Quill & Link - General Status Reports

Well holy crap, that looks like quite the overworld. 😊 I can't wait to see it when it's done. ^^.

All the gray content is water, right? Ocean and shoreline?

Damn, man. You've got way too much free time. That's a way impressive overworld

cool! but can i ask a question? ok, how do you make a pic of the overworld map? do you just use pait? or is there a program? plz answer....
but seriously, that overworld looks HUGE!
EDIT: i got some more questons:
is the game in hyrule? or is it in another land?
and what's the quest about?

[FONT="Tahoma"]QUICK REPLIES

Shadowtiger - Yes, the grey is ocean. If you look closely, you should be able to spot cliffs, surf, and beaches. Lakes and rivers are in blue.

So what's the difference? Link will only be allowed to swim in blue water (lakes/rivers) and not in the grey ocean, where he would likely die of hypothermia. I have not decided if the ocean tiles will be unswimmable or severe HP hits. By making the ocean unswimmable, I can still use the raft and avoid having to build these 'rock mazes' that are so common in other quests.

*b* - My spare time is limited. I have a full time job and a wife to keep happy. I get somewhere between 0 and 10 hours a week to work on Quill & Link.

migokalle - I have Corel so it wasn't too difficult to make screen caps and put them all together. I posted a thread in another forum asking if there was a way to export the entire map as an image, but I did not get a reply.

Quill & Link does not take place in Hyrule, but it is a place I am very familiar with. As such, Link will have to overcome some obstacles before the townsfolk will talk with him. That's about all I'm prepared to say about the quest at this point.[/FONT]

looking forward to this, hope you got some good ideas for dungeons. Its good to play other quests for ideas and inspiration.

Indeed, I hope to see this quest finished and released some day.

Keep up the impressive work!

😊 Wow beautiful map of Nova Scotia Scotian Gold. Can't wait to play your quest. Are you going to use names like Halifax of Truro in your quest? When I was younger I spent every summer there because my mother was born in Halifax and all of her family still lives there.

ms_zelda_lady

Wow, it is a map of Nova Scotia indeed! I just realized that too! Awesome job! O_O (I love geography and Canada so ignore me freaking out here 😛 )

Yeah, are there going to be places like Halifax and St. John's?

[FONT="Tahoma"]DarkFlameWolf
The idea for my dungeons is very good, I believe. However, I think the overworld and plot will be the strongest points of Quill & Link. Not to say the dungeons won't be of interest...Freedom knows some of my plans in this respect.

Note to Freedom: Please don't mention my dungeon plans here!

ms_zelda_lady / Petoe
Yes, I am indeed a Bluenoser so I went with what I know. Besides, I didn't want a 'square' overworld.

The overworld is based on real geography. Cities, towns, rivers and mountains are represented faithfully, with artistic license.

Location names in Quill and Link will suffer from my whims. I come from Kentville, which will probably be shortened to Kent. Truro ("What's a Truro?" people are asking) will probably be called Beaubassin after it's original 17th C. name. But great names like Kejimkujik will probably remain the same. You can't make up a name like that!
[/FONT]

WOW!!!!!! That sure looks... umm... err.... well, I'm out of words.

By the way, what is the "quill"?

[FONT="Tahoma"]Imprisoned
If Link is a character, that would have to make Quill much more than just an olde-tyme pen, don't you think? Just like a quill and ink go together, so do Quill & Link.[/FONT]

I may discuss Quill's role in the game later, but suffice it to say that Quill and Link are the only Hyrulian characters in this land.

Scotian Gold wrote:......... Not to say the dungeons won't be of interest...Freedom knows some of my plans in this respect.

Note to Freedom: Please don't mention my dungeon plans here!

Who Me? 😉
It's a secret to everyone
Good looking map, I'd like to see it full sized. 😉

[FONT="Arial Narrow"]Yes, even I would like to see it at 100% scale! I don't play that many quests, but I remember that one time, a BMP file was generated for the screens that I had visited. Is this a setting hidden somewhere in ZQ or ZC? If so, I can probably do the same thing on my own for Quill & Link.

Since the overworld map I created is fairly vague and lacking in details, I thought I would throw up a screencap of one of the nicer screens. I'll probably keep doing this from time to time as a 'thank you' to all the people who take the time to follow this thread.

There's nothing terribly special about this screen, although I do like its appearance. Oh, I did make the chimney smoke transparent but I'm sure I'm not the first to do that!
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That screen has a nice autumny feel to it. I'll be checking this quest out when it's out, now... 😃

I'm definately going to play this...

That screen looks very good to me. Will you open the house later for visitors?

[FONT="Arial Narrow"]Imprisoned
We'll see, won't we? Once I get the overworld completed then I will have a better idea of what will be needed in this location (be it a store, a hint, a secret dungeon entrance...)

But I can say this: The villagers in this world are nice, and the only reason they would close their front doors is because there are strange monsters roaming the hillside...oh, if only there were a hero around somewhere!

Here is a screencap of a screen I finished today. It's an orchard of some kind, with a fruit stand on the other side of the road. The cart tracks look pretty nice too.

[/FONT]

[FONT="Arial Narrow"]Hello all, I just thought I would put up one more screenshot before the holidays. This is the entrance to one of the cities in Quill & Link.

I will be with my family for the next three weeks, and you all know how that goes...can't afford to be antisocial just to work on a few overworld screens!

All the best![/FONT]

as being a player I wouldnt mind to kill some of the monsters for the villagers 😉
Have a nice time with the family 😉

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude. Those screens are cool. But I can say that there's a very stupid villager there, building a house to a spot like that.

BTW, you could just edit your first post and put the new screens there. Thanks! 😉

Imprisoned wrote:
BTW, you could just edit your first post and put the new screens there. Thanks! 😉

This looks pretty sweet. You're very creative, reminds me of me. ^^ haha...anyhoo...

It's rather like pulling teeth to make your map full detail. I am doing this with my game and it's taking forever. Naturally I want a map to look empty, no enemies, so I'm taking the screenshots in ZQuest. While this works fine, there is a row on the bottom with a checkered pattern over it and so far the only way around that it seems is to edit the map manually after I cut/paste it together in photoshop. 😞 If anyone thinks up a better way, they should share...

:weirdo: ............O M G how do you do it!!!! its magnificent its wonderful
this just tells me to make my own.....any tips?😊

DarkDeath wrote::weirdo: ............O M G how do you do it!!!! its magnificent its wonderful
this just tells me to make my own.....any tips?😊

[FONT="Arial Narrow"]Like I said in an earlier post, do what you know. I am a cartographer by trade, so I know all about maps. So once I decided on WHERE the quest would happen, the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHY and HOW all fell into place.

Using a real world location made many of my decisions easier, and it also gave me confidence that the human and physical geography would make sense. For example, I won't have a big city in the middle of a swamp. My overworlds may end up being more 'green' than some others, but I wanted my land to be entirely 'good'...not simply starting out 'good' (green, sunny pastures) and getting 'evil' (deserts, mountains, swamps, etc.) as the quest develops. Why wouldn't 'evil' beings want to live in a 'good' atmosphere? So most of my overworld is pleasantly idyllic, with an occasional hint of evil.

Uh oh. I was dangerously close there to giving out plot details! That's what happens late at night...[/FONT]

[FONT="Trebuchet MS"]Hello everyone! All the presents are wrapped and under the tree so I thought I could kill a little time before Christmas dinner with a quick post. (Assuming I can figure out my in-laws Portuguese keyboard! 🙄 )

PROGRESS SUMMARY
Mid December 2006 - Call for dungeon designers made
December 24th, 2006 - Overworld design 2nd Pass 30%

In other words, I've managed to finish off about 60 screens in the last couple of weeks. I also see a lot of potential in the new scripting language, having played(?) a little of Revolution. And I've played a couple of quests by people who have offered to be dungeon designers.

I'm also pleased by the amount of attention that my quest has generated; 400+ hits already. Thanks for the support, it's really great to have that extra boost when I need it. Maybe some day I'll even be on the first page of the forum, when you sort it by number of posts. :tongue:

Here's an image from a screen I finished yesterday, one of the exits/entrances to a large lake.

I think there's expresso (cafezinho) brewing...best go downstairs and partake in the conversation! Happy Holidays!!! Boas Festas!!![/FONT]

I'm glad to hear you are making some nice progress with this quest. I know the release is still faaaaaaaar away but you seem to be determined to get this done which is awesome! 😊 :thumbsup:

[FONT="Tahoma"]PROGRESS SUMMARY
January 10, 2007 - Overworld design 2nd Pass 40%

Slowly but surely, things are coming along. I'm starting to air out the major details with the people who volunteered to help with my dungeons, etc. Mostly logistics at this point.

Thanks to <fill in name here later> who told me how to get the map function to work in Zelda Classic. Thanks to him/her I was able to create a higher resolution image of the overworld.

It's at 20% of actual size so you will have to scroll right to see it all. Oh, this isn't the entire overworld, just the northern half. What you see here corresponds to three 16 x 8 overworld maps (32 x 12). Blackened out screens are confidential!

Hmm, it's 01h10 here...so until next time! Looking forward to some new posts![/FONT]

OMG:clap: What a gorgeous looking map! I can't wait to play this quest.

ms_zelda_lady

PROGRESS SUMMARY
January 17, 2007 - Overworld design 2nd pass 50%

What this means, really, is that I have finished the graphics for 4 of the 8 Overworld maps. Oh sure, there will be some tweaking, guaranteed.

I have decided to change my status reports to reflect concrete numbers. This is entirely for my own benefit and for those of you who like to see how things are coming along.

PROGRESS SUMMARY January 17, 2007
[FONT="Lucida Console"]
OW SCR 2nd 1st MT Legend
01 089 089 000 00 OW = # of Overworld
02 051 045 000 06 SCR = # of walkable screens in Overworld
03 123 116 003 04 2nd = # screens, 2nd pass complete
04 067 054 009 04 1st = # screens, 1st pass complete
05 095 008 067 20 MT = # empty screens (MT, get it?)
06 014 007 001 06
07 049 000 032 17
08 004 000 000 04
T# 492 319 112 61
T% 100 65% 23% 12%[/FONT]

Gee...I could've finished three more screens with the time I wasted building this table! :laughing: But looking at the math, I jumped from 50% to 65% so *nyaah*

In any case, here's another screen cap of some cliffs that I find quite nice, even if they are on the simple side.

That's all for now. Thanks to everyone who is following the thread!

PROGRESS SUMMARY January 30, 2007
[FONT=Lucida Console]
OW SCR 2nd 1st MT Legend
01 089 089 000 00 OW = # of Overworld
02 051 051 000 00 SCR = # of walkable screens in Overworld
03 123 116 003 04 2nd = # screens, 2nd pass complete
04 067 059 004 04 1st = # screens, 1st pass complete
05 096 054 022 20 MT = # empty screens (MT, get it?)
06 019 019 000 00
07 049 007 026 16
T# 494 395 055 44
T% 100 80% 11% 9%

[/FONT][FONT=Lucida Console]LV SCR Legend
01 032 LV = # of Dungeon Level
02 038 SCR = # of walkable screens in Level
03 029
04 050
05 041
06 047
07 060
08 060
T# 357[/FONT]

Things are coming along well, although the last 55 partially designed screens and 44 empty screens are likely going to take some time. I do not think I will bother you with another status report until the second pass is 100% complete, when I will be able to upload a screencap of the entire Overworld.

The theoretical layout of the dungeons has been completed, so I know how many rooms there are going to be. But the actual designing of the levels won't start until the Overworld in complete.

I wonder if Quill & Link will be the largest quest to date, in regards to the number of screens it has? The first quest in Zelda I, for example, has 308. It's got 851 so far, but that number could get up to 1000(!?!) once the non-Triforce caves/dungeons are completed.

As usual, I have attached a screencap of an Overworld locale. I really like the colour of the cliffs, which was acheived by combining brown coloured combos on Layer 0 and blue coloured combos on transparent Layer 1. I did have to create some custom tiles to remove the background grass, but other than that it was really straightforward. I still haven't played that many quests, but I have yet to see this technique being used.

I really should have made an animated GIF so you can see the waves moving, but I'm sure you've seen it before! 😊