u/Titan5880

Title is self-explanatory. Michael Wolf is currently live on Facebook, where he is talking about his experience working at NWC, on H3, and answering questions!
https://www.facebook.com/778944532/videos/meet-michael-wolf-level-deisgner-on-the-original-heroes-of-might-and-magic-team/1429837179192940

Part 1: LoK: Defiance Remastered - Dev Stories, Part 1: The World Map
ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/fire_paladin

Initially, I wanted this to be a shorter post, containing some smaller props, including the dummy, but also some in-team jokes. While some of that will make it into this post, you will have to wait until the next one if you want to hear some of the funnier moments, and have me share some insight into smaller assets. Today, it is time to address the fading legend of the Soul Reaver from BO1.

The Blood Omen 1 Soul Reaver was one of the models I really wanted to create for this game. We had a set scope that included skin suggestions rather early in development, so I anticipated the moment I'd reach this task for months, motivating me.

I actually developed the Reaver skin before the game's release. Release tasks were getting fewer and fewer, with the regular polishing and bugfixing making up some of the most exciting tasks at the time (other than some character skin progresses), and everyone was kind of restless because we were getting so close to completing the release build. As far as I go, I redirected some of that energy into collaborating with the programmers on figuring out some ancient tech that the devs used for some file formats (I might talk about that another time), and by getting into the patch tasks, which included weapon skins.

The task was straightforward and simple: create a faithful model of the BO1 Reaver. The references were relatively few, but sufficient, and I managed to figure that the BO1 Reaver just reused the BO1 Demon skulls that are present in multiple ways in the game (not just enemies, but also decorations and other objects), which further clarified some of the less discernible details, such as the shape and sharpness of the horns. First day was sculpting, second was modeling, and last one was texturing + in-game testing. If I remember correctly, at some point the BO1 blade was actually oriented the other way compared to the new Reaver blade, but that's because it's inconsistent even in the original game! The inventory graphic of the BO1 Reaver actually has the blade flipped compared to how it should be, and that’s the one I initially followed. Certainly, that graphic also helped with getting the amount of handle segments correct, as I couldn’t rely on the simplified on-map graphic (and Defiance did require a longer handle). The skull itself was the more difficult task, but it was mostly a matter of getting the details to match the original from any angle, followed by adding smaller details afterwards. I am quite proud of how I made it mesh together with the blade and horns.

Last was the texture. For those who don't know, 3D models are made of polygons, and in order to match a texture to their surface, their polygons must be laid on a 2D plane, called the UV, on which the texture will be painted. Kind of like those maps of the Earth, where the Earth's surface is laid on a flat, rectangular plane, despite it being a globe. Why does this matter? Well, the reaver is a flamberge sword, a sword with an undulating blade. While the waviness of the metal texture is not always that exaggerated due to smithing techniques, the Reaver is very much a fantasy blade design, with its thickness and wide waves on the blade, so I figured it paramount that the metal pattern follows the pattern of the blade itself. To achieve that, I customized the UV so it would be straight rather than undulating, essentially allowing me to use any metal texture, while maintaining the cool, undulating effect in the final model. Beyond the classic techniques of adding a faint color noise on the metal texture for heightened realism and oxidation (plain grey metal is actually unrealistic), I also added a colored, bluish sheen on the edges of the blade, akin to its BO1 iteration.

The final result turned out much better than I anticipated, and the metal shading techniques really paid off. When I opened the game and saw Kain walking around with the BO1 Reaver, I knew that I did it. Other team members liked it as well, and with some feedback (mainly u/LegitimateSpot1440's advice to make the handle narrower on one side), I was able to perfect the blade.

As far as post-dev stuff goes, I was close to submitting this weapon to the release build. It would have not been accessible in-game, but people could have edited their save files to make it show up. I’m glad I didn’t, because seeing the community’s firsthand reaction to the BO1 Reaver actually being added to the game with the patch was worth it.

You can also check out my ArtStation if you want to see more of the BO1 Soul Reaver, and stay tuned for the next part! Which should likely come sooner than this one did. ;)

This happens to be one of my favorite stories from the making of this game. It is in no small part due to my own involvement in it, but also due to the seemingly impossible task it was, and the happenings surrounding it. So, get a nice, warm cup of tea (or whatever beverage or snack you prefer, if you prefer any at all), and brace yourselves!

The world map, or rather, a new iteration of it, was actually one of the earliest things we wanted to add to this remaster. There were already other maps we could reuse, such as the one from SRX, but we decided to do the game justice and create a proper, “modern” map of Nosgoth, while also incorporating the world’s gothic and gritty flair, without which it wouldn’t really be worthy of being called Nosgoth. I, having a penchant for such crazy tasks, immediately accepted it, months in advance.

The months went on, and eventually I fulfilled all of my “required” tasks, among which all the weapons (save for the Reaver), all the artifacts, all the doors, and many other props I won’t even mention. It was a week before December when I was able to dive properly into creating all the “extra” content. A week before December… and a week before the world map deadline, if we wanted to include it in the game.

I was being told that I could instead focus on another task, since making the world map in a bit over a week seemed like a stretch. Good advice, but I had my own plans. And so, I ended up making the entire landscape of the world map and its textures over the span of three days, essentially getting like 50% of the task done in much less time than it would have normally taken. Suffice to say, the world map plan was suddenly a go!

The following week was no less of a herculean effort. Armed with u/Aevum’s immense knowledge of the games and their lore, and his keen eye for anything that could be better or perfected in this regard, I continued to work on the world map. The people around me were getting sick as well, so not only was the deadline looming, but also an eventual episode of sickness, which, if looking at those around me, would have put me out of commission for at least three days. I still remember those days, in a bit of a haze at times, but at other times quite clearly. I worked during the day and well into the evening, often going past midnight. I made all the tree billboards during a single internal team stream. I painted the forests, brought about many of the improvements suggested by Aevum, and once the landscape was perfected, I went on to the locations. For those, I recreated nearly all the house variants in BO1, and replicated the towns’ layouts as well.

By this point, I started to have the first signs of getting a cold. A bit of shivering, a bit of runny nose. “Well, this is it”, I told myself, but I was determined that no matter what, I’d get the world map done. And so, I went on.

After the towns, I continued with the other locations. Those which I could, I imported from the games, and those which I couldn’t, I recreated myself. Ah, the task of recreating Avernus and Willendorf seemed impossible, but considering that I did not have to sculpt all the details of a gothic cathedral (which could have taken years, realistically), I somehow ended up recreating these in under a work day. I still remember doing a crappy paintover of the Avernus cathedral sketch with Raz, and jokingly saying “Guys, this is the best I can do to recreate a gothic cathedral in this time, sorry”. Ironically, the final one is not that far from my “concept”... It’s also still a bit of a shame that some of the small details that I added in Willendorf are not really visible in the final map (plus, Willendorf was added afterwards).

The Defiance locations themselves, those required by the task, were done on Sunday, which barely left me with time to do a final render. I don’t think I slept that day. Or rather, night, because once the morning came around, I was finished with the minimum required to get the map approved, and I was content enough with myself that I managed to have a good sleep afterwards.

I woke up in the evening, right on time for team meetings. I was proud to show off the map, which, admittedly, was not exactly in the state you see it now (Willendorf was missing, as were many of the extra locations, including the snow version which we wanted to add as well), but the team really liked it. However, the real test was whether the higher-ups liked it as well, which could decide whether the feature was going to be in, or… scrapped. Thankfully, we found out soon that they did like it, which we were all glad about. And so, smiling, and shivering, I went back to bed… because the cold had finally caught up to me. The sheer amounts of vitamins and methylene blue I gorged on to avoid this cold probably managed to keep it at bay for at least several days, and even to shorten its most severe phase by two days.

With the world map approved, and in the game, I had all the freedom in the world to improve and expand it. Again, with the help of Aevum, I added all the extra locations, made the snowy version of the map, burned Avernus, destroyed Vorador’s Mansion, destroyed the Pillars, cancelled that weird clown in the northeast (/s), and so on. It was honestly a fun time, despite how utterly heavy the world map file became to work with. And even like that, there were quite a handful of locations that did not make it, mostly canon ones which were hardly mentioned, or not at all, in the games. The most I can say is that they were Sarafan-era vampire “towns” and related. Maybe one day…

And that’s the story of Defiance Remaster’s world map. A crazy task driven by sheer passion and determination to get it done, and I am very grateful that I could create it, for all the people who can enjoy it for what it truly is: a love letter to the Legacy of Kain series, and a testament that the series may have brand-new content that fits the world and lore, even in this day and age. And of course, I have to thank Aevum again, who is among those people who I wanted to enjoy the map, and whose contribution is in no small part immeasurable, and Raina and the people at CD and PEW for making this possible in the first place.