Co8 New Content: Hickory Branch

The orc cave and HB have been merged, essentially. They were both new content where you went off to fight orcs, and orc cave was probably not big enough to merit its own chapter, yet it was still significant enough to merit being removed from the standard version so as not to offend the purists' sensibilities, so ... the merger.

I think they go fairly well together with the existing modifications. And don't worry - ogre cave is still there as originally written by Troika.

Glad you're enjoying HB.

 

Thank you! :beer:

 

Thanks, but bear in mind that when I make these maps, I'm actually stealing existing assets from ToEE for the most part and recombining them in interesting ways. So the credit for good, high-quality textures that match the ToEE aesthetic still goes to Troika. Also, what you see is the high-res stuff. Nothing is scaled down.

That door would only lead to ... the other side of the door, basically. It's just a wall from a structure that was once there, and the door remains intact. Try walking behind the wall.

Hm, are you saying that the ripple dummies did not unconceal there? I wish we could find a way to keep them concealed no matter what happens, because they could then remain in their intended task of making ripples in the 'water,' such as it is, to help show that there is indeed water there. Surfaces that are intended to be liquid don't look fully convincing without some form of animation in ToEE. (Most use the various water animations - the Hommlet river, the various Moathouse pools, etc., but we can't customize those for re-use as far as I'm aware.)

That's a good idea. What should they cast? I think the orc shaman guy has Prayer, and the orc gal has Mirror Image.

Does anyone else think there should be more monsters, or is the balance effective as is? Adding more would go outside the bounds of krunch's original 'vision,' but I suppose it could be done. I don't think we'd want to make it too fat with monsters though, because at some point it becomes improbable that so many would be concentrated in a limited space and they just stack up on top of each other.

 

Wow, that would make Hungous quite the destroyer. :nervous:

I'll have a look, but one of the things that makes the spellcasters attractive as is is that they actually function. I think krunch just ripped off the shaman from the ogre shaman, because he has identical spells and AI and behaves identically. (Or maybe that was Ruff's orc caster, can't recall atm.)

I'll have to check and see ... I just wish the damn particle effects for static object ripples worked. Actually they do work, because I created one unintentionally once, but I've never been able to duplicate that since. I must have spent days working on those things. :blegh:

 

Well that was the idea ... any mobile object causes ripples if it's standing in water. The dummies are concealed* though, so you can't see them, only the ripples.

I don't think you can place a dead NPC on a map, or conceal it. You'd be able to set it's don't draw flag so you can't see it, but then it probably wouldn't generate ripples either.

*Concealed as in hiding, like the bandits outside the Moathouse.

The current ripple dummies can be made invulnerable (and should have been, but I mistakenly thought they wouldn't show up at all so it wouldn't matter), but the problem is they'll always get pulled into combat anyway if you cast an AoE spell (or target them directly).

I'll figure out the particle effects somehow - they should work, and they're the proper way to actually do it, not a cheap workaround. I've never seen another particle effect fail in the game, just the stupid ripples.