ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

You might remember this mod from, literally, years ago. The original developer went AWOL. I can't speak for everyone, but the oldRPG tileset made the game so much more enjoyable. After years of sitting and gathering dust, I present to you the pan-ultimate achievement of caffeine and nicotine: oldRPG Revival. Props to daftigod, wherever he is. This mod eschews the dark / gritty pseudo-realistic default tileset for a brighter / cartoony and more light-hearted style. It has a mix of 8-bit and 16-bit influences.

Current links:
Main mod v3.0 on steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/krazycure/ ... ollections

Optional (Pick one):
Music Overhaul v2.8 (1 for 1 track replacement): http://mab.to/4zqcoyEeY (112mb)
Extended Music Overhaul v2.6 (bonus hour+ of music, adds variety): http://www.filedropper.com/tome-oldrpgrevmusicex_1 (193mb)

What's changed:

• All achievements (1400+!) run through a pixel filter to match the style.
  Most effects run through a pixel filter to match the style.
  All talents run through a pixel filter to match the style.
  Some particles run through a pixel filter to match the style.
  Various UI elements replaced.
  Most npcs replaced.
  Player characters / golem replaced.
  All items either replaced or run through pixel / aura filter.
  All terrain either replaced or run through pixel filter.

Screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/9MPFB

Installation: Extract Zips to your TalesMajEyal\game\addons folder, start a new game, press ESC - Game Options, change tileset to "Old RPG"

Update 3.0!
MErged lots of daftigods "lost work" into the main mod, lots of little things replaced

Update 2.9!
Missing trees in alt-trollmire fixed, minor other changes. Original music pack re-uploaded.

Update 2.7!
Filedropper versions of the main mod are no longer supported, only the steam workshop version will receive updates from now on. Music packs will remain on filedropper.
Small improvements here and there.

Update 2.6!
Original and extended music packs now have Ashes of Urh'rok music added
Massive tree overhaul in main mod, all 'junk' and the ugly original converted-to-pixel trees replaced.




Update 2.5!
Original Music pack updated, some tracks were too loud, other had silence at the beginning instead of the end. These issues are fixed in v1.9 and is the last release.
Extended version of music pack added. Added over 30 tracks, now 2+ hours of music, double the original amount. You don't need both. Choose the original music overhaul if you don't mind 1 for 1 track replacement and are fine with about an hour total of music. Choose the extended if you like the original music overhaul and wish there was just a bit more variety in certain areas.
More worldmap tree touchups, UI improvements (ammo bar is now correct length, new cursor), some more NPC facing adjustments, death-ui run through pixel filter

Update 2.0!
Additional special weapon effects added, and their orientations fixed (lefts were right, vice versa)


Update 1.9!
Lots of items replaced (elixers, etc) including on-ground weapons
Talents have more colors / less pixel junk
Some more trees replaced



Updates 1.6-1.8!
Music now extracts to correct folder
Fixes to walls / grass / trees

Update 1.5!
Music tracks have proper fade-ins, and extra silence on the ends to give a little break between replays
Some player armor tiles updated
Some trees re-worked



Update 1.4!
75% terrain / trees replaced (thanks Chrambo)
Some missing special weapons added
All music removed from main mod
Some player tile improvements (thanks again Chrambo)

Update 1.3!
Full music re-work. From now on, available as separate download, as it doubles the size of the mod.

Update 1.2!
Ogre / Orc Classes added (kind of cheesily)
Special weapon portraits done (thanks to blooo for groundwork)
15 music tracks replaced (feel free to remove them if they aren't your style)
Missing Uh'rok tiles fixed





I'm hosting the mod on a third party site as it does contain some assets from copyrighted games. Due to the sheer number of tiles, there wasn't much choice but to use pre-existing assets.

Feedback welcome!

.

I'm really glad to see this, but my biggest question is: Do you have any plans to replace the stock background/floor/building/etc tiles? Those are kind of a big deal when it comes to the tileset, and the biggest turnoff of using the old one, in my opinion.
Would love to see these get changed, making old things pixelated sadly does not fit the OldRPG tiles in any way

Hey krazycure,

I'm not sure where you're at with this, I went to upload basically the same thing 5 minutes ago and noticed that you had beat me to posting things.

I'm not really looking to keep the mod up-to-date, but I've also made progress in some areas that I presume you'll be looking to add. For instance, I have most Maj Eyal fully done in OldRPG style (except for a few trees which I added on my own. They're ugly and will need to be re-done to better fit the style). So, the world map and most of the areas up to Reknor (and even some past it) are mostly updated.

It's a shame for both of use to be doing the same work. Would you like to work off of the update grass/tree/world map textures? I could give them to you if you would like. That would get a big chunk of the work out of the way and allow people to be playing with a 3/4 finished tileset.

Please let me know!

edit: I've tried to post some screenshots to illustrate what I've managed to do so far.

Regards.

I don't think running from pixelated filter will be matched style
i looking on old screen, and i will say they are definitly not pixelated

Sure, upload them, I'll certainly merge. Terrain is daunting.

Sweet, glad to hear that my work will be useful to someone I'll post the files tomorrow morning.

ohh i didn't know you did this already. I shouldve found one time before doing some unnecessary tasks :/

But glad I helped your work

Ok, so I've uploaded the changes that I've made so far. You can find them here. Please let me know if you have any trouble and I can help at all.

http://www.filedropper.com/oldrpgmodifications

You'll find the following changes:
- most world map sprites have been replaced
- almost everything up to and including Reknor has been replaced, much afterwards as well.
- I've replaced a few character sprites that had been added to match OldRPG
- I've made gem-bags, quivers and shot pouches look like a new belt (instead of hanging from the character's noses, as they were before)
- I've replaced a few ugly npc sprites.

The changes I expect to make in the next little while:
- I'd like to replace the world map tree tiles.
- A few trees still need a replacement.
- I've run into a few objects that are definitely out of place
- Various paths need to be replaced.

Do you plan to upload these files to either te4.org or Steam? I expect the mod would see much wider use again if those two platforms had the mod available.

Thanks!

Hey thanks for this, we are really making headway now!

About hosting the mod, bit if a sticky wicket there. Because it has assets from fairly big name games from fairly big name studios, until ALL repurposed assets are replaced officially hosting the mod anywhere just invites take down requests. I am not sure that is even feasible, creating 600+ original npc sprites is an overwhelming task, thus why daftigod probably abandoned the project.

Now in all likelihood, for such a small game, I doubt anyone anywhere is going to waste time getting it taken down. So i suppose it wouldn't hurt, but I still hesitate. Especially now with the music.

Actually, it may not be as big a thing as you realize. You aren't making any profit off copyrighted or derivative assets. And in many cases, they aren't direct rips, but pixel-based alterations that don't precisely match the originals anyway. Regardless, it may well qualify as a valid fanwork, so long as money doesn't ever enter the picture.

Friendly reminder that Tome itself has at least 2 derivative assets from other sources.

Definitely a bit of a gray area there though. So, TOME has deriative works. Ok. By all accounts, it's a free game. But, Netcore takes 'donations'. Is it that the user isn't paying for the deriative content, or netcore not 'charging' for it that makes it 'ok'? Donations are profit, correct?

Hey, I just thought I'd weigh in with my 2 cents.

I would say that if there's some sort of legal or ethical problem, the mod shouldn't be posted. However, I think that it's fine to go ahead with what's here, for a couple of reasons.

1. The original OldRPG mod is still posted here: http://te4.org/games/addons/tome/oldrpg-tileset-ui, and as far as I know there have been no problems so far.
2. The nature of mods, addons and user content seems to be different than that of an original game (this is more of an observation than anything else). People building an application from the ground up in some company's copyrighted universe almost always get shut down due to licensing issues. Mods, however, seem to generally be treated differently by the industry. There's a Thomas the Tank Engine mod for Skyrim http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/48593/?, Minecraft has Legend of Zelda mods, and just about everybody and their grandmother seems to actually be cashing in on Minecraft (which I'm not OK with, if it's illegal). You know, like pillow cases. I'm not sure how legit these are
3. Mods seem, like you say, to fall into an odd "gray" area. I haven't heard of them being removed for much other than inappropriate content, as long as they respect other people's work. For instance, in our case we're not selling anything or trying to pass off the work as our own. It's not endorsed by the developer of ToME, it's simply a user-made compilation of existing graphics (which, I think should be mentioned come from other games and developers) that is an optional addon to the game.

I don't know the legal intricacies of how mods work. But for the reasons above, I think it would be fine to post the mod, at least on te4.org. It's ultimately up to you though!

I'll let you know when I have those world map trees finished.

What size are the tiles? I love the walls!

The terrain is 16x16, scaled up to 64x64.
The characters are variable. 16x16 will generally look best, as it fits the terrain.

I had written this in a different thread, but it might be worth posting here: can anyone point to additional (free-for-use!) resources that would fit the size? It would be nice to incorporate more artwork to better fit the theme and resolution, and if I have access to them I can help krazycure patch them in.