What we are doing now

[Sea Age]

Title do kinda give it away, but I'll still explain it to you: I just wanted to post a sort of mapmaking progress-log.

Right now we are pretty early in the process. We have done the opening cinematic (went back and forth on that one a lot), we've hidden the first (and only, so far) collectible - and I don't know if people will figure out this first one, 'cause it's hidden kinda... Randomly. Anyway, we've started to initiate the first part of the story.

Right now, we (and I say "we", but I really mean Creative.S) are making an abandoned mine, and we have just gone through a horrible triggering session with that god damned torch you're supposed to use in that cave/mine/thing.

So, that's where we're at now. The mine. We're probably only 10-20% at the map, but even that is just guessing. Hope to get out some screens here soon -.-

 

[Sea Age]

I see dead people?

Finished a dream sequence that is supposed to be very early in the game. It marks the transition from cutscenes, to the actual game starting. Progress! Marks the first screenshot, so there.

Also, put in pictures on Raynard and his own personal hallucination in the Character Sheet. Just thought I'd mention that.

Edit: Thought I'd throw in this as well:

Random scenery

 

[Creative.S]

Lately I've been working on the main hero Raynard's abilities, and this is what he's got so far:

Concussion Blow:
Works almost like the ability in WoW, deals slightly bit of damage, and stuns target. So basicly it's a melee ranged Storm Bolt, with greatly nerfed damage done.

Heroic Strikes:
Adds additional damage on the next attack, at a low cost of mana. Works like Searing Arrows, just that this is melee.

-TBA-:
This ability is going to be a sort of "shout/howl/roar", based on Howl of Terror ability. It's going to reduce surrounding enemy units' attack damage slightly less than original Howl of Terror, but last slightly longer.

Focus Mind/Mind Focus:
Increases mana regeneration slightly, and helps Raynard keep a sane mind.

Paranoia:
Increases the night vision slightly, but might bring up hallucinations and other unwanted occurings, depending on Raynards current Sanity. Keep a high Sanity for a sane mind.



Raynard needs one more ability, which is pretty much undecided atm, so if you have any suggestions on what this last ability should be, or anything else above, feel free to post them here.

 

[Sea Age]

Focus Mind/Mind Focus:
Increases mana regeneration slightly, and helps Raynard keep a sane mind.

Paranoia:
Increases the night vision slightly, but might bring up hallucinations and other unwanted occurings, depending on Raynards current Sanity. Keep a low Sanity for a sane mind.

Which reminds me... Did I ever explain the concept of Raynard's sanity? Just in case I didn't, here goes: Raynard is an old warrior, and somewhat mentally unstable, psychically scarred by his many endeavours and blah, blah, blah. This will also be shown through a sanity bar; When at 100% sanity, it's the closest we'll get to a sane Raynard. When this decreases, the frequency of Raynard's hallucinations will increase, even to the point where he has to fight them as well.

In short; the less sanity, the harder the game will (or at least should) become.

Different things influence the sanity-bar, from killing an enemy a certain way, or in a certain location, or just seeing something. At least, this is the ideas so far. This, and a few specific scripted events.

 

[Creative.S]

The torch trigger (as mentioned above) is kind of functional now. Item torch has an x amount charges, currently 10 as standard for a normal torch. While this torch is in hero's inventory, it will count down by 1 each second, and when the remaining charges reach 0, the torch will be replaced by an exhausted torch. Inside caves and mines the hero's sight radius will be greatly reduced 'cause of the dark. However, having a torch in the inventory will increase the sight radius again. So when the torch expires and becomes an exhausted torch, the sight radius will reduce again. To recharge the torch the hero will have to find and pick up other torches or find something to relight it.

 

[Sea Age]

Well, the torch trigger seems to be done, until glitch-testing at least. Creative.S did an awesome job on that, and a few other triggers not to be mentioned inside the abandoned mine-section.

So, as we now are done with that part (hope to come up with screens), we'll move onto the outside of the mine, the city of Ethlâna and the nearby - yet unnamed - orc camp. Both of which are central to Raynard's mission, of course.

 

[Creative.S]

Computer died, with the original copy of the map, and it will most likely be deleted >.> Only time will tell, tho. We were about 50% in the original, but if we lose this, we will fall back about 10-20%. While waiting for the computer and hopefully the original file, we'll use this opportunity to start on the second map of our campaign, the second (and final) act of the Epilogue. It will depict Raynard's revenge, and will be part stealth, part action. The map will take place in our interpretion of a city central to Warcraft lore.

 

[Sea Age]

Got the computer back, but not the map. Gah. But, we are working hard to get back on schedual. That is, I'm slacking here, and Creative.S is pretty much working his a*s off.

 

[Sea Age]

Hmph, need to throw out some screens, soon. So tardy with that. Started on another bonus-map, though, done a load(!) of story-writing, working on everything that was lost in the Great Fire (well, metaphorically speaking. It's still just the computer that crashed), and balancing out the map, working and testing out to see if we can come up with the triggers we need and stuff like that.

The two maps might turn out to be three maps, all depending on if we manage certain triggers, or if it's best for the gameplay with two or three, not entirely sure yet. I'm somewhat wanting to have three maps (in which the first map will be fighting, second will be stealth, third will be either a mix of these or only fighting.)

Right now we hope to get some help with a Jass-trigger event. Both bonus maps I have worked on/am currently working on will be more or less cannon to the story, but I also want to add a bonus map with characters and background from the original Warcraft lore (since we are twisting are a lot of the lore that we have as a starting point).

Hm. That's it, for now. I could talk a lot about the story-ideas, but it's a lot of loose ones, and it's still possible that it'll go in the exact opposite direction. I'll probably pop in later and talk a lot of gibberish about it, so yeah. xP

 

[Sea Age]

I've just moved, so it's been very silent around the project lately. But, whilst I was slacking, the other half of this team (Creative.S) has been working at least something. But now we hope to get back to full pace again. As close to it as possible, at least, as we have to learn to work together from long distances.

EDIT: Oh, and that JASS-trigger thing was fixed. Thanks for the help!

 

[Sea Age]

Well, since we have decided to go ahead and take a starting point in Warcraft lore, it could seem like we get to rebuild a certain amount of its cities and locations, and add what differences that are relevant to our own story. At this point we (yes, both of us. I am actually doing some map-building.) have started on two different cities.

Also, the undead, as has been mentioned before (or has it? ) will make an entry in this WC universe, too. But - for now - only as regular zombies. And although it'd be interesting to work with the Evil Arthas, we will do an entirely different thing out of that. If we get that far.

 

[Sea Age]

As we're finishing up on the first map, we've decided to take a small "break" , which would mean have a last attempt at creative ideas for map 2, and whether it actually is going to be two more maps, or one large one. Also, we need to settle on some details concerning the end of this prologue.

 

[Sea Age]

We've settled for a total of 3 maps as of now, and started outlining them, drawing them up, and so forth. Doing some changes to the first map, though, so there's still that.

 

[Creative.S]

Work started on the first map again btw, and there's a couple of Screenshots available.

 

[Sea Age]

Work started on the first map again btw, and there's a couple of Screenshots available.

I love that mysterious box.

Anywho, in the middle of redesigning some characters and working on several fill-in maps. Playing with ideas and the such. Getting less and less time to do actual work on the maps, but hey. S'life.

 

[Creative.S]

Great news for us! Sea Age is moving back for the summer, and the projects progress will be at 100% once again. Will be picking up pieces and get everything ready by then, so map 1 will most definitly be completed during this summer, finally.

 

[Miss_Foxy]

That's really wonderful to hear!
I hope that everyone would take this as an opportunity to improve the map greatly'
All the best for your map!

PS: Here's a +Rep to encourage you

 

[Sea Age]

With the Starcraft 2-release and its following world editor, we decided to take some time to consider whether or not we'd try using that as a format for making our maps. Stupid not to, after all, juust in case it had some tiny revolutionary thingamajing that we could use. In the end, after letting our resident mapmaker (that guy, posting one post above me; Creative.S) test it, we of course decided to keep rolling with good ol' WE for this project, at least.

In other news, I've personally had one computer crash on me, then the other one, and when I got the first one back, it decided to crash, too, because they had decided to switch one fault for another instead of actually fixing it.

I can't really blame 'em, though. That's toootally how my computer repair-shop would've worked.

 

[Creative.S]

Ah, summer passed by, winter incoming, and the snow is settling down, killing off every wretched piece of grass, with its cold, mean, merciless embrace. Oh how we love the winter!

Anywhom, we did not finish the map 1 like I "most definitly'ed" it to be, and infact, did not make much progress on it at all. However now motivation has been recieved by forces unknown, and I will now (without "most definitly'ing" anything yet) say that I most definitly will make strong attempts at patching up previously lost triggers, which is mainly the disencouraging factor at this moment.

 

[Morris]

Is this project finished or what?