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. :)

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. :)