UDK Magika-Technology War Game Project

[LordNelson7]

Hello. I just wanted to get some feedback and opinions on a game project I am making.

Here are some in-game visuals.














The game is about an ongoing war between "Magic" and "Technology" although there are other factions in the game as well. Will post more details later. Also videos are to follow of the combat system and dialogue system.

[stressless]

my advise is to improve the terrain details such as the texture (scale it down a bit)
also when you look away from the hills / mountains you will see that everything is the same level. All trees as the same size, flat terrain ect.
So filling up the zone with foliage and more terrain details with hills and different heights will make it look much better.

The armor + player and such are cool ^^ i like it.

Maby you could give us some more information about the game? storyline and such?

[LordNelson7]

The background for the storyline is that there is an alternate universe to our own, where Magick rules all, and Powerful Mages rule over the daily lives of citizens. That is, until an Industrial Revolution takes place. Steam engines are invented, as well as guns, and science begins to rule over the lives of citizens, as the sorcery and superstition of the past begins to fade.

This conflict between Magick and Technology has escalated into all out war between the citizens of Rex(The continent in which the game is set), with pistol packing technologists fighting in the streets against spell casting wizards.

You start out as a neutral in this conflict. Choose sides, or remain neutral and "Travel the Gray Path" as it were. There are multiple technological disciplines in the game(as well as multiple schools of magick that can be majored in).

The screenshots are of humans(Bandits, which are one of the factions in the game), that got in the way of the player.

The main factions are Imperials, Dagons, Bandits(Rogues), Pirates, and Imperial Rebels. I may add more factions later.

I made a faction system where the AI, before adding the player as an "Enemy" targets the player and checks his(or her) rating against a list of faction ratings found in that pawns class. If that rating is found to be below a certain amount, then that player is targeted as an enemy.

I will follow later with a video of the game.

P.S.

And yes, it is possible, even though there is a war between Magick and Technology, that you have wizards that were trained to be magicians, but who prefer technology, and technologists who majored in scientific disciplines, who had a change of heart(That fireball spell is mighty powerful!)

[LordNelson7]

Yes I am still working on the terrain, this is not the final version, just a demo to get opinions of it. I will work on the terrain a little more and get it to look better, though.

[Lunabay]

As mentioned already, foliage would make the trees look more natural, but it looks like you're off to a great start. I like the castle and the armor a lot.

But is the title Magika? There is already an "indie" game out with that name... http://www.magickagame.com/

[LordNelson7]

I haven't thought up of a title yet, this is just the content of the game. I am open for a title though. Any suggestions? I put grass in the game, but the performance was terrible(Guess I put too much grass), so I am going to make my own grass in speedtree.

[LordNelson7]

There will be nine(as of now) races in the game.

Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Half-Elves, Orcs, Half-Orcs, Ogres, Half-Ogres, and Dagons.

I will be modelling the heads in the coming weeks and uploading the results. I am also going to implement horse riding.

[LordNelson7]

Here is a render(wireframe) of a background that I am going to have in the game. I had an idea that I might make some of the scenes in the game wireframe for that "cool" effect. Of course I will have more of the "flyby" of the castle, like taken from a beautiful vantage point.

[LordNelson7]

I will be uploading a video of my dialogue system very soon for all those interested. It supports full-body animation, upper-body only animation, and facial animation with kismet-UScript integration for ease of use.

[c4veman]

nice i was thinking of a concept excactly like this.

Mine was called "Timerift" and was a multiplayer 32v32 map.

Where the medieval world would get invaded by the future in a conquest for resources.

But this sounds alot more cool

Keep up the good work.

[LordNelson7]

Thank you for the comment and the kind words! I am almost finished with the dialogue demo for the movie, will be uploading the movie tomorrow or thursday. In the meantime here is a concept of the game world(note this is not the final version, as the original idea was that the game-world would be set amongst islands, but that idea has changed)

[LordNelson7]

Ok here it is(finally) my dialogue system. It is still a work in progress though.

[LordNelson7]

Let me know what you guys think of it, and I am open for any suggestions even if it is criticism, criticism makes one better.

[White Paper Games]

Only just come across this project. Realyl cool dialogue in there technically, but visually it's a little hard to see.

I don't think you should use that white text over the redish/orange backgrounds. I think you should have more of a solid neautral colour with slight opacity (if you wanted it) and then maybe use a bold black clear font.

I think technically its very cool, but from the video you posted, a little unclear Good work though!

[LordNelson7]

I think I'm going to bring the dialogue actors a little closer together, to make more room so you can see the action. I was using the white text because it stands out in the dark parts of the game, yet it can still be seen in the light parts of the game. I am going to change the background that the text is on,however. The animations seen on the character are reusable, and tied to the situation that the npc is talking about. I am going to have several dozen of these animations(happy dialogue, sad dialogue, angry dialogue, etc) to apply to the characters.

[oneofthe8devilz]

Actually I find that quite impressive... the short scene displayed in this youtube video shows that you have the required skills in scripting/programming (dialog systen), modelling and animation (the player model and merchant), mapping and texturing (the world/map).. and much more. Most people actually are unaware of the workload that goes into such a scene. What I would be interested in is, if you have done all yourself and where did you gather the required info and how long did it take you build it all together ?

[k21n]

Awesome work o.0 love the dialogue system.

[LordNelson7]

Yes about half of the models(The castle, some props, some weapons, most of the armor) are custom content made by me and one other modeller(Of course with the epic made trees, sounds, and a few props). I used the Dialogue System by Aloïs "Shad" Deniel (haloice@homtail.fr) as a base, and worked my way up from there, adding custom animation nodes (learned from the Dungeon Defense Demo) to the upper body so that a custom animation could be played on the body, and creating kismet nodes such that the animation could be plugged in to play in Kismet instead of having to do it in UScript. For each dialogue event that occurs, a custom animation can be specified to play. Most of the functionality was added by me in UScript, which has taken me about three years to complete(I had to figure out how to do it by research, which takes time), but development is going a lot faster now, as I know more of what I am doing than when I first started out. Also it is kind of hard to see, but there is facial animation playing as well. I will be doing modifications to it and uploading the videos to get opinions of it so that I can improve on it.

I got a lot of inspiration from playing Arcania: Gothic 4(Arcania). This is the eventual goal for the dialogue system, to make it look and feel similar(yet completely different) from Gothic 4 's dialogue system. There are a lot of pre-made animations(such as angry hand in air, clapping hands, arms folded, and wave to the right, (about 50 in total)) that are re-used for the whole game, and applied to different situations that the NPC is in(such as angry, sad, happy, loving, hatred) this also cooresponds to the overall mood of the NPC and the reputation that the NPC has with the player.

Try to watch the dialogue video in full-hd full screen, then you will see the facial animation.

By the way, thanks for the response and the kind words.

[zanrai]

Hey, your dialogue trees are halfway to Mass Effect! Good stuff. How big are you planning on making this project? Do you know roughly how big the entire lay of the land will be right now?

[LordNelson7]

The game world size is the maximum size of the Udk terrain(like 1024 patches by 1024 patches or something like that). The lay of the land is going to be similar to the map above. The castle seen in the video above is Imperial Castle(The largest castle in the game as of right now). There will be four major castles in total, and dozens of smaller walls and buildings to populate Imperial City(as well as other cities). I will also have random-roam NPCs that roam around the town for that "alive" effect.

The two major types of buildings are technological buildings and magical buildings(to go along with the major alignments in the game, technological and magical). Some cities are aligned toward the magikal side, while others embrace the newer ways of technology and reap its benefits, yet the arcane ways do offer their own benefits...

[juguefre]

good work dude

[LordNelson7]

Thank you all for the kind responses. I am now working on a GFx movie inventory system(75 percent functional) and a barter system. I will upload a video of these systems in the coming weeks. So far I've managed to get the slots in a GFx Movie to be populated with the player's(or NPC's in the case of the barter system) inventory of items(such as armor, weapons, misc), and when the items are dragged to a doll of the character, the item is equipped on the player(the mesh changes on the player in the game world). I also made it so the inventory opens up to the character in the middle zoomed out, so you can get a good look at what you're equipping.

[windytree]

The buildings are amazing, but you really need to work on your terrain. I know a few people have already said this, but if you really want people to pay attention to your project that should be the first priority. Just giving some constructive criticism. Can't wait to see more work.

[LordNelson7]

Yes, I am improving on the terrain and thank you for the comment. I will be posing a video of my basic inventory system(80 percent functional) within the next two weeks. After that, the barter system.

[LordNelson7]

Alright here is the video of the slot based inventory system as promised.

[LordNelson7]

What did you guys think of the slot-based inventory? Let me know if you see any changes that need to be made or if you have any suggestions for improvements. I am open to any suggestions. Thanks

[Derp]

It seems just perfect, but one problem..
YOU NEED TO START WORKING ON WEAPONS! Aha, but really, I can't wait to start seeing cool spells and weapons from you Also, out of curiosity, Do you plan on making a class based system or the player can venture onto any type of faction in the game (Like in Skyrim)?

[LordNelson7]

I already have weapons implemented, but I haven't hooked everything up yet.

There will be multiple options for the player to delve into(good or evil, tech or magic, warrior or archer, or anywhere in-between) and the things that you do the most(attack with your bow increases dextrity, etc.) will alter who you become. The factions that you join will alter your standing the the game world as well (join this faction and this faction becomes hostile, etc.).

The final version of the game(as I plan it to become) will remind the player of Skyrim, or Arcania: Gothic 4 gameplay, but with my own spin on things and storyline. I drew a lot of inspiration from these games.

[LordNelson7]

I've almost completed the character menu and the quest system. I will upload a video of both in the next few weeks. I improved my dialogue system, so now right after the dialogue begins, there are several boolean and integer variables that are checked for their value. If their value is equal to a certain value, this dialogue option is presented.

So the value of the variables determines which dialogue options you will get. This is very important, as you would not want the same dialogue options presented every time you begin dialogue with a NPC.

For example, the first time you meet a NPC he will say something such as, "Hello, its been a while since I've seen someone walking these roads", but you wouldn't want this NPC to say it again, because it wouldn't make much sense, so you set a boolean variable to be checked determining whether or not that NPC has been talked to.

The way I have it set up is in Kismet, but modfying an UnrealScript variable, such that I can save the value of that variable in a save-game system.

The Character Menu-

When you kill enemys, complete quests, do special actions, or other stuff, you gain experience. When you gain enough experience, you gain levels. When you gain levels, you gain Character Points.

You can spend these points on attributes such as Strength, Dextrity, learning new things(such as new schematics), and new(or improving existing) skills.

[Derp]

I've almost completed the character menu and the quest system. I will upload a video of both in the next few weeks. I improved my dialogue system, so now right after the dialogue begins, there are several boolean and integer variables that are checked for their value. If their value is equal to a certain value, this dialogue option is presented.

So the value of the variables determines which dialogue options you will get. This is very important, as you would not want the same dialogue options presented every time you begin dialogue with a NPC.

For example, the first time you meet a NPC he will say something such as, "Hello, its been a while since I've seen someone walking these roads", but you wouldn't want this NPC to say it again, because it wouldn't make much sense, so you set a boolean variable to be checked determining whether or not that NPC has been talked to.

The way I have it set up is in Kismet, but modfying an UnrealScript variable, such that I can save the value of that variable in a save-game system.

The Character Menu-

When you kill enemys, complete quests, do special actions, or other stuff, you gain experience. When you gain enough experience, you gain levels. When you gain levels, you gain Character Points.

You can spend these points on attributes such as Strength, Dextrity, learning new things(such as new schematics), and new(or improving existing) skills.

Sounds great! Out of curiosity did you have to model your character in a different way to implement this character customization?
Keep on going, I'm liking this project!

[LordNelson7]

Well, you can just model your characters as regular, and then split them apart. The modular mesh system(multiple mesh models within the same character model) is what I used. Then when you model any future armor or clothing types, you have to be mindful of the differences in structure( like where this piece of the modular mesh ends, and where that piece begins) of the model, so that things won't start to look wierd.

Thank you for your support!

[LordNelson7]

Ok almost finished with the character system, will upload the video within the next few days. A little more work on the dialogue and quest system, and I will upload a video of it as well.

[LordNelson7]

Finished making changes and working out bugs, here is the video. Try to watch it fullscreen in high-def and you can more easily see the skills and attributes. Thanks for watching!

[sbetween]

O_O

Arcanum.

motherofgod.jpg

[LordNelson7]

I've been working on the combat system(equip and un-equip) and the quest system for the game. I will upload a video of the equip system soon.

[LordNelson7]

Ok everyone, here is the video of the Equip/UnEquip system, let me know what you think of, and thanks for watching!

[skydew]

Looking Good!

[LordNelson7]

Thank you so much! Your facial manipulation system looks great as well!

[MarkG85]

Looks very good so far be awesome to see how you go about doing the bow :-)

[LordNelson7]

Yes in inventory the bows are similar to swords in the way that they are equipped, it's the actual gameplay that differs. In the coming weeks I will upload videos of both systems, but the gameplay swordplay and archery systems will need to be perfected before I upload a video of them. They are functional, but not 100 percent. Right now working on some cool medieval buildings for the game. Will upload pics of them when I am done.

I had an idea of having cities with multiple "prosperity" types, and textures tied to that prosperity level. Will comment further later.