Dark Magic Project Incomplete

[victorj]

Hi dudes, I had chatted times ago with titi, He has said that was working in faction dark magic. I not see something about it on the forum.

I want to know if will you to do this mod or if , Are you working it?

Dark Magic needs many improvements:

Balance to with Megapack factions "Dark magic is very strong"

Improvements on some models that are incomplete.

Thank, I want answers bye.

[-Archmage-]

I would be willing to finish it at somepoint, or join any effort to do so.

[John.d.h]

I don't think any work has been done on this faction in several years, so refresh my memory -- what specifically is missing or needs replaced?  I might be willing to take another swing at it.

Does anybody have a download link to Dark Magic?  The filefront link in the original thread is dead (I would have been very impressed if it weren't).

[-Archmage-]

We can collaborate if you want. 
I think the basic goals are to fix balance, and finish/update the graphics.

I can't find it anywhere, I thought I had it. 

[-Archmage-]

 There is a mirror available here: https://forum.megaglest.org/index.php?topic=4402.msg90467#msg90467

[John.d.h]

 

As far as balance, my MegaGlest playing skills are actually abysmal, so I'm probably useless in that regard, but my 3D skills haven't been entirely neglected for the past seven years.
I figured step 1 is getting a repo set up, so: https://github.com/johndh/Dark-Magic
Step 2 would be getting it running in the engine.  Getting errors so far, haven't looked into it yet.  I'll keep y'all posted.
Edit: Got it running.  I copied the wrong resources folder (the one from Magitech instead of the one from Megapack), but it runs now.  The AI seems to love building too many Oblivion Portals, and too few fighting units.

What's up with the g3d script download links?  It looks like they've 404'd. https://docs.megaglest.org/G3D_support
If anybody has a working link to the import and export scripts for recent Blender versions, they'd be appreciated.

[-Archmage-]

I just run AI tests at high speed on balanced maps and watch how battles play out. I'm not very good at this game either.

I've cloned. I'll fix the errors and add factions links.

[John.d.h]

I just pushed a fixed version a moment ago.  I'm going to take a wild guess that almost none of the blend files still exist.  I still need to get my import/export set up, but I'll tackle that in the coming days.

[-Archmage-]

I sent you a pull request with resources and faction links, I haven't seen any new commits on your side yet.

I am currently reworking the Dark Mage's proportions and setting him up for re-animation.

John, import/export scripts are included with MG now, look in MegaGlest/Blender. Everything works perfectly with the latest version of Blender.

Victor and others: Besides balancing, what ideas do you have and what are your issues with dark magic currently? I'm definitely going to spend most of my time on graphics improvement.

[-Archmage-]

I've tweaked the proportions of the Dark Mage, and re-animated him. I just have to polish up the animations a bit more, and redo the particles.

https://gyazo.com/f527761e54b4b94d3e4b1be6e3db4de1

[John.d.h]

Heh... I may have forgotten to push.   Anyway, new animations look good.  I'll be able to do more after the weekend.  I don't feel bad insulting the Harpy's animations because I did them originally, but those badly need redone.  There also seem to be some sounds missing.  A lot of the buildings could use new models, like the Incantation Shrine and Sorcery Runes especially.  The Earth Serpent could probably stand to be redone completely.  I think my standards in general have just gone up a lot in the past few years.

[-Archmage-]

Made a Trello to keep track of this. Click here to add yourself to it.

That said, I'll start on the Earth Serpent.

This is probably the point where we should consider tech tree changes. For instance, there is no Necromancer and there really should be one.

[John.d.h]

What's the advantage of using another service over, say, GitHub's issue tracker?  Seems like centralization would be the way to go.

[-Archmage-]

Because Trello is primarily designed for task management, and the issue system isn't. Trello is faster, more straightforward, easier to read(visually), and more versatile. Seeing as it takes two seconds to get on Trello.com, I don't really see any gain in using the issue system. But if you don't want to use Trello, that's fine. We just need to make sure we don't overlap in our efforts.

Seems like centralization would be the way to go.

Not something I often hear from you. 

[John.d.h]

Because Trello is primarily designed for task management, and the issue system isn't. Trello is faster, more straightforward, easier to read(visually), and more versatile. Seeing as it takes two seconds to get on Trello.com, I don't really see any gain in using the issue system. But if you don't want to use Trello, that's fine. We just need to make sure we don't overlap in our efforts.

Alright, sounds worth a shot I guess.

Not something I often hear from you. 

Zing!

[titi]

My son and me worked some more on this some time ago, but its more a new faction based on dark_magic:
https://github.com/titiger/dark_side

[-Archmage-]

We're looking it over. Do you mind if we use some of your work?

[andy_5995]

It seems that you're looking for feedback.

I created a 7z package from the current git snapshot, and will offer the version on my MG server.

dark_magic_A1.7z

size: 36911085
md5sum: 777ace368f5bea118ae9b63add8979b7

[-Archmage-]

We haven't implemented much yet. I'm mainly reworking artwork that I know will be in the final product(only the new Dark Mage is in-game as of yet) as gameplay changes are still in the discussion phase. I am thinking of creating an experimental version with all of my proposed changes, but I'm not sure when I'll do that.

Right now, I've got a remodeled Oblivion Portal in the tweaking phase, and the partially-remodeled Necromancer(renamed from sorceress) in the texturing/rigging phase.