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Gasp
October 31, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Gasp. I forgot to post an update before I headed out to work this morning. I'm usually so diligent.
I worked mostly on tiles yesterday, fixing boring things like getting the floor textures rotating properly and the walls casting shadows as appropriate. I still have three or four absolutely necessary tiles to add to the Slum tileset. Hopefully I can get those done soon as I'm getting to the point where I want to get them into the module.
I'm still working on getting the card game into shape where it could be sent out as a mini-module. I need to get all the new card descriptions in there and have another chat with Jaz on scripting.
Magnus sent me another update to the music, which was great. He's mostly done with the main theme which has an uplifting/frantic nature to it. Hard to describe. He's also using a vaguely middle eastern sound to reflect the "exotic" nature of the place (which probably isn't that exotic to those of you from the area). I can't wait to actually get the music and Sigil exterior tileset together for the first time. I think it'll really make a big impact.
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I spent some time yesterday working with Jaz ...
October 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I spent some time yesterday working with Jaz to resolve some issues with his redone card game. I also created a dozen or so new placeables to support the cards he added. We're getting closer to getting things ready for official testing. I think the CODI QA team wants a crack at it as it's getting a "CODI-sponsored" logo attached to the mini-module.
I've also patiently been working on the Sigil slum interior. I probably need at least four more tiles before I can call it finished. Slowly getting there.
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Well, I finally got my grubby little hands on...
October 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Well, I finally got my grubby little hands on the card game changes that Jaz has been working on. It's a complete rewrite, including a number of changes such as two-player support. I looked at the code yesterday and it was very clean (as opposed to my dirty, dirty code - sniff). Playing it took some getting used to as there were new cards and changes to the way things worked. Still, it's still as fun as it used to be and there are some nifty new additions. Also, some of the things that were plain broken are now working (such as the card buying and selling scripts).
As it's a complete rewrite, there are some issues that turned up during testing. I'll need to ship Jaz the issue list and we can figure out what to do with it. I also have tested multiplayer yet, though I hopefully will soon.
My secret plan is still to create a mini-module with just the card game in it. The hak pack that goes with it would be very small and it hopefully wouldn't take very long to pull it out of the current module. Gotta get the kinks worked out first.
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I managed to sneak in a little bit of work in...
October 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
I managed to sneak in a little bit of work in yesterday, finally get in that dialog that I'd written out late last week. Other than that, I haven't been able to do a lot - continuing the basement demolition project and taking care of kids.
A very exhausted Jazael sent me an e-mail that he was done with the card game changes. Hopefully I'll get a chance to take a look relatively soon, though we're having some issues getting the file to me. It sounds like there are still some bugs that need to be worked out, but I'm hoping it can be used as a mini-module to tide people over before the real one is released.
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I had a weird day yesterday, with headaches a...
October 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I had a weird day yesterday, with headaches all day then collapsing in bed very early. Somehow, I managed to sneak in a bit more game development, mostly when I woke up really early this morning.
I fixed a hak pack issue I had where I had accidentally overwritten one of my earlier models. I also worked more on the haunted mansion, getting more of the residents in the game. Other than decorating and some brief scripting and dialog, I think I'm done with this section. I still have some hand-written dialog I need to get in the game, as well as finishing up a few more planes.
Eventually I need to hunker down and start on the main plot, which has been flapping in the wind for awhile. Part of the problem is that I've designed a module where there's all these systems (such as potion brewing) that require a lot of areas to collect the required ingredients. I knew early on that it was going to end up pretty huge. Still, I worry sometimes that the game will sprawl outwards and the main quest will get lost a bit. Hopefully I can continue to make it clear what the player needs to do next at the same time encouraging exploration and experimentation.
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I was jumping all around yesterday
October 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I was jumping all around yesterday. I built out the Sigil interior tileset more and added another tile. I finished mapping the haunted Manor area, though I've got to finish up some scripting and creature creation. I also fixed some bugs that have been floating around for awhile.
Finally, I spent some time with the spirit gem, something I haven't done for several weeks. There's something fun about decorating it, choosing the ambiance, and playing around in each of the special rooms. I decided to hang up my portrait of Teira in the bedroom and admire it for awhile.
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I've been jumping around, working on the haun...
October 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I've been jumping around, working on the haunted house a bit more, along with other parts of the game. I revamped my custom monster spawn script so that there's a delay before it'll fire again. I also worked in some undead and appropriate treasures in their random treasure system.
I also worked a bit more on the Sigil interiors, fixing problems and getting the tiles ready to be put into the game. This is for the "slum" area, with broken walls and holes in the floor. This may be the last of my interior tiles for awhile, as I need to start shifting my focus away from custom content. Admittedly, it's fun to whip up new things from time to time. I have a new magic circle with pulses that eminate from the center. Fun with emitters.
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Though it's hard to tell in this screenshot, ...
October 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Though it's hard to tell in this screenshot, this model is actually animated. Smoke puffs out nicely and little parts move up and down. It's one of the things I needed for the Plane of Fire and I whipped it up this morning as it felt strange to have my NPC refer to something that wasn't there.
Although I did test more of the Plane of Fire quests yesterday, most of my time was spent working on a particular "haunting". Though there were some visual effects associated with the infestation of spirits, most of it is sound related. Very creepy. I'm finding that huge parts of the game have nothing to do with the main plot, and this is another example of this. Still, it should make the town and it's connected planes a much more interesting place to visit.
No jury duty either. While dispensing harsh justice to the n'ere-do-wells of our community sounded like fun, I'm happy I didn't get called up. The way our town works, that's it for two more years. I hope to finish working in dialog I have on paper, though I managed to get about half of it in yesterday. Progress slowly chugs along.
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Despite having another day of all day meeting...
October 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Despite having another day of all day meetings, I somehow managed to sneak some work in. I wrote a bunch of dialog that I've been needing, as well as a long journal that the players can find. I also found some time last night to continue to test the Plane of Ice, which I think is basically done at this point. I started in on the Plane of Fire and I'm realizing there's a fair amount of debugging to do yet. I'm getting antsy about finishing up the Planes soon, though. I'd like to get the three faction leaders in the game, finish up the Struggle areas, and start in on the main plot again.
In other news, Jaz continues to work on the card game. He's made some rule changes and added some cards. With luck, I'll get a chance to take a look at his additions and I'm hopeful it'll make the game even more fun. I'm sorely tempted to take a short pause and release a card game module just to keep everyone's interest afloat until the full module is released.
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As expected, I wasn't able to do a lot yesterday
October 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
As expected, I wasn't able to do a lot yesterday. I did manage to put in some testing time for the Plane of Ice. It took me about 20 minutes to figure out that my footprints weren't showing up because I used a texture that wasn't 64x64, but rather 64x72. It looked great in max, but never showed up in the game. Sigh.
I haven't been able to fully test the main quest, but at least the creature spawning script is working, as well as the random treasure generation for them. I also decided to allow for a Fortitude save to avoid the constant cold damage when outside, which seems to work nicely. Hopefully I can get the main bugs fixed and I can turn my attention to the Plane of Fire.
Oh, and if you're curious about my bowling scores as part of my "team building" activities yesterday, I can say honestly that I wasn't last.
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Well, I was pretty busy with non-NWN things y...
October 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Well, I was pretty busy with non-NWN things yesterday. I did manage to get my metal dome interior group to the point where I was happy with it. It's interesting how some tileset making can go very quickly, while others seem to drag along. It's probably that I haven't had several hours of uninterrupted time for quite awhile.
Also, it doesn't look like I'm going to get much time over the next few days to work on this, except perhaps writing dialog on paper. The next couple days I'm doing "team building" things at work, including bowling this afternoon (don't ask me why). I also call Thursday night to see if I'm on jury duty. I might just have to send them away for life if it drags on too long.
The good news is that a number of the people offering help are doing great work. Magnus finished up his Place of Ice theme, which sounds great. Ryuujin is working on a new Tainted model using PC parts. It should bring a huge amount of variation to the creature type and make life generally easier for me. Finally, Jez, the new scripter, is taking a look at the card game. He's working on making it multiplayer and generally cleaning up code. I may end up releasing it as a stand-alone teaser before the module itself.
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I got my metal dome in the toolset, though it...
October 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
I got my metal dome in the toolset, though it's not quite finished to my satisfaction. There's a couple wood beams that are propping up the roof and I'd like to put more dirt and debris on the floor around it. It's hard getting that "gritty" feel down right.
Hopefully today I can start in on some more dialog that should be quick. We'll see how it goes.
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I didn't get a lot of NWN time yesterday, as ...
October 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
I didn't get a lot of NWN time yesterday, as the move was pretty time consuming. We didn't actually end up moving the server yet, though I turned it off and on a few times to get the new wireless router working.
I did a little more work on my Sigil interiors, getting my metal dome sliced up and ready for import into the toolset. I found out the hard way that the old NWNViewer crashes my new computer. Locks it up hard. Oopsie.
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For the first time in awhile, I actually play...
October 18, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 For the first time in awhile, I actually played the module. I've been spending most of the time in the toolset, tweaking things, writing dialog, and so on. As expected, I found lots of bugs and things to fix. One of them is that door entries over 300 really don't work. They work in the toolset but not the game, so it's either wait for a patch (which will probably be with HotU in November) or change them all back again. Silly me.
I think the Savannah is done at this point. I tested the two major quest branches and they worked after some fixing. I also tested the Plane of Ice area and found the main quest seriously broken. Hopefully I'll have some time for fixing this weekend, though it's our big "move before the remodel" day. I'll be hauling the server and other computers upstairs where they'll sit for a couple month as contractors redo our basement.
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Yesterday was somewhat interesting
October 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Yesterday was somewhat interesting. I got Velmar's sewers integrated in with the Demon hak pack. It was a bit of a challenge, as I decided to change all the magic numbers for the doors in the .2da file to get it compliant with Bioware's recommendations (previously, it was technically impossible due to numbers over 255 not working). So, I spent a bunch of time recreating doors in the game. Fortunately there weren't that many. The big sewer rooms look nice and hopefully I can start fleshing out that area of the game.
I also finished up the scripting for the Savannah area, as well as the Plane of Ice. I have some dialog and scripting for two more planes and then I'm done with that huge part of the game. I also have one more plane that I'm considering slipping in there, but haven't decided how I want to do it.
Oh, and I spent some time chatting with the CODI folks on IRC. They're a wacky bunch and I'm supposed to mention that I hate snomit, though I'm not sure why.
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Progress continues steadily
October 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Progress continues steadily. I've been getting great help from a number of people, such as Velmar assisting with the sewers. I can't wait to get them into the game today as they looked great in my little test. I also had a scripter offer his services, so some of that may go a bit faster.
As for yesterday, I managed to get quite a bit wrapped up. Big chunks of the Plane of Fire dialog and scripting are done, as well as the Savannah dialog. With luck I'll finish (but not test) the Savannah area today. It's a pretty simple quest. The Plane of Fire is more complex and I decided to make it even more complex yesterday. Sigh.
I'm also hoping to get more of the Sigil interior tilesets finished as I'd like to put some more shops in and get started on more of the plot-related areas.
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Progress moves along, slowly but surely
October 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Progress moves along, slowly but surely. I did a bunch of miscellaneous things yesterday, such as allowing you to train with your armsman to learn techniques for defeating the certain creatures in the game. I also continued with my dialog and scripting for the Plane of Ice. I think it's pretty close to being finished, though I'll still have to test it.
I'm also getting lots of great help with this module. I continue to work with the CODI folks on getting the Sigil interiors put together. I got some nifty new textures to play with from Bat yesterday, so I started some tests for a new batch of tiles. Magnus sent me a demo of the city music, which should be exotic and interesting. Ryuujin continues to work on some custom placeables. You'd think with all this help I could sit back and relax, but it mostly makes me aware of how much work there is to do yet. Slowly getting there.
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I got a lot of miscellaneous things done yest...
October 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I got a lot of miscellaneous things done yesterday. I cleaned up the Plane of Ice tileset, removing all those annoying shadows. I also started in on moving the dialog I wrote into the game, as well as writing the endless scripts to support it. The Plane of Ice is coming along quite nicely and should hopefully be the next plane on my list to finish up.
I've also been continuing my work on the Sigil interior tileset. I threw in a couple more "flat area" tiles for variation, one with dirt on the floor and the other with a puddle. I'm still debating whether or not to keep this as my "main" set of tiles, or instead wait for the textures and wall samples that BatInTheHat sends me and redo everything. I'll probably keep what I have regardless.
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I wrote and wrote again yesterday, revising a...
October 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
I wrote and wrote again yesterday, revising and extending. My task for today is to get all those words into the toolset.
I also worked more on my Sigil interiors yesterday, dirtying up some of the tiles. I'm waiting on some new textures from TheBatInTheHat, which will hopefully arrive soon. I think I may just copy my existing tiles and have two different textures for the same group of tiles. Variety is good.
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It's amazing how much writing I can get in if...
October 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
It's amazing how much writing I can get in if I have few distractions and lots of time. I spent a ton of time in the car yesterday, then even more time just puttering around the in-laws' house while the kids were entertained.
I have the bulk of the dialog written for the Plane of Ice, the Plane of Fire, and the Savannah areas. If I remember right, that leaves a single Gate Diving plane to finish up. Now, I'm not really "done" with these areas, as they require lots of scripting and testing. Still, it feels good to knock off big chunks out of the way.
Fairly soon, I'd like to get started on the main plot. It's actually relatively small compared to the non-plot areas, though you'll have to do quite a few of the non-plot areas to progress in the main plot. Hopefully it will all make sense and play well. Tweaking is certainly a possibility down the road.
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I'm heading to Portland for tonight, off to v...
October 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
I'm heading to Portland for tonight, off to visit the grandparents. I'm hauling along my notebook to write dialog, which is sorely needed in a bunch of areas. I've figured out how I want to set up the quest for the Plane of Ice area. It should have a bunch of evil/good persuasion/force options.
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Well, I didn't open the module once yesterday...
October 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Well, I didn't open the module once yesterday, instead working on my Sigil Interior tileset that will show up in the module. I'm looking for some variety in the interiors and I'm hoping this helps. Right now, everything looks like the Stem bar. It's a great looking tileset but it does get a little monotonous.
I'll probably work more on it today, or perhaps do some fiddling with the other Planes. I've got a few that need to be worked on.
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I went looking for some good portraits for th...
October 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I went looking for some good portraits for the Chen Village area. It was surprisingly hard to find some, but I found these recolored ones on the Vault. They took a fair amount of fiddling in Photoshop until I was happy with them, but I was eventually satisfied and got them into the game.
I finished the core villager dialog yesterday, though I've still to put in the code that allows the player to help improve weapons and aid with their training. There are some other key characters I want to put in the village as well, such as the drunk priest and some mangy dogs. We'll see how it goes.
Testing for the bandits went well. I think they're mostly done except except for what comes out of testing. I was able to help get their equipment in top shape, train them, and lead them into battle. Should be entertaining.
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The struggle for Chen Village continues
October 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 The struggle for Chen Village continues. I finished up the dialog for the bandits yesterday, though there's a few scripting bugs that I need to work out. The coolest part is that I have their AI mostly working. I can give commands to their leader or directly through the chat line. They'll equip ranged or melee weapons, follow me, wait, or use stealth. Hopefully soon they'll be able to advance or retreat through a series of rally points. All very fun.
My plan is that I can use the same general approach for a second "Struggle" area, this time with more of a Celtic feel. I'm hoping that Martin E's tileset will be finished relatively soon, though we'll see how it goes.
I started on the villager dialog yesterday and I've got more to do today. Once I have the good and evil paths finished, I've got to nail down the details with the neutral one. That'll be a bit trickier in some ways, requiring quite a bit of dialog.
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Yet another productive day
October 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Yet another productive day. Yesterday I mostly worked on dialog for the Chen Village area. I even did some dialog branches if you meet them in Tainted or humanoid form, which was kind of fun if a bit tedious. I also started work on their AI, so hopefully they'll follow you about properly.
Last night, my nephew tested out the card game and arena code some more, finding several glaring bugs. I could always tell when he'd start laughing hysterically that I'd find something particularly odd. He managed to get down into the arena pit with his creatures and was wacking away at the opponents at one point. He also discovered that the enemy never leveled up, so his creatures were making short work of level five animals and reaping the rewards. I fixed most of these issues, though I've still got a few to go.
I worked a tiny bit on a slum Sigil interior tile. For speed's sake I'm using my "haunted" interior as a base and modifying things as appropriate.
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Much good news all around
October 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Much good news all around. My new power supply arrives today, which will hopefully clean up a few of the graphical glitches I see when the power supply is warming up. It probably won't fix NWN, though, as I think I found the issue. It seems to have been a CD check related bug, as I found a new "no cd" patch and applied it to both of the computers that weren't working. Sure enough, they started up just fine this morning. I'll probably start moving development to my new box over the next week or two, as it is considerably snappier.
I've been doing a lot of modeling over the last couple days, working more with my Sigil Interior tileset. I think it's time for me to bite the bullet and make the really hard ones next. The plan is to create a "slum" set of tiles that allows you to create various slum buildings. We'll see how that ones goes.
As an "official" CODI modeler, I get access to the cool forum boards now which includes some sneak peeks at other modelers' works. There were a few shots that reminded me of the end of 2001 ("my God, it's full of stars"). The Sigil tileset is going to blow everyone away. I'm glad I've decided to hold out for it as it simply looks way too cool.
Today I'd like to get started on the Chen Village area. I'm probably yet again biting off more than I can chew. I've got to figure out ways to make it less complicated, though I'm not quite sure how yet. Perhaps I can use the same command AI for both villagers and bandits. That'll help a bit.
Oh, and I'll be checking e-mail for any comments about the newly released Dreamcatcher versions. Hopefully it's working for everyone. I expect a few people with mismatched hak and module versions as I had to renumber the .2da files in order to make it SoU compatible. I love messy technical stuff.
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I'll keep it short today after my long one ye...
October 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
I'll keep it short today after my long one yesterday. I've been working on a Sigil Interior tileset. So far I have about 10 tiles, half of them nicely packaged in the game now. They include two very small one tile houses, one nice and the other pretty filthy. I'm also working on a generic round set of tiles suitable for circular houses and towers. So far it includes: plain, doorway, stairs up, stairs down, bed, and table/countertop. No screenshots unfortunately, though they do look nice.
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It's been another productive 24 hours
October 04, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 It's been another productive 24 hours. Yesterday I finally finished up the Mechanus levels and started integrating Coulisfu's Oriental Tileset, which is truly great. I spent a good hour last night just oohing and aahing over the scenery, having fun placing blossom trees and paper lanterns. Excellent stuff. I've also integrated the Oriental weapons hak pack for all you nunchuka fans. I cringe every time the hak pack size increases, but this stuff is simply way too good.
I also penciled out the different paths for the area that'll use the Oriental tileset. It's tentatively called "The Struggle - Chen Village" and is tied up with the three Omelas philosophies. It's a doozy of an area if it works right. We'll see how hard it is to pull off.
I'm working off and on on Sigil interiors, using some of the textures I found in the beta Stem hak that CODI graciously lent me. I'm hoping they fit within the Sigil architecture style and still break up the monotony of using the Stem tileset for all interiors. Unfortunately, I can't post screen shots as the CODI team would send over an illithid to suck out my brains.
Oh, and I finally updated the Dreamcatcher 2-3 modules and hak packs so that they'll work with the SoU expansion. Just a reminder - you'll need BOTH the new module and new hak if you want to play. There's not really any huge changes - mostly fixes to the visualeffects.2da file and some bug cleanup. I did leave a small surprise in Dreamcatcher 4 towards the end.
A big thanks to Stefan who helped debug Idona's sword equipping issue. It turns out she wouldn't equip it because it wasn't identified, something that used to work but was changed in a later patch. Oopsie.
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It's nice to make a lot of progress yet again
October 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 It's nice to make a lot of progress yet again. Yesterday I worked on more NPCs, this time the necessary shopkeeps that populate any town. I added some dialog to the magic shoppe owner and started creating some unique items for his store. I also added a herbalist and had fun hanging plants from the ceiling. She also talks a bit about recipies and how to use them.
This morning I got the third level of the Mechanus puzzle done, making one fairly big change to the way the game works. Before, when you pulled the "reset" lever, all the controls you've placed on the floor would disappear and reappear in the chest. I found this was pretty annoying, so I'm now leaving them all in place. Now I just need to make a little end prize, fix up the portals a bit, and that's one more Plane checked off my list (and one of the most annoying ones to code too).
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I'm starting to get used to the fact that onl...
October 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
I'm starting to get used to the fact that only one of my computers plays Neverwinter Nights. Last night I had all three going, one was watching television, the other had the toolset open, and the server had the game running for testing.
I made more progress yesterday, making a fun NPC that should be recognizable (though he's never been seen before). The painter code actually works now, which is a relief. It's to the point where I need to create a number of the local NPCs and locations in order to give the sense of a truly living city.
Also, I read that coulisfu finished his Oriental tileset. Looks like it's time to start penciling out the first of the "struggles". I'd like to have at least two areas where the different philosophies of Omelas try to resolve a problem in different ways. We'll see if I can pull it off.
Update: I'm doing a lot of updates these days. I guess I'm trying to assure people that despite my woes, I'm still progressing. I've been getting some really great offers of help lately. Ryuujin's just started in on some placeables that look great. Expect some appropriate banners for each of the factions. I'm also getting some help troubleshooting an annoying bug with Dreamcatcher 3. If things go well, I'll finally get that patch out (promise). I haven't heard from Magnus today, who's composing music for the module, but it sounds like he's hard at work as well. Finally, I became a semi-official member of CODI. I'm hoping that lets me start tinkering with some of their stuff. I'd really like to get some new interiors to work with.
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As for my computer woes, I decided to buy a n...
October 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
As for my computer woes, I decided to buy a new power supply yesterday. The latest symptom is that I'd get screen garbage until the computer warmed up a bit. I also monitored the voltage and one of the readings was close to -11.5 for awhile. So, I'll wait until Friday and see how it goes. Thanks to all who have passed on advice.
I've actually been working on the game as well. My nephew was over yesterday and after solving Jedi Academy was looking bored. I set him in front of the card game, and he proceeded to happily beta test some more. One of the funnier moments was when he used Dispel and his avatar came to life and started attacking the other creatures. Oopsie.
I also created a new NPC yesterday, a painter, and tested the scripting. It works great except for the fact that I never actually get the painting. I'll take a look at it today.
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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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