Cabal Wars - Aeons Tide - Main Discussion Topic

[Alkalund]

And here we have a new mod project by Joel:

Cabal Wars - Aeons Tide

Joel, please step inside and give us a list of features man

[MikeTheGreat]

Joel, sorry about what happened to the files man...too bad, I knew it was going to be a badass mod. Anyways, I wish you luck with your new mod. I'm planning to sign up for beta testing when the time comes.

I know it'll be awesome.

[Joel]

Hi guys !

First good to see I'm not left away

Now some good good news.
By making incantations to the lesser Evils of Mor-Go-Ky ... heu by using a data recovery programm, I've rebuild 25% of what CW was. What I miss is dcc conversion (but they're all on the keep so ...) and some dc6 for inventory and stuff.

However, I retrieve all my little notes. Inside lies the ideas I never had the time to implement. I'll restart not from scratch but from a safe and clean modding environnement. As the new patch is reluctant to come out, I'll postpone a bit the release. In fact, I'll concentrate on gameplay features ( recipes, monsters appearance, level disposition) and wiat for doing all the skill editing.

I'll also take a new route for getting closer to my background. In Anatolia MUD, the Hunter is supposed to be a feline lookingguy an th einvader is supposed to be a woman ... So as I've set invader as druid and hunter as assasin, some sexual glitches was on sight

I've taken my 'courage' with both hand and look to what Brother laz mastered : player character animation replacement. And I must said I was quite succesful :

Here the new look of the Shalafi (former sorceress ) :

on selection screen : http://iceman.maxcom.nl/Joel/Transfert/ ... hot003.gif

in game : http://iceman.maxcom.nl/Joel/Transfert/ ... hot004.gif

Quite good as i fell now. More will come, The Invader will be turned into a cloaked people, the Battlerager will look like Dakkon in PS:T ...

Act I was entirely revamped. I'll post a map of it asap along with some new maps screenshots.

About items, the CW principes of Normal/Improved/Enhanced item will stay in. I'll try to introduce a new stage in thsi upgrade as Legendary Item that are even mor epowerful than Enhanced items ... I'll try however.
Uniques items are direct ransfugees from CW along with sets. Unfortunatel, I only recover a very old version of it (only 3 sets ).

For starters, I'll surely release a pre-beta stuff as soon as Three Cabal get revamped. The skill will be the LoD classic ones but all the Act I and Act II will be redone n term of gameplay. Just to let you have a quick sight.

See You soon all

[Joel]

OK boys' i've rebuild the skill layout of the shalafi, invader and chaos.

For whom have test the CW v1.01, do you have skills idea for the DeathTalker chaos variant ?
Currently he's the wekest of the three subclass, but I can't get enough idea for him.

The deathtalker is able to focus the recent death energy and use it for him. I plan to give him alot of corpse-related skill or upon-death bonus.

Undead Mastery : Increase the knowledge of the deathTalker about the 'Other World'.

Grant a passive bonus of :

+ 15% damage vs Undead per slvl
+ 2.5 mana after each kill per slvl
+ 15% life for Raised Undead per slvl
+ 15% ED for Raised Undead per slvl

Raise Undead : Mastering the death is also a painful accomplishment that lead to imprisonate the last sigth of a death into its own corpse.

Raise dead monster to gifht by your side.


if people get idea on this theme ...

[Alkalund]

The Ghoul Queen Acaste was a perfect choice for the Shalafi I must say

I'm glad you could recover at least a part of your work, thankfully we have data recovery softwares today. Oh , and this Undead Mastery skill looks awesome

[Joel]

eheh it as the ghoul queen .... glad to learn it.
I only rip PS:T, i'venot play it much ...

OK, i'll post some gif of the other cabal replacement.

I've recovered my wavs and my levels.txt and some ds1.


For the shalafi, soem humour notes like "the shalafi novice learn magic all the days. Their times is devoted t arcana, laying away all mortal convenience like bathing and hair cutting ..."

[Joel]

Some preview :

The Battlerager : http://iceman.maxcom.nl/Joel/Transfert/battlerager.gif
The Hunter : http://iceman.maxcom.nl/Joel/Transfert/hunter.gif
The Chaos : http://iceman.maxcom.nl/Joel/Transfert/chaos.gif
The Invader (normal form ) : http://iceman.maxcom.nl/Joel/Transfert/invader1.gif
The Invader (vampiric form ) : http://iceman.maxcom.nl/Joel/Transfert/invader3.gif
The Invader (shadow form ) : http://iceman.maxcom.nl/Joel/Transfert/invader2.gif

I've no idea of which anim to use for the Lionheart (shaman/bard woman) and the Knight (paladin/cleric stuff).
If someone know what i could use ...

[Alkalund]

Excellent choices Joel
That planescape shadow you used for the vampiric form of the Invader is one of my favourite planescape animations

As for the Lionheart, I'm not sure which animation you could use; I believe you saw already, Icewind Dale II is out maybe you could get some animations from there

[MikeTheGreat]

Looks awesome, Joel. This mod is gonna ROCK!

[Matryx]

yes this mod looks really good cant wait till its out

[Joel]

Some news :

I've restarted skill building. I kept the subclass ideas since it seems people enjoyed it.

Shalafi - Abjurator :

"We change our minds and the body fits ..."
- Nihja Kolaris, High Member of the Abjurator School.

The abjurator was once the weakest School of the Shalafi Mage Order.
Before the Cataclysm, only a few of them have a chance to enter the Inner Circle of the Shalafi Leaders.
When the Catacylsm strike, their unorthodox methods of magic usage seem to be more and more efficient.

A Abjurator use magic to modify her own body. Not only it could change its appearance but it could also make him grow claws, fangs or strenghten muscles. Beside their mental and magical training, the Abjurator learn how to master some weapons. War staffs and Gheilin Sword are their favorites.

Abjurator Skills :

1) Forgery :
When caught in a unwanted battle, the Abjurator use magic to craft a powerful magic enchanted balde form thin air.

Provide an bonus to AR and add magical & physical damage to the attack.

2) Tenser's Transform
By remodeling its body, The Abjurator could strengthen its muscle, giving her the ability to battle as a warrior of the same lvl.

AURA - Provide STR, AR , DMG and IAS bonus to the caster.

3) Disguise Self
The first trick young Abjurator learn is to change her appearance.
The most comon way is to frighten foes by revealing himself as a big bad dragon ...

Modify your appearance to be the one of a dragon. Thus scaring the monsters away ...

Shalafi - Elementalist :

"The earth is a mother, the fire is a father ..."
- First verses of the Elementalist Mantra.

The oldest school of Shalfi magi use the elemental forces in the universe
to perform their tasks. Long ago, this school was splitted into 5 sub school, each devotd to a particular element.

When the Cataclysm arrive, they meld into one and unique stronger school.

The Elmentalist craft the air, fire, earth, water and aether that lies therein to produce magical effect.

Elementalist Skills :

1) Elemental Resistance :
By working with high elemental energy, The Elemtalist starts to be protected against them.

PASSIVE - Grants 3.5% of fire/ltng/cold resistance per slvl.

2) Ligthning Arrow :
The first and basic spell each elementalist learn. it delivers a strand of lightning that shoots forth the enemies.

Create a lightning enchanted missiles that pierce enemies.

3) Scourge :
Also called the Elemental Plague. This powerful spell release a huge
massive elemental energy stream that delivers massive damage onto an area.

A big bad multi-elemntal missiles that deals fire/cold/ltng damages.

Shalafi - Conjurator :

"Magis is everything, magic is everywhere"
- Linna Jikoras, Leader of the Conjurator School.

Well, the most orthodow school of the Shalfi Cabal is the Conjurator.
Based on the use of pur emagic enery, their skills rely on it to produce
every effects they could need.

Most of the cataclysm Shalafi heroes was potent Conjurator

Conjurator Skills :

1) Color Spray :
A rainbow colored spray of magic is delivered to your foes

A big massive magic damage inferno like spell.

2) Mental Knife :
Conjurator blend magic to their hand and produce a etheral blades that strike any one deep in its heart and mind.

A mental 'ignore-AC' fist attack.

3) Magic Mastery
After years of practising, the Conjurator know how to make their spell more powerful ...

PASSIVE - Reduce drastically the magic resistance of monsters.

[Nyarla]

Wow, this mod should be awesome... I see that you use some AD&D name's... Good job. BTW, here is one or two ideas... mainly for your Chaos : is there a way to create a skill that, like the barbarian skill, would allow you to find treasure, but with a different name, like 'talk to dead' or something like this?
Other thing : creating another type of pseudo-elemental skill, named 'power of shadows', or 'spirits' that'd be a powerful spell casting attack, using all elemental attacks...

For the animations you're looking for, Maybe some from BG 2 ? The winged elf (don't remember the name), or a female drow...

Well, hope this help... 'Bonne chance' to this mod...

[mrelfire]

Are you going to do a -direct mode ?

[Har'lea'quinn]

The mod sounds great Joel. I am really looking forward to this one. Also, very good choices on the PT anims

[Joel]

Are you going to do a -direct mode ?

Nope. Pure mpq. Probably with a auto-installer and patch system inluded.

BTW, here is one or two ideas... mainly for your Chaos : is there a way to create a skill that, like the barbarian skill, would allow you to find treasure, but with a different name, like 'talk to dead' or something like this?
Other thing : creating another type of pseudo-elemental skill, named 'power of shadows', or 'spirits' that'd be a powerful spell casting attack, using all elemental attacks..

The "Talk to Death" is a good one, i'll see what i can dig out of it. For the 'spirit" attack, Some are already seeking for adding additional elemetal damage types. It seems harder than that so ...
'Et surtout merci Nyarla '

For the winged elf, it'a acharacter in BG2 I think ...
I'll try to dig it out but the main problem is that these anims are weirdly colored ....

[Nyarla]

Well, everything is OK Joel.

I made a little brainstorming for my mod, and I found some things that might be interesting. But all won't be in my work, and I think that a little 'partage' is nice. So here are the ideas 'en vrac' :

Skills for the Chaos :
Bone/Mask/Claw of Eternity : an attack that make monsters no heal.
Soul of Dead : A skill that refill the mana.
Invoke Cerberus : Well, instead of creating a golem, the Chaos could invoke the famous guardian dog. (I saw such an animation in Teknokyo's Ancestral Recall).

An idea for a class specific armor, using the bone armor image I found in the keep :
Normal ----- Bone Cage or something like this.
Uber--------- Damned armor
Elite---------- Graveyard armor (or something more beautiful than armor)

and now a set item

Name : (some are in French, 'cause I don't know the translation )
Hades Doors
Persephone Cell (Bone Armor)
Cerberus Cord (belt, anyone u want)
Obole à Charon (amu)
Styx Guard (Shield)
Fury of Tartare (Wand or Weapon)
Douceur Elyséenne (Helm/Crown/Circlet)

So, hope this help, and if you want some others ideas, just ask !

[Joel]

Thanks again Nyarla !! i'll surely keep some of these.

I was thinking on such Invoke Cerberus (i already got a PS:T anim for it) ... maybe The Summoner will lose some skills and the Death Speaker gain some ...

The chaos will surely be all rebuildt from scratch ...
As the summoner doesn't fit the theme anyore ...

[Nyarla]

No problem... Just ask and I'll try to find... Well, in fact, I enjoy your project, so, I try to help...

I was surfing on the net, and I looked for the name of the NPC's in BG II for your animations. The Drow name is Viconia. The winged elf is Aerie (in the french version). Now, if my memory is good, Aerie is indeed a winged elf (named Avariel in AD&D), but the animation don't really show the wings... Anyway, you can find her near the circus, after escaping from the jail...

Hasta la Vista...

[Alkalund]

I was surfing on the net, and I looked for the name of the NPC's in BG II for your animations. The Drow name is Viconia. The winged elf is Aerie (in the french version). Now, if my memory is good, Aerie is indeed a winged elf (named Avariel in AD&D), but the animation don't really show the wings... Anyway, you can find her near the circus, after escaping from the jail...

Indeed, the character name is Aerie. She is an Avariel (the winged elves in AD&D, as you mentioned). The reasons the wings are not showing is because she had her wings removed when she was younger... a long story

[Nyarla]

Yes you're right, but I didn't read carefully her story. It makes me thinking to another game : Breath of Fire 2, where a winged princess called Nina has to deal with problem with black wings...

Well, I try to find good anims, but it's seems to be difficult. BTW, If you want, I can give you some set name or items, and some others ideas

[Joel]

Thanks all

Yesterday i've begun the Hunter animations, and I think she looks good :

http://iceman.maxcom.nl/Joel/Transfert/hunter.jpg
http://iceman.maxcom.nl/Joel/Transfert/ ... halafi.jpg

I've also begun to play with some old spell anims I've extracted form IWD and BG II.

The Web Spell :

http://iceman.maxcom.nl/Joel/Transfert/webeffect.jpg

Steel no idea for Lionheart/Knight ...
I've lurked into the Teambg site in order to find a fix for the palette stuff but ... nope

[Nyarla]

YES ! I enjoy your hunter !!. Keep working on this way !!
BTW, if I find something for your Lionheart/Knight, I'll told you...

Will there be a way to test your mod ? I'll be pleased to test it and to help you in your project

[Phrozen Heart]

With Joel in the process of getting his his new hosting set up at Planet Diablo, I've created a new CW forum which will be opened as soon as the new site is ready (or maybe a little before that if Joel prefers). Once it's set up, I'll just drop this thread straight into the new forum

[Alkalund]

Uh Phrozen, just a little correction... the mod is called Cabal Wars - Aeons Tide, and not Cable Wars Lol that was funny, Cables fighting for their lives

[Phrozen Heart]

Oops, off to fix it now.