You Can Never Test Too Much!

Well, there was me thinking I just had the end movie and a major technical aspect to implement, only to be proven wrong when I decided I'd give Chapter One one last play through myself to help give me the incentive to finish it. While it did give me the incentive, it also brought several bugs to light missed by my playtesters. Several was just minor glitches that in all honesty I could have probably ignored, but the perfectionist in me had me writing them down to deal with later (and they have now been dealt with), but one was a surprising game breaker (Again, now dealt with).

One of the more mundane was an issue I was having with the henchman following the player through a transition in the same area. I have a tower with two floors, so it made sense to base them on the same level. By doing so however it seemed to make the henchman not follow the player onto the second floor. Rather strangely, I did not consider it too much of an issue as it was perfecty logical that the henchman would have no desire to go upstairs anyway, but it kept niggling at me that some conversation opportunities were being missed as the henchman was too far away to be included so alternative NPC lines were firing. Not a huge issue, but it did mean that opportunities to improve the relationship with the henchman were being missed. In the end I destroyed the transition point that the toolset had auto placed, and changed it to a floor trigger that teleports both PC and henchman on click. Only problem was, once I realised I'd got it working, I went back to the conversation file and enlarged it some more!

Not only am I glad I chose to test it again for the above reasons, but also because it brought something else to light that a playtester had raised but which I originally chose to ignore. Having tested the game myself many times, I found the combat within to be reasonable. Not too easy, but not what I'd deem as hard, except for a couple of scenes where I felt the reward justified added difficulty. Even these however could be made easier if you took note of your surroundings and used them to your advantage. Ignoring the special scenes however, I was a little surprised to have a playtester complain on the difficulty of a certain section. Rather surprisingly, on this latest run through, I too found it incredibly difficult, and could only conclude that my previous run throughs had been a lot luckier in my characters to hit rolls. Having witnessed it myself, I chose to add an item that should help significantly against the creature type that proved so difficult, although the item can only be gained on completion of a prior mission.

One thing I'm hoping players will notice is the attention to detail in the game. I've gone to great lengths to make sure nothing feels out of place. Looting a closet upstairs in a tavern won't fill your inventory with magical artefacts for example, but a bland item of clothing. Even the item mentioned above made to help combat a particular section has a logical reason for existing, AND a logical reason to be given to the player.

Another quality I'm hoping players will like is the personality of the henchman. His conversation file is by far the largest in the game (currently standing at a word count of 9153, approximately one seventh of the entire modules word count), but opportunities for conversing with him aren't exclusive to him alone. One of the nice things about developing a conversation file is that when it comes to NPC responses you can have the first NPC option of a particular line set to an alternative NPC, in this case my henchman, and if the henchman isn't there to say the line, then the file moves on to the original NPC line you have in place (as long as it is placed as the second option). You don't even have to create code to see if the alternate NPC is present! I've had great fun with this, returning to NPC conversation files I previously considered complete, and inserting extra interactions so that the henchman can take conversations in new directons. As mentioned in a previous post, when the henchman first joins he dislikes the player, and the game keeps track of his opinion, offering different responses depending on his like/dislike of the player. Including such options even in the most mundane of places, and consequently offering additional opportunities to improve or worsen the relationship has, in my opinion, made the game a much richer role play experience.

Still Around

Hi all. I'm still here, but lacking the motivation at the moment due to ongoing personal issues. If anyone still pops by, I'd be interested to know your thoughts on the latest Sim game due out in March. If it has the facility to make movies like Sims 2 did, then it could be an excellent resource for making intro movies for NWN. I've checked the official site but can find no concrete info as of yet.

Unfortunately what remains of my mod is the most technically daunting section, made all the more difficult by the break I have been forced to take. I'm still open to offers of assistance should anyone want their name connected to a project which currently has the Beta scoring 9/10 ;)

Merry Christmas All!

Festive cheer and good will to you all!

Still no volunteers to help finish this, so I'm afraid it still sits gathering dust despite the many positive comments I've had from playtesters. I simply can't find the time while looking after my son and trying to find employment that works around him. Here's hoping 2011 has a brighter future in store for us all. :)

Moving

Personal problems have meant this project has been reluctantly shelved for the time being despite being so close to completion with the beta getting excellent feedback. Some glitches did surface but nearly all have been dealt with. In order to get my life back on line I'll be moving house the coming weekend, which will result in a loss of Internet for a few weeks. Maybe by then I'll see some light at the end of the tunnel and can contemplate geting this finished. Wish me luck!

Bad Times.

My world has been turned upside down by a personal problem that has made both the immediate and far future hard to focus on. As a result, this project is temporarily on hold, as I'm simply unable to find the time to give it any attention. It will have to await completion until either my life gets back on track, (and at the moment it looks like that's likely to take a long time. I'm struggling on a day to day basis.) or someone else can give a helping hand.

I mentioned a Hydra I was working on in an earlier post for a project based on Tomb of Horrors by Invisigoth, and am pleased to say I have at least managed to finish that. My final version can be seen below, although I understand this is subject to change in the final module.

Not sure when (if at all) I'll be back, which is a real shame considering the module is so close to completion, so if anyone out there thinks they might be able to help, please drop me a note.

Burning the candle at 3 ends!

I know I've been a little slow in updates of late, but that's not to say I haven't been doing anything. On the contrary, I've managed to do quite a bit more on the module, but suddenly seem to have 3 projects on the go, not including of course entertaining my son during the Easter holiday. Comes as quite a shock to the system having got used to him attending nursery in the mornings to suddenly find you have him full time for 2 weeks. Fortunately he's quite a character and well worth the time investment, but it does mean any personal projects of mine tend to get relegated to the evening... a time when my wife likes to compete for my attention lol!

All is well though. I've had another playtester help me pinpoint a problem I knew existed but was unable to resolve. With their help I got to the root of it and have ironed out one of the more persistent bugs thanks to their help. I've also implemented some additional story driven help for a part of the module that some found difficult, and have put some additional life in the town of Oasis.

As well as that, I've also volunteered my artistic skills to another NWN project that plans to re-create the infamous tabletop module "Tomb of Horrors". Knowing from personal experience what an uphill struggle a solo project can be, one can't help feel one has no right to moan about needing more help if not in a position to help others, so when I saw the cry for artists I figured I should put myself forward. I must say the level of professionalism, gratitude, and understanding within the group has made me very happy to have put myself forward. I'm having a lot of fun with a picture of a Hydra I'm working on for the project, plus it gives me the perfect excuse to increase my artistic skills and portfolio. Hopefully they won't object to me posting the Hydra online once it's complete so you can all have a peep, and I'm hoping I'll be able to contribute more than just the Hydra, but that's going to depend on their level of urgency I guess. Watch this space for further news on that project.

As for the 3rd direction I'm being pulled, some close friends were being nostalgic about our tabletop days and suggested we start some fresh sessions. In particular, someone wanted to revisit a character from my old Relbonian campaign that sparked this whole NWN project, so I've been busy prepping character sheets for a new session. It's not quite as easy as it should be as I'm having to cater to a request to use the 2nd Edition Star Wars rules for the game, not that I object mind, as it is a fantastic system that aids storytelling greatly. I already have the story in mind. It should make for a very interesting game that will take the mythology a step further.

Anyways, I'm waffling and have work to do... including a visit to the Mother-in-law!

Cheerio for now and have fun gaming!

Intro Movie Made

Well... I've made my first attempt at an intro movie for Chapter One of The Relbonian Chronicles, bringing me ever closer to a final release, although I have hit a snag with it. Although I don't have PowerPoint, I managed to combine my editing skills in both Windows Live Movie Maker and Activision "The Movies" to make something I'm satisfied with. In order to keep the file size down I couldn't go into the complete Mythology, so condensed it down, hoping that it will be enough of a teaser to encourage further reading on the subject within the module, and give an indication as to why our hero is destined to meet the God of Death.

My problem stems from the process whereby the video is "Binked" to make it compatible with NWN. My understanding was that the process would condense the file, but in reality it has doubled the size to over 40 meg, which is clearly undesireable. Perhaps if the movie started in AVI format Bink would be more successful, but I don't have the tools to convert my movie to AVI in order to experiment. Perhaps someone here can offer suggestions?

Anyway, here's the movie (subject to successful imbedding). Comments appreciatted. :)

Slowly but Surely

Well, what can I say? Yep, I had a bit of a rest from building. Sometimes you need to take a step back to avoid being overwhelmed, but I have been tackling it again. Since the Beta has been released, I've had some great feedback from Olivier Leroux and DSenset. Both have helped greatly in pinpointing some minor flaws that I've set about ironing out. Olivier in particular has been an enormous help, playing the Beta through to the end and finding a few surprise mistakes that slipped the net, including a conversation that didn't include the possibility that a player had already seen something that their henchman suggests they deal with. That error alone took most of an afternoon to deal with. It seemed simple enough at first... just place a trigger that sets a variable so I know that the PC has seen an area, but when it came to tracking it in the relevant conversation it proved to be a lot more complex, for the simple reason that the hanchman has so many responses depending on how well he gets along with the player. So... I wasn't just inserting one extra line in the convo, but also hunting down all the lines that linked to the original response that now required two responses. Not only that, but there were also lines where the style of the response could change, such as if the henchman hates the PC. Complicated stuff, but worth the effort to increase immersion, and besides, by forcing me to study the conversation hard, I also stumbled across an incomplete conversation branch. I think I find conversations to be the most troublesome because of all the factors one has to take into account, but also the most rewarding when complete. There are many amusing moments to be had with the henchman, but not all will be witnessed, all thanks to the keeping track of the player reputation with the PC.

The good news is that I've now dealt with most of problems brought to my attention, so I can once again concentrate on the things I know to be missing. There are still 2 major conversation files to finish, a small side quest to be implemented, and some towns folk required, as well as a script for the selling of an item that the Druids use for Quills, and the stocking of shops with specialist scrolls.... oh dear... it all seems so daunting when you list it like that. So close and yet so far.

Another thing that is essential is an end movie, and unfortunately I'm not sure I have the software to create such a thing, but it's going to be a "must have". I simply can't do what I want in a cutscene, and without the end movie, the game won't feel complete. Is there anyone out there who could help me if I supplied sound and artwork?

Further good news is that despite the uncovering of errors, feedback on the whole is very encouraging. I've had some excellent comments on the general feel of the mythology from books and items within the module.

That's all the news for now. I have work to do!

Awesome!

No, I'm not blowing my own trumpet. I've been taking a rest from building while I await feedback from the Beta Testers, and in the meantime have been playing with my Christmas present... Dragon Age Origins... this is what I refer to as awesome.

It's the latest roleplaying option from Bioware. Simply put it's the best game of this genre I've played for a long time. The graphics are very good despite anything you might have heard to the contrary. Don't believe any screen caps you've seen as proof of poor quality, as many of those I've seen as supposed evidence fail to point out they include a blur effect where the camera is focusing on a different object. Animation too is very good, with individual combat moves catered for, which go as far as capturing expressions on faces during battle. While on the subject of faces, the character creation process allows for maximum customisation of how your character looks, to the point that you can even alter the angle AND expression of your character portrait.

While character classes may seem a little limited to those of you who crave the multitude of classes offered by NWN, I personally find it refreshing. There are 3 base classes, although these can be broken down further so that you specialise in a particular area, so a Mage for example may end up being a healer, or a Rogue become an Assassin.

The storyline is excellent, with an accompanying mythology refreshingly simple yet richly detailed, so you quickly find yourself becoming absorbed in the setting. Character interaction is good too, with plausible responses for the most outlandish player choices, and excellent inter party banter that is some of the best I have seen in any game.

There are a couple of minor downers, but these are easily outweighed by the positives. Item icons are very limited, while their descriptions suffer from the same lack of detail, relying instead on bland descriptions of their properties. Gone are the flowery explanations of powers you may have grown used to in NWN. Having said that, there is plenty of mythology to read up on in the codex, but I would have preferred the items themselves to offer similar descriptions.

I should also briefly mention interiors. Gone are the Tardis like buildings of NWN, now replaced with lovingly created realistic interiors that have a more mature mediaeval feel to them.

Overall the game is excellent, easily deserving a 9 out of 10 even by my standards.

Perhaps annoyingly, I feel that "The Relbonian Chronicles" would perhaps slide more easily into Dragon Age as opposed to NWN, but the toolset is a lot more complex and would no doubt benefit from a creative team as opposed to a solo venture. Maybe there's someone out there who might consider such a venture? I have no idea if any of the NWN resources such as scripts and conversations will import over to Dragon Age as I haven't experimented with the toolset yet (indeed, I'm reluctant to do so until I've finished the game at least once).

That's all the news for now. I hope to go back to polishing the Beta by February.

Happy New Year All!

Merry Christmas!

It's that time of year again! Time to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Now I have a new PC I thought I'd treat myself to an early present and got Storm of Zehir for NWN2 so I could give it another bash in the hope that the various patches had improved the game beyond my initial disapointment, the intention being that if I liked it enough I'd consider remaking the Relbonian Chronicles for the NWN2 platform. Alas, although the game appears to run fine, the toolset refuses to open, so it looks like I'll be uninstalling it yet again unless someone can offer me any ideas. I'm fully patched up and running under Windows 7.

As for the NWN1 version, I'm getting some useful feedback on the beta which will hopefully result in a more polished product, but it's unlikely to be this side of the New Year which is a real shame.

Ah well, back to work. Have fun all!