New Arcanum Mod in development

Well, I'm new to the modding community, but I have a mod in the works. Scripting is turning out to be pretty easy, since I 've have some programming experience in the past. I've been working on it a couple of weeks now and things are moving along quickly (and I have a lot of time on my hands).

The mod takes place on a 64X64 map and, though that may seem small, it should provide for some extensive play. There will be, at least, 13 cities (2 to rival Tarant) and 8 key locations. It is possible to walk the map, but because of time concerns I have created a coachline, trains and ships to get you to key locations quickly.

The name of the mod is "The Great Arcane War" and, though I don't have the history worked out completely, it is about a great kingdom that split in two. You come into play in the aftermath of the war. There will be lots of quests and I am even considering putting in a Mercenary's Guild from which you can hire followers.

It's a multiplayer mod and I have created quite a few monster generators, so the places you have cleared out (i.e. roads between towns) should generate new monsters when you use them again.

There are a few things I don't know about scripting that I could use some quick help with (or stumble through and find out for myself), so if anyone has quick answers that would be appreciated. My current issue is probably pretty simple. I am having trouble creating a doorman (such as the Ogre in Tarant at the Gentlemens Club). I can do the doorman's script and dialog, I just can't figure out how to activate it by trying to use the door he is guarding. Any pointers would be helpful.

As for the rest of the mod, I have been working on it for about 2 weeks and have two of the large cities completed and most of the quests for them done.

When I am finished with it, which shouldn't be long, I will need a place to post it.

You can e-mail me at lester_mckay@yahoo.com for any updates on the mod or to offer any suggestions to include in the mod.

My wife, who also loves playing, would consider it blasphemy for anyone to say Arcanum was dead. We have been playing for about a year now and have plans to make many mods.

I will share this one with the public to see what they think.

 

It sounds great! But be prepared for unpolite players...they don't value modders...
Anyways I think 64x64 is too small for 15 cities (especially if some of will rival Tarant) but don't worry since even 5 cities would be fantastic...hell even one city to rival Tarant would be awesome. Good luck with the mod!

P.S. Sorry can't help you with the script issue.

 

Thanks for the enthusiasm, Maniac. You'll be the first to play! As far as unpolite players, I'm not too worried. I'm old enough to not be discouraged and I still love the game. My wife and I think it is the best RPG out there, both engine and graphic design.

I thought 64x64 was small at first, but the more I work with it the better it seems. The towns are not too far apart. There will only be 2 cities to rival Tarant, the rest are smaller villages ala Dernholm. I think you'll be impressed with it. If you want to know more of the history send me an e-mail and I'll give that to you privately.

I know yu said you can't help with the scripting, but with some history, you may be able to come up with quest ideas.

Thanks again.

 

Ok, people. I know modders aren't very welcome in the community. Probably because you get all this info about a mod then, suddenly, the mod dies. Let me re-itterate, I have a lot of time on my hands!

Since my last post, I have been working non-stop (ok I occasionally sleep when my kids allow me to) and have 6 quests created and 3 towns done, complete with rubbish bins and shops. The mod is currently 5.18 MB and will, undoubtedly be larger when it is finished.

If there is anyone out there who is interested in a multi-player mod, then respond to this post. I really, really plan to finish it. If anyone wants to give additional quest ideas for the mod I'll be more than happy to implement them. It's still pretty young, but it won't be long before it is finished.

Again, this mod is not going to die.

 

I guess a lot of people are just disenchanted at the moment. When Maniac says the modding community isn't very good, I think he means that noone can be bothered to help each other - it's more competative than helpful, and that puts a lot of people off modding, and even hinders them, so virtually no mods actually get completed.

If you've got a mod in the works, then by all means I'll give it a go. I've tried a bit of modding myself, but just didn't have the time for it.

Also, have you tried to contact Dark Underlord? He's around here somewhere, and is generally considered to be the guru of Arcanum modding (the god of all things WorldEd).

 

My mod is still in the works but, what I have been doing is picking a certain quest that will end the game (the hardest, fo course.) So everytime I exit WorldEd, the .dat is completely playable. Everytime I create a new quest, If it's hard enough, it becomes the new end game quest.

I have currently begun working on the written items and tying quests in to them. It has proved to be quite easy.

I recently downloaded all of the .scr and .dlg Arcanum files from DarkUnderloard. They shou prove to be the key I need to ramp up production.

Currently, I need a good FTP client to upload over my mundane 56k connection. The most unfortunate thing is, that I don't think you can set up won accounts to play MP over the Internet. I guess it'll just be my wife and I.

But, I'll be glad to share this one with the community. I doesn't matter if I get positive feedback or not. I'll finish the mod regardless, more for my wife and me. But I thnk the rest of you will love it.

 

Well, the mod was designed as multiplayer, but there are single player scripts (such as sleeping in beds at an inn.) I play multiplayer on my home LAN with my wife and son and often forget other people have to use the Internet, sorry.....

I stumbled into something when working with the mod The Dungeon Crawl, though. I was'nt aware that IT was designed as single player. In trying to get it to work, I created a backup of the temp files when it was uncompressed. Then I created a new multiplayer mod and overwrote the temp files with the backups. When I compressed the mod it had converted it to multiplayer. The only thing I had to do was open it and set the starting location which was listed in the .mes files.

I think that all makes sense. This would, at least, appeal to those who like saving games, rather than playing them straight through.

DarkUnderlord, at one time I knew where there was info on creating a world map. I thought it was off your web page. Maybe I was just too tired last time I was there, but I didn't see it, or perhaps it was on another page that I have forgotten. If you know what I'm talking about or where it is let me know. I'll add that for the single player people.

 

I should have known it would be right under my nose, and one of the more simpler things to do. Thanks.....