Legnds..Northern Realms; juhos msg (rat race) & prj support

[Arkos]

The official thread for this project is now at: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4741

We are currently recruiting contributors to help build out "The Legends of the Northern Realms!"

juho:

I've been lurking in the background following this thread with great interest… It'd be cool to see this project come alive. Keep up the good work!

If you would like to contribute, please PM Neikun your skype name.

juho’s full message about this project:

Hey guys! I've been lurking in the background following this thread with great interest. It sounds to be pretty ambitious project, but doable if people put their backs into it.

Neikun approached me with private message about some things you came up with, I guess in Skype chats or something. Anyways, I thought I'd answer here in public so that everybody gets in the loop.

Firstly geography. You got surprisingly close with your "guess". I'll list places and their influence/reference/comparison in real world.

Kingdom of Theraen, capital Nothampton, ruled by King. - Britain
Malanian Empire, capital Malan Tael, ruled by Empire. - Anglo Saxon
Quenfar, Losancrel, Qegandoc and neighboring areas were once an kingdom before Malanian Empire conquered it. - Burgundy/Franks/France
Surrounding lands of Icefall Bay - Scandinavia
Shards - Iceland/Svalbard
Frostbites and north- Himalaya/Northpole
Endless Tundra - Siberia
Jungles of Xaae are actually subtropical but east to Serpent river starts proper jungles - India/southeast Asia
Isle of Nex. Ruled by religious order. - Crete/Greece
Harbardar - Middle East
Xafi Desert and south - Africa/Egypt

About Rat race. We haven't yet put the final seal of approval to them, but I think we'll do them. Safe bet would be that they are nomandish people that are spread thorough the world with no known origins.

Goromorgs... That's a difficult one. We're a bit touchy about the subject at the moment. You'll see why later . So I don't want to go too deeply on them, sorry. I think it's safe to say, that Goromorgs were seen also in other places than Grimrock in the Time of Ancients (but those stories have already turned to myths). The Prison and Cube were forgotten in time and other civilizations came and went building a layer over layer on top of Grimrock, but Goromorgs lingered through time in the shadows. Neikun also asked if Goromorgs were always evil. Who's to say that they are evil, I guess it's just a matter of viewpoint, but more on that also later. And yes, their origins are connected to Grimrock and other places too...

I hope this helps a bit. Feel free to ask more questions. It'd be cool to see this project come alive. Keep up the good work!

How this project started--Arkos:

After reading Isaac’s post here: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4540 on how it might be possible to add foot steps on snow, I thought how cool that would be, and that it could be done with a sand floor tile set for a dungeon in the desert. With that thought, I realized that so far I have seen custom tile sets for: Northern Dungeons, South Temple Dungeons, High Temple, Mine tile sets, Rook’s Ice Cave tile set, and more. It occurred to me that it would be awesome to join everyones’ work, but that would be a monumental task for one person. So, what if we joined forces to build out “The Northern Realms” of The Legend of Grimrock map included with the game, featuring all these cool mods–-a traversable, enigmatic, massive, open-ended, seamless, over-world full of dungeons, isolated remote dungeons, mine shafts, caverns, quests, adventures, ancient temples, anything the community can devise and connect to this.

Imagine traveling from frozen tileset dungeons in the North, to mine tileset dungeons in the mountains of Malan Vael, to the Dark Elf Temple, to the bleeding corrupt dungeons of the Red Hills, through the lush deadly jugles of Xaae, then across the Toll Islands to the southern tileset dungeons in the Xafi desert, collecting items or achievements in each dungeon required to enter Mount Grimrock’s sister peak's dungeon isolated deep in the Dearthfang Ridges! What an experience that would be!

This open-ended community project of building out “The Northern Realms” of LoG is pretty much CFD++ on steroids. The difference is:

• Peoples’ dungeons can be much bigger
• The amount of dungeons created to be connected to the LoG World is unlimited
• The dungeons are created with tilesets appropriate to their locations on the LoG map included with the game
• The dungeons are connected via outdoor tilesets which may use hidden teleporters for traveling east west etc. giving the player the feel they are still walking down the same path to the next traditional up/down dungeon—think playing Skyrim/Morrowind while traveling to the next custom modded-out dungeon crawling experience
• The dungeons all contribute to an overall goal/purpose, whether by achievements or collected artifacts; more suggestions are welcome!

The goals of the project:

• Showcase everyones’ mods in a related endless universe
• A seamless, traversable, expansive, immersed experience
• To take Dungeon crawling to the next level, as msyblade said:

Really think this is the beginning of the "Granddaddy of all mods". If executed flawlessly, it could change the entire genre of dungeon crawlers, and heck yeah I wanna be part of that!

Please refer to the LoG map below included with the game; dungeon creators could volunteer to take on and maintain different parts of this map—to build out a dungeon for Frostbites and Shards in the North, using the Northern Dungeon Tile set and the Ice Cave tile set, etc. Other volunteers build out dungeons in the south: the Xafi Desert, etc. using the southern temple tile sets and other tile sets appropriate for this area—a sand floor cave tile set (foot steps in the sand) would be cool as it leads to other tile sets like the Southern Temple.



Have designated person(s) for each region approve additions of other contributors who would like to contribute to their assigned area. As far as other areas like the Red Hills, someone would pick an area and build it out. Then others who want to contribute to the same area like the Red Hills would just collaborate with each-other. They would be the Red Hills group; others would be the Storm Mountains group or the Frostbites group, etc.

Custom items like The Glaive of Krull viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4533 could be a quest to achieve in one of the areas; perhaps at the top of a high temple tile set in a tower in the city of Malan Tael or a remote area in the Mines of Moria in the Storm Peak mountains. Each area could have several quests and achievements.

I have seen outdoor environments: Grimrock Forest Tileset – Alpha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI9dfGyDU_0 tunnel tile sets, flooded dungeons http://www.youtube.com/user/Celepithil and rocky tile sets
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4464#p46531 these concepts could be used to connect the Grimrock world (everyones’ dungeons together). To connect the mainland to the Shards or the Xafi desert, use tunnel/cave tile sets, maybe even an outdoor sand dune tile set. Flooded dungeons could be used as you approach coastal areas which have the entrance to the tunnel tile sets that go under the ocean. The rocky and forest tile sets could be used to travel to the entrance of dungeons on the mainland etc.

We would need volunteers to take on building out the environments for connecting the regions together. One of these groups could be the Toll Island group, which works on connecting the Xafi desert to the mainland through the Toll Islands—mixed environments of tunnels under the water to watch towers and rocky to lush land scapes that finally reach the Jungles of Xaae where you find ancient ruins that look like they come out of the Mayan temples on the Yucatan in Mexico, etc. See the outdoor picture for Jungle of Xaae posibilities here: http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/938 ... A9655490B/

This would be a great way to experience everyone’s creativity in one common world and the possibilities and game play would be endless. Ok so who wants Grotto of Xazarra? Who wants the Xafi desert? Who wants the Toll Islands? Who wants the Isle of Nex? …

McSkivv:

One way or another, this project will reach awesome fruition. It simply has too much potential to be left behind in the hypothetical dustbin of scrapped ideas.

This thread is the sign up sheet for this project. Just postreply if you would like to contribute, so we can add you to the list of contributors.

For current contributors, please visit viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4741

[undeaddemon]

While I certainly agree, that that there is much content being developed here, my thinking (perhaps incorrectly?) is that, as of yet, there is only "up and down" and no way yet to tie "up and downs" together with North East West South, linking regions together??
I would love to be wrong!

[Neikun]

I am for this idea. I just hope I have time to contribute.

[msyblade]

I have been floating around an Idea for an outdoor area (c'moooooon skuggs!) That links our dungeons as areas to visit from the main "Hub". Even have signposts like "Right: Hotel Hades, Left: The Master Key". Then (need a wallset in the outdoor env that looks like Stone Walls/Mine/Dungeon entrance). Open the door and BOOM! you're in Phitts Mine. (Sure the map would say Level 47: Mine Entrance, but i'm okay with that.) I think the most difficult part (If we're talking finished mods only) is that the file size could be 1.2 gig (and the accompanying load time), but for the total package reward,I feel it's worth it. Someone with the time and desire would only need our permission to use each dungeon, then build the hub and link entrances. Maybe have some reward from each dungeon completed togo towards building "the Artifact", which is required to enter the "Final Dungeon" and conquer the land! Imagining final stats like:

Secrets found: 127/163
Total Playtime: 64 hrs. 23 mins.

[Arkos]

While I certainly agree, that that there is much content being developed here, my thinking (perhaps incorrectly?) is that, as of yet, there is only "up and down" and no way yet to tie "up and downs" together with North East West South, linking regions together??
I would love to be wrong!

While I was watching Polar Express I came up with an idea to deal with this “up and down only” issue. I’m thinking we could just use teleporters to link the regions together.

Msyblade said:
Sure the map would say Level 47: Mine Entrance, but i'm okay with that.

I think msyblade and I are on the same wavelength here. The entire LoG world would be one dungeon hundreds of levels deep, but that is only from the editor’s point of view. Someone would have to compile all the pieces from everyone into one dungeon. As players our perception of it would be different. For instance, at the end of an outdoor level in the tileset: [WIP] Forest Tileset sneak peek - UPDATE 2.Dec viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4012 there could be a teleporter that takes you to another forest level to the South, as you are heading south towards the jungles of Xaae. Now, that next Forest level could be level 53 while the one you just teleported from could be level 52 or some other level, but from a players point of view, you wouldn’t know it. Teleporters would be used in linear travel as you go from one outdoor section to the next, traveling to your next dungeon to conquer.

This will only work if you can teleport to any level, as there will be hubs and crossroads where a section will need 4 teleporters. From our point of view, the teleporter teleports us to the next section east or west depending on where we are heading, but to the editor’s point view, that next section east could be 5 levels or more down from the section that contains the originating teleporter. People working on adjacent areas would have to collaborate on where these teleporters are placed.

The entrance to this whole thing could be somewhere in the Blooddrop fields—a central location with signs like msyblade mentioned, pointing to easy, moderate, and hard dungeons with the distance on how far away they are. Expounding on what msyblade said—an example of how this could work—Hotel Hades could be in Qegandoc not too far from the Blooddrop fields. In order to get to Losancrel, which could be the only path to the Red Hills where a piece of “the Artifact” is, you have to beat Hotel Hades.

[Asteroth]

This is truly fascinating I have to say. Great ambition can be trying, look at Tamriel Rebuilt if your familiar with that. Those guys have been labouring for years. Fortunately, we could only build a world one dungeon at a time.

If you are patching a world out of dungeons that are already made or in progress, unforunately I can not lend mine. As I mentioned on the english and lore thread it does not fit well in continuities other than its own. However I would be proud to make a small dungeon for it.

I've been very curious what the grotto of xazarra is. I even thought of making a thread just to ask the devs. If you see this, did you have any mental image or idea when you thought that name up? If anybody else has an idea I am curious.

[akroma222]

I really like the sound of this
Linking finished dungeons together in a packaged mod has real potential

I guess the first issue people would want to consider, as Asteroth has pointed out, is making the flavour text/history/geography references within their dungeon mods consistant with the "Grimrock World" (if they do make such references..) I know I would need to go right back through my (half completed) mod and re-text many sections > then continue and finish it in accordance the Grimrock World (I would of course be very happy to do this)

I will definitely keep an eye out here and am keen to help

[Arkos]

Everyones' contributions would be most welcome! Asteroth, With your curiosity of Grotto of Xazarra, sounds like the perfect place for you

I did some research and found out a better way to move from one section to next—east to west, etc. We can use an item to teleport from one section to the next, using the following script: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3132&p=32297&hilit ... ion#p32297

The setTeleportTarget function has a parameter for which level to go to, so this will work! Now, you walk down a path, pick up the blue teleporting rock (or whatever the item is) and you are in the next section to your east or whatever direction you are heading. Hang on to these teleporting items, so if you want to travel to the other side of the world fast, no problem.

[Redweaver]

Everyones' contributions would be most welcome! Asteroth, With your curiosity of Grotto of Xazarra, sounds like the perfect place for you

I did some research and found out a better way to move from one section to next—east to west, etc. We can use an item to teleport from one section to the next, using the following script: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3132&p=32297&hilit ... ion#p32297

The setTeleportTarget function has a parameter for which level to go to, so this will work! Now, you walk down a path, pick up the blue teleporting rock (or whatever the item is) and you are in the next section to your east or whatever direction you are heading. Hang on to these teleporting items, so if you want to travel to the other side of the world fast, no problem.

With our relatively small inventories, this item idea could become a problem. And it feels a little funny, realism-wise. Why would you need to pick up a rock to take another step along what should be a seamless path? Is there a way to do a global script that can be called inside any local dungeon via script entity? Something like this may require a scripting framework file, in addition to the various dungeons and textures and such.

This idea intrigues me. I think it may have merit. Biggest hurdle, IMO, is decent looking "outside" areas...hard to keep everything from looking like boxes and corridors given the engine.

[cromcrom]

Hello there,

Just to let you know, The Lost Continent was built following loosely this idea. However, it was not designed to expressely join existing dungeons, but as an open area where people would find more specific dungeons. I believe the basis is pretty solid (although there are so many custom systems that it is quite buggy).
I was in touch with msyblade for a few posts to add hotel hades to it, but I stopped developping it, because of very very disappointing overall feedback.
So just to tell you might want to give it a look/try, it is also open source (although not the very last version).

Regards.