Nov. 20, 2011: Weapon Upgrade (FINISHED!)

Never really was ... this is my sad face

Eric of Atrophy wrote:Never really was ... this is my sad face

This post is screaming for a previous quote, as it now tops the next page. I had no notion of what was making you sad.

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:They look pretty much the same, just with
smoother curves and nicer textures. There's really not much for variety
when it comes to a kukri.

Eric of Atrophy wrote:Never really was ... this is my sad face

There ya go.

When talking variety, I was referring more to all the pictures of kukris on the web that I found. The only real difference seemed to be the size of the weapon...everything else was almost always the same.

Elhanan wrote:

Eric of Atrophy wrote:Never really was ... this is my sad face

This post is screaming for a previous quote, as it now tops the next page. I had no notion of what was making you sad.

You don't wanna know what makes me sad ...

Finally getting some time to myself (for a couple hours anyway), plus had the urge to make some progress on this project, so today I got my prototypes done for scimitars and got the first one done for longswords. The longsword alone took almost two hours...I know a ton of people use the things, and there are lots of photos of the real thing out there.

The shots below show the longsword during an in-game test. Yes, it's a little thinner than the default one, and yes, the cross-guard is not as hefty (did you know that all the default NWN longsword crossguards have an identical, big ugly grey chunk in the middle?). And yes, that is an actual fuller down the middle of the blade.

The sword actually looks a little longer now that it isn't so "chunky".

I like it! ...and I have never been a fan of the bioware crossguards, so those won't be missed at all!

Working, working, working, on swords. I now have all except the bastard swords prototyped (the base models made, ready to be split up into top, middle, and bottom pieces and given different colors). Late last night I started on the last greatsword, finally finished this afternoon and had to test it in-game.

I based the fourth greatsword appearances more on the default inventory icons than the models. The icon looks like the sword has dragon wings on the guard, while the model doesn't.

So...which would you rather kill stuff with?

Dunno which I would use predominately, but can really see the latter look being used by Veleron's troops. Great look for vampiric foes!

Those bat/dragon wings looks awesome !
For some reason though I think they look "upside down", like they should curl upwards and around the blade rather then out from the blade... does that make sense ?

Really loving this project by ...

I had to screenshot that particular sword model, since I am more than pleased with that one. Glad everyone seems to like it so far. Just wait until I get to some Aenea-specific metal colors for that one...the wing supports and skin may end up with different shades in some cases. I'm thinking perhaps red with copper "skin" between, or gold with silver. Steel with silver between looks nice, too.

RustyDios wrote:...For some reason though I think they look "upside down", like they should curl upwards and around the blade rather then out from the blade... does that make sense ?...

Not to me, RustyDios. I tend to imagine dragons flying into battle (toward the enemy/blade end) rather than away from it (away from the enemy/blade end). Plus, the wings are the main part of the crossguard.

Just wait 'til your paladins and winged peeps get hold of the upgraded longswords with the feathered wings crossguard.

*Ray waits patiently for bastard swords to get a slice of this loving treatment*

That would look swweeeet on his nasty lil blade!

RayvenNightkind wrote:*Ray waits patiently for bastard swords to get a slice of this loving treatment*

Oh, yes, please! Dragon wings on a bastard sword for Lord Kastian ! For him, red wings with a gold hilt.

Yeah the wings one looks awesome too.. might even switch Wanda's Warblade to that !....

... For some reason that one looks right, so I took the dragon/bat wings image and turned it 90deg .. and it looks fine from that angle too........ took the winged image turned it upright, strikes me as looking odd, with the wings in the wrong direction ?!? ............

Have I mentioned before on the forums that I think I'm going mad ?

Model work (almost) done. Got a couple of colors missing that I have to go back in and add on a couple of bastard sword parts. I'm now working on taking the hundreds of toolset screenshots to turn into all of the inventory icons I'll be needing for this group.

The shot above is the basic styles/colors of each of the six weapon types I'm working on.

The two-bladed swords have been slimmed down and lengthened. Their blades are now as long as that of a longsword. There will also be more than three styles.

The katanas have also been lengthened to the same length as a longsword, and their hilts/grips are no longer curved.

Those curved swords look terrific! Curved! Swords! *

*Skyrim ref

So these changes, will they affect already existing blades? For example, Sta'stillen and a few other PCs have katanas, and I really like the way they look ... will these be impacted by the project?

Existing blades, if they currently use the default NWN models, will automatically get updated.

For katanas, the most obvious change will be the length (going from basically short sword length to longsword length). The guards on them (tsubo? tsuba? something like that) are also updated (they look more round than hexagonal, and are no longer just flat).

If you existing katanas use CEP appearances, they will not change, since I'm (in most cases) not overwriting those.

The only CEP weapon appearances that are getting overwritten are those in the default weapon part numbers, with color numbers 5 or higher. I know CEP had started putting a few weapon appearances there, but most of them look more like badly extruded copies made from flat photographs.

A few such CEP weapon appearances are going to be renumbered. I can think of a dagger, a shortsword, and a kama right off-hand. I had a list, but accidentally deleted it so I'll have to go through them again. If you've got a weapon with such an appearance (particularly if it's a custom one or one with added properties), I'll make arrangements to do an update/swap for you.

Finally finished with all of the inventory icons for the remade heavy blades.

Now I need to copy and rename/renumber a few of the older CEP weapon parts that I know I've overridden with my work. The swords of the orc destroyers come to mind. Mostly ones from the "default" part numbers with "colors" 5 to 9.

After that, I go into the toolset to update the appearances of weapons that will have part numbers change (such as the soulfire warrior swords). At the same time I'll put out a hak update with the new files.

As far as hak updates, it looks like I'm going to have to split out the aeneahak_x.hak file (which has the reforged weapons) from the "updates" download, since it's getting too big to fit under the 25 MB "easy upload" limit when bundled with the aeneahak_updates.hak file.

Once I'm done with all of the reforged weapons, I'll likely put out one more update for existing players, then put all of the changes into a new version of the PLAYERPACK giant download. I'm still trying to keep the download list as easy to use as possible. I'll probably do this about the same time as I start adding Project Q to the hak list.

Once I get this latest group out for Project Reforged, I'll have 2 of 8 groups left to do: "unusual weapons" (such as kamas and sickles) and "ranged weapons" (such as crossbows, shortbows, and shuriken).

You are one busy D, amirite?

Seriously, these look fantabulous! Thanks for all yer hard work, !

These weapons look real nice.

Here we see the great things that can happen when somebody does a task for the love of just doing it.
Because you must surely love playing around to see what can be done

And yes, what is supplied is without a doubt great
well done on some cool looking weapons

Part 7 of 8 of this project is under way. I'm done with models for kamas, sickles, and darts. Shuriken are last but will be easy (they'll be based partly on my Improved Shuriken hak).

Working on the whip right now. Big pain in the tuchus. But at least we'll be getting more colors than just black.



Aenea will also be getting more dyed colors:

The earthtones are quite good; nicely detailed!

Lovely. I used to play an elven character which dual-wielded a whip as off-hand weapon (the main weapon being either a longsword, kukri or short sword--depending on which enemy she was facing), unsure if that's possible on Aenea, but if it is...
I'm thinking of the possible of bringing her to Aenea.

Whips can be off-hand weapons here.

Nice!

Very nice to hear!

Once I get inventory icons made, the next batch of reforged weapons will make it into the Aenea haks. Here's a bit of a preview.

Lookin' real good!

Really like the shape of those sickles, looks like proper ones and not like those silly-looking bioware ones. (Always been a bit of a pet-peeve of mine, since I enjoy playing druids... )

Incredible! Once again, a testament to 's NwN creative genius! I tell ya, with this level of custom content going on, why would I wanna go anywhere else to play?

I find it amusing now to log in, check out a weapon shop, and see the still-unchanged weapons that now stand out like a sore thumb (basically just bows, crossbows, and slings).

Yep .. Project reforged has come a long way.. I remember the "early" days when that sentence was the over-way-around...

I think has surpassed even some of his most dedicated admirer's expectations with the quality of this work. 10 stars from me, certainly.

No doubt, dave, no doubt! is truly one of the shining stars of the NwN CC community - if not teh brightest!

Thanks, everyone!

And now, just because you like the works that's been done...you get an in-game screenshot of the first model work done for the last part of Project Reforged.

It's a longbow. First try, and the thing is fully functional in my testing module, animations and all.

Neat!

My Arcane Archer'll be happy when she get her hands on that!

...but it will make for some very sorry orcs when she go and test it out too.

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:

The only CEP weapon appearances that are getting overwritten are those in the default weapon part numbers, with color numbers 5 or higher. I know CEP had started putting a few weapon appearances there, but most of them look more like badly extruded copies made from flat photographs.

A few such CEP weapon appearances are going to be renumbered. If you've got a weapon with such an appearance (particularly if it's a custom one or one with added properties), I'll make arrangements to do an update/swap for you.

So finally got a few minutes to play this lunchtime, and went to check and see if a certain lady had some gauntlets that had been requested... Anyway, Wanda's Warblade has been altered dramatically by project reforged... so had a quick check with my other blade wielding heroes ... Yep, both of Jays "Wraithblades" and Shouri's "Soulblade" have all been changed.... the first of my PCs to have been caught out by project reforged...

All the blades in question are custom token items, all have been modded extensively by the dwarf/crystals/BoM's....
I'll start digging through the toolset to find the correct appearance numbers for them....

Spoiler:

RustyDios wrote:

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:

Spoiler:

Haven't checked the latter two, but the first blade you mention in the spoiler, I can confirm has been changed by the reforge project (personally think it looks much nicer now than before).

RustyDios,

Next time we're in-game at the same time (or you catch another DM), we can get your swords fixed. I'm updating the module now, so we'll be able to pull a correct-appearance copy of your swords, clear them of all properties, then copy everything from your current swords to the updated ones.

Wanda's sword will have the same blade, but a different hilt. I've got a bone grip for it, but the guard and pommel will likely change. Can you take a look in the player build module and let me know which part/color combination we can use to fix it up?

I've finished the first, basic models for longbows and short bows now, so I'll be able to more quickly build the rest of the models. It helps to get all the positioning set up, all the animations lined up, and the new bowstrings skinmeshed.

I'm working on the basic light crossbow right now. This one is a lot more work. The stock is an irregular shape, things had to be lined up right, and my additions to the basic setup had to be made. I've still gotta add the new bow section to it, but that's the easiest part. After that I'll grab a screenshot.

I'm really pleased with this crossbow so far. I've slightly reshaped the string so that it looks right when it's being held in position by two small metal catches. Yup, adding details that weren't present on the originals. The catches actually rotate down for couple seconds when the crossbow is fired ("releasing the shot"). I've also adjusted the animation so that the crossbow is kept "ready to fire" between attacks, rather than the string pulling back and firing in 1/2 a second right when the thing is fired...by the end of the animation (which I extended in duration) it's recocked and ready to fire. Oh yeah, and I added a visible bolt to the top of the bow so that it looks like it's actually loaded between shots.

I'm going to make the same types of changes for the heavy crossbow when I get to it.

Then I'm going back and making all of the variations in models/textures.

*sigh* is so dreamy!

Preview of the light crossbow in action is on YouTube. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fh1OSHbMgc

I just watched the video ... that's absolutely amazing! Merchants better stock up on those babies, cuz I'm sure there's gonna be a run!

Absolutely incredible work, !

So the look, feel, and flow of the animation is greatly improved without impacting the speed of attacks in the combat round (for say, things like haste and rapid reload)?

Just tested this in-game with a fighter with three attacks per round and Rapid Reload.

With two attacks per round, the animations for both the PC and the crossbow all appeared normal.

If the character has more than two attacks per round with a crossbow, the game engine appears to just skip the reloading/attacking animation (just staying "loaded") for the 3rd and later attacks. The later attacks still happen, but neither the PC nor the crossbow show more than two crossbow attack animations each round.

Wow .. rapid reload is so fast that you don't even see the crossbow fire ....

I think we can live with that, right? It's about about a bajillion times better than what we currently have! Any chance, , that you could post a vid of the regular bows in action? I know you're busy and all, creating all this gooey goodness for us to play with, but a bow teaser would be really cool and really appreciated!

Crossbows work in progress picture. Just finished with the first heavy crossbow model a few minutes ago, so this shows a comparison of light to heavy in gmax.

Yup, making the heavy crossbows double-bowed to account for the extra damage they do, since in NWN they aren't any wider than light crossbows. The heavy ones also get some sort of mechanical assistance device for reloading (although that part won't be animated...it would look silly with the crank spinning rapidly around without the PC's hands on it).

Oooooh, nice! I can't waits to sees these ingame!

[Post edited by me to put content in proper thread.]

Eric of Atrophy wrote:Also, would it be useful to have a bug thread that details the particular weapons changed by Project Reforged? Like the magic bug list, just as a way to keep track of these things ...

Like, this one from back in March?