CoSaS 3 - The Nine Year Sleep - Content Release (3-14-2014) - by theImmortalThief
theImmortalThief on 14/3/2014 at 14:58
Fellow Taffers,
A while ago the CoSaS team discussed the future of the project and how realistic it would be to assume we would be able to complete CoSaS 3 with the current real life commitments of the team and the limited progress in the last few years. After much discussion, deliberation, and procrastination (by me), we have made the difficult decision to release the incomplete mission files and resources in their current state so that the community can use them as they see fit and thus maybe allow the missions to live on in some form in other projects.
The attached zip file is actually structured to be usable with Garrettloader, so it should be easy for anyone interested to take a quick walk through the missions. There is no way to end the missions other than the ctrl+alt+shift+end combo at this point. I hope you all enjoy this content as much as we enjoyed working on it. I look forward to seeing creative applications of the material in future projects!
Best,
Hassan (Immortal) :)
Credits/Acknowledgments:The mission design and brushwork is almost entirely a labor of love by
Digital Nightfall. Additional mission design contributions by Mokkis, Yametha, and The Immortal Thief.
CORE TEAM - The core team of CoSaS The Nine Year Sleep:
* Anarchic Fox - Writer (MX/9YS), Mission Design (GatI/MX)
* Dominus - Artist (MX/9YS)
* The Immortal Thief - Mission Design (9YS)
* Master Nightfall - Director (GatI/MX/9YS), Mission Design (MX/9YS)
* Nameless Voice - Custom Scripts (MX/9YS)
* Sogax - Audio Design (MX/9YS)
* Sevenyfour - Custom Object Design (9YS)
* Yametha - Mission Design (MX/9YS)
* Special thanks go to Sliptip and DrK for design consultation and textures.
Some background and context:
Before Byron was sent to The City, there was The Casts...The Nine Year Sleep (9YS) was a slight shift for CoSaS. It was tackled as a solo-project by the original author of a mission which had been cut from the campaign rather early in the project's history. After several months of work it was decided to reincorporate it back into the storyline as Mission 3. It was to provide a radical departure from the world of Dante and The City, and a more complete introduction to Byron, who is the player character for this mission, and his homeland of Immacul.(From (
http://cosas.ttlg.com/9ys/))
Download link from thiefmissions.com (Thanks Jason!):
(
http://thiefmissions.com/cosas/CoSaS-9YS-3-13-14r1.zip) http://thiefmissions.com/cosas/CoSaS-9YS-3-13-14r1.zip
Use of the content of CoSaS: The Nine Year Sleep (brushwork, objects, textures, etc.) is permitted, with acknowledgment of the source.
Beltzer on 14/3/2014 at 15:48
OMG! Too bad :erg: It would be nice if it been completed in some form.
epithumia on 14/3/2014 at 15:54
How close to being done was it?
theImmortalThief on 14/3/2014 at 16:07
Quote Posted by epithumia
How close to being done was it?
All of the objectives, story implementation, scripting (a very very major part of cosas missions), sound and sfx, dialogues and voice acting, cut scenes, AI, ... remained. The architecture was done. Since this was a four mission package (currently three), it may have been pulled off over a couple of years or so with a whole team of designers and scripters (like with mission X).
Renault on 14/3/2014 at 16:11
Man, too bad it couldn't have been completed but glad to see it released anyway. Hopefully someone can do something with it.
Renault on 14/3/2014 at 16:13
Quote Posted by theImmortalThief
The architecture was done. Since this was a four mission package
There are only 3 .mis files in the zip. Was the 4th not finished, not started, something else..?
theImmortalThief on 14/3/2014 at 16:22
Quote Posted by Brethren
There are only 3 .mis files in the zip. Was the 4th not finished, not started, something else..?
The second mission is huge and hitting all kinds of limits so it was going to be split and expanded into two missions. That would also provided some more flexibly with the storyline. Hence another reason why so much work remained.
Tannar on 14/3/2014 at 16:47
Just out of curiosity, could this whole project not have been turned over to another team to complete? Maybe with some input occasionally from current team members? I did alpha testing for 9YS and I am really sad to think it won't be finished and released one day.
theImmortalThief on 14/3/2014 at 17:08
Digital Nightfall probably had the best grasp on how much work was actually needed to finish this the way he and the other authors envisioned it to turn out and through our discussions together and with the team we did discuss that possible alternative but at the end after much deliberation we decided that it would be unrealistic to try and assume another team could be put together for such a sustained and long-term effort (without having history repeat itself for the third time) and that releasing it gave the best chance to get it out while an active community still existed to use the content.
Just to give an idea of the list of remaining work items in order for the missions to be developed in the same quality and vision of the previous CoSaS missions:
* Intro scenes (plan, sequence, layout)
* Artwork
* Narrative and dialogue scripts for cutscenes
* Sound recording and voice acting
* Cinematics
* Objectives and storyline object placement
* Scripting all events
* Readables, texts, all conversations (includes recording)
* Textures and skins for AI.
* Ambient sounds, EAXs and SFX
* Music development and placement
* etc...
bikerdude on 14/3/2014 at 17:21
Its a shame that this project isnt being released, But I am in the same boat with the TDM campaign. Atm I am the only dev working on it.