UPDATE -- I've found four test subject-I mean, Beta Testers! :]
I'll post more updates here/in the Showcase once I have something to show off.

Hello from 1998! Just like previous decades, the nineties will enter more and more into the mainstream as "retro" and old will be new.

The 14th anniversary of MotS is approaching (Wikipedia reminds me that it launched on 1/31/98). I was recently reminiscing about a really fun time some friends and I had playing a different 90s game, Shadow over Mystara and recalled that I actually have most of the ingredients to build a short, "simple" co-op RPG campaign using the Rites of Xanthus TC (RoX) assets for MotS.

I even released three RoX co-op maps on the JKHub a long time ago.

As you may recall, nothing's ever simple when it comes to modding for me, so I'd like to leverage some stuff I did for Life of Grismath co-op. This is where you come in!

I have a simple "class" system that will let players choose one of four classes: Mage, Cleric, Brute, and Scout. I want to make sure that the classes are reasonably balanced and "better together."


[TABLE="width: 0"]
[TR]
[TD]Mage
[/TD]
[TD]Cleric
[/TD]
[TD]Brute
[/TD]
[TD]Scout
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]
Starting Inventory:

• Wizard Staff -- weak melee with long reach, but can use mana to fire magic projectiles

Spells:

1. Magic Missile -- explosive magic projectile
2. Cinder -- burns up non-boss weapons, doing slight damage to the holder
3. Teleport -- the Mage can drop a beacon to teleport back to later
4. Barrier -- protects the caster from most physical and magic damage, but drains lots of mana

Misc:

• Can't use any weapons except the Wizard Staff (which is indestructible)
• Extremely susceptible to physical damage; no armor

[/TD]
[TD]
Starting Inventory:

• Mace -- average melee with short reach

Spells:

1. Heal Self
2. Heal Ally
3. Continual Light -- illuminates the caster for a short period of time
4. [Turn Undead]

Misc:

• Can't pick up/use bladed weapons

[/TD]
[TD]
Starting Inventory:

• Battle Axe -- powerful melee with medium reach

Misc:

• "Appetite" -- if the Brute gets hungry, he starts slowly losing health until he consumes food
• Can bash open locked treasure chests
• High physical damage resistance/armor

[/TD]
[TD]
Starting Inventory:

• Bow
• Arrows (10)
• Dagger
• Cooking Kit

Misc:

• Moves slightly faster than other players
• Can spawn up to four meals every 5 minutes

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]




What you'd need:

• Mysteries of the Sith installed
• The MotS Unofficial Patch (we're going to go waaaay over the original thing limit)
• A high tolerance for late-nineties/early-2000s graphics (my focus is on gameplay, not beauty)

Timing:
I anticipate I'd benefit from 2-3 playing sessions. The first this weekend (12/17-12/18), which will be a pretty rough version of the mod/level and a "pre-flight" shortly before/after Christmas.

Some old high school friends and I might be getting together for an old school LAN party, so I might try to have something playable/decent ready by then.

And then, depending how far I get with this thing (no promises!) I'd try to release something to the handful of people who still have MotS reasonably nearby (FGR, I'm looking at you! :]) by 1/31/12.

Let me know what you think! Also, if you have preferences towards a particular class, that would be interesting, too.

In. So totally in.

I'd be in. Just have to find my install of MotS. ****ing love being cleric.

I'm in. Got MotS on my Steam account, that's good enough to join, right? Else I'd have to start digging around for the original CDs.

Sounds a bit like Hexen, which I adore. I'll play the previous stuff you've released to get a feel for it, but I'd be happy to beta test for you.

Thanks for the responses!

I'll see how things go this week; perhaps I'll be able to get all four of you in and "observe" from the shadows (it would be even better to see how a full party that doesn't include the mod creator would react/find their way around).

Gris, if you need a backup tester let me know. I got MotS installed and working on my PC.

How set in stone is the food mechanic? Food in video games totally blows, especially when there are drawbacks and ruins otherwise good games.

Food replaces the health pack and replentishes health.

No one *needs* to eat except for the Brute. Everyone else could conceivably rely on healing potions (which replace bacta tanks) or healing spells from the Cleric (or just avoid getting hurt! :]).

I added the food mechanic for the Brute in an attempt to better balance him. Because of my limited set of enemy classes, the Brute is pretty overpowered compared to most enemies he'll encounter.

Do you have specific examples of why food stinks? Maybe your characters just aren't eating at the right restaurants ;]

And no, it's not set in stone. Removing it would just mean commenting out a few lines of code and I'm open to feedback like this, because I'm still balancing/tweaking.

Man, I wish I could help test something like this. Sadly, I don't have much time with the testing I have to do at work. D: Looks like you're set, though, so I'll wish the best for you.

If the food mechanic doesn't work in playtesting, Gris, maybe you could consider something like a "beserker" or "confused' mode, where friendly fire is turned on for the brute and their attack and forward movement actions are locked into place for a temporary amount of time (don't increase the actual speed or damage of the attacks though - you'll want to call this something else so as to not give an indication that they become more powerful), triggered if they kill a certain number of enemies in quick succession or something. Trying to run backwards could halt their movement, perhaps, or it could just be disabled. This might not work out in playtesting either, but it may be worth a shot if the food mechanic doesn't work anyway.

NOTE: If you do use that mechanic and it's triggered by how many enemies are killed in quick succession, you'll have to decide if you want the timer to remain absolute or continue to trigger (and reset the duration, causing a positive feedback loop). I'd actually suggest trying the latter first, and see if players enjoy the "wrangling" or not.

>_> Yeah, I've had MotS installed continuously since 2001 (despite not being able to play it properly for a year starting from mid-2002 and not counting all those instances of having formatted everything and thus not having MotS or really anything else installed).

FYI I sent a PM to the "party" of Beta Testers. I'll communicate with you guys using that feature moving forward instead of using this thread.

Today I got the spell "Magic Missile" working; it's basically the bowcaster bolt.
What's special is that, in order to support a "from the side"/isometric view similar to that in Shadow Over Mystara, I've added "lock-on" targeting, kind of like for Force Pull.
(Disclaimer: no lighting yet and possibly temporary textures; I just wanted to illustrate the perspective).



I expect that this spell will probably be the Mage's mainstay to keep orcs from eating him; however, I'm not yet sure not to differentiate this from the ranged spell already built into the Wizard Staff. Maybe I'll remove that and make it melee-only. I'm also thinking that when wielding the Wizard staff, you get additional bonuses when casting spells (e.g. duration, damage, etc.)