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Another day, another horribly broken module p...
November 28, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 Another day, another horribly broken module patched up and made working again. In this case, it was the Fairy Tale module, which is a text adventure that's entirely optional. The most critical was a script problem. GetNearestObject doesn't seem to work very well with placeables any more (I discovered this awhile back when working on PirateCards). In any case, I can use another method and it seemed to work okay.
There were also a variety of smaller things, from lousy camera angles during a cutscene to a few missing lines. I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome, so it's time to move on to something else tomorrow.
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I'm in the process of uploading a new version...
November 26, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I'm in the process of uploading a new version of Dark Waters 1 to the Vault. We had a very quick test where I fixed the intro scene, uploaded it to a test area, and someone successfully played through DW1 and DW2. There are likely some odd issues, but people will at least be able to play until Obsidian releases a patch.
That's been consuming most of my time, though I managed to record some dialog this morning and send out some voice actor requests. I might find a little time today to chop up dialog and attach it to the conversation.
The next few days will be filled with family and time off work. I may periodically sneak down to the basement and work on the game in order to escape the madness. I'll also try not to bring my flintlock pistol to the dinner table.
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It seems that the latest patch has broken mos...
November 25, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 It seems that the latest patch has broken most OnEnter scripts. I suspect we'll see a hot fix fairly soon, as most modules will have problems until it's fixed. On the plus side, the patch supposedly fixes a few longstanding bugs, including one that makes the tattoo parlor store look a little weird.
Hopefully today I can get back to fixing my own bugs instead of the game's.
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NWN2 has another patch out
November 24, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
NWN2 has another patch out. As usual, it seems to be causing problems, with Dark Waters not working at all. Unfortunately the auto-updater isn't working either (I think I accidentally edited a core zip file). Sadly it means I'll have to do a reinstall and re-patch of everything.
So that's what I'm doing today . . .
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I headed back to the Isle of Insanity
November 23, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I headed back to the Isle of Insanity. PJJ reported some problems with it and sure enough, it was completely broken. Fortunately it was simple to get it mostly working again (I must have disabled something for testing). The extra polish took awhile and I went through multiple times to get it working properly again. In general, it doesn't seem too hard to win as long as you're putting some effort into it. On occasion, things go badly and it can get pretty frantic towards the end.
I hope to do more bug fixing and polish in the weeks ahead and get things to the point where I can do a wider beta test. I also need to rally the voice actors. I haven't contacted many of them, asking them to reprise their roles from the previous acts. Hopefully most of them can.
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The first time I watched the credits scroll b...
November 22, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
The first time I watched the credits scroll by, it was pretty neat. Pictures from the game, development, and weird bugs appeared on the left on right. It was pretty nifty.
After the fifth time, though, it was starting to get a little much. I dutifully noted the bugs and fixed one after the other until it was well polished.
I finished up the walkthrough, though it's still just a first draft. As I add extra goodies, I'll need to add those in as well.
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I worked really hard the other day
November 21, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I worked really hard the other day. I wrote and recorded the last dialog for the final conversation. Everyone I could find that contributed to Dark Waters should get listed in the credits that scroll up at the end of the game. I even worked on the walkthrough, getting over half of it done.
I tested out the final section and found some bugs, so I'll be working on that today. I may also have a tiny surprise at the end, just for fun.
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I worked away at getting Robert's scripting i...
November 19, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I worked away at getting Robert's scripting in place. I rather like his ambient actions, walking around and saying certain things. I try to avoid NPCs simply standing there, waiting to be greeted by the player.
I think I have the last of dialog written for the epilogue. I agonized over the last line, but I think I settled for something that goes with the tone I want to set.
There's still much to do, but I'm feeling increasingly good about the state of the critical path. Maybe tomorrow I can work on some of the lengthy bug reports I've been carefully ignoring.
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I fixed a funny bug from PJJ's last set of bu...
November 18, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I fixed a funny bug from PJJ's last set of bug notes. He reported that there were Missing Texture's everywhere, though of course it looked fine to me. The toolset requires my terrain textures to be in the override folder, though normal players wouldn't have that.
Sure enough, all the hair on the Isle of Flesh became quite colorful. It was easy enough to fix, just dropping a few textures into the hak pack.
I also worked on the scripting for Robert's grand final scene. Hopefully I can get a little testing done tonight. It has a surprising number of branches, far more than I normally do. It'll make the voice over a bit more of a challenge.
Finally, I chopped up and go the voice clips in the epilogue. I still have some extra lines I need to write and record for that one, but it's getting increasingly close to finished.
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I spent a little time to clean up this site
November 17, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
I spent a little time to clean up this site. People were having questions as to whether or not I was releasing acts four and five. The reality is that I decided awhile back to combine it all into a single, 14-module Act. It's very hard to do these big non-linear releases, but it felt necessary to give the player that sense of openness and exploration.
In any case, I cleaned up this site and now there are only three acts to the left. I also embedded the preview videos for 1, 2, and Lute Hero (which shows up in 3).
Finally, I decided my missing dialog I mentioned yesterday was completely in my head. I found my notes and started typing them up, realizing that I had never actually done that part before. In any case, it's typed up and in the game. Now I just need to add some scripting and that part should be ready to go.
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I worked away at the confrontation cutscene, ...
November 16, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I worked away at the confrontation cutscene, finally getting things to the point where I was happy with it. As it is, I think you can get from the beginning of the last module to the credits screen without any critical bugs.
I ran into a funny bug during testing. One of the NPCs was killed while playing a custom animation. This resulted in him literally being dead on his feet. Pretty amusing.
I was disheartened to find one of the rather lengthy side dialogs had vanished. I dug through the places where I would have put it and didn't find anything. I may have a paper copy in my notebook. If so, it should be relatively easy to type up.
I still have an issue with custom textures and if they can work in a hak pack (I thought they used to work). If not, I'll have to modify the installer to drop them in the override directory, which is annoying.
Hopefully I can get a new build to testers shortly.
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I finally got the Fallout 3 monkey off my bac...
November 16, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I finally got the Fallout 3 monkey off my back this morning. It really sucked the life out of me for awhile. It was hard not to make some comparisons with Dark Waters as I wrapped things up. One good news is that there should be a lot more ending variations, more like Fallout 1 and 2 that talks about the various places and people you impacted along your quest.
I'm back to testing one of the final confrontations. Unfortunately the scripting isn't working quite right, but the elaborate shootout part at least works. Hopefully I can clean it up tonight. I really want to start in on the QA work next week, hopefully getting things ready for PJJ to test. I still have a ton of content to add, but maybe I can get the critical path ready to go.
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Slowly making progress
November 13, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
Slowly making progress. I did some tinkering with the problematic scripts that were giving me grief. Hopefully I can test it out tonight and see if that fixes anything.
I also worked on some Isle of Flesh bugs. I'll see if I can get more writing in tonight. We'll see.
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Last night I tested out some of the scripting...
November 12, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 Last night I tested out some of the scripting I put together. It failed pretty horribly, but I'm making progress. I did take this funny screenshot where it looks like Spider is being hit by lightning. I guess he offended someone.
This morning I spent 15 minutes recording Death's voice and ended up with a sore throat. Maybe today I'll find the time to chop it up and get it in the game.
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I'm back in full force today, which feels qui...
November 11, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I'm back in full force today, which feels quite good. I continue to work away at the ending, trying to get the final scripting done for the critical path. I added more to the epilogue, in this case the four different things that can happen to Lucy depending on your actions in the game. I can tell already that the epilogue dialog has the potential to grow even more. Lots of different things happen to the various NPCs and places the player has touched.
PJJ continues to pass along QA reports, which I'm somewhat letting pile up. Once I finish with the critical path work, I want to turn my sights to that, along with working on some of the "nice to have" details.
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A combination of Fallout 3 and having the kid...
November 10, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
A combination of Fallout 3 and having the kids to myself this weekend led to me not touching Dark Waters for two whole days. It was an odd thing, and at the end, the guilt was gnawing away. Late last week I did manage to write some non-critical path dialog and Friday I worked on a secret project. Still, it's time to get back to the campaign and roll up my sleeves.
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Another quick report
November 06, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
Another quick report. I finished getting the last of Guy Incognito's voice work into the game. There are 542 sound clips in the third act so far. It's amazing how much work that represents.
I also worked more on the epilogue, working in the various endings to Daniel's romance (with Lilly/Raven). More of that tomorrow, I suspect.
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My wife was really sick yesterday, so I spent...
November 05, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
My wife was really sick yesterday, so I spent the day watching the kids and not working on Dark Waters much. Fallout 3 did arrive, so I spent a comical election day roaming the radioactive wasteland of Washington D.C. fighting mutant ants. I'm sure it's symbolic somehow.
I'm currently under the watchful eyes of my bobble-head PIPBoy3000, making sure I'm not as neglectful today. Based on PJJ's QA work, I've toned down the combat difficulty of the Alphabet Assault quest (which was evidently impossible with a level 20 character). I'm also working on getting more of Guy Incognito's voice work into the game. As is clearly the way of his people, he left another funny clip for me. I think I'll work that one in at the end of the credits.
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I was wandering around in the caverns this mo...
November 03, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I was wandering around in the caverns this morning, taking advantage of the time change. My daughter wanted to test again last night, so all these bugs were made extremely obvious as I led her around Port Brighton. Sure enough, I've some more dialog to write, though not as much as I'd feared.
My beloved PIPBoy3000 bobble-head should arrive today, along with that Fallout 3 game thingie. I'm going to try hard not to let it interfere with Dark Waters, but it may be tough going.
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Guy Incognito continues to leave funny little...
November 02, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
Guy Incognito continues to leave funny little adlibs at the end of his voice recordings. After spending a half an hour chopping up long mp3 files, it makes for a little treat at the end.
That's what I've been doing today, getting yet more dialog in the game. Yesterday I spent a little time continuing work on the end sequence. In a weird way I'm happy I picked the slow and cheap shipping option for Fallout 3, as it's giving me the time I need for a final push to get things ready for QA.
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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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