Well another winter solstice passes and another new year dawns, and again I find myself being ever hopeful that this year is the one where the next release of War of the Solstice makes it out…
2014 saw some good steps on the engine side, and the framework was laid down for a completely new audio environment within the game…
There is still much to do before I’m ready for the next release, so I really hope that you can show continued patience, for which I am very grateful. I know that it has been a long while coming already…
One thing is clear, Midnight will be advancing in a couple of special unique ways 😉
For the moment, I’ve posted a couple of updated demos to get a feel for the progress
Please hint about the changes! I have my own ideas, but perhaps they are too ambitious to contemplate… or perhaps not!
Because a different IA for each game (with a choice of possible) would be amazing. The amount of replayability would be…astounding! Imagine each game being different from the last, not knowing how the enemy would attack, when and through what route!
If someone had the knowledge and the time, the amount of improvements to this game is limitless. For example,a way of making the tyical strategy of massing all forces in Xajorkith and leaving the whole of Midnight to the wolves a not so good idea…
Dreaming is free, but I believe the key to inmmense replayability does not lie in better graphics, but a more challenging IA. But of course that’s a hard task and perhaps goes beyond your intentions… or perhaps not! After all, Mike programmed an acceptable IA 20 years ago in a Spectrum, nothing you computer geniuses can’t improve, surely!
Hi, and thanks for your comments
I feel your desire for an improved AI! The engine is designed for various scenarios (rule sets) however up until now I only focused on the traditional, fully faithful rule set. That was always a primary goal of the remake, to bring the existing game “as was” up to date graphically, and now audibly too.
There are so many ways that the original could be tweaked and expanded, if I got started on some of these then I fear the next release would simply never happen. Never say never, but this is a 2nd priority in terms of what I’m trying to achieve with this.
Looks fantastic (it always has!) I still play the ‘current’ version and think you have the best LoM currently out there…. and I’m still in that version!
Keep going, looking forward to the update.
Thanks Kevin
Appreciate your kind words
I’m determined to get another release out, it’s just taking a bit longer than I anticipated with the improvements planned 😉
Looks excellent! I’m glad you’re still working on it as I thought you had given up! I love being able to walk through Midnight in full 3D. Keep up the good work! 🙂
Just a thumbs up for the good work, looking forward to more updates 🙂
Please keep up the good work. There are more of us out there (devoted fans) than perhaps you know! Good luck!!
Good job!) I’m looking forward with anticipation to try a new version of WOTS).
Hungrily waiting for updates!
I know that this is just a hobby for you, so I would not dare to put pressure on you on the least! On the contrary, I will just be grateful if this ever comes out, but you have no obligation whatsoever. That said, could you please update us on how this is going? I visit this site practically once every two/three days… and as the months go by without news, it’s a bit frustrating to be ignorant of any news. Mind that it only means we loved your previous work!!!
Nicely worded 😉
I see that I’m struggling to satisfy your hunger for progress, and do acknowledge that the updates I give are rather sporadic!
I only tend to post when there is something substantial to tell, rather than post on a regular basis with no or very limited progress.. but I know that some like your good self might prefer that instead of not knowing
The last couple of months have been fairly slow going, but I have been making further progress on the audio side, primarily with the 3d positional audio within FMod for terrain features and ambient sound effects. I had to revise the approach here 2 or 3 times in order to get seamless audio as you move around the landscape, all of which now works very nicely…
Work will continue on the audio integration over the next few months as I see for real the best way to integrate music in particular with a turn based game style.
Please don’t underestimate the time involved in moving this kind of development along, which when done at a few hours a week, translates into the kind of timescales that you are experiencing…
Just found your site after discovering LOM and DDR where out on Android.
I loved both games in the Speccy days and lost many a happy hour to them both. You’ve done a great job with this re-make.
Thanks for your hard work, I’m looking forward to what comes next.:)
Thanks Richard, I hope you will find it well worth the wait when the time comes…
I played LOM back in 1984 while off work with a broken leg, played it for literally days and weeks. Then just recently I discovered the Android version and had a wonderful few days reliving my youth.
But now….now I found WOTS and I am speechless by what you have done. It is stunning!! I have it running on a Dell 7140 tablet + keyboard and it looks great. Going to install it onto my company notebook so I can play it on my next business trip.
Thank you, thank you, thank you – I am now going to lock myself in my bedroom for the weekend!!
If I see any bugs or have any ideas to contribute, I will be sure to report – this labor of your love deserves all the support in the world.
(walks away chuckling to himself while rubbing hands together….)
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the positive feedback and I’m glad to hear that you have found some joy in playing the game in this format.
The next version is in development which is turning out to be a longer affair than I had anticipated, mainly due to the scope of music and sound effects that are being added to the game…
Feel free to report back any observations or ideas that might help to improve the interface or visual representation (a goal is to keep the original scope and gameplay intact however)
All the best
Andrew
Updates, please? I read you were adding sound effects. While those are welcome, remember that the original had no sound at all and it had a great atmosphere!!!
Hey!
Yes sound effects are being updated, but also _much more_ than simply sound effects!
We are talking here about many many ambient and musical pieces which knit together to influence the emotional state of the player… something which the original and any other remake version of The Lords of Midnight didn’t yet accomplish.
And alongside continuation of this, I’ve been improving the smoke effects and army representation. I have some cunning ideas how the army units can be supplemented with audio to enhance the playing experience… for example the trial of battle horns is just around the corner 🙂
The wheels are still turning…
Andrew
Hello. It would be good to improve army visual representation indeed! Also I suggest that as captured keeps and citadels emanates black smoke, so the battlefields (actually, not only fields, but all locations where battles were) must be covered with dead bodies and feeding crows. Such graphical feature could surely add some atmosphere to the game!