Interested in making a fantasy mod

[CarRepairer]

Just fantasy. Medieval style. Anyone else interested?

The game would include some or all units from the following incomplete list: Elves, Skeletons, Dragons, Wizards, Witches, Strange Beasts, Pigs, Horses, Goblins, You get the picture...

Game design would be based on the same principles of CA.
This means simplified resource management, emphasis on unit selections and to allow focusing on battle formations. Minimal/nonexistant special rules are what allow for an easy learning curve. This means less armor classes, simpler resource costs (single currency preferred), simpler tech trees (flatter and less branching) and as much automation as possible of course.

Plus there would not be any fear to release the game at incremental stages. CA's best asset (contrary to popular belief) is rapid deployment. No, I'm serious. Non stop feedback = super progress.

Required
Need people who can balance playtest, model, texture and script. I might assist with texturing where needed. You don't need to have super skills, "good enough" is good enough for me.

Why Help Me?
While I have experience working in several other mods, the one project that I'd call entirely my own is Chicken Tag. It is a very unique game in spring which was inspired by the WC3 map Kodo Tag, and was well liked by everyone who played it. It was created with quantum's mission editor but supplemented with a lot of lua and gameplay mechanics. It unfolded as a fun, ~20 minute length, action-packed game.

Its one downfall was difficulty of setup because it didn't work if the host was using tasclient (the main client at the time) and required the bots and players be assigned the exact correct teams. I pretty much hosted all the games for it.

Why am I making this thread?
Because with The Cursed, this new wilbefast character, maackey and others expressing interest in this forum about finally getting out some fantasy mods for Spring, I figured what the heck.


P.S. eye ma noun sing mime odds.

[zwzsg]

Because with The Cursed, this new wilbefast character, maackey and others expressing interest in this forum about finally getting out some fantasy mods for Spring, I figured what the heck..

So you figured that instead of joining them, you're create yet another mod on the same premises so efforts would be more divided and less likely to succeed?

[CarRepairer]

What you don't see behind the scenes is for every new mod I've contributed to, my work has been enhanced in incalculable ways. My gui designs were fine when I was working on them in CA. But when I began implementing it in s44 and The Cursed, it became better than I thought possible. I created features for The Cursed and plan to help maackey with his new game. All those features are not "divided" but shared. I made this thread to see if anyone's interested in the same stuff I am. If not, perhaps in the future. More mods is better, not worse.

[KaiserJ]

how about clockwork stuff?

[CarRepairer]

how about clockwork stuff?

Very yes.

[KaiserJ]

how about a "Wizards / Alchemists" side then?

stuff like :
basic infantry (archers, pikemen, swordsmen etc) would be goblins
advanced infantry ("knights", CA cans, greek fire throwers etc) would be orcs... give 'em bombs and crossbows and giant swords etc
command units (Commander, Freakers etc) would be dressed in wizard robe and hat
builder units would be alchemists or tinkers
stationary defence and support would be brass and wood clockwork cannons and ballistae
and then of course, i could make some golems and stuff if we needed mega units. a ranged golem with a sack full of goblins to throw could be our krog.
and a sorceress with giant tits.

of course, i wont call them orcs and goblins and such. i'll make up something different. and they wont look much like orcs or goblins either. so basically exactly like i just described, but nothing really to do with it.

general suggestions:

power plants: windmills would fit the era, no? geothermal could be a well. "solars" could be farms, with crops that burn or cows that explode if they are attacked. also... why not just have cows as a power plant? +1 food, etc. they can wander around slowly and randomly, so there will be micro in terms of making fences. peasants wandering around to get slaugtered would also be awesome. if im in charge of this faction in terms of gameplay, i want a resource option to be enslaved humans.

things like economy buildings and base buildings could share models across the faction, especially if we make them have big banners; then its just a matter of a re-skin and boom done. of course, they COULD be different models, just kind of musing about the path of least resistance to actually making this.

edit : so are you going to be "in charge" of this mod? (not opposed at all. seems a good idea.)

[Neddie]

I have an idea...

You and MidKnight want very different games, but they could use the same content. Sort of like Warcraft III against DotA. Could you merge your projects and have two emergent games based on the same content package? This would increase your chance of success greatly, double your present support, and probably lead to better content.

More mods is not really what is needed, more games are needed. More games split the present playerbase, but that shouldn't be a primary concern... too many projects fail to advertise outside of Spring, and fail to do the legwork doing so would require, like creating a good UI, Single Player, and autohosts.

I support you, I'm over-committed as it is but I'll help as long as it seems good for me. I can potentially texture, make two-dimensional art, play test, balance and handle promotion/politics. I like your idea, particularly the stylistic plans and gameplay design, the latter of which encompasses many of the design elements of CA which I remember and value from early CA development. The rapid deployment model is good for development and bad for growth, as you know, but having made that informed decision, you've implicitly committed yourself to strong development, which is heartening.

All I ask is that you say it is a game, or clarify that mod means module rather than modification.

[CarRepairer]

You and MidKnight want very different games, but they could use the same content. Sort of like Warcraft III against DotA. Could you merge your projects and have two emergent games based on the same content package? This would increase your chance of success greatly, double your present support, and probably lead to better content.

You hit the nail on the head with this one.

how about a "Wizards / Alchemists" side then?

stuff like :
basic infantry (archers, pikemen, swordsmen etc) would be goblins
advanced infantry ("knights", CA cans, greek fire throwers etc) would be orcs... give 'em bombs and crossbows and giant swords etc
command units (Commander, Freakers etc) would be dressed in wizard robe and hat
builder units would be alchemists or tinkers
stationary defence and support would be brass and wood clockwork cannons and ballistae
and then of course, i could make some golems and stuff if we needed mega units. a ranged golem with a sack full of goblins to throw could be our krog.
and a sorceress with giant tits.

of course, i wont call them orcs and goblins and such. i'll make up something different. and they wont look much like orcs or goblins either. so basically exactly like i just described, but nothing really to do with it.

general suggestions:

power plants: windmills would fit the era, no? geothermal could be a well. "solars" could be farms, with crops that burn or cows that explode if they are attacked. also... why not just have cows as a power plant? +1 food, etc. they can wander around slowly and randomly, so there will be micro in terms of making fences. peasants wandering around to get slaugtered would also be awesome. if im in charge of this faction in terms of gameplay, i want a resource option to be enslaved humans.

things like economy buildings and base buildings could share models across the faction, especially if we make them have big banners; then its just a matter of a re-skin and boom done. of course, they COULD be different models, just kind of musing about the path of least resistance to actually making this.

Nearly all of what you said, +1. Geos as wells? I never would have thought of this. Sharing buildings to save time? This is what we need. In the same manner I threw together the chicken faction for CA, I wish to throw together a playable game with this fantasy theme. (Edit: by throw together I mean I don't care about perfect balance and missing roles, they will be filled in as needed from feedback.) As far as the features, abilities and gui, much of it is already usable.

edit : so are you going to be "in charge" of this mod? (not opposed at all. seems a good idea.)

No. All I want is something like CA (both in design and as an open source "meritocracy" as Saktoth puts it), but a pure medieval fantasy theme instead of robots. In the sense that these principles are held, that's the extent of my "rule" over it. Beyond that it would be like CA. Art, balancing, storyline and whatever else, would be a combined result of anyone who wishes to contribute as a main dev. I love this in CA and I would like to see it happen here too. I know there are detractors of our system (even Licho who helped solidify the voting system for making mod decisions constantly argues against it!) but I have found it's the best way to thrive and encourage people to join in.

I would like to still work with maackey and help him see his mod idea come to fruition, and I am still part of The Cursed. But kaiserj's responses are evidence that making this thread was a good idea. There are too many warcraft loving spring players out there who are in limbo.

[Neddie]

As long as it is a real meritocracy, I'm all for it. It would nice if you could set up a wiki and a forum so we could discuss things in a collaborative fashion.

[CarRepairer]

As long as it is a real meritocracy, I'm all for it. It would nice if you could set up a wiki and a forum so we could discuss things in a collaborative fashion.

Will do.

As content would need to be GPL compatible there's really no point in declaring a leader. Anyone who disagrees with game direction can easily themselves make a fork of such a game/mod/module/whateveryouwanttocallit anyway. Does that make sense or am I missing part of the picture?

[Pxtl]

Any plans for how the econ would work? I'd hate to see this game be "CA with a medieval skin".

[Neddie]

Hold up. What does GPL compatible mean to you? I'm fine with GPL v2 because CC and AL2 are compatible with it, as well as PD. However I cannot in good faith support a GPL v3 project. I prefer CC so I can go for CC-BY-SA and work in some legal attribution.

[CarRepairer]

Hold up. What does GPL compatible mean to you? I'm fine with GPL v2 because CC and AL2 are compatible with it, as well as PD. However I cannot in good faith support a GPL v3 project. I prefer CC so I can go for CC-BY-SA and work in some legal attribution.

Discuss it with me in the lobby when you see me. You can explain to me the differences, I am a layman here.

Any plans for how the econ would work? I'd hate to see this game be "CA with a medieval skin".

The whole idea is that that I want a game that is a spiritual cousin to CA by following its principles. One of those is that econ management is in the background. I don't have any plans right now, but The Cursed's simplicity is something to look at. A metal extracting structure and an energy generating structure.

[Pxtl]

... I'd just cut the energy econ altogether then, if you wanted simplicity. Really, what does it get you? In games without the energy-boosting-metal-output, maintaining energy levels is just a tedious distraction.

[Regret]

Game design would be based on the same principles of CA.
This means simplified resource management, emphasis on unit selections and to allow focusing on battle formations. Minimal/nonexistant special rules are what allow for an easy learning curve. This means less armor classes, simpler resource costs (single currency preferred), simpler tech trees (flatter and less branching) and as much automation as possible of course.

Plus there would not be any fear to release the game at incremental stages. CA's best asset (contrary to popular belief) is rapid deployment. No, I'm serious. Non stop feedback = super progress.

Hahahaha. Goodluck. Two times wrong doesn't make a right.

[CarRepairer]

<-- kindly remove yourself from my thread before I launch missiles at you.

[maackey]

You want to start a mod war?


BRING IT

jk, I love you all, and we can all share I suppose

BTW rattle, I now know exactly what you mean by too many polies on the weapons :O

[Saktoth]

I've a whole steampunk game planned out and my brother drew up very detailed and superb concept sketches for a bunch of steam cannons, clockwork automatons, cavalry with pneumatic lances, clockwork catapaults, musketeers etc. Its not strictly elves and dragons though.

Ill see if i can get the concepts to you if you'd like.

Its another one of those dream projects thats never going to see the light of day though, the one using the 5-way RPS structure as the core principle.

Love to work on it (especially the models from those concepts, yum) but i obviously am dedicating my time to to Logos/Open Conflict/Zero K/1faction/whatever. Perhaps after it launches but ill probably just have even more work then.

I know you like the CA dev model but perhaps its not best to talk about it like that car, because everyone is 'rah rah shitcock froth froth CA froth' and all.

Good luck with it, would be nice if you were starting from a content base though, Spring is really starting to build up a significant content base (im amazed nobody has forked s44 into a less realism focused nazi zombies type game, or just another WW2 type game of a different flavour).

[Neddie]

Its another one of those dream projects thats never going to see the light of day though, the one using the 5-way RPS structure as the core principle.

If you say so, I wouldn't count it out.

Good luck with it, would be nice if you were starting from a content base though, Spring is really starting to build up a significant content base (im amazed nobody has forked s44 into a less realism focused nazi zombies type game, or just another WW2 type game of a different flavour).

Already is a 1940 fork, and there may be a zombie fork. May be.

[Google_Frog]

... I'd just cut the energy econ altogether then, if you wanted simplicity. Really, what does it get you? In games without the energy-boosting-metal-output, maintaining energy levels is just a tedious distraction.

+1. There's no reason to add energy. Lodestones and Divine Loadstones worked well for TAK. Something similar could be done.

To experiment with some gameplay barely seen in Spring I think it would be good a good idea to use melee combat. This would be an interesting change from 'move units around while they shoot at each other' or 'move units into range so that they can shoot each other'. Flanking is a lot more powerful with melee combatants.

I'm not sure about clockwork though. Someone suggests a fantasy mod and suddenly it's more robot than fantasy. Although Sak seems to already have a clockwork design and chances are you'd get more models from him if it's clockwork. That will be the major issue, models.

Because with The Cursed, this new wilbefast character, maackey and others expressing interest in this forum about finally getting out some fantasy mods for Spring, I figured what the heck.

It would take a bit of work but many fantasy mods with 1 or 2 races could be combined to create a big fantasy mod. The Fantasy setting seems to be very modular, almost any fantasy type creates can 'realistically' be combined into one game.