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New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356809] Mon, 25 February 2019 02:55 Go to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
Registered:February 2019
Location: Philly/DC
Hello, I wanted to provide some insight into a new Mod that I am developing. It is more adapting and updating vice a new game. The outputs of this mod may have a much bigger interest than the mod itself but I am hopeful that people try the mod in its own right. It is a similar story but will feel very different, new and unsettling. The longer you have played the game the more unsettled I think you feel.


The game has elements that some will extremely dislike I am sure however and I understand that it is impossible to make everyone happy so I apologize if there are things you wish I would of done differently. Now with all that out of the way what is it about. You will have a question as you read the following below and I will answer it before you continue. The Mod is coming along very quickly and I am hopeful to have it out in the next 3-6 months but depending on work and complexity of cutting the voice files could be longer. The images are all selected and in right size to complete the STI conversion, Names, Nick Names, Buddies and Disliked and all the rest that goes into MERC Profile is pretty much complete as well as most of the backgrounds. The BIO's and NPC's will be done this week then the task of scripting the voices takes place. The voice actors have been pretty much selected as can be at this point before the scripts are completed. Following that I have to do the tying it all together and the inventory. Then when vocie files come in those have to be parsed and numberd appositely as well as scripts udated to cover the additional dialogue. The first release will be set to fit into the main trunk release. I may with permission adapt it to fit into other existing mods however that will take more work as I will have to adjust so the theme and concept of their BIO's and gear fits as well as voice scripts. That may be a ways off. Anyway back to the previously programmed show.


This Mod has:
• At it's foundation is to increase roleplaying and provide a fresh feel almost like a new game
• It is not just new faces and voices
• Has no real new weapons, mpas, items or quests
• Is based or as best as can be on realism and all the problems that go with it. This is particularly so with some mercenaries
• The challenges are meant to how to form a Jagged Alliance which I was told recently and I love that so it fits very well
• Been updated to take place in the current timeframe
• All new Images for all of the AIM/MERC/NPC/RPC
o These fit their nationality, speciality, background and were all carefully selected
o They do not blink or have their mouth move which was not possible
• Has all nationalities covered and actually many more which are described in their BIO and use the B/H modifiers to roleplay this fact.
• Everyone has 6 Buddies and 6 Disliked
• The biggest change I think is
o All of the AIM/MERC/RPC and many NPC's will be rescripted and revoiced by voice actors that are based worldwide and most are native speakers
 Scripts will be mainly accented with some foreign words interjected
 They will cover all the main voice allotments but also have about 8-20 additional dialogues added
 The AIM/MERC/RPC will not mention specific names or nicknames in the speech
• This is to allow the most amount of future modding for new characters and reuse of the voices
• In the EDT script file which is shown on screen it will show who the person is talking about.
o I know this is not as good but I don't want to limit future use of these voices to the names and nicknames of this mod
• With the new scripts and voices the story while still about Merc's hired to take back a country is the same it will be a modern retelling and therefore quite different
• All AIM/MERC's can and should be used so there is not really any place holders and with the Nationalites, Buddy, Disliked etc it could be a challenge so options are important
• The mercenaries were developed using math models so there is a rhyme and reason to where they are stats, skill and price wise.
• There is still humor as this is a bit of a French comedy which means mixture of seriousness, tragedy and humor
• Each character has a story to tell and a personality and their interactions will allow you to learn more about each of them
• The scripts that need to be short as needed so no long repetitive stuff which gets old sometimes after playing a while
• Using my background and understanding of the military the skill distribution have been adjusted to fit realistic modern armies
• There is a mixture of about 60/40 of Core Military Options and 40% of miscellaneous backgrounds that someone would or may hire given this task
• Starting money has been adapted to fit the core story and architecture of the mod
• The core story has been updated to fit modern times and so the emails, documents and all the rest will be updated to fit this new narrative
• Most mercenaries have traits and deficiencies that align to people who would chose this lifestyle and all that goes with it
• You will need to have a mix in your team as no military force has generalists in real life so that does exist here either
• This story is the same about how a small group of mercenaries instigates a coup and defeat the military of the opposing side. However to win the hearts and minds as well as support of the people you need to take care of what they care most about which is Maslow's hierarchy of needs of needs. Food, shelter, medicine etc. and then security. Fighting the military is one part but you were hired to take back the country. So you will need to balance what you do.
• The mercenaries starting items will be adjusted to what realistically they would pack for this mission
o This does not mean all high end gear but everyone would be ready for what is a long term invasion into hostile territory and fit their level, specialty, background and nationality
• The game will have as standard drop all as standard which is realsitic and needed to arm militia as well as for fund raising
o This mod is under the assumption that it is hostile day one and starts tough and will continue that way throughout.
• As standard you can sell items using ALT but those are bought by the black market and sold to bandits, Narco's and a host of others. As standard you will need to equip your militia's as that is realistic since where would poor people who cannot eat get their weapons from.
• There are 133 AIM/MERC's to chose from so lots of combinations available
• Because this is based on a realistic approach and IMP does not have a standard monthly fee to have them there are only 2 IMP slots.
o This was by design as the purpose of the game is the personalities and their interactions which are highly limited with IMP.
o If you want more I guess you will have to personally mod it to fix it to your liking. I appolgize if you do not like it but I wanted as many options and voices as I could get.
• Takes into consideration disease but has been modified to lower its occurrence and impact. Medical people coming on mission would of been briefed and prepared for this
• Does not use eating per se however there is a methodology that takes this into consideration the weight associated with required food and water. This is to limit some of the in-game difficulties with its use but still provide the realistic nature of it taking up space, weight and need.
• Merc's may have certain peculiarities about things. The system should allow this to be realistically portrayed but not impact game in an overall manner.

There is more but this is long enough for initial introduction. I have and am creating tools which allow for rapid changes and updates which should speed the creation of this mod. The scripts and getting the story and right balance for so many people will be tricky and will take the longest time. However even when the voice files come back to me I have to cut them all into their respective numbering so that will be a bit of a slog. However I am looking forward to playing it and I hope you are as well. Thank you for your time and reading this long description!

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356811 is a reply to message #356809] Mon, 25 February 2019 08:16 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
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I also meant to add if anyone has a particular character or voice script that they are quite fond please let me know via PM and will see if they can be integrated. In addition if anyone has any recomendations or thoughts I would greatly appreciate them. Regards

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356813 is a reply to message #356809] Mon, 25 February 2019 11:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Randok is currently offline Randok

 
Messages:321
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I have questions (basic for me):
1} will there be a completely new map
2} will there be large sectors
3} will there be additional levels
4} will there be mobile vehicles
PS. Maybe you will show a few screens?



Many thanks to all those who make new features for Jagged Alliance 2.

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Master Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356814 is a reply to message #356809] Mon, 25 February 2019 11:45 Go to previous messageGo to next message
grim is currently offline grim

 
Messages:344
Registered:July 2006
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It is good to see a new mod in the work.
Thank you for your time and effort to bring this here.
Can you say a bit more on the story ? A pitch would already reveal too much ?

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Master Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356815 is a reply to message #356813] Mon, 25 February 2019 14:56 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
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Thank you for your interest and to answer your questions.

1} will there be a completely new map?

Not at this time as I would need to vastly improve my capabilities and efficiency in creating maps. Also, I am still learning all the interconnected parts and how they all interact. With that being said I have a fleshed out conceptual ideas and getting the new mercs and testing the concept. Once this is completed I will work on the other. This mod will have some adjusted maps as to require diverse teams to solve the mission. The only way I have found to do that is to do tweak the map in certain areas. So no new maps at this time.

2} will there be large sectors?

I love large sectors and would like to use them but that is beyond the scope at this time. One of the perceived problems with the current big map project is lack of items which in my mind is not really an issue to me personally but I do know many people like to go through all the cabinets and such. Personally, I find it unrealistic as a modern military force would consider that looting. Looking and seizing weapons would be acceptable but anything else would be viewed as theft by those you took it from and cause loss of support of the town or village. Now, this does not pertain to police or military locations only peoples personal house. It would be my intention when I complete this one is to build off of the larger map concept which allows more diversity and challenges.


3} will there be additional levels?


Once again sadly outside of scope for this project but your preferences align with mine which is larger with more levels.

4} will there be mobile vehicles?

Yes as it is using the current build which has them and I think are a great addition.

PS. Maybe you will show a few screens?

I can in a few days after I figure out how to cover spoilers which oddly enough have never done.

Thanks for your questions and wish I had more options but I can say this project is moving nicely so hopefully it will compete soon. Without too much delay. I am trying to stay away from things that would cause bugs however some of what I am trying to do is experimental so there is always a potential for that difficulty.

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356816 is a reply to message #356814] Mon, 25 February 2019 15:20 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
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Thank you for your interest and it has been quite enjoyable to build out so far. I am very much looking forward to playing it myself to see these characters blend and come to life if you will.


Well as for the story it has at its base the same parts hired to liberate a country. However, the basic game was built out so that you would slowly move from pistols to larger weapons and bigger groups and so on. Which is great and I played it hundreds of times. However, that may make and does a great game it is not realistic. In this mod, you will be hired and informed of the difficulty facing you and you will start with a team of whatever you decide and can afford for the purpose of changing the government from a pretty powerful military. Not powerful against a Western power with lots of airpower and such but Arulco could challenge many a country if the invading country could not use air power, artillery or tanks. In addition, the mission is to liberate not just kill soldiers. To topple the government you realistically need the militia or similar. To gain their support you have to show you are willing to take care of them and support what they care about. So this is not just about killing it is developed to be more of a simulator of how to make a current somewhat stable government collapse through a military coup while winning the hearts and minds of the people. Trying to stay alive and make money.


I would point out that the Merc's you hire you will not know them at all and just like when you first started with JA1 or JA2 these people are unknowns. The mercenaries are not recreations or versions of any past merc. Some similarities may be thought to exist but all names, backgrounds, skills, traits are new. Also how AIM and MERC are setup is different and the purpose of both has changed. Also the NPC's look differnt they have different personaliteies, reasons of why they are doing what they are doing. The quests are hard coded so limited with that flexibility but I don't think it will be so cut and dry when you see them and experience them as they are written to evoke thought. Hard to explain but many of them have been written or a draft outline completed.


Another change takes place on the maps. They are minor things by and large but the purpose is to allow players with lots of expereince not just go place to place knowing what is next. The idea is to provide a new playground with as much new car smell as I can pull off. I hope that helps.

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356817 is a reply to message #356815] Mon, 25 February 2019 17:44 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Randok is currently offline Randok

 
Messages:321
Registered:March 2004
Thank you for the information. Now, wait for results. Good luck.
happy



Many thanks to all those who make new features for Jagged Alliance 2.

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Master Sergeant
Update on New Mod: (Tuscany)[message #356867 is a reply to message #356809] Mon, 04 March 2019 03:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
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Registered:February 2019
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My intention is to provide you with a weekly update on the progress of the Mod.


Partially based on feedback and recommendations received I expanded the Mod initial release to include what was going to be a phased approach. This will hopefully allow for a higher quality experience for the players and capture more of what I had envisioned for the story I wanted to tell. That is to include the game mechanics and architecture which will have it play differently.

So with all that said what has changed:

The mod has its own story, theme, time and concept. The core tenet was that it should feel different than Arulco as to give people something hopefully new or newish.

The mod will have its own unique map that has never been played on in its configuration. This map uses many different map tiles pulled and adapted into one mod. I am thankful for the many people allowing me to use their creations. This will I hope to give everyone a neat place to explore that can be enjoyed for a while. The map is pretty close to complete and the appropriate data files are being worked on.

All of the NPC' & RPC's will have rewritten plot involvement, renamed, new photos, rescripted and revoiced. This is ongoing and shaping up well.

The mod should include some new quests which have never been used and a complete rework of all the others. This will take some time and there is the potential for bugs but that is to be expected.

The Bio's got a bit delayed as I had to step back to build the plot, quests, and map. However, with those fleshed out was able to complete many of them. I will as promised to provide a spoiler after this post. That posting will be the Bio's on the MERC side. If you would prefer to wait until the mod is released by all means. However, they give you an insight into some of the theme, complexity, and what I hope fun that is planned.

Once the Bio's are complete then I will finish the bio's and stories and sundry other documents for the NPC/RPC's.


After completing that task then all the voice scripting will happen. I expect this to take significant time as there over 25,000 sentences that must be scripted. This is important to get right since the whole mod and future ones will use these files.


Alright thank you for your support and as always any questions or suggestions are welcomed as in the end this is for your use as much as mine.


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Sergeant
Re: Update on New Mod: (Tuscany)[message #356870 is a reply to message #356867] Mon, 04 March 2019 03:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
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Ok, so now below are spoilers for the upcoming mod. The first part is general brief information which is helpful in processing the second part. The aforementioned second part is the MERC BIOS. This hopefully will give you a glimpse into what I am trying to do with this mod as well as I hope to interest you in giving it a go. It is my sincere wish that I have crafted some interesting and compelling characters that will be fun, enjoyable as well as aggravating but most of all require you to use strategy to keep your Jagged Alliance focused on the mission. On to the very long spoiler post.


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Sergeant
Re: Update on New Mod: (Tuscany)[message #356872 is a reply to message #356870] Mon, 04 March 2019 03:46 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
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Sergeant
Re: Update on New Mod: (Tuscany)[message #356875 is a reply to message #356872] Tue, 05 March 2019 01:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
grim is currently offline grim

 
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This looks quite promising.
If i understand well, the map will have the same layout as Arulco but you will put tactical maps from other mods/creators?
Will you change some things in the laptop? Seeing how much you plan to change M.E.R.C., for example, it seems difficult to keep that old Speck and his amateurish website.

In advance, thank you for all the work you are putting in this.

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Master Sergeant
Re: Update on New Mod: (Tuscany)[message #356877 is a reply to message #356875] Tue, 05 March 2019 02:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
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No, the strategic map is completely new and this campaign takes place in:


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Sergeant
Re: Update on New Mod: (Tuscany)[message #356878 is a reply to message #356877] Tue, 05 March 2019 02:55 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
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To answer an earlier question that the answer has changed.

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Sergeant
Re: Update on New Mod: (Tuscany)[message #356879 is a reply to message #356878] Tue, 05 March 2019 04:05 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
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Also as for the release it is my intention that it will be in two parts. This is done for testing purposes and the second phase will take the longest and highest probablity of bugs which I will have to test.

What I mean by this is the first release will have everything and fully playable with AIM/MERC's new voices and scripts (cannot win though) it will not have any NPC, RPC's and quests. All those individuals will be on the map just hidden away in an unreachable room. The reason behind this it provides testing on the main combat portions and balancing. Secondly the intention it to redo all the quests, voice scripts and dialogues. That is the most complex part and has the highest probablity of CTD and broken bits. What I think can be done via NPC files and combination of lua scripts is to provide a new experince and new quests. Another reason for the need to break this out in two parts the map that is currently built has over a 100 unique tilesets and that in full gameplay has never been fully tried with so many tilesets. So if I have to change that I would prefer to do that before all the quests, npc and rpc's are inserted and connected.


On the point of quests I define them in this way the party does an action and is rewarded in some way. That could be any combination such as expereince, money, increased loyalty, items or verbal gratitude. If my work continues how the testing is showing there could be quite a bit more of them and not reskin of old quests. Granted I think there are a few that must be in the game. The concept I want to have is that there are enough quests that some you do not have to do as some of them you may not want to. Also there maybe some quests that have a postive and also a negative impact. If you think of unexpected negative concequences from what you thought was a good thing.

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Sergeant
Re: Update on New Mod: (Tuscany)[message #356890 is a reply to message #356879] Wed, 06 March 2019 09:58 Go to previous messageGo to next message
az75 is currently offline az75

 
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Great news, the community needs a new mod badly.
Let me know if you're in need of a mapmaker, even if it's only for some polishing of things or testing.

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Staff Sergeant
Re: Update on New Mod: (Tuscany)[message #356897 is a reply to message #356890] Wed, 06 March 2019 15:29 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
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Thank you and I fully except your offer of assistance in regards to the maps. I think they will need a bit of touch up and tweaks. Especially since so many of them come from other mods and need to make sure all of the my entry's work, my teleportation are accurate. I also need some underground maps built so if you know places that have lots of underground maps or if you have some that would be appreciated. One of the purposes of the map is to have it big with lots of options so more underground is a way that I can expand quite a bit I think. If I could I would think about putting a few cities underground however it looks out side of what the system will allow.

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Sergeant
Re: Update on New Mod: (Tuscany)[message #356908 is a reply to message #356897] Thu, 07 March 2019 04:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hawkeye is currently offline Hawkeye

 
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Sounds good, and good to hear some familiar faces looking to help.

Just one suggestion, if no one knows why Austin "Mouse" Bain got his nickname/callsign would you consider using another name so it wouldn't get confused with Anita "Mouse" Backman? Also don't forget there's a character limit on nicknames (I think it's 8?) so you might want to edit some of your longer ones?

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Lieutenant

Re: Update on New Mod: (Tuscany)[message #356909 is a reply to message #356908] Thu, 07 March 2019 06:46 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
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Thank you, funny thing is that first and last name was coincidental. However you are right it needs to change. I knew about 8 characters but its possible that they some slipped by. I will setup a QA check. Thank you

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356922 is a reply to message #356809] Sat, 09 March 2019 00:27 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
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The following are the members of AIM. This completes the BIO's minus some modifications and adjustments. All of the applicable stats and such are completed. Next will be the starting gear which will be discussed in a separate spoiler following this one. With that completed along with the map I will populate the STI's with the portraits that have been selected for each of the MERC/AIM members. After that the voice scripting will take place. So far progress has been continuing on schedule but there are some issues which could cause delays. One of those is how to handle quests, rpc's and npcs and their corresponding index id's. I have to make a decision fairly quickly on how best to proceed. Getting that bit wrong will cause significant delay due to the large amount of renumbering speech, edt, npc, opinions, etc., etc. I will have a separate blog post about that to help identify the best way forward.


Below are the AIM offerings. Please note this follows a modern view of how armies train their armies and staff. There are no experts in handguns, shotguns and martial arts is extremely rare. The purpose of this mod and the foundation is a more realistic modern view of the game. So actual game play maybe more limited if you enjoy that environment. You do have two IMP options is you so desire those skill sets.


This is a long post as there are 95 members of AIM. Also you may note that they are written differently than the MERC's that is intentional as those two organizations have very different corporate cultures. AIM is a well established conservative group and members would work to hide any weaknesses and AIM would not volunteer perceived negative information. Secondly the personalities and how they got their nicknames and such will come out in their spoken words. That is by design. So these are more boring for that reason. You will see clearly the diversity of the nations represented and all of the various contingents of AIM.

Lastly posting here broke the part of the formating. It shows in AIM appropriately which has the description and then the secondary part of AIM profile list pertinent information from standard AIM form. I may later on adjust them a bit to have more information about their backgrouds which creates some seperation of their capabilites which is more sublte here.

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356923 is a reply to message #356922] Sat, 09 March 2019 00:44 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
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Topic of starting gear

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356924 is a reply to message #356923] Sat, 09 March 2019 01:12 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
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However since the old quests use the "Facts" of the game and has some hardcoding using those facts may cause unusual outputs which I cannot see. I have worked on stripping the NPC's of their commands and using the NPC files redirecting them to act in odd ways to test this thesis of what can and cannot be done.

So I need your input on how you think is the best way to preceded each has their own negatives and positives.

A. Keep the NPC's and RPC's in their respective index numbers but redo all their NPC commands and voice scripts (EDT)
a. This may not break some parts but might break other parts if the hardcoding has certain things it expects
b. This will limit all new quests to require certain quests to always be reskinned which I think is limiting
B. Change many of the NPC' and RPC's index numbers so system does not see them and therefore does not interfere with the new story lines with hardcoded actions
a. This also has potential problems with system becoming confused.
b. Some people have to stay to maintain their functions and overall need of the game. Waldo, Skyrider, Deidreanna, guy that sells you the hummer
i. There are potentially a few more
C. The other option which I am leaning towards is to move some and leave others however this also has problems since there could be interactive ties which I cannot see
D. The only sure way not to cause problems is to just reskin everything and add some that are new which would work and could give enough flexibility to work. However not sure about hardcoding interfering with that as well. This approach maybe the best way to go for now as it provides the least danger however it limits trying new things.

I have run gaming tests with no NPC's and RPC's in the game and it ran normally however I have not run speed tests to see if doing so slows down the game speed. Also that was not a full game. I do know from my extensive playing with lots and lots of zombies that the game will run without NPC's and RPC's after it starts as the zombies ate most of the NPC's and RPC's before I could talk to them. However this topic is about changing it from the start.

Thoughts and ideas?

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356925 is a reply to message #356924] Sat, 09 March 2019 04:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
grim is currently offline grim

 
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I cannot help you about the quest/NPC dilemma. From a player perspective, the more you free yourself from the original quests structure and NPCs, the better. But it is easier said than done.
You have done a good job on the bios, if the pics and speeches match that quality, it will be good!
My "only" fear here is that, by making something more serious/militaristic, to loose the spirit of the "jagged alliance", that is a mix of not so perfect guys, who maybe will form some kind of synergy to beat the odds.
But you seem to have many cards in hand to make this well, i wish you success in making a great mod.

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Master Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356926 is a reply to message #356925] Sat, 09 March 2019 05:27 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
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Thank you and you make a good point! It is a fine balance to get correct. The Jagged Alliance part will be in full force for sure and actually maybe quite difficult for the player. The reason being when you add the 6 disliked, national views, etiquette views, sexist views and racial you get quite a few grouping of people. Add in the limitations of needed skills and potential deaths which could force you to mix your makeup of the squad since the original may not work with the new hires.

Humor and the bonding part really comes from the voice scripts I think so that is critical to get correct. The addition of additional dialogue provides lots of interesting interactions. Closest thing I can tie to its possibilities is Baldur's gate which is similar to JA in how they viewed your group with their interactions. Since this is played worldwide I wanted to have a diversity of mercenaries so that if you were from country X then there would be at least some one or maybe a whole team you could use. The problem with some of the loveable losers is that many times they were such a negative in-game they did not get used as much. So here everyone has a role to play depending on how the player wants to do the mission.

One thing I am working on is the double quest which I think will open up more options for players and how they want to play. This is accomplished that completing a quest has positive results and negative results or that two groups will want you to do opposite things. Kind of like an expanded Chalice quest. This mod tries to raise moral questions and is not so clear that these are white knight options and the others are very bad. Some players may never do a quest and others may. If I can provide a large amount of quests that will aid in replayability. The large amount of personalities and mixtures is part of that as well.

Hope that helps.

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356927 is a reply to message #356926] Sat, 09 March 2019 05:43 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
Registered:February 2019
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As for the pictures of the AIM mercenaries (MERC is harder to show in one place) those will be shown next week once I have finished the starting gear. Then I can fully populate the mercprofile.xml so you will be able to see the picuters and nicknames in game. Similarly the strategic map should be ready or close next week to show in-game.

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356930 is a reply to message #356927] Sun, 10 March 2019 01:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hawkeye is currently offline Hawkeye

 
Messages:2412
Registered:October 2005
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Don't give away too much! It's nice to see content in game for the first time too!

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Lieutenant

Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356932 is a reply to message #356930] Sun, 10 March 2019 02:12 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
Registered:February 2019
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Stop looking at the spoilers! happy Your point is valid and trying to set expetations since this will not be everyones cup of tea. Also trying to aviod potential problems that I may not see but those vastly more expereinced may know.


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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356935 is a reply to message #356932] Sun, 10 March 2019 17:37 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
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After reviewing all weekend the options and pro's and con's of each path I have decided to keep the indexes of the npc's/rpc's the same and not move them. The reason is that if they are moved it would potentially limit other people in the future who wished to mod the old story. After this mod is completed and I have had a break I will create another mod using the same mercs and I will be more experimental on that one.

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356949 is a reply to message #356935] Wed, 13 March 2019 17:36 Go to previous messageGo to next message
grim is currently offline grim

 
Messages:344
Registered:July 2006
Location: France
What is the ETA on the pictures ? Actually, i can't wait to see them and match with the bios ;)

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Master Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356950 is a reply to message #356949] Wed, 13 March 2019 20:47 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
Registered:February 2019
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I think soon, I have had the pictures and they have been sized before the names and bios were written. A big hurdle was just completed which is an automated Mercprofile.xml tool. That has been tested and was a paramount building block. This may not sound like a big deal but it is as this allows me to remove all manual entry for the mercprofile which is now all done via math models and formulas.


This will allow me to make changes to the mercprofile and have a new xml within minutes. As we test and tweak the formulas as the mod is tested doing the maintenance of the files would be too time sensitive and open for integration of data entry errors. Also, have automated backgrounds which is not as smart as the mercprofiles but can expand that once this is released.


Automating the mercprofiles means in the long term that items and weapons can also be automated which will be valuable if I decide to do a mathematical balancing on weapons to create separation and uniqueness of weapons. I am pushing to have a working game this weekend (without updated voices) Now that is not the full game as it needs quite a bit of other bits worked out and items are one I am working on currently.

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356951 is a reply to message #356950] Thu, 14 March 2019 04:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
Registered:February 2019
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Well had a huge Ahhh moment when I solved my items problem. All it took was figuring this formula out and boom everything came together.

Why is this important it allows as the foundation the ability to automate and auto populate all the fields in items. Which would include all of the sundry sheets that are associated with the items folders. I need to add and adjust some items for the mod and to save future work. The idea is to have all items list all possible fields then similarly as I did for mercprofiles, backgrounds, starting gear it can be auto populated via math formulas. This will allow more item uniqueness, support standardization and also should reduce bugs since all of the merges and attachments would be automated. Now if new fields are added to the items then those would have to be added to the core document. Not sure if any of that made sense but it was huge to get items to separate automatically!

This is one of them. It takes three to do it but this one was the biggest pain.

=IF(OR(C9="",C9="<STAND_MODIFIERS />",C9="<STAND_MODIFIERS>",C9="</STAND_MODIFIERS>",C9="<CROUCH_MODIFIERS>",C9="</CROUCH_MODIFIERS>",C9="<CROUCH_MODIFIERS />",C9="<PRONE_MODIFIERS>",C9="</PRONE_MODIFIERS>",C9="<PRONE_MODIFIERS />"),IF(D9="","",MID(LEFT(D9,FIND("</",D9)-1),FIND(">",D9)+1,LEN(D9))),MID(LEFT(C9,FIND("</",C9)-1),FIND(">",C9)+1,LEN(C9)))

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356982 is a reply to message #356951] Sat, 16 March 2019 20:13 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
Registered:February 2019
Location: Philly/DC
Weekly update. I had planned on providing screenshots of the new AIM mercenaries however it would seem the spoiler feature is not working or an option. So I don't want to post them without a spoiler for those who would rather wait to have the full new car smell.


So once that is resolved I will post those screenshots. With that being said the mod has moved past the portraits and doing some QA and fixes related to JA2 program has a great dislike for two empty spaces and characters and inflection marks not English. So had to fix those. On a positive note the integrated automated MercProfile, AIMAvailability, MERCAvailability has been tested in-game and seems to work very well now. This is critical as it allows to adjust the formulas or make a change and not have to do all the changes manually which is problem-ridden and slow.


I am working on automating and integrating all the MAP sheets as well which will allow for those to have the same benefit. The Items, weapons, armor, attachments, etc, will work based on the tests but that will happen after this Mod is released. However, this mod does have new items and has significant changes in armor.

Things are moving along nicely and the goal is to get the items completed so I can finish the maps and associated enemy gear, as well as mercstarting gear. Once that is done we will be able to move to the biggest and very important part which is the voice scripts. Once those are done then it will be lots of breaking them into bits. The quests part will take place after that. However, most of the quests have been storyboarded and that includes many new quests.

Ok, any questions or input is always welcome as always.


The


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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356983 is a reply to message #356982] Sat, 16 March 2019 21:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
grim is currently offline grim

 
Messages:344
Registered:July 2006
Location: France
It's good to read all the progress you've made.

For the pictures, i don't know what's wrong with the spoilers, but can't you put an external link for example?

A little question while i'm here : What are your changes about armors, that require a specific focus over other items?

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Master Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356984 is a reply to message #356983] Sat, 16 March 2019 21:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
Registered:February 2019
Location: Philly/DC
Don't know how to put up a link and I think the spoiler will be fixed soon hopefully or I can do a special post with spoilers in the title.

As for the armors that main thing that is happening is related to roleplaying, uniqueness and balance. So that mean that items such as hats, coats and stuff are neat but never used and Nail's jacket fits into this. Let us assume that the people that wear other items don't want to die and are professional mercenaries and are not newbies. Building off that first assumption that those individuals would put on helmets and armored vests and such for combat and only wear the other when not in combat. The second part building off the first assumption is that well paid individuals would not wear bad gear that does not fit their purpose and training.

How does those point affect the game:

There are a groupings of armor and helmets tied to purpose/skillset of the MERC.
Many items that are hats/clothes/uniforms have been given helmet equal protection that would fit their purpose/skillset
I have tried to provide uniforms/helmets/hats/clothes that match nationality/personality of the mercenaries.
Older weaker armor is not used as these are professional soldiers and this Mod does not really integrate the progression style combat model of JA2

Now with that being said there are lots of variables and players can all mix and change to their hearts desire but the mercenaries will start with.

Hope that helps to explain why armor was chosen to change and weapons were not. However once this mod is completed I plan to do a full items update tied to the automation model and using all new parameters to provide uniqueness and standardization. Part of what I have noticed is that many things have been added but older items not updated and each mod maker would have his own view and story. This would create mismatches and such. Also since everything is done by hand it is almost impossible to do a full change manually. Once this tool is released it would allow mod makers the option to change the formulas and repopulate quickly the items list. It should also provide a way to help limit bugs related to attachments as would be automated to produce. Not an easy thing but it works based on my spot testing.


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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356987 is a reply to message #356984] Mon, 18 March 2019 00:10 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
Registered:February 2019
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SPOILER ALERT NEXT THREE POSTS WILL BE UNHIDDEN

Due to technical difficulties it would seem that the spoiler tags are not working. However I did want to provide the images of some of the MERC's available.

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356988 is a reply to message #356987] Mon, 18 March 2019 00:15 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
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nevermind it would seem the upload feature is not allowing uploads. Not sure why since they are in correct format (PNG) and only 208k in size so small in size. Once this is figured out I will upload so you can see the initial mercs.

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356990 is a reply to message #356988] Mon, 18 March 2019 00:46 Go to previous messageGo to next message
grim is currently offline grim

 
Messages:344
Registered:July 2006
Location: France
The max size of uploaded files is set to 0, you won't be able to upload anything.
You can host the file elsewhere and put a link directing to it here.

(Thanks for your answer)

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Master Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356991 is a reply to message #356990] Mon, 18 March 2019 02:33 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
Registered:February 2019
Location: Philly/DC
http://i64.tinypic.com/20gyy2p.png
http://i64.tinypic.com/6gyhyu.png
http://i63.tinypic.com/2qmjlom.png

Please let me know if that worked

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356992 is a reply to message #356991] Mon, 18 March 2019 02:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
Registered:February 2019
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nevermind I see it did I wish I could have put up spoilers. Sorry about that

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356993 is a reply to message #356992] Mon, 18 March 2019 02:39 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
Registered:February 2019
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Some of them have already been modified as they did not come out like I had planned or worked on them to get the colors correct for pictures which is a bit tricky. This does give you an idea of the mercs that will be in the mod.

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Sergeant
Re: New Mod Announcment (Tuscany)[message #356994 is a reply to message #356993] Mon, 18 March 2019 02:40 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Stavian is currently offline Stavian

 
Messages:107
Registered:February 2019
Location: Philly/DC
Also, there are 50+ additional mercenaries in MERC. So you will have lots of options for your teams and that will help in replayability.

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Sergeant
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