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I've been working more on the mountain tilese...
March 31, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
I've been working more on the mountain tileset, trying to get the edge tiles together. There's a particular part that's going to cause me grief and I'm not quite sure how to best handle it. Giving up seems an almost appropriate solution. Essentially it has to do with all the various combinations of heights and the creation of different edge tiles to match. I'm wondering if it's worth it. I'm also having problems with pathing issues. It's going to be really hard to get NPCs up some of the mountain areas.
I did a bugfixing pass through Dreamcatcher last night. It turns out I ended up fixing a few bugs a second time around. I must have lost some of my fixes in the version shuffle. Fortunately it was easier to take care of a second time around. Hopefully today I can start applying some ideas today, mapping out a few areas.
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I didn't have a lot of time to work on the ga...
March 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I didn't have a lot of time to work on the game yesterday. The boy came down early and I spent much of the day doing housework, taxes, and family things. I did spend a little time with Sam on the couch watching Fellowship of the Ring and got a little inspiration. As they crossed the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, I thought that it would be cool if the mountain tileset had such a stairway. It was also reminiscent of Corwin's assault on Amber, fighting single file up the Stair of Kolvir.
In any case, I whipped up this new tile for the mountain tileset. It's "clipalicious", meaning that there are massive clipping issues for anything on four legs. There are reasons why Bioware doesn't put in any steep slopes. Still, the entire mountain tileset has that issue, so I don't mind too much. I populated it with Gnolls and fought my way up last night, leaving bloody trails as the ones behind the lead grew increasingly nervous as the wild-eyed cleric cut through their ranks.
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Work continues along at a nice little pace
March 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Work continues along at a nice little pace. I put in the camp tile from the forest tileset into my mountain tileset, realizing that I'll need something like that down the road. I put in some additional weapons yesterday, so expect some fun ones that you'll run into along the adventure. One even has a custom effect - I kept playing with it yesterday, simply enjoying the havoc it causes.
I also put in the scripting for the transition between Act II and Act III, as well as testing it out. Hopefully it'll induce panic in some. It turned out better than I thought and should lay the groundwork for the majority of Act III.
On a techincal note, I may need to do something about this "max 10 users" thing that my web server keeps kicking back. I'm using IIS on XP Pro. I'm used to IIS, seeing as that's what I've got at work, but the error message you get when 10 concurrent users are connected is quite annoying. Most of my site is coded in ASP, so switching to another web server doesn't excite me. Well, something to think about some other time than six in the morning.
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I've been fairly busy the last couple days, b...
March 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I've been fairly busy the last couple days, but still finding time to work on the module. Yesterday I added new custom content, Velmar's tiles to the rural tileset. It took a little while to integrated it with Wayland's gentle hills, but after I figured out the problem (I forgot to put the models in the hak), it worked like a charm.
So far, my zipped hak pack size is around 3.5 MB in size. Since I've given myself a 10 MB limit, I'm good so far. Of course, there's still quite a bit of the module to create, some of which will definitely require new content.
There's also a transition area or two that doesn't have much player involvement, but is a necessary part of the story. I've tried to script it to be interesting enough even though the player mostly walks through it. I'm trying hard to connect the introduction and dream sequence to the middle act. I may start doing work on act four, as the middle act is easily "expandable" by adding in extra areas as I get time and ideas.
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Yesterday was busy, but I managed to take car...
March 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Yesterday was busy, but I managed to take care of some little things. I wrote a little more dialog for Dreamcatcher, as well as working on the mountain tileset a bit more. I added two ship groups and a reskinned ruins from the forest tileset. The big project was creating a new tile by merging the mountain slope with the rural cave feature. It turned out fairly good, though there are a few minor things I'm tempted to change. A mountain without a cave seemed somehow naked to me.
On a personal note, my mom and stepfather made it back from Belize. He had a doctor visit yesterday and the news is somewhat hopeful. The cancer isn't quite as agressive as previously thought, so it looks like he'll have time to head to Chicago to see his family. On the other end of the life and death spectrum, my wife has officially less than two months to go before Emma appears. She's definately feeling the pregnancy these days, looking forward to getting it over with.
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I got a lot accomplished yesterday and this m...
March 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I got a lot accomplished yesterday and this morning. The entire dream sequences is complete, wrapping up the first section of the module. I did a short test this morning, fixing bugs along the way, though it does need some balancing later on. The next thing on my agenda is to get the start of Act 2 going as well as planning out more of the middle section.
A number of people e-mailed me their interest in the mountain tileset I've been working on. I polished it up a bit more yesterday, adding the Water terrain as well as the road and second wall crossers. At about 230 tiles, it's a fairly complete tileset. Den of Assassins had evidently done some work on this as well, going for a grassless mountain top. We may end up merging some things together or some such arrangement. Hopefully this little side project will make some more people happy.
As for today, I'm thinking of including some more tiles from the forest tileset, reskinning as needed. I'd like the feel of the tile to have minimial civilization, so I don't think I'll be including many of the buildings. I'd like to get the ships in, though.
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I put in more work on the mountain tileset ye...
March 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I put in more work on the mountain tileset yesterday, moving over items from the rural and forest tileset. It's tedious work and I'll probably not add too many more features and groups unless I need them. Adding a new tile requires modifications to the .SET file in a few places, modifying the .itp file, and carefully checking my work. I'm doing it one at a time, as it's fairly easy to make a mistake along the way.
I've got Water terrain in, the Grass varieties, Stream and Wall crossers. I've also put in a handful of features and groups. This morning I copied over the tower from the forest placeable, modifying the floor texture so it fit.
I'm hoping to dig into the meat of the module again today, finishing up the dream sequence at the beginning. It's turned out far more involved than I had initially planned, but hopefully that'll make everyone happy.
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Sometimes I'm far too stubborn
March 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Sometimes I'm far too stubborn. I had been working on the mountain tileset that someone else created (and I found out later was abandoned by the author). I added stream crossers, but ran into a problem trying to take the stream up the side of a mountain. It lay down a normal single-height waterfall, rather than the double-height waterfall. Well, I worked on that single tile, creating a new one and slowly merging the mountain with the waterfall. It took several hours off and on throughout the day, but I got it done. So, when you see the waterfall in Dreamcatcher 4, you better appreciate it.
I'm hoping to work more on dialog and scripting today. With luck, I'll finish up the dream area in the beginning, which is quite lengthy. After that, I've got some more planning to do for Act II of the module.
Sam and I played a bit more Gates of Myth Drannor as well. Though we ran across a fair number of bugs, they were easy to dismiss. One of the things I noticed about the module is that the scripting was very enthusiastic, being used for a variety of interesting things. Bug testing huge modules is difficult, and none were fatal to the gameplay. Another thing I'm really enjoying is the limited downtime. Though there's a 5 minute rest limit, it doesn't seem very problematic. There's also not much backtracking. In many places, the game teleports the party to the next place of interest, which is great in my opinion.
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It's amazing how much time I can pour into th...
March 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 It's amazing how much time I can pour into the game, expending months of my life and come up with a product that someone will burn through in just a few hours. Fortunately if you multiply that number by 10,000 players, it's hopefully all worthwhile.
I spent yesterday creating a new custom trap. It's been in the back of my mind for quite some time, ever since Sam and I went hiking and the trees about me suggested it. I'll save it as a surprise for now, but it's somewhat interesting. This morning I whipped up a new custom tile and tweaked the existing forest tileset so that I could throw it in. It's simple, but should be useful for certain things. It's a pit tile, which I'm thinking of covering with underbrush and using as a trap of some kind. Should be entertaining.
I've also been working hard on one of the dream areas. It's getting very close and should be a fun little interlude before the main meat of the adventure. What's amazing me is that the entire dream sequence could be a small module by itself, and that's just Act I. In general, I think people can expect this module to be the biggest of them all. It's not just "filler" either - each combat should be unique and scripted, with no random spawns to make things longer.
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I woke up early again and began slaving away
March 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I woke up early again and began slaving away. I put away the elven troops for awhile and instead focused on one of the dream areas I'd been neglecting. I think it'll turn out quite nicely - there are some funny spots in there for those who enjoy that sort of thing.
I also worked on a custom creature, taking one off the vault and modifying it. It should be a fun little surprise, though nothing particularly amazing. I also put together a custom weapon that's a bit over the top.
Sam and I continue our quest, this time with The Gates of Myth Drannor. So far, so good. Sam's not big on waiting for me to talk with folks, so the goodly amount of combat works nicely for us. Playing with a four-year-old is still a bit of a challenge, and his latest thing is demanding that he carry all loot that we find. I don't particularly mind, but he can be a bit demanding. I took a screenshot of our little party - I'm the skinny elf on the right.
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Lots of progress on the AI yesterday
March 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Lots of progress on the AI yesterday. I made one fairly major change, and that was to no longer allow the elven troops to be turned into henchmen. If I gave them an order to attack the enemy's position, they'd stop being henchmen and attack. If I told them to follow, they'd turn into henchmen and tag along. As henchmen, however, they have a big advantage of not being vulnerable to area of effect spells that I'd cast. That seemed to punish people who chose one path, which I didn't like. So, now they're just normal NPCs. In general, though, I'm pretty happy with where things stand. I'll probably need to tweak things some more, but it's fun to command troops about. It's not for the entire game, but a goodly chunk in the middle.
The AI is getting pretty complex as it stands. There are a lot of commands, most of which are dependant on the situation. For example, you can't tell them to attack the enemy's position until you've had the area scouted or you've seen it yourself. You can tell your healers to heal the wounded, but only if you've got healers and only if there are wounded. So, it keeps the list of commands down to a reasonable amount. I'm also having a good time having the elves "talk smack". They'll say something when they kill an enemy or defeat all in the local area. I need to add more so that the short list of phrases doesn't get stale.
I've also been working on adding new custom content. I added a slew of placeables yesterday and this morning, along with a new creature. The good news is that I got up before 4 am and got a lot of work done. The bad news is that I have a bad cold and I couldn't sleep.
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Lots of work on the AI yesterday, as well as ...
March 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Lots of work on the AI yesterday, as well as some dialog that went along with it. I spent about an hour testing it as well. The good news is that the majority of the functions seem to work, though I still have some things to fix. I think it'll be an interesting twist to the game. There's something basically satisfying about having your scout search the area, find points of interest on a map, then ordering your troops to assault the enemy. I'm trying to capture that elusive "epic" feel in this module. Hopefully that'll help some.
I ripped out a few items from the game and turned them into placeables. I have a fungal pod and two mushroom versions. They look quite nice in the standard cavern setting.
Sam and I finished the Forge of Fury last night. Playing with a 4-year-old is an interesting experience. I cringed inwardly as we bypassed large sections of the game. After we had done the final battle (which was pretty entertaining), Sam decided he wanted to return to town. After we took several one-way portals, I mentioned that we skipped a big area. He replied, "You shouldn't have said that. Now I feel sad." Oops.
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No pretty pictures today
March 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
No pretty pictures today. I worked more on dialog yesterday, as well as frantically scribbling out how I wanted to do the AI for the elven troops. It's fairly complex, but should be manageable. The trick is trying to emulate "interesting" behavior while not bogging down the CPU or making things to hard on myself. I have plans for them to be able to scout out an area, attack enemy positions, rally around the PC, forage for supplies, and a few other things. I've got the basics for a "morale" concept. I also have a method to control troops all at once or individually.
Most of this is still on paper, though I did a mini-test yesterday. I had a couple NPCs following me around, essentially linking one to the other as henchmen. It's a little complicated, as you have to break and reform the chain of henchmen as you pull one out. Amazingly, it works. I think I prefer the "assault the enemy position" approach to moving troops, but this method should work in a pinch.
Sam and I played more "Forge of Fury" last night. We had a great time, exploring and seeing all the custom creatures added to the module. There were a few odd quirks and some minor gripes. We had some issues with the bleeding rules. At one point, Sam's orc fell in battle, I healed him, but he still got the Respawn screen. 10 minutes later, he had walked all the way back to where I was. Another time, both Sam and I lost consciousness and the creature that was attacking us lost interest and wandered off (after saying he was going to eat us). We lept to our feet, healed ourselves quickly, then dispatched the monster. My only other issue was that the areas were very large and didn't have much in them. I suspect this was in part due to translating PnP maps to the game, but it did lead to lots of walking around. I think what this all means is that between realism and fun, I prefer to err on the side of fun.
Minor gripes aside, we really have been having fun playing the module. I've really enjoyed some of the creative uses of scripting, new monsters I haven't seen elsewhere, and some interesting areas to explore. In fact, my biggest problem has nothing at all to do with the game, but rather the short attention span of a 4-year-old.
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Yesterday was mostly dialog for me
March 18, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Yesterday was mostly dialog for me. I'm basically setting up the main section of the adventure, so I want the PC to have a fairly firm understanding as to what's going on. I'm a little worried that some of the dialog may be a bit heavy on the foreshadowing. I can imagine the player thinking "Hmm. The only reason he's saying that is if this is going to happen." Oh well, better that things are clear and a bit heavy on the foreshadowing than vague and confusing.
 I did work some more on custom content as well. There's a great mountain tileset that's been floating around for months in a semi-finished state. I've been adding some of the rural tiles that I want. I may have to redo a few as needed - there simply aren't any normal tiles for extremely steep slopes.
I also worked on my sahuagin some more. After looking at pictures, I realized they all have fins. Now in the official Monster Manual, the fins go all the way down their tails. I opted for a back-only at the moment. It gets way too hard to deal with animations and such otherwise. I tweaked the head and legs a bit more. I think I'll call it good enough at this point.
Oh - and thanks to all who sent in reminders that there really was a sequel to The Sunless Citadel out there. Sam and I loaded up The Forge of Fury and played a little last night. For those who have played, we took the "Really Dumb Main Entrance" when first going in. Fortunately we were both wearing good armor so we made it through. Later we discovered the simpler way in. Oops. I also noticed that the author was trying to fix some of the issues with the last one with large areas that the player is forced to walk through. It may not be completely true to the PnP version, but alleviating player frustration is always a good thing.
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I whipped up what is hopefully a passable imi...
March 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I whipped up what is hopefully a passable imitation of a Sahuagin. I may tweak it a bit more so that it doesn't look so much like a lizardman. The tail turned out reasonably well, for a dangly protrusion with no animation, though the coloring is iffy and the assorted fins were hard to do. Notice the trident, though. More good fun.
I also worked on a custom trap yesterday, plus came up for a good idea for one while tromping through the woods with Sam. Speaking of Sam, we played through another module, The Vethboro Dragon. It was somewhat short, but I enjoyed the custom content and dialog. The only bug I ran into was that only the person talking to the NPC was moved to the Inn at the end, instead of the whole party. Troubleshooting multiplayer issues is often hard for developers. I was basically forced to buy a second copy of the game in order to test such things.
Sam, of course, had a great time playing. He wanted to play a "different character" from yesterday. This translated into a female half-orc who specialized in Greataxes instead of Greatswords. Totally different.
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I spent a good hour yesterday morning and ano...
March 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I spent a good hour yesterday morning and another hour this morning trying to get one of the key custom items finished. It's a leaf boat, used by the elves as an impromptu form of water transportation. It works reasonably well, though I may have some trouble getting the PC in or out of it. Right now it's a placeable with a pseudo hole in the middle of the walkmesh. Seems to work.
I also spent yesterday actually playing someone else's module, which is extremely rare for me. Sam wandered down in the morning as he usually does and wanted to play Star Wars Jedi Outcast, which we usually do. I was sick of it, and suggested Neverwinter Nights. We had a great time, playing The Sunless Citadel. Sam was a half-orc fighter, doing the vast majority of the work as I, a healer, stood back and admired the carnage. For a four-year-old, he did quite well, occasionally getting frustrated trying to select chests to bash them with things blocking the view.
My design hat kept popping on despite myself. I kept noticing the annoying things, like big areas with nothing in them. I suspect it's because of the translation between PnP and a CRPG. With PnP you can say "we keep going down the corridor", but with the game you have to actually do it. At one point, we went back to town to resupply and it took a good ten minutes. But there was a lot of good things about the modules - the HCR, lootable corpses, henchmen AI, and other rule changes made things a bit more interesting. I liked how many of the placeables had scripting attached to them to allow translation of runes, searching objects, and so on. The story was a bit odd - only at the very end did I have a feel what was happening, and that was in only because the enemy decided to get "chatty". That's a hard cliche to avoid (the enemy revealing all plans, right before they try to kill you), and I've fallen for it myself at times. It's not terrible, it's just a common resolution to a story. I think my preference is to reveal it slowly throughout the adventure.
Well, I've written far too much. The adventure was great fun and I was hoping to play the sequel today, but it appears to not yet be out. Maybe we'll take another look at the Hall of Fame and grab another one. Or perhaps we'll leave the computers behind and hike around in the forest.
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I stopped all work on Dreamcatcher 4 yesterda...
March 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I stopped all work on Dreamcatcher 4 yesterday, read through every Shadowlords board and bug report e-mail, spent the day fixing things, and posted all the updates this morning. I even ran all the way through Shadowlords 5 just to test out the key quests. Whew! It was a bit exhausing, but it's been something I've wanted to do for a few months now. Hopefully it'll cut down on e-mails reporting bugs as well as making people's experiences better.
I did a little more work for Martin's celtic tileset. This is a wheat thingie (sheaf? I forget the word for it). I'm not terribly happy with it, so I may redo it. It's using the official haybail texture, which is a bit skimpy. We'll see if I have the time.
I've got a bunch of dialog to flesh out for Dreamcatcher 4, as well as starting to get the AI together for my little experiment. We'll see if it actually pans out as desired. I did a little work with henchmen of henchmen for Shadowlords 2, strangely enough. I had one of the NPCs join your henchmen as a henchmen, so they followed each other about as if on a string. I'm trying to avoid that approach, though it is much simpler.
On a personal note, my mother posted on her section of the website from Belize yesterday. Evidently they all made it safe and sound.
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I got quite a bit done yesterday on the custo...
March 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I got quite a bit done yesterday on the custom content front. There were some tiles that were unused in the official game, so I pulled them out, tweaked them a bit, and put them back as a mini-tileset. It's done in an extremely quick and dirty way, but it turned out good enough for my purposes. It's nothing special, but a little variety in the tilesets can go a long away. I also whipped up this placeable for atmosphere. It swings back and forth on the chain too. Creepy.
I've also added Lisa's holy symbols and the hak to allow equipping rods and wands. It should come in quite useful when creating custom items. I wouldn't want to leave out the mages, after all.
As for the game itself, I added yet more dialog yesterday. The dialog seems endless, though I imagine it takes ten times longer to write than to read. It's hard to judge what the "right amount" of dialog is. I think the trick is to talk a bit, fight a bit, move on to a puzzle, and repeat as necessary.
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More dialog, a little scripting, and a dash o...
March 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
More dialog, a little scripting, and a dash of testing yesterday. I actually went from the beginning area, did all the henchmen dialog, and made it halfway through the first dream area. I've also been thinking hard about new tilesets. These would be simple things created primarily for Dreamcatcher. I've got some more thinking to do, so we'll see. I also did a review of custom creatures created of the last few months. There's a couple that stand out, so I'll try to get them down to a reasonable size to include in the hak pack. So far, it's around 2MB in size, though I haven't included much at all yet.
The initial dream sequence is getting fairly long. I'm hoping it's not particularly boring. There's some lengthy philisophical discussions, though they're also amusing. If you're a big, strong PC you can try to push and shove your way through. That's funny in and of itself.
My mother and stepfather are off to Belize. I'm hoping he doesn't get too tired traveling so much and that hey enjoys the warm sands and beautiful weather.
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Even more dialog yesterday
March 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Even more dialog yesterday. I'm getting the first area of the dream sequence fleshed out a bit more, as well as Queen Amlaruil's dialog. There's some complex AI things I'm planning on doing down the road that I'm a bit nervous about. If I pull it off, it should lead to some neat scenes. If not, well, it's not the first time I embarrassed myself.
I did a few custom placeables yesterday for one of the dream areas. I'm shooting for funny and creepy and strange as the general feel for the dream areas. So far, so good.
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First off, I'd like to thank everyone for the...
March 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
First off, I'd like to thank everyone for their kind e-mails about my stepfather. He had his procedure yesterday (after waiting eight hours), and has another one today. Things seem to be going well enough that they hope to take their trip to Belize they've been planning. I'm hoping his last days go as well as can be.
There was another interview of me posted today, along with ones with Altaris and Stefan Gagne. I find it interesting to hear about what other big-name module builders are doing, and the common fact that none of us have time to play other modules.
As for Dreamcatcher 4, development progresses. I don't have any screenshots today, as I mostly worked on dialog yesterday. I need to work on yet more today, laying the foundation for the rest of the story. Writing can be a bit grueling at times, coming up with something witty or interesting on a regular basis. I have some custom content to work on too, so I may switch back and forth so I don't overwork the creative part of my brain.
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I spent some time working on Dreamcatcher 4 t...
March 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
I spent some time working on Dreamcatcher 4 this morning, getting a custom effect working in the game. It turned out okay, though I'll probably tie it to some scripting to get the full effect. I also did some more dialog yesterday, writing some key scenes in the beginning. I'm trying some strange things for the first dream sequence, sort of a reverse riddle game. It's different, but I'm hoping it's not too wacky.
I spent a huge amount of time answering e-mail and replying to everyone on just the Dreamcatcher 3 boards yesterday. It's easily taking an hour or two each time I check, especially if I have bug fixes to do along with it. I've gotten some really good help for Dreamcatcher testing, which has been great. I really think it will end up being the most polished of them so far.
My stepfather goes in for a procedure this morning to help with the jaundice. Since I work at the hospital, I'll probably spend that time with my mom. Hopefully it'll all go well.
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I have some serious things happening in real ...
March 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I have some serious things happening in real life, which may affect development for the module. My step father was diagnosed with an inoperable form of cancer, with only a few weeks to live. I'll be spending as much time with he and my mom as possible, and helping the best I can. I still plan on continuing work on things. It may just be delayed a bit. It's my refuge of sorts, so it's a bit theraputic for me.
I worked more on the platform tileset yesterday and set down the basics for the dream sequence. It looks pretty good and I'm enjoying writing the first part of the dream sequence. Humor is something I want to see more of in this last module, and I think I've found a good way to sneak some in. I also put in a custom creature into the module and frankly, it looks great. It's not my work, so kudos to the CODI folks.
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I spent a little time this morning working on...
March 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I spent a little time this morning working on a new tileset. It's fairly simple, yet a bit more complex than some of my previous tilesets (that were typically only a single model). I'm going to use it in one of my dream sequences, though it still needs more work.
I also did a bit more work on dialog and such yesterday, laying the first foundations of the henchmen dialog. It gets pretty complex, especially with the various good/bad/neutral Noobles and the romance/non-romance versions of dialog. Anera is the simplest one so far, so I'll probably finish her first then go back and do the rest later.
I'm also planning some fairly complex AI for NPCs later in the game. It may end up being too difficult, but I love the concept that I'm playing with. One of the things that happened around this level in good ol' 2nd edition D&D was the introduction of keeps and followers. While I probably won't have a keep, I do want to play around with the concept of leadership a bit. We'll see how it turns out.
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I pulled out the stone bench from the fountai...
March 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
I pulled out the stone bench from the fountain tileset and plunked it into the hak pack for Dreamcatcher 4. I'm using invisible objects to create separate "seat" areas for people to sit on. It looks pretty good so far - the elven defenders are listening intently to the Queen give her speech.
The very first area of Dreamcatcher 4 is looking fairly good. I've also been working on the henchmen a bit, bringing them up to level 11 and giving them appropriate equipment. They should be quite tough at this point, a powerful compliment to the player character.
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I'm plugging away at the new module
March 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
I'm plugging away at the new module. Since it's a finale of sorts, I may run over my original self-imposed 3 month timeframe. Since I'm still so early on the process, it's hard to say how much time it's all really going to take. I'm still working on the story, gathering feedback of what people did and didn't like from the last module. It's pretty clear that people really missed their companion in Dreamcatcher 3, so I'll be focusing quite a bit on that story. There were also some comments about how people missed the dream sequences, so expect more of those.
You'll still find custom content and more over-the-top battle sequences. I've gone a little light with combat in the past and I'd like this one to have more. I'm big on having alternate paths to combat, though, so expect some stealth, persuasion, or puzzle solutions to the problem at hand as well.
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Busy day today
March 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 Busy day today. Lots of bug fixes, though most are minor. There's a really big one happening, however, that's hard to track down. Evidently not all of the objects are being transferred over after they're stripped off of you. I'm pretty exhausted, but I'll try to track it down tonight or tomorrow morning.
I did a little work on Dreamcatcher 4 this morning, making a simple custom creature. Basically it's an imp with a very high z-axis boost, giving him the illusion of flying high. I wanted it for a particular scene where a tall wall was being attacked by flying creatures. Hopefully it'll look okay.
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Well, I uploaded the module mere moments ago
March 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Well, I uploaded the module mere moments ago. It should appear on the Vault fairly soon. Hopefully it'll be a smooth release, in part because I had some really good playtesters to help me out.
Now I've got to work on Dreamcatcher 4 and somehow find a way to top myself. Bigger explosions, I think. The sequel always has bigger explosions.
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Not a lot of big changes
March 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
Not a lot of big changes. I heard from another tester, who reported some typos and a minor bug. I think I've fixed the hak pak issues that I'm going to fix, so I'll try to upload that and the movie today. I also added another little code snippet that should minimize issues of abuse during the first part of the module. I think I'll wait until Monday, see if there are any pressing issues that my final testers report, then release it.
I think the inspiration for Dreamcatcher 4 hit me. I've been watching Band of Brothers and there are some elements in there that I'd love to take away. Dreamcatcher 3 doesn't have too much combat in it, and I'd like to introduce more for Dreamcatcher 4. I think the key for me is that each combat must be a carefully crafted encounter rather than simply spawning monsters in the right places. I'd like to see objectives for each area, coupled with strong roleplaying and character development. We'll see if I can pull it off, but holding that theme in my head is already starting to generate specific details that I really like.
Finally, for reasons I'm not going to disclose, I'm feeling much more free creating over-the-top custom items. I think I'd like to see oodles of special weapons, missle weapons and the like, mostly in the hands of the enemy, but slowly picked up over time. Should be fun.
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I've been polishing up the last of the issues...
March 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1
 I've been polishing up the last of the issues that have come up. There's a handful that will probably stay in the "unfixable" category, as they are game engine bugs or content someone else put together. I have a few more testers I'd like to hear from. Hopefully I can get things out on Monday.
I'm still working away on custom content for the celtic tileset as well as Dreamcatcher 4. The last few days I've been working on a "spring" placeable. Basically it's a couple of rocks with water gushing up through a broken one into a small pool in the other. It's okay, though nothing too special. I still have to make some use nodes at some point.
I'm also thinking hard about the story itself and what I'll need for it. I may end up doing a fair bit of tile work if I take a certain path. It's hard to decide what makes the most sense in terms of if the work is worth it.
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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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