Castlevania Mod - Plans/Summary

[Botdra]

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

Thanks, that would be great.

[Botdra]

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

Totally, we just need to figure out who the protagonist is and then we can fill in the story pretty easily from there I would think.

[Botdra]

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

Yeah, I'm thinking once Tobe chimes in and can tell us more about how his magic/secondary weapons system works we can build the rest of the weapons around that. It's easy enough to make a ton of melee weapons for the game, and hopefully we can mess around with damage levels, range, maybe some magic effects etc. with the melee weapons too. And of course we can work in ranged weapons quite easily as well. Just need to see how Tobe has implemented his magic system and then we can get more into it.

[CaptainChar]

also I got xp mode installed on my pc and my 3dmax working, now I just need to load some plugins

[Botdra]

also I got xp mode installed on my pc and my 3dmax working, now I just need to load some plugins

Great news!

[CaptainChar]

the first castlevania game to actually have a Story IMO was Dracula X, or Rondo of Blood, all game previous was vague

[Botdra]

the first castlevania game to actually have a Story IMO was Dracula X, or Rondo of Blood, all game previous was vague

I guess that applied to a lot of games and game series back then as well, now that I think of it.

[CaptainChar]

and even Dracula X/ Rondo, Ahem Dracula X was the SNES port of Rondo, but anyways, the story was very vauge in Rondo, there was some simple cutscenes, which told the story

[tobe_one]

hey check this file if you haven't http://www.mediafire.com/download/i77vyiocnxedgpm/BB_tobe.zip

this one got all the skins I made for this mod so far. all in the species menu. and some weapons for them. swords, claws, and a coffin.

if you just spawn those NPC I made, you will see those weapons.

and all new gun system, pistol is replaced with a cross, and there is bow, holly water, sun beam, garlic, and coffin roket lol.

also new menu for this mod.

[CaptainChar]

Also I realized the force system acts a lot like the modern castlevania magic systems (pre lords of shadow) where your magic constantly regenerates slowly

[Botdra]

hey check this file if you haven't http://www.mediafire.com/download/i77vyiocnxedgpm/BB_tobe.zip

this one got all the skins I made for this mod so far. all in the species menu. and some weapons for them. swords, claws, and a coffin.

if you just spawn those NPC I made, you will see those weapons.

and all new gun system, pistol is replaced with a cross, and there is bow, holly water, sun beam, garlic, and coffin roket lol.

also new menu for this mod.

 

Also I realized the force system acts a lot like the modern castlevania magic systems (pre lords of shadow) where your magic constantly regenerates slowly

That's awesome tobe, thank you! I'm just trying it out now and love it so far. Great work on the menus, HUD and loading screens as well! I've thoroughly messed with things and thought I'd give you a list of my thoughts. First off I love it, you've done incredible work here and I'm extremely excited! That being said, I do have some changes that I think should be made, but I understand this is your work and anything you don't want to be changed won't be. These are just my thoughts and are not personal at all, your work is fantastic and am just throwing out some ideas.

 

1) The bats that Dracula wields: The sounds are a bit off, they sound too nice and bird-like to me, those may need to be replaced. There also seems to be some duplication effect where you see a trail of bats behind a bat when it moves but I love it, it makes it seem more magical and like there's a flurry of them attacking you. Keep it! The block sound also sounds odd, and might need to changed as well since sword against bat blocking sounds... unfitting somehow, but I don't know what would fit better.

 

2) Blaster Pistol Replacement (Holy Cross): I love the sounds for it as well as the model and the glowing effect. When I fire it and the projectile hits a wall, there's a particle effect that shoots out in several directions that I think should be removed or replace, to make it more realistic. When fire hits an object and it just spreads out over it, instead of having these "spark like" projectiles shoot out in several directions. Also when charging there's still the blaster's base charging graphic, that needs to be taken out.

 

3) E-11 Replacement (Crossbow): I'm incredibly impressed with this one. The model looks great (might want to tweak the wooden textures on it though as the arrow looks great but the crossbow texture is a bit orangey for my tastes) and functions superbly. When you shoot the flaming arrow it looks great, and the way they stick into the walls is just gorgeous and a great touch. I am also impressed that when they hit a surface the flame slowly fades away like it would in real life before the arrows disappear. The flame animations itself could use some work though as it looks rather odd in the way it rotates around the arrow itself. It also looks odd when the spinning slows down and stops and you just have a flame sprite sitting on top of the arrow. I'd like to change the sound to a more percussive one with a loud, aggressive attack too. Something more satisfying with a real crack to it. I also love the sound of when the arrow gets stuck in a surface, but again I would add to that "boing" sound of the arrow shaking by adding some sort of "FFFTTTT" sound of the initial contact when it hits the object. It needs some attack to it when it actually enters a wall or other surface. Also on certain walls the arrows don't seem to stick into the wall, but just get stuck with the full arrow outside the wall where you can still see the tip. Though that might be a mapping issue more than anything.

 

4) Disruptor Rifle Replacement (Sun Beam?): I love the idea of having sunlight as a weapon somehow, but not so sure about this implementation of it myself. The model looks off because of the stagnant rays of light coming out of it, and when you see the model on the ground to be picked up it revolves around like a planet instead of spinning in place like the base JA weapons. I loooove the effect it has when it is fired, looks like it really causes a lot of destruction. Might be better suited for a different weapon though since sunlight probably wouldn't react that way with an explosive effect quite like that, but I do like the burn marks it leaves. It still shows the red blaster beam though when fired for some reason. Third person view looks odd as he's still holding a gun while this orb is floating to the right of him. Also, the sniper scope doesn't really make sense when you look at the weapon itself. Going into a different scoped view makes me go "where is the scope on this thing? How does that even work? Overall I have to say I'm not a fan of this weapon, but I feel like the idea is very intriguing and using light as a weapon could be very cool if we try out a few different methods.

 

5) Wookie Bowcaster Replacement (Throwing Daggers/Swords): This looks and feels fantastic, I must say. I love the glowing effect around the swords as well as the model and textures for it. The particle effects and sounds are great too! When I use secondary fire so that they bounce around it looks fantastic too, but I would like to hear a sound when it bounces off walls, and right now there is no sound for that until it actually hits a wall and breaks. Some sort of "metal-on-concrete" or "metal-on-metal" sound would be great. 3rd person view is odd as it still looks like he's holding a gun and the idle animation in JA (when they put their arms down and look left and right) makes the swords point down and it looks rather odd. I also think when the swords hit a wall the particle effect should include some sort of shattering effect and not just the "sparkles" that you currently have on it. It should also leave some sort of mark in the wall like a real sword would, instead of just the small rotating sparkle it leaves now. Oh, and there's also the green Bowcaster graphic when you charge up this weapon for some reason.

 

6) Imperial Heavy Repeater Replacement (Holy Water): This one just made me laugh! It's a lot of fun to mess around with and I had a grand time killing people with it but to me it just doesn't fit the mod, especially since it still looks like a bacta container. I feel like the old school version of the Holy Water was cool where you smashed it on the ground like a thermal detonator.

 

7) EMP Gun (Zappy Thingy): Same feelings about this one, I don't feel it works well in this mod/the CV universe. Model and texturing looks great though and I think we can still explore some ideas with this weapon and see what we come up with. Might be sort of need as a unique weapon for an enemy (this is giving me ideas for a Frankenstein-esque labratory area in the castle, in which case this weapon would be awesome for an enemy there) or boss though if we design a level around it.

 

8) Flechette Shotgun (Garlic): Again, same thoughts as the previous two for me. The model looks rather off as well and needs some work to really make it look like garlic of some kind. The attacks don't really make a lot of sense to me either. Though if we stripped it down to just a clove of garlic and made it into a detonator type weapon this could work really well, especially if we set it to be really power against vampire NPC's but no one else, and made them rare items that the player would want to save for bigger vampire battles.

 

9) Concussion Rifle (Old School Rifle): I love the model a lot. Only thing I would suggest is to change the effects and sounds so it's more like an old school rifle and more realistic, less "magical" looking. That's sort of what I had in mind for any guns we put in the game since that was sort of the way they were implemented in other games, they acted the same way they did in real life.

 

10) Missile Launcher (Coffin): Same way I felt about the Garlic etc, I'm not a big fan of this one myself as I don't see how it fits/makes sense. The model looks great and I had a TON of fun with it, but for the mod I'm not sure it really works.

 

11) Thermal Detonator (Cross): This one is really intriguing to me. I'm not a big fan of the cross model as an explosive, maybe we can change the model to something that looks more explosive and feels more valid in the universe of CV like a cross with a vial of liquid inside it so it seems like there's explosive chemicals there or something. That being said I LOOOOOVE the effect when it explodes where you get the mix of an explosion but also the angel and feather images coming out, it's genius and really make it feel like you're using a magically blessed tool straight out of Van Helsing. I'm curious about changing it slightly to a more conventional white light/white robed angel appearance that's more Castlevania and less "Roman Catholic Depiction", if that makes sense... but I'd be happy leaving it the way it is as well. Love this one!!

 

12) Trip Mines (Star): At first this one confused me, as it is a Star of David. Don't know if you intended for that or if it was supposed to be a pentagram but either way... This is another one that I thought was genius. Again, I think the model should be changed but the effect is so amazing that it needs to be kept. Once you trigger the mine I love how the ball and chain comes out and hits you, truly magical and makes sense in the world. The only reason I would change the model is I don't see how it relates to the effect (as well as the shape should probably be a pentagram instead of a SoD). I'd love to see some sort of glowing magical writing with a pentagram with a circle or two around it so that when you place it it looks like you've written some sort of magical seal or incantation on the ground. This would help it makes sense that when triggered the magic summons the ball and chain to hit the character. I'm thinking something like this. Though then we'd need to find a way to make the model the character holds something different than what happens when you place a mine. You know how that blue line is projected when you place a mine? Maybe you could make it so the character holds a book or a piece of paper but when you place it on the ground it shows a piece of paper with writing on it overtop of the magical seal. This way it looks like you wrote a magical seal on the ground and then put the piece of paper in the center of the seal somehow activating it's powers. The magical seal would appear by treating it like the blue line graphic from the mine itself, so that when the player is holding the model of the paper that's all they see, but when it is place THEN the graphic of the seal appears. If you could take the ball and chain effect and make it so that it retracts all the way back into the ground and speed it up as well I think that would be good. It should come out, punch the player and then disappear again. Right now it very slowly starts to retract but doesn't retract all the way, then just disappears. Basically it hangs around too long and doesn't retract all the way, but otherwise it's perfect. And DAMN does it make you feel powerful!

 

13) Detonation Packs (Crosses): This is another one where I'm not a fan of the model, but the effect it has is awesome. I love the idea of mines that shoot out a big cross and a beam of light, but I think it would be better implemented with a different model for the weapon itself, as well as a shorter duration of effect when it explodes. The crosses and light stick around for a long time and in busy battles it could just end up cluttering the battlefield. I'd like to see some sort of glowing/swirling effect around the cross that pops up as well, and not just a light that it gives off to give it a more magical feel. This is another time where I feel a color scheme change should be made to white/blue like that of the thermal detonators. I feel like white and blue are very magical feeling and have been used to indicate magical/holy blessings in the Castlevania series for a long time. If I had to live with the small cross model for the detonator I could, but again I would like to see that retextured to a more blue/white color scheme and maybe a more shapely look to it, right now it looks like it was carved out of stone but the other crosses you've made look very purposefully man made with different layers and sections etc.

 

Wow, that was a lot to write.

 

I'm so impressed man and I really am only giving my thoughts because I think we could improve upon these even more. They are all incredible and you're doing things I didn't think were possible in JA and I'm immensely impressed. I just think that these would help it fit better into the Castlevania universe and the mod itself. I really don't mean to rag on you so hopefully you don't take these personally, just wanting to deliver the best product possible.

 

I'm curious how easy it would be for you to move that over into a force power system for the reasons Omega listed. I like the idea of not having to rely on ammo for those but rather having it regenerate like the old games. I understand that would be hard but we have our choice of what, 8 force powers (4 Light Side 4 Dark Side), plus I think we can create new force powers (don't quote me on that but if nothing else we could duplicate force powers in the code) if we don't have enough for all the weapons we wanted. We could keep the crossbow and guns as actual guns (since those should have an ammo system and not regenerate) but the rest I think would work better as force powers. Plus that way we could call on those powers on demand while still using a melee weapon of some kind, just like in the original Castlevania games.

[Botdra]

I forgot to add I love the skins you've done so far, and love how you took the Dante model and did so many skins with just the one model yet they all do justice to the original Castlevania characters. Great work. The vampires look great as does Dracula, and the succubus looks very terrifying! Love it. The weapons are really cool as well, great work again.

[Botdra]

I figured we should start keeping track of all our files and making sure we all have access to things. Here's what I propose: Omegasigma and I have talked about using a Dropbox folder to keep track of everything for us. That way we can share our map textures, skyboxes, shaders etc. Another plus being that we can keep track of finished works by uploading the .pk3's of models, maps, weapons etc.

The best way to keep track of things would be to make sure each finished product has it's own .pk3. This means every sword, every new feature, every skin, every model, has its own .pk3 so we keep track of everything and can edit these things individually and/or see our progress at a glance.

For finished files could we please have the .pk3 of the file as well as a text file to go with it named after the .pk3? The text file does not have to be a full readme, it just needs to contain what is in the actual .pk3. For example if I finish a Dracula model I'd upload a "Dracula.pk3" and a "Dracula.txt". The text file would say something like "Dracula model, selectable player model for MP, also has species option for both MP and SP, has NPC support and Red/Blue variants". I'm thinking the folder hierarchy would be laid out as such:

Dropbox

- Castlevania Mod

• Resources
  - Textures
  - Map Models
  - Shaders
  - Other
   
• Finished Files (all in .pk3 format)
  - Models
  - Weapons
  - Maps
  - Menus
  - Other

[CaptainChar]

ironicly there was explosive's in a few of the castlevania games, might be able to find something that would fit the rocket launcher better its not a fast projectile, I would say it would fit better as "dark inferno" if it was limited to Dracula only and the weapon itself invisable

[CaptainChar]

Makes sense to have each thing have its own file, lets users further customize the experience even more if they wanted to, but it does also separate assets as well so we don't have to rely on a single file per say

[CaptainChar]

Shanoa Is in my models folder of the dropbox in .3ds format, if you need her in others let me know

 

and I just downloaded the official XP mode from windows

[Botdra]

Makes sense to have each thing have its own file, lets users further customize the experience even more if they wanted to, but it does also separate assets as well so we don't have to rely on a single file per say

Plus troubleshooting would be a breeze.

[Botdra]

ironicly there was explosive's in a few of the castlevania games, might be able to find something that would fit the rocket launcher better its not a fast projectile, I would say it would fit better as "dark inferno" if it was limited to Dracula only and the weapon itself invisable

Yeah I wasn't thinking they'd act as actual explosives but more magical things that you throw instead of a normal melee or ranged device. A lot of the games had grenades though, at least on the GBA/DS platforms but that's probably not something we'll put in the mod, I think.

 

Actually if we can move all of Tobe's weapons into force powers (save the gun and the crossbow) then we could totally just leave a few of those weapons as special ones for NPC's or bosses.

[Botdra]

Shanoa Is in my models folder of the dropbox in .3ds format, if you need her in others let me know

 

and I just downloaded the official XP mode from windows

Great, mind hooking me up with the Dropbox invite? And tobe too when you get the chance.

[CaptainChar]

its on your dropbox I should say, in the omega assets/models/shanoa_converted.rar

[CaptainChar]

Ammo boxes could become the classic hearts/gems used in the 2D games to use subweapons

[Botdra]

I think I may have left that folder or something somewhere along the line, I don't seem to have it.

[Botdra]

Ammo boxes could become the classic hearts/gems used in the 2D games to use subweapons

True, but don't we want the regeneration mechanic like in DoS instead of having to collect hearts? Plus I feel like if we move these over to force powers that we'll be able to use them in combat as TRUE secondary weapons without having to put away your main weapon. But we can decide this as a team of course.

[CaptainChar]

well here she is on my mediafire: till we get the dropbox thing sorted out

 

https://www.mediafire.com/?ci8bcigvxs5c2ne

[CaptainChar]

its been very quiet lately, everyone still alive?