Re-Mastering the Egypt Faction (Big Update January 2017!)

[-Archmage-]

Maybe you should provide this as a standalone faction and put it in Game Mods until it gets as default part of megapack.

You mean standalone as in it's own 'tech'? I'll put it up in the Game Mod system if Titi doesn't want it to replace the original Egypt faction.

It's great job Archmage, thanks!

Thanks Victor!

[titi]

I suggest to first start with a modcenter release, using faction links to provide a full megapack clone.
Replacing the egypt faction in the game is for sure a future option. Only problem I see is that the new egypt faction looks a lot better than the other factions. This is of course very good, but you must admit that the result might look a bit strange maybe. Thats why it simply must be played when its complete to see how alien this higher quality looks like in the game.

update: maybe I am forced to update some models in the other factions too

[kagu]

update: maybe I am forced to update some models in the other factions too

YEAAAH !!!! 

[-Archmage-]

I suggest to first start with a modcenter release, using faction links to provide a full megapack clone.
Replacing the egypt faction in the game is for sure a future option. Only problem I see is that the new egypt faction looks a lot better than the other factions. This is of course very good, but you must admit that the result might look a bit strange maybe. Thats why it simply must be played when its complete to see how alien this higher quality looks like in the game.

update: maybe I am forced to update some models in the other factions too

Alright, I'll put the next release on the modcenter. That'll be very soon.

The Megapack has always looked pretty strange, it's also a strange combination of historical and completely fictional factions, and you have Tech and Magic in there too. But I see what you mean. 

I'm not done working, I think Indians is the logical next faction to look at. And.. on the backburner for now, I have a well-progressed remake of another faction that could possibly become MG's 8th official faction. So there's plenty more to come this year.

[Omega]

Looks great Arch. I'd think that putting it into the actual MegaGlest distribution would be a great idea at some point. Of course, it'll make for a rather large change. I'll say that I don't see a major inconsistency with the art style of the MegaPack. I mean, let's be honest, Magic and Tech really stand out because Tucho was very good at what he did. I don't believe anyone else in the community actually formally studied art as he did, so it's was hard for the other factions to compete. Arch's work here seems to, though!

[Carl the Great]

The models look very good, Archmage! We would like to look forward on the three new units, though (even though if you not currently starting on them), a kind of sub-mod or extension of the faction would be appreciated. The Air Pyramid may be a candidate for removal or retexture...

There's something odd though that has been in the faction for a long time: the Spearthrower using the Archer sounds in the attack skill. Better if they can be replaced with some throwing/javelin sounds.

[-Archmage-]

@Omega: Next/Final update will go into the Mod Center, and thank you. 

@Carl: I probably won't work on the new units for awhile. But, updating some of the silly sounds is something I want to do before I put this up on the mod center.

Currently, I'm working on a small VR game, and trying to learn C# along the way. And hopefully, I will have a new job in a couple weeks. So don't expect big updates for a little while, but I'll still be around and working on stuff slowly.

[-Archmage-]

So I decided to do more audio work than I probably should've, but here's an update log of what's changed in terms of sound since the last update.

-Mummy Denoised(No longer get strong hissing and popping when mummies fight)
-SpearThrower Revoiced by me(previously used Magitech audio)
-Slave Revoiced by me(previously used Magitech audio)
-Priest Revoiced by me(previously used Magitech audio)
-Spearman Revoiced by me
-Anubis Warrior Denoised
-Spearthrower's spear makes more appropriate noise
-Spearman's attack redone
-Chicken's redone(previously was Titi's mouth?)
-Farm now clucks because there are chickens in it

I plan to redo the Ibis, Snake, Scarab, and make other adjustments. If you have any suggestions or would like to help out, just lemme know.
I found it difficult to voice four separate characters with foreign-ish accents and have it sound halfway decent.

[titi]

Its always a bit tricky to try out the versions, I suggest making your own techtree unsing faction liks like I did it for wciow here:
https://forum.megaglest.org/index.php?topic=9658.msg93031#msg93031
Or see how the magitech techtree is done.

And another suggestion what about using a version control system like git ( using github ) ?
This would allow you to hold techtree/faction and sources well ordered in a version controled way.

UPDATE:
I tried to setup a techtree for you, but I was not able to to run the latest version. Looks like some data is missing in the 7z file. ( egypt_remaster-1-6-17.7z )
I ran it and get this: ( in MGs git version which give much more useful errors )

Code: [Select]

Error [Error loading Faction Types: /home/tscharn/.megaglest/techs/egypt_remastered/
Message: Error loading units: /home/tscharn/.megaglest/techs/egypt_remastered/factions/egypt_remaster/
Message: Error loading UnitType: /home/tscharn/.megaglest/techs/egypt_remastered/factions/egypt_remaster/units/air_pyramid/air_pyramid.xml
Message: Error opening wav file: /home/tscharn/.megaglest/techs/egypt_remastered//commondata//sounds/ab_attack1.wav]


[-Archmage-]

I'll make a techtree out of the next version, which will be soon.

I have no idea why there are errors, I packed it straight out of my copy of MG there shouldn't be any missing files.

I'm not having organizational issues, but I'll switch to github anyway, then I don't have to relaunch everything to provide small updates.

[titi]

I have no idea why there are errors, I packed it straight out of my copy of MG there shouldn't be any missing files.

abover error says that commondata//sounds/ab_attack1.wav does not exist. You may have added something to commondata but thats not in the 7z yet. Looks like just packing the faction isnot enough ( thats the trouble with commondata and the reason I don't like it that much )

[-Archmage-]

Moved everything over to Github and into a Techtree. https://github.com/virtushda/EgyptRemaster
It should work fine now and everybody has easy access to the latest version.

[andy_5995]

Will this be included as part of MegaPack in the next release?

[-Archmage-]

Will this be included as part of MegaPack in the next release?

That is my hope, but that's up to Titi and Softcoder.

[jammyjamjamman]

Just tried this and it's awesome!

A *possible* improvement (although this is a subject of taste) is that the textures on the stone buildings appear very bright in-game and highly contrasting with the terrain (especially green tilesets, then again wtf is egypt doing in a luscious environment xD). I think the textures would look better if slightly dulled, but then again my eyes might just need to get used to the faction thus it wouldn't matter.

Another improvement (this one would be fairly lengthy) would be an icon upgrade.

The git repo version has an error. If you try and run it, it says "ibis_wing.wav" is missing because the file is called "Ibis_wing.wav" (maybe it works on windows because windows is case-insensitive). Your final version appears to use the horseman sounds like the original egypt faction.

Can't wait to see this in megapack!

[-Archmage-]

I'll take another look at the textures, Egypt is definitely designed for the desert tilesets. 

Icons aren't really my area, otherwise I'd probably do them.

Sounds aren't my area either, but I'm working on them cause the re-use of Magitech sounds bothers me. I'm having trouble finding fitting sounds for the Ibis, which is why that's not updated yet.

I'll fix that case issue right now though, thank you. Expect a couple more updates soon.

Edit: Patched. Ibis also has new wing sounds, and some other small tweaks like making the Chickens less annoying.

[andy_5995]

I'm not sure if this was done yet:

I made a 'deltapack'. It includes all 7 factions of the Megapack, but egypt has been replaced with the 0.98 remaster.

It uses "faction links" so the archive is only 40MB. The six other factions link to the factions in the megapack directory

(link deleted, see other downloads available, subject to change)

size: 40769753
md5sum: 650c69431d85ceaf357a0844a8ccef36

[-Archmage-]

If you check the Github link on the first post, you'll see that I already offer this, except you can play the original Egypt too for a total of 8 choices. I didn't really advertise it though.
I'll clean this confusion up when I get around to finishing the sounds. So far, I can't come up with a good sound for the Ibis.

[andy_5995]

Ok, I see it there (the GitHub link you mentioned).

That changes somewhat frequently right now, I assume? Do you think using deltapack (created using egypt_remaster-1-6-17.7z) for now would be adequate for testing, or would you recommend using a 7z of the current github snapshot?

titi, issh, and I played a game using the egypt remaster today. Hopefully you can get some feedback from titi soon.

Overall, I enjoy the new graphics and would like to keep playing with the remaster.

One note about 'deltapack': Earlier today, I tried it with Jammy (I was host). When he connected, we received the message about a data mismatch (faction 7 Egypt). I'm not sure why that would be, because he and I both used the same archive. I used '7z a deltapack.7z deltapack' to create the archive; perhaps I need more parameters for 7z?

But fortunately, I hit 'start game' though, and everything worked fine! No error messages in-game or in the console.

I could create a current 7z from that GitHub link, or just let me know in the future when you'd like to distribute a pre-release for testing.

Frequently, titi and I host our own server, and I'm glad to offer a pack with the remaster so it can be played and tested more easily. I believe titi would also if there was a complete 7z readily available for download, though I'm reluctant to speak for him filux has put some of my pre-release maps on the headless dev server for play-testing, and one time, a new mod by Ishmaru when we asked him; so you might make a request of filux directly about that possibility.

I'm sure it can get confusing for the devs though, when multiple versions of a mod or of maps linger on the headless. I wonder if any future pre-release packs should have a version number, such as deltapack_a1, etc?

Anyways, thank you for doing this re-master. I look forward to playing it more in the extremely near future. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

If you check the Github link on the first post, you'll see that I already offer this, except you can play the original Egypt too for a total of 8 choices. I didn't really advertise it though.
I'll clean this confusion up when I get around to finishing the sounds. So far, I can't come up with a good sound for the Ibis.

[andy_5995]

I saw the GitHub repo was updated as recently as a week ago. So I just went ahead and created a techtree from that.

megapack_egypt_remaster_A1.7z

size: 51236125
md5sum: cd3c0be0f288650675c834b6ffafcaea

I'll delete the "deltapack" link, I think this one directly above should be used instead.

[andy_5995]

david and I just played a game with the A1 pack on 3.12. It worked just fine. He really liked it.

Here are some numbers. The CPU doesn't have any problem with it that I can see.

[-Archmage-]

I'll clean up releases when I've finished the audio. Version 0.98 has a text file next to the faction XML indicating that version. Github version says 0.99, which will change to 1.0 when I'm done with the audio and final tweaks.

The CPU shouldn't have any issues as this mod doesn't alter gameplay.

[-Archmage-]

So, all I really have left to do is the Ibis and the Scarab. Snake and Sphinx received an update just a few minutes ago(available on Github).

What do you guys think the Ibis should sound like? And does anyone think the Scarab should make sounds? If so, what sounds?

[John.d.h]

What do you guys think the Ibis should sound like?

Like a kazoo, basically.  I'm sure it varies by species, but here's one in sub-Saharan Africa:

And does anyone think the Scarab should make sounds? If so, what sounds?

Different kinds of beetles can hiss, chirp, click, or make all kinds of sounds.

The dung beetle makes a sound like a creaky wooden floor when provoked:

[-Archmage-]

Ibis: Seems like a very annoying sound. I'll fiddle with it in Audacity and see if I can make it sound nice. 

Scarab: That's kinda cool, but wouldn't fit at all as a sound effect.