Funcom, whats going on ?

[andistoteles]

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthr...Hyboria/page35

Post #342
After the 1st. and 2nd. (which are displayed in the thread) picture you can see:

- Character Creation Screen from "outside", the story behind the sinking slave ship was almost a full scene, the ship got attacked by two other aquilonian ships. In a beta video of the character creation you can see the scene which was supposed to be displayed when starting to creation a character: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLlkNoVHwBY

- Ymir Temple in Ymir's Pass which never got completed (right behind where Ymir's Son stands in the open world there was supposed to be a gate to the temple)

- (next 5 pictures) An alternative version of the aquilonian / cimmerian PvP Map (not really confirmed but you can see small defense towers), it seems like there were special maps for PvP zones planned. First 2 pictures seem to be for aquilonian are and next 3 for cimmerian area, it got some guild city buildings (defense towers / walls) as well as some standard cimmerian building huts)

- Alternative map of Khemi - more detailed and larger temple districts / a special "water temple"

- (next 6 pictures) A very detailed map of fort Venarium (where the Cimmerians (even Conan with his father I think?) fought against the Aquilonians). Looks like it's created with outdoor locations as well as a village (which has similar buildings to Conarch, maybe they dumped the idea of Venarium and created Conarch?) and a aquilonian fort


I am not sure if the actual developers know about those "almost ready" maps. (since they could have been planned a long time like 2007-2006 and the actual devs work only since 2009 here) It would save much time when creating more X-Packs because they are aready very detailed and well created. If those maps are not deleted yet, maybe we could tell the devs that these maps are still somewhere in the game files just that they could finish these maps to create high quality X-Packs without much time and ressource efford.

This looks absolutly awsome.. Why on Earth are they not using any of this? If they have all of these locations, then its really really wierd that they are not using it..

[Verner]

Does anyone have a link to the prerelease videos? I vaguely remember two of them - one where a mounted knight with a lance mows down picts (In-game!) and one where a player-manned trebuchet blows away NPCs attacking a guild city from a bridge, was that for real or are they just false memories?

EDIT - after some searching it seems like the stuff I'm talking about was displayed at E3 2006, if anyone else is interested. I haven't found a full video of the gameplay demonstration though, just snips from handheld cameras.

[Rathothis]

I am not sure if the actual developers know about those "almost ready" maps. (since they could have been planned a long time like 2007-2006 and the actual devs work only since 2009 here) It would save much time when creating more X-Packs because they are aready very detailed and well created. If those maps are not deleted yet, maybe we could tell the devs that these maps are still somewhere in the game files just that they could finish these maps to create high quality X-Packs without much time and ressource efford.

If I understand correctly (based on what Entenkiller has said), these maps are "data garbage" which was pressed on the game DVDs. So the files actually are still available - many of us even have them at home.

Reminds me a bit of KotOR2, that game was a paradise for miners

[slackjoint]

Maybe those screens are worth a TL thread ?

[xCodename]

If I understand correctly (based on what Entenkiller has said), these maps are "data garbage" which was pressed on the game DVDs. So the files actually are still available - many of us even have them at home.

Reminds me a bit of KotOR2, that game was a paradise for miners

Thats even better so these files are still around and can be used!

Maybe those screens are worth a TL thread ?

I think it would be great to ask the devs if it is possible to use these maps for upcoming Expansion, they will save so much time / resources by using them. They probably don't know about these game files and with our help they could create some nice maps (these maps seem like they are almost complete in terms of landscape / vegetation / buildings etc. only NPC's, Triggers and a story is probably missing) without too much work.

It's sad that so many people don't even know about these files (Huge thanks to Entenkiller for revealing the screenshots to us!), I didn't knew about them either but they have so much potential and are marked as "garbage files"... it makes me crazy. Compare these maps with the one from the Vanaheim Expansion... and if they already got an almost done map they can focus more on the storyline / quests to make them on a higher niveau than in the Vanaheim Expansion

[Ernests]

I doubt that the game missing locations, where you can pick mushrooms or flowers, or missing dungeons with 101 pieces of glue gear. For several years the game totally missing progress options! While developers wouldn't understand it, the game will continue go down.

[Caudilloo]

I also remember seeing an almost completely finished pvp map which had a bit of a Lost Temple feel to it with two levels and a stygian sandstone look. Some dev or GD got asked about it and from what I recall he told us that finishing and optimizing that map now would take more work then designing a complete new one from scratch.

I've looked trough the forums and Slith/Cynara's blogs but can't seem to find what I'm thinking about. If anyone knows I'd appreciate if you can post a link.

[Slith]

I also remember seeing an almost completely finished pvp map which had a bit of a Lost Temple feel to it with two levels and a stygian sandstone look. Some dev or GD got asked about it and from what I recall he told us that finishing and optimizing that map now would take more work then designing a complete new one from scratch.

I've looked trough the forums and Slith/Cynara's blogs but can't seem to find what I'm thinking about. If anyone knows I'd appreciate if you can post a link.

What will be your next category?

hm...ok I think I will take "unfinished pvp maps" for 500.

Here is your question: name an almost completely finished pvp map which had a bit of a Lost Temple feel to it with two levels and a stygian sandstone look.

I am ready to anwser: what is Dark Cathedral?

Ding ding ding. We have a winner!



http://www.katsbits.com/articles/age...adventures.php
https://www.google.pl/search?q=dark+...FUtbFAodSSUEPg

I have asked Joel about it via twitter.

[Fass]

What will be your next category?

hm...ok I think I will take "unfinished pvp maps" for 500.

Here is your question: name an almost completely finished pvp map which had a bit of a Lost Temple feel to it with two levels and a stygian sandstone look.

I am ready to anwser: what is Dark Cathedral?

Ding ding ding. We have a winner!



http://www.katsbits.com/articles/age...adventures.php
https://www.google.pl/search?q=dark+...FUtbFAodSSUEPg

I have asked Joel about it via twitter.

There is also a second almost finished map called Courtyard. It reminds you a little bit of Hallowed Vaults.
Courtyard was last edited in 2008.03.11 which is pre-release and Dark Cathedral in 2008.02.19.
Oh and there is also a (playfield Name="PvP CTF 1" Date="2007.08.20"). I guess that makes it three unfinished maps.

[Nusquam]

There is also a second almost finished map called Courtyard. It reminds you a little bit of Hallowed Vaults.
Courtyard was last edited in 2008.03.11 which is pre-release and Dark Cathedral in 2008.02.19.
Oh and there is also a (playfield Name="PvP CTF 1" Date="2007.08.20"). I guess that makes it three unfinished maps.

One of the first things I did as Game Director on AoC was have the guys paw through the old assets (such as the maps you are discussing) and tell me whether we could use them. The conclusion from the artists and designers was "these are old and **** and we'd be better off starting from scratch then wasting time trying to fix these maps".

That's pretty much the entire story - these are old, old maps.

How exactly did you access them for screenshots?