no elephants... ok, what about this:
http://www.daimonin.com/lordgrunts_sticky-t6954.0.html;msg71552#msg71552

Nice flying carpet, but it wouldn't fit in this context. Mahewa is not a magical place - it's a port city.

(Did you get ripped off by a Sedan Chair porter any time? Sounds like you don't like them...  )

the only thing i have against them i already pointed out before. these are slow, meant to be just more pleasant way of travelling than by foot, not faster. and if you say, lets just increase script speed!, they i wonder how it follows so strict rules of selecting what fits and what doesnt into mahewa.
when i first saw this region, my impression was very close to diabloII, second act. i dont tell you need to know what it is, so let me explain. its very much like egyptian towns and surroundings. and afaik, they haveport cities in Egypt
I bet sedan chair would fit in such place. but, saying its not magical, or that this or that doesnt fit there... i fear its overdoing in defending the idea. what do you base this statement on? in mahewa so far i've seen roads. and some walls. what is wrong in making it "magical"? would you restrict player spells , magic device usage and priest services because its not magical?

believe me or not, reason i've suggested elephant or flying carpet is not because i *want* my ideas to happen. as always, if i suggest something, it is meant for the good of the game. its always well thought before posting here. and the first thing i do before i start idea development is to ask myself: how that will improve the game.
nothing more, nothing less.

Great job grommit . It's definitely worth the silver

Cheers,
Unislash

IMO servants & slavery. This is a good idea. Gives the city a culture or style of transport, adds to the atmosphere too. This could also make the game more "role playing" - something important. e.g. A quest where you will have to disguise yourself as a wealthy man to gain access to kings'/high courtyard.

If there is a want for faster transport. That's where rocs, carriages, (still can't ride horses IG) come in. The sedan chair is for wealthy people, or fat governors, that is not intended to move any faster than walking speed.

Edit: Elephant rides would also work too IMO. (I'm sure you've seen the move 10,000 B.C). I also agree with the idea of flying carpets. It would give a sense that Mahewa was once a magical place, but is now a huge bland point for different cultures from the region. It would be a cool place to have, and definitely add to the game world experience.

Cheers,
Anich

Aligning stumped me for a while ... until I figured out what I was doing wrong.  I now have a 'base sedan chair' and some 'handles':





You simply put the chair in the middle and a pair of handles at each end to complete the whole carrier.



I will now produce more images for the handles, but this time including the 'porter' himself.  You then have the option of the sedan chair with and without the porters.  That won't take me too long as all the modelling work has been done ... I just need to put it all together.

but these handles will overlap with porters? might be tricky to let one handle hide and other (front) to be visible..

Looking great!

Grunt has a good point... The handles will need to be put in with the porters, i think :/

Meanwhile, that looks great

Cheers,
Unislash

Yup - that was always my plan.  Anyway - finished (for now, unless anyone suggests any modifications).  I decided to go indexed with these images ... not sure RGBA is worth it.

I was also slightly lazy - you could argue that the sedan chair needs to have 2 sets of images - resting on the ground and slightly above the ground when it is being carried - but I decided not to bother ... hence the screen shot above technically shows the sedan chair hovering on its own about a foot in the air!  However, as there is no shadow, you can't tell!

I noticed that my original porter/carrier was a bit short - so he's now same size as human_male.

For the "carriers with handles" I didn't render any attacking images as it didn't make sense (and didn't work for the rear carrier as, visually, he ends up attacking the back of the sedan chair, which looked a bit ridiculous!).

For the "empty-handed carrier", I've done resting images as well.  I know mobs/npcs can't handle 4 actions, but I used an idea I first thought of with my timber wolves.  The arch file uses actions 1, 2 and 3 as normal - but you also create a .anim file that uses 0, 2 and 3.  Then in your "taxi-rank" for sedan chairs, you can have a load of carriers lounging about - some standing and some sitting.  It adds variation to the map, without much additional work.

@Grommit - I appreciate you may not need to use all these images, but I did them all for completeness ...

Just need someone to arch it all up now!

Handles


Sedan Chair


Sedan Chair (door open)


Carrier (empty)


Carrier (front)


Carrier (rear)

absolutely fantastic! 

As usual, Torch, a brilliant job. As you say, I probably won't be able to use most of the images unless my script gets to be as big as the server code . You have seen how the system works on the test server at the moment - there is no "trundling in and out of scene", but that is something I should work on. Where to start and finish them is a problem, unless they are hiding round a corner that players can't get to. But that would really show off your action graphics.

There is the possibility of giving a mob the chair face and animation for external views, so that all three can march off together on waypoints, though turning corners would probably look a bit odd. But it's not going to be possible to flick between mob and normal chair (so the player can enter it) and have all spectating players on the map see it. Complicated.

Oh, and how does the chair match up in size to a player?

more work, torch: if this is going to work and will be put on the server, there should be a player in this chair. and idk if the next one is possible (i guess, it is): If a dwarf applies the chair, the chair should be filled with a dwarf-figure, of course. Nice addition would be that in case a player uses the chair, the chair will get the name of the player on top (only can be seen from any other player if their settings allow it, of course). So the player doll should change to a "sedan chair with player doll" as long as he uses it.

I hopefully expressed myself as weired as usual

Here's a thought that came to me today Grommit ... I don't know if this is feasible or not?

I could put together a new set of images that includes the chair, front and rear carriers all combined together (so we get 3 x 3 tile size images - lets call this a "chair-unit").  Then your scripts could be modified to:

(a)  Create a chair-unit "npc" on the map

(b)  When player rings the bell, give the chair-unit a waypoint

(c)  When the chair-unit arrives at the waypoint, trigger another script which destroys the chair-unit and creates in its place 3 separate things - front and rear carrier, and central chair (with open door).  The player can then talk to the carriers and step into the chair.

(d)  Once the next script starts, you could destroy the separate objects and recreate a 3 x 3 chair-unit again, give it another waypoint so it travels off the screen (then you can change to the in-chair view for the player).

And of course, you could then scatter various other chair-units about the city - each with a circular route of waypoints, so it looks as though they are off ferrying passengers all around ... busy city feel and all that!

@Nobbit - well, I could certainly add human_male into the chair (as I have that figure in Blender), but the other races would be harder.  I guess a simpler solution would be to put some partially transparent curtains on (for occupant privacy of course) so all you see is a vague shadowy outline of someone inside the chair.

Sounds good   lol - black privacy glass maybe then it doesn't matter