Mod-Project: Abandoned Places 2

Talk about creating Grimrock 1 levels and mods here. Warning: forum contains spoilers!
User avatar
Wanderer
Posts: 113
Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2012 9:08 pm
Location: Lyramion / Twinlake :)

Mod-Project: Abandoned Places 2

Post by Wanderer »

Hi there,
first of all i want to thank everyone for the effort to making Mods and sharing their knowledge with the community.
Well, i am a littlebit new to LoG but not to Dungeon-Crawling games at all.
To be precise, I know Dungeon-Crawling games since C64 and Bardstale (yeah not DM was the first Dungeon-Crawling game :mrgreen: ).
When I heard about LoG, I gone crazy, because I loved to see that so many years after nothing really special was released to the Dungeon-Crawling Genre and even I thought it would never come alive again. But then i heard of LoG and after a short playtime, i loved it. It is such a great thing to see after so many years a game like this.

Furthermore, after first playing through the maingame and trying out few mods for this great Game, i went to my cellar to look through my (very very old) scriptings/playthroughs/notices/handdrawn Maps about earlier played Dungeon-Crawling-Games. Well, after i looked here in the LoG Forums, steam and Grimrock-Nexus, i have seen also that most of the worthwile Games to make a Mod are already be modded by someone else (or is in progress). :mrgreen:

But one Game I loved to play is not known very well, and i think this is because of the fact, that the first two Levels in the Temple/Crypt to the beginning was for the most people little to challenging (1992 at all). But i know it isnt, because i played many times through this game, the only thing is, that you dont have to rush through the first two levels. After that said, the game was really very nice to play, to those, who were passion and careful enough.
The game i mean is Abandoned Places 2, and it is kind a sort of another game called "Knightmare".
Abandoned Places already has good and deep dungeons as well as an overland Map (like Lands of Lore i.e). And the game has more Story in it unlike other Dungeon-Crawler like DM, even it plays very similar.

First I want to Show you the original Cover-Pics of this game, so that the ones out there, who dont know this game very well, become an idea, what kind of game AP2 was.

Image
Image

And last but not least an Amiga-Screenshot of the Interface from the original Game:
Image

As you can see, the game was a typically Dungeon-Crawler Game for this time (1992).

Back to the beginning of my posting, i looked in my cellar for the Maps of this game, and like any other treasure (hehe) it was untouched for now 20 Years. I wanna show you the Handwritten first Dungeon-Map of this game, so you can see, that it fits very well to the Editor of LoG. And in fact, i have allready finished modding the first level of this game.
By the way, dont worry about the language on the handwritten Dungeon-Map, the Mod itself is in english. The Game itself was Multilanguage at the release.
Image
This Level (already moded) looks something like this in the editor:
Image

About the Mod: I want to thank the community for sharing their knowledge, scriptcodes, mods, Tile-Sets, 3d-Models and evrything you can imagine. I used many of the shared stuff for this Mod, and also i am waiting for the Forest-Tileset, beacause my mod needs an Outdoor-Tileset. AP2 has Outdoor and (very deep) Dwarven-Mines as well as an very high Wizards-Tower, Crypts and so on.
I will inform you from time to time about the Mod here in the Forums, and when finished, i will share it through the Workshop of Steam AND Grimrock-Nexus!

However, my AP2-mod still needs few things, like the Forest-Tileset. And i must figure out little things like, how to change the Party-Direction, after teleporting to another Level (I have to use the Teleport/Stairs combination because unlike Grimrock AP2 havent a sequently DungeonLevel-order and also not have the same square when going up or down in a dungeon). I anyone knows the correct syntax for how to use the onEnterLevel when teleporting the party to another level, i would be grateful when he/she shares it with me, because i didnt find much about it in the Forums, and also i didnt figure the use by my self till know.

And the Mod needs some Burning Floor Tiles wich burns the party when walking on it. The Waterfields (wich makes the same, unless it makes cold-damge instead of Fire damage) i have managed already. I used the flooded dungeon tileset for this and i implemented even the needed sounds when walking in water. :mrgreen:
Someone with modeling skills should make a floor-draining tile maybe with coming out flames when walked on. I think the rest i could manage by my self. :mrgreen:

And maybe a few spells like "Levitate" for avoiding fire and cold damage if used before walking on this fields.
Erm, yeah, and create fodd. Has anyone written a custom spell (for castlevel 3-5 wood be nice :mrgreen: ) for this matter? I need a create food spell :mrgreen: To the 3-4 Spells for creating frost- fire- poison arrows etc. (casting-Level 3 or 7?) , i have no much use in my mod, so that this spells could changed for other purposes like Lavitate (could be some sort of reworked shielding-spell) and as i said, create food is all i need anyway. :mrgreen:

And again, i want to thank 'Almost Human' for this great game and great editor, it is such a nice thing to play (and modding) Dungeon-Crawler games again.

lg Wanderer
My first LoG-Mod: Abandoned Places 2
User avatar
Komag
Posts: 3658
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 4:55 pm
Location: Boston, USA

Re: Mod-Project: Abandoned Places 2

Post by Komag »

Wow, this is a very cool looking and ambitious project!

As far as I know there is no onEnterLevel hook (could be useful!), so you will have to fake it like the DM modders have (IIRC). You could set up a hidden plate on the stairs or teleporter that starts a short timer to allow the stair anim but then run a script to move the party with party:setPosition(x,y,facing,level) (such as party:setPosition(21,17,0,5) or something else).

You can also use that code for changing the party facing, just make it party:setPosition(party.x,party.y,0,party.level) and change the 0 to whatever facing you want (0 north, 1 east, 2 south, 3 west). don't fill in anything for the x,y,level, but leave the actual "x", "y", and word "level" where they are in that example. If you are teleporting anyway though, then just set the facing with the teleporter - it's the direction the teleporter is rotated in the dungeon editor - and be sure "change facing" is checked in the teleporter properties.

You can use hidden plates to trigger damageTile events and cause fire damage or cold damage. You could spawn in a fire burst at the same time, or just use the fireburst if that's enough damage.

I think someone made a food spell already (just a custom spell that spawns random food item on floor or in backpack), and a "levitate" spell should be pretty simple if it's just to avoid setting off hidden plates (each plate would link to script that would check whether levitate spell has been cast recently or not), but I don't think it would be easy to make levitate spell work to walk over pits.

Hope that helps a little :)
Finished Dungeons - complete mods to play
User avatar
Wanderer
Posts: 113
Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2012 9:08 pm
Location: Lyramion / Twinlake :)

Re: Mod-Project: Abandoned Places 2

Post by Wanderer »

Hi Komag,
thank you very much for the quick reply.
Yes, almost all of your suggestions I also thought about. And i think i will do it this way.
For me (i have tried till now with a 30 Level Dungeon for testing purposes :mrgreen: ) the combination of Teleport/stairs works very well, and i havent noticed any errors with it (not when like recomended at last 1 Item or something like an altar is in each level ect.), well all beyond this is more cosmetical nature, but i am a little perfectionist and of course i want all thing so that i am satisfied. :mrgreen: And i am sure, i will find some workaround of the direction, and waht you say sounds a very good idea.

I use already scripts/hiddenplates for the Water-squares for checking if someone walks in Water, and if yes, the party takes cold-damage. This works very good, so good, that I even can configure the damage-range (i.e maximum damage) and the intervall (when party stands on this field it becomes lets say evry 2 sec damage).
For the Fire-Fields all i need is Tiles (like the Watersquares of flooded Dungeon tileset). The needed scripts for checking damage. ect. I allready figured out. But it would grreat to see when some creates Floor-Drainage-Tile with a ever burnning Flame comes out of it. Only for optical feeling. :mrgreen:

I have testet waterwalking over and over again, to be sure (taking damage, making waternoise as footsteps etc.) and it functioning very well. Better than i thought :mrgreen:
However, Waterwalking and Flames out of the floor are one of few things i have to add to the engine, but as i said before, almost evrything fits very well to the needs of AP2, so that I have not change or add too many Game-mechanics.

Good to know that there is already a create food spell around. I will need this :mrgreen:
Or maybe one Idea for creating food i thought of, would be evtl. mixing special ingredients in the Mortar? Something what feels like cooking? Maybe this would be a better (and realistic) solution, is it possible to generate custom recipes for the mortar? :mrgreen:
If yes, i would prefer this way of generating food.

Last but not least, this are all few, small things, the game even would be playable without this things. Most of them would be nice to have, but not necessary must have.

I am very suprised and impressed about the LoG-Editor. There was nothing i could not get to work of the one or other way. I am really impressed. It makes much fun to mod and see the result coming alive.
Especially in case of AP2, it feels surprisingly similar to the original game.
I am very happy about that. :mrgreen:

Edit: By the way, thousands of thanks for your great tutorials, i have learned really really many things about the Editor from your tutorials. I dont know, if I would be already so good in modding LoG without your tutorials.
My first LoG-Mod: Abandoned Places 2
hyteria
Posts: 266
Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2012 8:22 pm

Re: Mod-Project: Abandoned Places 2

Post by hyteria »

very nice and cool project , i stay tuned ! :p
User avatar
Wanderer
Posts: 113
Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2012 9:08 pm
Location: Lyramion / Twinlake :)

Re: Mod-Project: Abandoned Places 2

Post by Wanderer »

Hello to the skilled 3D-Moddelers out there (who are also familiar with importing and changing/reworking an already given prop or tileset of LoG)

I need 3 special props/floor-tiles for my Mod and would be very thankful if someone could do this for me (well if there is no one able to do it, I will have to do it by myself, but it is a while since I worked with 3D-Moddeling software like 3DS-Max, and I have to go into importing etc. of given 3D-Models of LoG)

I will try to explain exactly what I need, and I hope that this will not need much effort/time to create this things I need.

Do you see this Flames on the ground?
Image

And do you see this Waterfield there?
Image

And do you see this very simple floor_drainages (like temple_floor_drainage) wich you can place in any Tile-Set on any level to design your dungeon?
Image

Well, what I need is 3 special versions of the drainage (cloned or copied in any 3D-Moddeling-Software and changed a little bit)
You dont have to do any scripting nor nothing for this (all this will be made by functions, timers, scripts or whatever needed to i.e deal with damage or damage about time, making noises etc.)
You only have to make the tiles so, that the player can walk on them.

1. For the Firefield, you have not to do much, only place some Flames in the hole under the grating (if nothing else helps, take 3-4 torches and place them unter the grating and there you go :mrgreen: )

2. For the Waterfield (yes I already work with the flooded Dungeon tileset, and it works very well, but it is depended on the walls surrounding it, so that you cant place it inmiddle of a room, like a pool i.e, because the water is higher than the floortile of LoG). Well replace the grating Texture of the drainage against a water texture (like the one in flooded dungeon) and there you go, well maybe if it is possible to scale the Draining-hole littlebit more to the edges of the field, it would look more like a pool. But this field should laso be walkable by the player like the Firefield. As I said, what happens when the player walks over this fileds, is dealed very well by scripts and timers in the editor. What we here need is only for visual-effekt issues.

3. Absolutly the same like the Firefield, but instead of flames, make green-fumes coming out of the grating. Green-fumes for poisonous water-pools or poisonous drainigs.

Thats all.
If anyone can manage this without much effort and time spending, I would be thankful.
No this things = No realy realistic AP2. This was a essential thing in playing AP2 and I dont want to miss it in The Mod. Since I have to mod many levels needing this 3 tiles, i want to check this right now to the beginning. Well of course the feeling of gameplay in this case, depends on this what the players sees infront of him. It is annoying when there is Party-Damage when the player walks about special-fields, and he dont knows why.

lg Wanderer
Last edited by Wanderer on Fri Jan 11, 2013 2:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
My first LoG-Mod: Abandoned Places 2
User avatar
Dr.Disaster
Posts: 2876
Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2012 11:48 am

Re: Mod-Project: Abandoned Places 2

Post by Dr.Disaster »

Wanderer wrote:1. For the Firefield, you have not to do much, only place some Flames in the hole under the grating (if nothing else helps, take 3-4 torches and place them unter the grating and there you go
The mod "Wine Merchants Basement" uses something like this pretty early on. Perhaps you should check it out.
User avatar
germanny
Posts: 530
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:52 pm
Location: Kiel, Germany

Re: Mod-Project: Abandoned Places 2

Post by germanny »

Possible, you can make a floor decoration, see here:
SpoilerShow
This is a quick example, you can add particles as in the flooded dungeon example.

Image
Image
The Diffuse texture must have alphachannel enabled, normal map can be applied, too.
If you place it just a liitle bit above floor, it will work well^^

Another way is to define new floor tiles with a water texture and place them by hand. This exchange the floor and you will only see the water image.

I can upload that if you want :)
Dungeon Master Resource Pack worker and passionated Beer drinker
User avatar
Wanderer
Posts: 113
Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2012 9:08 pm
Location: Lyramion / Twinlake :)

Re: Mod-Project: Abandoned Places 2

Post by Wanderer »

Hi,
ok I will check this things, and I think it will possible anyway.
But what I like in the idea of using the drainages is, that it would look like a waterpool, because the drainages already have a hole under the grating, wich is surrounded by walls, so that there were no glitches undepended where you place them. Espacially for the Waterfield and poisonous-waterfield it would look ver nice if the grating would be removed and replaced by water (blue) or poisonous-field (fumes coming out of the grating) or poisonous-water-field (instead using blue water texture using green water texture plus the fumes).

I see, I will have to do this by my self at the end :mrgreen:

Edit: By the way, it is not said that the waterfield have to damage the player neccesary, it could used as Healing-Water-Pool as well for example. Thisfor I dont want applying any effects to it by default.
My first LoG-Mod: Abandoned Places 2
User avatar
Skuggasveinn
Posts: 562
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2012 5:28 pm

Re: Mod-Project: Abandoned Places 2

Post by Skuggasveinn »

Wanderer wrote:But what I like in the idea of using the drainages is, that it would look like a waterpool, because the drainages already have a hole under the grating, wich is surrounded by walls, so that there were no glitches undepended where you place them.
This ?
SpoilerShow
Image
SpoilerShow
Image
if you want them, you can crap them here
http://www.zorglubb.net/grimrock/dropzo ... rtiles.zip

Skuggasveinn.
Last edited by Skuggasveinn on Fri Jan 11, 2013 12:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Link to all my LoG 2 assets on Nexus.
Link to all my LoG 1 assets on Nexus.
User avatar
Wanderer
Posts: 113
Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2012 9:08 pm
Location: Lyramion / Twinlake :)

Re: Mod-Project: Abandoned Places 2

Post by Wanderer »

Yes yes you are my hero :mrgreen:
Thats exactly what I mean, could the water-hole maked little more filling the square?
But this was what i mean at all.
My first LoG-Mod: Abandoned Places 2
Post Reply