[Role Playing Game] Acheron

[A Void]

If your wife dies, she will resurrect after a bunch of seconds. The resurrect ability will have a cooldown. If she becomes very low on health and the cooldown is not over yet, she will get a shield of invulnerability on her for some time, so by then cooldown surely ends. This shield will have very long cooldown. So when she dies again, cooldown of resurrection fires, when she is resurrected and dies very fast, she can no longer resurrect and this is the only defeat condition. You will not lose the game if you die, but you will if your wife dies, because if she survives, you survive, since she is able to resurrect you too.

No, you will be male and you will have a wife. These characters will have voice acting done, so repeating these voices with male and female will be quite messy.

Shield has a simple form, but it does have some bumping, it is not visible on the screenshot due to this angle. It is a little big bent from the edges to the middle, also around it you can see two rings, one outside and one in the middle, these rings are also bumped out and will be clearly visible in game.

Hehe, probably not.

Okay, now the concept of depending on your wife to stay alive is not very.. fitting. It would be way simple and better to make defeat after your character died. Also, false-immortality is kind of a silly when viewed from this perspective. But of course you can polish it once you are done doing basic stuff.

I mean seriously, if you aim for that realism you should have a proper death without any wife resurrecting you every time you die. Again I can see some major plot and story of character flaws.

For the voice part it depends on how many dialogue lines there will be per /male and /female.

Hmm, so Medusa some how grew back the head in spirit form? Wait, if the physical head on the shield is still alive (snakes moving), then it is only logical to assume that she is beheaded in soul, while the physical body-part such as head is separated from soul. Illogical inconsistencies can be fixed I guess.. Interesting.

 

[Molaf]

Don't tell him everything you will spoil everybody here ^^

Hey A Void I will tell you a secret: Pokémons are not real !! And so is the underworld so .. He can do what he wants

 

[APproject]

But depending on wife is not traditional. If there was no resurrection thingy and you would lose immediately after dying, this would be annoying in a traditional way. I am trying to add something else to the game, because from my own experience people start crying that there is no save systems or check points and especially there is no revive system, so I am giving them an alternative. This way of course game will be much more dynamic as death will not automatically tell you: you better load it again! And so with this system it will be harder to lose the game, so it is better for people who will play on easy mode and are not very good with games, but surely I will present a chellenge in other modes.

What are those plot flaws? Characters already do have a certain plot around them, it is just that it has not been told about yet.

No no no. So Medusa used to be a priestess of Athena, Poseidon raped her in the temple and so Athena cursed her with uglyness and ability to turn people to stone at the mere gaze. Then some kind of King asked Perseus to bring her head as a gift, with Gods giving gear to Perseus, he came to her dwelling and cut her head off while she was sleeping. Perseus carried her head in a bag named Kibisis. The head turned the King into a stone, later he gave the head to Athena to decorate her (and Zeus') shield Aegis. This is a short summary of the myth.

In game however it requires interpretation. So Medusa died in real life, her soul appeared in the underworld and got stuck by some reasons (I don't want to spoil). Then you meet her trapped in a stone, she talks to you and quest begins. You will meet Perseus as well so there will be two endings for one quest, one of the endings may give hints on how to get Kibisis, but Aegis will not be mentioned, this will be a secret and it will be up for player to find out things. Or Kibisis will be just given by Perseus, this quest is in development, so it will change drasticly.

And the moving snakes are just for the looks. Let's say only the part of her is alive in that head, snakes perhaps. Let's say that ability to turn people to stone still presist in her face. To logic sense, if head was completely dead, it would simply rot and be gone very soon.

You will not fight Medusa for her head, it has been done by Perseus long time ago, that is why he may have Kibisis. To the myth he gave Kibisis to Athena, but let's just say for the sake of game, Perseus took the head away and now he gave it to you.

Of course a lot of logic would be more fun, but logic is not always on your side, it calls for an interpretation in order to let player face those heroes and famous myths.

 

[Chen]

Lel I love how the Percy Jackson series revived her. Anyways the screenshots really gave me the feeling of underworld.

 

[A Void]

But depending on wife is not traditional. If there was no resurrection thingy and you would lose immediately after dying, this would be annoying in a traditional way. I am trying to add something else to the game, because from my own experience people start crying that there is no save systems or check points and especially there is no revive system, so I am giving them an alternative. This way of course game will be much more dynamic as death will not automatically tell you: you better load it again! And so with this system it will be harder to lose the game, so it is better for people who will play on easy mode and are not very good with games, but surely I will present a chellenge in other modes.

What are those plot flaws? Characters already do have a certain plot around them, it is just that it has not been told about yet.

No no no. So Medusa used to be a priestess of Athena, Poseidon raped her in the temple and so Athena cursed her with uglyness and ability to turn people to stone at the mere gaze. Then some kind of King asked Perseus to bring her head as a gift, with Gods giving gear to Perseus, he came to her dwelling and cut her head off while she was sleeping. Perseus carried her head in a bag named Kibisis. The head turned the King into a stone, later he gave the head to Athena to decorate her (and Zeus') shield Aegis. This is a short summary of the myth.

In game however it requires interpretation. So Medusa died in real life, her soul appeared in the underworld and got stuck by some reasons (I don't want to spoil). Then you meet her trapped in a stone, she talks to you and quest begins. You will meet Perseus as well so there will be two endings for one quest, one of the endings may give hints on how to get Kibisis, but Aegis will not be mentioned, this will be a secret and it will be up for player to find out things. Or Kibisis will be just given by Perseus, this quest is in development, so it will change drasticly.

And the moving snakes are just for the looks. Let's say only the part of her is alive in that head, snakes perhaps. Let's say that ability to turn people to stone still presist in her face. To logic sense, if head was completely dead, it would simply rot and be gone very soon.

You will not fight Medusa for her head, it has been done by Perseus long time ago, that is why he may have Kibisis. To the myth he gave Kibisis to Athena, but let's just say for the sake of game, Perseus took the head away and now he gave it to you.

Of course a lot of logic would be more fun, but logic is not always on your side, it calls for an interpretation in order to let player face those heroes and famous myths.

It wasn't what I meant, Medusa's head is on a shield, so how can it be at the underworld at the same time? If what you say is correct then the head on the shield is alive and the soul of Medusa is headless.

But again, how can there be a soul departed from the body if she has a part still alive(head).

Also, you should not reveal too much of the plot, I asked whether there will be plot inconsistencies with Medusa's head.

You could put it in spoilers tag or remove it.

Well, I would certainly vote for basic death where you have to reload the game from a checkpoint auto. And how does your wife have any magical abilities? Is she a Goddess, normal humans did not have any magical powers. Well. Don't answer this question, we don't want to hear too much about the plot.

 

[APproject]

Thanks, Chen.

So that is what I said about Athena's part. Head is supposed to be on Aegis, but let's say Perseus took that head away and gave it to the player or maybe even other story can be made of this. There is still one head only, so you get Kibisis. The thing is that you will not have Aegis and the Head separately, you will have to craft Aegis from several pieces found around the underworld. When the Head will be placed on a shield you crafted from pieces, only then it becomes Aegis. The screenshot I showed was partly the final looks of crafted shield when Kibisis is used to create Aegis. It would be cool to make it headless indeed, easy to do though, but I don't think player will ever see the soul itself, since it will be trapped in a stone and only a statue will be talking.

The head will not be completely alive, there will be no soul of her in the head. Head will be magic and only ability to turn people to stone will exist there maining the head looks remains and it will not be rotting. According to the myth, Athena put the head on a shield to have this ability, meaning it did not rot. I could make it look dead and not animated, but animation of snakes would surely add a lot to the looks.

Oh well, nothing too major has been revealed so I will leave it like that. I doubt if too many people are reading this anyway.

 

[lokharke]

Great to see the progress. I like the water and the camera that a void gave. progress:10%, we can wait. Charon and boat models are really nice, who made those?

 

[A Void]

Great to see the progress. I like the water and the camera that a void gave. progress:10%, we can wait. Charon and boat models are really nice, who made those?

Charon and boat models were originated from World of Warcraft models. Then they were edited by APproject.

 

[Fang]

for even better epxerience

Epxerience?

 

[APproject]

Thanks, lokharke. A Void answered your question.

I am also planning to add a third path of Medusa's quest, a secret way to resurrect her from the dead and encounter afterwards, as reward you would get her head. This removes all confusion with Perseus and Kibisis. So there will be 3 endings for one quest.

Epxerience?

Just a typo, will fix it.

 

[Fang]

Oooo... I like the story! Its mention Percy Jackson and Medusa.
How can I resurrect Medusa?

Edit: Would you mind giving me the Doodads files of your map? Especially the Nazgûl Statue

 

[APproject]

No, there definitely will be no Percy Jackson, hehe.

I will not reveal it, it will be the hardest path of quest so I do not wish to spoil things.

 

[A Void]

Oooo... I like the story! Its mention Percy Jackson and Medusa.
How can I resurrect Medusa?

Edit: Would you mind giving me the Doodads files of your map? Especially the Nazgûl Statue

Are you seriously asking him to give you the models? Let me put it this way: "A great chef will never reveal his recipe".

APproject#

Why on earth would the player revive the Medusa if her head is already on a shield with Perseus.

 

[APproject]

Well I don't see much of a problem giving away those models. Project itself will not be protected just like the rest of my works, so everyone will be free to do with it whatever they wish to, this includes using the models. I actually see this copy righted stuff as a disease that stops the modding community from improving. I hope this is the model you talked about, this includes two colors.

No no no, shield with Medusa's head will be acquired only after killing Medusa, I mean only then you will get a head, that later will be used to make a shield. Perseus and other ending will now present another reward. Once one ending is achieved, other two are blocked.

 

[Molaf]

APproject is in fact Jesus Christ IRL.

 

[anby]

Hi, APproject!
Could i translate this topic to chinese and transfer to other chinese forum for showing this?

 

[APproject]

Hey anby.

Of course! If you want, you can also fish through pages and pick some model update images, because first post contains only terrain. And thank you for your time.

 

[anby]

Hey anby.

Of course! If you want, you can also fish through pages and pick some model update images, because first post contains only terrain. And thank you for your time.

Wow, that's great!
I will!

 

[BrightDark]

When will this be out , can't wait to play it ,BTW: Iceborn is a true piece of art

 

[APproject]

Thanks. Planning is hard, but maybe this year or early 2016 for sure if I am unlucky.

 

[Splub]

Oh wow! Great stuff and good luck!

 

[luis93]

this looks really amazing.

 

[APproject]

Thanks.

Here is another terrain update, more of a secret area with a secret entrance. In game this will be very dark, very very dark, so a lot changes as these images are taken in pure Editor light to display the terrain build. There will be a smell secret quest and also even more secret and smaller another quest, hehe.

Cave Terrain

 

[Heinvers]

Heya, that's a great looking cave.

I like that creepy gorge and the web plus rock combination. Well done man

 

[Veritas 117]

I agree, I am trying to imagine how awesome it will look when it is nice and dark.

 

[Sclammerz]

Awesome and creepy.

 

[A Void]

I definitely like those tile-sets.

 

[APproject]

Thanks, guys.

Currently I am stuck on the beginning. I should be really heading forwards with the game, but polishing things and adding more details keeps me busy on the same spot for too long.

As for the current progress, I am moving with some side quests that involves more of mythological characters. Also with the assistance of Molaf the storyline and quests gains it shape for the upcoming part of the game, that will involve Charon, Pythie the shaman, Jason & Argonauts seeking for the Golden Fleece. But right now I need to deal with current two simple side quests and their rewards. I am also getting some more voice acting done by myself as well as by a female for Medusa's voice.

Current cool reward items for a quest will be such as Helm of Darkness that is a mythological item forged by Cyclopes for Hades furing the war against Titans, its purpose is to gain invisibility, but I gave it a similar ability. Also the secret item for a secret ending of Medusa's quest will be Kibisis. Head's ability is made in a way that it detects the facing of nearby targets and if targets faces caster with certain plus minus angle, it dies and attaches chunks of rock on limbs for the effect.

Oh and despite map being in an early stage of development, it already reached 136 MBs size.

 

[A Void]

Thanks, guys.

Currently I am stuck on the beginning. I should be really heading forwards with the game, but polishing things and adding more details keeps me busy on the same spot for too long.

As for the current progress, I am moving with some side quests that involves more of mythological characters. Also with the assistance of Molaf the storyline and quests gains it shape for the upcoming part of the game, that will involve Charon, Pythie the shaman, Jason & Argonauts seeking for the Golden Fleece. But right now I need to deal with current two simple side quests and their rewards. I am also getting some more voice acting done by myself as well as by a female for Medusa's voice.

Current cool reward items for a quest will be such as Helm of Darkness that is a mythological item forged by Cyclopes for Hades furing the war against Titans, its purpose is to gain invisibility, but I gave it a similar ability. Also the secret item for a secret ending of Medusa's quest will be Kibisis. Head's ability is made in a way that it detects the facing of nearby targets and if targets faces caster with certain plus minus angle, it dies and attaches chunks of rock on limbs for the effect.

Oh and despite map being in an early stage of development, it already reached 136 MBs size.

Good news!, do not limit yourself to map size. It doesn't matter, 136 or 800, it does not matter. You have as much space as you need.

Also, take your time. No one is rushing. But yeah, it is better to polish the game once it is in playable state.

 

[Molaf]

Ahhhh don't say that Avoid he is already spending weeks on this god damn area
(he is doing a great job .. quite impressive you guys gonna love this game)

 

[A Void]

Ahhhh don't say that Avoid he is already spending weeks on this god damn area
(he is doing a great job .. quite impressive you guys gonna love this game)

Are you the story-line writer? It is gonna be interesting how the plot is gonna turn out. I'm sure it is gonna be amazing.

 

[Molaf]

Yeah sort of, I give him my ideas, he fries it, add oignons, Worcester sauce and pepper. Then it still taste alright so .. that's good ^^
We already have the late game content (not fried yet) and YES it will be amazing

 

[APproject]

Thanks, A Void. Surely I am trying not to limit myself, but this also leads to 7000 doodads in an early game which means in the end there might be over 30-40 k. and this might cause lag, but I hope I will get away with this somehow.

Obviously I could progress much more rapidly if not studies and other matters, so time spent is not always efficient, that is another reason for getting stuck here.

But hey, don't expect too much, I really do not wish to disappoint you as big expectations usually leads to it, especially when no one has played it. Storyline and all of the ideas are great indeed, but it is up to me how it all will be realized, so everything is in a half way. This is just a warcraft 3 after all.

 

[A Void]

Thanks, A Void. Surely I am trying not to limit myself, but this also leads to 7000 doodads in an early game which means in the end there might be over 30-40 k. and this might cause lag, but I hope I will get away with this somehow.

Obviously I could progress much more rapidly if not studies and other matters, so time spent is not always efficient, that is another reason for getting stuck here.

But hey, don't expect too much, I really do not wish to disappoint you as big expectations usually leads to it, especially when no one has played it. Storyline and all of the ideas are great indeed, but it is up to me how it all will be realized, so everything is in a half way. This is just a warcraft 3 after all.

Do not limit yourself to what Warcraft III can offer you. Thats really easy to say, most of the things are possible. Especially in single player games.

You can have as much as you want doodads, because once the camera goes off screen (from the doodads perspective) it does not render them, this was made clever to reduce lag and increase performance.

 

[APproject]

Indeed. I thought about this as well, as doodads hides it should save one's skin. But I think it also depends on models used for doodads, if these are WoW high poly ones and there will be over 50 000 on the map, would that still make no difference? What was the reason behind the original limitation?

 

[A Void]

Indeed. I thought about this as well, as doodads hides it should save one's skin. But I think it also depends on models used for doodads, if these are WoW high poly ones and there will be over 50 000 on the map, would that still make no difference? What was the reason behind the original limitation?

The reason was because most of the computers back then were poor related to current ones, Blizzard limited doodad limit in the Editor to keep it stable from lagging, especially in Multiplayer games.

Another reason is that too many high-poly models rendered on-screen at the same time (doesn't matter if they are units, doodads, destructibles ect...) can crash the game or (WEIRD Graphical Glitches, Stretched Out model limbs and needles of thousand pains.). Graphical capabilities of the game were not made to support that many high-poly models.

Regardless to say, they limited it to keep it stable and minimum. Currently these limitations are stupid, but they were made when computers weren't so advanced..

High-Poly models were only used on pre-rendered cinematics and visuals. Most commonly seen in Warcraft 3, cinematics.

 

[Heinvers]

Just be sure to not use too many animated models in the same place at once, that would surely affect the game itself (hence the lag would start to appear).

I dunno about non-animated models but I do know that the animated ones spell trouble for any modder that wants more immersion for his game (wc3 of course).

 

[APproject]

I see. I already noticed those spikes of graphics appearing from time to time, but I hope these will be gone once I will move on to the next area of terrain. It is the most visible when camera is set to camera bounds of entire map. So I guess I will just have to limit the amount of high poly stuff on the screen at the moment and that's it.

 

[A Void]

I see. I already noticed those spikes of graphics appearing from time to time, but I hope these will be gone once I will move on to the next area of terrain. It is the most visible when camera is set to camera bounds of entire map. So I guess I will just have to limit the amount of high poly stuff on the screen at the moment and that's it.

When you look at the entire map mode (camera) you will notice a lot of spikes as you just told. That is because you have maxed out the rendering, that means that every model on the entire map get's rendered on the screen. Once you zoom in again, those issues will be gone.

As i mentioned that things should be kept minimal with high-poly stuff on the camera screen.

 

[APproject]

Finally done with the first chapter of the game, except that few lines remains to be voice acted. This first stage of the game will feature 4 side quests along with 2 main quests, one boss area and one major puzzle along with few minor ones, etc. Of course none of cinematics has been done yet. As for the length of current gameplay, I am sure for an average player who is completely new, it may take already ~2 hours to completely explore current world, but it would take significantly less time to go through this area and finish it without exploring every bit, which is expected from new players, that is why Easy game mode may not require to finish and discover all in order to succeed as it was in Iceborn.

Next week I will be jumping straight into the second part of the game, the second part of Erebus area out of 3 major areas. With help of Molaf everything may progress faster as quests and area has been visualized long time ago.

I am also going to give Molaf the map to test tomorrow, which would surely improve things even further.

What is more, I am attempting to get few good models to replace current Gods such as Zeus and Ares. Seems like I am not capable to deal with it completely on myself, so perhaps with some help I may finish what I started.

 

[Molaf]

As I will probably be doing the illustrations of the game, here is a little preview

Illustration

 

[APproject]

Oh man, that's great. Illustration like this one would surely be perfect for introducing the main characters. Good job on the start. Medusa on chest and the sickle sword kind of frames it into one quest, but that's okay I guess, hehe.

As for the project itself, I already started working on it few days ago, but just a little bit due to studies. Molaf already tested the map and I received a decent amount of feedback that needs to be looked upon.

Molaf also faced serious texture and lighting problems that makes the game unplayable, yet I do not face these issues. I think later I will have to send the edited map to someone else and see if these problems are still present.

Also as for the new Zeus model, I gave it to more reliable hands of PROXY and we will see what will turn out from it. PROXY said to be working on Cerberus model as well, looking forward to that one too.

 

[A Void]

As I will probably be doing the illustrations of the game, here is a little preview

Illustration

Gj, now make a colored version with a few enhancements.

Graphical and lightning bugs are usually for those who do not have highest setting with high quality resources that were used. This map must require the player to turn the graphics to max.

 

[APproject]

That's what I thought as well. If Warcraft is opened through OpenGL, Nvidia settings might also influence overall performance and setting needs to be adjusted. For example, default Nvidia settings made all textures extremely blurry, yet with some adjustments it is HQ again. I did not try applying settings to low aiming to experience same bugs, but I will try later.

Oh and another funny fact. Iceborn in the end of development had 1700+ improted files. Acheron's Affliction is about roughly 20% complete and already has nearly 1800 imported files.

 

[APproject]

I am moving forward with updating the game after Molaf's review. There will appear features like limited resurrection for the companion and it can be increased by acquiring certain items, also new inventory system, a simple one, that will spawn a flying ghostly lantern over hero's head and it may collect items. In later game there will be a possibility to get up to 3 lanters with 6 slots each. These are easy to dismiss and control, as it sticks to the hero automatically, like a buff ability. And other minor changes, such as hero retexture.

Here is a quick update. I adjusted Ares model, by making it more bright and changed the helmet into a better one. Also there are the hero and his wife with their new textures. (Wife's is just regular WoW texture, but different from what it was)

 

[A Void]

I am moving forward with updating the game after Molaf's review. There will appear features like limited resurrection for the companion and it can be increased by acquiring certain items, also new inventory system, a simple one, that will spawn a flying ghostly lantern over hero's head and it may collect items. In later game there will be a possibility to get up to 3 lanters with 6 slots each. These are easy to dismiss and control, as it sticks to the hero automatically, like a buff ability. And other minor changes, such as hero retexture.

Here is a quick update. I adjusted Ares model, by making it more bright and changed the helmet into a better one. Also there are the hero and his wife with their new textures. (Wife's is just regular WoW texture, but different from what it was)

Personally they look unnatural with those face expressions, the character looks like a hunched back viking and his wife looks like some devil possessed(she has yellow eyes...) wench(She has no cloth textures to certain areas, that makes it illogical why she would venture down into underworld without any armor protection, I guess she wants to suicide and be sexy at the same time.

Really, character model looks nothing like a greek in general. Also, why is his armor glowing? Is he a god?


The lantern idea is bizarre and silly, a magical lanterns will pop up to stock your items. Maybe make it a simple backpack that will be able to collect items near the character who has it. You also should use "Worker" icon interface for your Backpack button to open it. I think you know what I mean, those idle workers.

While I admire Molaf's creative writing, I do not understand the direction he pinpointed out with his review. It's only my criticism, you can do whatever you want to do.

 

[APproject]

As for the main models, these are almost original WoW models, so their facial expressions are not really modified and I really doubt if it will. Having them happy and smiling is the least what I need, hehe. Also these are criminals from the story point of view, so I guess it suits well in this set up.

They do look viking alike, but vrykul models and animations are really good compared to a human model which I hate, although I used it for Ares.

As for the armor, wife is a sorcerer and she doesn't need heavy armor, but surely naked parts are illogical, same as how illogical is the underworld. The glowing shoulders gives a nice sfx during the game, it does look not that good from up close though, will see what can be done.

Lanters surely would not be like from a cartoon, I could used a bag, but to spice things up, I gave it a form and a model, it does look more refreshing than a regular bag. It also spins around and does look like a buff.

Molaf just stated problems with suggestions, but it is I who put ideas into action, so all illogical stuff and problems falls upon me. Surely I will take your criticism into consideration and see things turned into better, thanks.

 

[HeliosC]

As for the main models, these are almost original WoW models, so their facial expressions are not really modified and I really doubt if it will. Having them happy and smiling is the least what I need, hehe. Also these are criminals from the story point of view, so I guess it suits well in this set up.

They do look viking alike, but vrykul models and animations are really good compared to a human model which I hate, although I used it for Ares.

As for the armor, wife is a sorcerer and she doesn't need heavy armor, but surely naked parts are illogical, same as how illogical is the underworld. The glowing shoulders gives a nice sfx during the game, it does look not that good from up close though, will see what can be done.

Lanters surely would not be like from a cartoon, I could used a bag, but to spice things up, I gave it a form and a model, it does look more refreshing than a regular bag. It also spins around and does look like a buff.

Molaf just stated problems with suggestions, but it is I who put ideas into action, so all illogical stuff and problems falls upon me. Surely I will take your criticism into consideration and see things turned into better, thanks.

Awesome works.

 

[APproject]

Thanks.

Here is a sneak peek terrain WIP of the new chapter. I expect to being up something totally different than it was in a previous chapter. This time more open and more greekish world. I also got some ideas for new lighting system, I hope to get a good result from that.

Anyway, this chapter will feature the banks of Marsh of Styx, shores of the river that player will need to pass with the help of Charon the ferryman of the dead. Of course along few other side quests that will feature shaman Pythie, greek Ship of Jason and Argonauts, Forest of Persephone, etc.

Terrain WIP

 

[sonofjay]

I expect that area to look really good when its done. Good luck.