Tario Saga: Road To Araboth

[WeirdoYYY]

As promised, here is some snippits and info regarding this project I have been working on.


'Tario Saga: Road To Araboth' is a total conversion modification featuring a unique setting, 20 levels, and deadly enemies. The story is set in the midst of a war between two powerful nations in the land of Tario where you play as a member of an elite unit known as the "Devil's Brigade" who fight for the Republic of Kent. The game takes you on a journey across enemy lines as you hunt a fugitive weapons dealer on a path to the once mythical land known as Araboth.

Features (So Far)
- 20 levels ranging from outdoors environments to war torn cities and blown out bunkers.
- Weapons include your basic pistols, assault rifle, and RPG. Also included is a shotgun/grenade launcher combo, a crossbow type weapon, a trench rifle with iron sights, and an alien weapon left over from a previous conflict.
- Enemies include three hostile creatures, riflemen, mercenaries, machine gun nests, warlocks, and more.
- Fast paced gunplay. Enemies shoot quick and aim well so taking cover is suggested. Dodging simply isn't enough.
- Various computers which detail story tidbits and helpful information.
- Allies with punch. Fellow Republicans fire automatic weapons, magic bolts, and sometimes arrive in small helicopters for support.
- Music for each level. Electronic compositions, dark ambient, noise, and martial industrial.

What's left
- Play testing
- Minor texturing
- Chapter screens
- Multiplayer levels (If people are interested, I would like to pass this off to someone else mostly as it's not my forte)








Mind some of the fog on these screenshots, I am going to turn it down. Was just playing with it.

[General-RADIX]

This premise does sound like it could lead to interesting stuff, but to be honest, the environments on display here are looking...really brown-and-green. Do other texture sets have different color palettes?

[The Man]

Perhaps that’s a product of the screenshots being mostly outdoor screenshots. The outdoors is usually pretty brown-and-green.

Overall, I think they look good. Overkill on the fog, but obviously you already know that. I usually use a depth setting of 42 and you can probably go even lower without diluting the effect.

When is play-testing etc. expected to begin?

[Meerjel01]

Looks fun. I might want to play-test this if I'm allowed to.

[Windbreaker]

It's great to see so many projects making actual progress this late in the game. Keep it up, WeirdoYYY. These screenshots look intriguing and I'm surprised at how much progress you've made so far. I gotta see that helicopter thing in action.

[WeirdoYYY]

This premise does sound like it could lead to interesting stuff, but to be honest, the environments on display here are looking...really brown-and-green. Do other texture sets have different color palettes?

I've been a little fluid with the texture sets since I use them all in varying degrees. They're sort of separated into Outdoors, Military/Indoors, City, Battleship, and Underground.

I have however been slowly working on the textures and these are the product of a few different shifts. I don't mind so much the brown and green because the setting sort of calls for it. It's not explicitly said off the bat but it will become clear. What would be better in your opinion?

Perhaps that’s a product of the screenshots being mostly outdoor screenshots. The outdoors is usually pretty brown-and-green.

Overall, I think they look good. Overkill on the fog, but obviously you already know that. I usually use a depth setting of 42 and you can probably go even lower without diluting the effect.

When is play-testing etc. expected to begin?

As soon as I touch up some more levels. I've done some run through with myself so far and it's doable. I've never run a playtest before so I would need to know what to provide people with.

Looks fun. I might want to play-test this if I'm allowed to.

Absolutely. I'll update here.

It's great to see so many projects making actual progress this late in the game. Keep it up, WeirdoYYY. These screenshots look intriguing and I'm surprised at how much progress you've made so far. I gotta see that helicopter thing in action.

The helicopter guy is a useful comrade. He's handy at helping deal some damage to the tanks and other pesky units.

[General-RADIX]

I've been a little fluid with the texture sets since I use them all in varying degrees. They're sort of separated into Outdoors, Military/Indoors, City, Battleship, and Underground.

I have however been slowly working on the textures and these are the product of a few different shifts. I don't mind so much the brown and green because the setting sort of calls for it. It's not explicitly said off the bat but it will become clear. What would be better in your opinion?

Hm...maybe some foliage on the cliff sides to at least break up all the brown a bit? (Assuming A1 can hang scenery objects on walls) And/or some yellow- or orange-tinted highlights on the cliff textures themselves so that it's not largely a single shade of brown.

[The Man]

I've never run a playtest before so I would need to know what to provide people with.

I don’t see any reason you should need to provide anything beyond a working game.

I don’t think A1 specifically hangs scenery objects on walls, but you can take a look at Pfhor Prime in Rubicon for an idea how to use foliage scenery. (IIRC the foliage is actually purple or pink or something along those lines, because, well, it’s alien, but the same principle applies.) Alternatively, Tempus, though the cases where they make the trees impassable are kind of annoying (this was before it was possible to change hard-coded values in the engine, so this depended upon which scenery slot Nardo decided to use for the trees). It’d also be possible just to make additional foliage textures, which might be the best approach.

[WeirdoYYY]

Here are some more screencaps. There's a lot of differential shading to work on as well as some retexturing but the general idea is there. I might also add some more features to the empty rooms as they can seem a little boring but it's a major step from what this all originally looked like.



Interrupting dinner...



Might change the floor/ceiling textures on this one. Had a different texture beforehand and have to figure something else out.



Weird room



I see the untextured spot in this creepy old subway station.



Getting into some royal shit



Red and blue are sort of elegant colours in the game and feature predominantly in the indoor/underground setting.



Escaping via a court yard. Buddies drop in to back you up but it's pretty tough I will say..



Inside an old research station.



I switched the fog off here. This is a view from an office type building of a street below. Good spot to clear out some enemies from.



Again, turned off the fog. This is a sort of underground sewage plant that is a back door for your mission. I'm sure it smells great.

[Meerjel01]

How's the project going?

[WeirdoYYY]

How's the project going?

Very good. Finishing touches on levels to update them a bit. Next task is sound and making sure my graphics are good for terminals.

I also want to try and redo the Survival Mode parameters sometime and maybe do some levels for that. I'm not sure about multiplayer yet because I don't know how my weapons are balanced out and I'm not the best at net level map making.

[WeirdoYYY]

Messing around on Blender just making some scenes. Might use some for terminal pics.

Here's a scene of a battle from a previous war where an alien invasion was able to unite the rival nations of the world. While this war doesn't take place in the game, story tidbits related to it as well as one weapon and some technology stems from the knowledge acquired afterwards.




Trench fighting is pretty common on the main front as both sides are locked in a stalemate. The tank you see here will occasionally pop up in the game and cause you great misery.

[Meerjel01]

Is the scenario gonna be low-poly themed? I do low-poly in Blender too sometimes.

[WeirdoYYY]

Is the scenario gonna be low-poly themed? I do low-poly in Blender too sometimes.

I'm not a brilliant 3D designer so yeah it's gonna look a bit rudimentary. Although if interest pertains, an HD set would look nice.

[Meerjel01]

If you want then I can give you some Blender tips. Like I see the axis indicator on the first image so I guess you didn't use cameras and rendered the scene through it.

[WeirdoYYY]

If you want then I can give you some Blender tips. Like I see the axis indicator on the first image so I guess you didn't use cameras and rendered the scene through it.

Yeah I just did a quick snapshot. Didn't feel like rendering anything haha

[Meerjel01]

So.. Is this project dead?

Sucks because I did like it's simplicity.

[WeirdoYYY]

So.. Is this project dead?

Sucks because I did like it's simplicity.

Nope! Actually getting very close. I tweaked some levels, added some more detail, etc.. I will post some updates soon. Glad to see some interest haha

[WeirdoYYY]

Here's some updated screenshots and info.. Forgot to turn off the fog for some.


These three pictures here show a level where you have to pass through an old underground city. Unfortunately for you, the city is full of baddies including the "Slaves" which are quick and nasty people controlled by a sinister force. Originally this level was barren and just a straight ambush but it was not only really difficult, it was boring. So I added in buildings, some busted up areas, and a couple switches to make the level more interesting.







You pass through an old sewage plant underground to reach a castle. Wouldn't be a Marathon game without swimming through poop. Added some details to this one as well and fleshed it out.




The Slaves as I mentioned are basically people who have been put under control by a powerful magic force known as the Aether. These Slaves are actually referred to as "colonists" for reasons the game will explain. They're pretty tough in close quarters.



Need to even the textures out here.



Storming the beaches.




Good sniping spot on this level.

[The Man]

Looks pretty cool. I’d probably have posted inquiring about progress as well but I figured you’d update when you were ready. A lot of scenario developers don’t feel inclined to post public progress updates as often as Pfhorrest and I do.

If you have gameplay films, I’d certainly be interested in watching those as well. You can export them from recent versions of A1 by clicking option-view saved film. Then just upload to YouTube or wherever. I often find those show a lot more than screenshots do.

[WeirdoYYY]

Looks pretty cool. I’d probably have posted inquiring about progress as well but I figured you’d update when you were ready. A lot of scenario developers don’t feel inclined to post public progress updates as often as Pfhorrest and I do.

If you have gameplay films, I’d certainly be interested in watching those as well. You can export them from recent versions of A1 by clicking option-view saved film. Then just upload to YouTube or wherever. I often find those show a lot more than screenshots do.

Good idea. What's the key for Windows though? I am assuming Alt?

[The Man]

Yep, that’s correct.

[WeirdoYYY]

It's not letting me replay or save any of my last films. Just keeps defaulting to a different playthrough that I don't want to use.

[The Man]

That’s odd. You are using “view saved film”, not “replay last film”, right?

[WeirdoYYY]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAgHZQVwM98

Got a video up! Some of the fixes are obvious but these are five of the total 20 levels.