[Custom dungeon] Forest of Doom [RTC] [Linflas] (discontinued)

Post by **linflas** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:17 pm

Version: Alpha-1 for RTC V0.44
Platform: RTC
Author: Linflas
Date published: 2006, August 17
Date last updated: 2006, August 18

Notes:
Hi

Feedback and help very appreciated !

This dungeon won't be finished before months (years?) because i have a social life (= gf, and she really hates me when i'm on my pc

)..
These screenshots are only here to show you the early beginning of the story.
It's based on Ian Livingstone's gamebooks : Forest of Doom and Temple of Terror. Names, places and characters are exactly the same. I think about releasing them in 2 RTC dungeons. You will be able to play the second adventure by importing characters from the first one (dunno if 'make new adventure' is possible btw).
For the moment, there are several wallsets : land, desert (some of you have already seen this one), cave, some monsters and a few items but this is at very early stage and if you have some time to lose, any graphician help will be very appreciated !

Entrance screen : mouse pointer comes from Ishar series.

Inventory and resurrect interface.

In game : wolves attacking near the forest.

In game : meeting Gromollet (the original name is BigLeg but I prefer the french one)

In game : footpath to Stonebridge.

Download:
Download this dungeon from this Shared OneDrive (in the 'Custom Dungeons' folder)

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:21 pm

Oh, forest of doom was the one with the interconnected groves, right?

Anywya, this all looks very good!

Post by **Ameena** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:21 pm

Hmm, that wolf picture (the one on the left) looks very familiar to me...and the pic below it, with the two standing-stone things, reminds me of the start of Ishar 2...

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:22 pm

Ishar 2 didn't look this good, but I liked it

Sabreman · Post by **Sabreman** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:26 pm

beowuuf wrote:Oh, forest of doom was the one with the interconnected groves, right?

I think you're thinking of Scorpion Swamp

By 'eck though, this looks nice. I'm still a big geek for FF books, and Forest of Doom, City of Thieves and Deathtrap Dungeon were the best in my opinion. I'm hoping to see more on this in a shorter timespan than years, but it's something to looks forward to regardless!

Post by **linflas** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:29 pm

Nope Beo, interconnected groves were in Scorpion Swamp, but this one doesn't take place in Allansia.
Lots of Ishar inspiration i admit, but the wolves are Google images i found and adapted to something more FF.

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 8:23 pm

Superb.

Post by **Sophia** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 8:45 pm

Looks good! You and cows ought to work together, you've both produced some pretty impressive looking wallsets recently.

Post by **Lunever** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 10:53 pm

Linflas: Honestly, I admire your screenshots for quite a while, and I'm looking forward to test your first dungeon. Among all other dungeon designers to be, by now you are the one and only whose dungeons I'd really give a serious try.

Well, actually from this thread I gather that I missed your first release, but then, I was away from the forums for quite a while, so at least for me, your next dungeon release will be my first from you.

Post by **Gambit37** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 12:46 am

FoD was my favourite FF book, purely because it was my first. Loved it and I can't wait to try out your dungeon! WooooHooooo!

Trantor · Post by **Trantor** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:05 am

These screenshots will probably be responsible for my abandoning my custom dungeon. I could never ever come up with anything that looks even remotely this good! Fantastic Linflas!

Des · Post by **Des** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:14 am

Linflas - your screenshots are delicious.

Trantor - just coz your dunge hasn't got spiffy graphics is no reason to abandon it. I hope you weren't being serious. Think why we all love DM.....

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 2:51 am

Looks aren't everything trant, a playable dungeon underneath is what counts...or else we would have long since abandoned DM and al lthe low res custom dungeons

Zed5Duke · Post by **Zed5Duke** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:18 am

Yeah! I like it from few reasons:
-using hi-res graphics
-details, everything seem to be perfect
-Ishar inspirations

I must say that i also think about build Ishar style game on RTC, but i dont known how solve sky. I mean clouds in distance which dont move when you walk. Or you just made blue ceiling?

Am very interested about this project. Just say if you need some help.

Post by **Gambit37** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 11:14 am

Yes, how have you prevented the sky from being flipped -- does this get 'fixed' automatically if you use N,S,E,W images?

How have you got the grass to be semi-trans over the wolves?

The whiter distance shading looks cool!

Post by **linflas** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 2:25 pm

Thanks for your cool reactions everyone

Anyway, i'm asking again for help : the biggest work for me is dungeon items and their respective icon : if someone has that kind of stuff, please share !

@Trantor :
I don't think a cool DM-style game must absolutely have nice graphics, and whatever... i will share ALL my graphic/sound stuff just like i did for Sukumvit. On the contrary, i just hated Lands of Lore, EOB series and Ishar 3, they were beautifully boring. And i'm a bit afraid of this with FoD, as I'm not familiar with all the new actions in RTC.

@Gambit & Zed5Duke :
I use 3 ceilings for the sky : NS, E and W (W is different for E because this is where the forest is, so clouds are darker !). So, sky is fixed when you go in the same direction, but floor is unique (i.e. it flips) and there are lots of little flooritems : grass with different heights, rocks, menhirs, bushes...
Grass is semi-trans on the rest of the scene because it's a "front 0" view of the flooritem and moreover, it's a TrueColor transparent PNG.
That remembers me of your compression advice : i started converting some Truecolor bitmaps to 256 colors with dithering, but keeping transparency. But by doing this, I lose the transparency fade effect...

Post by **Gambit37** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 6:10 pm

Yes, going down to 8 bit images is only suitable when you don't need alpha transparency.

Try googling for the utilities PNGOUT or PNGCRUSH -- these can significantly reduce the size of your PNGs. I have used both utils a lot and PNGOUT is generally better but it's much, much slower.

TheMormegil · Post by **TheMormegil** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:10 pm

Looks awesome Linflas

Post by **PaulH** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 1:16 am

Looks amazing!

And I'm with Trant - the impetus to finish my CSBWin dungeon is waining, but I will!

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 6:48 am

Isn't that more to do with mountain biking women than to do with hi-res graphics though? ;)

Zed5Duke · Post by **Zed5Duke** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 9:41 am

Anyway, i'm asking again for help : the biggest work for me is dungeon items and their respective icon : if someone has that kind of stuff, please share !

I taken over 30 items from Rage of Mages2. Even after resize they still look good. Anyway Wizards&Warriors game got many items icons with similar dimensions to 32x32.

I don't think a cool DM-style game must absolutely have nice graphics, and whatever... i will share ALL my graphic/sound stuff just like i did for Sukumvit.

How about some Hi-Res Database, where everyone can put stuff? I could share my wallsets, doors, items icons and wall objects.

I use 3 ceilings for the sky : NS, E and W (W is different for E because this is where the forest is, so clouds are darker !). So, sky is fixed when you go in the same direction, but floor is unique (i.e. it flips) and there are lots of little flooritems : grass with different heights, rocks, menhirs, bushes...

I still dont get how create sky. In middle part of dungeon is dark area which cant be replace by any graph. It seem to be just one pixel of "shadow" or something. I tryed made higher ceiling but its dissappear.
Can you explain it bit more?

And i wonder about grass and bushes items, it is possible to take them into inventory?

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 11:07 am

Database: You'll need to do them first - may as well share them on the creative forum - cows started a sticky thread for a few of his graphics before

We have no ebspace to host it, so you would simply link to your own wallsets

zoom · Post by **zoom** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 11:26 am

I taken over 30 items from Rage of Mages2.

I don't know.. Zed5DUke, no offence, do you know of copyright and so on?
I guess you do..

Have you a permission to use any of these graphics or are you
ripping them just for the sake of it ?

Could be that you need the ?ok?
it is not cool to rip someone else's work without
permission.
I am just pointing you there.. it would not make sense to
put work into scaling these premade graphics and then
having to delete them afterwards or worse.
but maybe it's ok to use the graphics - then go on

I do not think a database is really needed.

,because you can always ask people to give their
stuff to you..and probably there are not that much graphics yet ?
dunno any more opinions ?

@ linflas:
I am not very experienced with computer graphics , but
I could maybe design some weapons /items for this project of
yours...So far I have taken a digital photo of drawings on paper/bcs. scanner broke - and then scaled ..
look here:
http://www.pc-aladdin.de/blup/aaa.htm

I do not know of the book you base the story on , so ...
are there any things you need done?? (list would be helpful)

Ehm. I cannot promise /forsee how much time and elan I come up with.. but just say if that helps.
I am here..

Btw, nice work

Post by **linflas** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 12:00 pm

beo, can you split the last part of this thread to another one in Creative Endeavours, please ?

Adamo · Post by **Adamo** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 12:33 pm

Trantor wrote:

These screenshots will probably be responsible for my abandoning my custom dungeon.

oh come on Trant. How much did you do so far? It would be a pity if your work will be lost forever. Send your stuff to PaulH, maybe he`ll take some use of yuor work? Or release it as it is? Or join to Linfas project, if he needs some help? Graphics is not everything, and remember, that making good graphician stuff takes 10 times more work than designing a dungeon.

I could never ever come up with anything that looks even remotely this good!

there`s nothing to shame about that when you have low res & 16 colours limitations - I guess you were working on CSBwin?

Linflas work is indeed beautifull - great work!

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 1:12 pm

'Fraid not linflas, just tried but zoom and zed5duke have included points for both in their posts - the nightmare of an OT thread needing split.

If it really bothers them I'll have to post a new post, as me, quoting these sections in the creative forum thread

zoom · Post by **zoom** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 5:15 pm

Here is a finished morning star or flail type. The other weapon
looks crap, maybe the morning star, too , but I think it is ok.
roughly 10 mins for both..using for one the scanned pic (aaa.htm)
at least that would be the standard I could come up with ..

edit:
hopefully. I just realised I could do some items anyway just for fun,
regardless of whether Linflas is using them or not..

$eoub!!! · Post by **$eoub!!!** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 3:11 am

"La foret de la malédiction" donc.. Un de ceux que je n'ai pas lu..
Mais les visuels sont tout bonnement incroyable !

C'est magnifique !

Quand sera-t'il disponible ?
Quelle aide substancielle apporter ?

PadTheMad · Post by **PadTheMad** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 11:59 pm

I like... Maybe this will finally give all those other dungeon creators the push they need to get out of development hell. Or not... either way it looks pretty. Pretty badass that is

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 12:05 am

Or mean we get no dungeons ever again cause they are all stuck in high res graphcs hell! It's bad enough making crappy low res ones that work