First open beta of AOVAF
I don't think it's entirely unrealistic to expect a first open beta of the campaign map in a month from now. How is the skinning department progressing? Do you wish me to do some headhunting of skinners to speed up the process? It would be best to release the first open beta of the campaign map along with a great number of units, if not all, completed. The advantage of giving out an open beta is that it's possible to recieve help with the testing of the mod, which otherwise may be difficult to carry out for only 1 to 5 persons. I also think it's time to in about one or two weeks start putting together all that has been made so far to make everything compatible etc. etc.
I don't know exactly everything that has been made and that hasn't, so I'd like to in this thread create a list of what remains to do. Could each team member please post how many unique units are left to skin and model for each of the factions that you have responsibility for, and tell which factions you are currently skinning/modelling. Also, how is the situation when it comes to small things like:
- loading screens (how many do we have ATM? 16 is minimum IMO, but I'm also unsure it's possible to have any more than 16, so let's say the task is to achieve 16 loading screens. Temporarily for the first release we can use fewer.)
- menu movie (Can anyone make a single frame menu movie without any sound at all, that simply displays something that suits as a good menu background? Or a movie with several frames but the same picture in all frames, but with the menu music playing in the background? Something of that sort is needed for the beta release. I don't know if it's possible to create a more complex menu movie with moving stuff, but I think that could be postponed to either the real release rather than the beta, or release 2.0.)
- other movies (victory, defeat, intro etc. - they don't need to be movies, could be replaced by one frame movies)
- menu graphics
- HUDs
- music (how many percent ready are we - how much more do we need?)
- voices - should we try to use a neutral British English or American English (the latter perhaps strange as there was no American English at the time) voice for all factions, or try to get English with accents? I don't think it'll be possible to get hold of for the time correct voices for our first release, but perhaps for our version 2.0. So - should I headhunt for one or more good English voice actors, or should we stick to existing R:TW voices and just distribute them among the factions in a way that seems appropriate?
- buildings coding - I know this hasn't been started yet, but I also know it's underway. Just listing it now for convenience to be able to refer to this topic as reference later.
- buildings modelling and skinning - I know this hasn't been started yet either, but I also know it's underway. Just listing it now for convenience to be able to refer to this topic as reference later. Also, it's possible to release a beta without having fixed this - in emergency, if we feel it's important to recieve feedback on the work made so far, releasing with R:TW looking buildings on the battle map is a solution that could work.
- unit cards - have unit cards been made for any of the units? I think we should agree on a system for unit cards, i.e. all militia units stand on the right side of the card looking to the left, and all professional units stand on the left side of the card looking to the right.
- descriptions of all units, and all other texts that are needed in the mod - I'll start work on this
- names - can you, Meneldil, take care of this? I had a names thread which has been archived now, but I can send the name lists I made to you so you can edit the names .txt files properly according to them. There are only a couple of names lists for factions that haven't been completed yet.
- completed units and screenshots of them - no rush, but I'd like to have a list of all units that have been skinned, so I can set up a stickied thread containing the unit screenshots, and descriptions of them. The screenshots are low priority, and some we may choose not to display in that thread for secrecy and increasing the anticipation of those who are interested in this mod, but a list of completed units is needed as soon as possible, so I can set up the thread and descriptions of all those units in the meantime.
- tech trees - in order to know which tech trees I need to complete quickly, I need requests from you. Is there any hurry with the magyars tech tree, which I haven't finished yet? If so, I'll see to it immediately. I think I'll take a small break in the campaign map making in order to provide skinners and others who need info with the info they need to be able to carry out their work - info such as completed tech trees.
- research - what is left to do in that field apart from finishing tech trees, names lists and so on.
- quotes - can you, Meneldil, take care of entering the quotes we have listed in a quotes thread into the appropriate .txt files? I recieved plenty of errors when trying to edit them. Which quotes to use I don't know, but perhaps a good policy could be to have as many viking related quotes as possible, then add fewer quotes related to others. The too long quotes will unforuntately have to be ommitted due to engine limitations.
- editing terrain and climates - I'm working on this at the moment, and will headhunt for help or tutorials if necessary.
- character traits - "cognomina" are under research, this stuff will be started once basic campaign map and names editing is ready.
- other scripting - I know this hasn't been started yet. Just listing it now for convenience to be able to refer to this topic as reference later
- balancing units etc. - For those who are working on unit stats (Emperor Umeu 1 and QuickDagger), the lists of so far skinned units are needed so they can do their editing. The final balancing of this can only be carried out with in-game testing once a full beta has been put together and become ready for release. I believe we could release the beta with units having the stats you two have given them, they'll be close enough to the final values after your work, I think, so we can immediately get the needed playtesting from users of the mod, by releasing the beta openly.
I believe those are all the things that need to be carried out in order for this mod to be possible to release in it's first beta version. If I missed anything, tell me.
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Originally Posted by Meneldil
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