Hi everyone, this week i discovered Coldstone and i was amazed. I've had some game concepts lying around for some time, the programmer never had time, but with Coldstone i can finally make them, but many questions arised.

1. Where are the games? I only saw Pillars and Templequest, and they're very good, but where are the other quality games, screenshots or demos? I would really like to see what is possible with Coldstone.

2. Is everything in the game editable, for example in most games (saw only 5) it had the same inventory, with small icons and text. Is a diablo or baldur inventory possible? With large descriptions and large boxes, with a large item portrait etc.

3. Is a 2D birdview shooter possible, with scrolling maps, like the old arcade games? I guess so, but i just want to be sure.

4. Is it possible to raise stats, get experience and gain levels like Daggerfall and Morrowind. Every action raises points, like succesfull lockpicks, backstabs, fatal blows. Usefull for thieving skills, weapon expertise, alignment, magic schools etc. Or should i just give experience points for every succesfull action? Sorry, sounds confusing

5. How do you make special moves like dodging, different slashing, dashing and bashing? For example, if you attack an evil critter can you perform (multiple) attacks, like left then right, or sword than shield, or charge your weapons, step aside, roll over, or even jump. Or is the only problem that you have to create many animations of the character moves?

Ok, that's all, any help is highly appreciated. I'm really motivated, but i just want to know if it can be done, before i waste a lot of my precious time.

Coldstone rocks, and i think it's really possible to create games that look a bit like diablo, baldur's gate or the legacy of kain with it, provided you have the right graphics and can fit it all together. Using jpg, png, 3d graphics and animations you could even make photo realistic games. Only a lot of time and a team of artists, would be handy.

i'm not used to posting on boards so i'll quit rambling about it

thanx for any answer, you could really help me out
ok 2 games are in progress, i'm back to work

I forgot someting, it just doesn't work in Panther. Coldstone crashes are common and even the stand alone games freeze. Update maybe? Or am I not up to date ?

(This message has been edited by Frost (edited 01-04-2004).)

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Where are the games? I only saw Pillars and Templequest, and they're very good, but where are the other quality games, screenshots or demos? I would really like to see what is possible with Coldstone.

Sadly there are few finished games. This is probably due to the immense time and energy needed to create a stand-alone RPG, and just all the cool ideas that come to mind. However, there are a good number of games being worked on at the moment. You can check out some of these at the Coldstone Resource Center. There is even a game showcase in the works specifically for Coldstone games at http://showcase.ellrx.com . Those are some good places to start looking.

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2. Is everything in the game editable, for example in most games (saw only 5) it had the same inventory, with small icons and text. Is a diablo or baldur inventory possible? With large descriptions and large boxes, with a large item portrait etc.

Many things are, some things aren't. Inventory could be changed somewhat, but many people like to stick to PoG guidelines. Icons or text are not needed together. You could have only text or only icons. Icons can be any size you want them to be. I've never played Baldur's gate or diablo, so can't help you there :frown:.

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3. Is a 2D birdview shooter possible, with scrolling maps, like the old arcade games? I guess so, but i just want to be sure.

2D bird's eye view shooter? No problem! Scrolling.... meh. It might be possible with some heavy animated stamp usage, but I wouldn't try it.. things could get messy ;).

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4. Is it possible to raise stats, get experience and gain levels like Daggerfall and Morrowind. Every action raises points, like succesfull lockpicks, backstabs, fatal blows. Usefull for thieving skills, weapon expertise, alignment, magic schools etc. Or should i just give experience points for every succesfull action? Sorry, sounds confusing

Yes! with some event usage this is all possible.

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5. How do you make special moves like dodging, different slashing, dashing and bashing? For example, if you attack an evil critter can you perform (multiple) attacks, like left then right, or sword than shield, or charge your weapons, step aside, roll over, or even jump. Or is the only problem that you have to create many animations of the character moves?

This is sadly not easily possible. I could see jumping being done... perhaps. heck, ask ellrx, he comes up with this kinda stuff all the time (oh great, more for his ego).

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I forgot someting, it just doesn't work in Panther. Coldstone crashes are common and even the stand alone games freeze. Update maybe? Or am I not up to date ?

Yes, coldstone has many bugs. Thankfully, however, we have someone working on them right now! Sings Carm's praises.

Hope I helped!

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(This message has been edited by OgreBob (edited 01-04-2004).)

Uh, OB, your sig's broken

oh and frost, look at my game: The Quest For The Magic Cheese

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well I just spoke with ellrx on AIM and he says both scrolling and jumpin could be done, so hey, there's hope.

Kryten: better?

Edit: spoke with, not talked to. Sorry RD-DEL.
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(This message has been edited by OgreBob (edited 01-04-2004).)

Thanx Ogre, this really pulled me over to order the full Coldstone version.

Allthough the available games look "cheesy". Indeed it costs alot of time and energy to create a high quality game. This can not be done alone, in fact games like diablo and baldur, only had a few programmers and a team of ą 30 or more graphic artists. I' ve got concepts for 2 games, one original and cool shoot'm'up. This one is reasonable to make, cause it's small, could do that alone. And the other is an rpg with a huge world in different oriental settings, a very good storyline, originally intended to be a book. But this rpg is kind of a problem, i've limited experience with Maya, Poser and other rendering programs. I can make music, draw, paint and photoshop very well, but i'll give it a try, and I'm very busy updating the script and items, spells, quests, npc's etc.

However, every answer raises another question.

Question) How about different playable layers, like ground and air?
Perhaps you are a flying sheep puking grass plasma, and you're flying in the air shooting all those shiny birds, but you also want to dive. Flying or walking on the ground layer, below air layer, you can pick up powerups and eat grass, shoot walking dogs. Before you press another button lift off in the air, and fly and shoot in the air layer again. Stupid example, i know, in the real game sheep will be eaten for lunch, but could it be done 2 playable layers on top of each other, like earth and sky? Really need this for the arcade shooter i'm developing.

c-ya

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Originally posted by Frost:
**How about different playable layers, like ground and air?

**

Could be done, when you are in the air, all layers are under the player and all access tiles are blocked. Then, when you press a button, it checks playerX and playerY to see where on the map you are, then teleports you to another map (wich is the same, except some layers (trees and stuff) are above the player and some things are blocked. Then when you press some button you go back and...... etc, etc...

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Originally posted by Ledorax:
**Could be done, when you are in the air, all layers are under the player and all access tiles are blocked. Then, when you press a button, it checks playerX and playerY to see where on the map you are, then teleports you to another map (wich is the same, except some layers (trees and stuff) are above the player and some things are blocked. Then when you press some button you go back and...... etc, etc...

**

You don't want to use two different maps; the load times woul be horrendous. Rather, make a rectangle map big enough to fit both the square air and ground map together, top to bottom. Then have the teleport simply add (or subtract) the height of a square section.

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Well many thanks for all the good answers, i'll get started right away! Coldstone sounds too good to be true.

There's only one problem i encounterd during testing. When i place an animated gif in the editor, it looks allright but when i test the game, all gifs are corrupt or distorted. So i wondered does coldstone support the gif format? It doesn't really matter actually, i can also use the pct format. But i have a collection of animated characters from icewind dale and daggerfall, which i wanted to use for testing, cause they really look good.

by the way, the png format really rules, all effects done in photoshop like shadow, transparency and gradients are saved in the png, so you can make some cool effects, think about some neat text effects or a good looking menu with shadow or gradients.

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No, gifs don't work in Coldstone. But there's an Animation Editor to do animating.

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The only graphics formats that CS supports are Pict, PNG, JPEG and BMP. Make sure there is no white in any JPEG image as CS tries to make it transparent though cant to it right. Any audio format supported by quicktime can be used for Music though only AIFF can be used for sound FX

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