We used to have this problem with compilers too. Thankfully, we have access to the best these days, free for non-commercial use. I haven't looked at Blender in a long time, but it's looking better than ever. I hope we don't have to jump through too many hoops to make models and animations with Blender. Blender support in games has been pretty spotty as far as I can tell.
[quote who="jbrunhaver" reply="2" id="2366005"]There is a .3ds and Direct X import and export in blender. I am sure that with a little community spit and polish it wouldn't be too hard to put together a clean tool chain that imports the skeletons from Element's library and exports a rigged model. [/quote] I've noticed that in Civ4 modding, it's actually very rare to find custom animations. Is that because you need max to do that?
[quote who="Scoutdog" reply="14" id="2365726"] The number of games helps, but in the end mimicking is mimicking. [/quote] I would say that the piont is not to mimick, but to exceed previous games. To do that, you have to know what you're up against. All the games mentioned in this thread ought to be looked at.
For the past ten years or more, moddable games have been using file formats from extremely expensive software. I've always wanted to get started with 3d graphics modding for my favorite games, but in the past it has been very difficult to convert from free software like gmax or blender for many games. 3ds max has a 30 day trial and Maya PLE has a protected file format that can't be used for anything else. I will never in my lifetime be able to justify the expense o
To that list I would add AOW:SM and Civ II, for the multiple maps! Underground! Alternate dimensions! Think of the modders!
Is that 32 human players allowed in, or does that include the AI players? Civ4 had a max of 18 factions at one time, and it was a pain in the butt to increase that hard coded maximum for mods. It took a few years before someone finally sorted it all out to allow more. This effectively quashed some mods that wanted to do things like faction splitting, because there was no headroom. Once you had 18 civs, you would have to abandon any game mechanics that might spawn a
Quite a scoop!
If I remember correctly Civ4 originally launched with a python based AI, but they had to put it back into the C++ and everyone was thankful. The time between turns was absoutely brutal. You could hit the end turn button and go run errands before your next turn started. The end game was pretty much unplayable. Python does entail a performance hit. No doubt about it. If you want to get fancy with the AI, python might be a hindrance. Thankfully, we had access to the Civ4 C++ so
I would prefer that the game end when the point of no return is reached. Although for games like Civ, I still think there is some fun in winning even when it's obvious that nobody else will. I play Civ to beat Civ, not Ghengis Kahn or Queen Elisabeth. I just wanna see my spaceship take off, even if I know that the rest of world is still in the industrial era. I've played many games that try to punish the player for playing well, and it just makes you realize that you are wasting time
[quote who="Tridus" reply="28" id="2349618"] Quoting cephalo, reply 24 So nothing of importance happens in the zoom in view? It's just eye candy? They've said before (and I think one of the articles mentions it as well) that the game is meant to be playable from the cloth map. The engine is disabled in beta 1 for that reason. If you can do it zoomed in, you should also be able to do it on cloth map view. The upside there is that ve
So nothing of importance happens in the zoom in view? It's just eye candy?
[quote who="Ron Lugge" reply="74" id="2342469"] What makes you think it's a mock up? [/quote] I have no evidence to back that up whatsoever.
[quote who="foxfire1234" reply="70" id="2341858"] Guess I should notify my next of kin that if I'm not heard from in days... to send in a swat team with pizza and fizzy drinks! Rawr! [/quote] That is exactly how this sort of thing needs to be approached. Foxfire gets it . Right guys? Best screenshot yet in my opinion. Even if it's just a mockup.
[quote who="Tridus" reply="66" id="2340681"] Quoting endofdayz, reply 47 I am praying it is rolling. I preordered early august, I feel I should get in Beta 1. It would be silly to lock people out, especially because as the word spreads more people will want to join in. One other thing: when does the preorder money get withdrawn? At the beggining of beta or when the game is released? Anybody who pre-orde
Quality first? It can't be done!!!
I just went through this and I concur it was alot of fun. I'm not so sure how much of this would apply to Elemental, but it was a job well done to be sure.
[quote who="Tamren" reply="10" id="2306025"]Defensive hedges don't look like that. They can grow so thick it is impossible to move through them. Not to mention some of them can have thorns. Imagine trying to attack through a super dense rose bush 10 feet high and twice as wide. [/quote] It might prevent someone from sneaking in, but you could most likely light a fire under it and then a half hour later its gone. Unlike a wooden wall you cant stand on top and thro
Maybe it allows you to recruit the Knights of Ni.
[quote who="GW Swicord" reply="16" id="2304595"]I would really dislike an underworld that worked like a deck game stack of levels. If the base Elemental is to have an underworld, its layout and features need to be shaped by the Elemental back story, and any 'progress paths' should take full advantage of the 3D aspect of being underground, i.e. to get to Important Place A, you might need to take a path that goes to much lower depths, and then climbs and twists back up around Place A before fin
[quote who="Scoutdog" reply="12" id="2304468"]I actually thought you would run into dinosaurs before demons. In fact, I imagined something like this: Dwarves, Gnomes, Etc. Undeads Spidery things & other insectoid monsters Dinosaurs Fire monsters, Balrogs, et al. Demons Really evil, really powerful stuff like dark demigods.[/quote] That's a fine list! They can't deny us support for multiple maps in the face of this list.
[quote who="Paradoxnt" reply="9" id="2304151"]Well, I just hope any underworld isn't just as big as the above ground map. I don't mind underground city or mines, but when they have just as much explorable terrain as topside = silly. [/quote] Aw man, that's where all the demons and stuff live! I think that if you go deep enough, you can find dinosaurs too!
I think I read that they are approaching this as making an engine, and then making a game on the engine. I think that if Stardock wants Elemental to really take an important place in the genre, they need to surpass what has already been done. What fantasy game is complete without an underworld? I would love to see something like the multiple maps in AoW:SM. This is something that everyone wanted in the Civ4 modding community, but it was too much work to get around the single map design. Multi
I gotta say I really admire you guys that can do both game development tasks and run the business end at the same time. Once you wrote 'balance sheet projections' I had to avert my eyes from the screen... I wish that there could be time in life for everything, but the thought of doing a whole month of that kind of stuff terrifies me! I bet you never get to just sit down and play a game?
I’m pretty excited about this game, and I’ve been poking around the dev notes a bit to see how things are going. I noticed a few posts regarding map generation and I have some comments. Map generation is something I know a thing or two about from making map scripts for Civ4, including the Erebus map script for the FfH2 mod. <p class="MsoNormal" style="