Wesnoth II - Wesnoth 3D.

[dipseydoodle]

No I would be doing my own art, sorry.

[johndh]

Blender artist reporting in. Is this project as stillborn as this thread is dead? If someone were serious about creating a 3D game based on Wesnoth or similar, and could demonstrate viability, good ideas, and dedication, I'd probably be happy to contribute some work.

[dipseydoodle]

Thanks me and my friend might get some work in the summer/spring/fall if I can convince him(a relative of Jetrel) and, I am working with blender and trying to find a recyclable engine whenever I have free time. Help would be great... thanks

[PapaSmurfReloaded]

Why are people so fond of 3D stuff?

Honestly it doesn't add anything to the game, particularly to a strategy game like Wesnoth.

[Gambit]

Why are people so fond of 3D stuff?

You have read all the stickies for this forum right? Particularly this one, because it has the answer to your question about half way in.

Finally, i take the keyboard and type ":debug". Why? Well, he gave me an excellent reason: Because it is fun for him.

[borsook]

Why are people so fond of 3D stuff?

Honestly it doesn't add anything to the game, particularly to a strategy game like Wesnoth.

While it does not add anything to the gameplay (in fact may make sometimes harder to select stuff) as other games show (again Fantasy Wars/Elven Legacy) it's doable and it adds a lot to the feel of the game. Plus it is easier (at least for me) to create a new skin for a 3d model than to create a new sprite.

[artisticdude]

Why are people so fond of 3D stuff?

Honestly it doesn't add anything to the game, particularly to a strategy game like Wesnoth.

While it does not add anything to the gameplay (in fact may make sometimes harder to select stuff) as other games show (again Fantasy Wars/Elven Legacy) it's doable and it adds a lot to the feel of the game. Plus it is easier (at least for me) to create a new skin for a 3d model than to create a new sprite.

And it's certainly easier to animate.

[dipseydoodle]

While it does not add anything to the gameplay (in fact may make sometimes harder to select stuff) as other games show (again Fantasy Wars/Elven Legacy) it's doable and it adds a lot to the feel of the game. Plus it is easier (at least for me) to create a new skin for a 3d model than to create a new sprite.

And it's certainly easier to animate.

That is right... As well as what Borsook PapaSmurf said... But I am not aiming for simplicity. I am however aiming for more feel, and, I believe that's what 3D will bring to Wesnoth- in other words, a 3D experience

[borsook]

One interesting concept that 3D allows you to do, that does not work well in 2d, is stacking - either with flying units and land units in the same hex, or maybe leaders and normal units etc. Plus the strength could be represented not by a bar but by a number of models. So 3d could be even more interesting if the game is not too conservative in its interpretation of Wesnoth formula

[dipseydoodle]

Sounds cool but stacking isn't the best for turn based strategy games(at least not for the ones I've played). One thing I'd add is probably multi hex attacks such as shooting and magic(which would use multiple surrounding hexes.)

[artisticdude]

Sounds cool but stacking isn't the best for turn based strategy games(at least not for the ones I've played).

Why not? As long as you're not stacking enemies on friends, or non-flying units on non-flying units, or flying units on flying units. But I think it would be reasonable to be able to stack an aerial unit on a terrestrial one.

One thing I'd add is probably multi hex attacks such as shooting and magic(which would use multiple surrounding hexes.)

That sounds interesting, although I'm fairly certain that CABD in WML.

[johndh]

One concern I have is how to represent terrain. In Wesnoth, it works just fine to have each unit-sized hex appear to be a different terrain, but this looks like garbage in 3D. If you have terrain on the same scale as units, then mountains would look absolutely absurd, and forests would look pretty dumb too. My idea is to have each of the "terrain hexes" made up of smaller "unit hexes", so a single hill might have several units on it. I did a quick and dirty mockup in Blender of how this might look.

At this point I'm just using different textures to symbolize different terrains. If you want me to add trees and hills, I can, but this is just a representation of the concept more than anything else. I made the units kinda small, but if we're to have good-looking mountains, we might have to go even smaller, or make the mountains so big that they occlude the units behind them.

[Darker_Dreams]

At this point I'm just using different textures to symbolize different terrains. If you want me to add trees and hills, I can, but this is just a representation of the concept more than anything else. I made the units kinda small, but if we're to have good-looking mountains, we might have to go even smaller, or make the mountains so big that they occlude the units behind them.

I think if you're going to go with 3d terrain having some is going to be an important part of this judgement. The smaller "sub hexes" will help locate units within a hex.

My concern wouldn't be so much units being occluded behind a terrain like a mountain; if this is a truly 3d system you should be able to rotate to find them easily. My concern would be units being lost *inside* something like a forest hex. Just as a note, I'm not sure it's going to matter whether you make the unit smaller or the mountain bigger regarding occlusion- the relative size difference between terrain and unit is going to ultimately be similar.

[Dixie]

Seeing johndh's mock-up, I thought the little units inside the same larger terrain-hex were actually just a single unit... Or am I wrong? I'm not sure it would look so bad to have units significantly bigger than the terrain anyway: look at Civ IV (agreed, units don't go over mountains in there, though).

[dipseydoodle]

Very cool johndh. Many if not all the terrains would be fairly easy to make and would most likely blend well.(considering this will be apocalyptic many terrains would be sand, dead forests, rock beds, waste lands etc.) Hopefully I'll be able start working on texture and design sketches.

EDIT: Sorry artistic dude. Yeah I just realized what you said... I have played civ II or III and IV... I've also played every Age of Empires game there is minus age of myths(The Ds version is where I find the stacking a problem) I've also played majesty but every one(except the Ds game) is real-time I actually have not played many turn-based(computer) games except for a few RPGs text-based and board games I have howerever played crimson battelfield and risk(both computer and one board) and stacking does work out pretty well. Thanks.