It's the little things that count

I've had quite a productive weekend, going in and polishing existing conversations. What's funny though is how much extra work one can make in the process. What was supposed to be a simple quest became much more complicated, with multiple tests slowly uncovering various bugs that required sorting. The good news is that I think I've ironed out all such problems which is always satisfying.

In the process of fine tuning I've enjoyed polishing the existing content with little touches which may well be missed in the finished product, but I believe such touches are worth applying simply because when they're not missed, they do so much more to enhance player immersion within the story.

The quest that I've finished isn't integral to the story, but it does add to the feeling of the town in which it takes place having events of its own, no matter how trivual. In this particular case it simply involves re-uniting a girl with her dolly. As such it has a relatively small xp reward on completion, but what's nice about it is that there are two possible "successful" outcomes, only one of which involves an item being given to the player as a reward. I love creating items, and am a firm believer that everything within the world having a plausible reason for existing, no matter what powers they may bestow upon the user of such items. Fortunately for me the "Relbonian Chronicles" have a rich mythology for me to draw from, but I like to give the same level of detail to all my items, no matter how mundane they appear to be. In the case of the dolly quest, I needed to create the dolly and a reward from the girl. Although I'm not going to reveal here how the reward is required, I will show the item details to give you an idea of the attention I'm giving to the module:

Dolly
A crude dolly made from sewn linen stuffed with sand. Popular among Relbonian girls. This one is oviously much loved, made evident from the sand seeping from the seams.

Bangles
Although nothing more than cheap jewellry for a child, these bangles are far more significant to you, being a gift from the charming girl Milly from the town of Oasis. Simply looking at them fills you with a sense of pride for making the young girl happy, and does wonders for helping your mind stay focused.

They are of great sentimental value and can never be parted with.

Saving Throw Bonus: Mind Affecting +3
Use Limitation: Alignment Group: Good

In the case of the bangles above, I've made them undroppable to tie in with the description. Not only that, but it also prevents the player from selling them which would make them far too valuable for a gift from a girl. I like the fact that the description implies they are non magical, yet also gives a reason for the benefit of wearing them.

As well as paying attention to items, I also like to pay attention to the environment. As an example, there's a tower in Oasis that has two floors. The tileset used has a doorway in the circular room as well as the stairs, so for the upper floor I needed to disguise the door somehow, as there was no reason for it to exist. Thanks to the latest content from the 1.69 update, I used the canvas door which doubles as excellent curtains that can be opened and closed with accompanying sound effects. Just behind them I've placed a large window. While the solution looked nice, I felt it deserved more, so attached a script on their "OnOpen" that has a nearby NPC comment on the excellent view.

That's all the news for now. Happy buiding all! :)

Quillfumbler

First off, as some of you may know, I've been restricted to using my laptop of late, one of the disadvantages of which is that I have to remember to press quite firmly on the "B" key, otherwise the headline of this article would have been "Quillfumler". As a result, I must apologise for any errors in my typing. All the more reason I think I should release a beta for any wannabe spell checkers ;)

There are times where I've regretted choosing the handle "Quillmaster" for precisely the above reason. People have high expectations from a "Quillmaster", and having articles with spelling mistakes doesn't really paint a good picture of what to expect. It's not just spelling mistakes. My earliest module was hardly a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination.

So why did I choose "Quillmaster"? Simply because I thought it eluded to my "Dungeon Master" background, and of course it was the name of my play by mail game on which "The Relbonian Chronicles" has been based upon.

Even until recently, my early Neverwinter creations have relied heavily on Lilac Souls Script Generator, as I had no scripting knowledge whatsoever. It's been a real blessing to me, as over the years I've began to recognise how parts of the scripts work, to the point where I occasionally got brave and further tinkered with them. With "The Relbonian Chronicles" I've managed to take things a step further still, by taking the time to visit the Lexicon in my quest to achieve something that the script generator can't create. So, if any of you have sampled a past creation of mine, rest assured that (apologies for blowing own trumpet) this one is soooooo much better!

On the subject of scripts, I had a" Eureka" moment earlier (they can be sooooo satisfying - lol). One of my pet hates in a module is... tell you what... I'll quote the line I saw on the very Lexicon page I found my solution:

"A VERY useful function if you want to add some realism to your modules. Personally, I dislike knowing that "oh, so that's where the bad guy is because that's where the map pin is", even if I don't look at the map pin's caption."

The subject is of course "Map Pins". I like a map to denote points of interest to help you find your way around, but I don't like to see things I shouldn't know about. The command "SetMapPinEnabled" is a useful way of preventing such a situation occuring. Simply place your map note waypoint, right click on it, and under the advanced tab un-check the "Map Note Enabled" box. If you test the module you'll notice the map pin doesn't display on the players map. Back in the toolkit, you can place the below script in a conversation node under "actions taken" to enable the map pin.

So how might you use the above code? In the instance listed above it's simply used when an NPC mentions a location and points out where it is. When the player enters the relevant area (it needn't be the same as where the conversation occured), they find that the map pin is now visible. Cool eh?

I'd like to say to any novice scripters out there don't give up. Let each victory no matter how small inspire you to step that little bit further :) Even if you think you can't script, check out the script generator and get into the habit of searching the Lexicon.

Now you'll have to excuse me, I have some map pins to disable ;)

Player Immersion

There's been a thread over at the Bioware forums discussing ways to improve player immersion in Neverwinter Nights. As well as the obvious (the inclusion of cutscenes), it occured to me that I've been implementing an improvement to player immersion without even thinking about it. How? One of the things I wanted to avoid was the inclusion of standard magical items, such as "Longsword +1" or "+1 Ring of Protection". Such obvious references to the game system (ie "+1") yank the player back to reality. I don't mind such bonuses being listed, in fact, I think it essential that the player knows how a magical item will benefit them in game. I'm just opposed to such bonuses eing referenced within the item name.

As the Relbonian Chronicles have a rich mythology to draw from, I can take the opportunity in item descriptions to further immerse the player into the world they are playing within. Here follows just a few examples of how I've revamped items within the game:

Ring of Distortion
(Replacing "Rings of Protection")
This ring and several others of its type were originally crafted to provide protection to the young Druid apprentices known as "Runners" who deliver the Relbonian Chronicles. It was important that such protection be as light as possible so as not to slow the runner down. As to how the ring provides such protection, little is known, although it is rumoured that they are somehow blessed by the God Boreeshna resulting in a distortion of the air surroounding the wearer, thus making them harder to hit.

Mighty Flight
(Replacing "+2 Strongbow")
Mighty Flights are of exceptional crafstmanship, being fashioned by Dwarven smiths who specialise in the Faith of Rathna. As such they can be extremely heavy, and as a result only Warriors can use them.

With the power of Rathna imbued into the weapon, earth like forces put great pressure on any bolt loaded into the firing chamber, adding great strength to the shot when the bolt is released.

Desert Armour
(Alternative +1 Armour)
Favoured by mercenaries who protect travellers and merchants who travel the Kerem Sea, this armour offers comfortable protection in desert terrain, with heavily bleached leather to help reflect sunlight.

That's all the news for now. Npc info will have to wait a little longer while I figure out what happened to my image editing software!