The rambling of an old fool
 

I think it's funny that we still have a Bomy Island Forum section...
Like when was the last time you played Bomy Island? xD...
Why don't we have a Graal 3D forum or a Graal New World forum still as well?
Well technically we still have the Graal 3D forum but its hidden for most of
us, I still have permission to view some of it :p

But anyways, so are we getting somewhere these days? or still just waiting
for it all to die?

If you want to start a new project on graal you first have to pay for an
account, then rent a server, then you need to find developers with gold
accounts or else they cant use RC *sadface*

Why is that?

I don't see how anyone from outside of graal is going to come here and be
like "What? I have to pay to help you guys with my awesome skills? dude,
where do I sign up for that!? :D"

Also there is no progression anymore, it died with GK 10 years ago.
I personally would love some more 3D mixed into graal, I know a lot of you
are already typing "GRAAL 3D SUCKD!!!11",

I totally agree.

But if you took another approach to the whole 3d thing like I explained in my
old "Better Terrain for GK (formerly "My Suggestions")" thread,
I think it could be very fun, successful and awesome :)

So basically a 3d editor like the one on Warcraft III.
Some examples below.

3D ground in perspective with awesome texture brushes
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/8932/54440884.jpg


Hight brushes
http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/2881/27939545.jpg


Cliff/Water brushes
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2916/16113458.jpg

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/3312/98475171.jpg

There should be pre-scripted monsters, campfires etc that you can
customize to your own liking and place on the map.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5876/65084974.jpg


It would also be very awesome to be able to change the camera view as well.
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/5301/38699556.jpg

Just imagine the awesome possibilities! I would love to see a 2d server with
perspective and would personally love to make a low poly 3d server :p

I agree with this old fool.

I agree too, always have agreed with Galdor's terrain ideas. Stefan has always been receptive to the ideas too, we just need to find a nice open-source engine that can be used in Graal.

Can't they just use the one they bought from GarageGames? ^^

That terrain looks great - but I'd hate to see close-up views. Perhaps four angles, like in Harvest Moon. That would make it easier to use sprites over the 3D terrain, which I think is a heck of lot easier for the amateur developer crowd.

Well, what you see was from 2002. I'm sure with modern systems we could have something more pretty. Either way I agree to an extent @ Galdor.

Why would you post a Graal2020 preview thread?

Well there's always jmonkey. It's alright and covers all the bases.

I'd love to see a Pokemon DS / Zelda: Phantom Hourglass style used for Graal :(

http://i2.listal.com/image/471482/60...screenshot.jpg
http://media.gamerevolution.com/imag...rglass_001.jpg
That'd be pretty cool. :cool:

They were burned once by 3D, a radical change in their product which required a lot of resources, so I can understand being hesitant to approach it again.

One of the major weaknesses Graal's official products has consistently suffered is a lack of guidance. Responsibility is not fragmented correctly and, as a result, one or two big guns control the majority of development. Whatever is left over everyone else can pick at; usually king of the hill style.

In the past Graal Online didn't have a lot of resources to risk, so I can understand why that approach would be considered, but with the success of iDevices it should be possible to bring a real product to market. If it can't be done correctly now then it will only emphasize previous short comings.

I understand what you're saying here. That essentially Graal needs a project manager, who can focus all of their time and effort solely on furthering Graal. But that person would either need to have the power to make big changes on their own, which I can't see Unixmad ever giving them. Or to have a constant clear line of communication with Unixmad and Stefan, which I also can't ever see happening.

I honestly think we should just push for more improvements on the current terrain system. It's already very similar to what you're suggesting, Galdor, but we'd just need to see more improvements made to it. On my server, we've gotten as far as making 'cliffs' that you can fall down from, but can't walk back up. And I have plans to implement things like diving into deep water as well. There's already a lot of potential with terrain maps, but few people utilize them like they should.

Now, I've seen the engine bought from GarageGames and how it's been used for Graal, and that looks pretty freakin' sweet. But I wonder why they never followed up on that. The main limitation I can see with it is that not everybody knows how to do a lot of 3D modeling, but we used to have a few people interested in that kind of development, including me.

However, since most new Graal projects are kept secret these days and never opened up to the public so we can make a community effort to develop on a flagship server, even the most ambitious projects falter and we're only left with previews of things which are never going to happen.

Java? Seriously?

Yea they put a lot of time and effort into that engine and it had some great tools that could be used, like they had this thing for walls that made them act like magnets and would connect to each other, making it really easy to build larger things out of smaller things, like a castle, a cave or a dungeon.

So even if you don't know how to model you could build stuffs like that with pre-made models (I could help some with that), all you need to do is to slap on a different texture to make it "yours" :p

@ galdor as a basic start we could easily have "pre-defined tiles" similar to the current ones but in 3d. level editing would be a breeze. :cool: