None Player Characters

Chapter One is getting ever closer to releasing a fully playable Beta. The first half of the module has already had some extensive testing, while the latter half has had none, so it seems wise to get some playtesting done before releasing an official final version, particularly as it is part one in a series and I won't want to put people off from looking forward to future episodes.
Although I envision the Beta being fully playable, it will be missing a few things anticipated for the final release. The town of Oasis will need some more townfolk to make it feel more alive. It will also need at least an end movie as the module will end on a bit of a cliffhanger and will feel odd finishing without an accompanying movie. A start movie would also be nice but not essential, so I suppose that will depend on how easy I find making the end one. Some of the scrolls I intend implementing might be missing but won't be a game breaker. There will also be something present that will be removed in the final release. At the moment the player gets feed
back when their rep with their henchman gets adjusted so I can get feedback if an adjustment feels out of place.

So, just to wet your appetite I'm going to talk about some of the NPCs present as that currently seems to be the most requested news in my poll here. As already discussed, "The Relbonian Chronicles" draws from a rich mythology that makes for a somewhat political setting where the Gods play an active role. As such, several of the NPCs are quite interesting. In some cases, they will play more active roles in future episodes and will only have cameo appearances in Chapter One, Zannaram being a classic example...

Zannaram was a once powerful Sorceror cursed by the Gods for his arrogance to assume the form of a Raven. As such, he roams the land in search of spell books to replenish the spells in his head. It's possible to have a very brief encounter with him about half way through the game, and again nearer the end where he might provide some assistance.

Math Skinnyfin is a Lith, a proud race of fish like people specific to Relbonia, being the earliest race known to exist (other than the "Ancients"). They are generally disliked by the other races, but there are some who recognise their loyalty and sense of honour, giving them the respect they deserve. We meet Math early on in the game when seeking passage on a boat. Later it's possible (but not essential) to rescue him, resulting in a reward that has consequences later in the game should he survive the rescue attempt. There are other conditions to the reward, but I don't want to post too big a spoiler here. Suffice to say it's good, and if the player doesn't like it, they're sure to be able to buy something they do like in Oasis after selling it. ;)

Gailin Both is much more in depth, being a henchman acquired at the halfway stage of the game. A runner for the Chronicle, he is initially annoyed with the PC for having his initiation ceremony into becoming a fully fledged Druid interupted by the arrival of the PC. Win his trust to increase control over him, otherwise you'll find him telling you to mind your own business when you suggest he changes his tactics. He's quite detailed now, to the point that even his posessions can cast light on the life of a runner.

Thon is a Half Orc met about halfway through who is initially sided with some bad guys the player can stumblle across who mistakenly presume the player is the help they have sent for. It's possible to have him switch sides, after which the player can either take him out too, or simply bid farewell. If you go for the latter option, he can turn up later, having been good enough to take out some other bad guys for you.

Another cameo appearance in Chapter One will be made by Allivanril, an Elven Sorceror due to make an appearance as the player character in a later chapter. Keep an eye out for him to gain a better understanding of what he's been up to when you come to play him. One of the main things that pleases me about this project is the politics involved despite the presence of magic and Gods. As an NPC Allivanril is clearly implicated in something bad, but that's because of his political motivations and an ignorance to the bigger picture. Sorcerors are frowned upon by those who derive their magic from the Gods, and to begin with, Allivanril is setting out to discredit the main body within Relbonia being representatives of the Gods, the Druids, by creating forgeries of the newsletter created by them, as he feels the ones penned by Druids offer a one sided perspective of world news. It is simply an unlucky coincidence that the man he hopes will distribute the forgeries for him is driven by far more worrying motivations that will later have our Sorceror acting on behalf of the Druids. Of course, his cameo appearance in Chapter One barely scratches the surface of this, but it does hopefully give you idea of the scope of the story.

Right, that's it for this post. Stay Tuned. :)

So what's it all about?

Well we've successfully moved, but still have boxes strewn around our new house. For ages I thought I'd lost my Neverwinter disks, but recently found them hiding inside my Printer box which was a huge relief as my laptop had to be re-formatted a while back. Our son was a little unsettled at first, but he now regularly calls the place "Mummy and Daddies new house", so we are settling slowly but surely.

It's been a relief that I have this project to work on when I want to escape the drudgery of organising our house, and I'm pleased to say that as a result good progress has been made in the past week. The henchman is really beginning to shine as a character now, with numerous branches in conversations dependant on the reputation of the PC with him. I'm also close to preparing the final location of the module, although I should point out that as a castle it's a fairly large area to populate and prepare, and there's also a cutscene needed for it. So, we're a little way off yet, but there is most definately light at the end of the tunnel.

Followers of this blog should know by now that I've been priding myself on the level of detail within the module. If you're unaware of how such detail is incorporated then shame on you for not becoming a follower by clicking on the link to the left! ;) You're in luck however, for, as promised in my last post, it's about time I talked about the object of the series.

What has become apparent, as I'm sure any playtester will testify, is that "The Relbonian Chronicles" will succeed in becoming immersive. This is something I set out to do from the beginning. I didn't want to make a purely hack and slash module. I wanted to tell a story where the player becomes connected with the characters involved, to the point that they can experience being part of another world, and from different perspectives too.

The intention has always been for the Chronicles to be a series, with each module having the player roleplay a different character within the same world, thus gaining a different perspective of being a part of a whole. For those of you who fear the word "roleplay", it won't be as daunting as you might at first think. In order for the overall story to unfold the player will have to play set characters of a pre-determined class and alignment. As such, dialogue choices will not offer extreme choices, but instead feature options that fit with the character. Notice I said "Options" there. Not only are they present, but they can influence the game. None feel out of place, yet in some cases can make the game easier or harder to play. So, although the story is on a set path, the manner in which you get to the end of the path can have subtle differences. The henchman I've been taking so much pride in is a classic example of this at work, in that there are many instances of his dialogue changing dependant on their feelings toward the player.

NPCs too benefit from attention to detail. In at least 2 instances you can meet someone further on in the story in a different location. Meeting them again is not guaranteed as it will depend on the paths chosen by the player, as does the outcome of meeting them again. In some instances there are even NPCs that will feature in future chapters in larger roles, indeed, one of them is even going to be the players character in a future episode.

So, to summarise, it's a story, told in multiple parts, from the point of view of a differerent character, all of whom are connected in someway to the bigger picture... a series of events threatening the very existence of the Relbonian world.

It's getting late now, so I'm gonna have to sign off. Before I go, if there's anything you'd like to know about the module please ask here, and I will do my best to provide an answer.

Moving in Two Directions.

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!

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?

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.

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!

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. :)

Screen Caps

Thought it was about time I showed you some proof of progress, so here it is :)

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:

1. 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.


2. 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.
   


3. 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.

Early testing of the system Lance had scripted for me looked positive. In case 1, the GUI panel appeared with no respawn option - great! In case 2, the player went to Limbo - woohoo!

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 :)

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. :)