Foundations of Hope: The Dragons!
by Leathel Grody · 08/22/2007 (7:24 pm) · 6 comments
Game Name: Foundations of Hope Online
Technology: TGE + Torque MMO Kit
Genre: Christian Fantasy MMORPG
Company: Lethal Games Corporation
Game Website: Foundations of Hope Online
The dragons are here! It has been a fun adventure getting the dragons modelled and learning how to get them flying in the game. Finishing the dragons brings me closer to the first milestone. I just have to finish a few characters I ran out of time in the months past and Milestone 1 will be achieved. I can't wait! Next month I will start working toward Milestone 2 which is to create the buildings and zones. I have not touched learning how to create a .dif so it shall be quite a new adventure. But then again, 5 months ago I did not know how to model a character for Torque either.
The dragons in the Foundations of Hope books and game play a major role in the storyline. Book Two: Into the Darkness begins to explain just how much the dragons are involved in the storyline. Book Two opens up the storyline up that there are actually three realms fighting against each other. Humans, Saurians(lizard creatures), and the dragons. Using the Torque MMO Kit works out nicely since it is already setup for three realms. So this will provided three PvP realms in the PvP zones.
I have not totally decided exactly how it will happen but once a human or Saurian player reaches a certain level, finishes a specific quest, etc. they will be able to start playing as a dragon. I have the option to use the MoM's monster template systems, but not totally sure yet if that is the direction I want to go.
When a player begins as a dragon they will start out as a newborn hatchling. They will have the option of choosing between different colors.The dragons will have quests and be a playable character just like any other class, the quests will just need to be modified to fit a dragon. As the the hatchling levels it will grow into the next and larger mesh, the Dragonling. This will continue on until a player reaches as a Dragon Adult.
The mesh changing is as follows:
Level 0-5: Hatchling
Level 6-10: Dragonling
Level 11-15: Larger Dragonling
Level 16-20: Teenager Dragon
Level 21+: Adult Dragon
Flying has been implemented as a skill. A baby hatchling will have limited flight and as the dragon grows in flying skill the duration of flight will increase and the skill reuse time will decrease.
Won't the dragons overpower the humans and Saurians since they have the ability to fly? In the series, dragons have actually split apart. There are some that are helping the humans and Saurians, and there are those that have stayed independent(playable characters) that are out to destroy both humans and Saurians. The dragons that have chosen to join forces with either humans or Saurians will be represented as mountable dragons. So as a human or Saurian levels they will also receive a quest or pet(unsure yet) that will give them a dragon mount. This will allow the humans and Saurians to fly and battle against the independent dragons.
The dragon meshes have been split into the six different sections using the MoM material system. They are head, body, neck, legs, feet, tail. This will allow me to create armor that is equipable for each of these sections. There are four different dragon meshes that will be used: hatchling, dragonling, adult, adult mounted. The nice part is that each of these meshes derive from the mountable dragon mesh. So the dragon body meshes(mounted, adult, dragonling, hatchling) can all use the same body texture. The hatchling and dragonling meshes are just using a different head texture.
I only focused on one texture to give a good comparison of each of the different levels. Plus it was quicker to not have to do another texture set. The dragon is based on the Daz3d Millenium2 dragon. It is used to illustrate many of the chapters of the series so it ties the books with the game. If you have not read any of the other posts, I do have Daz3d's permission to do so. The mounted adult dragon has the most polys at 2500 polys.
These images will give an example of the different sizes as a player grows in levels and changes meshes.
Hatchling:
Dragonling:
Larger Dragonling:
Dragon Teen:
Dragon Adult:
Other screenshots:
Adult Mountable Dragon:
Adult Dragon Idle:
Adult Dragon Flying:
Dragon Hatchling:
Here are my first tries at doing videos. The music and zone is from the base Torque MMO Kit. As stated, next month I start to learn to do zones and .difs.
Adult Dragon Video
Dragon Hatchling Video
#2
08/23/2007 (10:52 am)
Very good work, regarding your experience. 8-) 
#3
08/23/2007 (5:06 pm)
Love the Dragons man! :P 
#4
The flying animations should sweep in the direction the dragon is flying. The back should arch when gaining altitude and the wings should sweep down. The wing movement should be more exaggerated to look more powerful. An animal that large would have to really flap their wings to get going. I think you could create a base set of flapping animations such as ; light, medium and strong. Then you could blend in directions into each type.
The running should not have the legs perfectly symmetric. Look at how a greyhound or cheetah run. The chest on the full grown dragon should be larger.
Kudos:
I really like how you got it to land and take off. I like that the creature is animated to look around and act more natural. Like others said, dragons are way cool. Being able to fly one is even better. I especially like the idea of having ones of different ages. Keep going!!!
08/24/2007 (3:29 pm)
Suggestions:The flying animations should sweep in the direction the dragon is flying. The back should arch when gaining altitude and the wings should sweep down. The wing movement should be more exaggerated to look more powerful. An animal that large would have to really flap their wings to get going. I think you could create a base set of flapping animations such as ; light, medium and strong. Then you could blend in directions into each type.
The running should not have the legs perfectly symmetric. Look at how a greyhound or cheetah run. The chest on the full grown dragon should be larger.
Kudos:
I really like how you got it to land and take off. I like that the creature is animated to look around and act more natural. Like others said, dragons are way cool. Being able to fly one is even better. I especially like the idea of having ones of different ages. Keep going!!!
#5
Right now I am just using the base MoM dragon bones and animations. There are alot of modifications to the animations I want to make. fragMOTION will hopefully have a new version which will allow me to rotate a bone and it will carry that rotation into all the frames. Right now I would have to modify each frame, so I will wait.
I will most likely replace the run and walk animations. In the book series I refer to the dragons as walking like normal lizards. All they are is a big lizard, so I would think realistically they would have a similar lizard walking style.
Edit: I forgot to add. The landing and takeoff are all kudos to the Torque MMO kit. It does a great job of knowing if the character is on or off the ground and kicks in the appropriate animation.
08/24/2007 (4:03 pm)
Thanks everybody.Right now I am just using the base MoM dragon bones and animations. There are alot of modifications to the animations I want to make. fragMOTION will hopefully have a new version which will allow me to rotate a bone and it will carry that rotation into all the frames. Right now I would have to modify each frame, so I will wait.
I will most likely replace the run and walk animations. In the book series I refer to the dragons as walking like normal lizards. All they are is a big lizard, so I would think realistically they would have a similar lizard walking style.
Edit: I forgot to add. The landing and takeoff are all kudos to the Torque MMO kit. It does a great job of knowing if the character is on or off the ground and kicks in the appropriate animation.
#6
05/30/2008 (2:27 pm)
What tool did you use to make these dragons? I really need to know, plus can you tell me some tutorials. 
Torque Owner Jules
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