Solace: DLA Preservation Project
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Bannor Bloodfist
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Solace: DLA Preservation Project

Post by Bannor Bloodfist »

This thread is a copy of announcement on Bioware forums before they shut down and a general place to ask questions of the team working on preserving and releasing the Solace tilesets. (Interior and Exterior)


Message as posted on Bioware forums.

Many of you may remember the DLA team, formerly known as Dragon Lance, that had at one point in time spoken about and even released a few screenshots of a tileset in the process of being built. 8-) Of course, as time went on, DLA was diverted by Bioware into creating the final Premium Module released as "Wyvern Crown of Cormyr". That Premium Module required the creation of a HUGE new tileset, that is fondly remembered under the name TNO but was released under the name "Castle Exterior, Rural" by Bioware in the final 1.69 patch.

So, that entire Wyvern project is what STOPPED DLA from further development of their Solace set(s). Exterior and Interior as well as a few tiles from another intentionally Oriental set that really doesn't have much at all.

Regardless, once DLA folded, I was finally able to get permission to release what versions of these sets that I had a copy of. The copy I had was incomplete and no one that I contacted had anything more up to date than the version that I had at the time. Since these sets were never truly finished, I started working on them on my own, and over the years have asked for help from multiple members of the community. A few have offered to help over time, but OMB + TheOneBlackRider actually joined in to lend a helpful hand.



In fact, if not for TheOneBlackRider, These sets would not even be considered for release at anytime. :o

These two sets are still NOT ready, but they are much closer than they were. :? However I am notifying everyone NOW due to the disheartening message from Bioware stating that we will lose these forums at the end of August.

I don't currently have a good set of pics to display, only a few of "in-work" types of shots as TheOneBlackRider and I discuss what needs to be fixed to get these sets out the door.

They will eventually be released on the new vault pages, once we get them to a point where they make sense to be released. Currently, with broken bridges between the various building groups, and other issues, the set is still basically unusable. These issues make them a bit less than releasable as well. Missing, blocking, ground objects for places where the overhead bridges block all walking for instance, missing doors, missing textures on a blank wall type of thing. IE basically a tileset that is obviously a work in progress. Work does continue though.

Anyway, just letting you know that we continue to do as much as we can to get these sets out to you all and not lose all the beautiful work that has already gone into them. Be patient, and I guess you will have to wait until we actually get files uploaded onto the new vault before I can provide any real links. So, for those of us that remain with this ancient game, we will benefit a bit more than those that have chosen to move on to other things. :P



As to pics, I have a fairly major issue with the current ground texture in the entire set as it is NOT the texture that will be used at time of release, however since I don't have the new texture finalized yet and will have to perform a mass rename in every single exterior tile to get that bit done it will still be a bit before I have pics that I can show you. Currently the set still has the original Bioware rural grass and we all know how horrendous that looks, most especially in an Autumn/Fall related type of set.



Again, the primary thing I am attempting to say is that there WILL be a new release of a completely new tileset pair (interior and exterior although the exterior will be the larger of the two) sometime in the future, if we are lucky enough and work hard enough, it may even be released sometime in the First Quarter of 2017, but please don't hold me to that time schedule, a lot of things may still hold us up. :twisted:



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8-)

I know i have asked this in the past but I will beg once more for SERIOUSLY interested persons that are willing to help get a NEW tileset completed with all the work that entails, to please contact me here or preferably at "j p l y n c h 9 at g m a i l . c o m" without all the extra spaces of course, please be sure to make your current Bioware forum and NewVault Forum nickname available to me so I might be able to figure out who I may be speaking with! 8-)



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Ok, Ok, just one teaser shot: :idea:


Image

A few notes about the above image; The Leaf textures is truly a placeholder only, the new texture will be much better and slightly brighter and colored a bit differently as well. The actual leafy bits you see, well, some are missing as they had to be turned off or removed so you could actually see the buildings, so expect a denser canopy in the final release. The ground texture is way off from what is coming. You are also only seeing a very limited version of the number and size(s) of the various groups, and there will be much better ground coverage of plants etc, that you would expect to see in a forest type of setting.

[EDIT]Fixed image link. --MDA[/EDIT]
Thanks for fixing the image link MDA!
CTP Team Lead

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