Castlevania Mod - Plans/Summary

[CaptainChar]

im not dead, just been waiting on some news, been hard keeping up with all the new mods coming out

[tobe_one]

I still have the skins and gun mod.

You can download them here http://www.mediafire.com/download/i77vyiocnxedgpm/BB_tobe.zip

[Botdra]

Are the two of you still down to continue working?

[tobe_one]

yes sure!

[Botdra]

Awesome. As of right now tobe, any work you can do on new characters that could be playable would be great. I'm thinking focusing on the MP portion is the key to getting this mod going. If you want you can also work on any characters that would go with any of the maps that are being created right now, just so that we're all sort of working on the same thing together, you know?

I just want to start a workflow that makes it so that if we drop this mod at any time, we can still release everything (or almost everything) we have up to that point and have it all be somewhat compatible/connected, rather than just a bunch of random Castlevania stuff released at one time, like the Hedge Maze being released with some character models that weren't from the N64 games, etc. Make sense?

Feel free to choose your own projects, just keep us up to date on what you're thinking and working on so we can stay in touch.

[CaptainChar]

I need to reinstall a few things after formatting the poc, but I can get back in the game easily, also I might have some more castlevania stuff heading your way

[Botdra]

I need to reinstall a few things after formatting the poc, but I can get back in the game easily, also I might have some more castlevania stuff heading your way

Great to hear man. I've been working on my maps again and I'll shoot a few posts into the WIP section so we all know where they are at. Hedge Maze is really close to the final stages of completion, I'm really just waiting on some models from @@ChalklYne and then I can work on finalizing textures, lighting, and getting a skybox and then it'll be done.

[Botdra]

Hey @@OmegaSigma, few questions. I was wondering what maps you still have from the old mod that we can use. I know you posted pictures of an early version of the keep, and the castle exterior as well. You still got those kicking around for us to use?

I was also wondering if I could get your help with some brushwork with the Demon Forge map I have in the WIP section. The bottom of the platform never gets seen much in-game, but since it would make a great duel map and people could fall off of it in JA, I was thinking of adding something like this to the bottom but I'm not great at that. Would you be able to add this to the map for me?

Also, I think it would be good if we could work on throwing together some skyboxes we can use for our maps. Maybe a day one, a night one, and any others you think we might need? Maybe a night one with a normal moon (before Dracula's return or after you kill Dracula) and the other with the red/orange moon?

[CaptainChar]

If you use the same night box, and the level progresses, I would say add different moon phases to it, I just so happen to have some HD stuff like laying around from my minecraft modding. and about the old mod, Im thinking of liquefying all my assets that we've had to this mod. Ive not heard a word from Darth Zion since he moved to japan, ii'll have to set up drop box again, as for your forge map, id say go with the natural looking stalagmites

[CaptainChar]

Sorry to bump this so soon, Dropbox is back in, And ive made a separate folder with all the stuff I have currently and its source maps, if you need any of the CV sfx, let me know since I have a library of them

[Botdra]

If you use the same night box, and the level progresses, I would say add different moon phases to it, I just so happen to have some HD stuff like laying around from my minecraft modding. and about the old mod, Im thinking of liquefying all my assets that we've had to this mod. Ive not heard a word from Darth Zion since he moved to japan, ii'll have to set up drop box again, as for your forge map, id say go with the natural looking stalagmites

 

Sorry to bump this so soon, Dropbox is back in, And ive made a separate folder with all the stuff I have currently and its source maps, if you need any of the CV sfx, let me know since I have a library of them

Excellent. Any assets we can get would help. I think a big thing for me is I don't know what assets we have, just the assets that I have, so it's tough to plan things out and sometimes just results in me making something we already have, heh. Would you mind doing the stalagmites if I send you the .map?

[CaptainChar]

btw is there a new GTK I don't know about then 1.5.1?

[Botdra]

btw is there a new GTK I don't know about then 1.5.1?

I still use 1.5.0.

[Botdra]

In our assets there is an impaled skeleton map object that I wanted to use in the Villa Underground map but for some reason the textures don't display when I load it up. Any ideas? There is a texture for it in the impaled_skel folder along with the .md3 but it just won't load the textures on the model, just the model itself.

[Botdra]

That sword boss is cool. I skined the Dante model to look like Alucard.

 

Are the three skins you did on this model functioning? What was the issue with the original model? Upload them and send them to me if you get a chance.

 

@@Botdra Funny you say that, ever since you started this mod I have been viewing pics of him and trying to theorize a low poly version. No promises just yet, but I am definitely interested 

 

Stil interested in trying this Chalk?

 

aw crap I'll need to dig through what it actually came from, I cant remember if its OoE or Judgment's model, I also with programs would digitally sign, like MP3 info to the model format, eg obj is so generic, yet so many different programs use it, in school only the macs with lightwave used it, were as we used it to port between 3dsmax and lightwave at the time, anyhoo I will look into the origins of the model format and see if I can make it more, user friendly

Any luck converting that for tobe?

[Botdra]

The Master List is going to be used to keep track of all the things we want to be in this mod. Please do not discuss anything in here (I will lock this thread but I do need to unlock it in order to edit it) but instead keep discussions to their respective threads in the Staff Forum. I'll link the proper discussion threads in each section of the Master List.

 

Maps

 

Discussion Thread: Coming Soon

Here are the locations we wish to include as well as the sub-locations within those areas. These do not necessarily represent separate maps with load screens in between, just specific locations we wish to include from the Castlevania series as well as out ideas for original/non-CV spots. This includes maps for single player and multiplayer. Hopefully we can make a lot of our SP levels work well in MP, and vice versa. We can get into the specifics of that later on in our discussion thread.

NOTE: Locations are alphabetically listed, and in the format of "Name - (Version of Level) - Completion Status (Creator)"

Castle Keep - (Original/N64) - WIP/TBD (Omegasigma)
Throne Room - (Castlevania Judgement) - WIP/TBD (Omegasigma)
Villa - (N64) - WIP (Botdra)
- Main Gates
- Inside
- Hedgemaze
- Underground

 

 

Weapons
 

Discussion Thread: Coming Soon
 
Weapons will be a tough one to figure out what can and can't be done, so for now we will just be listing what we hope to have in the game. If we find something is impossible to implement it will be removed as soon as we find out.

NOTE: All weapons are in the format of "Name - (Version of Weapon) - Completion Status (Creator)"

Primary Weapons/Melee Weapons
 
Fists - (Original) - FINISHED/Base JA
Club - (Original) - Not Started
Dagger - (Original) - Not Started
Short Sword - (Original) - Not Started
Sword - (Original) - Not Started
Great Sword - (Original) - Not Started
Axe - (Original) - Not Started
Battle Axe - (Original) - Not Started
Lance - (Original) - Not Started
Death's Scythe - (Original/Mixture) - Not Started

Secondary Weapons/Powers/Ranged Weapons

Crossbow - (Original) - WIP (tobe_one)
Flintlock Pistol - (Original) - Not Started
Garlic - (Original) - WIP (tobe_one)
Holy Cross - (Unknown) - WIP (tobe_one)
Holy Water - (Unknown) - WIP (tobe_one)
Vampire Killer - (Unknown) - Not Started

 

 

Monsters and NPC's
 

Discussion Thread: http://jkhub.org/topic/2563-monstersnpc-thread/

It should be noted that right now characters are divided into three categories: NPC's, monsters, and bosses. Most - if not all - NPC's and select monsters (hopefully all, if possible) will end up being playable characters in the MP version of the mod. Depending on what we choose for a storyline and/or if we choose to have unlockables we may have several NPC's available to the player in SP as well. Bosses will most likely be tough/impossible to make player controlled forms of but we'll play it by ear for each model and try to do our best to make sure we make as many playable characters in MP as possible.

NOTE: Characters are alphabetically listed, and in the format of "Name - (Version of Character) - Completion Status (Creator)"

NPC's

Alucard - (Symphony of the Night) - FINISHED (tobe_one skin on Dante model)
Gabriel Belmont - (Lords of Shadow series) - Not Started
Leon Belmont - (Lament of Innocence) - FINISHED (tobe_one skin on Dante model)
Richter Belmont - (original/mixture) - FINISHED (tobe_one skin on ???)
Soma Cruz - (Aria of Sorrow/Dawn of Sorrow) - FINISHED (tobe_one skin on Dante model)

Monsters
 
Flaming Skull - (original/mixture) - WIP (AshuraDX)
Knight Armor - (original/mixture) - Not Started
Medusa Head - (original/mixture) - WIP (tobe_one)
Skeleton - (variety) - FINISHED
Succubus - (Original) - FINISHED (tobe_one skin on Zabrak Female)
Vampire Minion - (Original) - FINISHED (tobe_one skin on Reborn?)
Werewolf - (original/mixture) - Not Started

Bosses

Death - (original/mixture) - WIP (ChalklYne original model)
Dracula Beast - (original/mixture) - Not Started (OmegaSigma has a placeholder Rancor skin atm)
Dracula Human - (original/mixture) - FINISHED (tobe_one skin)

 

[Botdra]

Figured we should nail down the basic gameplay mechanics. What do you guys want to see? Obviously we want to work in the vampire killer whip but until we know how that is possible (if at all) we can't really do a whole lot. For now we should brainstorm the combat system in general and the weapons you want to see in the game.

I'm thinking there should be a decent amount of melee weapons (daggers, swords, clubs, rapiers etc.) with varying degrees of strength. I'd say at least 10, if we can add up to 50 like in a lot of other Castlevania games that would be great but I don't know how that would work, acquiring different weapons as you play through the game would be ideal but the implementation of it I'm still unsure about.

@@tobe_one was working on a weapons system for Holy Cross, Garlic, and some other cool secondary weapons/magic items. Depending on how that system works it may dictate what weapons we are able to add and how we add them. But secondary weapon ideas and magic ideas are welcome. Another thing to keep in mind is how the player should acquire different spells/secondary weapons. A couple ranged weapons would be nice as well. Tobe was working on a crossbow which I think would be fantastic, and possibly throwing in a pistol or flintlock of some kind, as seen in many Castlevania games from N64 to GBA etc.

So lets start talking a real combat system that makes sense for JA and think about:

- Weapons
- Weapon Types
- How to get different weapons
- How to use Magic
- Controls

[Botdra]

Bumping this again to keep this going. Let's get a main character, a storyline, and motivation down for the character.

Do we want to use a Belmont other Castlevania protagonist (Alucard, Soma etc.) or an original character? We can always have multiple protagonists for the player to choose from a la Castlevania 64, so long as the characters make sense in the timeframe (two characters can't be from different eras 200 years apart etc).

Should we stick with the classic Castlevania storyline of "Dracula has been resurrected again, we must stop him"? They typically start with this premise and then fill in details that change from game to game, which will hinge a lot on the protagonist we choose.

[CaptainChar]

ive been needing to get new software, originally I was running XP and my 3dmax no longer is supported in Win7, unless I was to run a virtual machine

[Botdra]

ive been needing to get new software, originally I was running XP and my 3dmax no longer is supported in Win7, unless I was to run a virtual machine

That's too bad, you could always just get a trial of VMware Fusion in the mean time and run a virtual machine of XP.

[Circa]

That's too bad, you could always just get a trial of VMware Fusion in the mean time and run a virtual machine of XP.

I know I don't belong in this thread, but I'd like to interject a recommendation for VirtualBox. It's open source, so it's free, and works just as well as VMware Fusion. 

 

[Botdra]

I know I don't belong in this thread, but I'd like to interject a recommendation for VirtualBox. It's open source, so it's free, and works just as well as VMware Fusion. 

Thanks Circa! Much appreciated, I've been looking for a good VM program as well so saves me some cash.

 

You can creep on in any time.

[CaptainChar]

im not entirely sure what the source target was for those, originally they were using twilight princess ports, which we slowly phased out during the creation phase, let me get you my map models

[CaptainChar]

Dracula doesn't really need to much incentive to return does he? he just shows up and causes trouble and a Belmont usually goes after him

[CaptainChar]

idealy if we could manage a working whip it would be nice for the Belmont style, but also tridants and swords have been used as main character weapons too, and magic, the force system allows for a magic system