GLADE Team Project: Dark Magic

[modman]

If you were wondering, I changed the numbering system to an easier one, because I really wasn't sure what to number this version.  I am sure it is updated with all of the new models, and I made a lot of icons for this version too.  There are a lot of icons to go, though.

Maybe I should discuss icons, if anyone is interested.

The Alliyp is a little weird in this version because I was expecting to get some particle systems from Leetskillz, but he seems to have died.   That's ok, because I know how to do some of that stuff myself.  I was just hoping we would get a newer member to the team.  So to do for the next version.

You may notice that I removed the Wyvern.  I think Dark Magic should be more defense-based.  Anyhow, there are already a lot of offensive units in Dark Magic, more than most other factions.  Also, the Wyvern is unfinished, and so in a sideways sort of way, it got us closer to finishing.   Objections?

I also added a defensive unit.  After testing Dark Magic, I soon realized that the Gods Banes were more of a bane to themselves than any other unit!  Melee units get right next to it, and then they kill themselves with their splashes.  So I added a ground-defense unit, which remains to be named.  I could get help there.  I also removed the ability of the Gods Banes to attack ground units.  So the two defensive units will sort of be sister units.

Please read the READMEs.  I listed the changes, so we can backtrack if necessary, and I also gave people credit.  No one talks about that stuff here, so I have to assume no one noticed it.

I stopped putting the text documents in *.txt form.  They are in *.doc form, which you can open in Open Office if you do not have Microsoft Office.

All of the blends are in the readme download now, because I want to try to keep the download for the non-modders as light as possible.  Dark Magic is already 40 MB when zipped, and 70 otherwise!  This may have to do with the 16 MB soundtrack I made.

Download Dark Magic v. 10.01.22
Readme Folder (Necessary for Modders)

[-Archmage-]

I voted on the poll, and I voted yes, because in Magitech-Refit, I gave the Summoner a meeting point, and it made her easier to use.

[ultifd]

Very nice. 
It seems liked there was no attack sound for Dark Mages... but I checked and there was...couldn't here anything...

[titi]

Thanks for the cool video !
downloading dark magic......

[wciow]

Excellent!

Downloading now and will report back when I've tested  

EDIT: looks like we are almost there!

Harpy animation needs to be slowed down about 50%.

Also there seems to be some sort of defensive machine gun thing  ???

I might have a go at modelling the Gargoyle for the next release if no-one else is already doing it.

[John.d.h]

We have a model for the Gargoyle.  I just haven't gotten off my ass and finished animating it yet.   As I recall, I have the standing and dying animations done, but still need to do the rest.

I probably could stand to redo some of the Harpy animations when I have time.  I think the attacks look decent (just needs to be sped up), but the flying animation deforms the wings in kind of a weird way.

[modman]

Wciow, have you tried out the Morlock in game?  It's fine if you like it like that, but to me it looks a bit like a frog walking (if frogs walked )

And the machine gun is the thing I talked about in my long post.  I think Dark Magic could use a machine-gun defensive unit to accent the high-damage/splash of the Gods Bane.

[ElimiNator]

No, because wen she moves the meting point is reset.

[-Archmage-]

No, because wen she moves the meting point is reset.

That doesn't matter.
The whole point of the meeting point is so you can put her somewhere safe and put the meeting point somewhere else, you're not supposed to move her all the time like the AI.

[titi]

OK, thanks for the new version, but....
Always the same errors in the xmls and nothing is fixed in the last 5 month!
https://forum.megaglest.org/index.php?topic=4402.msg29738#msg29738

xml-Problems:
- several problems with uppercase letters which make it linux incompatible
- The acolytes still doesn't show their special animation for "going to harvest wood" and "go to mining" . I made them and they should be there.
- The dark sourcery doesn't have a good attack( where are the bats that I made? See here: https://forum.megaglest.org/index.php?topic=4402.msg26902#msg26902 )
- dark sourcerys death is played back much too fast!
- dark mages shot setup has wrong timing and position!
- the Dark Elder shows no charging animation
- Allyps shot is too early for the animation
- Dark Elders Airshot should come from his stick ( By the way does really everyone think the current black/white texture is better than the original one with color? See here: https://forum.megaglest.org/index.php?topic=4402.msg28032#msg28032 )
- imps charge attack is too fast ( and the animation speed doesn't fit for this speed either )
- imp has an attack range of 2, this looks really ugly for his kind of attack!
.... and some other things

I'm a bit angry about this! Should I do the xml-setup?

other problems:
- where is the colorful texture of the divination crystal?
- morlocks teamcolor is not visible in the game
- divination crystal has teamcolor, but it should be a bit more visible, maybe the base color should be a little bit lighter
- harpy is too big ( model resize is needed ) and has a strange standing animation :/
- walking animation of the dark mage is bad :/
....

And I don't like the machine gun thing, it doesn't fit to this faction. We have the earth serpent thats enough( I prefer earth serpents original green texture too ).

[-Archmage-]

Wow Titi........THANKS!
I'm really glad you posted all those errors, because I was going to download this soon, now I'm not even going to bother.

[ultifd]

Well, at least this version "works" compared to the last version...
I agree...the machine gun thing doesn't really fit in ... reminds me of the Nihilirian Mod...

[John.d.h]

other problems:
- where is the colorful texture of the divination crystal?
- morlocks teamcolor is not visible in the game
- divination crystal has teamcolor, but it should be a bit more visible, maybe the base color should be a little bit lighter
- harpy is too big ( model resize is needed ) and has a strange standing animation :/
- walking animation of the dark mage is bad :/

Several of these are my fault.  Unfortunately, it's going to be a while before I'll be able to fix them.

[-Archmage-]

Well, at least this version "works" compared to the last version... Smiley

Yes, but only on Windows!

[modman]

Gee, titi.  I'm genuinely sorry about all of this.  I tested for several hours, and I really thought XMLs were finished, if not close to it.  Thank you for testing, because it gives me another perspective.  Those models I left out on accident, which is what I am most sorry for.  You made them, so the least I could do to oblige you would be setting them up right for the game.

I toyed around with the Divination Crystal texture for a while, and unfortunately, the ball is one-sided.  I'll make it gold, I think, unless we think tie-dye is better.  I like gold better myself.

I made a new particle proj and splash for the Alliyp, and I think it is sweet!  Hopefully I can post a screen tomorrow.

[Omega]

Off to work. However, I say let Titi finish the XMLs, since he can test them in Linux. Linux is more strict, so if it works on linux, it must work on windows.

[modman]

The only uppercase letters are on the Portal, which Mark fixed today.  The other ones were on the Nihirilian unit, which was deleted anyways.

I did a ton of icons, and I also fixed up those errors titi showed.

I decided not to show the Alliyp particle proj because I don't have enough time.

Mark has done the blood fountain's construction and destruction models.  Any other modeling?

[Omega]

I decided not to show the Alliyp particle proj because I don't have enough time.

Just change the start time to something higher in the unit XML. Takes two seconds (plus five-ten minutes of testing). BTW: one question if anyone can answer: is the start time in seconds or as a percentage?

Machine gun thing? There's a maching gun thing?!? What's that? I never played this version for the same reason as arch.

[titi]

Any updates here? If not, can I make the xml-setup?

[modman]

I will update soon, and if it is not good enough, you should take over.

[modman]

Download Dark Magic v 10.02.04

List of changes after version 10.01.22:
•   Fixed some bugs titi found:
    o   Acolytes now show unique animations when walking unloaded to harvest or mine
    o   Added bats to particle proj for Sorceress
    o   Slowed down Sorceress death animation to ¼ of before
    o   Fixed Dark Mage proj to be timed correctly
    o   Fixed Dark Mage proj offset the best I can (it seems that it is impossible to modify the z axis in practice for a parabolic type)
    o   Dark Elder now has charge animation implemented
•   Added meeting point to Sorceress
•   New icons:
    o   Generic melee attack
    o   Re-did Acolyte (original was hard to see)
    o   Cancel orders
    o   Dark Elder air attack
    o   Dark Mage attack
    o   Shadow Walker
    o   Imp
    o   Earth Serpent attack
•   Changed Divination Crystal texture to have a golden sphere, and to make team color easier to see.
•   Implemented construction and destruction models for the Oblivion Portal

//EDIT:

Screenshots
Alliyp Proj
Alliyp Splash 1
Alliyp Splash 2

[ultifd]

Cool. 
Downloading right now...

EDIT:

Video(s)

Thanks! I'll probably make a better one later when I have time... 

I also updated the wiki.... https://docs.megaglest.org/Dark_Magic_Faction 

[titi]

Yes, this version is much better!

Ok now for some problems I see:
1. in gods_bane/models are still 3 linux inkompatible units.

2. the way dark magic produces energy
If the energy tower blood_fountain is killed, there still is an unvisible unit which has a view size. Whatever it is exactly but you can see enemy units at this point although there is not even any of your units.
Another problem is the behaviour of the AI. It always trys to attack these unvisible units! Though when your teammate is killed the enemies will no longer attack you. All attack waves which are started from now go to the point with the unvisible units. Maybe we should think about the way energy is produced. I would vote for a classic energy production...

3. Is there only the dark mage which can attack air units? Maybe I didn't played often enough yet, but in the game i played all cpu player and me had problems with defending airattacks.

[modman]

@ultifd: Thanks for the video.  One way to improve it would be to also show the base, and all of the cool buildings there.  So basically a whole game from start to finish.

@titi:
1.   This is a problem, but we should have that fixed soon.  I’ll not upload all of Dark Magic with it, only those three in a separate download.
2.   This is a serious long-term problem.  I was hoping GAE would have a way to fix this when I first implemented that energy-creation method, but maybe I’ll have to revert back to old-fashioned methods until then.  Tell me, does GAE already have a solution?  If so, we can easily make this GAE compatible, and also release a vanilla version too.
3.   This is odd.  A lot of the units in Dark Magic should be able to attack air.  Early in the game, Sorceresses should be available as well as Dark Mages.  Harpies also attack air.  I think I restored the Wyvern, too.  The Dark Elder and the Alliyp also attack air, just as the God’s Bane does (but you said that unit gave you troubles, for which I apologize).

[ultifd]

EDIT: Here's a new video... in the end Youtube sucks... but it's alright... (the quality) 
watch here:  
the quality of the original video was great...then when Youtube... 
-----------------------
No problem,
I'm going to upload another video, showing the base for a second or too...
The problem was the CPU Ultra Dark Magic was too slow... they didn't do much.
So I finished them of in 2 minutes...

but I thought I was going to have a big battle...

I'll probably try to make another one...  
but I need to find a better video converter...a high quality one.
Mine(s) are just ok.
Not bad, but ok...