Welcome to Schattenländer! (Start Here)

[Hellequin]

Further announcement:

The orders system is now confirmed functional for both saints and potions (quaffed only - no applying lotions or blade oils during battle!).

Moreover, the 'construct orders' system is also done and tested.  Discover that you need fire resistance you hadn't planned for?  Hit the I key until you're in Construct Orders mode, then hit the Tab key to start building an order.  In this example:

Tab - "Take action..." (AKA "Order to self:")
Tab - "Order to Anya..."
Wait 3s - "Order to Anya..."
Tab - "Order to Anya: quaff..."
Wait 3s - "Order to Anya: quaff..."
Tab - "Order to Anya: quaff Sina's New-Wind..."
Tab - "Order to Anya: quaff Jabir's Firewall..."
Tab (oops) - "Order to Anya: quaff Hayyan's Quickmove..."
Tab - "No order." (Ran out of potions Anya has on hand.)
Tab - "Order to Anya: quaff Sina's New-Wind..."
Tab - "Order to Anya: quaff Jabir's Firewall..."
Wait 3s - "Ordering Anya: quaff Jabir's Firewall."
Two seconds later (the time it takes to get out a potion you've got ready to hand), you hear a drinking sound, and suddenly you're seeing messages like "Anya has fully resisted 5 fire damage".  Yay!

If you know your potions on hand (and/or your saints studied) well enough to know what you're looking for, this process is reasonably quick in play.  Not recommended for in the thick of combat... but that's realistic, innit?  And if you don't know your saints well enough, well, maybe this is the one you're looking for... it's worth a shot.

I'm now quite satisfied that you can access any of your alchemy or prayers as freely as can be called for.  Still to be coded on this subsystem:

• Actions (prayers and potion-quaffing) may be interrupted if the character in question takes damage in the meanwhile.
• Access via dialogue to a list of which orders you've got prepared for quick access.
• The ability to delete an order from your list of prepared orders.

Also, thanks to Blankshield's help with the sequencing process, another random encounter (my personal favorite, the catch-22 "Pardoner" encounter) is now implemented.  Remember, even if he's an asshole who's trying to kill you, it's sacrilege to beat up the clergy.

Everybody looking forward to v0.2 yet?

- Hellequin

[Fisheye]

Have you considered a "start_mission_conversation" with yourself in the middle of combat for the more sophisticated orders?

[Hellequin]

Does that work in a combat scene?  I'd assumed it wouldn't, and I think I've (not deliberately) tried that at one point, when working on Franz's scene.

I'd be pleased to be wrong, although the interface I've got right now works just fine.

[Hellequin]

"What effects (blessings, potions, etc) am I under?" dialogue also added to the mod.  Now you can actually figure out if that Ironarm has worn off yet, without having to memorize your original stats.

That was a surprisingly dificult pain in the arse.  Had to actually add strings for everything from the word "Streetwise" and the phrase "One-handed weapons" to things like "May grant a miraculous longsword to the needy".  Even the ones which can't actually be in place on your character for any duration (like an instantaneous Heal), there needed to be some new string in their position in the list, so there was no savings.  And the overall string parsing was extremely annoying to get right; chains of phrases like "X points from a saint's blessing, Y points from potions, etc" where you only want to display the parts that actually apply?  Pain.

Hope you guys appreciate it.  More annoying string-parsing to come as I add in display-dialogue for your hidden stats (Virtue, etc), your saints, and your potions, so you can look at the details without having to actually pray or brew.  Eventually it'll all be as smooth as silk, promise.

- Hellequin

[Fisheye]

Does that work in a combat scene?  I'd assumed it wouldn't, and I think I've (not deliberately) tried that at one point, when working on Franz's scene.

I'd be pleased to be wrong, although the interface I've got right now works just fine.

Ask Winter - there's a scene in the Storymod castle attack where you get to talk to a chef, he's made it work somehow.

[Nate]

Excellent work.

I have had some experience with the original Darklands, it was a fantastic game. This mod gives Mount&Blade some much needed depth in many aspects. Using the setting and feel of Darklands is exactly the direction I would have liked to see the game go. Developing what could very well turn into a “spiritual successor” of the original would please so many fans like myself. Keep up the great work. I’ll give some input when I have a chance to play further.

- Nate

[kencube]

Good works. Although it's still rough, it has quite a different experience from the original M&B. It feels more like playing a RPG. Keep on going guys.

By the way, I'm translating this mod into Chinese, hope more players can have the chance to play great mods.

[Hellequin]

Awesome!

Please feel free to contact me (I'll send email address by PM if desired) if you want to clarify anything for the translation, ask about an interpretation, etc. - I just made the same offer to the guys on the German forum on Taleworlds.

Basically, I'll bend over backward to assist with any such project.  Just let me know!

- Hellequin

[Lectus]

Darklands' character generator was that game's best feature in my opinion.  I'd spend tons of time just making up new parties, and filling in the blanks left by the twists and turns in their backstories.  It's awesome that you've managed to bring that kind of character generation to Mount and Blade.  And for such an early version, you've already managed to capture a good deal of the feel of Darklands.  I can't wait to see what the mod will be like if Armagan allows you to put graphics to particular menus.  I'm willing to bet that if this Mod gets finished, it'll not only emulate darklands, it'll outshine it.

[Hellequin]

Woo-hoo!

Many kudos to Ronin47 over on Taleworlds for pointing me at this; I'd looked for it back in December when I was starting this mod (can you believe that Schattenlander is still not three months old?), and it wasn't available for love or money, but early this month that changed without me noticing...

The Darklands clue book is now available online.  A feller named UK_John from the Darklands yahoo group was kind enough to post it on replacementdocs.com, and although I won't post the link because of possible (if incredibly unlikely) legal and copyright issues, if you go there and search for Darklands you'll find it.

This has the city contents, the saints' blessings, the math on combat, the professions' prerequisites (including the last details I wasn't able to pin down), and so on and so forth, in wonderful glorious mod-enabling endless detail.  Honestly I don't recommend it to those who merely intend to play Schattenlander; not only is it full of spoilers, which are no fun, but those spoilers will not necessarily be accurate, which is even less fun.  So if your interest is just in playing the mod, resist the temptation; it really will make Schattenlander less fun for you.  But for me, and the rest of the team, it's a resource made of diamonds coated with pure gold.

Woot!

[Hellequin]

Well, I was wondering if we'd manage it, but we just did.

Schattenländer has just passed 4000 downloads before it was three months old.  That's cool.

Work continues in the background, slowed by RL; still no promises on a v0.2 release date, sorry, I haven't even completely decided which features will end up in that release.

[bryce]

Thankd for the manual link.  I have played darklands so many times but never read the cluebook (or even seen it for sale).

[Fisheye]

Blessed St. Cluebook has changed my life with his miracles.

I used to use 20yr olds... now I use 25 yr olds. Yeah, I needed the cluebook to tell me that there are no adverse effects from being 25... it's either not obvious or I'm a dumbass, take your pick.

I used to favor 2-handed swords... now I realise a lot of the tougher badguys have armor 4 or more, and quality doesn't improve penetration, and non-penetrating hits do jack shit. Now it's totally military hammers + shield all the way (I hate swapping weapons).

[bryce]

Blessed St. Cluebook has changed my life with his miracles.

I used to use 20yr olds... now I use 25 yr olds. Yeah, I needed the cluebook to tell me that there are no adverse effects from being 25... it's either not obvious or I'm a dumbass, take your pick.

I used to favor 2-handed swords... now I realise a lot of the tougher badguys have armor 4 or more, and quality doesn't improve penetration, and non-penetrating hits do jack shit. Now it's totally military hammers + shield all the way (I hate swapping weapons).

Actually, it is better to use 35 and 40 year olds for most things.  For a virtuous character a hermit that is 40-45 years old will have awesome strength combined with a really high virtue and he can learn stuff like religion later after you kill a couple of raubritter.

The one I thought was interesting was to see that being a night is actually a very good option.  I always normally play as rural commoners but I guess nobles are good for something after all.

[Hellequin]

Bringing us back on-topic a little...

Maw's trick works, and the old illustrations look excellent in this context.  Turns out a simple layer mix with the original background gives very clean blends; this should make it much, much easier for us to process the graphics into the mod, as well as lookin' damn sharp.



Also works independent of system resolution, something I was worried about for a bit there.

We have some awesome stuff on the way for v0.2, guys; that's just the tip of the iceberg.