Inspirational Fuel

I believe I've mentioned in the past that I've been labelled a "Regressive Achiever".  We're very rare (so I've been told).  Most people when getting from A to Z conclude that they best go to B first, whereas I'd argue that since Z is where I want to be, I'm going to need to get to Y at some stage so spend my time working out how to get there.  Regressive Achievers tend to tackle things backwards.  As a result they tend to be slow and methodical, perhaps taking longer, but usually achieving a superior result far closer to the desired requirement of their chosen task.  Ever since I was told this, I have to chuckle at the amount of times I subconciously work like this without realising I'm doing it.  It's most obvious in the manner in which I draw.  I have an unusual style that my art teacher used to criticise me for, yet I find it is the only way I can work.  When I work on an animal portrait, I have to see evidence that I am achieving what I want, or I lose interest, so I'll finish part of the portrait (I usually do the eyes first, as that's the most important feature to get right) before moving on to another section.  If you were to photograph progress of one of my drawings, you'd get the impression a jigsaw was being made.

It recently occured to me that even Neverwinter can't escape the way I work. 

Having encountered many a thread in the past requesting building tips and advise, I thought perhaps I should elaborate on my own methods.  True, they may be long winded, but, like my drawings, by finishing the finer details before tackling the bigger picture, I find I am provided with the inspirational fuel required to take the project further.

So, for your own enjoyment, here is the thought process involved in the latest piece of  "The Relbonian Chronicles - Chapter Two" that I've been working on...

For the introductory cutscene, I need a conversation to take place between the player and an NPC who is the leader of the local Thieves' Guild.  I work on the location where the conversation will take place until I'm happy with it in terms of content, lighting, and most importantly, music.  I say music is most important for two reasons.  One, it helps set the mood for what will happen in the scene, and two, it helps put me in the right frame of mind to capture the essence of what I want in the characters that will inhabit the scene.  Having got this far, I'll start working on the NPC, taking care that the location he will inhabit is visible to me during the creation process, and that the music can be heard.

Players of my previous works will know I pay great attention to detail, taking the trouble to have an NPC match their chosen portrait as closely as possible.  With the help of the music and the setting, it occurs to me that the head I've selected, although close to the portrait, doesn't portray the intimidation I want to convey so I return to browsing through the head models until I find something more suitable.

Having found something more suitable, I find a description of the NPC comes more naturally, and am able to move on to the inventory.  By far the most important item is the clothing, as again, I want it to tie in with the chosen portrait of the character.  In this instance I am fortunate that not a great deal of the clothing is visible, so the main things I need concern myself with are the colour scheme and the fact that he shouldn't be showing off his chest.  Rather than spend ages looking for something that fits the bill, I just copy what he's wearing and edit it to my personal taste, eventually culminating in the outfit shown below.  Note that while I work on the outfit, I keep the NPC details visible so that I can still refer to the character portrait as reference.

Now, at this stage it occurs to me that as an actor in a cutscene his equipment isn't that important.  I don't let that stop me however, as there's no reason I can't use it elsewhere (perhaps even a later chapter) for whatever reason, and so I set to work on giving the armour both properties and a description...

"Armour of Wrist Whistling is the apt name given to this armour by the maker, a famed tailor called Vence Volderberg, who is rumoured to have created the original Runner costume favoured by the Druids.  This outfit is for an entirely different type of customer however, with urban camoflage as opposed to rural clearly evident in the expensive dyes used to colour the garment.

Light yet well padded, it has been designed to allow swift movement of the arms (hence the name), allowing the wearer to block potential sword swipes with the bladed forearm attachments.

It is rumoured that some in Relbonian high society oppose the open production of such garments arguing that they are favoured by criminals and that anyone wearing them should be treated as such."
 
Satisfied that the description tallies with the properties I designate to it, I then place it on the NPC to see if the final look fits the bill.
 

Now I'm happy.  He looks the part and suits the music I'm listening too perfectly.  I create a one line conversation file and assign it ready for working on later, and browse through a few voice sets until I find the one I feel best suits him.  With that done, I place him in the scene, look at the clock, and realise I should be getting to bed!

Rest assured that work continues, but the perfectionist in me can be a little demanding of my time.  Hopefully that's already clearly evident to those of you who played Chapter One.

Bedtime again... lol... night all. :)

Skyrim

I made a start on the opening cutscene last night.  It's tough getting the camera to do what you want.  Guess the Director in me will slow things down a little.

Decided to have a break and browse for a while.  I remembered The Elder Scrolls were due to release Skyrim soon, so decided to check out their site which is where I've been the last hour.  I have to say everything looks awesome.  True, I thought that about Oblivion but ended up disheartened by the repetitive combat in the gate zones, but Skyrim looks so much better.  Just take a look at this Dragon Combat in game footage.

All Elder Scroll games have paid high attention to detail, and Skyrim is no exception.  It's worth watching the other videos available to get a sense of how far this goes ( The puzzle and key scene is a particularly good example.).

This looks to be a dangerous game to buy for kids who need to do homework, or even adults come to that... hmmm... perhaps I'll add it to my Christmas list and let fate decide ;)

Chapter Two Underway

I realise it's been a while, but a rest was both needed and much deserved after the completion of Chapter One.

The good news is that Chapter Two is now underway, and I'm setting out to include as much attention to detail as the prequel.  NPCs will match their portraits as closely as possible, have voices and conversations that give them real personality, and descriptions too.  Area designs have carefully placed items that sometimes require use of the "Adjust Location" tool to ensure I attain the look I'm trying to achieve, and also have careful consideration given to both lighting and sound.  As in Chapter One, no item should feel out of place, and will have in depth lore unique to the world of Relbonia..

As a teaser, here's a few screen caps of the areas I've been working on.  You can click on the pictures for a larger view.  Hopefully you won't have to wait so long for the next update...

This will be the home of the player character and where the game will start.  I hope to start on the opening cutscene soon...

Here's a weapon shop that will have a major role in the story...

And these are the nearby docks.

That's all the news for now.

All the best.
Quillmaster.

So What Happens Now?

Well... I must say I'm a little disheartened, primarily I guess because the following for NWN1 has shrunk to such a degree that I feel creating a new mod for the "community" may as well have meant creating a new mod for my neighbours. The feedback I've had, while generally good, has been a lot smaller than I had hoped, and this has left me wondering whether or not making the sequels might be a waste of time. That's not strictly true, as I enjoy the creation process and love story telling. If nothing else, I believe I'm making something my son will enjoy playing in later years, provided of course whatever computer I have at the time can still run it.

I have made a start on the areas for chapter 2, but the speed at which I tackle it will largely depend on further feedback. So I guess this is a warning to you all, If you want to see a sequel, get more involved. There is a project page for this over at the Bioware boards where you can start a discussion if you so wish.

So, with that said, what are the plans for Chapter 2? Well this time round the main character will be a Thief, with the intention to start a little higher in level than the main character of the prequel. It will be a human female struggling against the prejudice of the male dominated Thieves Guild, but she'll be a strong willed woman who regards most men as a means to an end. They'll be a henchman again at around the halfway stage, but this time a very unusual one... an Ancient! You'll just have to play Chapter 1 if you don't know what one of those are ;)

Latest Patch Hak Now Available

Just posting here for those of you who may not be aware that the latest patch hak for Chapter One is now available that corrects a number of issues including a possible game breaker that could occur in final scene if your reputation with your henchman was high. Simply overwrite current patch hak and you'll be able to continue play instead of having to start again.

All the best,
Q.

Chapter One Uploaded!

I've just uploaded Chapter One to the vault and it's available here. Now it's time for a well deserved rest!

The End Very Nearly WAS Nigh!

I recently had a heart stopping moment when I thought all was lost. Started up NWN with the intention of using the toolset, only to be confronted with an error message that stated something along the lines of "Not in the install directory, please correct or re-install NWN." Obviously I wasn't looking forward to a potential re-install, particularly as I had accidently left my external hard drive at my brothers house who lives many miles away, and it contained many of my backup files.

Fortunately I remembered I'd been having mouse issues the previous night, so it occcured to me that while exploring the NWN folder I may have accidentally moved something I shouldn't have. Fortunately that was exactly what the problem was, and I was able to return said folder to its original location. Phew!

I've certainly been busy. Having re-visited an old message from one of my playtesters, I realised I'd only got half way through their list of potential bugs and then forgotten about it during a period of inactivity. I'm happy to say that these have now been dealt with.
I also managed to polish a cutscene that juddered in game yet behaved fine while testing, and have since realised it's important to test such scenes in an identical environment to which they will fire in game. By that I mean if a scene is fired when you enter an area, don't assume that by placing the module start within the area you'll be testing it in game conditions. Place the start where you can jump/transition to the area in question. This has been an important lesson.

I've also extended the ending even further, so it's changed quite substantially from the Beta.

There are two more things to fix, then it's just a case of making the end movie, so I'm confident I'll have a final version on the vault within a few weeks.

For those of you who are interested, there is now a project page available over at the Bioware site.

In the meantime, here's a few more screen caps along with some footnotes of what you can expect in Chapter one...

The Relbonian Chronicles are rich in their own unique mythology, with many books and item descriptions adding to the immersion.

High attention to detail, with light and music carefully considered for each area.

Inclusion of cutscenes to further enhance the story.

Interaction with many an NPC.

Use of visuals in both cutscenes...

...and in game play.

Combat that steadily rises with a variety of opponents. This first one is hidden so as not to be a spoiler ;)

The End is Nigh!

...but not in a doom and gloom way. I'm actually quite excited as I've done a lot more work to the module. All conversations and quests are now completed, which feels like I've hit a major milestone.

I've also changed how the module ends. It had been bothering me for quite some time. I wanted it to end on a cliff hanger, but it just felt like it was lacking something how it stood in the Beta despite at least one playtester telling me it was okay. The player ends up leaving a castle via a specific route but I'd failed to explain the reason for the routes existence. I knew it had a valid reason, but to the player I felt like it might appear that I'd just got lazy toward the end of the module. I suppose to a certain degree this was true, for the novel the module is based upon had a set scene which I chose to ignore for I felt it had no purpose and wouldn't add to game play, but oh... how wrong I was! I decided it was worth implementing after all, and while it is true that from the player perspective it just prolongs how long it takes for the module to end for a minute or two, it adds so much tension and drama that I now feel it has a much stronger cliff hanging ending as a result. Not only that, but it has also given me the opportunity to implement some aknowlegdement of the final standing between the PC and henchman.

So what's left to do? I have some more scrolls that need creating and placing in their relevant merchant stores, then it's on to the end movie and... job done! I might consider creating a walkthrough document as there are a few nuggets players might not want to miss, but I'm likely to leave that until the modules release. If anyone could assist in the end movie that would bring the release a lot closer. ;)

Till we meet again.
Quillmaster. :)

The Art of Conversation

I think I'm nearly there. I've been working on the last conversation file, although have to confess it did start to get complicated as I had to open my henchman convo too and make adjustments to take into account the player might ask the henchman for assistance before talking to the NPC, which required additional coding (*Sigh* - things always end up more complicated!) for things such as making sure the player can't ask the NPC to assist in a conversation that's either already taken place or is too far away to warrant asking. It's funny what you end up thinking about as you go... building the line where the player asks their henchman to assist in talking to a guy down the local tavern, and then thinking "Hang on a minute... I don't want that line being an option if they're walking through the crypts!".

I quite enjoy writing conversation files, but they are probably the most time consuming element of my building. The main reason being I don't want them to appear too linear. Notice I said "appear". You want to give the illusion of choice while ultimately steering to the same outcome. True, there are real choices to be made that can have different consequence, such as accepting or declining a mission, but for the player to have fun they need to feel they arrived at their destination through personal choice and not through what they perceive as limited options. For this reason many of my player responses might have more than 2 options, but you have to keep a grip on the situation in order to avoid your conversation branches resembling an upside down tree, which is both impractical and very difficult to keep track of.

Let's start with a basic example:

NPC: "Say, you look like you can handle yourself. I have a job if you're interested?"

• PLAYER OPTION 1 - "Sorry, I have enough on my plate at the moment."



• PLAYER OPTION 2 - "That depends. What does it entail?"



• PLAYER OPTION 3 - "Of course I'm interested!"

Simply put, this could be described as a Yes/No/Maybe option. The response to the "Maybe" would involve the NPC describing what he wants done, but we could also connect the same response to the "Yes", since the player will still need to know what's required from them. Now you might think "What's the point of two options that lead to the same outcome?". It's all about immersion, allowing the player to play their character in the style they imagine themselves. You can enhance the immersion further down the line by acknowledging how they responded by setting a variable on the "Yes" option, for example... imagine the NPC has now described the job...

NPC OPTION 1: (Variable check - Player said "Yes") "So that's it. Shouldn't be too difficult for a man of your enthusiasm."

• PLAYER OPTION 1 - "Consider it done!"



• PLAYER OPTION 2 - "Hmmm... on second thoughts, I'm not so sure I want to do it."

NPC OPTION 2: (Don't need to check variable, since convo will jump to this line if the player didn't say "Yes") "So that's all there is to it. Are you interested?"

Notice how we can still link from NPC option 2 to the player responses of NPC option 1? Actually that's not strictly true. I'd certainly paste as link the "Consider it done!" option, but would create a seperate "No" option that didn't include the phrase "on second thoughts" since the player has not previously said "Yes", but you get the idea.

ADVANCED TECHNIQUES

There are a number of ways you can make a conversation have more depth, and I'll cover some of them here.

Skill checks are a great way of altering the flow of a conversation, but did you know you can incorparate more than the two simple Success/failure responses? Here's an example of what I mean:

PLAYER: - *PERSUADE* "You sure I can't tempt you? I could throw in 100 gold to make it worth your while?"

• NPC PERSUADE SUCCESS: - "Oh all right then, you twisted my arm."



• NPC PERSUADE FAIL (If success doesn't fire convo jumps to this line, so we could place a text appears when script here to check if player has more than 700 gold) - "Are you kidding me?! By the looks of how your purse is bulging you could make a far more tempting offer!"



• NPC PERSUADE FAIL WHILE PC CASH <700 (No need to check since convo will jump here if above 2 checks fail): - "Thanks for the offer, but I'll have to decline, sorry."

Another interesting option is henchman interaction. If you place a line of convo that belongs to your henchman and the henchman isn't present, the convo will simply move to the next available option, so your convo branching could look something like this:

PLAYER OPTION: - "Okay okay... how about 200 then?"

• NPC (Henchman): - "Hey! Some of that money is meant for me!"


• NPC (Owner (Will automatically fire if above line owner not present): - "Okay, it's a deal."

Journal entries can also provide interesting conditions for convo lines to fire, but things can get a little tricky if you want your journal to reflect convo choices. What might at first strike you as a simple accept/success/completion journal set can quickly multiply with different variations, and that it turn can complicate conditional scripts, which leads me nicely to my next point...

When pasting links from elesewhere in a conversation, make sure the branch you are pasting from doesn't contradict where you are pasting too, or you could find conversations abrubtly ending when you least expect it, or suddenly saying something that doesn't make sense.

Another concept you can use is to have scripts check for items that the player is wearing and alter conversations accordingly. For example, the wearing of a holy symbol might influence an NPC, or even the lack of one should the player be talking to a priest.

All of the above techniques exist in one form or another in "The Relbonian Chronicles", leading to what I hope many will find a rich role play experience.

That's all for now. I'm hoping to post some screen caps next time round. I the meantime, happy gaming all. :)

Bettering the Beta

I'm pleased to say a lot's happened since the Beta release. Not only did I have valuable feedback and encouragement, but I've also now addressed all the bugs that were reported to me (fingers crossed!).

It doesn't end there though. There's also been some changes since the Beta meaning that the playtesters will see new things should they decide to play the final version, something I strongly hope they choose to do as I'm convinced a second play through may reveal things they did not realise were present first time round.

Allow me to elaborate...

• There are at least 2 side quests I can think of that can easily be missed should the player fail to take a certain route in a conversation.



• The success/failure of certain actions make the game behave differently later on. Nothing major, but enough to make the player stand up and take notice I think. The most noteable one being a brief interaction with an NPC in which he may either die or survive and move on. If he survives, he gets encountered later in the game and announces that he has dealt with some troublesome Orcs, with their bodies present as evidence. If he failed to survive, then the favour is of course impossible and the player is forced to deal with the Orcs themselves.
  


• There are several items in game that can alter the route of a conversation if held by a player. In one case ownership is not enough, with the item needing to be worn to influence a conversation later.
  


• Then of course there is the henchman, but I feel I've harked on about him too much already. Suffice to say that he has character, and will behave differently depending on what he thinks of the player. I dare say if someone chooses to play the game again they will be tempted to be deliberately horrible to him just to see his "flavour" change.

Although the game has a defined ending it steers toward, I am seriously considering making a subtle alternative based on the final henchman/player relationship. Nothing that will change the actual ending, but enough of a difference to give a nod to the player. I think that will depend on how long everything else takes. At the moment I have one conversation file and sidequest to finish, then I have to equip the scroll shops (a fairly big task because of the way the mythology works), then make the end movie and that should be it! There's still some work that the Hak file requires, but I may seriously consider shelving that as it's only really needed for a future chapter, and I feel this first installment has been too long in the making to postpone it further for the sake of a hak that will have no influence on it.

Other changes since the Beta include the completion of a scene involving a book that was only hinted at in the Beta. Quite some work has gone into it and I'm very pleased with the results. It all adds to the storyline nicely and includes an extra scene where the player summons something he has to converse with and then defeat, resulting in the obtaining of an object that further adds to the story and gives the player some temporary help in the form of a grateful ghostly warrior.

I've also implemented an extra building where the player can rest, fitting it in nicely without it feeling out of place. The atmosphere is on par with the rest of the module. Anyone who's played the beta should know I pay a lot of attention to the finer details.

For anyone intrested, I've created a project on the bioware forums where I hope to put some screencaps of a final play through at a later date.

That's all the news to date... I've got a conversation file to get back to. :)