Final development news

[Verdite]

Welcome to the final development post thread!!!!!

I have spent alot of time recently getting down to the nitty gritty with my project, and now its time to confirm your hopes! The next news to await will be... Rathmors final summer release

There hasnt been any Rathmor news for a while, but trust me this post will more than make it up to the die hard KF and SOM fans. There is even a video of my latest achievements with SOM.

So without further ado...


1.0 Attack functionality

Attack versatility video

SOM had a restrictive attack functionality before, so after alot of thought and planning, I devised a simple yet effective way of allowing players to change attacks whenever they like. If you are like me when you play KF or SOM you tend to like a certain weapon's design, or its ability. Well now you dont need to go spending a ton of game currency on a stabbing weapon when you have a sword - just change its attack type to stabbing.

This also means that you can cater to your own play style and customise it. If you prefer to go for high adrenaline, quick attacks with a medium sword or dagger, you can fight this way - having their stabbing ability as a last resort. Or maximise your damage output with a slow, hard attacking great sword, or if thats not enough, a heavy great axe. Maybe you prefer to attack from a distance with a spear? Or do you prefer to have a spear that cuts and jabs? Rathmor caters for all situations.

Not having a long ranged weapon attack can leave you in difficult situations, for example being assaulted by a spear. Thats where you can choose versatility in combat.

Each type of attack has its own damage output, so if your dagger cant slash that tough monster hide, change to stab for better effect.

Ive also improved the sound effects 

2.0 Magic

I can confirm magic will be in Rathmor.

3.0 Levelling focus

Something bold and new for this genre of gaming - the level focus. I have juggled with alot of levelling up ideas, and this one seemed the best. I wanted to create as much character customisation as I could, so this is ideal. There are three basic levelling choices - Fighter, Balanced, and Defender. Each yields different bonuses to stats upon levelling up, with hidden classes granting even greater abilities.

The best thing is that you can change class at any time in the training area. Want to develop alot of points into strength, to use that greatsword? Go fighter. Prefer to have a few extra hitpoints for when you get surrounded? Choose defender. If you prefer to keep things even, incase something unknown comes your way, then balanced is essential.

4.0 Improved A.I

One of my biggest discoveries in SOM recently is being able to control how a monster reacts to the player, along with changing their behaviour when idle. Sick of seeing enemies walking into walls? I was, so I came up with some breakthrough ideas that stops this from happening. Enemies now have alot more character too - cowardly enemies will often get scared and leave their guard open. But aggressive enemies will end up charging towards you more, meaning you will need to change that attack type on your weapon to counter them.

5.0 Environments

Map sets

This is something I have really REALLY worked hard at and put tons of time and effort into. There were times I was going for up to 10-12 hours a day to finish some sets off. Since my last post, I have created 200 individual and unique map parts. This includes flawless collision data.

All sets have the capability to merge into one another, meaning when I release sets to the public you can mix and match.

I have also created three new tree parts, and new grass. All are memory friendly - meaning your game wont grind to a slow pace when exploring.

Revised HUD

You'l see the new HUD in the screenshots.

Please ignore the doors, as they will be changed. They are just dummies.

These screenshots have no graphical tweaks whatsoever, and no graphic extensions are in use.

Tavern

Tavern interior

Your first bed...

Taverns "arse end"

Tavern roof and distant house

Scalmane

More of Scalmane

Home...

Bridge

Scalmane villa

Villa again

Villa interior


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(These below images are more development screenshots and are not a true reflection of Rathmor's final graphics output.)
Jail

Outdoor mine entry

Bura by campfire


Objects







While objects havent had as much attention there are still loads of newly created objects since the last news thread, including windows and doors, furniture etc.

The arena

You will get the chance to go head to head with some pro and some not so pro fighters in the arena. This will probably be one of the biggest challenges in the game to beat, and your opponents will use skill and cunning to catch you off guard. There is no killing in the arena - if you get beaten, you lose consciousness, same for if you beat your opponent - they will be knocked out.

Your own home

You will be able to buy a house in the main town or simply pay for accomodation at a tavern. The house comes with a letterbox for NPCs to pop important notes in. You will be able to customise some parts of your house such as the decorations.

Free roaming

While I know that having a guided path is important in a game, you will have the chance to revisit most visited areas and explore some new areas at your own pace. There will also be some nice free roaming when you have finished the game...

6.0 Currency
The amount of currency you can find in the 'field' as such is limited, but the amount of items you can amass varies - this includes valuables that sell for a good sum. Enemies will not drop gold like in SOM and KF - some enemies will drop valuables, and rare enemies will drop gold as a lump sum rather than the auto gold feature.

7.0 Sounds

There will be alot of ambient sounds in Rathmor - that includes wind, water drops, metal anvils, swords clashing etc.

Night and day

Yup, there will be night and day in Rathmor! You'l be able to do different things at night / get attacked more at night.

8.0 Revised story
The story is now revised and more engaging, while being more minimal on dialogue. It has taken a while to find the right balance!

What you wont be able to do in Rathmor...
- Have bows or crossbows. SOM limitation.
- Jump. Yup - my environment ideas and map sets wernt built with jumping in mind.
- Have a full, scientific 'human immersion experience' well in my opinion playing games isnt about simulating real life. There are similarities to make it more enjoyable, but it doesnt have to be so serious. I want players to have fun.
- Breaky break your sword on teh wallzors (durability). This is one of the magical benefits of SOM. Nice sharp weapons and polished armours!
- Get married. Do it mentally if you must!!
- Climb trees.
- Remake my game and change it to how you want it to be, then re release it without my consent. Just get rid of that idea right now if you have it.

Those are the more obvious ones at least.


Thanks alot for reading and supporting me, if you did.

[Auric]

Amazing! That's an absolutely brilliant idea being able to use the same weapon with different attack styles like that. And that training dummy... I laughed so hard once I saw it begin to attack back.

The HUD and menus look very nice. The text looks slightly off though. It's most noticeable on the equip menu where it says "Equip Weapon".

The improved the A.I. sounds interesting. I can't wait to see that in action.

I also like the currency system you have. That's something I often thought about doing. I always found it silly how wild animals and the like would just drop money. The most common excuse was always "they ate it".

[TheStolenBattenberg]

This looks AMAZING!

I'm really impressed by this, I hope to LP it when it's finally released!

[Verdite]

Thanks for the input guys!

[TheStolenBattenberg]

There will certainly be some WTF moments, blind lets plays are always more interesting. Hehe, that Monty Python image, I don't remember which film that was!

[dmpdesign]

Holy crap Ben, I thought I was up to speed on everything you had been working on...alot of this stuff just looks totally awesome to see it for the first time.

I noted you said you didnt use any extensions to make the graphics work?  How is that possible, my mind is boggled, I thought the high-res textures required the extension (as I will now eternally refer to it)  If you accomplished all of this with just hard work and the basic SoM tool, I am in awe...it looks better than ever.

I love the two handed and new swing animations, they are just perfect for the game...and I really love how everything looks like its your own, nothing out of the box...but yet still in a very proper style, its perfect!

I for one cannot wait to play your masterpiece, I do hope if you consider making collector copies you will keep me on the list to purchase one:)

[Verdite]

So I have some very good news and some potentially bad news.

Bad news first, well I will be changing the name of my game close to its release. I know some people have got used to calling and associating my project as Rathmor, but it has too many strings attached to it that need released. For now, it is fine to address it as Rathmor.

Good news is that after 7 _hard_ months of level design, building model map sets, texturing and testing, I have completed all of the environments in my game. I am very happy with all 24 of the maps. I had originally set my scope on more levels, but instead I decided to make less, but more quality maps.
I've been burning it at both ends to get this done...

Heres a short video of a few of the levels, as a small thanks to everyone who has given me encouragement over the past year.

[Auric]

Huh... After all this time it's going to feel quite odd calling your game by a different name. That'll likely take some time to get used to.

In most cases quality is better then quantity. After watching your preview video I can certainly agree with that. I'd much rather play a game that has few, but detailed maps then something with tons of maps that all feel soulless. 24 maps seems like quite a good amount as well.

Also, I had jumped at 1:57 in the video due to the sudden change and tune of the music .

[JC Bailey]

You sure? I thought Rathmor was a great name. It's all looking good either way, I can't wait to play it!

[Auric]

That seems a bit extreme don't you think? I'm sure you'll reach the deadline you set but if you don't...
It would be a real shame if all the time and work you put into this just disappeared like that.