We've Moved. Pardon the Dust.

February 26, 2009 by Adam in NWN2

Okay, I finally bit the bullet and made the new site live. Hopefully it's adequate and looks a bit more modern.

I'm currently working on a new build that moves around a key conversation. Before, your NPCs were silent after a fairly major event and you had to talk to them explicitly before they'd say anything. Now they'll start the conversation and give you the opportunity to talk about it.

Dreamer Cards - City Elf

February 26, 2009 by Adam in Dragon Age

One of the reasons I made my initial Demon Card game for NWN1 is that NWN1 shipped with this beautiful portraits of monsters and people, but few people ever saw them in their full glory. As technology improved, I switched to in-game screenshots for the card images, but there's something special about hand-drawn art.

The City Elf uses one of the Origin stories and turns it into a card. Though she's only 1/1, she has a special power that makes her a little unique. Many cards have an extra twist, just to make them interesting.

Also note "Elf" as the creature type. There are various creature categories in the game, such as human, elf, and dwarf, and certain cards affect everything with that category. I suspect it will be common to create themed decks for particular creature types.

Deactivating Crab Traps

February 24, 2009 by Adam in NWN2

More progress. I fixed the problem with the trapper so it should properly deactivate and sent the latest build to PJJ. Hopefully we can get this quest playable and move on to a larger round of testing.

I spent some more time getting the new site ready. Theoretically if someone goes to my old NWN1 site (via http://adamandjamie.com/nwn/), it'll redirect to the shiny new one. I'll probably do my main NWN2 site tomorrow and the move will be complete.

I still have the one show-stopping bug to resolve

February 23, 2009 by Adam in NWN2

I still have the one show-stopping bug to resolve. I think I know exactly what the issue is and how to fix it, so hopefully I can get it fixed tonight.

I'm thinking about moving to the new site relatively soon. If there's anything horrible that I'm missing, let me know.

Dreamer Cards

February 22, 2009 by Adam in Dragon Age

Though I can't talk about any beta stuff, I can talk about my plans and things that I create that involve public content. This includes one of the projects I'd like to include in the Dreamer Campaigns, something I'm currently calling Dreamer Cards.

It's in the same style as Demon Cards for NWN1 and Pirate Cards for NWN2. Essentially it's a collectible card game played in real-time against NPC opponents. The plan is for it to be an optional add-on to the campaign, as well as a stand-alone game people can play.

For those unfamiliar with the game, here's an image of the playing card. I created it using the Magic Set Editor, using information and screenshots from the Dragon Age site.

Each turn, the player can play one Lyrium card, which creates one source of manna. This manna is used up when you cast a spell or summon a creature, but is refreshed each turn. That way you can cast increasingly powerful cards or cast multiple cards at once.

For example, this Fanged Skeleton card has a casting cost of one, has an attack power of one (the first number), and a toughness of one (the second number). The type of the creature is a Demon, which is important when mixed with other cards. The moon in the corner is the symbol, black indicating that it is a common card. Finally, it has a special ability of being resistant to magic.

Playing the card summons a skeleton which will try to kill your opponent's creatures, or your opponent's avatar. If your opponent's avatar falls, you've won the game.

I'll try to show off more cards on a regular basis. They're still all in flux, and it's likely I'll make changes when playtesting. There are still many months until the game is released, so I'm not sure how often you'll see them. The current plan is for roughly a hundred cards, which should be plenty of variety.

Two steps forward, one step back

February 19, 2009 by Adam in NWN2

I think I fixed the issues with new site, so feel free to take a look. Hopefully it does a better job with integrating all my various projects.

If I ever do a postmortem on Dark Waters, one of the things I'll mention is that I should have used a better version control system. I ended up losing some dialog somewhere along the way, so I ended up rewriting it this morning. One of the great things about the Dragon Age toolset is that it has built-in versioning. Hopefully my days of cursing when I overwrite something will soon be behind me.

I'm going to start working on a new build for PJJ to go over this afternoon. If we can get things generally playable, maybe we can start beta testing soon after that.

Dressing Gnomes

February 18, 2009 by Adam in NWN2

I spent last night watching robots dress gnomes. It's the price I pay for trying to give people the best play experience as possible. It turns out the automaton was shutting down too early because of a complicated issue involving distance to a target and how recently the gnome manakin had been dressed. I think I have it all working properly now.

I have a few more bugs that PJJ reported that I'd like to work through today. After that, it's time for another build and another round of testing.

As has been pointed out, my new site is horribly broken and doesn't work for anyone but me. Hopefully I can fix that soon.

All work and no play makes Adam a dull boy

February 17, 2009 by Adam in NWN2

I had a very busy weekend watching the kids by myself, plus two insanely busy days at work. I'm hoping I can sneak in some time tonight to work on some of the new issues PJJ reported. My main goal is to get rid of the show-stopping bugs and start up beta testing.

Over the last few weeks I've been working on a new web site that combines my NWN1, NWN2, and upcoming Dragon Age modding projects. I've tested with IE and Firefox and it seems okay, though I'm always nervous about such things. You can take a peek here. Please let me know if it looks weird or things are horribly broken.

I tested out yesterday's 2da fixes by playing...

February 14, 2009 by Adam in NWN2

I tested out yesterday's 2da fixes by playing a few practical jokes on Daniel. There's nothing like being grabbed with a giant hand to induce a few chuckles. So far, it seems like my changes worked just fine and Dark Waters is finally compatible with the latest expansion pack.

I finished attaching all of Sheridan's dialog. Chris did an amazing job with a 50 minute recording session. It took me at least that long to do my part as well. I think there are a few of Daniel's lines remaining, Lord Brighton, and Drake's dialog. After that, I'll probably declare all the voice recording done.

At the moment I'm creating the installers and will slowly upload them all for the testers.

I just finished chopping up the last of Chris...

February 12, 2009 by Adam in NWN2

I just finished chopping up the last of Chris' dialog he sent, including nearly 90 different clips of Sheridan which took him almost 50 minutes to record. As usual, I have some of his outtakes.

I did a count of all the wav files that come with Dark Waters and the number is a staggering 3,704 files taking up nearly 260 MB of space. That's a lot of dialog.

I still need to attach the lines to Sheridan's dialog, and I'll work on that next. I also realized that I was missing some dialog in another part of the game, so I need to work on that next. Hopefully I can whip up a new build towards the end of the day and get that to the testers.

I think I finally hammered out the issues wit...

February 11, 2009 by Adam in NWN2

I think I finally hammered out the issues with the hak pack and spells should be working properly. I just need to double-check to make sure I'm not missing anything obvious.

I think most of PJJ's latest bugs have been fixed at this point, and I've been spending my time chopping up sound files. Chris has done a heroic job trying to read my occasionally incoherent dialog. Fortunately he seems to be good spirits about it.

I was back at work yesterday, going through t...

February 10, 2009 by Adam in NWN2

I was back at work yesterday, going through the list of bugs PJJ reported. The most amusing was the armorer, who pounded away at his anvil with an invisible hammer. I ended up making him a fighter, as well as giving him a new hammer. All seemed better after that.

I fixed another issue with the psionics failing. It turns out that when I was doing my SoZ fixes, I managed to delete all the spells.2da files from my hak packs. I have a fix in place, but I think I need to redo it again. Working with hak packs is quite tedious.

I continue to appreciate all of PJJ's work, especially finding all my embarrassing typos before doing a more widespread beta test.

I have more of Daniel's voice to get into the game. Busy, busy.

Why We Fight

February 09, 2009 by Adam in Dragon Age

Though I'm still under NDA and can't say much, I did manage to get a blog posted on the Bioware site.

I was lucky to be involved with Dragon Age early, attending the builder’s event up in Edmonton. Already plans are forming, my notebook filling with scribbles of maps and dialog. Last night I made my second cutscene, the player stepping out of a mirror and looking about in wonder. I felt that familiar excitement welling up, the lure of mystery and promise of adventure.

I keep plugging away at chopping up sound files

February 05, 2009 by Adam in NWN2

I keep plugging away at chopping up sound files. Fortunately Chris continues to do a fine job of entertaining me along the way.

Still no Bioware blog post yet

February 04, 2009 by Adam in NWN2

Still no Bioware blog post yet. I'm trying to beg, steal, or borrow a few free moments to work on chopping up dialog. Life has gotten very busy again.

Update: The blog got posted. I also uploaded more outtakes from Chris Serani's recording session. Clearly he's having too much fun.

I see Jay edited my bio at the bottom with a subtle job offer.

I uploaded a couple new builds to the testers...

February 03, 2009 by Adam in NWN2

I uploaded a couple new builds to the testers, one of them a Mac version. Chris has been plugging away and passed along a couple new pieces of dialog that are waiting for me to chop up and get ready.

I wrote a piece for Bioware's Blog that should be posted tomorrow. I'm also working on the new web site, hoping to get things polished and ready relatively soon.

Fun, fun.

Nothing too exciting to report

February 01, 2009 by Adam in NWN2

Nothing too exciting to report. I've been splitting my time between bug fixing problems I created and problems created by the new patch. I think things are generally under control for the moment, though I'm sure there are still plenty of undiscovered issues lurking about.

I spent a little time yesterday trying to put together a new web site that consolidates the NWN, NWN2, and upcoming Dragon Age projects. As it stands, everything is using somewhat old back-end technology and I figure it's time to upgrade a bit.