What are you working on RIGHT NOW - T1/2 Dromed Edition

[Haplo]

There is a nice kitchen here: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthrea...=1#post1995352

[Yandros]

Lately, I've been figuring out how and implementing sleeping AI who go to a certain location after being woken up, assuming they don't go to full alert while searching. Using the Origin props is a nice way to accomplish that, once I figured out the little tricks. I plan to write a tut on it because the info is scattered over several old threads here, and some of it I discovered on my own.

So then I spent the better part of 3 days' worth of Dromed time trying to get one servant to behave correctly. I wanted him, when awakened, to get up and go to a certain location, face a marker and then begin repeating some actions (all the latter via an AIWatchObj link to a marker at his Origin). No matter what I tried, he would do it right the first time (or so I thought), but after that would turn and face the wrong direction before performing the motions.

I about lost my mind until I realized that he was turning to face south (direction: 0) on the second iteration, and then it hit me - he was too close to a solid brush and was facing south because he couldn't face the marker; it only seemed to work the first time because he walked up to the counter already facing the right direction. My only recourse was to forego the motions and let him just stand there, since it looked stupid for him to do the motions standing far enough back from the counter for the face command to work.

I've now placed one more AI and I think I'm completely done with them. Now it's on to placing loot and other incidental objects.

[The Watcher]

I've spent the last few days overhauling my poor, badly-in-need-of-putting-out-of-its-misery website, replacing it with something that'll be much easier for me to keep on top of, and avoid the horrible hacked-in support for tutorial hosting and stuff I had.

Even got my arse in gear and added a few more objects, too.

Now, back to making the mechanism for the clock tower...

[Renault]

I hesitate to even post here because I've started and stopped so many projects that never went anywhere, but...this weekend I started up a project I've been thinking about for a long time - a re-imagining of Myst island from the first Myst game.

(I'm sure some of the younger guys here are like, huh, Myst, whatsat? Google it, dudes...)

No screenshots yet, but I made significant progress over the holiday wekend (way more than I thought even possible, and dromed somehow kept cooperating), and I have about 75% of the (very) broad structure of the island mapped out already.

Just like the original game, I'm envisioning primarily puzzle-oriented gameplay (related but slightly different puzzles than the original to keep things interesteing), with some Thief elements thrown in to make a nice hybrid gaming experience. Inspiration level right now is very high, I'm hoping my love for the Myst games will keep it there and I can actually get this thing finished.

Back when I've got screens...

[The Watcher]

Just like the original game, I'm envisioning primarily puzzle-oriented gameplay (related but slightly different puzzles than the original to keep things interesteing), with some Thief elements thrown in to make a nice hybrid gaming experience. Inspiration level right now is very high, I'm hoping my love for the Myst games will keep it there and I can actually get this thing finished.

Oooh, I'll be very interested to see what you pull off with that! I shall keep my fingers crossed that your motivation keeps going!

[DarkMax]

I'm working on part 3 of Darkstone Gem campaign... screenshots of the little Keeper Hideout in the mission

[nickie]

I hesitate to even post here because I've started and stopped so many projects that never went anywhere, but...this weekend I started up a project I've been thinking about for a long time - a re-imagining of Myst island from the first Myst game.

I love Myst though I'm rubbish at it. I really hope you manage to keep going - it sounds really intriguing.

And yet again, purely as an observer, this has got to be my favourite thread. It's just fascinating and wonderful to see something talked about, with a picture here and there, finally materialize.

[darthsLair]

Wow Max ! Those Screenies are Awesome ! You are a natural for Dromed !

[DarkMax]

Wow Max ! Those Screenies are Awesome ! You are a natural for Dromed !

Thanks Rod! I'm having a lot of inspiration these last months

[Yandros]

Look great as always, Max.

I've been fixing minor roombrush issues, placing purses on guards' belts and also fixed a talking chair that didn't shut up properly.

[DarkMax]

Look great as always, Max.

I've been fixing minor roombrush issues, placing purses on guards' belts and also fixed a talking chair that didn't shut up properly.

Talking chair?

[scarykitties]

Yeah, it's part of his new mission. Thief: The Weed Project

[ticky]

Look great as always, Max.

I've been fixing minor roombrush issues, placing purses on guards' belts and also fixed a talking chair that didn't shut up properly.

Wow! A talking chair. It would have definitely fit well in DP2.

Is this the Highwater Estate part of DCE? Is there a possible release date (for example spring 2012)?

[Yandros]

Heh heh. I made a chair talk so the AI who sits there for about 30 seconds as a break isn't completely silent. I've noticed that AI don't babble when performing an extended pseudoscript (like an AIWatchObj in this case), so I made the chair talk. The AI turns on the babbling when he sits down and turns it off when he stands up (which is also the end of the sequence, so he starts his normal babble again). Problem was, if he got alerted or knocked out while sitting, he never turned off the chair, so I added an Alert response and also gave him TrigBrainDead to handle those scenarios.

Ticky, yes the Highwater Estate is part of DCE, and no there is no release date. I'm done giving those because they're always wrong.

[scarykitties]

Maybe you don't want to reveal your secrets, but how did you manage that, Yan? Unless I'm mistaken, putting an AI in an object is extremely difficult because there are so many attributes to deal with and then the engine gets picky about not having a mesh, joints, etc.

Or did you just select a few choice words and create an ambient that spouts them, which would be much simpler?

[R Soul]

I think you can just add the AI properties mentioned here, but not with those values. Suitable values can be obtained by looking at a normal AI. Then you can add Speech > Voice to make it talk.

[Yandros]

No no, I just gave it A > Ambient hacked and put the guard's Alert 0 schema in there, then added the ActivateAmbient script to the chair so I could turn it on and off. It has no AI props. You can put any AI's schema on any object - I did that in Snowball Fight to have AI "talking" behind the solid windows. None of those are real AIs, just markers sitting in the windows.

[scarykitties]

No no, I just gave it A > Ambient hacked and put the guard's Alert 0 schema in there, then added the ActivateAmbient script to the chair so I could turn it on and off. It has no AI props. You can put any AI's schema on any object - I did that in Snowball Fight to have AI "talking" behind the solid windows. None of those are real AIs, just markers sitting in the windows.

Yes, that's how I would have done it. Nice.

[DrK]

Recently I've been messing around with textures, in particular this damn water texture. I never really liked the fact it seemed to "shine", not reacting to light and shadow just like any other texture.

After several attempts I managed to have something acceptable. I altered Eshaktaar's water texture by modifying its contrast and saturation.



Now it looks like it fits the rest of the mission, yet I didn't find a way to make it look more transparent. Is it possible to do it ? Through flow brushes or whatever ?

Also, I've been working on interiors, trying to get close to the good old thief feel, and my gritty style as usual.



I don't know if I should modify the glasses on the Ivory Rose lamps (making them a bit grittier), or if it should stay that way. I kinda like the contrast compared to the rest of the place.

Wow Yandros that's pretty clever ! I may give it a try, it gives me ideas for atmosphere

[Sluggs]

Mission Parameters/Water Colors/color 0 Alpha to change the transparency of the water.

[DrK]

Damn ! And I thought I knew everything about dromed
Thanks for the info, gotta check this out.

[LarryG]

I would vote for a new lamp glass texture. Maybe an etched glass pattern, a little dusty, but not too much?

[scarykitties]

I don't know why you're making it grittier to look like old-style Thief. It doesn't look like Thief. It looks like Pnumbra or Amnesia.

That isn't a complaint, mind you. I'm saying that your Dromed scene looks like a modern engine. Fantastic textures!

Damn I wish I knew how to make/find great textures...

[Renzatic]

Damn I wish I knew how to make/find great textures...

I'm pretty decent at making textures. If you're up for it, I could easily teach you and anyone else willing to listen about 10,001 different tricks to making them.

[DrK]

Here are the dusty lamps, I think it works pretty well ! I feared it would be ugly being darker, but it's better actually.

trying to get close to the good old thief feel

Of course it doesn't look like thief at all, but I'm trying to create a global feeling close to the original game. It's hard to tell from the screens, it's all about atmosphere and gameplay.

For example, the green wallpaper is from Ramirez mansion. The window is from the original thief. I just made them look darker and with a higher resolution. These details kinda help to keep it thiefy.


So I tried the water transparency option, turns out it modifies the visibility inside the water. But it's not the transparency of the water texture itself, the one we see from outside the water... whatever, I'll leave it that way.