So... the store page and the utilities page clearly state that Coldstone ships on CD, chock full of art and other additional goodies. The FAQ page says "The full version of Coldstone must be purchased on CD..." and "After we have processed your order, we'll mail you the Coldstone CD via the US Postal Service."

The email says it ships electronically -- well, that they send you a registration code. (ETA Tuesday.)

So for those who have ordered recently... do you get a CD? If not, where do you get the art and other goodies?

I'm wondering if I should wait for a CD to show up, presumably with artwork I don't have, before proceeding on a plugin. Or, if there is no CD, trying to figure out how to get at this artwork which is presumably buried in the product.

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Yelled at the almost-dead monsters:
Hey! Come back here with my experience points!

You need the CD to get the default art and sound sets. If you're going completely custom, you don't need to wait for it.

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A tomb now suffices for him for whom the world was not enough.

the cd is easily worth the wait. trust me, nuthin is going to pass you by in a week you know? i recently ordered the cd after i had completed enough graphics for my friend to begin playing with the engine. the cd is chock full of all pogs art all in labeled organized folders. also as a surprise was some sci fi art included so maybe people could have fun with that. either way the cd is simply mailed to you via post office and can get anywhere in the US in a week. yes you definetly get a cd.

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Morvera ner Morden

Okay, I'm confused.

I started at the store page and clicked on Coldstone. I saw this on the order page: "Coldstone ships on a CD; shipping world-wide is included in the product price."

I did not check the box to order the "Ambrosia" CD, which sounded like it had mainly stuff for other Ambrosia games.

Given the "we don't ship CDs" in the email, right now I don't know if a CD is coming via snail mail or not.

DJ, you say you ordered the CD...the Coldstone CD, or the Ambrosia CD?? Does either of these include any PoG art files where you can see them without going through Coldstone?

I'd like to browse the art files with Graphic Converter in the background so it doesn't take me so blasted long to pick the appropriate graphic for a PoG plugin.

(edit: clarification)
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Yelled at the almost-dead monsters:
Hey! Come back here with my experience points!

(This message has been edited by Axe (edited 03-16-2003).)

yes, i ordered the coldstone engine, the 1st thing you get is confirmation of order, then later you get the coldstone serial number, then later that week you get the coldstone cd via snail mail. it was a bit confusing recieving that email where they said they dont have cd etc, but yes you will be getting a shiny coldstone only cd will all of pogs art and sound and some other schtuff also. the ambrosia cd is a cd that basically gives you all the games and programs ambrosia currently makes on a cd saving you download time. you still have to register any of them that youd want to use more often, its really just a demo cd. but yeah it was wierd saying, yes you get a coldstone cd followed up by a email saying we dont ship cd's.

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Morvera ner Morden

Quote

Originally posted by Axe:
**I started at the store page and clicked on Coldstone. I saw this on the order page: "Coldstone ships on a CD; shipping world-wide is included in the product price."

I did not check the box to order the "Ambrosia" CD, which sounded like it had mainly stuff for other Ambrosia games.

Given the "we don't ship CDs" in the email, right now I don't know if a CD is coming via snail mail or not.**

Axe,

If you ordered Coldstone then you automatically ordered the CD and paid for it. This is the good news.

The bad news is that the Coldstone CDs are sometimes tardy in being sent; sometimes very much so. Some people report receiving their CDs within a couple weeks; some a couple months, and others longer than that.

If you do not see your CD withing 3 weeks I would recommend e-mailing Ambrosia at help@ambrosiasw.com and let them know that you have not received your Coldstone CD. Be sure to specificy clearly that it is the Coldstone CD you need, not the regular Ambrosia demo CD, as that CD does not contain the art files you are looking for.

As for waiting or continuing... for plug-ins, it doesn't matter. The art libs will give you some extra stuff you didn't already have, but not a whole lot. The pics are nice to have though, especially if you'd like to slightly alter things for your plug-ins.

When you get your reg code just go ahead and register the demo product. The engine is the same in the demo as in the full version; the pictures and sounds are the only things that make the full version different than the demo.

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Quote

Originally posted by DJ:
yes you will be getting a shiny coldstone only cd with all of pogs art and sound and some other schtuff also.

This isn't entirely accurate; the Coldstone CD does not contain all of PoG's artwork - in particular, the only hero animation is the basic one (Page/Squire/Knight graphics not included), the special location graphics (Learning Tree, High Garendall) are not included, and the sprites for the Sea Giant and the Guardian are not included. There are probably other files as well.

It would be more accurate to say that PoG uses a lot of Coldstone's art.

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I don't know what I'm talking about.
Oh no, here comes another learning experience.
Oderint dum metuant?

Okay, where's my "Bang Head Here" mousepad? I thought this was gonna be an easy question.....

True or false questions:
1a. The Coldstone CD includes graphics that are not included in the download of the Coldstone demo.
1b. The Coldstone CD includes graphics that are in browsable/editable format: i.e., you don't need to get screen shots of the graphics in Coldstone to work with them.
2. The Ambrosia CD includes graphics that are not included on the Coldstone CD.
3. PoG uses graphics that are not available anywhere except in PoG. (These would require use of Snapz and Photoshop to extract...a long, messy process.)

Initially, I thought 1a and 1b were true, and that 2 and 3 were false. I'm no longer sure of any of these.

My eventual goal: a character class with a female sprite -- with a sprite that looks like it was developed by someone who worked on PoG. Most recent idea for achieving this: taking existing PoG/Coldstone sprites, chopping them up, and recombining them.

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Yelled at the almost-dead monsters:
Hey! Come back here with my experience points!

1a - True
1b - True
2 - False (Well, true, but they are from different games )
3 - True

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Dampeoples has correctly answered your T/F quiz.

Quote

Originally posted by Axe:
My eventual goal: a character class with a female sprite -- with a sprite that looks like it was developed by someone who worked on PoG. Most recent idea for achieving this: taking existing PoG/Coldstone sprites, chopping them up, and recombining them.

This should work, although I would suggest downloading the Trinity Unleashes source code as it contains all the hero graphics for the Ranger and Conjurer classes. You can then modify each individual frame until your heart is content.

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Yup, downloaded the Trinity source about a week ago....thx.

Thanks, dampeoples.

After further thought (and discussion with the husband), the character class plug-in isn't going to get started until after I do more with the Mushroom Lady plug-in.

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Yelled at the almost-dead monsters:
Hey! Come back here with my experience points!

actually the coldstone cd contains all the art from POG and trinity also. both the full POG game and the trinity plugin are included on the coldstone cd in demos. so all you gotta do is extract it automagically!

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Morvera ner Morden

Quote

Originally posted by DJ:
actually the coldstone cd contains all the art from POG and trinity also. both the full POG game and the trinity plugin are included on the coldstone cd in demos. so all you gotta do is extract it automagically!

The art files for Trinity are in Trinity Unleashed, not within the Trinity plug-in. I didn't think the Coldstone CD contained the source code for Trinity.

There are also some art files used in PoG that were intentionally left off the CD.

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I actually found the CD to be quite useless and over hyped. The artwork in it is pretty slim if you want to create a sci-fi based sort of game. Yes you get some textures but for the trouble it took me to get a CD I'd rather they just not ship one at all.

It actually took me almost 2 months to get one and to get it I had to send a nasty email (after about 3 polite ones) asking for the CD or the "Shipping fee" to be refunded to me. That was quite a shocker to me since normally Ambrosia's team hit's the mark right away. In the end it became a principle issue rather than a necessity. The CD is by no means really all that necessary.

(This message has been edited by joseph (edited 03-21-2003).)

Quote

Originally posted by joseph:
**I actually found the CD to be quite useless and over hyped. The artwork in it is pretty slim if you want to create a sci-fi based sort of game. Yes you get some textures but for the trouble it took me to get a CD I'd rather they just not ship one at all.

It actually took me almost 2 months to get one and to get it I had to send a nasty email (after about 3 polite ones) asking for the CD or the "Shipping fee" to be refunded to me. That was quite a shocker to me since normally Ambrosia's team hit's the mark right away. In the end it became a principle issue rather than a necessity. The CD is by no means really all that necessary.
**

True. The CD is primarily useful as a starting point. It's nice to have all of the art files, sound files etc, but not a necessity. If you are interested in creating a game but aren't too worried about original artwork etc, then the CD is probably just what you're looking for. Otherwise, although it's nice to have, it's more or less a luxury. And as for a lack of sci-fi art.... well, the CD only stated it had 'additional' art, not how much. Anything apart from PoG's art is a bonus, really.

And Axe, in case it hasn't been completely clear, I'll try to sum up for you:

• The CD is automatically sent to you when you order Coldstone. All you do is pay for a registration code, the fee includes the price of the CD & it's shipping costs.

• The CD contains Coldstone 1.0.0 (last time I checked), much of the artwork and sounds from Pillars of Garendall, some other assorted artwork, as well as unregistered versions Snapz Pro and, I believe, Pillars of Garendall.

• The Ambrosia CD is a different product entirely. It's like a sampler of Ambrosia's games, that you can buy if you don't have the time or bandwidth to download them. None of the games on the CD are registered unless you buy a seperate registration code.

• The Coldstone CD can take a while to get to you. Most people report it being within a week or two, some longer. Myself it took two months, but that was because three CD's were sent. The first never arrived, the second arrived in pieces, and the third made it through. In general though, two weeks is expected.

Hope that cleared things up a little.

-Andiyar

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