Mod News Icewind Dale in ToEE Engine: the first chapter demo beta or something

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Dude Alex this is amazing. I would gladly pay for something like this.

In fact I would like you to consider taking this up as a real job. I don't mean the IWD conversion necessarily, but converting D&D modules into the ToEE engine. If you started doing this and added an adventure/map layer to move a party through linked modules campaigns in a dynamic manner (also maybe a random campaign maker which would take all the completed modules and then create a random string of modules that were level appropriate to move a party through) I and I believe others would gladly pay good money to purchase such an endeavor. I think it is really what many of us have wanted our whole lives to see, but instead we get a couple good games in one engine if we are lucky, and then the engine is dropped and later on a new more 'modern' and 'streamlined' one is introduced and then dropped again...

but the ToEE graphics and underlying rule and combat mechanics are good enough that I believe people would pay good money to see old modules put into the engine. A kickstarter maybe to get attention, I don't know, but this is awesome and I would pay a lot to see more of it. There is an endless amount of content in the form of old modules. I know new graphics might need to be developed as landscapes and monsters were expanded etc, but I think you could make a good career out of it if you wanted to. Not sure how realistic that is for you, but just putting it out there..

Thanks again for doing this...

 

[Mustawd]

 

[l3loodAngel]

Icewind Dale is D&D. D&D is turn-based. It's Black Isle who robbed the game of its identity.

Everything is still on timed action delays and dice-rolls. You can make these games as turn-based as you want to make them, all it requires is pressing the damn space-bar.

You need to read this or leave the Codex forever.

The article is true if you base your enjoyment of the game solely on the game's system (TB or RTwP) rather the game's content. The truth, however, is much more complicated than that. Anyway its pointless right now as I would settle even for a "mediocre" RTwP (as a full package: Combat system, character system, dialogues between party members, chalenging encounters, good story). Haven't played one since MOTB/KOTOR2 and I am not sure I will play one soon or ever with how things are going in the development.

 

[ROARRR]

with how things are going in the development.

Fear not! There is a prophecy about a chosen one.
A nameless one but he brings a time with big incline.
Vanishing all popamol, again makes developement fine.
If you say this all is a lie than you could be right.
But sayin: I would settle even for a "mediocre" RTwP
means you loosing the fight.

Spoiler

Just sayin check out the indi scene, maybe you´ll find some cool stuff

Oh, by the way pretty coll thing that Alex is makin! Can´t wait to see more screenshots and stuff

 

[Murk]

Gonna be on this hard when I get home from work today.

to Allyx for carrying through with the demo. I wish you the best of luck in the future.

 

[l3loodAngel]

with how things are going in the development.

Fear not! There is a prophecy about a chosen one.
A nameless one but he brings a time with big incline.
Vanishing all popamol, again makes developement fine.
If you say this all is a lie than you could be right.
But sayin: I would settle even for a "mediocre" RTwP
means you loosing the fight.

Spoiler

Just sayin check out the indi scene, maybe you´ll find some cool stuff

The day that the balance came into fruition,
The incline was bullied into total submission,
The money was right and their spirits were willing,
But the talent was missing from developers' filling.

Not many companies can do a full package: Combat system, character system, dialogues between party members, chalenging encounters, good story and etc.

 

[Allyx]

Dude Alex this is amazing. I would gladly pay for something like this... Thanks again for doing this...

Thanks are all I ask for, while I would love to be able to make a living out of modding ToEE, I don't own the engine, or have permission to modify the files from those that do own it, nor can I profit from the game mods I make as that would make legal action much more likely.

I make these mods primarily for my own enjoyment, and freely share them to like minded individuals to also enjoy.

 

[Dwarvophile]

Sorry if it's been asked before but which version of Icewind Dale do I need ?

Also, I probably come too late into the discussion but on top of the fact that yes, pen&paper D&D was definitively turn based, TBS is also more climatic than RtwP. I mean with real time with pause you don't even follow most of the hits, but with turn based, each action brings its moment of suspense. To me it makes it even more realistic or immersive. And of course it as more tactical value, but it's not even worth explaining.

 

[Mustawd]

Sorry if it's been asked before but which version of Icewind Dale do I need ?

My understanding is that both regular or EE version of IWD 1 work. I'm using EE version, and it works fine. If you have EE, I recommend going to the GRPG thread because I had some issues with EE Steam version that Allyx clarified.

 

[Allyx]

Yeah, any version should work, let us know if yours doesn't work so we can fix it. So far there hasn't been any reports of it not working with any legitimate copy of Icewind Dale, except for the activation bug described before (hangs on activation, had to hard exit and activate a second time to make it work).

 

[sstacks]

I mean with real time with pause you don't even follow most of the hits, but with turn based, each action brings its moment of suspense.

Agreed! Well said.

 

[Abu Antar]

If I'd decide to run ToEE these days, what would one recommend? I've been itching to replay it.

 

[Baron Dupek]

If I'd decide to run ToEE these days, what would one recommend? I've been itching to replay it.

Circle of Eight (for post-game content like new city and make reaching lvl2 without dealing with Fedex Village quests*) and/or Temple+
that's all

*or abuse Rest encounters like some people secretly do and shit on Co8 because why not

 

[Abu Antar]

If I'd decide to run ToEE these days, what would one recommend? I've been itching to replay it.

Circle of Eight (for post-game content like new city and make reaching lvl2 without dealing with Fedex Village quests*) and/or Temple+
that's all

*or abuse Rest encounters like some people secretly do and shit on Co8 because why not

Thanks! I though that maybe more stuff was required.

 

[Allyx]

Co8 8.1.0 NC AND Temple+ would be my recommendation.

 

[Baron Dupek]

If I'd decide to run ToEE these days, what would one recommend? I've been itching to replay it.

Circle of Eight (for post-game content like new city and make reaching lvl2 without dealing with Fedex Village quests*) and/or Temple+
that's all

*or abuse Rest encounters like some people secretly do and shit on Co8 because why not

Thanks! I though that maybe more stuff was required.

Nothing beside mentioned things and Keep on the Borderland (which is separate campain) were released for ToEE so far.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

A little off-topic, but how hard do you think it would be to simply remake the 3.5 ruleset using another engine, like Unreal or Unity or whatever? Might be way better than trying to reverse-engineer TOEE and trying to shoehorn something into it..

 

[Allyx]

An open source 3.5 ed d&d engine project is already underway, though I don't know how close they are to completion. https://code.google.com/archive/p/pydnd/
Besides, ToEE's engine works just fine most of the time, and Temple+ will help us to fix any remaining errors it has.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Considering they have last commit in 2010, I don't have much faith in that. :D

I just thought a clean remake in a modern engine might make more sense, given how much trouble co8 went through just to design a few additional areas.

 

[Allyx]

As the creator of the first additional area since ToEE's release, I'm well versed as to what is required to do so, and it I believe it would be considerably easier to use ToEE's engine than to remake the engine from scratch. Perhaps in time Temple+ will become that total engine rewrite, but I doubt that is on the cards any time soon.

 

[sstacks]

There is so much math involved in implementing a version of D&D that I can only think adapting an existing tested engine would be less energy and time consuming than coming up from scratch. I don't think a lot of people truly realize how many interactions there are in D&D when it comes to spells and combat and etc. That's one of the reasons the original ToEE had so many bugs... not that the engine sucked, but there were so many combinations of things that could happen.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

I realize that, but still... having the 3.5 as an accessible package for a modern 3D engine would have a lot of potential, probably attracting way more modders/content creators than the current ones.

 

[Allyx]

For the most part ToEE's engine is fine, sure it's a little broken in places, but with the current Co8 patches and now Temple+ as well, any remaining bugs can be recoded, both within the engine hardcoded portions with Temple+ and non-hardcoded portions through the regular means of modding ToEE.

The ability to make new modules for ToEE has been around for the last 10 years or so, people willing to put in the hard yards and actually make something playable are few and far between.

If there are others who want to learn how to make new modules for ToEE, we at the Co8 are willing to help, and have many threads detailing how to do so in great detail. It's actually not that hard to do, and very little of it requires altering the hardcoded parts.

 

[Severian Silk]

I always wanted to make a LEGO/Farscape campaign using d20 Farscape. But I need the capability of replacing the characters meshes and skeletal animations.

 

[Allyx]

Adding new 3d animations unfortunateĺy are currently beyond our modding capabilities, though we can add new 3d models for armour, weapons and other items which don't require new animations, and iirc we can also alter existing animated models slightly and repaint the skins.

I personally would like to have a crack at a Star Wars d20 game at some point.