I'm happy to report that I'm moving ahead on two fronts. On the one hand, my module creeps slowly onward. Slowly, but surely. More items have been made, more conversation options for the henchman that only fire under particular circumstances, and more work done on the journal entries. I shall try to post something on the object of the series at a later date.
Neverwinter Nights isn't the only front I've been fighting on. Moving house has also proven something of an obstacle, but I'm pleased to say we at last have a moving date, and are currently frantically packing in time for Wednesday. Unfortunately I'll be without the internet for a while during the transition, but I'm hoping it won't be too long a pause.
Wish us luck!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
It just gets worse!
My laptop died several days ago. All of a sudden it stopped detecting the sound card. Not a big issue you might think, but I kind of rely on it for setting the ambience in my mod with music and sound effects, plus many of the conversations make use of sound, so I sent it to be repaired.
It came back today. In a last bid effort to get it working they wiped it and re-installed windows. Not only did it not work, but I now have to re-install all my software. On top of that, I've discovered they used an invalid activation key. I'm hoping I can just type in the one on the sticker underneath my laptop, otherwise I've got serious problems.
Just to top it all off I can't find my Neverwinter disks. I know I have them, but where we've been packing in anticipation of moving house, they've been stashed in a box somewhere and I've now given up looking for them, so any new progress is unlikely to take place until after the move.
Fingers crossed my mod backups are intact. Don't you just hate computers?
It came back today. In a last bid effort to get it working they wiped it and re-installed windows. Not only did it not work, but I now have to re-install all my software. On top of that, I've discovered they used an invalid activation key. I'm hoping I can just type in the one on the sticker underneath my laptop, otherwise I've got serious problems.
Just to top it all off I can't find my Neverwinter disks. I know I have them, but where we've been packing in anticipation of moving house, they've been stashed in a box somewhere and I've now given up looking for them, so any new progress is unlikely to take place until after the move.
Fingers crossed my mod backups are intact. Don't you just hate computers?
Monday, July 06, 2009
House of Horror!
Nothing new to report I'm afraid, on account that we are totally stressed out with everything connected to trying to move house. Hopefully we should know by the end of the week if the house we are after is ours or not, and who knows, we may even have a moving in date. In the meantime, as fast as we are packing boxes, our son Max is unpacking them. I don't want to EVER move house again!
Give me a month or two to allow for settling into our new home and hopefully I'll get cracking again. Certainly it's my intention to have the module released before the year is over.
Give me a month or two to allow for settling into our new home and hopefully I'll get cracking again. Certainly it's my intention to have the module released before the year is over.
Monday, June 08, 2009
I guess it's about time I posted something, so here it is.
I've been cleaning up a few loose ends, and created a few more merchants in Oasis so players can equip themselves before the big push toward the modules end. Most are pretty simple, but there's the odd one with surprises thrown in dependant on circumstance and how you steer conversation. One for example has a small quest available, while another might give you a tasty weapon at a desireable discount.
I've been adding to the henchman convo file too, putting lines in place so that you can ask about the area you're currently exploring. It's my intention to give the henchman some personality so he's more than just an extra pair of hands, and I'm confident the going is good, as I already have an idea for him to have his own story. Getting the story out of him though is another matter, as owing to the circumstances in which he is hired, it's highly likely that he'll start off annoyed with his employer.
That's about it as far as progress is concerned, except for a few additional custom items I've made for the merchants that tie in with the background of the module. Further progress is likely to slow down drastically for the next month or two as we are in the process of selling our house. Fingers crossed we have a buyer, and have also found the house we want to move to, but it's all a bit stressful at the moment as the house we want is a repossession, which means if our buyer pulls out we lose it, and anyone else can step in with a higher bid. We've already started losing sleep because of it, so wish us luck!
I've been cleaning up a few loose ends, and created a few more merchants in Oasis so players can equip themselves before the big push toward the modules end. Most are pretty simple, but there's the odd one with surprises thrown in dependant on circumstance and how you steer conversation. One for example has a small quest available, while another might give you a tasty weapon at a desireable discount.
I've been adding to the henchman convo file too, putting lines in place so that you can ask about the area you're currently exploring. It's my intention to give the henchman some personality so he's more than just an extra pair of hands, and I'm confident the going is good, as I already have an idea for him to have his own story. Getting the story out of him though is another matter, as owing to the circumstances in which he is hired, it's highly likely that he'll start off annoyed with his employer.
That's about it as far as progress is concerned, except for a few additional custom items I've made for the merchants that tie in with the background of the module. Further progress is likely to slow down drastically for the next month or two as we are in the process of selling our house. Fingers crossed we have a buyer, and have also found the house we want to move to, but it's all a bit stressful at the moment as the house we want is a repossession, which means if our buyer pulls out we lose it, and anyone else can step in with a higher bid. We've already started losing sleep because of it, so wish us luck!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
More Testing and Another Playtester.
Today is my birthday! 45 today... boy... enough about that already!
I'm pleased to say I've had another playtester come on board, in the form of Kira'athu, another respected Neverwinter community member, better known to some over at the vault as gpudney. Thanks to some constructive comments from him I've made a few cosmetic changes to further enhance the immersion of the module, and progress is going well.
One of the more significant changes is that I've now upgraded to the latest version of CEP. I was initially against this, but a bug surfaced where a newer versioned player would witness a couple of minor aesthetic flaws, so decided to take the plunge. So as of now, "The Relbonian Chronicles" will require CEP 2.2.
Another reason for taking the plunge is that my earlier DM sandbox work "Muddles in Milton" is now going to receive an official review. As such, a request was made to update the work to CEP 2.2 and DMFI 1.09, so I figured if I was going to update the work for one then I may as well do both. My biggest fear with doing so was that the Relbonian specific tlk file would require re-working to perform with the latest CEP, but thanks to a program I found on the vault, I was able to merge the existing tlk file with the latest CEP one without problems.
Having made the upgrade, I thought I should test the existing work again myself, and in the process uncovered a couple of bugs missed by my playtesters. Minor issues - a spelling mistake and malfunctioning journal that had a conversation behave strangely, but it's nice to have caught them and they are now fixed.
I've been doing more work to my henchman, placing triggers that activate certain conversation nodes, which incidentally, contain different reactions depending on the reputation the player has with them, so expect some amusing arguments. ;) I've also started work on the final journey that will have the player venture to a castle for the final part of the module and expect to start populating it soon with combat encounters, so overall progress is good.
Right. I have to go now. My son wants me to build his trainset!
Tata for now, and happy gaming all. :)
I'm pleased to say I've had another playtester come on board, in the form of Kira'athu, another respected Neverwinter community member, better known to some over at the vault as gpudney. Thanks to some constructive comments from him I've made a few cosmetic changes to further enhance the immersion of the module, and progress is going well.
One of the more significant changes is that I've now upgraded to the latest version of CEP. I was initially against this, but a bug surfaced where a newer versioned player would witness a couple of minor aesthetic flaws, so decided to take the plunge. So as of now, "The Relbonian Chronicles" will require CEP 2.2.
Another reason for taking the plunge is that my earlier DM sandbox work "Muddles in Milton" is now going to receive an official review. As such, a request was made to update the work to CEP 2.2 and DMFI 1.09, so I figured if I was going to update the work for one then I may as well do both. My biggest fear with doing so was that the Relbonian specific tlk file would require re-working to perform with the latest CEP, but thanks to a program I found on the vault, I was able to merge the existing tlk file with the latest CEP one without problems.
Having made the upgrade, I thought I should test the existing work again myself, and in the process uncovered a couple of bugs missed by my playtesters. Minor issues - a spelling mistake and malfunctioning journal that had a conversation behave strangely, but it's nice to have caught them and they are now fixed.
I've been doing more work to my henchman, placing triggers that activate certain conversation nodes, which incidentally, contain different reactions depending on the reputation the player has with them, so expect some amusing arguments. ;) I've also started work on the final journey that will have the player venture to a castle for the final part of the module and expect to start populating it soon with combat encounters, so overall progress is good.
Right. I have to go now. My son wants me to build his trainset!
Tata for now, and happy gaming all. :)
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Saturday, May 02, 2009
A Deadly Bug
Some time ago... possibly last year, I explained the death system I wanted in chapter 1 to Lance Botelle, and he was kind enough to supply me with some scripts that would hopefully have it working. Technically, he did have it working, but... allow me to explain...
What this first module required was as follows:
- Up to a certain point (visiting a lighthouse), death would mean game over, with no respawn option. I felt that I could tie in some of the developing story into the respawn system to help make the story more immersive and death feel more real early on in the game.
- Once the lighthouse is reached, it becomes apparent that it's possible to return from death there for a limited amount of time owing to the lighthouse co-existing in Limbo (the plane that the dead travel upon - see accompanying pic). It does mean however that the player has to retrace his steps to where he died, but at least it's less frustrating than not being able to come back at all. So, after the lighthouse has been discovered, death should result in the player teleporting to Limbo, but able to return to the land of the living via the lighthouse.
- Later in the module, it becomes apparent that the lighthouse method can no longer be used because of how the story has developed, but another method becomes available in the form of soul crystals. As long as a player has some, he should be able to respawn on the spot.
Unfortunately I hadn't got around to testing case 3 until a couple of nights ago. While technically it did what I had asked for, respawned the player and removed a soul crystal, it did it in the same manner as case 2, in that no GUI panel came up. It just happened automatically. Now in case 2 I liked the fact that it did it like that. The first thing a player experiences when venturing to Limbo is disorientation. He asks where he is and has to be told he is dead. The fact that no GUI panel appears with the respawn option helps add to the feeling of "what just happened" when arriving in Limbo - perfect.
In contrast, case 3 didn't feel right at all. I wanted to have the GUI panel appear to give a sense of having died as opposed to looking like you'd just got up again after falling over, so I did a terrible thing... I got brave and started to tinker with it myself.
I discovered that the routine Lance had made rested exclusively within the "ondeath" script, so logically concluded I needed to transfer case 3 to the "onrespawn" script. That's when it all started to go horribly wrong. At first it wouldn't work at all, so I started tampering with it some more, and along the way all the logic got screwed up. Eventually I figured out that because I'd changed the script where the routine rested, my variable names were doomed from the start. Calling a target referred to as "odead" in a respawn script should have gave the game away early on really - doh!
So, I'd wasted a whole night screwing it all up, but the good news is that I managed to fix it after a couple of laborious hours tonight consulting the Lexicon. I'm glad I did though, because I discovered how to place text in the GUI panel (This is the article that helped me.). This has meant I've been able to improve on the immersion even more by using text relevant to the story instead of the standard random game hints that can appear. What this means is that by further editing of the "ondeath" script I now have messages appear in the GUI panel such as "You are currently unable to return to the land of the living." for case 1, and for case 3, either a message explaining that a Soul Crystal will be used for respawning, or that the player has no soul crystals remaining (with the respawn button vacant).
Please excuse me while I let out a small scream of elation ;)
WOOHOOO!
It's always great if you can solve something yourself :)
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
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. :)
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. :)
Monday, April 13, 2009
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 ;)
Thursday, April 09, 2009
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.
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.
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