Oh, cool! All right. I'll have to keep on trucking then. It's kind of fun to figure out how to translate everything into the program, since there are differences with how things work like doors.
The Shadow Rune Project
The Shadow Vault - Interlude I quest is complete. I'd love it if I could get some people to test it out. I am working on Death On The Wing now. It's almost complete. Once I have that done I'll post it as well for people to test. Hopefully we can get all of The Shadow Rune completed for a full campaign.
Please let me know of any bugs or corrections that need to be made. Thanks!
P.S. If you have done other quests for The Shadow Rune please let me know so we can collaborate.
Update 1: Death On The Wing is complete! Thank you to BruceLGL, Sadgit, and Delphi for all their help and previous work. Not sure what I will tackle next but once it's done I'll post it as well.
Update 2: The Masquerade Ball is complete. I'll be working on completing all of ACT I quests. Will post them as they are completed. Once we have these tested and polished I can check with NPBruce on adding them to the download list. If you are willing to test please do so as that will help out a lot. This is hours of work to create these and testing is best done by others for fresh eyes.
Edited by MaverickjcI'll check it out when I get off work later. I have still been playing around in the program. I am trying to figure out variables now. Like finding a way to randomize certain events, if that's even possible in the editor.
38 minutes ago, eternaldreamon said:I'll check it out when I get off work later. I have still been playing around in the program. I am trying to figure out variables now. Like finding a way to randomize certain events, if that's even possible in the editor.
Thanks! Feel free to ask questions. I’m happy to help you find an answer.
You can randomize what event is run next by changing ordered to randomize just above the Buttons. If you’re looking to randomize how an event reacts, that is possible as well. If you let me know what you’re trying to accomplish I can try and work with you to find a solution.
Ideally, I would like to do everything in the editor. I know that when you try to compile something it will create a text file. The editor is already confusing enough for me, so I want to try to do everything within it before I try to mess with actual code.
Right now I wonder if there was a way to randomize which tokens do what. For example if we were making the Masquerade Quest where you have to uncover objective tokens, would you be able to randomize which ones are the monsters and which are the guests? Otherwise you would know exactly which ones they are the whole time. Or you would have to keep track of that yourself.
Okay, I just got home and I'm trying to look at the zip file. So I unzipped it, but I have no idea where to put it in the Valkyrie folder. Where do I put it?
EDIT: Nevermind, I figured it out. I tried it out. I don't have the actual quest guide handy, so I'm going off the top of my head on a few things. First is that isn't there supposed to be a key for the locked door at the beginning staircase? None of those search tokens give you anything, so it's kind of a waste of time. Next I'm confused about the whole token monsters thing. I'm not sure what the purpose is or to track which ones you've killed. I also haven't gotten far enough to be able to edit monster actions. But is there any way to make Zachareth go for the casket to win? I'm not sure if that's possible yet to edit monster actions.
Edited by eternaldreamon3 hours ago, eternaldreamon said:Ideally, I would like to do everything in the editor. I know that when you try to compile something it will create a text file. The editor is already confusing enough for me, so I want to try to do everything within it before I try to mess with actual code.
Right now I wonder if there was a way to randomize which tokens do what. For example if we were making the Masquerade Quest where you have to uncover objective tokens, would you be able to randomize which ones are the monsters and which are the guests? Otherwise you would know exactly which ones they are the whole time. Or you would have to keep track of that yourself.
Yes that wold be possible.
You would place each token down and in the token menu, under Buttons: you would list multiple events each representing either a red token or blue token. Under the token menu, look for "Next Events: Ordered" and change it to Random. Then each of those events you listed will need to lead to objective tokens being placed. You will also need to create a variable for blue, red and 1 Lord Theodir. The red tokens need to lead to a spawn event for flesh moulders. It can feel daunting at first but once you get the hang of it you can do some great things. Hope that gives you a starting point. I can start working on that quest next with you if you'd like.
I might be getting ahead of myself a bit. Right now I'm still working on trying to make A Fat Goblin. What I'm trying to figure out is how to track the number of crops gotten. What I want to do is create some objective tokens to represent the barn, and to put some on the exit. If you click on the barn, it will ask if a hero is adjacent and wants to deposit a crop. Same with the exit objective, but you would need to click it when a Goblin Archer moves off the map. I also am experimenting with creating a custom monster group. My thoughts would be to have the Goblin Archers act differently to fulfill the mission objective. Their commands would be something like:
If a Goblin Archer is not carrying a bundle of crops
> Engage the closest bundle of crops
> Pick up an adjacent bundle of crops
> Attack a hero carrying a bundle of crops
If a Goblin Archer is carrying a bundle of crops
> Engage the Exit
Now when you click the objective markers to either say a crop was deposited or stolen, it would be nice if it could keep track with an invisible counter. That way the game knows how many crops are on the board, and the map won't end until you deposit or steal them all.
I haven't tackled that one yet but I know Delphi has already completed the quest. You could take a look at his quest and see what he did. It may help you. What you want is totally possible though. You'll need to create some options on the token. Then if they click on deposit that event will have a variable assigned to it (Assigned: cropsdeposited +1). Then you'll have an event that will run if the (Test: cropsdeposited ==4). Should be something like that. Sounds fun! Let me know if you have any questions and when you finish it so I can test it out. I attached the afatgoblin file for you to check out. You should be able to put that in your %appsdata% Valkyrie file and run it in editor mode. There is some kind of bug in the code, most likely because it was done on an older version. He said once 1.7 is released he's going to tackle it again. Don't stop though cause I'd love to test yours out.
On tracking crops/goblins: As well as tracking this internally, where appropriate you can also use the user things like 'how many figures are on or adjacent to this space?', or anything else. Do do this set the 'quota' to a number (ie: 3) if you just want to know if it is at 3 or not. Otherwise set it to a variable name, and the input number will be written to that variable and you can do anything with it.
How do I create and set a variable though?
Read this over a few times and it will help you with variables and most other things. It's what I used to get me going. Also, check out other peoples quests. That will give you some good info as well.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gi5gTwKkw84Px0Lvk-bJ3Aml_vF3ZoljjB6a8FjWGt8/edit
Edited by MaverickjcLet me know if you still have issues. I can try to explain variables if you need it or walk you through setting some up. Finished Death on the Wing. Also, fixed the spawning event on Shadow Vault to make it more simple. Let me know if you get a chance to test it out. Also, let me know when you have a completed quest I can test for you.
An update about our current progress:
We just released a demo campaign, which can be downloaded from within Valkyrie.
Please note: This is a demo release, it's not a final product. There will be some bugs, but the campaign should be playable. However it has not been balanced yet and some mechanics will change in future releases.
The following Quests are currently integrated and playable:
First Blood
A Fat Goblin
Castle Daerion
The Cardinal's Plight
Death on the Wing
The Masquerade Ball
The Shadow Vault
I hope everyone enjoys playing this and some feedback would be very welcome.
If you encounter any Bugs please use the following site to report them:
https://github.com/DelphiDie/TheShadowRune/issues
Regards
Delphi
Great work DerDelphi
One question:
22 hours ago, DerDelphi said:... which can be downloaded from within Valkyrie.
How? It doesn't appear to show up in my Valkyrie 'download' page...
Some sort of FAQ / user guide for Valkyrie might be useful, does such a thing exist?
Otherwise maybe some simple instructions for downloading and adding user-made content to Valkyrie, or indeed for using it at all - there's very little that's intuitive and so far I haven't found any useful documentation...
Hello Xyphistor,
sorry, I didn't specify how to download the campaign. Please follow these steps:
- download and unpack the current Valkyrie release from https://github.com/NPBruce/valkyrie/releases
- start Valkyrie from the folder you unpacked it to
- select "Import Road to Legend content", click on the Descent button when import is finished
- in the main menu choose "Start Quest" then "Download"
- Choose "The Shadow Rune" then "Back"
- Start "The Shadow Rune"
I hope this description will help you.
Regards,
Delphi
We just released an update which adds the following:
New Quest: Interlude II - The Overlord revealed
New City Options: Additional Merchants and Black Market
The update can be downloaded directly in Valkyrie.
Isn't The Shadow Rune the original Campaign that was panned by everyone as being poor and extremely basic, to be replaced with the much better Heirs of Blood campaign?
Curious why the effort was put into porting the older, poorer campaign instead of Heirs of Blood?
Unless I'm miss understanding what this is?
The question is justified, I'll try to answer it from my point of view:
While it was Sadgit's idea originally (and he was the one who jumpstarted all this), I would also have chosen to convert "The Shadow Rune".
And although "The Shadow Rune" is undoubtedly one of the "worst" campaigns for classic Descent (in comparison), this doesn't really make it a bad source to port over. Most of its fault lie in poor balancing because of its open quest structure (which means the hero powerlevel at which each given quest can be played varies dramatically).
This however isn't as much of a problem for a coop experience, as there is no "other side" to balance the game around. We also can and have to change some things that are hard to convert, but we aim to keep the story and the narrative. And this is one of the things that the "newer" players (those who bought the "Heirs of Blood" release) are missing out on, because there sadly is no way to get the shadow rune today.
While I fully agree that "Heirs of Blood" is the better campaign, "The Shadow Rune" has less complex encounters, which makes it a better pick to convert. At least as the first project.
Also, at the time when "Heirs of Blood" was released as a campaign book, there were plans to also re-release a "Shadows Rune" campaign book.
But then the Star Wars-focus thing happened, the Asmodee thing happened, the we-can-sell-miniature-games-now thing happened and everybody knows the current priorities of FFG in regards to Descent, altough they don't communicate them.
In essence nostalgia might be a big part of the reason why we picked "The Shadow Rune".
And back in 2017 my foolish self believed, that FFG at some point might realize the potential of such a project and create something similar for Road to Legend. But I guess there isn't anyone left that cares (or has the freedom to care).
Wow, what an insightful and instructive post! Thank you for that, DerDelphi! At some point I'm looking forward to trying your campaign. Still finishing my first run through of Seeds of Corruption in Road to Legend. The way FFG has handled its Descent "franchise" is sad and infuriating (I guess the company is now following the path of virtually every American corporation anymore), but projects like yours are an uplifting counter balance to that greed mentality.
Thanks for the reply. I was genuinely curious, as I'm relatively new to Decent and everything I've heard is to not bother with Shadow Rune since Heirs of blood was so much better.
Since I'm mostly solo player (my group wasn't interested in this game before RTL due to the OL vs Heroes structure) I'll surely give your conversion a try.
Is there any plans to convert other expansion material to Valkyrie? I can't believe FFG was not willing to convert the expansion campaigns to the app. This would have provided much more value to the expansions. As I understand it, few of them add anything of substance other than monsters, besides the SoC campaign from SoN expansion.
Seems like they gave up on producing content to make the boxed stuff wroth buying.
Not to leave the wrong impression, it's not my conversion alone. I'm just a bit more active posting news, since the project was on halt for a long time.
Essentially it's all thanks to Bruce (who develops Valkyrie) that this is even possible. And some of the content was done by Sadgit, Dan and very recently Charles who already created 3 complete quests on his own and is working on the 4th (which might not sound like much, but creating a quality quest is quite time consuming).
But I personally was a big fan of coop Descent since the release of Redjaks automated overlord and the coop PODs (because I never found players who would want to play a regular campaign due to its antagonistic nature), and when I first heard about it I was convinced that Road to Legend would have near limitless potential. But even thought the first release wasn't what I had hoped it would be, FFG quickly added new content and even added new play modes. Sadly supporting RTL seems to have hit it's peak just before FFG could really capitalize on what they had created. And even though there might still be something in the pipeline for Road to Legend in the future, support for Descent has essentially stopped. I don't want to sound ungrateful though, because most of the content for RTL is free, and FFG could easily have charged money for it.
But I digress, and to answer your question: Expansion content for Valkyrie might happen in the future, but it would be important to increase the size of our team for that. Since we currently only have 2 active contributors it will take some time to finish the Shadow rune. Finishing the Shadow rune is not an unrealistic goal though, and I think will make it at some point. What happens after that is in part up to player interest, and which features Valkyrie can provide in the future.
Thanks to Charles' efforts we were able to release another update:
- Added Act II Quest: "The Monster's Hoard" by Charles
- Minor travel event bugfixes
- Added german translation for the Quest "First Blood" by Tantum
As always the update can be downloaded directly in Valkyrie.
We just released our fourth update:
- Added Quest "The Frozen Spire" by Charles
- Bugfix for rewards of the quest "The Monster's Hoard"
- Fixed missing activations for Baron Zachareth in "The Overlord Revealed"
- Added german translation of "A Fat Goblin" by Tantum
As always the update can be downloaded inside Valkyrie.
Note: Italian translations are also being worked on at the moment and some will be included in the next release.
Had to register and post my appreciation. I got into Descent to have a game to play with my wife cooperatively, and I was hesitant to buy more expansions and the like because I figured they would no longer release new content. Knowing there is a community still creating stuff for us to play has pushed me over the edge though, great job!