Re-visiting Old Conversations

First off, I owe a big "Thankyou" to Jfoxtail, respected member of the Neverwinter community who agreed to playtest the first module. I'm pleased to say he gave some very positive feedback, to the point that he actually sounded excited at the prospect of playing it once complete. He went so far as to take some screencaps of his progress, so expect to see some here soon. A few minor bugs were also encountered, but they didn't spoil his enjoyment, and are things that I believe I've already rectified thanks to his comments inspiring me to get cracking with fixing them.

Progress has been so good that I've actually started working on the henchman implementation (another "first" for me). The henchman doesn't become available until the town of Oasis is reached, whereupon he must be taken for the story to progress. Because of this, I wanted to ensure he feels like a personality in his own right, so am introducing a variable that keeps track of his reputation with the player. The reputation can be affected by various player choices within the game, which, if it becomes negative, can make it difficult for the player to make requests from the henchman.

Another aspect of having the henchman present is that he can intervene with conversations the player has with other NPCs, so I've now been re-visiting old conversation files to see if such interventions are required. Such extra nodes are easy to implement, as I can place henchman lines above an NPC line, that way, if the henchman is not present, the NPC line will automatically fire instead. It's been fun implementing such lines, as I feel it increases immersion into the game and improves on the overall story.

Oasis itself still requires some work, but I might take a rest from it and transfer my efforts to the final journey and quest of the module.

That's all the news for now. Expect some screencaps soon. :)

Convo Complications

Well. I'm pleased to say I returned to a conversation file I was dreading, and progress was good. It's quite possibly the largest conversation in the game, currently standing at over 4200 words (I don't know if that includes links. Anyone know?) and still counting. Why is this particular conversation such a nightmare? Well, it takes place at the conclusion of the first major mission and has to account for so much. The design of the game means there are a multiple of considerations to take into account, many of which might not even be witnessed by the player, but why go to such trouble? The answer is that I don't want my players to feel cheated. Some quests only present themselves under certain conditions, and this has been deliberate so that a player can feel they have unearthed something others may have missed. There is nothing I'd like more than for a player to say "Hey, great game, and I loved that suit of Mouys Mail I picked up." followed by another player saying "Where did you get that?!" To some extent I'd like to think that such results might tempt people to play the game again. Some of my quests have multiple completion nodes that depend on circumstance, and in some cases these lead to different possible conversation options, so there is a lot to cover. On the downside, it does require a lot of work and will require multiple tests, so again, if anyone out there is interested in helping, drop me a line. You might be pleasantly surprised at what you see ;)

Playtesting and Spell Hooking

First off, many thanks to Lance Botelle and his wife Jen. I've just returned from a pleasant evening in their company, where Lance tested my module while Jen kept us dosed with tea and biscuits. :)

Having watched over Lances' shoulder, I was pleased with the way the story flowed, while Lance commented on a number of other elements with positive responses.

We did uncover a bug along the way, which while a little discouraging that such problems can still be present despite my own attempts at testing, it's comforting at the same time that I'm able to pick up on it. Playtesting by others is a valuable asset that one should not dismiss, no matter how often they have tested a module themselves, which is why I'm seriously considering releasing an incomplete beta to get some further feedback.

As well as the bug, we (or should I say "Lance") resolved another issue I was having. Having followed a tutorial on the Lexicon to implement spell hooking, I couldn't understand why I couldn't get it to work, which was a pretty major issue considering my mythology plays an important aspect in spell availability. Spell hooking was after all the major draw for me in deciding that making "The Relbonian Chronicles" was possible, so having it not working would prove a major setback. Fortunately Lance spotted the problem quickly. Although I had saved a copy of an altered script in the default module properties, I had forgotten to use it. Selecting the copy made the test work, so that's likely to be the next major project I tackle. Having said that, I still have a couple of spell renames not quite working yet.

I was worried that a lot of typing would be involved with implementing the spell hooking, but having searched the vault I discovered Genisys had done a lot of the typing for me. If spell hooking is something you're considering, I'd recommend popping over to his spells & feats download.

As the setting of the module is unique, I thought it would be nice to experience it in something that felt new. This works to some extent thanks to the spells being re-named to fit in with the mythology, but I felt it deserved more. Having searched the vault again, I discovered some wonderful sets of coloured icons by The Amethyst Dragon. What's especially nice about them is you can drop them in your overide folder so that your icons are colourized for every game you play. I found they make a huge difference to the game, and was particularly impressed that all the spell icons have received the same treatment. I shall most definately recommend their use when I release the module. For those that can't wait that long, you can pick up his spell icons here, and view his other submissions here.

Right, I think I need bed now, and fingers crossed that we start getting some viewers for our home soon, as me and the Mrs are planning to move, which explains my lack of activity of late. Apologies to those of you kind enough to keep tabs here.

Night night and all the best.