custom portaits in my mod

[FeMaiden]

That's a problem... We can't check it at the beginning of a mod, because we don't know how many tomes were used for bonus skill points in the previous mod. And I guess we have no way to get this value. Also, all our mods seems to have very specific game rules changes that would be conflicting... I was thinking about Azel who told us he gives 2 skill points per level up for example.

However, I think it could be cool if the community agreed on some common custom classes and races we could share among us to give more value to the import function. A lot of us make mods restricted (or strongly recommended) for a level 1 party, but don't you think it could be cool if the party from your mod could visit other mods as well ? Let's work as a team

Also I was thinking about the custom classes of FeMaiden's mod, and I have questions;
Do you force the starting champions, or do you let the player create them ?
Do you allow the original classes / races to be played or just your new ones ?
Do you also define new skills ?

If you don't allow the player to use the original classes, I was thinking maybe you could just override them then, by using the same names in your classes definitions but not the same UInames, so each of your classes could be directly linked to a basic class for the import option. This way you would not have anything to code to "uncustomize" your champions at the end of your mod.

I do *force* the player to use the specific characters I made. It is necessary for the satirical theme of my mod. they have custom classes and portraits defined by me , in a similar manner to drakkan's eye of the atlantis.

I attempted to add scripts at the end of my mod which would allow the player to re customize these character's to their liking, but I don't think it will be possible. I'm sorry but it has to be the way I made it lol.
if you play my mod, don't try to build your own party because it will be replace.
Try to have fun with the characters I made, even if they will be confined to just the universe I created for them. I gave them all their own personalities and dialogue to match.
The custom classes are basically meant to be flavor, i used the basic classes as the templates but changed the UI names.
I tried to make the characters somewhat flexible so you are not pigeonholed into a specific build. one character is *meant* to be the heavy weapons user but that guy can easily become a thrower instead. the light weapon user can be built as a missile weapon user instead. 2 of the characters don't really have any specific way they *have* to be built, I originally meant for them both to be throwers but in my playthroughs i made one of them a thrower and the other a hybrid light weapons and missile user.
so there is some flexibility there

are you suggesting that if I use the original name from the definitions so it just overrides the definitions instead of cloning them, that the character will then be able to be imported?
I admit I got very attached to my characters during my normal mode and hard mode playthroughs and would love to be able to import them lol.

If I make another mod, it will be more in the "classic" style allowing you to make your own character, although I do stand by the general opinion that you should start off any new mod with a level 1 party, because it is very difficult for an author to "guess" what levels each person will be at so we have to design it such for character growth from level 1 to whatever. if you brought in level 25's with all their skills maxed out, you would get bored quickly...

[gambit37]

Personally I don't understand this need to make mods which redefine classes and create a whole new sub-layer of internal mechanics.

For me, a custom mod is about creating an interesting scenario and story with some great level design, cool atmosphere and sensible player progression. Fun new spells and weapons, easter eggs, secrets: these are great too, but new traits and classes are really low on my list of things that I think make a mod fun.

These are my personal preferences, of course, and I can't speak for anyone else... I've always been much more interested in story/atmosphere than mechanics, so I'm clearly of a different mindset from many of the rest of you.

[FeMaiden]

Personally I don't understand this need to make mods which redefine classes and create a whole new sub-layer of internal mechanics.

For me, a custom mod is about creating an interesting scenario and story with some great level design, cool atmosphere and sensible player progression. Fun new spells and weapons, easter eggs, secrets: these are great too, but new traits and classes are really low on my list of things that I think make a mod fun.

These are my personal preferences, of course, and I can't speak for anyone else... I've always been much more interested in story/atmosphere than mechanics, so I'm clearly of a different mindset from many of the rest of you.

my mod did not start out that way, with the *predefined* classes, i originally just "recommended" a certain build in my description but as I learned more scripting and i started getting deeper in, I had to do it for story reasons, you will see, if you play my mod, it should be ready in a day or 2.
I either brought something new to the table...or i made something crappy that nobody will want to play. One way or another, i spent 3 weeks on it and I tried my best with the current abilities I have.

I am a bit amazed at the *size* of my mod, it's 200 megabytes, I guess from all the custom assets I put in it? I mean, it only has 6000 objects on the map, the original campaign has like 70,000 objects.
my mod is only going to end up being 3-6 hours long lol. (on my playthroughs i did it in 3 on normal and 4 on hard...but of course I already know my own mod inside and out)
It feels like it's only about 1/10th the size of the original game but if steam limits me to 100megs then I have no choice but to distribute this through the nexus which means ...probably less people will play it...

[gambit37]

Why is it 200MBs? What new assets are in there?

[FeMaiden]

Why is it 200MBs? What new assets are in there?

its possibly the custom musics...all my bosses have new musics that don't exist in the original game. I had no idea they would inflate the size of my mod so large.
that's my guess since I did not do any advanced 3d rendering or retexturing of anything

[THOM]

Music has to be included as .ogg files. You can choose from different compress-methods and AFAIK it makes no difference, which file-variation you include in your mod [someone other informations?]. Maybe you can choose anothe compression format?

[Dr.Disaster]

Why is it 200MBs? What new assets are in there?

its possibly the custom musics...all my bosses have new musics that don't exist in the original game. I had no idea they would inflate the size of my mod so large.
that's my guess since I did not do any advanced 3d rendering or retexturing of anything

Recall that the editor exports everything that got defined as asset, regardless of being used or not. If for example you wanted to use only the custom beds from Germanny's tileset but did not explicitly remove everything else the editor exports the entire tileset.

Regarding your custom character classes: you could re-use them in your next mod. This would allow everyone who played your first mod to import their old party to continues their journey. The same concept was used by the Eye of the Beholder games. The EoB1 party ended rather early around level 7 but you could import it into EoB2 to get it to 10..12 and then onward into EoB3.

[FeMaiden]

Why is it 200MBs? What new assets are in there?

its possibly the custom musics...all my bosses have new musics that don't exist in the original game. I had no idea they would inflate the size of my mod so large.
that's my guess since I did not do any advanced 3d rendering or retexturing of anything

Recall that the editor exports everything that got defined as asset, regardless of being used or not. If for example you wanted to use only the custom beds from Germanny's tileset but did not explicitly remove everything else the editor exports the entire tileset.

well, I have the whole folder from germanny's assets but I only put the beds and tables in the init file. it still exported the entire asset pack anyway? how do I grab just the beds and tables out of it?
I think you are correct, i looked in my mod assets and the musics are only 15 megs. but the dmcsb folder is 300 megs

as for "reusing" the characters in my next mod. you suggestion would be like, defining the same character classes in my next mod which would allow for the player to import their character into it? I could work with that.

[THOM]

To eleminate objects erase the definitions from the definition-files...

[AndakRainor]

The custom classes are basically meant to be flavor, i used the basic classes as the templates but changed the UI names.
are you suggesting that if I use the original name from the definitions so it just overrides the definitions instead of cloning them, that the character will then be able to be imported?
I admit I got very attached to my characters during my normal mode and hard mode playthroughs and would love to be able to import them lol.

Yes, it means if you use the name of an original class in your mod, you can still do anything you want in your definition (with a totally different UIname for example), and if someone imports the party in another mod, the class of each champion will be set to the original class of that name. It works the same for the race. You just need to find what standard class best matches a "cheerleader" character.

I tried to make the characters somewhat flexible so you are not pigeonholed into a specific build. one character is *meant* to be the heavy weapons user but that guy can easily become a thrower instead. the light weapon user can be built as a missile weapon user instead. 2 of the characters don't really have any specific way they *have* to be built, I originally meant for them both to be throwers but in my playthroughs i made one of them a thrower and the other a hybrid light weapons and missile user.
so there is some flexibility there

There is no spell-casters in your mod ? Believe me, casting spells is the best hobby one can have !!!

If I make another mod, it will be more in the "classic" style allowing you to make your own character, although I do stand by the general opinion that you should start off any new mod with a level 1 party, because it is very difficult for an author to "guess" what levels each person will be at so we have to design it such for character growth from level 1 to whatever. if you brought in level 25's with all their skills maxed out, you would get bored quickly...

Well it is really difficult I know, as the level system of Grimrock is not able to handle it by itself, but ideally a mod should adapt its difficulty to the party's level just in case the import function is used. I will try to do it, but I agree it seems to be a very complicated task. For modders you don't want to support the import option, I just hope they make it very clear in the presentation of their mod, to prevent the player from making the mistake of creating a party that will be immediately erased and replaced at the mod init, or be bored because the imported party is too strong for the fights proposed by the mod.