Project status!

[dmpdesign]

I am anxious to see both of your games, and am definitely glad you are doing tons of customs.  I have no doubt they will make my game look like crap!

[Verdite]

Well if it wasnt for you Todd, we wouldnt have any games, and would have missed a huge amount of enjoyment.

[Holy_Diver]

In the screenshot above with the fireplace is it intentional the horizontal lines are not level? It looks intentional

[Holy_Diver]

For You.....Holy..............

I was thinking more like instead of the stone steps leading up to the door there would be another piece in the set so there could be some stone to stand on in front of the house which maybe the roof could extend over if desired. In other words in its simplest form, just a square block with the stone texture. Have you seen the Japanese house set? The house sets can be used to build ranch-like complexes, which have a little more variety than one room cabins.

If you BTW you don't think the assets that come with Som are good enough for your game. You will probably want to replace all of the textures for your game. Personally I feel the Som assets should be honored unchanged, but if someone wants to tweak the textures there is room for both sets. I just worry about having the original 100s of Som pieces and a bunch of pieces on the side which are not really usable with them. A game should be graphically consistent meaning the same polygon resolution and the same quality of textures throughout.

[Verdite]

Well, as far as i'm concerned in the matter of keeping textures and polygons in the game, i have dismissed entirely. To me, SoM is a way of exploring and making your own ideas and textures.

I wont be using a single map piece from the default set, though i will possibly use a few objects and items, simply because some of them are really nice as is. Getting to know and careful planning of your methods and construction guidelines in SoM is really rewarding.

In regards to the Japanese house set, there werent enough map pieces to fuse together to create a decent looking map. The floor on the underside didnt have a matching piece, and while its easy to build one, the house set also has bad mhm data, meaning i fell through the floor more times than i care to remember! 

[Holy_Diver]

In regards to the Japanese house set, there werent enough map pieces to fuse together to create a decent looking map. The floor on the underside didnt have a matching piece, and while its easy to build one, the house set also has bad mhm data, meaning i fell through the floor more times than i care to remember!  

Even if that is the case that wasn't the point I was making!! Regardless, I had no problem making an elaborate floor plan with the Japanese house set. A few backside polygons were missing or invisible but I never fell thru it. I did not try to make it an integral part of the map however, just decoration around a eastern sword easter egg. If you're still making an asian vibes game you could clean it up.

I worry about you all dismissing the core Som assets just like that. It will make it difficult to integrate your game content with the rest of stuff and it seems like you're making a lot of work for yourselves. The hands down best thing about Som is the assets, the rest is kind of crap. It's also kind of not Som without them.

[Madison Lastrega]

Thank you Ben, finally someone understands........ and yes the japanesse house set is good work in fact it was the base for my work on my custom sets.... however WAY too many wasted parts, my sets are full function reversable... and at only 15 total map pieces... compared to 20 plus for the japanesse set...... and the confusing deck arrays...... my decks are snap on 1 map part for the whole thing and no holes......and the textures, agreed..... Som textures blow chunks, and I am glad I killed them, when my game is released I will release all my textures, AND my whole custom set, it will be the "Mytrosia Making kit" with over 200 usable textures , each one tested in game to make sure they blend with SoM's crappy lighting system...... I suggest unless you want your game to look like dated, use new stuff...... after all Form did not care to update it, so it is up to us....... and really Holy, do you think that if From was to make an SoM 2, would they use 32x32 and 64x 64 or even 128 or 256 in an updated version, I think not, so why should we as builders, live in the past..... Ben is right if your using the stock map parts and stock items and such then by all means use the standard set........ but for guys like Ben and I we are NOT....... so the old textures don't match and look rather dumb...... However I do like the grass set...... I made a few others but the stock grass will be the bulk of my grass used so hats off to JOHN whom updated the stock set........if you look the First grass that came with som was....... real sad....
and one last thing , Holy....... do you really think I am that one sided......... I mean one room houses, please...... my sets have WALLS and tee joints NO OTHER SETS HAVE, so yes my sets ARE multi-rommed.......bottom pic has 3 SEPERATE rooms......... so know your facts before you ever call me onesided........

[Holy_Diver]

and one last thing , Holy....... do you really think I am that one sided......... I mean one room houses, please...... my sets have WALLS and tee joints NO OTHER SETS HAVE, so yes my sets ARE multi-rommed.......bottom pic has 3 SEPERATE rooms......... so know your facts before you ever call me onesided........

I don't think anything, and I did not call you one sided or anything. I think you overreact to your own detriment, but that's your problem, not mine. I think those screenshots look much better. You had not shown anything that allowed for other than rectangular shapes before afaik. But yes that's what I was hoping for.

I understand if you want to have better graphics, though I don't think that is necessary at all. As long as the graphics are not too difficult for others to reproduce that is fine. However I wish you would not suck the soul out of Som by not using any of its pieces. So I hope very much at some point you will consider giving as many of the assets that come with Som a face lift so at some point we can put all of your graphics up alongside Som's stuff in a database. I have no problem with different styles (texture/polygon resolution etc.) I just think it's important that we be consistent so a community will be able to coalesce that isn't just a loose confederation of leftover game artwork tossed in a big pile. Like I would like to see all of the Som stuff available in first gen Som, second gen Som, KF1/2/3/4 flavor etc. And even sets like your house backported to match the Som graphics. I know if/when I finish any game it will be 90% original Som assets and the remaining assets will have to fit in with the Som stuff perfectly. That said if people make matching versions of all the assets in the game it could be up to the player what they want (by changing out the different styles) I just think in order to remain legitimate we owe something to the legacy of Som, and that means honoring the original graphics as much as possible every step along the way.

EDITED: And just for the record graphical fidelity is fine. But what's more important is quality. I'd rather listen to good music on an old vinyl recording than bad music at compact disc sampling rates. And fidelity itself can even be very subjective. I prefer the more abstract visuals I'm quite sure. I prefer KF2 to KF4 visually on all fronts more or less. So please think twice before doing anything radical like giving all your NPCs eyeballs. This is the legacy of KF afte all. Even Todd's cyclops did not have an eyeball. We have to draw the line somewhere

[Holy_Diver]

BTW: I don't think From' could make a new Som if they wanted to, because A) people who think like you would demand that it look like Demon's Souls, and B) because it would look like DS it would be totally locked down, and C) even if they let you make your own graphics there's no way you could afford to make DS "quality" graphics even if you had the ability.

[Verdite]

I agree with you, Diver, one some issues especially preserving the "KF Tradition" in so many words, however something i strongly hold true to SoM is the essence of creativity that was given however not entirely endorsed (many refer to SoM's tools as 'broken'...), so those who do wish to be creative and expand on SoM can do so, providing they have the correct info and knowledge, to make the tools work correctly.

Its great that players will be able to use both Joe's pieces and the original SoM pieces, and in time possibly my own, though i dont think that the way forward for the community is holding onto old map pieces that are in a way crying out to be redeveloped and ... In some cases replaced entirely.

What i'm trying to put over basically is that both Joe and I (the only really devoted present map and game developers, as far as im aware) are creating games how we would like them to be.

SoM and KF, DS and any game you play is designed based around how the creator would like it to look from their collective knowledge, and from collective data etc.

I'm pleased you try to influence and help us develop. In fact, i deliberately changed my regular mud texture to the SoM one, and while i may not use it for the main demo release or the main release, i'm working with it based upon your opinion.

Joe, i cant agree with you more in the case of the Japanese house set, it really lacked in beam sets, joints and T pieces, there was also little to no vareity in that set to work with and expand with. I dislike the set, because it lacks alot of diversity, though without it i may not have pushed myself to create new pieces.