[ACTIVE] Another Story in Halcyon

[duo]

The models look really cool! Who made them? Is there a spec sheet for new models (style, polycount), or are they all placeholders so far? Also, is there a story for the game yet? If not, I suggest renaming the game to Rockman VOLT, for Volnutt's Other Legends Tales. It sounds better than ASH; ash is basically charred waste, while volt is electric, like a jolt of new energy to an old legends franchise.

Finally, I would like to help if my help is needed. I can make models, animations, and rigs. But only in Blender. If it's a custom engine, you probably have a custom exporter made for 3dsmax or maya... That's one of the reasons I don't like the idea of a custom engine, but judging by the screens and major's description, this one looks competently made. I can write code too. Is there a scripting engine built in, or is it all cpp?

[JMC47]

We have a custom exporter built for blender, all of our models have come from blender. The scripting engine for the game is in python (convenient considering Blender) and it makes working with the engine easier.

Also, while I do like your name idea, it might just happen that a certain blue bomber isn't the focus for this game. I think ASH is more fitting, though, jokingly, we originally called it RASH. The blue armor in this is more a throwback because we didn't have time to come up with an entirely original armor design that looked decent!

I'm always looking for more 3D help and we'll work with integrating you into the staff. Our character model is a tad over 9000 polygons right now, though, it's quite inefficient (the ears and other things are still modeled underneath the helmet, for instance) and will be more efficient by a future release.

[MayImilae]

Who made it? Me. . Everything you see there was modeled by me (other then Gorubeshu). TJ usually does our environments but he has been busy, so we had to make do with my environment work, as my specialty is more objects and characters. He really is better then me at environment design, but you know how it is, just had to make due. The main character, shak, foo roo, the room, walkways, etc. everything here is my work, minus the gorubeshu. TJ did the gorubeshu as a nice distraction from all those rooms, and he did a great job, it's a shame it's hard to see in the pic.

Of course, all that hard work would have been meaningless if not for rigging, animations, and of course the engine. So it was a ton of work, but still only a part of the big picture.

As for the efficiency thing, I have to disagree with JMC there. I go to all manner of lengths to maximize efficiency. If I hadn't, the lead with armor would have hit 16k easy. The entire body, armor with both sides, on and on, it would have added up FAST. And chopping out the scalp would have only saved a couple hundred polygons anyway, and make problems for looking up her helmet, so I just I figured I had saved enough. *shrug*

Anyway, as the "art director" and "lead modeler", and all the limited rights that it grants me lol, I set the pace for the rest of the artists. My approach is a simple one, use the polygons you need. We have the technology now, with dynamic LOD and high polygon levels, that as long as you don't go overboard, you can push polygons in places where polygons are needed. So the main character is some 9k polygons. It's a character, and that has alot of pieces and parts and things that have to move and bend, so it needs a good array of polygons, But even that really isn't alot, modern graphics can go as high as 20k per character. Shak, with lots of sphere and cylinders and smooth edges, is some 5-6k. And then a Zak is around 2-3k. A fooroo is only a few hundred. Depends on what it needs for a good look. If we go too far? Then we pull back, simple enough. But this will take some time to make, and be around for a long time. If we shoot too low and stick with that, it stays that way, forever. Computers are constantly growing, by the time this is released every computer could support this, for all I know. Otherwise it will just be upper mid range. And that's fine. It won't be bleeding edge, and it doesn't have to be, cause we used the polygons we needed, and so it looks and bends well.

[Deleted]

Great job, guys! For how long have you been working on it, and did you make it from scratch just for this project or used up material from older projects?

[JMC47]

Everything in the project was made for this project; all materials you see were made by our staff members for the sole purpose of ASH.

Besides, I don't know if I could exactly steal stuff from MMLEx and have it possibly fit in.

[duo]

Hey, can I get my hands on a story? MayImilae, do you have spec sheets for the characters, or at least a style sheet describing the look you want people to follow?

Also, why didn't you use panda3d? It has a good blender exporter and a python interpreter. I don't know about all the fancy shaders though, I think you have to write custom shaders to get the lighting effects like those in the screen shots.

[fAB]

They say that sometimes less is more, but I think you kind of under-did it this time, JMC.

Screenshots and "Yes, this is a game." doesn't say much, which I'm sure was your intention but a little more description from the start would save people asking all these basic questions and you having to answer them.

Who made it? Me. etc.

Looks like someone is proud of their accomplishments. XD And so you should be. You've done an awesome job on all this, and for as long as I've been watching your progress it's a pity I'm just now getting a good opportunity to say so. Well done!

[MayImilae]

They say that sometimes less is more, but I think you kind of under-did it this time, JMC.

We had some problems getting style established. We were originally going to make a trailer for the release, but most of the time up to the deadline was spent with experiments and learning style, and not on actually making stuff. We had gotten so caught up in making room after room reaver after reaver, that we became distracted from the core design principles we should have been exploring and developing. And so we back tracked and experimented with a bunch of styles. And even though it made the release a bit smaller, it made it much higher quality. It was well worth it, in my opinion. Having a deadline forced us to face our problems and do things we needed to do from day one, and in doing so it improved ourselves and the project. That deadline definitely helped us, we'll be setting another one soon.

As for the spartan release information, you know JMC. Always "theatrical". lol. And thanks for the kind words fab!


And Duo, there isn't a character spec sheet or anything yet. More or less I handle everything personally, guiding the style and look by managing individuals. I guess if we get a ton of artists working simultaneously I would have to write stuff up or something, but while we are still small, I can take a hands on approach and give each artist the individual attention he deserves.

As for panda3D, making our own engine provides massive benefits over any engine. Even if we were to use an established and super full featured one, say Source, we couldn't just go in and change things to our like, we would have to use what is available or hack it in all manner of weird ways, and even then the internals would be isolated from, or at best foreign to, the coders. By making our own, the coders know each and every line of code, if something goes wrong, they fix it, if we want a feature, they add it. I'll use the lava as an example. When it was first made it was rather drab and lame. I worked with the coder, and he altered the bloom and the texture and made it awesome. He literally made a special form of bloom just to make that lava look as bright as it does. Totally awesome. Another example is the main character's shading. The shading is COMPLETELY unique, it doesn't exist anywhere else in any form. We will continue to tweak it as we go along, but that character has a form of shading that doesn't exist anywhere on the face of the earth. That means something. We can make it however we like, and have no hindrances on getting a look we like. With an established engine, you just pick from existing options or hack in features on top of existing functions, but by making it ourselves, fenix can make the engine for our needs, fix any problems that arise, on and on, with tremendous efficiency. Having a custom engine is definitely the way to go, if you have the chance to have one. And we do , thanks to fenix and his awesome coding work. The engine is his baby, and it shows. The amount of care that has gone into it is a work of art in it's own right.

[JMC47]

Well, let me defend my position here in how I announced ASH. To be frank, we were up until the last minute making the screenshots and prepping them, and I didn't have the time to write a massive post about everything I could ever imagine. The main post will be clarified once I have a decent idea of what people want to know, and what I'm willing to reveal.

To be honest, I was very worried about the reception of ASH at this point, it is just screenshots, and people may not understand the value of using our own engine. Yes, it's harder, but at the same time it increases our chances of survival because it can always be changed. In the case of Panda 3D, Ogre, along with others, they just don't do exactly what we want, and if we were to change them to do what we want, it'd take just as long, if not longer, and be a lower quality game. When you have someone able to code the engine from scratch, you code the engine from scratch, simple as that.

As MaJoR said, our engine has some unique features that isn't really seen anywhere else, even in its infant form.

My next update will be far more elegant, now that I've tested the waters a bit.

[Rage]

I admire your persistence. I like the title too. So simple yet so amazing.

I merely wish good luck in your game developing needs and wants. I do not have any skills in that department. I've always been to lazy to fool around with game design. Along with an impatient personality doesn't help either.

The models look very nice. I admire your talent as well. Most people would destroy your worlds just have a smudge of modeling talent.

[Dash]

*Thinks about posting up a certain track from ASH.*



noted by JMC as something I would advise against doing

*Doesn't even remember what I had in mind to post.*

[JMC47]

Hey, MMLSers! It's JMC47 back to give you an update with ASH. We're currently working toward our next milestone (which should be a fun surprise) and everything is going as planned.

As such, if anyone would like to help accelerate the process, and maybe get some sneak peeks along the way, we are currently seeking additional assistance in environmental design. Specifically within the realm of concept art and perhaps texturing. If anyone is interested in lending a helping hand, feel free to post or PM me.

Until next time...

[JMC47]

August 22nd, 2004, My brother and I announced our intentions to build a 3D MegaMan Legends fangame to fill the void left by Capcom. Nearly seven years later, that dream is still alive, though the ideas have matured, the people have changed, newcomers, old timers alike; the goal remains the same, to bring the community the game they deserve.

A lot has gone on over the years, whether it be ill-fated ideas like a Servbot Cart Racer, a multiplayer centric Digger vs Digger combat game, or even a flight simulator involving the Bonne Drache. I feel like after the end of MMLEx, and beginning of ASH, I somewhat isolated myself from the community in order to create a more professional environment for developing a stronger project. Instead of focusing on attention grabbing ploys like special weapon ideas or late story plotlines, we would be focusing on building the engine, models, animating and designing all the things necessary to make the game work.

That decision came at a cost; it slowed development and put a lot of pressure on those who did want to help, while at the same time limiting our visibility. After seeing how strong the community really is, how they rallied together in these toughest of times, I don’t want ASH to be this lunatic project that seems so far away; I want to share it with everyone so we can all work to make it a reality.

As such, from this week forward, the public will be updated on the status of Another Story in Halcyon, as well as showing ideas and concepts we’re working with behind to the scenes so that we can improve what we’re doing and those of you watching can see the work put into every decision, as well as give your input.

Today, I decided to show how lighting plays a role in digging as well as different ways to tackle an unlit room.

With Narration


(www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn7TZweqb2g)

Without Narration


(www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN40VHJ8DUU)

Credit to Dash for making a special version of the Water Ruin track just for this video.

For those not interested in videos, I also picked out a few screenshots to show some of the interesting setups that occur during gameplay. This shot is one of my favorites, with the soft light of the emergency flares lighting up a dark room all by themselves.



The shadows cast by the flashlight can be very stark and create a mood even within the bare generated ruins.



Remember, we're always looking for help to keep things moving, so don't be afraid to PM me or post. I'll be working on video quality as well as more ways to communicate with the staff before the week is out, and, next week, I'll be bringing another big update. So, I recommend you keep your eyes peeled!

Edit by EC - made images clickable to full-sized version

[Loken]

Wow JMC, that's amazing. I could never imagine a fan game that looks this good. I don't have any skills to offer you, but I want to thank you for working on this.

[Dash]

I'm with Loken, this looks pretty damn good. You think with me as the composer, I get to see every bit of ASH so far...

But no, not the case.