TSL Updates!

[kyranthia]

Spoiler for the end of Ep 4, but Ep 5 takes place in the Dreamworld, which has a mix of screens from all the previous games, but with new twists. There is a portion that takes on the Isle of Mists as well (not in the Dreamworld).

And thanks!

Previous Silver Lining episode screens or we could see other King's Quest locations that TSL did not visit yet?

[KatieHal]

From the previous games, but with a dream world twist. You can see some pictures in the link I left in the first post of this thread for an example of what I mean in Rosella's dream world.

[Shalkar]

katieHal: Will mordack play a role in episode 5? I truely feel like he can scare King Graham lol.

[GrahamRocks!]

I wouldn't like that, because it would make Andrew's sacrifice pointless.  I liked Andrew as a character, and that would make everything be a waste.

[KatieHal]

Yeah, Mordack will not be there, but you can read about his fate in the Four Winds http://www.postudios.com/fourwinds/?cat=15

[GrahamRocks!]

Exactly, that's what I was referencing.

[Numbers]

katieHal: Will mordack play a role in episode 5? I truely feel like he can scare King Graham lol.

Yes, we know you like Mordack. But his story has already been told in TFW. I don't know what TSL will do with Hagatha, Manannan, or Alhazred, but the rest of the villains in TFW (besides Lucreto, IIRC) have already met their ends. Mordack won't be coming back.

[Shalkar]

Well, I've recently played King's Quest VI on my Galaxy S4 When I was away from home. It was pretty cool to play an to remember the story of how Alhazred doesn't like Prince Alexander from the start. He sends his Genie to spy on him an to trick Alexander. But he's to smart for him based on his visit to the castle early on in the game.

I believe Alhazred should play a role in this game because he knows about the Black Cloak Society.  We shall see.

[Numbers]

It would be pretty dumb if Alhazred never showed up again, especially since Jollo mentioned him escaping from the dungeon.

[GrahamRocks!]

Mmmhmm. *nods*

[Chrury]

Hey guys, I thought I'd pop in and give an update on some of TSLs progress. (Do I need an introduction? I'm not really forum active. )

I've cleaned up some of the logic since the last update so characters actually stay dead if get a game-over. That one has some weird after-effects so it's good that we've fixed it now. Various other fixes here and there as we find anomalies so you can probably add another 1% to that logic completion.

As mentioned, TSL 5 is "playable" start to finish and I've actually done so without any "dev-hacks". We have a couple testers who are currently attempting to do the same. I didn't think this episode was too devious, but I did have to write a concise walkthrough to help them out. Take that as you will.

Animations have been the most steadily progressing section, though it's not without issue. Graham needs to be reexported into unity to add a mount node he was missing but doing so makes his locomotion stop working. >_< He was already being stubborn and had decided to stop running (for no reason) and now he really isn't feeling like walking at all! Hmmph! Maybe he's mad that one of his animations makes him sink into the ground. I dunno.

Valanice had her rig fixed so animations will no longer make her hand tiny. Buuuuuut for that to work, we have to re-export the animations with the new rig (or she'll explode, like literally). Unfortunately, some of our animations are either ...misplaced or have been done in newer versions of maya, making re-exporting almost impossible. We could open up the fbx animation files in a text editor, read what's there, and recreate the animations manually. But I don't think we're that crazy yet. I might have to just get one of my animators to export things for a month to sort that out...

Some other characters have capes. So that's fun.

The directors and I are not completely satisfied with some bits of the end game. It's been set up as it was written way back but...I dunno. Something doesn't quite feel right. And we know you guys would rather we avoid QTEs as much as possible. Rest assured that we'll do our best to make it satisfying and not annoying. But I will say that it looks hilarious with some of the temp models we've dropped in. I'll have to take some dev pics to share after release. Can't show now 'cause spoilers.

Oh! The UI now has almost all the functionality as the UI in episodes 1-4. Translating that from torque took some doing but everything seems to be running smooth now. This includes the little skeleton Graham image you get when you game-over. 

I could mention a few more things like [spoiler]spoilers spoilers[/spoiler] [spoiler]pumpkin[/spoiler] [spoiler]spoilers spoiler spoilers[/spoiler] but I won't. Because spoilers.

[GrahamRocks!]

Picturing all those animation and model glitches is very amusing.

[Shalkar]

I suppose 2016 is out of the question? I understand the team grew up, moved on with their lives. The new episode is made from scratch. Upgraded to a new engine. It will be done in 2020?

[GrahamRocks!]

*rolls eyes* Oh, don't even start, man...

[Numbers]

[Chrury]

Small update:
We've brought on someone to finally model those props we need. Our rigger continues rigging.

One of our former cinematics artists has come back to help me export so we should be able to sort out both Graham and Valanice's rigs in short order.

And after some troubleshooting, we've fixed double-click to run. We can now hasten to and fro as needed.

[Numbers]

Nice. It'd be cool to have small updates like these every quarter of the year, just to let us know that the project is still being worked on in some small capacity.

[GrahamRocks!]

*nods* Thanks for the update.

[coasternd]

Hi there,
I received two different emails from POS today stating, "an updated version of The Silver Lining is available for download."

Hi,

The product The Silver Lining formed part of a purchase you previously made and has just been updated by the merchant.

IMPORTANT: If you are using Internet Explorer and downloading a PC installer, please follow these instructions if you are having trouble opening the file. Note that this does not apply to zip or rar files:
1. Right click on the downloaded file in Windows Explorer
2. Choose rename
3. Add .exe to the end of the filename and hit enter

In receiving this email you have been given access to the updated version that can be downloaded by visiting the order URL:(REDACTED)

For any questions relating to the updated product, or your original purchase, please contact the seller.

Sincerely,
Phoenix Online Studios

I was wondering what this was about, I haven't re-downloaded anything to see if its different.

[Oldbushie]

The installer itself is unchanged; however I did add a new tsl.exe file and readme explaining how to work around a critical bug that some people are experiencing at the end of Episode 3. While we were never able to find out why that happens, someone on the forums found a decent workaround for the issue.