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I was up at four o'clock this morning, trying...
January 30, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I was up at four o'clock this morning, trying to fix the big list of problems that have come in. One of the most critical is that when doing boarding actions, sometimes you'd end up stuck on the ship after killing the entire enemy crew.
One brave tester gave me the clue - that the problem happened after the first boarding action. Sure enough, I was able to replicate the problem. The heartbeat that kept track of the crew counts kept firing, but seemed to die on the part of the script that kept creatures from getting stuck in the walkmesh. The latter issue was rare, so I yanked it, which seemed to fix the problem.
I ran across a couple bugs I found myself. The first was that fishing boats went a bit too deep in the water, so they always looked like they were sinking. The second was that when I captured a ship with special cargo, it created an infinite amount of them in my inventory. It was a nice bonus, but one I sadly had to fix.
I'm also getting reports that some people are having problems buying a ship. They click the buy link, get the pop-up "Are you sure?" message, but clicking on that does nothing. I think I'm going to redo the way it works and get rid of the "Are you sure?" box entirely. Why it works for some people but not others is a complete mystery to me.
I'm going to do my darndest to work through as many bugs as possible today. I might not be able to fix them all, but hopefully I can keep the caffiene going and the bug fixes working.
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The bugs continue to pour in
January 29, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 The bugs continue to pour in. I hopefully fixed on this morning, I hope, though I suspect the issue has more to do with the GUI not giving good feedback. It turns out you could try to buy a ship if you didn't have any gold and the player with speak "not enough gold." Unfortunately it was hidden behind the GUI, so you couldn't really tell. I've now switched it over to a very obvious pop-up box.
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It's been a little nutty today, as our little...
January 29, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
It's been a little nutty today, as our little valley has been blanketed in snow. We usually get rain all winter, so they closed the schools and I try to work from home. I did get a good list of bugs to sink my teeth into. Hopefully I can look at some fixes tonight.
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I put together a nifty little movie for the g...
January 27, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I put together a nifty little movie for the game, complete with appropriately naval music. It was fun to do, though now I have to collect some screenshots that are always requested whenever an interview is done. Tomorrow I'll see what the latest bug testing has revealed and decide if it's time to chat with Maximus at the Vault and set up a formal preview thingie.
I'm itching to do some coding on Lute Hero and get things to the point where I can actually play some notes. I think I have all the tricky stuff in place and now I just need to find some time to make the rest happen.
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The movie making continues
January 26, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 The movie making continues. I captured an epic boarding action with some pirates. I decided to go straight for the enemy captain, a ruthless Pirate Queen. Ironically we ended up killing each other almost simultaneously. The crew shouted out "I surrender!" as I died and they dumped my corpse over at the docks of Port Brighton.
I also accomplished one of the more tricky tasks for Lute Hero. I have a system that analyzes the midi files that accompany a Frets on Fire song. Theoretically it'll let me time the guitar notes to the song so the Lute Hero game actually works. I may end up creating different difficulty levels for each song. Though you can't play simultaneous notes, sometimes the notes come in pretty close to each other. Lots of testing will be required.
Hopefully today I can find some time to put together my preview movie. If the latest release looks good from a QA standpoint, I might actually ponder releasing relatively soon.
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It turns out the Vista problem was indeed rel...
January 25, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 It turns out the Vista problem was indeed related to permissions. Running NWN2 as an administrator fixed the issue.
The last of the descriptions are in the game and I'll be creating new builds shortly. I'll update this post as soon as the new version is out. The main fix is switching the skill gem activation to the GUI rather than the broken dialog, so you can actually increase your psionic skills. I've also added descriptions to all the NPCs, which is a nice little detail.
This morning I started putting together movies for the grand PR blitz. My goal is to show off the novel features of the game without showing off too much. I think I've captured about half of my footage, but still want to get some ship-to-ship combat and boarding actions. Fun, fun.
Update: I got distracted, but you'll find the most recent DW2 version off the download page.
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Work continues
January 25, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
Work continues. I have descriptions for all the NPCs in the game. I got my first bug report from a beta tester, a really weird one that has to do with the modules acting like they're not part of a campaign. I suspect permission issues with Vista, but we'll see.
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I'm feeling a bit better today, taking some t...
January 23, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
I'm feeling a bit better today, taking some time to work on descriptions for each of the NPCs in the game. It's a fairly time consuming job, but I think it should add some more depth to the game. Here's a few tidbits:
This laid-back man seems to be in a perpetual conversation with an unseen creature perched on his shoulder. Strangely, no one else in the room seems to pay him much attention.
This beautiful woman wears a revealing outfit, seemingly to show off the intricate tattoos that cover her pale skin. Her every movement and glance seems like a practiced flirt, as if she was aware her appearance often sold her services to sailors who wished her hands on their body.
With luck, I can put together a new build to the testers in a day or two. I'd also like to start getting some promotional material together - screenshots and movies and the like. Not much longer, I think.
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I've been getting really nasty headaches the ...
January 23, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
I've been getting really nasty headaches the last couple of days, but I'm feeling better at the moment. I managed some bug fixing this morning, hopefully taking care of a couple of the issues PJJ reported. One of his requests was for more descriptions added to characters, so I'm going to see if I can undertake that effort before release.
Hopefully not much further . . .
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Over the weekend, our family played way too m...
January 21, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 Over the weekend, our family played way too much Guitar Hero (look here for the video - I'm at the very end). It inspired me to revamp the Lute Hero game I've been fiddling with lately.
There's now a working GUI with numbers that float down from the top and a background that smoothly scrolls. The hardest part was getting it to synchronize properly with the music. The DelayCommand wasn't accurate enough, so I ended up calculating the number of centiseconds from the start of the song (that's hundredths of a second). If something took up some extra processing power, I might have to adjust the position of the background and frets a few extra pixels.
The other hard part is getting the music working properly in the game. I'm using songs from Frets on Fire, which conveniently breaks each song into a guitar track and the other music. Each song is a placed object, allowing me to adjust the volume level accordingly. The plan is to have the guitar music stop if you play the wrong note.
There's still tons of work to do. The hardest will likely be making a program to read midi files to generate a notes file that NWN2 will read. I need a specially crafted dialog box that stays hidden while letting the player press number keys to play notes. Some things won't be possible, such as pressing multiple keys or seeing of a key is held down. The game engine just isn't that flexible. Still, with the lighting, effects, and camera work, hopefully it'll be fun. I'm already thinking of some over-the-top dialog that could be quite funny.
In terms of a beta release, I had a few bugs come in over the weekend, so it won't be a perfect install, but hopefully all the major bugs are fixed. You can find links on the Downloads page. There are new versions of both DarkWaters 1 and DarkWaters 2. If you want to replay DW1, there should be new fixes and features (such as achievements), or you can jump straight to DW2 from the first dialog.
As always, feel free to send me an e-mail if you run into problems. I'll be working on a new build this week to fix the bugs that have been reported. It might be fun to put together some PR material such as movies and photos for the Vault. It's weird getting so close to release.
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I have been seeing portents, praying to forgo...
January 20, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
I have been seeing portents, praying to forgotten gods, and making unholy alliances. Tomorrow is looking like the day of beta release.
Yesterday I fixed the last reported crash bug, fixed up some dialog, and corrected a few miscellaneous issues. There was some voice files left unattached, so I got those taken care of. I'm feeling pretty confident that tomorrow is the day. If the beta test doesn't produce any major bugs, I'll probably do a big release on the Vault soon afterwards.
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The insane busyness continues, but I found so...
January 19, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
The insane busyness continues, but I found some time to work on sound clips. Some of the voice testers passed along some new clips and I tried to fake a Scottish accent. It turns out that having Scottish blood in my ancestry doesn't automatically give me the right accent. I muddled through, in any case.
I marked, but hadn't read PJJ's latest bug notes until today. He dared speak the "beta test" phrase, which is the first time I've heard it bandied about. There's still one very serious bug I need to fix, and a few minor annoying ones, but I'm thinking that if I can pull it off, I might post a link to the full build early next week.
Release day always leaves me with a mix of excitement and dread. I know there will be problems that I miss and I get to play tech support to the world, but hopefully the joy of getting this project out the door will make up for it all.
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My life is crazy
January 17, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 My life is crazy. I'm summoning time from the very ether in order to work on my project, beating back the assorted demons that nip away trying to get my attention. I have some great e-mails from testers and voice actors, waiting for my time. In my remaining minutes today, I'm going to do my darndest to respond.
I had a few minutes this morning that I spent fiddling with the Lute Hero mini-game. I added some nifty geysers and have most everyone animating relatively well, now. I'd like them to vary their animation based on how well the player is doing. The zombies are also just standing there, hunched over with that "Got Brains?" vacant look in their eyes. It would be nice if I could get them moving too.
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Typically game development is a surprisingly ...
January 16, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 Typically game development is a surprisingly dry affair. I write code, test out ideas, and hold up gameplay to some Platonic measure of Fun. Still, when I was working on animating the audience today, I got a pretty serious chuckle. I decided to simply animate my audience of undead in a loop and they proceeded to do some sort of synchronized ballet move endlessly. I guess you had to be there.
In terms of today, I worked more on the Alphabet Assault areas. It's fairly area-heavy, which translates into lots of room decoration, creating items, naming creatures, and so on. Creating areas is a bit like playing with dolls, assuming you were some sort of disturbed child that likes demons, lava, and treasure. I think I want to do one final level and call it good.
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I've noticed that in the last three screensho...
January 15, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I've noticed that in the last three screenshots, I've taken a screenshot right after clicking effect #1, which is a stream of fire and smoke erupting from my lava pool on each side of the stage. I'm trying to add other things, including sea monsters, geysers, and the like, just to get the proper psychadelic light show feel to the mini-game.
I also woke up the other day with the answer to a programming problem bouncing around in my brain. It's probably a sign that I think way too much about my little hobby. In any case, I implemented it this morning and the little circles appear properly, are clickable, though don't do anything interesting yet.
The problem with the last build was embarrasingly simple. It turns out I'd moved the start point of the module to my test area and forgot to move it back. I made a new build and have to get it uploaded sometime today . . .
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My brave group of testers are reporting probl...
January 14, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 My brave group of testers are reporting problems with the latest build. I've got to take a look, though I'm having problems finding time on this busy, busy day.
I sunk more time yesterday into getting what I'm tentatively calling "Lute Hero" into the game. Basically circles appear on the screen, slowly shrinking. The goal is to click on them when they reach the inner circle. It sort of works - meaning the circles get smaller and you can click on the inner one to make a script fire. Now there's a tremendous amount of details to sort out.
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I sunk a huge amount of time last night getti...
January 13, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I sunk a huge amount of time last night getting ready for the Lute Hero mini-game. In addition to simply having notes to click on, I want to make sure that it's visually stunning. In order to do so, I worked with the good ol' Gestalt camera system, enhancing it with an invisible object camera that lets me do all manner of wacky camera angles and movements. Additionally, I have an "Effects Board" sort of panel that lets me choose camera movements, effects, lighting, and animations.
It's pretty cool to fiddle with and it should theoretically let me plan out specific camera motions while the song plays. The goal is to cycle through a variety of camera cuts, dependent on whether or not the song is starting, ending, and how well the player is doing. Though it's mostly for my purposes, it might be fun to let the player fiddle with it as an unlockable thing.
Hopefully today I can start integrating the actual music and get the player's GUI started.
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I was a very good boy and sent off a new buil...
January 12, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I was a very good boy and sent off a new build to the testers yesterday. There's still some things I'd like to review, but in general I'm feeling pretty enthusiastic about the state of the game.
I did get a report that there was a problem with Dreamcatcher 1 and the new NWN1 patch. I may have to dust things off and take a look at that. Amazingly enough, people still play it even after all these years.
Finally, I started in on Lute Hero and/or Zombie Skaraoke. At this point it's mostly plans, an area, and a custom placeable for lava lighting effects. It'll take awhile, but hopefully it ends up being fun.
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Debugging continues, as it has for the last f...
January 11, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 Debugging continues, as it has for the last few months. You'd think at this point I wouldn't be amazed at how long debugging a game takes. My general rule of thumb these days is to allow for debugging time equivalent to the time it takes to make a game.
I worked on the bug list again last night, as well as sneaking in a few more features. I went back to the Catspaw quest, fixing some horribly broken AI and having Lucy show up. I also took care of some obscure and bad bugs, such as Chronomancer issues I managed to break with my last fixes and grave digging problems if you decided to do it during the day.
As for today, I'm going to work on the Firestarter quest and any other odds and ends I might have missed. With luck, I can get out a build this afternoon or perhaps tomorrow. I'm itching to work on some of my wacky mini-games for the next module and maybe I can find some time this afternoon.
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It's been busy, but I've managed to sink in a...
January 11, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 It's been busy, but I've managed to sink in a fair amount of work on the latest bug list. The issues range from me being careless, such as moving the start position to a module, to minor oversights, such as forgetting to pay the player for completing a small quest (well, begging really). I also sent out a request to finish the last of Lord Brighton's dialog, along with apologies in case I misplaced them somewhere.
In terms of the module itself, Lucy makes a few guest appearances and is occasionally useful. I need to sneak one more of those in, and then I'll call it good.
I'm really hoping to find some time today and tomorrow to clean up bugs. With luck, I can get a new build to testers this weekend.
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I'm back from vacation and buried in e-mail t...
January 09, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
I'm back from vacation and buried in e-mail this morning. I see a couple more bug reports have come in, though at first glance they seemed relatively short. Needless to say, I'm going to try very hard to work on them this week.
One of the up sides of having such a long QA period is that I keep sneaking things in. I realized that Lucy didn't make an appearance in this second module after playing a fairly pivotal role in the first. She now shows up and has some dialog (thanks to a recording session with my daughter).
I'm also tossing around ideas for the third module. My son named it "Zombie Skaraoke" and we were trying to write zombie-themed lyrics. We'll see if it makes an appearance in the game, but I'm hopeful.
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I think I have the last of the bugs sorted ou...
January 04, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I think I have the last of the bugs sorted out, at least all that have been reported. The list was huge (over 60 items), but I think I got 'em all. I don't think any were game-stopping, but some were pretty ugly and more than a few were embarrassing.
I wasn't able to fully test out each and every fix, but I wanted to double-check the big ones. I headed back to do the Firestarter quest and found myself really enjoying it. It's one of my favorite traditional quests in the game, with lots of alignment-related choices and multiple ways to resolve things.
 The other bug I checked out this morning was one with the ending. It turns out my fearless crew continued to drink their blades or pistols well after the "drinking and chatting" conversation. It was amusing, but not exactly something I wanted in the final game.
I'm working on getting a new build together today. My very convenient "create all builds" batch file just kicked off and it's grinding away. Next will be uploading the nearly half a gigabyte of files up to the server, which may take awhile. After that gets done, I need to send a letter to the testers and see how things go.
I'll be away from my the Internet for a few days, I think. We're headed to Bend for a final trip to play in the snow before the kids go back to school. I'll brave my wife's eye-rolling and take along my computer, as usual. I'd really like to put some effort into the third module, perhaps lay out the world map and start hanging some of the modules off of it. Everything is incredibly rough still, but I'd like to show things off to the testing group and get some early "fun/not-fun" feedback.
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It feels good to be getting towards the end o...
January 03, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 It feels good to be getting towards the end of my massive bug list. I'm down to a handful of bugs, half of which I need to investigate a little more before declaring them fixed. Still, I'm going to try really hard to get a new build out tomorrow so everyone can test over the weekend.
I ran into a funny bug last night, one that was strangely familiar. I jumped to the docks to test the high seas system and found a giant werewolf waiting for me. It turns out my "get lead ship" code was returning garbage and deciding it was okay to spawn in a ship and polymorph it to be a werewolf. Silly code.
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No pretty pictures or video today
January 02, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
No pretty pictures or video today. Just a progress report that I'm debugging many, many issues that have been uncovered. I ran into some more "Aha!" moments when I finally figured out a long-running issue that I never really resolved. There's a few more "Grr" moments where NWN2 refuses to do my bidding, such as the PC clones appearing in the Chronomancer quest. I'm tempted to create a specific "Clone Cleanup" script that runs every second or two and destroys any clones it finds that have been marked for disposal.
I did some more recordings of voices this morning, filling in some gaps. I think Jessica will do some of the female opponents at Woodhaven. I still need to circle back with Raphael to make sure all of Lord Brighton's lines are voiced. I think there's still a few missing.
I'm going to try really hard to get a build to everyone by the end of the week. I doubt it'll be completely problem-free, but it's nice that you can finish the game now and hopefully have fun doing it.
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I got a funny Christmas card from Jay at Bioware
January 02, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I got a funny Christmas card from Jay at Bioware. I think it's from my almost-contract with them years ago. They're such great guys that they continue to send along Christmas cards. My favorite was the Jade Empire one from a couple years ago. There were paper cut-out action figures for each of the characters. My kids shredded them, of course, but not after lots of fun games.
I've been very good this New Year, doing hours of debugging. The most elaborate fix was adding situation-specific hints to the psionic combat section. It'll give you general hints, as well as suggesting certain creatures to exploit your foe's weaknesses.
Jessica has been a debugging maniac and I'm less than halfway through her reported issues. The most obscure was a continuity issue with Daniel's last name in the first module, something no one noticed until now. Gold star, Jessica.
Yesterday I worked on some tilesets for the alphabet assault game. Tiles have always been a pain to work with, and NWN2 is no easier. After lots of work, I think I made seven new ones, with only minor weirdnesses.
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About Me
I've won multiple awards for my Neverwinter Nights modules, which I've been working on since the year 2000.
In the real world, I'm a web developer for a healthcare organization. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
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