UE4 Conversion from Neverwinter Nights 1/2 Toolsets

Olander · September 7, 2014, 4:04am

Hi All!

**Recently returned AGAIN to UE4…this time for good.
**Concept/Real Art Assets linked below to DAZ. I have licenses for use in game (embedded DAT file(s)

Note: This is not a Epic Marketplace item to be designed. The Toolset/Toolkit will be a free or small payment part of the game/visual book itself. Also no subscription based play.

Folks…what you read below is a very serious endeavor. Indeed this is in Off-Topic because it barely fits anywhere. This is as good as any. I have made a few minor updates to the posting below but mainly left it unchanged because this is what it is. A 10yr path of fun and adventure. A dream to build and play a realistic, hardcore gaming environment that will allow others to join the fray to create some **** fine gaming. I am a Unity Pro developer and am sick of having to fight the integration of different tools and engine flaws/limitations. I have a tremendous amount of work done in Unity to make a solid foundation for the Genesis Toolset…not all of it will be thrown away…some of it will be transferred to UE4 and reworked to make it functional. A set back…but a worthwhile one.

For any that are interested in this fun adventure in building and design within UE4…this is Royalty Based first but once Investors/Kickstarter funding becomes available we all get paid.

Info:
I have been working in Unity3D for 2.0yrs now trying to make a NWN 1/2 Toolset Conversion. Being completely fed up with integrating Asset Store items to play well together to build a framework that this can function properly was more headaches than success. I have been in UE4 recently giving it a very solid push and the framework is already in place. Everything has been working flawlessly and have only been using Blueprints to get the coding transferred over for testing. Brilliant! Thank You Epic!!!

So now the engine is of zero concern it is simply content and templates so that we may paint in what we wish to make a dungeon, house, castle…whatever we can dream.

How much interest would there be from UE4 creators to doing something like this? I had a lot of this structure completed in Unity but it was in rough shape as well as things constantly breaking as stated above.
Perhaps a team of like minded designers could come together here to make this happen?

3D Assets:

Characters:
DAZ (I have the main races ready to go) <=Genesis is very good (Decimated to 32k) and easy to shape…difficult custom work like skin texture options and such.
or
Mixamo Fuse (slight skinning issues but could be easily used) <= Ultra Fast Biped Character Creation

Monsters:
DAZ, Fuse, Renderosity, Unity Asset Store (great for 3D Assets)

Clothing:
I personally have well over 1000 pieces…add to that basically 8 colours in each is a lot of clothing/armour assets.
**Can use DAZ to shape clothing to a Mixamo Fuse nude model then import into Fuse for the amazing material options and auto shape fit.

Examples of the Quality: Index of /AoOG/Pics
**Models have small changes since these pics were taken. Most clothing/armour pics are in Female and Male categories.

Animations:
I have many many Mixamo animations as well as the Truebones Mega Download when it was on sale…basically a mess (literally and figuratively) of BVH and FBX that simply needs to Retarget in iKinema to the Epic Skeleton…as with all the animations really. I also own the Hero Mega Pack from Mr Necturus on the Unity Asset Store for game use.
**How about Horse and Reptile Riding? I have very nice Horses and the animations…Reptile riding would be an awesome option

Landscape Environments:
There are both Land and Space environments.

Land is height and splatmap based with UE4 landscaping tools
Space is Non-Physics based movement with space debris, scaled planets, Bio-Sphere Main Space Stations, and asteroid orbit fields…among other cool things.

Interiors:
Models are basically ‘Snap-n-Build’ type. The buildings themselves are shell types with internal components that snap together. Most of these internal components have texture properties that allow them to easily change the Look and Feel of the model. This allows for a vast array of modders to make a build Assemblies without even adding mesh models and coding to the game.

Icons:
I have a thousand or so already ready to go…Crafting, Food, Drink, Skills, Potions…etc…all very high quality. All Icons are 64x64 perfect for GUI, Inventory, Character Slots. As Clothing/Armour is made those icons must be created at that time.

Textures for Painting/Interiors…etc.:
I have many many (hundreds) of high quality textures ready to go with normal maps already created (most are tileable). Many of these need to be converted to UE4 materials

Ruleset:
Fully Custom: Entire system is Skill Tick based which adds % values to a 10 base character system (sort of like base DnD). There are zero Perk/Feat trees to figure out. When you increase the ‘Skill Tick’ at each level and then use something that features that Skill Trait then the player improves the % adder to the Skill Trait Total (+Ticks). NPCs have this manually set by the designer (can be random by Class). This system allows for very wide diversity in builds and level differences. It is very simple to learn but very difficult to make perfect power builds because of the very close dependency upon play style (and AI set).

Crafting:
A very usable system that ties into an Trading Hall that the locals participate in as well (randomly of course). Personally I think if LoTRO (Up to Supreme) and SWTOR could be combined the system would be amazing. Olander’s Crafting in NWN1 had a decent hybrid of MMO and DnD which was a lot of fun to actually craft what you needed. No Trade Hall really except a bounty system that you could trade your materials which was innovative but not a Trade System replacement. That crafting system also implemented wearing and breaking weapons which was both awesome and horrible at the same time. In the middle of a viscous dungeon battle and your weapon breaks! Forgot to bring a back up! Time to fight with Fists or Tactical Retreat! Gawds that was fun!

Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue, Resting:
This makes for great adventuring when done correctly. Several from NWVault had HTF systems and all worked well in their own methods. Olander’s was the most integrated since it influenced so many other things but was not in your face Drink **** You Drink! haha!! Eventually if you did not Eat or Drink you died…really. If you became exhausted you pass out then struggle to get up to try to set up a camp or bedroll to sleep…in combat you are basically chopped to bits while laying there. haha!! There were bars giving you status so you knew. Also being in combat and casting spells increased fatigue as well. Brilliant!
**Of note. Some my most memorable times were sitting around a campfire telling tales while in game. Just a really cool place to hang out and relax prior to getting nuked in the dungeon that is near…then somehow surviving to tell more tales at the same campsite. haha!! Yay!!

Death and Bleeding:
Option for Permanent Death after Quantity of Respawn Clicks. Great system! In any case Bleeding starts at 0 then each 5 seconds subtracts 1. At -10 the character has bled to death and can wait for help or shall be forced to respawn after a number of seconds. Healers can revive out of combat once they are able to gain the skills. I was uncertain of playing inside this type of system. Olander’s system gave the character 10 soul runes then every 5 levels you will nab a bonus soul rune…so basically 17 in total at level 40 (you could never have more than 10 though). Tactical retreats became a real tactic. Having 2 tanks block a doorway while hordes of enemy come two at a time become a very real group thought process. The AI and Spawning design basically made thing random enough that a team could not pre-formulate a process for the fight…like a current MMO dungeon with people explaining ‘How’ the fight will go. There was none of that. You knew kind of where they were but no idea the mix. The team had to scout to find all the choke points so they could advance forward enough to stop the spawning. Gruesome brilliance! Death was a very real threat since you could only do it a few times. Best team work ever seen in gaming…period.

AI:
Direct NWN1/2 Transfer since the AI was actually quite good. Olander’s AI and Jasper’s AI were both amazing additions/modifications to the default AI so much better…basically they were filters and auto configs for AI so that the AI could Behave in a very specific but also ‘Natural’ method. For UE4 I believe this AI could be created rather easily with a Blueprint Over-Structure that ‘Points’ to Behaviour Blueprints or perhaps the UE4 Behaviours could be utilized from the pointers?

FX:
Ambients like Weather and Clouds need to be created.
Lights…basically about 20 templates would do.
Elementals for Placeables like Torch Fire, Small/Med/Large Fires…or Fire Place Fire that would also use an embedded light. Perhaps 10 of these.
Spell Effects…in the custom ruleset I have been thinking about has 8 types of spells in 6 types of elements…Earth, Electricity, Fire, Healing, Spirit, and Water (Ice)…so not really that many spell effects.

Sound:
I have many many ambient and dungeon sounds effects and some rather strange sounds that could be used for something…umm…I am certain! haha!! In other words very few ambient sound effects will need to be made. In UE4 there will be a need to blend some of these so that they overlay properly…say a Forest with natural sounds in example. One sound blend placed could loop these sounds continuously in the range…overlap the ranges to extend over long distances. This makes changing environmental sounds simple over large and varied landscapes.

Voice Sets could be done exactly like Bioware did with NWN 1. Would be a simple matter to find various people…devs included…that could speak out the 15 different spoken lines…perhaps even extend the variety to 25? The facial blendshapes actually seem to work well in UE4…so coding in the access to the facial expressions should not be very difficult. Monsters of course would need specific sound sets.

Dialogue and Questing/Missions:
A lot of reading/writing…which has the benefit of not being like modern MMOs with the Space Bar or simply choosing Accept since reading the reason why they want you to get their favourite ‘insert’. Make the player have to choose with a tree based system. NWN2’s implementation of this is very very good. A huge improvement over NWN1. Chat Mapper software (I purchased) is very easy to generate this type of dialogue…the GUI required in UE4 is well…probably needs to be created. In Unity Asset store Pixel Crushers created a very very nice Dialogue System for Unity. Perhaps something like this could be made?

Adult Content Options:
I believe having a mature and adult gaming community is a very untapped resource as well as being a lot fun to play in. As long as the adult content stays clean and professional it will be more natural and easier to swallow for on the fence people. Even if the modding community decide to add the vile extreme as some have done in Skyrim mods that would never become a part of the main game. Personally I have no issue with what they created but I would never take part in that craziness. On the other side of things RPing being locked on a post or pillory and being humiliated or punished for breaking the law is perfectly fine and is quite fun. If you break the law bad enough there could be a headman’s axe waiting as well. Oops -1 life! **** It All!

Online Store:
Having Cosmetic Only items players can purchase from an Online Store only adds to the longevity of such a game platform. Understood that once someone purchases the asset it will inevitably become Internet Free. Even with that having specific templates for Community Content Creation simply enhances the game engine…also forces the community to produce better quality in the end. The modding community would also need to purchase the UE4 engine to use the toolset base package. Perhaps it is moot. In anycase Win Win Win for all involved.

Main Campaign for Sale to play:
$60 US gets you a game to play in single and multiplayer that is massive and would take many (100s) hours to complete…if ever. With the systems above a game 8x the size of Skyrim could be made rather easily. This also gives the community modder an access code for the entire map/project access so they can mod and add to it…which then of course could be played within the original campaign map…which if is of high enough quality voted by the community as well as being somewhat close enough to the developed environment setting…could be implemented permanently into the main game with any other expansion packs that come out as ‘Plug-Ins’. This returns some funding to many creative designers out there to pad their pockets as well as…extend the life of the game.

There is no question that this would sell in droves as well as being really fun to play. With none of the headaches of dealing with a MMO. Win Win Win.

Personally I have a map I have painted that is the first age of Anvarath called Avaron
[(http://www.standsurestudio.com/AoOG/Maps/World%20of%20Anvarath%20-%20Age%20of%20Ost%20Galanhad.png"/URL)

Summary:
Other various features could also be added/tweaked by a team of course!

Team Leader would be decided by the team.

Licensed Assets:
Assets are tied to Don Anderson (aka Olander) and Stand Sure Automation for licensing and original content. There is simply so much this needs to be maintained this way.
All assets and content would be available to the Team in both UE4 Project, raw models and textures, and animations.

Personal Skills to Contribute:
My skills and software (Mainly in Design, Coding Functional Activities, Testing, Writing, and Painting):
OK/Slow - Animation and Rigging
Excellent - DAZ Character Modelling
Solid - 3D Art from scratch
Solid - Blender 2.7+
Excellent - Photoshop CS1
Excellent - GIMP (also for 2D Normal Maps)
Excellent - xNormal (for 3D Mesh Ambient Occulsion and Normal Maps)
Excellent - Map/Interior Painter and Dungeon Designer
Excellent - Writer, Quest Design, Testing
Excellent - Writer, Story Telling
Excellent - Systems Infrastructure, Balancing, Testing
Good - C/CS coder…better scripter. Loving the UE4 BP System!!

Thank you for reading and very much look forward to opinions and interest.

Concept and Real Art used in UE4 (transferring into UE4 at this point). The renders you see are not in UE4 but during testing in Unity Pro v4 I had very similar if not better results…materials optimized for performance. I expect the same in UE4.

These pics are all Unity Pro v4 renders during my Genesis workflow and render/performance test. These show off a few of the armor and clothing.
http://www.standsurestudio.com/AoOG/Pics/Female/Leather/
http://www.standsurestudio.com/AoOG/Pics/Male/
http://www.standsurestudio.com/AoOG/Pics/Female/Cloth/
http://www.standsurestudio.com/AoOG/Pics/Female/Plate/
and many many more.

A couple Creatures created.
http://www.standsurestudio.com/AoOG/Pics/Giants/
http://www.standsurestudio.com/AoOG/Pics/Veovox/
http://www.standsurestudio.com/AoOG/Pics/Votriku/

Mixamo Animations (I have every one of the emotes and ‘fantasy’ style animations) www.mixamo.com
Note: for some nice examples…Click on Store Beta then Click on Pro Melee Axe Pack, Sword and Shield Pack, any of the Longbow packs (they are split up)…then a rather large number of emotes.