Thank you for one awesome kicka-- game.You wanted to make the player earn everything they get.I love some of the surprizes you come up with in place of wall spikes.I have problem in opening water world.You are teleported there and screen has warning about silence and you hit any key to start.When i do DoM quits and i am in desktop.i tried different armour,weapons,acc,even nothing.i tried leveling up equipping different magic.I even keep 2 saves of all progress nothing helped.i would be greatful for any help thank you again

I first thank you for great game you created.I love the fact it has the Kings Field feel and new avenues also.I just loved those arena battles make you think fast.Now to my problem i retrieved the Gaia stone for queen and she tells me path is open then next we are enemies again.I put on aqua boots and looked all over by queen and elsewhere.Did i miss something or is this a bug have had no other issues[just draw but dealing with it]. Thank you for any help you could give.

I'm not positive how many ways Som can be immediately improved visually without any loss or input from authors. But I came up with a goody today, and I can think of at least a few more, and I have a feeling if everyone just listed their pet peeves that might lead to some others. I'd like to restrict any discussion to improvements that don't require setup by authors and would be an all around improvement with only negligible cons if any.

My number one pet peeve is the map pieces disappearing along the flanks in wide open vistas, especially in widescreen mode. The factors that lead to this are potentially many but it's safe to say I think that Som was never intentionally meant to be played in any aspect ratio other than 4:3. Even though there were other aspect ratios for monitors, and even PAL for TVs, Som seems to be hindered by an NTSC-J (ie. Japanese console games) mode of thought. I've got no lead on this but it's high up on my list. Most likely if a fix exists it will require interfacing with Som's memory to some extent.

Another problem is the object vs. map pieces lighting mismatch. Theres no way to integrate an object with map pieces if the lighting setup is complex because Som only computes shadows etc for map pieces. But if the lighting is simple the colours should fuse as much as possible. I'd like to see if the object lighting can't be calibrated to improve upon this. However best results (with the traditional lighting model) would come from a tool that could fuse static objects into map pieces (making a new custom piece)

I would like to see if the 4 lights per object limit cannot be exceeded by forcing all lights in the map to light objects/monsters.

Finally I want to report on a very simple fix which fogs transparent objects. I've tested it with DD and it's a radical improvement even in the area with the white fog. Whether the effect is perfect or not depends on the order the fog is blended (if perfect it's added to the object's colour which is then blended with the current pixel colour -- if imperfect the object is blended then the fog is added on top of the summed pixel) either way by forcing transparent objects to have black fog you get much better results whether your fog is dark or light (the entire spectrum of fog)

I will attach a screenshot. Obviously the best thing about this is your transparent water sheets blend into the fog like everything else, instead of being constantly bright and then suddenly disappearing with a hard edge. Which is a big improvement (just to be clear)

For instance the seaside cliffs in DD, or the water realm in DoM. This will be available in the next SomEx.dll release, by adding "do_alphafog = yes" to the [Options] section.

UPDATE: Added a brightened version of the same attachment/image.

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Todd mentioned collaborating on a project before,

I just wanna say, I have a project, and I don't really have any huge ego about it being a one man show. And I'd really welcome the chance to try to work out how to collaborate on a game, and I'm sure I can provide some technical tools for making that feasible. In fact in order to keep things in perspective I've chosen to basically start with Diadem of Maunstraut and just give it some TLC and a spit polish. I'm pretty sure Tom hates the idea (not to mention myself) but I'd already convinced him to agree to let the game be out there as opensource for anyone who wants to play with it and that's a tradition I'd like to encourage/foster because that's how I feel gaming should evolve. DoM I think is significant because it's the first full fledged SoM game (sorry Japan you had 10yrs to do something solid with Som!!) so I'd like to see it if not branch out like a tree, at least shoot up like a weed.

Todd thinks every Som game after DoM is going to be visually compared to DoM by poo-pooers. ‎  So I reckon before the original Som assets are completely dead to the acute ADD afflicted amongst us they might as well be put to a little more use.

My basic intention is to produce a game that is if not technically comparable to a contemporary/mainstream title it can be at least artistically so. Which is to say a video game critic/reviewer with half a brain cell should have no problem recommending the game to new/old gamers alike.

I've never seen even a low budget film of any merit that didn't have a long ass laundry list of people credited. Not to belittle anyone's solitary effort, but if we really want to turn peoples heads (to pay attention to Som) it's going to require collaboration.

I think I know everything necessary to produce a game. I know enough about everything to at least be able to intelligently communicate what needs to be done and empathize with anyone's role. I regard myself a sort of virtuoso in most skillsets required. I'm however only a mediocre writer but I know good writing when I see it. I have an even better ear for music I think but I was not in the band in highschool and never got into music (though there was a time when I definitely could've at least fronted an act or two ) ...which is why I chose DoM; which is, if I have to go it alone, it already has an original/lovingly crafted soundtrack.

I've already worked out everything I want to do. And my only insistence upon anyone who'd like to help is that everyone involved understand that I shall have the final say so on anything and everything. My preference would be to act as the director and software engineer. I of course want people to leave there mark, and just because I say I have final say doesn't mean in the slightest I would not be compromising or accommodating... it would just mean I get to draw the line, like it or leave it. That may sound bad, but IMO there's never been a good film or game that didn't have someone in this capacity. Anything done by committee is doomed to mediocrity and I just don't want to poor a lot of time into something that could go that way.

I have a good idea of all the changes to DoM I intend to make. The list is not super long, and not particular. There is probably the equivalent of four good sized new maps. At least two of which I've already prepared. I've also spent a lot of time cleaning up many of the maps. What I mainly need are writers, play testers, and graphics people. I think the writing in Wicklow game was pretty solid, if Johnny Park is still around he could maybe help. I'm not a fan of dialogue so it shouldn't be a huge job. If anyone wants to help with play testing, that's a lot bigger role than it sounds. It's basically also the playtesters' job to tweak the monster/consumable item layouts and stats etc. Graphically I intend to use as much as the Som assets as possible, including Tom's stuff in DoM and some stuff I like from DD. Some of Tom's stuff will need new textures or new objects because I think they were ripped from KF1 and never properly textured. I intend to add one full body piece of armor which I finally have concept art for which I like. It's a very important piece of armor to the game. And I want to develop a tree set with basically almost solid foliage which can be pieced together to create lush settings (basically the parts of the trees need to be separate objects so they can be placed in different arrangements) ...aside from these queerly evergreen trees everything else in the world of DoM is dead or dying... they play an important role in the game. Otherwise there are probably a few spot treatments and I would not mind if the outdoor set could be doubled in terms of flexibility.

If anything is sacred to you, you might not want to get involved. If you're militantly religious about religion X or even King's Field you might be offended. I want to draw onto and add to the mythology of KF and ST which is something DoM already does. And I want the entire game to be interpretable on a Jungian level in a very Wizard of Oz kind of way. I also intend to play up the occult themes in DoM which Tom swears he unwittingly attributed to the game by way of the black metal he listens to / now presumably denounces (or pleads ignorance too)

There is a very antihero theme similar to ST. Your main allies are (not unlovable) demonic forces, but you also pray to their more or less benevolent equivalents. The ultimate antagonists are neither good or bad in a worldly way but are Lovecraft like cosmic horrors which threaten to devour the world of DoM demons and their better halves alike. Kind of like in Elric tales the most truly evil force in the game is the equipment the player will come to rely on for power.

I overcome the monotony of Som's hack'n'slash on sedatives model by throwing as many monsters at the player as possible and not necessarily awarding the player for killing them. Mostly the challenge lies in the numbers however which are fairly involved. You have a lot of stats playing off one another and you're up against the clock because your mp drains over time and without it you become a sitting duck. It's really like your fatigue. If you choose to develop your MAG equivalent then you can go further distances/last longer but with less physical power and all around regeneration, but if you go the STR route you have lots of regen and stamina but must rest a lot. Afaik STR and MAG are the only innate stats that change thruout the game which effect the players performance. They play many roles however. There is also a lot going on with the status ailments which all play different roles than intended. There are also at least five different modes of travel depending on the weight of the players inventory everything except negligible "one of" items has a weight. The game is designed to not take long and feel like an arcade experience with lots of replay value with an emphasis on best time ranking.

By viewing the following images you agree not to sell, hire, rent or copy my own designs.
You may link to this webpage through my permission.
This is my work and i have spent hours on it. If you want to create something like this, do it yourself, please.
This game was made with the Sword of Moonlight tool made by From Software.
It was also made with Metasequoia and Metasequoia LE (freeware/shareware)
Textured with GIMP, ms paint and irfanview.

IMPORTANT: These renders, items and alot of ideas are now obsolete. This thread has been left here for development purposes.
Chances of seeing anything in this thread in the final game is very slim indeed.

For more up to date screenshots and renders, please view the "Rathmor screenshots and video" Thread.


I am proud to introduce my game, Rathmor.
It is a SoM built game, created and designed by myself alone.

The game will include...

New weapons and armour unseen before in any KF or SoM game. There will be new types of weapons such as spears, flails, and a few other hidden weapons.

I dont want to spoil the surprise, but heres a little sample of renders.

A unique axe.

A sword.

An important sword.

A plumed helm.

A simple scalemail armour.


New maps and environments

I have exhaustively compiled and created alot of new map pieces. All map pieces are useable, and playable.

Heres a sneak peek of a few models. Please understand that these screenshots were taken during development stages, and that the final results
will very possibly variate from them.











New enemy textures





Features:

The game will have a free roaming aspect, allowing players to initiate side quests during the main quests.
Important item gathering feature.
The ability to combine items, and to make new items.
Counters that affect the games outcome and the outcome of quests.
Important npc interaction.
Survivalism! (to an extent!)



Alot of the main games features will remain hidden until its ready to play!


There will be a prologue coming soon, and after that i hope to add my main game!

UPDATE! 19/8/10

Some new item renders...

An embossed shield (texture feedback would be nice.)


A bascinet.


A tribal style bone shield.


A bone spear. (Upper detail.)


I've made alot more but i cant really give the suprise away.

I'm finished with the items now, i dont know if they'l all fit into SoM's item list!

Here is something I've worked on the last couple nights. You can get your paws on it by downloading the latest SomEx.dll which will be available soon over in the DirectX9 thread (wish I had a link at my fingertips)

It squeezes into 640x480 (assuming you end up with the same font maybe ... no worries, the font can be standardized) but can also come in two columns and double wide mode depending on your resolution / preferences. The double wide mode probably won't be accessible in the first release.

I really need to add some stuff to the ini file for customizing things. And there's a lot more memory to sift thru than I expected (which is probably a good thing because it means Som uses the heap little if at all) so just paging thru all the memory is really too cumbersome, so I need to add some features like jump to and find.

Oh BTW this is a realtime memory inspector. You can see Som's memory while you play. So like if you see a number changing while you're turning, then it stops changing when you stop turning, and so on, then you've found the memory where Som stores the player's turn angle. This will really revolutionize Som. We just need to map out all the memory like Game Genie people do for games... so you can have infinite HP for example.

I think maybe I see the clock, but I could be wrong. Hopefully that would allow me to fix the clock reset bug for example. Another important piece of memory would be the current map number. That would let us get started doing things like adding a better background to each map (one that sits still for example)

Of course there are other benefits like setting up events that let you detect what the player has equipped. So anyway, I advise everyone to take this quite seriously.

That said it's still not super useful for every day use until I can add some features. I can already find some memory pretty easy by building a search into the code. But that's not super practical. I also want to build some notation into the inspector so like if it's known what some memory is it will print that on the line above. There will most likely be two addresses for everything, one for som_db.exe and one for the game exe (som_rt.exe) but hopefully they will overlap enough to build a mapping, but the ini file will have to let you specify both just in case... especially for new memory.

I spent a lot of time setting up a way to input what address you wanted to look at, but it wasn't practical to do with dinput in the end, so I will have to rethink it a little in terms of more traditional window input. If you use the traditional Som key layout it's pretty simple, but I can imagine if you wanted to map the movement keys to WASD that would make trouble for typing in hexadecimal addresses (which would need A/D) for example.

I wish it worked with the pause extension but it doesn't because the pause extension literally pauses everything. It would take a bit of work to pause the game but still have access to the overlay etc, but I think that might eventually happen. Especially if we start using the overlay for other types of stuff (like printing out stats about the game while you work with your map)

I think Todd really wants a falling damage extension. So first person to find the memory that stores the player's position in space gets a cookie (I think the HP parameter will be pretty easy to pin down... in fact I hope all the other player related stuff is nearby)

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Does anyone know of any decent free and easy to use software that i can dl to create some interesting music for my games? I've already got alot of music lined up, but some of it doesnt fit entirely... I loved the old KF music, pretty much all of it was great (except some which was almost too dark.)

I'd like to mess with synth, keyboard keys and some ambient sounds.

Thanks

Verdite

Yeah I'm set in my ways.......I am making this game for me......Not for the community, I am sure that MOST of the community will enjoy it though...... Ya know Red dead redemption is being hailed as a masterpiece from Rockstar..........but funny thing , I still read alot of NEGATIVE reviews...... Mostly by gamers...... and most of thoses games are young, MEANING they were babies when the PS2 came out...... these kids are used to HIGH quality super graphics games..... I grew up with an atari2600 and vision....... I expect alot of folks to diss my game as a dated piece of crap........ Read some of Todd reviews on CNET..... ( I wanted to smack some of the morons who dissed it)...... but upon looking up there profiles, they are 12 and 13, and if it ain't on a PS3 then it's crap......... well Todds game is AWESOME by any means , and definatly NOT PALE.......... I am using this engine cus it's free........ and has a uniqueness lost in many newer games.......... That is also why I put off making the origanal game I wanted to make, because I can't do what I wanted on Som, however it is what is....... And I will do my best to make it as new and exciting as I can...................ML

Just starting the website for this game, my first indie project for the xbox 360.

The game will sell for 80c ($1.00) and should be available some time in july.

I will eventually have www.tiamatgames.com up and running but for now the Steam Heroes link can be found here:

https://www.tiamatgames.com/steamheroes.htm

I will try to update it soon. ‎  If anyone has an xbox be sure to try the trial game when available and let me know what you think ;)

I'm not positive this is the absolute best use of my time at the moment. But I'd just like to announce that I've been successful as far as I can tell in cramming multiple versions of DirectX into the SomEx library. This is a somewhat interesting feat because the DirectX headers are in no way compatible (will cause your compiler to explode if you include more than one)

Anyway that was the part I was kind of curious whether or not it would even be realistically possible. What's left to do is mostly a lot of mindless marathon finger work. Though there very well may be some logistical problems adapting the DirectX7 methodology to DirectX9 etc's along the way.

Fortunately the problem can be approached more or less piece mill because the Direct X components overlap very little. So I will probably just focus on graphics for a while. For DirectX7 it's only necessary to implement the interfaces which require monkeying with. But with DirectX9 every interface which Som would require must be implemented, so that will be a lot of work. Fortunately that is probably a only a smallish subset of all of the DirectX9 interfaces.

DirectX9 has an Ex mode which is exclusive to Vista (and 7 surely) which I think is probably there to cover all of the compatibility stuff that DX10 addresses. So I'm thinking there is probably not much gain to be had in implementing 10 and 11 though some day that might make sense. But I haven't actually looked into it.