The Serpent Isle Remake: Slightly Longer Hiatus…
Thepal has posted a short note on his project’s website informing us that his hiatus from The Serpent Isle Remake is going to be just a wee bit longer than expected:
For those checking in, don’t worry, the project is still alive. Work is resuming, and I’ll see if I can throw some new updates up in the near future. It seems strangely cold for summer… I might need to put on some fur clothing…
If Thepal is quite skilled at killing large animals, might I suggest he try for a wolf pelt coat? Although, in that case, it would probably be best to avoid tattoo parlours.
Similar to my comment about UIX:Redemption and my purchase of Morrowind GoTY, The Serpent Isle Remake is why I purchased TES: Oblivion. All for the love of Ultima; keep up the good work.
Add tag “alive” to project entry for the leaderboard. 🙂
I hope this project sees its way to conclusion, as while I’ve played Ultima VII I’ve never played Serpent Isle.
If this is anything close to a one man project, I highly recommend sticking with the 1:1 conversion theme. Try to keep EVERYTHING, including digitized music (.wav/.ogg) of the MT-32 soundtrack, exact building and item layout, quests and triggers the same. Extras (textures, music, etc.) are always good and welcome, but don’t let it become the rule.
When I tried to do a semi-1:1 reconstruction of Ultima V using TESIII engine I got in way over my head, and while I got a lot of work done in the end I had my ass handed to me.
While this would take a lot of work, having a utility to convert an Ultima VII map data file to some primitive representation in an Oblivion map data file would save time. You could manually replace the building blocks with proper, interconnecting ones in the Oblivion editor, but at least you’d have markers of where things should go.
On that subject, there really should be a way to describe reading and writing Ultima data files such that simple conversion libraries could be constructed to map the Ultima input format to an arbitrary non-Ultima output format. So much work could be saved, and so many new projects could crop up with a decent chance to be finished. Many people are working on reversing engineering all the Ultima games’ data files, so it’s now only half a matter of unifying the information under a single dataset descriptor for all the Ultima games. Were the file format(s) of the target game known a translation algorithm could be created with as many features as both data sets supported. Holy grail or real possibility?
Don’t worry, I’m sticking to the 1:1 conversion. To the point that I have actually done things like pressing F3 to quickly teleport to another part of the world to test something, only to realise I’m actually playing my mod not the original Serpent Isle. It’s amazing how a game can feel the same despite being in a completely different 3D engine. Music is the same. Building layouts are the same. Item placement is the same. Dialogue is the same. Characters look… well… as close as I can get without spending too much time.
Converting the map files isn’t necessary. The exterior world has been built since week 1, and interiors aren’t particularly difficult to do (much easier than trying to make a conversion tool).
Just to clarify (I figured my post might be misinterpreted), work is already resuming. Plus, the post contains a hint at what part of the world I am working on now.
“Characters look… well… as close as I can get without spending too much time.”
What? Aren’t you going to texture map the old dialogue portraits into a 3D head?! Yes, I’m kidding (I think) as that would likely (I think) be a lot of work; though perhaps you can find a way to keep the portraits there, if it does not seem too redundant (or invite unwanted comparisons).
“The exterior world has been built since week 1”
Damn…that sounds…impressive (albeit to a layman) along with the progress you’ve made in 2 years, all by yourself. BTW, it’s been a year (or two?) since you updated your progress bars – they say there’s still some exterior world left – and it’d be interesting to see how much they’ve all changed.
When playing your remake beside the original, would you say the game world feels larger or smaller in the first person perspective? Did you feel the need to stretch out the land somewhat?
Honestly, most of the time since I announced I have barely been working on it (with months at a time not actually doing anything). I’m trying to keep myself un-pressured with it. If it was my full-time job, and I was working on it every day, then what I’ve done so far could probably have been done in two months. It really hasn’t been all that complicated or time-consuming. So, yeah, stalled progress bars could mean anything from something is taking me a while, I haven’t modded in months, I’m currently doing something else that is taking my time, or I’ve simply forgotten. The currect lack of update is due to all of the above. 😛
The game world feels around the same size as the original game. It was stretched out for my mod, but since it is in 3D it ends up seeming about the same. At the start, I basically got a map of Serpent Isle, put a grid on it that seemed about right, then went around the coastline by hand creating the world based on that grid. I don’t really remember why I chose that grid size, but there must have been some thought behind it since it was perfect.
I’m thinking dialogue and quests will probably take up the most time, or at least be the most tedious. Pretty amazing that you accomplished so much in so little time.
“Don’t worry, I’m sticking to the 1:1 conversion. To the point that I have actually done things like pressing F3 to quickly teleport to another part of the world to test something, only to realise I’m actually playing my mod not the original Serpent Isle. It’s amazing how a game can feel the same despite being in a completely different 3D engine.”
Don’t feel bad. One time I was working on a laptop on the other side of my workroom from my main workstation. I got so deeply in the zone that when I looked up I was shocked to realize that I had no idea where I was. After a few seconds of surreal confusion I realized it wasn’t my main workstation I’d been working on and that I was just on the other side of the room. Scary how that can happen when really focused in on something.
Dialogue definately takes the longest. Which is kinda funny, since it is mostly copy/paste. Quests not so much. The quests are pretty straight-forward.
I do have to stop myself sometimes from moving on from an area without finishing off dialogue/NPCs. Spreading my time evenly between different things tends to mean the world-building moves on to new areas before they are completed (dialogue/NPCs). I’m trying to make it so the game gets completed in the order you play it (or I play it). So, Monitor, then the goblins, then Fawn, then Sleeping Bull, then Moonshade, etc. Moonshade still needs some work, but I’ve moved northward with the world-building.