Discworld mod for HL2

Do you think this md sounds interesting?

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 25.8%

  • No

    Votes: 9 29.0%

  • Don't know

    Votes: 3 9.7%

  • Ook!

    Votes: 11 35.5%
  • Total voters
    31
R

Rincewind

Guest
LORDS AND LADIES
A DISCWORLD MODIFICATION FOR HALF - LIFE 2
CREATED BY SILVER ARROW MODIFICATIONS
BASED ON THE NOVELS BY TERRY PRATCHETT
E-MAIL US AT: [email protected]

Team needed for Discworld Mod

We are looking for a team to make the first Discworld mod for Half-Life 2. The mod follows the story of the Discworld novel “Lords and Ladies”.

What is Discworld?
Discworld is the setting for the amazingly successful series by English author Terry Pratchett. It is a plate-like world (held together by a magic field) which rests on the backs of four HUGE elephants, who on turn are standing on Great A’Tuin, the Star Turtle. Terry Pratchett novels account for 1% of all fiction books sold in the UK, and most of them are the 28 Discworld novels (not to mention the Play adaptations, comic books etc.)

Who do you need?
We need everyone, mappers, coders, modellers, animators, texture artists and someone who can design or host a website. We don’t have much need of concept artists because Terry Pratchett has appointed a few official artists who have captured the feel of the characters quite well, but we still need you to make extra character drawings for models and to design buildings and work closely with the texture artists.

To apply, you should be good at whatever you are applying for. (Knowledge of Discworld is a bonus!). On request we will send out a project overview in .pdf format. Email at the above address to join or request the document.

Useful links

To buy the book

In the UK:
At all good bookshops or
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0552138916/ref=pd_sim_b_dp_2/026-3569678-1526017

In the USA:
At
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...103-8148929-5814269?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Thank you: Patrick Benson.
 
To be honest, I wouldn't be interested in it by just what you wrote. So it's going to be based of of some book I've never heard of? Great. So now what? Is this a SP mod? MP mod? What sort of world will it be? Every map is going to have four elephants or what? What are the gameplay dynamics? Why will it be fun to play? And why should I be interested in it?

It sounds like it could be interesting, but I would need a lot more info obviously.
 
correct me if I'm wrong but isn't already a commercial discworld game released about 3-4 years ago? discworld:noir I think it was called,,
 
discworld games don't often do very well.. The books have a few core fans but for the most part the general public don't understand them, their too.. "silly".

Not to mention you don't have the rights to make this mod so its a mute point even voting either way :\
 
There will be a single player and a multiplayer mode.

it will stick closely to the plot of the HIT BOOK.

Worldwide Discworld has a HUGE fan following.

Another mod (www.discworldmod.net) is being made for unreal 2, so rights shouldnt be too much of an issue.

This is a VERY breif plot line. I didnt write it so dont blame me!
 
PROJECT OVERVIEW

Main Concept

This modification for Half - Life 2 Is adapted from the Novel by Terry Pratchett. This mod will try to keep faithful to the story and atmosphere of the original novel.

Not-So-Brief Synopsis of Storyline

As the sun sets, the Entertainment begins. As the acting goes on, telling a story about how a king is captured by the Queen of the Fairies, it begins to snow up on the Dancers.
Nanny is quite unaware of this, and is gorging herself on gourmet cuisine at Casanunda's expense.
Granny and Ridcully, meanwhile, are hauling themselves out of the river and are setting off through the woods back to the town.
Meanwhile, back in the castle, Diamanda wakes up. Shawn Ogg hears a noise and goes to investigate, and sees both Diamanda and the captured elf coming towards him. He flees.
The elven Queen is affecting Granny's mind, making her lost. She and Ridcully are simply going round in circles.
Shawn finds Magrat, and warns her about the elves. She realises that Granny and Nanny were deliberately hiding the facts from her, and gets even more angry. Shawn locks her in the room for her own safety, and climbs out the window to get help. However, he is caught by the marauding elves who are continuously pouring into the kingdom, and his key is taken. Magrat climbs out of the window and up to the room above. The elves follow her up, but she tricks one of them into looking into the garderobe so that she can sneak up behind it and knock it out with a chair. She runs out, and down the Long Gallery. She travels right down to the far end, where she sees a portrait of an old queen-Queen Ynci, a warrior maiden. It gives her some inspiration. Suddenly, she encounters Nanny's cat Greebo. She picks him up and runs on. After knocking out an elf with a fragment of the chair she is still holding, She takes refuge in the first room she sees.
Granny is still lost, but now she has another problem in that there are five elves in the tree above them, waiting to ambush them. Ridcully teleports away to get help, while Granny gives herself up.
Magrat is in the armoury. It is full of iron weapons and shields. She finds some armour that looks just like that of Queen Ynci, and dons it excitedly. She now gains a new attitude-she means to fight. However, a party of elves arrives outside, with Shawn Ogg. They have broken his arm. He says that they have hurt Diamanda and that they will torture him if she does not come out. One of the elves looks through the keyhole of the armoury door-and is instantly shot in the eye with an iron crossbow bolt. Magrat emerges and is attacked, but the elves are unaware of the iron armour that she is wearing under her dress. She stabs one of the elves and shoots another, leaving just one left. She wraps him in iron chain mail, and then leads Shawn to safety.
The elves in the gardens are having little success. Mr Brooks squirted three of them with his corrosive poison used for killing wasps, and one other is learning of the dangers of Hodgesaargh's birds.
Magrat tends to Diamanda and then sets off to rescue Verence, who has been captured. She mounts an elven warhorse, which becomes docile at the touch of her iron armour. As she rides, she remembers all the little folk songs that she learned, and realises that most of them are in fact riddles designed to warn against elves and fairies. She arrives at Lancre town, and talks to one of the townspeople hiding in his home. He tells her what happened at the Entertainment, and where Verence is.
Jason's troupe are beset by elves. They start to perform a Morris dance, as it will fascinate the elves and stop them from attacking. They begin to incorporate moves into the dance which allows them to club the elves over the head with their sticks without breaking the rhythm.

Nanny Ogg and Casanunda emerge from the chimney of the pub, which has been wrecked by elves. Nanny decides to take drastic action. She returns home, which has also been ruined by the elves, and gets her broomstick. She and Casanunda fly to Jason's forge to get some iron weapons, as well as something else, and then fly off into the night.
Suddenly, they are beset by elves flying on yarrow stalks. Casanunda attacks and kills one with a crowbar, and the others fall back and shoot arrows at them. Then, they arrive at their destination-the Long Man, an old burial mound. The elves will not go there, and retreat. They enter the burial mound, which leads to the Lancre caves, and go down. The caves lead to a second, secret elven realm-in this case a prison. The entrance is guarded by three magnetic stones, to prevent the elves inside getting out and iron coming in. They enter, and meet the giant, horned King of the elves. He plans to kill her, but she shows him what she has brought-an iron horseshoe that she has got past the stones. It is Binky's horseshoe, taken from Jason's forge from when he sod Death's horse. The iron of Death's horse can go anywhere. No elves can touch her.
The King hates the Queen, who abandoned him under the ground. Nanny implores him to come out and stop her. Nanny cannot be sure he will comply-he may be perfectly happy to wait until the end of the world to come out.
Magrat is beset by elves, but is rescued by the Librarian, who is more than a match for any elf. She continues towards the Dancers.
Ridcully materialises at Lancre castle as Nanny Ogg arrives by the air. She spurns the beleaguered people into one last fight.
Magrat toils towards the moor, with Ponder Stibbons defending her with an iron sword. Meanwhile, Granny is in the elven camp being threatened. She is taken out just as Magrat and Shawn's army arrive, but they are hit by a wave of elven glamour that stops them in their tracks. The Queen threatens her, but Granny has become powerful since the last circle time and uses the power of the land to stop the elves in their tracks. The Queen and Granny begin a magical battle destined to end in stalemate, so Granny instead turns her attention to Magrat, freeing her from the elven glamour. Meanwhile, at Granny's cottage, the bees are swarming out from the hives.
The bees boil over Granny and fly away. Suddenly, as if she has just been worn out beyond the point f exhaustion, she collapses. The elven queen cannot enjoy her victory, however, as Magrat attacks. The elven queen is physically weak, but she knocks off Magrat's iron helmet. Magrat is hit by a wave of glamour, which strips her soul down to the core-exposing the rage. Granny has planned this all along-not telling Magrat things, making her angry, so that if she ever met the Queen she could fight. The grapple again, and as it looks as if the Queen is about to win, a huge, horned figure appears on the horizon. The King of the elves strides forward. The Queen utters a curse, but there is nothing she can do...
The townsfolk wake up. It is the middle of the next day. The elves are gone. Nanny intends to go up and put the Dancers back, but first there are more pressing matters.
Granny Weatherwax is dead.
Nanny returns solemnly to Granny's cottage, where she opens up a box the Granny told her about earlier. There are two envelopes inside-one contains Granny's will, and the other contains a card that Granny holds when she is out borrowing-it reads: I ATE'NT DEAD.
Nanny races to the castle, where Granny is lying in state. Magrat hurls a candlestick at the window, smashing it. A swarm of bees pour in, and cover Granny's body.
She wakes up. She has achieved something no one else has ever done-she has borrowed the minds of an entire swarm of bees. It is the greatest achievement of her life.
Magrat and Verence are married, with Magrat wearing her torn dress over the armour of Queen Ynci. The Librarian is the best man.
Granny gently chides Nanny for involving the King; she had never died or given up. She debates with Nanny whether or not to tell Magrat that Queen Ynci was in fact fictional, when the unicorn confronts them. However, Granny simply tethers it with one of her hairs, and then has Jason shoe it with silver. The Queen of the elves has lost her last link to the Disc. With circle time over and Magrat married, Granny and Nanny join in with the festivities.

Notes on Above Text

The above synopsis does not, of course, cover the beginning of the story. This is because it will be represented by a FMV sequence, as the beginning just sets up the story, and would not contribute to the playability of a FPS style mod. The synopsis is very brief, but that may be a good thing, as we could then build up our own detail.



PATRICK BENSON
 
Characters

The novel follows many sub-plots as each character takes their own path through the story. This would be best represented in the mod if the player started, for example, as Magrat, and battled their way out of Lancre Castle (with the help of an NPC Shawn Ogg), then rode a horse to lancre town, where she battles through a few elves and comes up to a Plot-point, we see a short FMV, the image fades, and fades back in at a different location with a short FMV, after which the player continues the game as another character, until the next plot point.

Preliminary List of Characters

This is a preliminary list, and as such does not represent in any way the final character count. Many Discworldian characters have been painted by the few official discworld artists (who work closely with Pratchett to ensure the most accurate representation), and these images should be used as guidelines when creatin a character model. For instance, the picture on our letterhead depicts a scene from Lords and Ladies where, under a hail of elf - arrows, The Unseen University Bursar is carried through Lancre Forest by the Librarian (the Orangutan) and Ponder Stibbons (the Human). Characters with the mark (Playable) beside them need to have not only Third - person models made but also a First Person model.

The Witches
Granny Weatherwax (Playable)
Nanny Ogg (Playable)
Magrat Garlick (Playable)

The Elves
Elf Queen
Elf Grunt
Unicorn

The Wizards
Archchancellor Ridcully (Playable)
Ponder Stibbons
The Bursar
The Librarian (Orang-utan)

Lancrastians
King Verence
Shawn Ogg (Playable)
Carter the Weaver
Other Generics

Miscellanious
Casanunda the Dwarf (Playable)

Weapons

On the Discworld there has only ever been one gun (the Gonne), but, thanks to the Ankh - Morpork City Watch, it has been well hidden. So we have a choice of:

Dagger
Bigger dagger
Iron Rod

Pistol Bow
Short Sword

Long Sword
Crossbow
Crossbow with “The Ridcully Patent Magickal Magnifyed Divyce for Aiming Accurately” (Scoped)



In addition, because all elves hate Iron, they are armed with:

Stone Dagger
Stone Sword
Stone and Wood Crossbow

Also, Other objects, like Beer Bottles, could be used offensively.



15/1/2004

PATRICK BENSON
 
that enough detail for you, eh? :D

All Discworld fans find it hard to explain, but here goes:

*deep breath*

Roughly speaking, the system can be divided into three parts:

Reality

Here all the different universes (including our own and the Discworld universe) reside, or whatever it is that universes do.

We are talking about a place where Great A'tuin the world turtle, with the disk on it's (sex actually unknown) back, swims through space, together with all the other standard empty void features.

It offers sights far more impressive than those found in other universes built by Creators with less imagination but more mechanical aptitude. It exists right on the edge of Reality. It is allowed to exist either because of some impossible blip on the curve of probability, or because the gods enjoy a joke as much as anyone else. More than most people, in fact.

Chaotic as it sometimes appears, the Discworld clearly runs on a special set of natural laws, or at least on guide-lines. There is gravity, cause-and-effect and eventuality - things happen after other things. After that, it becomes a little more confusing. The following theory can be gingerly advanced:

The DW universe occupies an area of space where reality is extremely thin, where the 'should be' no longer has the veto it has in the rest of the universe. It creates an extremely deep well in Reality in much the same way as an incontinent Black Hole creates a huge gravity well in the notorious rubber sheet of the universe.

The resulting tension seems to have created a permanent flux which, for want of a better word, we can call magic. There are several secondary effects, because the pressure of reality is so weak. Things that might nearly exist in a 'real' world have no difficulty at all in existing in quite a natural state in the Discworld universe -- The rules are relaxed.

On the disc it is known that there is life beyond it, but any other than the stranded Thetis, a very interesting creature made out of water, who fell off the rim of his own world, is not known to the disk-astronomers. They naturally assume that other worlds might also be on the backs of turtles, and that these are flat, although nobody knows for sure.

In any case, there are loads and loads of distant stars and just about any constellation the true astronomer could wish for.

The Dungeon Dimensions

The place can most accurately be described as nothing, where, yet unnamed horrors lurk. For Aeons already they try to break through the barrier into reality, something to do with energy levels. Anyway, it is a well known fact that unpleasant stuff always strives to infest nice places, for one reason or another.

I like to think of the D. D. as the space all around an enclosed rubber ball (reality), with pressure constantly striving to "invade" the space the ball is occupying. Of course the ball then must be kept from deflating, e.g. by some force within.

The Discworld, as it exist only on the very edge of reality, is itself only able to exist because of it's enormous magical field, stretching the borders fabric to the extreme and subsequently thinning out the enclosing barrier. An extraordinarily large outburst of magic near one of those "hot spots" might, together with high background magic, might cause the fabric of reality to rip. Like sharks the things, or rather the Things, will sense the portal, gather around it and try to enlarge the hole, so they can slip into, as Discworld inhabitants would put it, our world .

Backstage (as I call it, for want of any better name)

No living creature, (you can't count Death or other anthropomorphic personifications as properly alive, or proper creatures as such) has the ability to enter the background realms. There have been cases where people have set foot upon this place, but only with assistance of those that are authorised to inhabit it. It is true that Twoflower, the disc's first tourist, managed to somehow visit these lands, but he was practically dead anyway. Rincewind did get him out of there, but he's a wizard and he was assisted by some interestingly potent nomad potion.

The gods don't usually go there, but I think they could.

Time, space an matter are all messy, kind of functioning properly, but also able to be manipulated in every way.

As mentioned before, all the anthropomorphic personifications dwell here. The Toothfairy or the Hogfather (very similar to Santa Claus) and of course Death are just some of the innumerable, self aware lifeforms have come up with. More specific details will follow later on.

Then there are the Auditors. They exist on consensus, and generally work as a trio. An Auditor is visible as an hooded grey robe that hangs in the air with nothing appearing to be inside it.

They are some sort of sub-bosses, responsible for running the universe seeing to it that gravity works and the atoms spin (or whatever it is atoms do).

In order to stay immortal they try as hard as they might to not have any personality whatsoever. Their opinion of an proper universe is a bunch of rocks flying around in orderly curves and therefore they hate life. It is irregular and was never meant to happen. Most of all they despise humans, lacking a sense humour in many ways.

It's the things you believe that make you human, and these things then abode in the backstage area. In their blind delusion (not proper delusion, after all, wouldn't that be like showing personality?) they even called upon the Guild of Assassins to inhume the Hogfather, in the process entering reality (which is strictly forbidden) and, excuse my French, really screwing things up once in a while (once they even suspended Death for evolving a personality).

As far as I was able to find out the Auditors only answer to Azrael, who is locked up in time. What he has done or what his exact function is (except for probably being bored), I don't know.

As the able mind can twist time and space according to it's eventual need, the area behind, or rather exceeding reality, can be used to reach the most distant universes. An example is the death of all the reapers (there are other worlds too) who was once consulted by Death.

Observed schematically (again) backstage and reality are divides by an rubber sheet, stretched thin in some places but very durable.

Furthermore there is L-space: In every library (at least on the disk) there is a portal to L-space. Mainly it serves as an connection between libraries, any library, any time in the past. Nobody has yet been able to grasp the whole of it, with the biggest expert on the subject probably being the Librarian of Unseen University (the disk's biggest college of magic). Unfortunately he was turned into an orang utan and refuses to be turned back human again (the long arms and the increase in strength turned out to be of great help when dealing with magic books. Anyway, he enjoys the privilege of scratching himself wherever he wants to in public).

... indeed, if the L-Space theories are correct, the Library contains every book everywhere, including the ones that never actually got written.

I think L-space might also work as a link between the three parts of the multiverse (and anywhere else).
 
"See...

Great A'Tuin the turtle comes, swimming slowly through the interstellar gulf, hydrogen frost on his ponderous limbs, his huge and ancient shell pocked with meteor craters. Through sea-sized eyes that are crusted with rheum and asteroid dust He stares fixedly at the Destination.

In a brain bigger than a city, with geological slowness, He thinks only of the Weight.

Most of the weight is of course accounted for by Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon and Jerakeen, the four giant elephants upon whose broad and star-tanned shoulders the disc of the World rests, garlanded by the long waterfall at its vast circumference and domed by the baby-blue vault of Heaven.

Astropsychology has been, as yet, unable to establish what they think about..."


Terry Pratchett, The Colour Of Magic (London: Corgi, 1985, p.7)




The Discworld is only able to exist because every improbability curve must have its far end.
 
Thanks for adding more info about it. It's appreciated and more likely to get people interested in it.
 
OMG that would own.

BTW, anyone know where I can find a copy of Discworld Noir?
 
Oooo! Discworld! But no Rincewind?:(

Wouldn't Sourcery be a better book to base the mod on? Pwease?:E
 
I think that Sourcery and Eric are about the only ones that I haven't read...
 
Sourcery and eric wouldnt fit an FPS environment. sourcery needs to be a strategy game, and eric could be a point'n'click. To be honest, a FPS set around the time of Monsterous Regiment would be better, but this is closer to HL2, having a horror element.
 
Were going to do a short test first based on the Assassin's Guild final exams.
 
hopefully Narativium imperitive (science of discworld) won't interfere.

So far the idea sounds good. Let me know if you decide to go through with this I'd love to help out.
 
Hmmm...Does it have to be lords and ladies ? (Sorry for not reading all that you wrote, but most of it seemed extracts from the stories so i skipped it...having read it all several times :))

Sounds interesting though...I'd buy it. If it were legal that is :)
But yeah il keep an eye on this.
 
There's much better books than Lords and Ladies. Surely something set in Ankh-Morpork would be better?
 
I reckon one set around commander vimes would suit a mod quite well. Perhaps you could just be a member of the watch.
 
lol, Rincewind played by Eric idle in a movie would be nice :), or someone similar, ive always fancied seeing discworld on the big screen, done exactley like the books

'Jingo' would be a good one to do :)
 
I'm Definately going through with it. I can be found mostly on the hl2grounds.net forums, under the name Monty_PythonFjords.
 
Jingo has no actual action, but after L&L i've got an original story based on Cohen. Oh, Dear!
 
and ANYONE who knows the Discworld can make a multiplayer map!
 
what about DEATH? DEATH would be a fun character to play... plus it's an excuse to TALK IN ALL CAPS.
 
Rincewind said:
There will be a single player and a multiplayer mode.

it will stick closely to the plot of the HIT BOOK.

Worldwide Discworld has a HUGE fan following.

Another mod (www.discworldmod.net) is being made for unreal 2, so rights shouldnt be too much of an issue.

This is a VERY breif plot line. I didnt write it so dont blame me!
Click to expand...

Firstly establish whether Pratchett will allow you rights before you put any effort in. Those unreal guys might not of gotten rights either.
 
I love the tiny bit of text on the bottom of the discworldmod.net site:

Discworld and various names therein are trademarked to Hell and beyond. Terry Pratchett knows about us and says suing us is 12,983 on his list of things to do this year and he's up to number 7.

So it definately sounds like they've approached Pratchett about the idea.....
 
Some guys made a discworld film, just they weren't allowed to sell it.
 
A full Discworld MMORPG would be great, it's such a great planet to explore... it'd need to have that discworld feel, with the humour and characters, but it'd be great if done properly. I'd subscribe to it :D
 
Pi Mu Rho said:
There's much better books than Lords and Ladies. Surely something set in Ankh-Morpork would be better?
Click to expand...

I'd have to agree with Pi on this one, Ankh-Morpork would be a great place to base this if it ever gets off the ground..
 
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