Extended War of Emperyum Castles by Olrox
Briefing
Hello.
Let me introduce myself. I'm Olrox, that guy you might remember that has to do with all it comes about "mapping".
First of all, I was not sure to post this thread in this area of the forum. I was more about posting it into the "map showcase". But since it is a -long time- project that consist of more than realising a single map (so as it has to do with adding new scripts and maybe new source patchs), I thought it would be fine here.
Back to the thread... you might ask. What is this "Extended Castles" stuff???
Well. Maybe all of you have wondered for ex. Why Morroc doesn't have a castle in all those realms we have as "Prontera", "Aldebaran", "Payon", and so on. Morroc is my favorite city. I have been allways wondered why Morroc didn't deserve a WoE Castle by default? (alpha RO doesn't counts ) I don't know... but what I'm sure it is that this idea has crossed my mind since ever.
It was only some days ago that I was thinking what could be awesome to share as a free release to the whole community. Actually I don't run a server as most of the people around, but I believe I have to be thankfull by some way to all here.
Then, this Idea crossed my mind. How about making that Morroc WoE Castle I have allways dreamed for? .. but hey -I said to myself-, why we can't give other cities in ragnarok the same chance as morroc too?
Okay, but WoE Castles are for me, the most complex maps of all. It requires a lot of time, effort, and well... motivation. A map of this kind for me are almost priceless and seriously I must be crazy to think about doing this kind of work for Free! even when my time to work on this kind of works is very limited .... but as I said before I want to do something really good in exchange to all.
Basic Features
This project is about making a set of High Quality WoE 2.0 castles. We will begin with Morroc City, but other cities are crossing my mind to being in the list: Brasilis, Amatsu, Glast Heim, Gonryun. Those are glorious cities that it can be possible to recreate a WoE 2.0 area based on those of course. It is a matter of imagination and conceptualization of developing ambience and recreation for each to make them sucessfull.
I'm sure a set of castles of this kind would be a very attractive PLUS to all the private servers out there. Just try to remember those old days when we knew that new 2.0 castles were comming from gravity. I was so excited.
The idea is to make only one WoE 2.0 castle per realm. But in addition, this WoE Castle will recreate the most representative areas of the realm it is about.
Let me explain with an example.
This is arug_cas03 map sketch that is intented to be a guide of what I'm doing.
In the case of Morroc:
- Pink area: Morroc Interiors style
- Red area: A mix between Sphinx/Pyramids ambience style
- Blue area: Sograt dessert ambience.
- Yellow area: Throne area, inspired in the Morroc city central structure (before satan morroc)
- Green area: Assasins Guild inspired.
- Orange area: Rogue Guild inspired
Remaining areas are still in my mind. But for now, this idea is very promising. At least for enclosing what it is "All Morroc" about in only 1 castle.
Changelog and Progress
I'm still in my initial state of this idea. My free time to even think about invest my time for something for free is very limited, due to the high amount of requests from my customers that I have.
However, I took my time the past weeks to begin building the initial idea of the pink and red area of the sketch that corresponds to the first main area, so as the entrance of the castle.
The following screens are from a scratch -under development- map stage: Lights, structures, empty areas, textures, objects... might be are only for reference and take this as a far teaser of the final work. It shows roughly how the entrance with the morroc interior style, so as the pyramid/sphinx ambience applied with some sort of a small maze in the entrance. Maze style that is common in the sphinx dungeon area
The idea is becoming good. Being an initial state of a work of some days it is getting really promising. The entrance maze is somewhat the idea of the sphinx area. Some hieroglyphics, some sphinx tombs. At the time we will work with effects, there will be better lights, torch effects etc.
This is like provisional, and not the serious thing, But I had to show something more than words here, so there you have it.
My intention is that when the castle is ready, they will be posted in the Map Showcase Forum. Until that time I will ask for help from scripters/database editors around to adapt the castle and release the scripts and maps bundled up in the download module of rathena forum.
People that might be interested into the database/script area are welcome. But only at the time the first map is ready.(I don't want to waste your time with something that is still in the initial state).
Consider to Support this!
This is a LONG TERM project. I have to say it again.... this is a LONG TERM Project seriously! Please consider that my free time to work on this is very limited, as also doing a map takes a lot of time... more with the castle style ones. To have even the first woe castle will take 2,3 months, more or less, no one knows. Updates will be really sporadics.
I will appreciate to not ask very often when it will be ready.
Remember this is a Free Release project made for the community. Easily I could make this first castle and the other ones in the future with the only intention to make a profit... or well, I could invest this time on this in my current paid requests. But I'm not doing that!.
If you like the idea, if you think this worths the time... consider post your feedback. Follow this thread, rate it with starts. Motivation takes a big part in this cases. Reading all your feedback here is for me, the only motivation I need to make this possible.
I believe there are people out there that appreciate a lot my work. Private or Free ones all counts... For those people that might be interested, you can go far and try this userbar I did with my limited photoshop abilities but with all my heart on it!
Thank you all. And have a nice day.