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Proving once again that I'm borderline obsess...
December 31, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Proving once again that I'm borderline obsessive-compulsive, I continued to work on getting that accursed dart player working properly. After an hour last night and a chunk of time this morning, I think I have it finally working. It seems that somewhere along the way, the order in which objects are destroyed when thrown changed, causing my "returning dart" script to fail. I think I have it working now, though it's not particularly elegant.
Testing for HotU goes well. At least one tester has gone through the entire campaign, which I thought was impressive speed. Most things look good so far.
I'm still trying to figure out the issue with the henchmen AI. Some people are reporting it as specific to one henchman, while others seem to suggest that other henchmen have the same issue. It may be a Bioware issue that is due to changes in henchmen AI. I'll try to do some more testing on my end.
I'm toying around with getting henchmen inventory accessable in the game. The catch is that there starts being a long list of other things that need to be fixed once you do that, such as preventing players from looting the henchmen, transferring items between levels, and so on.
The hardest thing is that all this time spent fixing and improving things is time away from working on Demon. I did manage to put in some more dialog into the game, though I admit that the pace of development has slowed a bit lately.
Happy new year's to all. Be safe.
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My hak pack testers are busy going through th...
December 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
My hak pack testers are busy going through the Dreamcatcher campaign with the latest fixes. One odd thing found so far seems to have nothing to do with hak packs, but instead with a scripting change. The dart player in Dreamcatcher 1 doesn't work right. I spent an hour trying to fix it, but eventually gave up and went to bed. I may give it another try, but it's pretty frustrating to see lots of different things break.
I'm also getting weird reports about henchmen AI getting weird. It seems to be mostly with Anera, though it also seems to exist in the official campaign as well. Hopefully this is something Bioware can fix with a patch, as I'm not sure what I can do about it.
I made a tiny bit of progress in Demon, recreating a scene that I had accidentally deleted somehow. It was pretty easy to recreate, though, and adds a little flavor as the players move around this strange world they find themselves in.
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I've been having dreams about the game for th...
December 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
I've been having dreams about the game for the last couple nights. Probably a bad sign.
I've been a bit frustrated at somehow losing a bit of work, though it's not too hard to recreate. I've been bug testing and fixing things where I find them. HotU created some odd errors, such as issues with some of Lisa's holdable items. I've also started getting a critical piece of dialog into the game after typing endless pages last week. I figure I'm about halfway there at the moment.
I've also been coordinating HotU hak pack testers, making all the Dreamcatcher campaigns up and running. I finally did see the weird henchmen ignoring attacks issue when playtesting Demon. Very strange and difficult to reproduce. I'll have to check around the boards and see if others are having the same issue. I'm suspecting problems with faction, though it all looks good on paper.
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Slowly making progress
December 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Slowly making progress. I did a run through from the beginning and made it from the start to the main town. Minor milestone, but it felt good. Of course, the game crashed when I did my first Gate Diving. I had switched around some tilesets and evidently the fix I had got lost in the module. I also lost a mini-scene that I had worked on. One of these days I need to get serious about code versioning as this is the third time I've lost things when accidentally overwriting files.
I have plenty of brave testers to make sure my hak pack fixes for HotU actually work. Updating the .2da files took a few hours and time running through the modules is hard to come by. I'm also getting weird reports about dumb AI in Shadowlords. I'll need to do some testing there as well.
More code fixes yesterday. I'm still flabbergasted at how cool the new Tainted models look. I can put on armor, robes, and have a range of tints for their scales. Quite fun.
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It was an incredibly productive day yesterday
December 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 It was an incredibly productive day yesterday. I updated the haks of all my modules for HotU, though I still need to test them fully. If anyone has some free time and can take some big files, drop me an e-mail, though it may be a couple days before I can get back to you. I'd be greatly appreciative.
I also finally got Ryuujin's Tainted parts into the game last night, which look great. There were some changes to body parts with HotU, so I have to be a little careful with numbering. Still, I think it looks great, especially with the new wings, robes, and tails. It creates a huge variation in looks for the Tainted in the game and I'm trying to work more of them in.
In a lesser note, I switched over my shape changing scripts from polymorph to the new SetAppearance function. There was a moment of stunned hilarity when my player kept reverting to a dwarf, but I got it straightened out.
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Yet more dialog yesterday, some of which I ma...
December 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Yet more dialog yesterday, some of which I managed to type into the toolset this morning. Though the main plot is slowly wrapping up, I still have huge amounts of things to do. I need to start in on the HotU improved shapeshifting (using SetAppearance), put more work into the Struggle area, and I might even get my grubby mits on an alpha build of the Sigil exterior tileset soon. Plus there's all the non-Demon things to do, such as updating all my .2da files for HotU. Hopefully I can sneak in a little work today.
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Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it
December 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it. At last night's party at my in-laws, I managed a fair bit of time with my old laptop, cranking away at dialog. I worry that the final encounter is a tad wordy, but I find that I have so much to explain. I'm trying to tie together some over-arching story threads and I'm finding it a bit of a challenge. More dialog today. Hopefully I can wrap up this multi-page tome that I seem to be writing.
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Just a short update, as I'm at my in-law's ho...
December 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Just a short update, as I'm at my in-law's house and there's a wiggly baby on my lap. I managed more dialog yesterday and this morning. Dialog seems to be an endless task, a sometimes tortious exercise of trying to put my vague thoughts into concrete sentences. I also took a walk around the neighborhood yesterday, gathering up material for texture work. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to use, but it's always good to have a big collection of raw photos to work with.
Finally, congratulations go out to Danmar, whose twins were born a few days ago. Just having one little creature about the house keeps me busy enough.
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Well, the HotU monkey is finally off my back
December 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Well, the HotU monkey is finally off my back. I finished up late last night/early this morning and was quite satisfied. There were some gratiuitious puzzles, but the vast majority of the game seemed epic, clever, and downright brilliant. My only regret is that I missed one of my henchmen at the beginning of a chapter and went solo for a big chunk of the game.
I'm loving the new features in the toolset, many of which are downright appropriate for the game. Now that the expansion is out, I want to get the new Tainted models in there and try out the new wings and tails with them.
I'll be away for my main computer for a few days, which means dialog, dialog, and more dialog. Hopefully I can finish up some empty patches that have been calling to me. In particular, the end of the game, which is obvious a critical piece of writing. Hopefully I can do an okay job.
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My HotU obsession continues
December 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
My HotU obsession continues. I've made it to the third chapter, so hopefully I'll finish up soon and get back to real work. There's a number of strange parallels between the expansion and a number of my modules, including some in Demon. I was trying to get through a puzzle and I had a hard time with it because I kept wanting it to work the way my puzzle worked. Silly me.
My plans for the next module seem to come into my head unbidden. I've been scribbling down the ideas as they come. Strange how creativity works.
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Okay, I admit it
December 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Okay, I admit it. I've been playing Hordes of the Underdark and not working on the module.
I've been having quite a bit of fun with it. The puzzles are interesting, the story is fairly involving, and some of the dialog is great. Deekin, for example, is probably one of those characters I would never take along normally (who wants a bard, after all), but he's so darn funny that I can't help it. I think I'm over halfway through, so it shouldn't distract me for too long.
I've also been planning the next module after Demon. I was actually taking some digital photos for textures, in case I ever get that far. Still gotta finish up the current one.
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I finally took the plunge and upgraded to the 1
December 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I finally took the plunge and upgraded to the 1.61 patch. Fortunately I'm not having the same problems with the copy protection as I did with the last patch, so that's a relief. I'm loving the new robes, skies, wings, and other features. I've only started updating the .2da files, but I don't think it'll be as painful as with SoU. I've been a good boy and padded appropriately.
I played more Hordes last night, enjoying myself quite a bit. The new tilesets are nice, especially as I've stared at the old ones for far too long. The things that stand out the most are the puzzles, which are quite interesting, and the NPCs, which are funny and cleverly written. Having two henchmen in the party is great so far. I probably won't go to a bigger party in Demon, though I can definately see it for other things.
As for Demon, I added more dialog yesterday, though I admit I didn't get as much done as I'd like. I actually spent some time on a future project, doing some technical tests, trying some creative things. We'll see.
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I was feelin' the love yesterday when a littl...
December 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I was feelin' the love yesterday when a little package from Bioware showed up on my doorstep. I think my excitement was showing, as my son kissed the package once we got it inside. Sure, the copy of Hordes of the Underdark was in there, but the coolest part was the Christmas card complete with paper cut-outs. I finally let Sam release them from their cardboard prison to play with them. Pretty cool.
Speaking of which, I've started playing the expansion. My first character was a dragon disciple. After a bit playing with it, I decided I wanted life to be a little easier, so I restarted with a cleric. I'm constantly reminded how powerful that class is. Don't leave home without one. I haven't really gotten into it enough for a solid review. I've run into some interesting puzzles and some tough fights. So far, so good.
Somewhere amidst all the excitement I managed to continue working on my own module. More dialog is in now, with the third plot area almost finished. Just a little scripting and such. The Struggle needs plenty more work, though, so I'll hopefully touch on that today.
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I started in on the dialog for the neutral Ch...
December 18, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I started in on the dialog for the neutral Chen Village path. It's filled with dialog, as it's the "negotiation" approach to solving problems. Unfortunately it means that I've got a lot of typing and scripting to do. I've been afraid to get started, so it felt good to at least begin down that path. I managed to script one of the NPCs fully and have yet to add on to some of the other NPCs.
I'm about ready to take the plunge with the 1.61 patch in a day or two. It's always a bit of a production to do it. Mostly I wanted to make sure the Shadowlords/Dreamcatcher campaigns were relatively stable under 1.32 so that I don't have to make any changes with the new version of the toolset. That makes the client have to be the same version, which is problematic sometimes.
Update: Before I forget, Magnus has graciously posted another of the themes from the upcoming Demon module. You can take a look at his site on his music page.
I also wanted to mention that I was looking at the video footage from Jade Empire yesterday. It's my hope that KotOR and JE are predecessors to the next NWN-style game. I say "NWN-style" because Bioware isn't working on a D&D game currently. With luck, though, the next big RPG will be editable by the community. We'll see how it goes.
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As suspected, I managed to scribble down some...
December 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 As suspected, I managed to scribble down some dialog during my boring all-day meeting. Hopefully I'll be able to repeat the effort today. I'm almost done with the next to the last plot area. One more dialog and I'm basically finished. I started mapping the final plot area as well, though it needs lots of scripting and dialog before it's complete.
Before I get excited, I have to remind myself that I've got a ton of work to go. The HotU scripting and .2da files need to be updated. I've got to get the Sigil exterior tileset integrated (once it's released). I need to finish off the first Struggle area and add another (assuming I have time). The struggle areas are "cool", but aren't really central to the plot.
One of the things I'm discovering is that the main plot is really simple and straightfoward, but there's a huge amount of things to do in the game. Demon is going to be less of a lengthy story and more a game of exploration and experimentation. Most of my previous modules have been linear and very story-driven, so it's a bit of a change for me. Hopefully it turns out well enough.
I've been poking around with the toolset with the 1.61 patch. The skyboxes are cool and it's nice to see them in the non-HotU version of the game. I'm sure everyone has seen the robes, wings, and tails. Time for some serious updating to take advantage of them. This patch looks to be a good one.
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Yesterday was a bit exciting
December 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Yesterday was a bit exciting. My patches weren't completely successful the first time around. I ended up getting some good help, though, and the latest ones hopefully fix the problems. It looks like I wasn't the only one, as I saw that Bioware put out the 1.60 patch then quickly removed when the copy protection ended up not working with one of the four versions of the game.
As for me, I finished up the three main dialogs in one of the main plot areas. It was time consuming, but should hopefully be a bit different. Not really a puzzle, exactly, though. More like a psychological evaluation.
I'm in all-day meetings the next couple days, so it may take awhile to get back to folks. They'll probably be quite boring, so I'm hoping I can scribble down some dialog while people drone on.
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Yesterday was another nutty family day for me...
December 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Yesterday was another nutty family day for me, with far too little time for working on the module. I did manage a few minutes of fiddling about with modeling tiles for my next project, though didn't come up with anything useful.
This morning I was more productive, testing out some of the dialog I've been working on lately. Hopefully I can get the last of the three finished today, do some more touch up work, then start in on the last plot area.
I'm getting some bug reports about the huge number of fixes I made Friday. It's possible I missed a few DelayCommand problems and need to do some more patching today. Yippie.
Update: Yep, more issues. Shadowlords 4 had a bug introduced when I tried to sneak in a fix without testing. I missed a DelayCommand issue with Dreamcatcher 2. Both should be fixed on the Vault now. Whew.
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I missed posting yesterday, something I haven...
December 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
I missed posting yesterday, something I haven't done for a long while. I had kid duty from sunup to sundown it seemed. I did have a tiny urge to do some 3D modeling, so I indulged myself with a single tile from a future project. These days I'm usually knee-deep in scripting or dialog.
I managed to update every one of my modules Friday (except Shadowlords 1 which didn't seem to have any issues). I'm a bit nervous, though, as I wasn't able to test myself. I'll try to check the boards and e-mail to see if there are any problems.
I did manage a bit of dialog Friday as well, doing two of the three "main" encounters in the area I'm working on. If the player is at all paying attention, bloodshed is easy to avoid, though there may be some interesting moral implications. Hopefully it's a bit different and interesting.
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It was a crazy day yesterday morning
December 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
It was a crazy day yesterday morning. I spent a good chunk of time going through every one of my modules trying to get the DelayCommand issue fixed. Unfortunately, I don't have HotU yet (Jay said it's in the mail), so I'm relying on the kindness of strangers. So far, I haven't gotten anyone to test the changes, but I'm hoping someone did overnight as I haven't read my e-mail yet. If so, I'll try to upload all the modules to the Vault this morning.
I did manage a touch of dialog writing yesterday, though not as much as I'd like. Hopefully I can do a bit more, though we'll see how it goes.
Update: Ah, someone responded with testing comments! I'm going to upload the patch to the Vault this morning as it looks like things are working again.
Another update: Well, I uploaded the new versions of Shadowlords/Dreamcatcher to the Vault. Next week I'll get the HotU hak pack issues resolved. Whew.
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It took me awhile to find my inspiration yest...
December 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
It took me awhile to find my inspiration yesterday, but it finally came around. While it's easy to simply add combat encounters throughout an area, I try hard to resist it and make each event somewhat unique and interesting. I think I've found the balance I'm looking for, though it did take awhile. Towards the end of the day, I was cranking out dialog and scripting like nobody's business.
Probably more of the same today, though after this I'm pretty close to finishing up one of the last plot areas. I'm also hoping to get HotU from Bioware soon. I've heard some reports with it and Dreamcatcher and I'd like to take a look.
Update: It's looking like HotU has broken a number of the scripts in Shadowlords and Dreamcatcher. A bunch of the teleporation scripts no longer work. You can read about the gory details here if you're interested. It looks like I'll need to rewrite some code in most of the modules. Sigh.
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Lots of good progress yesterday
December 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Lots of good progress yesterday. More dialog and scripting, which I spent this morning testing out. So far, I'm liking the way the area I'm working on is coming together. It's a mix of combat, moral decisions, and puzzles. I'd say the area is around half done, though it's always hard to judge with these sorts of things.
After this, I have one more main plot area then I'd like to finish up the Struggle area. There's also a few systems I need to revamp once HotU comes out. Lots of work yet, though I think I'll eventually get there.
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I actually made some progress yesterday, whic...
December 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
I actually made some progress yesterday, which felt nice for a change. There was a rather complicated dialog which I finished up and scripted, as well as getting some of the encounters for the area ready to go. I'm trying very hard to steer away from a bunch of mindless combats and I'm instead trying to keep it interesting or at least amusing. We'll see how it pans out.
Today is more scripting as well as some planning. I've carefully made some empty areas for moments of creative insight, but they haven't happened quite yet.
I finally finished Knights of the Old Republic last night. Wonderful game. The end was a bit traditional, but ultimately satisfying.
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Okay, okay
December 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Okay, okay. I've been playing Knights of the Old Republic virtually non-stop. Hopefully I'll finish up in a day or two. It's been one of the best roleplaying games I've played for quite some time. There's also some tidbits I'd love to lift into NWN, mostly the beaches which look great. I think I have an idea of how to do it, but just need to take a closer look.
With luck, I'll work on some of the dialog I've been wanting to do. We'll see how it goes today.
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Well, more doors this morning
December 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Well, more doors this morning. I placed and scripted 26 of the little bad boys this morning, using the six custom doors I put together. I still need to add the "keys" for each, but that shouldn't be too hard. I also need to put together the people and things in the area, which isn't necessarily trivial. Still, it's good to get a bunch of work on this key plot area.
Bioware is supposedly showing me some love and passing the HotU expansion my way. Pretty cool of them. Let's see, $30 divided by the few hundred hours I've put into module building equals . . . aw, heck, I'm doing it for fun anyway.
Knights of the Old Republic has consumed my soul. My son and I continue to play through at a frantic rate. Today we achieved the maxium number of light side points so our character is all glowy. Great game, but I can't wait to finish so that I can focus on module building again. All play and no work makes for late modules.
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Well, I did get the new door in there, as wel...
December 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Well, I did get the new door in there, as well as start up on a new conversation. It was pretty busy at home, however, and trying to get my Christmas presents ready. Not a lot done.
Also, it's looking like I'm going to wait for the 1.60 patch for the card game, updating all the hak packs accordingly. Shouldn't be much longer now.
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Well, I didn't quite manage to get much done ...
December 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Well, I didn't quite manage to get much done yesterday, with the module at least. I worked on the card game some more, putting some spit and polish on it to get it ready to put out there. There's also the matter of the imminent 1.60 patch, which I'd like to get it compliant with, as well as some other last minute things. Should be soon, though.
I'm mentally planning the next plot area in my brain. I've got most of it layed out, then realized I needed another custom door. Hopefully I'll get to it today.
On another note, I've finally moved into my old office in the basement. I lugged down three computers, including the web server, and hooked it all up. It's not quite finished yet. I still need to hook up rear speakers, get my dad working on the wall panel, and cut some holes in the wall so I can move a couple computers into the closet. I'm sure the new arrangement will greatly inspire my creativity, or at least I'll stop stepping on Legos every time I go to the computer (as I was crammed in a small room with Sam's toys).
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More strange doors yesterday
December 04, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 More strange doors yesterday. This particular one has sheets of flame moving about. I have a total of five, which should be enough for my efforts. I also made my interior combo tileset, which was a bit tricky due to the varying heights of the tiles. Still, I think it turned out okay and should make an interesting little adventure zone. Today I need to work on the scripting for the area, as well as adding the necessary dialog, encounters, and so on.
Good news on the card game front. It's looking like the last of the big bugs are gone, leaving only AI tweaks and the like. What I want to do at this point is get the .2da files from HotU in there, then release it on the Vault. Not much longer.
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I spent quite a bit of time yesterday trying ...
December 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I spent quite a bit of time yesterday trying to integrate the Dreamcatcher/Shadowlords content into the new module. The main problem is that for the custom weapons, I've had to check them individually and recreate them. This is because of the .2da changes that SoU brought which caused me to renumber the baseitems.2da file (which only means something to a handful of custom content folks). In any case, I managed to get a fair number of things in the game, including the Ioun Stone you see here. I also learned a bit using the various .gff and .erf editors that should let me do some neat things once HotU comes out.
I also started in on one of the new plot areas. It took me a long while to figure out which tileset I was going to use, though I think I've finally settled on a combination of official and custom tiles. In order to support what I'm trying to do, I've been creating some custom doors as well. Here's an example of the red mist door, which looks pretty nifty in the game.
Finally, Knights of the Old Republic continues to be a really fun game. Lots of moral quandries and interesting situations.
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Well, I managed to save some of the good ol' ...
December 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Well, I managed to save some of the good ol' items from Shadowlords and Dreamcatcher. Some are not going to be very salvageable due to story or technical issues, but some of people's nifty loot should remain. The other trick is handing it out at appropriate places so that the player isn't bombarded by treasure right off the bat. My hope is that it's relatively balanced, but we'll see how it goes.
In my long list of things to finish, I left off the Struggle areas. I'm going to at least do the one, but I'm waiting for Martin E's tileset. It sounds like he's busy these days, so I may have to pass on it. We'll see how it goes.
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This is going to be one of those "here's what...
December 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
This is going to be one of those "here's what I hope to get done today" entries, as I admit to not touching the game after I posted yesterday, other than a few card games looking for bugs. With luck, I can get the latest issues to Jazael and he can fix them in a week or so. I'll also want to wait for HotU so that I have the latest .2da files (as updating them is a bit of a chore).
It also just turned December, which is suggestive of the amount of time I have left. I very much want to wrap up Demon. I have two main plot areas to do, the Sigil tileset to integrate (once it's released), henchmen dialog to write, assorted detail work (such as flavor text, sounds, etc.), integrating the old equipment and special abilities, making sure multiplayer works right, and finally a bunch of testing.
I'm not sure I can get all that done in a couple months, but I'm going to try. We'll see how it goes.
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Why We Fight
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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