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Eldan's picture
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Welcome aboard!

Well, hello.

What I don't have:
-Programming skills
-The ability to write or create music
-Any graphical abilities

What I have:
-Lots of time

So, well... tell me when there's anything around that doesn't need any skills. Like, testing or something

Rabenaas's picture
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Reporting for duty. Smiling

Zeniel's picture
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Ok Eldan, in that case. If you have lots of time on your hands. I want you to scour the net and or grab a camera and start photgraphing various walls, floors and patterns that will become the texturing of Sigil. Please note the must haves for what we're looking for and forward em to Rabenaas. Then I make you in charge of quality assurance when it come to that.

lsdfjkdsf's picture
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It begins!

I might be able to help out a bit on programming. Maybe. Possibly. Once we decide what game engine we're using, I'll be able to tell you whether what I can do (I'm good with some programing languages, horrible at others). If I can't help program, I'll help in some other way, but again I'll be able to say more definitivly once we choose a game engine (which we should probably do in the near future).

By the way, nice speech. Very motivational.

Eldan's picture
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Can do. I'll start tomorrow. I think I might have some nice stone textures in my cellar.

Zeniel's picture
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Ok lsdfjksf, once Rabdenaas has found and obtained for us an engine to use I want you to assist him in any way you can with setting it up and of course work on programming it. In the mean time how are you with web design? We could use an alternate website for the purposes of advertising and actually hosting the game itself.

Clueless I've taken a gander at what GRsites has to offer.
I'll list the ones I thought looked good in the graphics section. Feel free to criticize or add to the current list. Just remember we'll need a lot of textures and what we have at that site is fairly large and can also be widened by the fact that you can change a textures colour.

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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
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This might be another good place to look: [url]http://www.grsites.com/textures/
[/url]
You can change the dominant coloration of any pattern on the site, also does buttons etc. for HUD displays.

Zeniel's picture
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Alright I just recruited my mate to the project. He can help with the concept sketches and can also do 3d animation and even a little bit o' programming. Problem is hes a clueless to the max. Never heard o' planescape So I'm forwarding him to the PSCS info and strongly recommended he finds and play PS:T. He does this stuff for kicks. We're in good hands. I've seen his work, I'd trust my life to his concept sketches.

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I'll certainly help, but for now at least, my biggest issue is time, since I am in university and have very little to spare between my classes, my labs, and rugby. That said, if there is anything that I can do to help that isn't massively time intesive, please let me know. I don't have much in the way of computer program or graphics skills, although I am self-teaching myself how to use Blender, so I can do that somewhere down the road.

Drake

Tarhad's picture
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Hello,

OK, I'm new to planewalker.com, but I find the idea of a Planescape MMORPG intriguing. So I'd like to jump on the bandwagon.
Applicable skills include:
- Some programming skills (C/C++, CPython + some other dynamic languages)
- Willingness to learn Groovy and Java

Of course I would be willing to help out in other ways. The only constraint is that I am gainfully employed and probably can't allocate more than 1 hour per day for the project. So Zeniel, find me a place to fit in.

Tarhad

Tarhad's picture
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Hello,

Shame on me for posting this twice. The server was a bit slow and I was impatient.

Still...

Any suggestions what I can do to elevate my 'clueless' status Smiling

Tarhad

Zeniel's picture
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Ahh to be clueless again. Tarhad, I know I can't ask of you anymore than you can spare so I apreciate that you are willing to dedicate the time you have and your a programmer so I couldn't be more thrilled to have you aboard. Jump into the nuts and bolts thread and look at what Rabenaas has got for us and get a feel for the engine and what not. Work with him to get the chugging.

Welcome Flame Drake. If you've got no tech skills whats your creativity like and also do you have any web designing capabilities? We need a website and we need one soon if we're ever gonna get this thing made before time has addled our senses.

I'd also like to announce that I've contacted a mate of mine, whos a musician and asked him if he'd like to compose some ambient background music for the game. He is more than willing too. I've sent him the motivation, we'll have it as soon as we can. Now, whos good a foley?(sound effects?)

Flame_Drake's picture
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I'm afraid not, most of my skills that would be applicable extend to google foo, research, photography and biology.

Drake

Zeniel's picture
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Ok then flame drake. Find us all the must have info you can obtain on the lower ward and post it in the apropriate thread. The use your photography skills to grab a few unique textures. Then use your knowledge of biological science to clone us a few more abled recruits.

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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
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Zeniel - if nothing pops up soonish- re: website. Don't forget the possibility of using a wordpress install with template as a basic hold-over till you get a better site. (And obviously you've got the forums here as a central point as well)

Rabenaas's picture
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'Flame_Drake' wrote:
most of my skills that would be applicable extend to google foo, research, photography and biology.
Hi FlameDrake, what do you know about behavioural models and alife? You might review the different possibilities to make the NPCs behave more natural and intelligent, since the intelligence of NPCs often decides on whether a game is worth playing or not.

Iavas's picture
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Joined: 2006-07-12
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The memetic toolkit used in NWN seemed to have great promise for realistic NPC behavior. I'm no programmer, but could something similar be done for this project?

Full-Metal-Reaper's picture
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Hello!

Hello guys

Ahhh yeah I'm a Games Design Student doing my final year. Um I'm a pretty good concept drawer and not bad 3d modeler in 3dsmax learning Z-brush and if i have to I'll learn Maya depends on the engine you guys are using so yeah tell me whats to be done, I'm Dyslexic so bare with my slow-nes and horror bull spelling and pore grammar.

by the way Zeniel I hope that's me your talking about. (ego rising)

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Joined: 2007-04-16
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We're using 3ds since Blender can import .max files, so people who don't have 3ds can use the free stuff instead, which gives us more people on modeling. As far as the engine goes, I'm not sure what file format we'll need.

Also, I need to know what exactly I need to do modeling-wise right now, I'm not clear on my current role.

Zeniel's picture
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You know it Full Metal Reaper! Welcome to the project. Ok Rabenaas I need to give me a report about what we've got to use. We should first begin designing the basic characters you can be. I say its the base races and we'll work from their in patches.

So we need human, elf, dwarf, half-elf, gnome, halfling, half-orc, I think thats all of em, and any sub-raves of those, including tieflings and aasimars and genasi of course. Or do you think that we should include the plane "touched" races in the patches?

Rabenaas's picture
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'weishan' wrote:
Also, I need to know what exactly I need to do modeling-wise right now, I'm not clear on my current role.
In the current stage of the project we will model characters in 3d, make them move, and then cut it down (render it, I mean) to 2d again, just like they did in PS:T. The player races should be modelled in MakeHuman, at least in principle, and then imported & post-processed in whatever you like. The workflow I have in mind will be thus:

[ink&paper -> concept art]
=> [MakeHuman -> person.dae (Collada file format)]
=> [3DMax|Blender -> person_walk01.png (Sprite)]
=> [Photoshop|Gimp -> walk01.png (even nicer)]
=> [our program (using lwjgl) -> screen]

In a later stage we might make our program 3d (using jME or whatever) and reuse the models and so forth, but I think that starting in 2d will speed up the production of an actually playable game.

Further questions might be discussed in detail in the Graphics and Nuts and Bolts threads.

Kal
Kal's picture
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Reporting in :mrgreen:

Not loads on the technical side of things - but can do world building once a tool is created - plus questing narratives etc and .... well....general MMO design concepts

Zeniel, I've sent you a pm about some material, say whether you want it or not Smiling

Kal

Zeniel's picture
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Kal seeing as you know the cold dark alleys of MMO design I want you to help us come up with a game mechanic that will actually work the way we want it too. I know it won't be easy but I'm sure we can do it!

4ugeistr's picture
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Hail, mighty!

About a week ago a dream formed in my mind: someday I would do something to make the Planscape online project born!
then I stumble across this thread and realize once again that belief makes the world spin faster =)

I'd love to be in the project. That would be a vast experience!
And, by the nine hells, there are so many people walking down the streets that don't have a clue about the world around them and need to be intoduced to the real state of things;)

Can do programming (C/C++, Java). I'm a fast learner and eager to learn anything else needed.
Could try writing, although it's not my strongest part.
Can't say I'm thoroughly acquainted with the setting, having bet PS:T several times and read player's/DM's guide to the plaines only, but have allmost entire PS-related library at my disposal.

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Joined: 2008-06-30
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Check this thread then - it's where the codeing work is going on. We're recovering from a recent change in hosting so if folks are a little quiet it's because they're still coming back to us.

/forumtID=44007

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morning all! i lost internet for awhile (a long while), and what do i come back to, but a project after my own heart.

so zeniel, you can put my name down as another pair of hands.

i am confused about where the project stands at the moment. most of what i saw posted was from february, and its all a lot of info to digest. what game engine are we using (and why wasnt NWN even considered as most of the hardest work was done already)? are we making everything basically from scratch? has anyone heard more about the intellectual properties end with WotC?

unfortunately i dont think my skills will be of much use at the moment. i have a bunch of graphic programs, but dont know how to use any of them. ive learned the basics of coding, but not enough to be of any help. writing, concepts, and in-game stuff would be my areas. i might be able to work on textures and stuff also. ive not worked on a (graphical) game before, so i might need my hand held a bit to start with.

but i do know, and love, planescape well. and what skills i do have i will gladly lend; ive wanted to see an online planescape game for years. i was just about to start throwing together a PS MUD again when i stumbled on this.

so where do i start?

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oh! so so im gonna start throwing stuff out there already. this is all learned as the result of trying to start a totally different real-life project.

first, progress reports. at least monthly. easily findable. a list of both what has been done last month, and what needs to be done next month. and being vague about either of those doesnt help.

second, real time communication. there should be a central list of the people involved and their program handles. a IRC chatroom would work as well.

third, meetings. this goes along with real time communication. in my project we had them every month, and that helped immensely. for this i would suggest a more frequent basis, as there is more to do. maybe once every other week. even if everyone cant be there, it will help push things forward, and keep momentum going.

Kal
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I havent seen Zeniel around for a while, and I think the project has been put on hold while the high ups find out where we stand in regards to using IP....

Kal

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figured that might be the case. though i really dont think a free game would infringe copyright... but its all stupidly complicated. i believe the combine elements of a) the game being free, b)WotC open sourcing their game mechanics, c) planescape not being a supported setting, and d) them having signed over official use (or however they termed it) to planewalker; result in it not being infringement.

i would say work should continue, and if IP becomes an issue fix the problem then.

i wonder if WotC would even consider just selling the trademark. or if PS:Torment could be used as the platform/engine, cause then it would just be a mod and completely different.

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Im not so optimistic about that because I doubt it is really possible to make a game like this free...who would run the server(s)? Who would take the timeintensive care of the game? And so on...I'd really love to see that game done bit after thinking about it a while I unfortunateley don't much chances for it...

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I hope you are right...well we'll see what happens...I also have sent a PN to Zeniel that I'd like to make the soundtrack bit didn't get a reply yet.

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'therisenevil' wrote:
Im not so optimistic about that because I doubt it is really possible to make a game like this free...who would run the server(s)? Who would take the timeintensive care of the game? And so on...I'd really love to see that game done bit after thinking about it a while I unfortunateley don't much chances for it...

the same people that are willing to put time into making it happen... i.e. you and me. you may be misunderstanding the word 'free'. it wont be free to run, it will cost money in server fees, maintenance, upgrades, etc. it will be 'free' because we wont/cant charge for it. and because these resources are going to be limited (bandwidth, server power, etc.), it will by necessity be much smaller then your average MMO (which i hate calling this, its not/cant be). and by smaller i mean both in size and user-base. i doubt anyone here is gonna pony up a server-farm to enable us to host 10k players at one time.

which is the other reason i dont see a problem with the IP. RP games are designed for people to use to play with their friends. thats all this is gonna be (though the term 'friends' may be stretched a bit). even if we are using a slightly more elaborate method to play as a group. as long as proper acknowledgments and credits are given, i dont see it being a problem. its still a personal use, that no one is benefiting monetarily from. even the D20 system is open for use now, so thats fair game (i think, is it different with a computer game do you think?).

i dont see any reason why a game of this sort couldnt happen. even if we hear back from WotC, there still will be other possibilities. at the worst we could build a MUD, though i know that is pretty far down on most people's list. it would still be a large scale planescape game online that we could play on! so if you want to see it happen, keep working to make it happen, and see where it ends up.

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'Casvenx' wrote:
i believe the combine elements of a) the game being free, b)WotC open sourcing their game mechanics, c) planescape not being a supported setting, and d) them having signed over official use (or however they termed it) to planewalker; result in it not being infringement.
The OGL explicitly excludes utilization in computer games. WOTC says in a FAQ, that a) D20 has already been licensed exclusively to big computer companies and b) they don’t want to be bothered by do-it-yourselfers to make an exception.

The solution would be to use our own house rules (many propositions have been made) along with the PS material. But the question is whether WOTC thinks of that as a solution, too.
(Yet there are some free MUDs for the abandoned settings, which seem to be ignored by WOTC.)

'therisenevil' wrote:
Who would take the timeintensive care of the game? And so on...
There are many examples for free MMORPGs, e.g. http://www.planeshift.it/

Planescape, Dungeons & Dragons, their logos, Wizards of the Coast, and the Wizards of the Coast logo are ©2008, Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc. and used with permission.