EverQuest: Age of War

[DeletedUser]

Just to start off first, I didn't know which forum to post this in, last year when I posted my mod idea I put it in the developer section but I think this seems more fitting as this is modding work (a lot to do with db, not really official coding.. but if its in the wrong, just move it for me please)

Ok! Now that thats done. This is a player EverQuest created mod/expansion. I call it the Age of War, well.. because its about war!

Here is an mspaint created map of what I plan on having for zones:
http://www.team-maia.com/dark/map.jpg

Yellow = Good Castle
Light Brown = Newbie Fields
Turqoise = Big Ass Gate
Brown = Battle Field
Turqoise = Big Ass Gate
Light Brown = Newbie Fields
Black = Bad Castle

The Castles

The Castles will be cut into 3 zones like freeport. I will have a market area in one where you can setup little shops, possibly I can have a bunch of houses which can be rented. (A Merchant will have a bunch of keys.

They'll be like: Key(1), Key(2), etc. The numbers will be how many days.)

Taking ideas from guildwars, I could possibly work something like the population merchant so you could setup merchants there. I want to try and make it so you could try and setup tradeskill things in your 'shop area'.

The the middle area will be the 'main' area. There will be things such as the 'king', which i'll get to in a minute. Mainly this is the entrance into the castle, exit to the castle, and the main area of the castle. There will be a huge building (something like the Freeport Paladian Guild). Inside will be bunch of quests for items. Also the loyalty quest.

The third area is the class guildmasters. It'll be setup for you to buy your spells, do quests, and train there. This will be a big part of the game.


Newbie Fields

The newbie fields will be a place to level up, and a backup battlefield. First, let me start with the leveling up.

There will be tons of mini dungeons around, not 'big' dungeons, but mini dungeons.. :P A boss at the end of each one, possibly treasure chests if I could figure out how to do that. (I think I know a way how).

Outside there will be tons of npcs to kill, i'm going to set a lot of work into the pathing to make this look realistic, like live.

When I said backup battlefield, its because, once they get past the gate, you are going to be fighting in the battlefield, so you can stop them from reaching your castle.


Big Ass Gate

This is going to be a wide zone, but not a big zone. It's going to have tons of archers on top of the gate, and tons of swordsman, healers, and casters infront/inside the gate.

This is to product them from going past the battlefield into the Newbie Field and onward to your castle. It'd take a big force to get past the gate, but that IS the point of the mod.. which i'll get to in a second.


Battle Field

This is the biggest zone, maybe the size of dreadlands. There will be desert, forests, sea, and mountains. This will be able to hold big wars. I plan to have hidden dungeons.. kindve like daoc, 'epic dungeons'.

This is where all of the main PVP action will happen. There is going to be a lot of changes to classes to make them more compatible with the expansion.

I plan on making a whole new set of spells, deleting some spells, making long long range bows so rangers can hide in places, such as trees.


The Expansion

Ok, lemme explain the mod now.. i'm gonna throw out info, not really catergorize it.. just new ideas and more and more coming in at the second.

As you can guess by now, this is a PVP mod. You can say AvA (alliance vs alliance) too. This is sort of like a cheap rip off of DAOC. You level up, then you go fight on the battlefields.

The main quest is called the Loyalty Quest. You can even choose this path of quest, which will be a long term quest, but you will get a better item every time you complete a part of it. The last item will be when you most likely are one of the best players on the server.. because you need to killa bunch of people.

The Loyalty Quest has 10 parts, it's best compared to the 10 ring velious quest. Where you have a war at the end, that is my only hint to it :wink:

It checks your class, then it gives you an item for your class. At the end, you will have an epic item. And when I say epic, I mean it WILL be an epic. Not EverQuest epic, but epic as in, an 'epic' weapon, the best of the best. If I have to add more items, i'll make the epic even better. It will NOT be easy.

To give you an idea of how it works. For assassin(rogue), the 8th part of the quest is going into the opposite castle, assassinate someone, and bring back the battle plans. If you die, you lose the plans, and your corpse shows up at your castle graveyard.

The graveyard you say? Yea, instead of having corpse recovery.. there will be a graveyard in the guildmaster part of your castle. It will be pretty big. There is a gravemaster where you must pay a toll and he'll summon your corpse out of the ground. AKA: All corpses go into a box you can't enter underground. When you pay the toll, he'll summon your corpse by your name. The more corpses you have, the more it will cost.

When your PVPing, you will get a coin thats stackable when you kill someone. When you get to level 10, you will be able to start PVPing, you have to visit someone in the Royal Court, which will be where the king is. They will give you a combinable bag. When you combine an item with 1 stack of the coins, that item will get better.. this will take a lot of work, I dunno if I can make it randomized.. if not, i'm going to be making a ton of combinables hehe.

As for items, I am going to most likely delete every item, and make a custom bunch of items.. If I get rid of all the items, I don't need to worry about someone exploiting a can o` whoop ass! :P

And while i'm on that subject, i'm going to make custom spells. Cooler looking spells.. of course.. this will take a lot of work.

Levels.. i'm not sure what i'm doing with levels.. I think I might extend it to 100 levels. Or move it to level 50 and make exp slower. More exp needed each level. I don't think anyone should be level 50 in the first few weeks.


Team

I'm going to be looking for people to help me, of course I can't.. well I could, but it'd take a long time to make this.

Who will I be looking to recruit?

:: Database workers ::

- Someone who can work with items, has common sense from legit, and newbie to godly legit. (aka not 100 dmg 10 delay 50 to all stats, etc.)

- NPCs, Factions, Pathing, Loot Tables... I will probably want 2-3 people working on this, because this can be a tedious task.

- Quests.. I could do this, but I am looking for someone who is really knowledged with the new quest system, and could make quests on the spot, not needing to check out the website and test it 152185125821 times till it works.

- Zone creator.. someone who can create the zones.. using openzone. Custom textures are required.. unless you wanna get SoE on your door step!

:: Other workers ::

- Spell Worker: Make custom spells.. not looking for tons of spells. But bunch of more compatible PVP spells. One of my idea was:

Necromancer, level 50, Clouds of Poison.
Smoke starts to come out of the casters hand and then gray/green puff goes around the target and it starts to rain acid(dark green lines) on them. It's an AE spell, big dot, and the does big damage to the targetted one.

I did some work with the old GM Client and made custom spells.. so I believe this is possible. The best spell I could make was smoke came out of the hands and it would crawl across the sky covering more and more as it moved.. but I think I could change it a bit hehe.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is all I have right now, i'll post more information later, maybe even make a basic site.

[daeken_bb]

What about building houses dynamically in the zone? bulky... but an idea.

[DeletedUser]

tru :?

[daeken_bb]

When you combine an item with 1 stack of the coins, that item will get better.. this will take a lot of work, I dunno if I can make it randomized.. if not, i'm going to be making a ton of combinables hehe.

Perhaps for this you can have a PHP script generate random combinables and insert into the DB?

[DeletedUser]

yeah.. something like that. I wanted to have it something like Diablo 2 style drops, nothing the same, except for uniques.

And the only uniques are no drop. Quest items, or off the dungeon mobs, that way everyone has to get the items themselves.

Hi, I am anticipating the day when I get a better suited computer so that I can make/run my own server... I am trying to learn as much as I can... or at least as much is required to successfully run a server, such as the code writing needed to make quests etc... I learn pretty quick. But I'm innovative and I want to find an online friend to teach me the works! Lol I know that sounds stupid but, I'd love to help so hopefully by the time you're ready I'll know more of the basics... and for anyone knowledgable that wants a new friend! I'm here, will take unknowledgable friends, too. hehe

I have a nice story for a server that I'd like to work on sometime later in life

[DeletedUser]

I'm currently working on an mmorpg/fps with some friends so this project is on hold a bit.

I don't plan on doing any work on it (dbwise) until I can get the zones done. I've been trying to get some done.. I got the battle field done, its huge, its got water, mountains, cliffs, etc.. only problem is that openzone hates me and I can't get it to work.

So until I can figure out how to learn OpenZone and get the 11 zones created, this project is on hold. :o

[JoeJack]

I think this is a very good idea...would try to help but I'm no computer expert though. But hope you can get it to work. I know I'll be playin w/ the PvP action heh heh

[Spedfist]

this sounds like once awesome idea, i may start workin with OpenZone and see what i can do, ill talk to you more if i can get something interesting working, may be up all night tonight workin on it just cause i get obsessed with things that involve building heh, im gonna work on of the castles first and try to get the zones done and then we can test it from there there and you could give me all the input or whatever, it sounds like a great idea, ive always wanted to have a LoTR-esque battle game, and this sounds like it could be that if theres a way to get it workin

[Windcatcher]

OpenZone doesn't hate you 8)

If you have questions about it, fire away. I'd be happy to walk you through any problems you're having.

WC

[Spedfist]

Windcatcher, im a nub with Openzone, can you give me a quick overview of how i would go about making a flat zone with a grass texture or something, just so i can figure out how to actually make a zone and mess with it, im pretty confused atm )

[Windcatcher]

Hmm... Flat ones are tough, since they aren't editable in the ground editor. You're better off using a heightmap.

Okay, quick tutorial: (for this tutorial you'll need my textures from ftp://ftp.eqemupvp.com. They're in a file called winds_textures.zip, and you should unpack the contents into your OpenZone\library\textures folder).


1. Pick a heightmap.

First off, what's a heightmap, you ask? A heightmap is a simple black-and-white bitmap that has ground height information for your zone. Darker areas are lower and lighter areas are higher up. You can use either .BMP files or .TGA (Targa) files as heightmaps, and they're the sort of thing you can create in any paint tool. Heightmaps are generally square, and I recommend using a heightmap that's 64x64 pixels in size. Anything larger generates a ton of polygons and consumes a lot of memory.

Hint: a great program for generating realistic heightmaps is called World Machine. It's freeware at the moment, and you can find it by typing in "World Machine" in any web search engine.

For this tutorial I want you to use rotated_output_64.tga, which comes with OpenZone.


2. Determine how big you want your zone to be.

What we normally do here is experiment. Basically, when you create a new zone, you have some parameters you can play with, such as north-south size, east-west size, and vertical extent. You also have position coordinates, which describe the position of the *center* of your zone.

North-south size is exactly that, in EQ coordinates: it's the difference between a /loc at the north edge and a /loc at the south edge. The same goes for east-west size.

Up-down extent is the same, but it's in the Z (height) direction: it's the difference between a /loc at the highest point and a /loc at the lowest point.

The idea here is, once you know what heightmap you want, you create a new zone at some parameters and see if you like it. If not, then recreate the zone with different parameters, until you're satisfied with the size.

For this tutorial, click "new zone" and do the following:

1. Make sure the "use heightmap" checkbox is checked.

2. Select "grass" as your ground texture, but don't pick an underwater texture.

3. Leave the zone position coordinates (in the bottom left) all set to zero. This means that a /loc at the exact center of your zone will give
0,0 for the x and y coordinates and a /loc at the midpoint height will also give 0 for the z coordinate.

4. Enter 4000 for both the north-south size and east-west size (making a square zone).

5. Enter 400 for the up-down size.

6. Click Ok.

7. You'll now get a file chooser dialog to pick the heightmap to use. Choose the rotated_output_64.tga heightmap.

You should now see a basic zone that's 4000x4000x400 in size. You will be looking down on it, initially looking WEST. I intend to change this in the future so you're looking north, since that's how the heightmap has to be constructed.


3. Determine where you want your water or lava areas.

Here, you also have to experiment when making a new zone. I'm assuming you know how to get to the dialog for adding water and lava areas. The idea here is to try different settings until you like what you see.

For this tutorial, make just one water area. Set both the south and east coordinates at -2500, and set the size at 5000x5000. Set the water level at -60.


4. Recreate the zone with your water settings, but give it an underwater texture.

You've created a zone and set your water areas up, but the underwater textures are still "grass", and that doesn't make sense. So, what we'll do is recreate the zone again, but this time with the water areas already set (OpenZone remembers them when you make a new zone). For this tutorial do the following:

1. Click "new zone".
2. Make sure the position and size settings are the same as earlier.
3. Select "grass" for the ground texture and "barren ground" for the underwater texture.
4. Click Ok and choose the same heightmap (rotated_output_64.tga).

The zone will be re-created, but this time the ground mesh will be split along all the waterlines and different textures will be assigned to underwater areas.

This would be a good time to save your work. You should now have a basic zone, and you can now add scripted object goodies like walls, roofs, tables, chairs, etc.

WC

The next version of OpenZone will include features for tweaking the ground elevation level. I've already started work on it...

[Spedfist]

when i create it all i see is that light blue color, cant see anything else, dont see the plane or anything, just a blank light blue screen in the view box

*edit* nm i was setting the 4000 and 400 for the wrong thing hehehe, got it workin now

[Hardy]

I thought I was done with EQ.....until I saw this post.
Good luck! I can't wait till its done!
*goes insane while looking for EQ CDs*

[DeletedUser]

Windcatcher, if you'd like to help make some zones.. you could join the team and show some examples of what the program is capable of. This thing is killing me, I have no skill in it. :P

[DeletedUser]

Doing some ahead planning..

Level 100 is going to be the max level.

Leveling will be pretty easy:
PvE = Less EXP then live.
PvP = More EXP then live.

Not a true statement though, cause it depends on level. Level 100 killing level 50 = 1/2 the exp he should have got out of that kill. 100/50=1/2, 50%. Thats pretty much how i'm going to do it I think, not sure though.

This will make it so level 100s wont want to gimp level 100s.. but level 50s will want to kill level 100s.. cause if they do, they will get 2 times the experience.

I feel this is the best way to balance it.

I think I might make a custom patcher and have it hosted secretly. >:P It's going to have a hex editted client and files NEEDED to play, that way you can get the custom class names... if I really want to spend time doing this, maybe even custom monsters. You'll get the zone files this way too.

I'm gonna see if I can make it so you can get a new title every 10 levels.

I'll be researching AA titles.. this way you can get AA titles from doing the "big" quests.

I'll be turning AA skills off. /disc will only get in if it gets created.

ALL items will be custom, no item you'll find from EQlive will be on this server. Due to this fact.. all EQlive spells that have summons will be taken out. (You will be able to get the spell file via patcher).



As you can see, this idea will take A LOT of work.. I am not going to start any of it till I get the zones created.. so don't plan on seeing this created unless I can somehow get these zones created.

[Hardy]

My next check will be all going towards a new computer, if you need help by then, I would love to help :D

I don't know any programming languages.....yet, but I have created items and some of the other database work. Ton of the major stuff got lost with doing other projects :evil:

[DeletedUser]

Yeah, I don't think it'll need too many programmers, maybe 1 or 2 to add some modifications.

The main thing we need is the land.. after we get the land we are going to need some people who can add npcs.. but they'll need to add pathing.. make sure its balanced.. make sure it keeps to PvP enviroment but have a taste of PvE.

Then it'll need new spells, that takes some testing.. I really wanna do the spells and new items cause this will add a taste of how eq was when it was released, no one knew what anything did, or what the best items are.

[DeletedUser]

resurrected


irc.freenode.net
#aow

If you wish to help.

[Veragoan]

Hows it comming along? Sounds very interesting. You need a webpage of some sort for this :p

[JohnRev]

Sounds very good