[Role Playing Game] Acolyte of Life

[FeelsGoodMan]

When it comes to visuals, imo this is probably the coolest and most unique project wc3 has ever seen. If the gameplay will be good, this will be a masterpiece for sure.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Villagerino]

If this even a map? When is the release date?

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

If this even a map? When is the release date?

Haha well it's a campaign. Sadly I don't know the release date. May be 6 months, may be 2 years.

 

[Villagerino]

May be 6 months, may be 2 years.

I will cheer for you, guys, good luck

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Inventory system is done. You can now equip armor and weapons. There are three armor types, light, medium and heavy armor. All characters have their own weapon types. All information is properly synced across all systems.

Frames and frame functionality by me using RUID + some manual status bar additions.
Item + system logic by @NightKnight .

 

[Karano]

This was really awesome, for a moment, I thought it was a different game altogether, congrats on the great work my guy! Keep up the wonderful effort.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

There haven't been any updates for some time since I have been rather busy with life and another commitment, but here's a short video of the pirate town/cave;

(The pathing is a bit wack, but that's how it is with narrow places. I'll create custom pathing another time).

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

I'm working on re-doing a lot of the earlier terrain. There are some parts I'm not too happy with, especially the rocks in the monastery, forest and mountain maps.

Spoiler

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Some more revamped terrain;

Spoiler: new

Spoiler: old

 

[Wazzz]

This is looking to be a very promising project, definitely looking forward to giving this a try when it comes out

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Some more revamping. It's not completely done, I still have to re-do the areas around the village/monastery. For now only the stuff across the river is completely done.

Spoiler: Before

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

The revampening of the monastery map is done, which leaves parts of the mountain, parts of the city and the forest.

Spoiler

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Join the Acolyte of Life Discord Server!

Updates, news, showcases, and more will be displayed on a regular basis. You're also most welcome to share ideas, thoughts and feedback.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Sorry for the lack of updates. I post more frequent updates on our Discord server. Join it now to see more in-depth what we are working on and get the latest news; Join the Acolyte of Life Discord Server!

The revampening continues in the mountain. A lot is done, but a lot still remains. I have been hard at work with the textures here. Some textures still needs some work, like the snowy stairs (they need to show some bricks in the middle where people walk instead of being completely snowed down).

Spoiler

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

I'm finally done revamping the mountain terrain. There are still some unfinished areas, but the overworld is for the most part finished. Remember to join our Discord for more frequent updates; Join the Acolyte of Life Discord Server!.

Spoiler: after

Spoiler: before

 

[Heinvers]

This is so juicy. I like the looks of it.

Good luck :]

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

This is so juicy. I like the looks of it.

Good luck :]

Thanks!

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

I'm done revamping yet another map, the city this time. Just one map remains to be revamped before I'm done with the 'overworld' terrain.

Don't forget to join our Discord; Join the Acolyte of Life Discord Server!.

 

[purparisien]

Your work is truly amazing. You really craft beautiful terrains. I rarely saw that in maps. You are one the most talented map maker out there. I really hope you will manage to finish your project !

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Your work is truly amazing. You really craft beautiful terrains. I rarely saw that in maps. You are one the most talented map maker out there. I really hope you will manage to finish your project !

Thanks a lot!

 

[DarkIllidan]

This looks insanely Good. Keep up the AWESOME work!!
It looks like a beautiful game / map.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

This looks insanely Good. Keep up the AWESOME work!!
It looks like a beautiful game / map.

Thank you!

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Finally done with the bestiary UI system. Some text alignment adjustments and model scaling still needs to be done. Dynamically adjusts pages and amount of frames shown based on how many units you have "examined", or also known as "unlocked".

 

[Chaosy]

No catgirls in the bestiary / 10

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

No catgirls in the bestiary / 10

Don't worry they'll be included as humanoids.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

I've started revamping the forest, and also the last remaining map to be revamped. Here's a tiny sneak-peek;

Spoiler

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

I've been working on retexturing a lot of @Talavaj's and @oGre_'s models with Skyrim textures to get a "grittier" and more realistic atmosphere.

Spoiler

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

With the graphical overhaul / revamping I also figured I'd need to do the same with the interiors, or else it wouldn't be consistent. I have retextured loads of wow models with Skyrim textures and ported a lot of new models from Skyrim to achieve the results you see in the video below;

Spoiler: Revamped Mansion

Spoiler: Previous Video

 

[Jamir]

Looks really good and very polished. A lot of work must have been put into it. Great job!

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Looks really good and very polished. A lot of work must have been put into it. Great job!

Thanks!

I'm back from holiday, which means development has resumed.

Spoiler: more revamped forest

After I'm done revamping the rest of the forest terrain I'm officially done with the level design, not including combat arenas and interiors. Can't wait to start combining all the UI and making the world explorable with all the core systems implemented.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Some revamped interiors in the forest.

Spoiler

 

[deepstrasz]

We're trying to have our own soundtrack.
It takes time, energy and inspiration to do this sort of project especially when real life knocks daily on our hobbies' and aspirations' door.
Universe willing and time on our side, we'll take this endeavour to a sweet end for the community to enjoy. A big sorry since I am the slowest member of the team.

This one is supposed to play when you're moving around the monastery. There's quite some stuff packed in it in terms of what it expresses. Not gonna divulge anything now. I'll let you write what you get from it.

 

[Planetary]

Have you guys already started scripting the story, and are you still using the JRPG dialogue source?

I have been tinkering with the idea of refactoring the JRPG dialogue code now that I have more experience with systems, and after having used it in my own project and seeing some issues. The fixed argument structure is silly and makes complex scene development quite annoying.

However, if you replaced it or are too far ahead with the screenplay that's totally okay with me, and I'll skip the refactor.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Have you guys already started scripting the story, and are you still using the JRPG dialogue source?

I have been tinkering with the idea of refactoring the JRPG dialogue code now that I have more experience with systems, and after having used it in my own project and seeing some issues. The fixed argument structure is silly and makes complex scene development quite annoying.

However, if you replaced it or are too far ahead with the screenplay that's totally okay with me, and I'll skip the refactor.

Hey, we have started outlining quests and story, but haven't actually started making them. We're still hard at work with getting the basics (core systems and level design) together.

We are still using your dialogue system, but I have found that it can be slightly laggy in some situations, however that may just be due to the way I build the dialogues. I actually planned on reaching out to you about it, however I'm currently on holiday and will be so until the 19th. I'll reach out to you after that if it's cool!

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

It really does feel like forever since I have posted a proper update with something real to showcase. I've been hard at work with different UI things, including remaking large parts of the combat menu UI to accommodate a pet system and other things. However more on that another time, this time it's time to unveil our "from the ground up" fully custom quest system;

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Another big update, relatively short time after the previous one. The revamped forest level design is done, and with that I can officially announce that the overworld level design is complete. Some things may be tweaked, but the layout and doodad placement is 100% done.

I'll be spending the next months on combining everything into one campaign file to make a fully traversable world with lots of systems implemented, including, but not limited to; Fast travelling, vendors, crafting stations and more.

Spoiler: old design

 

[Chaosy]

You genuinely could have made a proper game instead haha.

Two small things I noticed while you were running around in the video:
1. When you are inside the house the outside/ambient sounds should probably be more silent. I think this can be done relatively easily.
2. It would be an immersive touch if it played splashing sounds when the character walks in shallow water. I can think of two ways to do this but both have drawbacks.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

1. When you are inside the house the outside/ambient sounds should probably be more silent. I think this can be done relatively easily.

The ambient sounds are actually Youtube videos in the background, we haven't worked on the sounds at all yet

2. It would be an immersive touch if it played splashing sounds when the character walks in shallow water. I can think of two ways to do this but both have drawbacks.

I have given this a fair bit of thought already, and is something on my menu. The way I'm going to do it is to have several walk animations for the character model, with different animation nodes/sounds for the different animations. When the character enters the water (checking the terrain at the location of the unit) I will just set the animation tag of the unit to the appropriate tag.

 

[Chaosy]

That was one of my ideas, my drawback would be that it would probably reset the running animation.
I have not tested it but that's what I think would happen.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

That was one of my ideas, my drawback would be that it would probably reset the running animation.
I have not tested it but that's what I think would happen.

Maybe, I haven't tested either so I'm not sure. If so I may be able to do it seamlessly with the passive transformation method which I'm pretty sure doesn't break animations.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

The transition / fast travel system is nearing completion with just some minor tweaks left. Travelling throughout the entire world and fast travelling to set locations by either carriage or ship is now possible. The party members currently in your party will be displayed on the carriage or ship.

Nevermind the combat menu opening every time a game loads. I had already spent a lot of time preparing the campaign for a video and couldn't be bothered to recompile the whole thing yet again, so I just went with it.

In the video I'm just strolling around to random places, using the fast travelling and showcasing a small part of the world the story takes place in.

I can't wait until all the core systems are fully in place with vendors, crafting stations, enemy encounters, random dialogues with NPCs, readable books and everything else!

 

[Med. MapGuy]

These updates have been astounding, as usual.

 

[Planetary]

Impressive transitions, love the ambience.

If it interests you, Kobold Kingdom has an auto right click to move Lua script that has most of the engine quirks worked out. It has some jankiness for WC3 combat that I never could perfect, but it might be great for a free-roam RPG use case to save players from carpal tunnel.

I also made a plugin in one of the patches that emulates footsteps, which might be cool. You could control the sound file based on the map (snow, dirt, etc. - WoW has sound files for these here). You might even be able to insert a region check that lets you do more specific footstep sounds in water like @Chaosy suggested.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Back at it again with the retexturing and revamping. I always thought the textures for the mountain city, village, castle and ruins looked like cardboard. At one point I knew I eventually had to do something about it, and, well, finally I did. The entire ruins with the big ruined head has been redone. New models, new textures, new pretty much everything.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Been working on revamping the pirate town since it was mostly equipped with models and textures from World of Warcraft. Retextured the houses and replaced the wooden gangways, pillars, stairs and more.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

While experimenting a bit with parallax, shadows and lighting I'm now wondering if I should make all the interiors fully shaded. I never seem to be able to stop changing/improving things...

Spoiler

 

[Yudistira]

i wonder in what version this map is playable in warcraft?
1.30 ++ ?

and then what is the current map size?
how many "mb" already..

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

i wonder in what version this map is playable in warcraft?
1.30 ++ ?

and then what is the current map size?
how many "mb" already..

It will be available for 1.31 and possibly 1.32 if I make a modified version for it.

Size is around 900mb, but will be reduced when I delete unused assets.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Updates have been slow recently since I'm more busy with real life stuff, and my desktop computer with all the important files/saves and stuff is currently not usable. I'm waiting for an RMA request on several of the parts, so that may take up to another month to get sorted out.

Here's some combat footage though. Completely reworked combat UI with new combat menu and portraits, turn board, and a brand new combat status system that lets you display stats, buffs, debuffs and more.

UI and UI functionality by me and combat system and functionality by @Yours Truly.
(sorry for the bad quality, this was filmed on a potato computer I'm using while waiting for replacement parts).

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

While I'm still waiting for my computer parts to return from RMA we have been working on making the actual items. We are still working on "creating" the items, and arranging their index, as well as determining what kind of ingredients should be used for each item, their attributes, stats, descriptions, names, and just tons of other settings for each item. The item system has turned to be the most extensive system, maybe only paralleled by the combat system. Can't wait to actually transfer it from a sheet, to a fully working in-game system.

Spoiler: sneak peek