Sword of Moonlight Forum
Sword Of Moonlight Games => Games (Dormant Projects) => SQS Ultra => Topic started by: Madison Lastrega on June 18, 2013, 11:54:49 pm
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I have began modeling my first map and started working on custom doors for my game today, and I wanted to take a moment to talk about what it is going to be about, since, especially John set my up space for all things SQS, and I thank you sir.
SQS Ultra is going to my fan based re-boot of my first love .... Swordquest.....Yes my friends it all started when I was 7. The year was 1982. Most games at the time were two to three level button mashers that score was the goal. Then came the Swordquest Saga.. It was a game of action and logic, where as the goal was find clues buried within the accomplied comics by DC Comics. Brilliant for the time. the clues were entries for the Swordquest contest, in whitch you won the actual items you were questing in the game.... Love at first bleep.... Any self respecting gaming nerd knows the history of swordquest..... 2 prizes were awarded, Water World came out during the start of the 84 game crash. Atari cancelled the "Crown of light" contest, Air world never got built out of proto-type, and the last two prizes , including the ultimate prize.... were built but are still missing , as the, then ceo of atari had them at the time of the crash......has been photograph 2 years prior to his death with the sword. But has since died, and no Philosiphers stone, or the Sword of Ultimate Sorcery" has been recovered as of yet.... Incidently The sword cost 50 K to make in 82' and is valued at 100 times that now as there was only one crafted..... Kinda like a hanso sword in real life, but for nerds :tongue:
Swordquest gave me love of all fantasy based games from then on, from final fantasy on the NES, to everyones favorite Kings field..... The story in the comics was early 80's but fairly good. The game it's self inspired many game writers and other authors... For instance JK rowling has admitted to being a huge Swordquest fan as a child, and was so bummed that Airworld never came out , that she used the same illusive item as the Item to be sought in her first novel. We all know how well that turned out.... The games like many other Atari 2600 games, Swordquest has long been in the realm of open source, so a reboot is possible. However the comics Were produced by DC Comics... And upon contacting them months ago when I first decided to use SoM to make the Saga, they stated they "MIGHT" do an anniversary edition in the future, so I can NOT use the TM name Swordquest, and I must alter the spelling of key character names, and I can use images from the comics as long as they are altered and have the text boxes removed. I can do that, hell I was amazed someone actully contacted me about it.
Hence that is why my game is called SQS Ultra (Sword Quest Saga) the Twins Torr and Tarra are now Tor and Tara Ect.
Another deciding factor in making this game is that I can finish the story MY way.....As Airworld was never completed. The room structure is there and the plot for the game is solid, but I can finish it the way I have always dreamed of..... I have had over 30 years to think of an ending, I got a good one in mind.... And this time the WORLD WILL GET AIRWORLD...... And that my friends is why I decided to reboot Swordquest, now known as SQS Ultra.........
And before I go I will tell briefly about my plan to complete. Unlike my other attempts I will going simple but with decent visuals... To not get overwhelmed like last time, I am splitting the Worlds into 4 SoM projects... I made all the projects at once...All have color coded folders, and am building one level per world at a time, So I can progress Equally with all four parts, and to cut production time down. Since I have so much done already with my other works, building will go much faster..... And how the game will progress will be simular to the Atari games All four projsects will be on one disk not 4 seperate games....you will progress to fireworld by making and fighting your way through the Zodiac chambers finding Word clues,,, At the end of of Earth world once you have the clues, Those will be the password to Unlock the Fireworld Game and so on....... Hope that makes sence, it does to me anyways........... For all of you who took the time to read this and take interst in my work Thank you and I hope you like the game when it is released. More to come soon...............................ML
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That's an interesting bit of gaming history. Found an interview on the subject here. (http://www.atarihq.com/2678/swordqst.html). The only 2600 game I got to play much was the PacMan, but I remember hearing about Sword Quest.
It actually seems like a really good foundation for an SoM game. The separate rooms lend themselves well to individual maps in SoM, and the exploration and puzzle solving work well, too. Seems like a good choice to me :beerchug:
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Thanks John that's what I thought as well :-) and thanks for the vote of confidence too ! :beerchug:
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Looking forward to this Joe, original idea, and youve got the framework you need.
Im assuming that 'jumping' will be an important factor!
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Oh yes, especially in waterworld and air world where there will be limited walking surfaces. Those two will have a platformed feel....... Fire world is the only one I am having a problem with an event..... Does anyone know if you can set an event to slowly take away HP? I need to set one up for fireworld..... Fire world will also be sorta time based... As in fire world in is blistering...... So until you find the challice of light I want the character to lse health points to simulate the heat...... Hope SoM will let me do that:-)
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Not sure if there's a fancy way to do it in SomEx, but here's one way:
Trigger: Always On : Start Condition have Item Quantity < 1 "chalice"
Page1:Change Player Parameter : HP Decrease by 2
Begin Screen Effect: Flash Red (optonal)
Begin Timer0
Change Active Page, this event: Forward one page
Page2: Set Timer0 Value in Counter "Measure Time"
IF "Measure Time" > 2 (change to set how fast health will decrease)
Change Active Page: This Event: Back one page
EndIf
You can also make the damage random by changing Page1 to:
Page1: Set Player Parameter in Counter: "HP Measuer"
Generate Random Value In Counter: "Randomizer" < 5 (change this to set damage range)
Change Counter's Value:"HP Measure" decrease by "Randomizer"
Change Player Parameter : HP , Set to Counter "HP Measure"
Begin Screen Effect: Flash Red (optonal)
Begin Timer0
Change Active Page, this event: Forward one page
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My only thoughts. Why not SOMQuest? Too obvious?
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Thank you John soooooo much, I will denfinatly be using that in fire world.... That is just what i wanted ..... Perfect....
SOMQuest. nice :-) .................ML
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It is almost 3am, I am going to read this post and Ben's updates tomorrow, I am too sleepy now :)
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I owned fire and earth world when I was little, and I gotta say I never really could figure anything out, as everything seemed mostly random....unfortunately I got copies of the game without comics in the box (most were actually sold that way sadly, shame on you atari!)so a bit of the point was lost on me.
It would have been nice to have some sort of clue which objects belonged in which treasure rooms, I hope your remake gives the players a bit of background on the various relics and rooms and what pieces belong there rather than continuous trial and error like the originals :P
I have long contemplated a remake of the NES game (may also be PC, im not sure) Shadowgate. It again is room based and would likely fit on just one or two maps, but would be a fun puzzle solving adventure game that a typical player could complete in under 3 hours.
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Well I am breaking the project down into 4 parts, and 4 som projects..... Don't worry , I am staying pretty simple for the most part:-) with earthworld you progress through 12 zodiac chambers like the original. There will be a preset amount of enemies.... Sounds easy, but there is also a preset amount of recovery items too.. So skill is a must..
In earthworld you will level from 0 to 25. Fireworld 25 to 50 , ya see a pattern here :-) The games will actually be only 4 to five hours each, so not to big, and sense they are room based, not to hard to construct.... So far I am rolling along.... Making map pieces as I go :-) Maya makes light work of that task. I gotten pretty good with it:-)
Gotta talk to ben and discover how he made his enemies, that is wayyyyyyyyy cool. Would love to have world specific enemies... Ben has gotten soooo good. Proud of him, my game probably won't be as pretty as his but fun , I hope.
In fact the most difficult part is the password system I need to make in order to go from earth world to fireworld.ect.. But that is months away, so I have time to think about it :-)
Yeah like I said before it was a crappy Atari game, anything I make will be an upgrade :-) more to come........ ML
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"In earthworld you will level from 0 to 25. Fireworld 25 to 50 , ya see a pattern here :-) The games will actually be only 4 to five hours each"
Wow! You know ive been playing TAC casually over the past year, been taking it easy... I'm 17 hours in and still only lvl 45, getting to lvl 50 in 8 hours will be a blast!
"Gotta talk to ben and discover how he made his enemies, that is wayyyyyyyyy cool. Would love to have world specific enemies... Ben has gotten soooo good. Proud of him"
Well im up to 18 or 19 finished unique enemies now, so im pretty damn used to making enemies. You gotta create your monsters and NPCs piece by piece, with stubs, and there is a limit, of 2400 vertices per model. We have Holy to thank for x2mdl.
Anything you need help with let me know, I know nothing about swordquest!
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Thanks for the offer, custom enemies will make SQS unique worlds even better.... Can his x2mdl do animated objects as well? That would be awesome, and how do set the animations, oh boy oh boy I am so exited.... See these were not available when I started before.... Holy said he was working on it, he delivered on that promise...... Sweet. Thanks Holy Diver:-) .................... ML
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Happy 4th....... Er..... 5th of July everyone :-) got my daughter for the holiday, so will be busy for a few, but have some modeling questions will ask tomorrow........ Daughter wore me out today , she's 10 :-) night friends.............ML
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I was thinking that SoM's pedastal/key setup might works well with SQS. They're basically keyed switches so they work well with puzzles, and it's easy to make new custom pedestal/key sets. They don't even have to be a pedestal; you can place them on a wall or even make them flush with the wall so they're hidden.
Do you have the Metasequoia Keynote plugin set up yet?
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Hmmmmm....I do not good sir, I wish to learn more about this keynote plugin you speak of kind sire :-)
Sorry been wrighting script so was caught up in the moment but seriously , I don't that plug in, and am interested :-)
Thanks for the idea as well I am doing a portal system in the game, so that is in line with my game so, thank you :-)
............ML
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There's a thread with Metasequoia goodies here (http://www.swordofmoonlight.com/bbs/index.php?topic=464.0), but here's (http://www.mediafire.com/?p6b8yarcgfrbggo) the direct link to Keynote. The zip has a couple other plugins included. Keynote is the one named "bone". You'll also need the included "ExportDotX" plugin wich lets you save the animated x models made by Keynote, but the other plugin(s) in the zip are unrelated optionals. There's also a document here (http://www.mediafire.com/?go1dnosuoav26v4) with a basic description of the controls in Keynote. There is a seriously outdated animated MDL tutorial Here (http://www.mediafire.com/?816g4mfw6l82lbg).
The main thing that is no longer correct in the tutorial is the information about "anchors". They are what bond a mesh to an animated "bone" in keynote. We found a much easier way to do it:
- Cover each bone triangle in a unique material. Doesn't matter what color or properties the material has, it just can't be used on anything except a single bone-triangle
- Add "-[unique material name]" to the end of the object name for any mesh you want to move with the bone.
For example, if you want a mesh named "crystal" to move with a bone that is covered in "material1", then change the mesh's object name to "crystal-material1". So you don't have to make any of the "anchor boxes" mentioned in the tutorial doc.
FYI, about pedestals, they have a copy of their "key" hidden inside the base. When the player uses the key item near the base, SoM removes the key item from the player's inventory. Then the pedestal, which is an animated MDL model, insta-pops its hidden copy of the key into the air above the pedestal, and slowly floats it down into place. Making it look like the player inserted the key.
If the player "examines" the base again, SoM adds 1 key Item to the player's inventory and the pedestals floats the key out of its slot, then insta-pops it back into hiding- making it look as if the player picked it up.
Attached is an animated Skull Pedestal MQO I made for someone here awhile back. If you have any troubles, just say and we'll get you set up. :beerchug:
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Joe if you need taught how to animate in metasequoia I can teach you no problem. If you've got Skype we can set it up this week.
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FYI, about pedestals, they have a copy of their "key" hidden inside the base. When the player uses the key item near the base, SoM removes the key item from the player's inventory. Then the pedestal, which is an animated MDL model, insta-pops its hidden copy of the key into the air above the pedestal, and slowly floats it down into place. Making it look like the player inserted the key.
Seems like it might be better practice to make the key and pedestal two objects. That way you could use different kinds of keys with different kinds of pedestals, or more than one key on one pedestal.
Like how you could do Sun, Moon, and Star key in KF2. I can't remember if there is a slot for each key on the pedestal or if they share the same slot. The keys were shaped differently as I recall. But maybe I recall wrong.
It would be annoying. Stacking 4 objects to make each Sun / Moon / Star pedestal. But I don't know how else you'd do it without extending the idea of pedestals. The pedestal itself would be an inert object. I don't know how you'd deal with not inserting two keys into one pedestal. Probably they should each have their own receptacle. Whether they do in KF2 or not.
You could cut down on the number of files by putting the animations in the item models and somehow having the object PRF files pull in the item models. Would require extensions. But would save bandwidth and make maintenance easier. Speaking of which, it would probably be best to remake the pedestals that come with SOM to work in that way. The file names would need to be changed to support games using the old ones. It would be like removing the palette swap models once there is a better way to do palette swaps.