the Succubus outfit, but without the wings. I gave her all their spells, so she isn't a burden to escort back home, and she handles the sabre-cats with ease. If I can make her firepower scale as the player grows, it's an option.

I'm looking for a way to connect the abductions to Clavicus Vile before his involvement is declared by Azura. The statue in the final lair is only seen at the end, and it needs a few earlier hints. Barbas is not an option for this one, as the player could do the other quest either before or after this one. There's a slight hint of daedric influence in Greta's journal, but of course she can't know that it's Vile. So I need clues as the player goes through the levels. The best would be a clear connection between Succubi and Vile, as you meet one quite soon.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Oct 24 2019, 03:37 PM


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ghastley
post Oct 28 2019, 07:16 PM
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I added the factions to Greta, and the final stage sets her relationship to the player so she can be recruited as a follower. That has been tested with a fresh Imperial character called Primo. I have not yet tackled the problem of leveling her spells. I toyed with the idea of making a generic leveling mod, but too many other mods mess with the follower mechanism and might break it.

Most of the complaints I get about my mods on Nexus can be traced to changes to shared scripts, and bad SM content breaking the courier etc. These days, I clone everything I use, so I'm not dependent on the vanilla scripts not being "fixed" by USLEEP etc. I started doing that with Dremora Hearthfires, and may even go back and retrofit some of the others.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Oct 29 2019, 02:04 PM


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Sakiri
post Nov 1 2019, 02:37 PM
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I'm not sure you can scale followers.

Most third party followers I've seen start out OP and even out as you get stronger, which suggests they don't really scale much if at all(at least to me it does). I know Inigo's skills increase as you play with him, but others don't. Lucien you have to train, for example.

As for requiring Dawnguard, if you really can't find another resource, you might have to go that way. The death hounds also might work, but again, they're Dawnguard. Scale down and reskin something maybe? Melee and spit attack fits frostbite spiders well, but they're not gargoyle like.

Hm. I'm out of ideas.


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ghastley
post Nov 1 2019, 03:10 PM
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The leveling of NPC's is done by assigning them appropriate equipment and stats when they're spawned. Normal followers get their stats incremented along with the player, and the game relies on the player giving them new equipment when needed. However, you can't teach a follower a new spell and that's one area where they fall behind. A "teach" dialogue is an option to the level-up events, but I'd still need to prompt the player to do so, which comes back to catching those events anyway.

In this case, I've created a follower who's not going to change equipment, and is spell-based for offense. So I'll catch the player level-ups and add higher level spells as you progress. The game is capable of using the best available spell, so that is effectively a replacement, although I won't take away the old ones. Defensive spells (the xxxflesh ones for example) can take the place of armor upgrades, too.

I'm going with all draugrs as the melee side - except for the skeevers and skeletons in the first level. Those are fixed level mobs of the lowest grade, just to set the scene. There's one Succubus mixed in who's leveled, and will thus warn you what to expect. If I find a good alternative for the draugr, a search-and-replace can be done later.

So far it's crypt, mines, abyss, and Andariel's lair. Since the levels are much smaller than the Diablo game, there's no progression through them, and the mobs just get a little denser as you go, rather than higher-level. The whole dungeon is an encounter zone that gets leveled when you enter, so even if you do a couple of levels and leave, when you come back later, it's still that level.

I've checked the leveling with an artificially adjusted test character running in god mode, just to make sure the right mobs are spawned, so I don't really have a feel for whether the balance is right. There's opportunity for tweaking the easy/normal/hard settings on each spawn point when I get round to that. A fresh-rolled level one character can just about manage a run, although Andariel will be tricky without the best available equipment, and sneak archery.

There are still a lot of small tweaks I need to make before a beta release, but I'll create an alpha soon as a vehicle for recruiting voice actors. I need two for Azura and Nocturnal, for a couple of scenes. They can have unique voices, which don't even have to match the ones for their other avatars, because magic. However, I need to adjust the timing of those scenes a bit before that.


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ghastley
post Nov 3 2019, 01:41 AM
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Doing the small details that take a lot of time.

I wanted the woman tied down on the "operating table" to have wounds where her wings were about to be implanted. That required making a layer to overlay her skin, on which the wounds would be textured. Fortunately there's already a wounds texture that's used for the "Blood on the Ice" victims in Windhelm, and I didn't have to make that part.

It did take several attempts to get the wounds in the right place and the right size.

Results.


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ghastley
post Nov 4 2019, 05:58 PM
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I'm considering swapping the draugr out for Dremora, to add to the Daedric connection. They have several levels, like the draugr, and their armour is spiky enough to match the Diablo vibe. Hopefully there's a melee-only leveled list for them.

Edit: Well, there was a melee LeveledCharacter list, but for some reason, it's not behaving. I'm getting all levels below player, instead of the highest of those. The box that selects between those choices is unchecked, as intended. I'm wondering if that's because I've cloned it (templating the original) in order to set different factions.

I have a dilemma with testing this. If I roll a new character, the low level precludes anything but level 1 dremora (churls) and I can't see if it's working. Using an existing character masks the effect with anything baked into the save. I'll probably have to artificially set a new character's stats to check it, and that causes balance issues, as it's hard to set appropriate skill levels, too.

Greta's journal may get an additional entry about seeing a dog in the monastery. The problem is how to suggest that it's Barbas without Greta thinking that.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Nov 7 2019, 04:23 PM


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Sakiri
post Nov 21 2019, 04:32 PM
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Hm.

That might be your only choice really. If existing characters are wonky with it.


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And in the fury of this darkest hour
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You've asked me for my sacrifice
And I am Winterborn
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ghastley
post Dec 5 2019, 03:54 PM
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I spent a bit of time working on the documentation, and doing a test build of the .bsa file. I'm also checking what permissions I'll need for others' content. The restraint furniture and animations may need negotiation with authors, and the Succubus Factory depends heavily on those.

Usual BOOBIE warning on the link. Even more so now, as every image added contributes more. The main quest is now named "The Boobie Trap" to keep with the theme. I'm still trying to decide if the maps/pictures etc. about the Crypt/Mine/Abyss/Lair levels belong on the Monastery page, or with the quest. So none of that exists yet.

I need to review the AI packages in a bunch of places to suppress "Hellos to Player" that tend to interrupt things. E.g. Greta needs this when freshly released, and Azura and Nocturnal are trying to have a conversation about her. kvright.gif The problem is that testing doesn't always hit the situation where it happens, and it tends to get forgotten.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Dec 5 2019, 07:34 PM


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ghastley
post Jan 9 2020, 09:31 PM
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I found that I had a copy of the Succubus hair with a bad texture path causing my main issue with the SE port, and of course it needed the same fix for LE, too. I still have some problems with my XPMS and FNIS setup, before I can test properly.

Getting everything up to current releases was a longer process than I'd expected, too. Plus faffing around turning Steam back to offline. They don't want you to find that setting, do they?

This post has been edited by ghastley: Jul 23 2022, 10:51 PM


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ghastley
post Mar 16 2020, 02:57 PM
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Fiddled a bit more with the mod this weekend, and fixed a couple of issues that were holding it up. Still a few remaining, though, the greatest of which is probably balance. I need TGM to get a test character through it.

In the process, I discovered why my OrcChild mod got broken, so that may get re-released, too. There's a problem with the SE Nif Optimizer that breaks the head mesh in the FaceGen folder, but I found a way around that.


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