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Animate Dead Now (mod for EE)


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22 hours ago, Endarire said:

If you're concerned about your mods not being not popular enough, there are ways to increase your mods' popularity.  For example, ask the Gibberlings3 admins to give you a forum or a buncha forums for your mods.  Upload your mods to GitHub for greater discoverability by those inside and outside of the Infinity Engine modding community.  Broadcast your mod releases and major updates on BG mod forums (Gibberlings3, Beamdog, and Spellhold Studios), as well as other social media platforms (Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.)  Since your mods require EE, ensure they're also EET (Enhanced Edition Trilogy) compatible, since many people who play the BG EE games also use EET.  Talk with AL|EN about how to add .ini metadata for your mods for Project Infinity.  Ensure your contact information (email, forum profiles, and any social media handles you feel comfortable sharing) is readily-accessible in the readmes of all your released mods.  If your mods conflict with other mods, talk with the authors/maintainers of these mods to fix these conflicts.  Publish YouTube video trailers of your mods or/and Let's Plays where people can watch someone (most likely you) play your mods, experience their goodness vicariously, and play the mods of yours they most like.  (YouTube of the added benefit of ad revenue if your channel is big/popular enough.)  I'm unsure what the policies are for Patreon, but plenty of people on Patreon have asked their subscriber base for money so they can make mods.  There are probably other means of increasing your mods' popularity and likely getting you paid without needing to invest a significant amount of money directly into advertising, but this is a strong start for now.

🤠😳🤗

Let's try some new smilies here. Well, Endarire, that's a very thorough plan of a promotional campaign. If wishes were horses and I could pull white mice out of my ears, wouldn't it make for an entertaining time. But I've been banned on the other two forums, and this forum is only a remote corner of the third, and I haven't tried to be a crowd pleaser. So I'm not surprised or flabbergasted that my mods haven't been shouted from the rooftops about. Rather I was disappointed that the people who come around here, representative as a section, and with the knowledge of the toolset to appreciate what can be done with it, turned out to be so uncreative and remote, and often just tired. Those were the people I wanted to rouse, the ones who counted, not some impossible crowds of fawning fans. Those are only fit for a background. It's not surprise the modders were tired - they had hung around the forums for Infinity Engine games for 20+ years like restless ghosts. Naturally they had been consumed by "everlasting tedium," to quote from Cugel's adventure. By this time a lot of them are bandaging varicose veins and taking Viagra. But was it my fault that I came late and fresh with enthusiasm? I had ideas for the wrong place and wrong situation, but it wasn't wrong to have ideas. It wasn't anything I did that didn't work, not really, the environment was simply too dead - and altogether below my level, to speak the truth. Compatibility, self-touting and Patreon won't change that. But like I said to Fan there, I'm happy I made many of these modules. And you seem like you are still excited about the games, that's a good thing while it lasts.

Well, that's enough about that. I alone know which of my creations were the best, quite possibly they weren't the ones most enjoyable to play. I did quite a few things that were really fine. Too bad no soul with the right musical strings in it came along to be strummed and know it. The fact still stands. All right, goodbye, everyone.

Figurine.jpg.b29216cd84e65af2528e80f6ba159232.jpg

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@temnix
I'm not sure what your overall angle is toward IE game modding.  You have talent and desire to make unique mods.  You know it.  Fan and I know it.  Others know it too, but Fan and I have been more obvious about it.  Regardless, if it's wise for you to take a break, then it's wise for you to take a break.

Your mods have focused on unique mechanics, which means your mods are unique and outstanding in the BG modding community since you're the only or one of the rare people to make such mods.  Last week on SHS, I found a mod (that I don't recall the name of at present) that was EET compatible and involved slavery:  You could enslave NPCs and buy and sell slaves.  I mention this now to show you that you aren't the only person to release such mods.

If you want to collaborate with other modders, you have that option.  I know everyone has a schedule and a list of projects to do, yet maybe they would help you if you asked.  With what?  With ideas for what sort of mods you've enjoyed making or/and with more direct aid via game assets - code, art, audio, or/and otherwise.

In terms of ideas, perhaps add raidable caravans and player-joinable caravans and the ability to buy houses to make this game more like a fantasy world simulator.  Perhaps add options for fishing and hunting while resting outside.  Perhaps add the ability to become part of the local government and rule cities and nations.  Perhaps add the ability to start, run, take over, buy, and sell businesses like mining operations, caravans, bodies (for necromancy and burial), illegal goods, etc.  Overall, I think you want BG to be more like a vibrant fantasy world like Daggerfall or Dwarf Fortress instead of only a D&DIablo game with talking, parties, and more character customization since your mods have generally focused on this goal.

Thankee again for your aid.  Still, what say you?

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Guest temnix temporary

This is me. Yes, you have the permission. I'm not going to continue them. And I don't know if I should quit decisively. I am unhappy with my later mods. "Jacob's Ladder" and "Hoarders" were very well-made, for something put together from beginning to end and tested by one man, but they lacked an important something. I should look at making adventures instead, if anything. To Fan: "Space-Fun Continuum" should not have the ice cones component. If it is there, it is only a leftover from an older version. Ice cones later made it to "Elements of Destruction," where they are an optional component. The complaint you see is, I think, that nothing has been altered by the patching in the nighttime version of Cloudburst. That spell produces rain during the day and sleet at night, or, if you install for Icewind Dale (and the mod installs at all, it was not optimized for that game), sleet for the day and an ice storm at night. Sleet effects come with their own icon, the warning probably means that I have put the spell with the updated icon in the mod folder without switching it to something else, so the patching action doesn't change anything. Hence the complaint.

The Scapegoat must still lack updated strings for the spell name and description, or for the scroll. There should be something in the tp2 for those, but you are on your own. I'm not even sure it works in this early version. 

If I come back to this place, it's going to be in a while and with a different kind of module. Cheerio.

 

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Thankee, @temnix.  On behalf of the Infinity Engine modding community, we thank you and salute you for your modding work and perseverance!  Alleluia!

Also, what mechanics/system modifications do you want to do that you still haven't done besides perhaps finishing what mods you started?

Edited by Endarire
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Guest temnix temporary

You shouldn't undertake to speak on their behalf, Endarire, really. And I don't want anything in particular done with the unfinished mods. You can finish them, if you like what you see there, or use them for inspiration, it's up to you.

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For those who want to participate in the making of this mod, there is opportunity for boring, routine work. As I wrote on another board here, Shadows of Amn is a very lazy game when it comes to creature sound sets. Instead of references to creature sounds in individual CRE files, in the manner of personal voices, as in BG1, BG2 just draws on standard monster sounds that come with their animations. These sounds are listed in the INI file of every animation. When my Animate Dead spell raises creatures as zombies, they receive CRE file voices from my own custom sound sets, but the animation stays the same, so its sounds will continue to play in parallel. A reanimated black bear is going to sound as both an undead beast and the same old bear, mixed up, which breaks immersion something bad. To avoid this I'm clearing all INI files of embedded sounds. In BG1 this works well - the personal voice gets replaced, and the bear sounds undead all the way through. But to do this in the sequel would mean making all monsters mute, because the designers didn't bother with personal voices.

I'm still doing this with INI files. The replacement will probably be an optional component so that players can decide whether they prefer doubled-up voices in the sequel for undead or mute living monsters. But work is cut out for assistants who will want to do one better and go through all of the creature INI files and recreate them as personal voices. It takes looking up the WAV files in Near Infinity, then writing up SAY references for all creatures of those types. There aren't very many different animations, so it's not a mountain of work, more like a hillock, especially if Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition has the right, traditional setup (I don't have it installed and can't check.) But it's select dull work. This would improve overall quality, though, and the modder could release these sound assignments later as a stand-alone module.

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Heya,

1) Liked your mod for the Ice Island in BG1. Loved your cosmetic addition.
- Request for a fix for the spell, scapegoat. Missing lines.
- Anyway, are there only these spellbooks that you can touch?  What about a Davaeorn spellbook,  Thalantyr, Shandalar. Maybe also the demon knight in Durlag's tower? Should have some powerful stuff for evil characters ...

2) Remove ices cones from Space-Fun Continuum. It asks you to install it, but shouldn't.

3) Read some idea from you about expanding the mod that makes you able to do performances. Are you still planning for it or is the idea behind? Personally, I would enjoy an expansion so I can start a new run.

Welcome back!

Note: I'll be away for a bit, see you in a few weeks.

 

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I'll update the unfinished mods a little some time to take care of things like ice cones in "The Space-Fun Continuum." They shouldn't be there, because they made it in full to "Elements of Destruction" later. Likewise, Scapegoat is probably a changed and unfinished version of Namesake from "Uncommon Elements." I think. I don't remember which one came first. I was working on incorporating Scapegoat into a quest for the Nashkel Fair in BG1, and getting it to work right, when I deleted all those mods in progress. There are now only previous, early versions. Just like "Animate Dead Now." There was a great deal of stuff for BG1 there which is never going to see the light of day. The version of "Animate" that will come out will be a sort of fork. But I'll have a look at the aborted mods, sometime.

As for "See No See," the mod about illusions, invisibility and Performances, I believe it works flawlessly as far as I took it. I think I ran off all of the bugs there, but, as I said when I was introducing these sunken Atlantises, developing the Performances idea properly, to make an impression, would take a whole lot more of time and effort, just not worth investing, players' interests being what they are. However, if you are looking for more new spells, Performances in "See No See" are a possible ticket to that. If you use Performances often among enemies and don't kill them straight away, you may get hag fans coming your way down the line. If they are happy hag fans, they will teach the party a few things.

Did you get the blue akheg shell on the Ice Island in "Space-Fun"?

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There was a great deal of stuff for BG1 there which is never going to see the light of day. The version of "Animate" that will come out will be a sort of fork. But I'll have a look at the aborted mods, sometime.

Well, that sucks, but at least you are back.

However, if you are looking for more new spells, Performances in "See No See" are a possible ticket to that. If you use Performances often among enemies and don't kill them straight away, you may get hag fans coming your way down the line. If they are happy hag fans, they will teach the party a few things.

Thanks, didn't know that.

 

 

Did you get the blue akheg shell on the Ice Island in "Space-Fun"?

No, I didn't find the blue ankheg shell. I had to reinstall the game later (not before stealing dradeel spellbook and Ulcaster one) and I couldn't get the mod to work. Installing the mod again makes me get a CTD everytime I try to start the game. The debug is there: https://easyupload.io/zbvqzx

If you don't trust random file on the .net, you can go there and check the file: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/
 

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