Pesmontis

.. and I like "Space Explorer" very much And since she's quite capable of handling any crisis, she might also be a steely-eyed missile woman ;-)

And now for something not completely different: a miniset called 'Genesis Siderea', originally meant to update an existing set. Image 01: prototype in DeepExploration Although.. mm.. it's actually completely different from the Sopor Aethernis set, as you'll soon discover :-) The models for the boots, the pelvis and the torso were altered, and the model for the wings is new (derived from the 'envoy-of-death-wings02'). I also thought that the helmet model of Endijian's Artifacts would fit this set better, just because it's kind of futuristic apparel, and the helmet is the ultimate stargazer headpiece ;-) It would have been nice to create a complete set, but I never got to alter the legs, arms and shoulders, because these parts are already very nice and fitting. The textures are largely based on an image of a star-forming region: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0702a/ This is also why the set is themed with star formation, and why it's called 'Genesis Siderea'. It's going to be part of the new version of the CM Items Mod. Big thanks (again) to Silver_fox for reviewing the bonuses. Both Flix and Silver_fox have encouraged me to make this set even better, for instance by testing the altered running animation. And Flix, thanks for the screenshots of the bonuses :-) The models of this set have actually undergone a wide range of very technical changes in order to make them fit precisely together. These technical edits include the mesh normals and the normal maps, and the way the meshes are affected by the bones. Also, the textures include a few miniature decals that can only be seen up-close. Vessel of Chaos This casque serves two purposes: (1) it's good for stargazing, (2) it's good for containment of awe, the direct result of (too much) stargazing. It also looks like a fighter pilot's helmet, and for that reason I added her squadron insignia: the well-known tiger constellation. Image 02: Seraphim with one of the new buyable shields Image 03: Seraphim with the new throw-potion 'Molotov Cocktail' Dawn of Scheherazade 'Dawn' is of course meant as the re-appearence of (day)light. The name of Scheherazade refers to the 'star' of the stories from "One Thousand and One Nights". She is a legendary Persian queen and she tells those stories for a reason. At dawn, she always stops storytelling with a cliffhanger, forcing the King to keep her alive for another day. So in fact this chestpiece is meant for survival in the first place, even though it looks like an arabian dancing top. In the diffuse texture map, the pendant has received a small 'galaxy' decal. Image 04: Seraphim with the new unique staff 'To Mega Therion' Image 05: Seraphim with the new unigue staff 'Shaman's Totem' Cradle of Light A region in space where new stars are formed: the origin of light and joy. The normal map texture has received an explicit lycra pattern. Image 06: Seraphim with the new unique 'Delior's Holy Staff' Fusion Igniters These are the hands that have the (spell) power to light a star. The textures of these gloves have been made quite light colored, so that the effect of the original normal map is much more enhanced. Dark Matter Conduits These boots draw in dark matter as they move the Seraphim from place to place. They'll get dirty, that's for sure, and not only with dust.. Technically, these boots have caused me headaches, because of the legs inside. I've tried hard to keep the boots slender, but the animations kept spoiling things. In the normal texture map, the folds at the knees have been erased, and on the inside of the boots, the diffuse texture map has received three decals to create more 'depth'. Star Meadows The eye catcher of the set has been textured with a 'volume texture' to increase the depth of the star field. The thickness of the wings is almost entirely created this way. The volume texure was created by color separation of the original image. Image 07: new wings top view Image 08: new wings side view As an extra, the running animation of the Seraphim was changed slightly, in order to avoid clipping when she carries the new double laser sword: Image 09: the 'new' way of carrying a two-handed sword Set bonuses: Gallery Image 10: I guess this is actually what she's best at.. Image 11: Seraphim with the new 'Sylvanwood Longbow'

> ".. Take a closer look at this photo.." Hey, you're right :-) So.. do you think I still might have a chance with her? I mean, I gave her new clothes & all.. Can women be charmed this way? On the other hand, I think she might be more into charming everyone else..

Presenting a set that allows the HE to be a woman, and what a woman she is.. Before anyone gets any ideas, I have to show you what I found in a shady tabloid: she already has a boyfriend! (source: unconfirmed) This set is themed around freetime and having fun, which we thought would be best reflected by supporting her Vitality and (Delphic Arcania) spell force. This set is going to be part of the CM Items Mod: Silver_fox, thank you very much for reviewing the bonuses on the items and the set. Flix made the screenshots for the bonuses, thanks man :-) When I started out with this set I only had the booties, which I intended as part of the character's fall-back outfit. The name 'TickTacks' refers to the sound they (should) make, and it's also a little word gimmick referring to the T-shirt model. To have 'armor' for the legs that would fit these boots I simply added jeans trousers. The first trousers model I made was in one piece, completely wrapping the HE's pelvis and legs. It made her look short and plump, so I switched to the current 'skinny' jeans. The torso model is a cut-off T-shirt: a completely new model with more detail than the original torso models. In spite of what you might think, transparency won't do this T-shirt any good. The text on this T-shirt is a reference to one of the sentences the HE uses near enemies in the English language game. I'm not gonna let out which sentence specifically, but in my imagination this is a bit of tactical scheming, so that's why this torso clothing is called the 'Tactical T-shirt'. Mirror shades seem to be fashionable again, and after creating these retro sunglasses I tested the model extensively for mirror effect. At that time I ran my HE around with the Desert Eagle, and I couldn't help thinking of Lara Croft, the Tombraider. However, that character is usually seen in a kind of combat outfit. It was MarcusWob who came up with the reference to freetime ('Freizeit' in German). He said he could imagine the HE wearing these clothes ".. if Ancaria doesn't need saving for once..". So I thought the HE might wear these clothes for instance on an evening out, and I found the slang reference 'Glad Rags' nicely appropriate for this set. So the models and textures for the arms and hands had to look more like 'accessories' than actual armor or combat clothes. The arm wraps made me think of a handkerchief with a knot, which is an old-fashioned way of reminding something. That's where the name 'External Memory' came from. As an extra, you will find that the HE ponytail hairdo has been updated: I added a few extra strands to cover the back of her head a bit more. In the upcoming version of the CM Items Mod there will also be an extra-extra special feature for this hairdo. Complete set equiped + bonuses: Gallery:

> ".. there can still be more releases of the Item Mod?.." Can, yes. Provided there will be enough: - inspiration; - time; - chocolate; - coffee; - sleep.

Flix, congrats on the introduction of these, I think you've done an excellent job again with naming these weapons. Your fantasy is endless! Again it will become a new kind of 'quest' to harvest these, and to check which weapon / shield will fit your character best. > ".. hold all the new swords at the furthest end of the handle?.." As you probably know, there is a bit of 'grip shifting' when a character moves from one posture to the idle stance. This usually results in the character gripping a sword too far forward, so with the grip moved backward this won't happen.

> ".. The Irish.." Heh, good idea :-) You know, with Google Translation this might also become "An Ghaeilge". Which definitely makes it more mysterious ;-)

Ahaha.. that sword (http://imgur.com/slIShlm.jpg) looks great ! Mean carver that one, ugly wounds it will make..

Idea for a new shield:

I've created some examples for the model 'l_rundschild-f1' (yes, the round blue one that appears frequently). I've actually taken out the texture2 "fx/noise.tga" and replaced it with "fx/color.tga", because the noise makes the shield look like it's made of glass. In both these examples, the specular texture (sg) causes the light edge on the shield, so I've changed it: That's strange, now it appears overall very bright.. I guess the second example looks best.

> ".. effect of seraphim's Ancient Wings.." It's a bit of a hodgepodge really (multiple materials, transparency channels, and clearly can't use a z.shader with that effect). I don't think that this effect fits a shield - if it would be used then I don't recommend a frame around it. And rather have it light inside & fading outwards. With the ShellFX + Trans flags it shouldn't be too difficult to imitate the effect, it's just a matter of creating a texture for it with an Alpha channel. We might also use a volume texture.. > ".. Moddifying these four fields.." Do you have an example / screenshot?

Another idea might be to use SURFACE_FLAG_TRANSPARENT with the ball on To Mega Therion..

> ".. not for the Inquisitor.." When I looked through surface.txt, the Inqui's bloodpoison robe was the first I saw with the SURFACE_FLAG_SHELLFX, so I just used that one for testing. It's a good test, because the green lines for the effect are quite thin, so this means that we can use this to create good detail. Also, because I used SURFACE_FLAG_TRANSPARENT, we can probably fade the effect much better than with SURFACE_FLAG_MASKED. Not an easy job for the renderer though..

I think it will work like that, I quickly copied the green channel from the 'rj_inquisitor-bloodpoison-skirt_d' texture into a new Alpha channel & saved as DXT5. The surface definition I used is: newSurface = { name = "in-bloodpoison-legs_rj", texture0Name = "maps/heroes/inquisitor/sets/bloodpoison/rj_inquisitor-bloodpoison-skirt_d.tga", texture1Name = "maps/heroes/inquisitor/sets/bloodpoison/rj_inquisitor-bloodpoison-skirt_sg.tga", texture2Name = "fx/noise.tga", flags = SURFACE_FLAG_TRANSPARENT + SURFACE_FLAG_SHELLFX, shader = obj_trans, } mgr.surfCreate(newSurface); Result:

Ow yes, that looks very nice.. > ".. a semi-transparent energy field in a frame.." That would be a bit of a challenge, a good idea anyway. [edit] I'm thinking: use a diffuse map with an Alpha channel for transparency and then use the 'SURFACE_FLAG_SHELLFX' with the surface.. Something like this might be checked quickly with the robe of 'Ilgard's Judgment'.

> ".. look better with pistols than with pretty much everything else.." Isn't it something? Maybe with the Range Array set it was part of my intention, and with testing I was just lucky to have a Desert Eagle lying around. My highest level character doesn't even have one.. But it's true that I quickly adopted the combination for screeshots. In fact I should try a combination with fistweapon 'The Night', because the colors nicely match. And with a nice slight saber it doesn't look too bad either: Or maybe she should always remain half submerged..:

> ".. leaving an empty hand slot.." In general, the hero models have three attachment points on the arms (except maybe the TG): a weapon point on the left & right hand and a shield point on the left elbow. The model being attached to the shield point can be anything of course, but it needs to fit the position on the arm and it won't move with the hand. A dagger + sheath for example, or a jogging radio, a wrist watch, an RSI bandage, a lacrosse arm guard, a splint, etc.

> ".. better to make a brand new shield..." I thought so, that's why I put up the examples. > ".. earthy green texture.." You don't mind that it hasn't got a separate texture 'inside grey' ? > ".. but they are so slow.." I do like to have jewelry socketed to gain increased attack speed. Plus (to me) it seems quite accidental to have a high firing rate with a ranged weapon.. > ".. and bend the horns.." Could do that as well - I guess it depends on how it turns out. I'll spend some time on it and upload a proposal.

> ".. to invoke doom and the occult.." The whole concept might even be unprecedented, even beyond Sacred 2..

> ".. the Ice and Blood crystal bow model.." Yeah, why not. I think it should fit - we could even run T-energy through the bow-string.. These are two ideas for shields: The current demon shield looks quite low-poly in-game, so I'm thinking about remodeling it. It actually features something like goat skulls, but maybe the demon skull from the Judicator belt, or a skull from a desert lamppost might fit as well. This is the ornamental Dryad shield, worked in 3DSmax. It might need another texture for the inside.

> ".. I want to ask about one more feature for the future versions.." No bad timing at all: it's good to have continuity in development ! > ".. a T-Energy tube effect to run along the bow.." Not hard at all, just make sure you have a diffuse texture with an alpha channel, and paint it white where the effect should be. Then set up your surface like this: newSurface = { name = "mosaic4_tubes", texture0Name = "maps/../mosaic4_d_with_Alpha_for_tubes.tga", texture1Name = "maps/../mosaic4_sg.tga", texture2Name = "maps/../mosaic4_n.tga", flags = SURFACE_FLAG_OPAQUE + SURFACE_FLAG_TENERGY, shader = obj_d_s_b, } mgr.surfCreate(newSurface); > ".. a really good bow from Sacred 1.." As far as I've seen, S1 only has three/four bow models, and they're pretty straightforward. With respect to the model I would recommend a new design.

> ".. oversized and only present as decoration.." Surely oversized. In think it might actually be ellipsiodal, not a bent plate. I'll look for it in the model files. [edit] The model is l_drysymbol-c1.GR2 in models\objects\misc\dryads with surface "drysymbol-c1-1-l". > ".. now a Table of Contents.." It's very accessible, again one nice piece of hard work :-) Yes, MOAR LOOT ! harrrr.. !

Here's another suggestion for a new item: a shield. This shield is hanging above (a) tree entrance(s) on the Dryad island:

> ".. bring these brand-new weapon types to life.." Don't forget to credit the one who had the idea in the first place ;-) > ".. I just love the design Pesmontis made for the Aeon Flux sword.." Thanks Silver_fox, you're actually the first to appreciate this model (in 6 months).

The 'Khorum Reflector' is my favorite, closely followed by 'Ostur's Shredder'. That palm tree texture.. I think I'll edit it or use it for a new shield.