Monster Siege

by iryan on Wed May 26, 2004 12:35 pm

As it comes up now and again I thought I'd put up a demo of a playable monster pack which depends on rings & amulets to provide defense (since monsters can't equip armor) plus acclerated health & mana regeneration. It provides an easy way of creating playable monsters without having to create armor meshes for them.

It is quite funny watching the various monsters in the opening NIS

by iryan on Wed May 26, 2004 12:38 pm

The mod includes various recruitable monsters.

And it's playable in LOA (2 recruitable monsters), Ehb (5 recruitable monsters) & LOU (3 recruitable monsters)

by iryan on Wed May 26, 2004 12:44 pm

The link is here: Monster Siege Demo (268 kb)

It's still very incomplete and may never be. So anyone who wants to make a playable monster (the simple way) is more than welcome to use this as a starting point.

by sol77 on Wed May 26, 2004 12:59 pm

Hehe, fun stuff. :thumbup:

by Lokiswaq on Wed May 26, 2004 1:39 pm

Cool

Time for those poor monsters to take revenge for all the beating they suffered :evil:

by heyoldguy on Wed May 26, 2004 4:02 pm

Very Nice! I'm working on a sequel mod for the old 3DO MIght and Magic series (6 to

. Playable dragons (like in MM8) can make things more interesting. I'll be sure to credit you if I ever get the thing finished (30% now)--it's freakin' huge, with 35 regions in the New Sorpigal Peninsula alone (for those who aren't old, the New Sorpigal Peninsula was one of fifteen overland areas from MM6, and there are also twelve overlands each from 7 and 8--each overland area was roughly the equivalent of a chapter's worth of Dungeon Siege).

by evilX on Wed May 26, 2004 4:43 pm

iryan wrote:

Hey,
That guy who looks all zombie ish ... Was he from LOA? ( I never really got through it ) or is that a custom skin? Looking sweet!

Thanks,
AA

by Wynne on Wed May 26, 2004 5:02 pm

From LoA. I believe it's a minion of the ShadowJumper's. Could be a leiutenant though. ^_^

by sjr on Wed May 26, 2004 7:38 pm

I am actually a bit suprised that no one ever really made a playable monster pack, as it is not that hard to make one playable. Though with many there is only 1 or 2 fighting style. Meaning using magic on some looks really weird, and right they cant wear armors. Really you dont need to make a ring or amulet that has to be put back on and off to gain increases. You may see some monster pc's in Abstraction that has inate leveling in armor based on your dex and str levels. So no need for an item to do this and no need to requip anything.

by iryan on Thu May 27, 2004 1:09 am

Really you dont need to make a ring or amulet that has to be put back on and off to gain increases.

Actually all the rings & amulets are part of the pcontent system and don't level up as you do (I don't like having to re-equip leveling items). They can drop from containers or be bought from storekeepers, with all the random bonuses that you'd expect from rings & amulets. Amulets bought in Hiroth for example can give 200 defense.

Though with many there is only 1 or 2 fighting style

Yes that's completely true. The shadowjumper minion pictured here only has a ranged attack animation (though there are melee shadowjumper minions). The fury shots arrows out of his eye & you can't see the weapon (though it gives him the impression of hitting things with his tentacles).

That's why I had the idea of using recruitable monsters. Ranged characters like Naidi would be replaced by ranged monsters like the ice archer (though he looks good using magic & melee weapons). Magic characters like Ulora & Zed would be replaced by magic casting monsters and melee characters like Gyorn & Gareth would be replaced by melee monsters. The selectable monsters would be limited to those with suitable animations for all abilities and there seems to be a limit on how many selectable characters there can be anyhow (something mentioned by gfb in another thread).

by TheTantrum on Thu May 27, 2004 1:14 am

What if players wanted to use them for something else? You may end up having to make armor for every different creature and new animations.

Maybe there should be special armors for special races.

by sjr on Thu May 27, 2004 2:07 am

iryan wrote: Actually all the rings & amulets are part of the pcontent system and don't level up as you do (I don't like having to re-equip leveling items). They can drop from containers or be bought from storekeepers, with all the random bonuses that you'd expect from rings & amulets. Amulets bought in Hiroth for example can give 200 defense.

I think you misunderstand what I meant. I am saying it can be built into the character, you dont need any item. Also you can have progressive items that you do not need to reequip to see the stats gain. Monsoon has figured out how to get this to work, so you will see that in Abstraction.

by iryan on Thu May 27, 2004 3:22 am

I think you misunderstand what I meant.

Sorry. I do understand what you mean, but it's beyond my abilities to implement. I know there are many possibilities available for those who have a good understanding of skrit, but I'm not one of them. Even with freely available examples of skrit, I often fail to get them working (for example Snowfox's skrit in this mod works opposite to what he intended).

I have managed to become adept with working with templates (of which LOU is composed of) and can often find usefull little tidbits of information by trial & error (for example to get the monsters to operate in Kingdom of Ehb, misc animations had to be created from existing ones otherwise the monster would freeze after the NIS, and monsters can't be recruited without talking animations which are called from the job_talk ai).

If I was able to get permission to use the innate leveling method in this mod I would love to implement it as it would make the mod a lot more compatible than it is. The chances of me working it out for myself would probably be less than zero.

by Lady Nerae on Thu May 27, 2004 7:10 am

It would be very cool to be a Wraithe that had the ability to switch between sword and bow - and then hover and fly over everything

Love the green spider in the opening Irwin

Nerae

by iryan on Thu May 27, 2004 7:26 am

It would be very cool to be a Wraithe that had the ability to switch between sword and bow

I'm trying a Wraith at the moment, but unfortunately he'll won't be able to fly over things. No Dungeon Siege monster can (it's just an illusion). Will DS 2 allow this?

What if players wanted to use them for something else? You may end up having to make armor for every different creature and new animations.

That is unfortunately what you would need to do. All monsters can use weapons & shields but often don't have the animations to use them properly and not look silly. There are many surprising exceptions though. Who would have thought that a dark lunger could equip a shield & weapon and look good.

I'll be sure to credit you if I ever get the thing finished (30% now)--it's freakin' huge, with 35 regions in the New Sorpigal Peninsula alone

Sounds excellent! It was always one of my favourite series though it was too hard for me. If you need any help with templating let me know. As for the dragon, you'd need an extra animation as spells normally originate from the drake's arms. The drake's spells are specially modified to originate from it's mouth.