WOW. Epic indeed. Two player non the less. Good luck!

A very ambitious project indeed

If you need help with figuring out events for puzzles (or if you want some puzzles set up), let me know. I am a big fan of the NWN series and D&D so I can help translate some of the puzzles from NWN to AOW, if you are interested.

Looking at the heroes you've listed, what timeline are you looking at? (never played those 2 P-n-P games you've mentioned but have read the Dragonlance books)

Thanks Ibobs for the well wishes!

Hello Timelord,

Although my Dragonlance knowledge is a bit rusty, the heroes will be from the Heroes of the Lance, fighting in the War of the Lance. I wanted to make a hybrid from the Eye of the Beholder series (and the excellent puzzles that are in there, especially in part 2) and the Dark Queen of Krynn. The story will be somewhat following EoB2 (the best game in the series imho which I completed several times), with Waterdeep as starting area surrounded by forests and through the temple into the dungeons. But if you have (a) different idea(s), they are most welcome.

The 2-player option is just that. An option. I think it would be cool having a human Dark Queen and through testing we could try out if it is possible and works well.

Having never played NWN single-player (I preferred multiplayer and played it for quite a while), I look forward to the puzzles in the single-player part. Your help is much appreciated if you could devise (and maybe script) some of the events. Shame about working on a scenario with multiple people is that you have to send teh scenario back and forth. Maybe PawelS can someday figure out a merging program which would make community scenarios less a hassle. One can hope can't he?

I am toying with the idea making a BNW version while I find the hero grafix (as well the units and structures) more suiting to the story, and promised Kirky BNW scenarios . Heroes without horses are better imho, because who rides a horse in dungeons/caverns anyway?

So, again, your help is much appreciated. I will send you a mail with some ideas, if you don't mind.

Thanks, Timelord!

Kind regards,

Low

Hi Low_K,

I have fond memories of playing SSI's Pools of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secrets of the Silver Blades and Champions of Krynn on my c-64. These were great games and I miss playing games of this type. I also played Heroes of the Lance and Dragons of the Flame which were a bit different (these were side-scrollers), but fun nevertheless.

I have often thought if I ever got into map-making myself I would see if it was possible to bring this type of play to Shadow Magic. So this sounds great to me!

I want to wish you luck and if I can help at all, you have my e-mail!

Cheers!

Kirky

Hi Kirky,

Thanks for offering your help, it is much appreciated. I was quite busy the last few days with some RL stuff, so that's why I didn't e-mail Timelord yet. However I think we can make this scenario a community effort. Also playing the old SSI adventures on the c64 (still have one running at home, one of the best computers ever imho (ok, after the A500 which is imho THE best computer ever)), I really liked the Dark Queen of Krynn. The previous installments like Secret of the Silver Blades etc, I enjoyed less. I loved the character generation at tDQoK as well as the enhanced graphics.

I will mail both you and Timelord soon with some of my plans and hope for some feedback. Then we can also coordinate how we will start this epic project.

Thanks Kirky!

Kind regards,

Low

P.S. Great interview!

Chapter One: The Planning

So the ideas are in and after the great responses of people offering help I started on making a rough mock up of the labyrinth/cave system in the underground, some parts shamelessly taken from one of the Eye of the Beholder 2 towers. I will not post a screenie from it while it has to be examined by the player when released.

After some e-mails back and forth with Kirky he gave some ideas about which of the BNW heroes we should use for the scenario. I decided to make the scenario with the BNW-editor while the structures and units are more suiting regarding the idea. Furthermore I believe that the heroes animations fit more in the underground while horses are out of place in a labyrinth underground imho.

There is still much planning to do. I am currently slaving away at collecting all the riddles and quests we want the player to experiencing when he or she plays the scenario and hope to release it before, or just after, Kirky releases the final BNW version. Doubting we can make it, while you will see a multi-monthly project here. But will try nonetheless

The general idea is that you start next to the city of Waterdeep and travel through forests, swamps and grass which leads you to the dungeon system. Inside the labyrinth you will encounter many enemies, as well as NPC's, quests and riddles. Ofcourse the whole experience is further enhanced by the surroundings which are told by the "Dungeon Master". Hopefully creating a scenario in which you get engulfed and can play a single player D&D game.

Edit due to back-to-back posting disabled

Chapter Two: The Map

Well, work has commenced on the actual mappainting. After the rough mock-up of the underground tunnel system I now started to paint the surface map.
I started by painting the great city of Waterdeep, here is a screenie;



This is the location where you will start your adventure from. There are no heroes placed yet, while Kirky is busy designing them. However, just to give a general idea about the start location. From this great city you can travel through the Forgotten Realms lands e.g visiting Daggerford, the Sword Mountains and Ardeep Forest. Ofcourse other locations are also unlocked to visit (thinking of shrinking the map slightly to add some great places like Hillsfar, Menzoborranzan, etc.)

From a certain location you can enter the labyrinth underground map. Endless tunnels with carved out rooms await you there. Evil beings can be behind every corner. Almost all encounters will be scripted, so no point in sending scouts forward. They will be toast if wandering alone. After map is painted I will add the encounters. While painting the map, I might take breaks to script some Dungeon Master messages while that really keeps you going. As said in "the Making Of Wizard's Folly", you can really lift your morale when you get bored with mappainting by scripting events, making items etc.

Well a few more images. First one is the map of Faerun, at least the part where the player can travel;



As you can see you can travel to cities with the great names of Neverwinter and Luskan. Ofcourse, for instance at Neverwinter, you get quests and such. The map is not on scale, while that would be too much to ask (it's just too huge for a scenario). That is why you cannot visit Hillsfar, I let go of that thought.
Ofcourse, might the scenario be populair, I might make a sequel with another region of Faerun (which will definately include Hillsfar ).

Another screeny of work in progress; the farmer's fields near Waterdeep:



Well work is well underway as you can see. I will post the progress we are making here soon.

[This message has been edited by Low_K (edited 05-31-2008 @ 07:13 AM).]

Chapter Two: The Map (Continued)

Okay so I ran into some problem. Not a biggie, but still a problem. Well, actually it is a rather biggie. I decided to change the setup of the map. That's right, I will start afresh painting it. My old map I will use in an upcoming scenario. So what is this new map like, I hear you ask. Let me explain;

Last night while trying to get to sleep I realised that due to the nature of the scenario, it being small regarding armies, the map was too big. It would take forever to travel from point A to B. Some think this is great, extends the lifetime of the scenario, I also think it is. When you have multiple armies.

So I needed to make the map smaller. One way would be to make the whole map smaller, from XL to L. Good idea I thought. So I did just that. Furthermore I decided to not make the land of Faerun, but to construct the city of Waterdeep scattered around the whole map, inspired by some forum members' community projects. And that's where the biggie part came in.

Luckily, on the internet, very detailed plans of the city are available, so I will construct the city from those maps. This means that adventurers can explore the city and even descend to Skullkeep. I will make streets and alleys where events take place, to level up the player before entering the labyrinth underneath Waterdeep and maybe even the perilous Lower-Underdark.

With the new hero-grafix Kirky is making, as well as scenery, the project really will get off. Ofcourse I have to start from scratch, but will post regular updates on the progress. In short, you can forget the post before this one while it is obsolete. Like I said, I will probably use the map I made already in a future scenario. While I am at work again I cannot post any screenies of the new map, but will do that shortly. My 4 days leave start this afternoon after work, so plenty of time to advance with the map. Hope the European Championship of football (soccer for the Americans) doesn't get in the way. Luckily the games are played in the evening.

Updated:

To give you a general idea of the map here are two screenies:

(Part of) Harbour of Waterdeep


...And the Citadel of Waterdeep


More screenies follow shortly!

[This message has been edited by Low_K (edited 06-07-2008 @ 08:37 AM).]

And when the map is released? I have already played every map that is interesting and have no maps tomplay.
And I'd love to play in D&D world

I also have fond memories of the AD&D Gold Box games on the Commodore 64 so good luck with your project.

Wow!

I'm deeply impressed!! I'm looking forward to the release of this epic work.

Thanks for all the effort!

Chapter status: Defcon 3

Another update and not so good news actually.

Due to some RL things the scenario has been taken to the Defcon 3 status, meaning it's on hold. But there is also light at the end of the Tunnel of Despair;

The first week of September I will be going on holiday, and taking my laptop with me. During that week I will try and work on the scenario. Toying with the idea to keep the surface map for a future Rise of the Dark Queen installment, and produce a smaller, underground only map. See it as a test map to actually see if the concept works.

The great new designs of Kirky will be better implemented when it is underground (you will be amazed what he came up with!). It is decided now and the timeline will go as follows;

- Produce a smaller underground map, DM based, to test the concept (e.t.a. 1-2 months)
- Keep working on the bigger scale Waterdeep map (including underground) to release the actual Rise of the Dark Queen scenario (e.t.a. TBA)

I apoligise for any shattered expectations and ask your patience with this project. Unfortunately RL doesn't take AoW into consideration. Shame really....

Kind regards,

Low

[This message has been edited by Low_K (edited 08-22-2008 @ 03:10 AM).]

Wow! just came along this one.
That reminds me of the golden old times, sigh... Curse of the azure bonds, Pool of radiance, the Krynn series... the books around Sturm, Caramon, Raistlin, Tanis... sigh again COOL!!!!
Can you remember the good old hex-battlefields in those games?? WHERE is this today?? (sigh for the third time...)

It also reminds me of how DAMN much work it means, to realize such a concept in a map -> I wish you luck, fun, endurance, good will, good ideas AND: As little problems with the realization of scripted events as possible

looking forward to playing your map someday - also as beta tester if you wish.

M