I've been a very busy boy

March 31, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

I've been a very busy boy. Fortunately for all of you, my family isn't coming back from the beach until lunchtime today. That gave me that rare and precious gift of time that I rarely have these days.

Last night I did another full walkthrough, finding several more annoying bugs. One was a crash to the desktop bug, apparently due to some script that tried to destroy a henchman object. It turns out you have to be very careful about destroying companions and henchmen, as it'll result in crashes and crazy behavior otherwise. I also found some area transition doors that didn't go anywhere, assorted camera bugs, and so on.

When I woke up this morning, I wiped the sleep from my eyes and started debugging. I think I have fixes for all but one issue at the moment, which I'm about to attempt to fix. I also recorded some more voices. I'm afraid you'll be stuck listening to me for assorted roles - Jeffery, Death, Mr. Baker, and a few others.

Now I'm off to fix that one last bug and see if I can do another walkthrough before time runs out.

As March comes to a close, it feels like the ...

March 30, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

As March comes to a close, it feels like the module is increasingly getting close to release. I wasn't able to do a full walkthrough yesterday, but I did a lot of spot checking. The two show-stopping bugs have been fixed. The troops from the Remembrance: War section no longer magically appear upon reloading. The Slither Contest dialog fires appropriately, as does the post-flooding dialog. Lots of little things have been changed, including Heather's sound set, which was annoying me. It's all good.

At this point, I want to get a final build out to the testers. I'd also like to record more dialog lines and plead with the voice actors for a few more lines. Getting every line voiced seems a nearly impossible task, but I think it's worthwhile effort.

I'd also love to do another full walkthrough this weekend, though with my family coming back, I might be hard pressed to pull it off. If I can make it all the way through without any significant bugs, well, I'll break out the champagne when that actually happens.

Most days I'll put in an hour or two of work ...

March 29, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

Most days I'll put in an hour or two of work on the module. Yesterday, though, it was like a full time job. I spent over eight hours working on it, including three and a half hours doing a complete walkthrough. I didn't explore every nook and cranny, I knew how to solve every puzzle, plus I zipped through most dialogs, so it could easily be closer to five or six hours.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to complete the module without cheating. There were two show-stopping bugs, both easy to fix. In one case, there was a door without a transition, which I thought I had previously fixed. In another case, I marked a critical key as Cursed, which unfortunately means you can't even take it out of a desk.

Though it wasn't show-stopping, I had another really annoying bug that involved my entire troop from the Remembrance: War area respawning next to me when I reloaded a game. I was so annoyed that I led them one at a time to their deaths in a lightning trap.

On a whole, I actually enjoyed myself. There's some quirky humor that the voice acting really enhances. I wish I had more lines recorded, though it's getting close to the end and I'm not sure I can turn around the new recordings soon enough. I had fun with some of the systems, such as SAGE and the burning script. Psionics and flintlocks make for a fun distraction too.

Last night and this morning I worked on fixes. I have the bulk of them in place, though untested. I might be able to do some spot testing tonight, though doing another full walkthrough might be hard to fit in. My family is arriving Friday, I think, which means it's back to chasing kids about and getting my one or two hours of free time to work on the module. Fortunately PJJ and Bjarne can help with a final set of testing. I may also do a quick, limited beta test before posting to the Vault.

After all these years, it finally feels like we're close to release. I can taste it.

I spent last night and this morning going thr...

March 28, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

I spent last night and this morning going through and fixing assorted bugs in preparation for a full walkthrough today. I ended up putting in quite a bit of work in the third level again. There's a chase scene and PJJ pointed out that unless the player knew where to go, it was essentially impossible to get to the proper spot.

My solution was to create a trail of sorts. There's muddy bootprints and dust that are created in the wake of the person being chased. It makes for a pretty clear lead as to what's supposed to happen next. It ended up taking awhile to get working properly, but I'm pretty happy with the result.

I have a rather unique day ahead of me. My wife and kids are off at the coast and I've taken the day off. Now I'm going to fortify myself with food and caffeine, and hunker down to see if I can get through the entire module.

I'm back from the coast, where I spent a fair...

March 27, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

I'm back from the coast, where I spent a fair amount of time working on some of the areas for the second module. Creating islands is loads of fun, which is fortunate as I have so many to do.

I've tested out the whole multi-module campaign process and it seems to work okay. I was able to sail from Port Brighton across the wide sea, docking at another island which loaded up the appropriate module. Everything is still quite rough, but it's nice to see the general concept works.

As for today, I've got to get back to the first module. I'm guessing the testers have a load of issues for me to address. My secret plan is to spend a good chunk of tomorrow doing my own full walkthrough. I'm also curious as to how big the module is. I'm guessing it's between two and four hours long, but I may be way off.

I uploaded a new build to the testers

March 23, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

I uploaded a new build to the testers. I'll be away this weekend at the coast, so I probably will look into the latest round of problems come Monday.

In the meantime I've continued to lay groundwork for the second module. There's lots of little islands and areas to work on. At this point, I'm mostly working on cosmetic things and likely won't get into serious scripting issues until later. It's actually quite refreshing making exterior areas after so much time working on bug fixing.

The other delimma I'm going to need to deal with soon is the issue of the 1.05 NWN2 patch. My hope is that it'll be released a bit before my module. That should hopefully give us a chance for a full walkthrough to make sure there aren't any issues that would otherwise pop up.

Testing continues

March 22, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

Testing continues. I did a couple minor tweaks yesterday and have things to the point where I think I can put together a new build for the testers. The final testing and polish phase of a development effort is often the most grueling. It involves lots of detail work, repetition, and very little new creative work.

I'm trying to balance that with some work on the second module. I spent some time yesterday trying to get together the beginning portion of the module together. My multi-module approach is going to be tricky, but hopefully worthwhile. For testing alone, fast load times are a huge benefit.

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly si...

March 21, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly six months that I've been working on the NWN2 version of the first module. It turns out the conversion of custom content, scripts, and testing ended up taking longer than I estimated. Hopefully the second module won't take as long, but I'm not going to hold my breath. It's amazing how much complexity goes into make a game - creating inventory item icons, generating lipsynch files, converting models into the new format, working with the new functions and coping with the loss of some old ones, and so on. Still, I'm getting increasingly happy with the quality of the work. There's still a few bugs I want to work on, but it's getting to the point where I won't be embarrassed to show it off.

Last night was working on some cutscenes, making sure the sounds were appropriate and some scripting pieces didn't go awry. Today will likely be more of the same, though perhaps I'll sneak in some work on the next module if I get a little restless.

As an aside, the Pirate Cards module is currently ranked as #3 in the list of NWN2 modules. It seems like we're not seeing as many modules for NWN2, which is a little disappointing. Hopefully I can do my little part to turn that trend around.

I was up way too late last night, trying to f...

March 20, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

I was up way too late last night, trying to fix the last of the Lab issues. I think it's pretty good. Some of them were purely cosmetic, a telekinetic trap thingie that didn't have very good visual effects. Another was a second beam trap that both looked and worked strangely.

I'm still working through the latest list of issues. I have a couple more left, mostly visual or auditory. They're important, though, and I'm hoping to get them fixed soon.

I've been quite busy lately

March 19, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

I've been quite busy lately. It turns out level 6 had a few issues that so far had gone undiscovered. The lab area in particular had some weird problems, many of which I've fixed. I also ended up recording some new dialog lines for a room that was otherwise empty. I also snuck in a very difficult fight, something completely optional. My philosophy is generally that the main storyline should be relatively easy, but there should be some extremely challenging side quests to keep things interesting.

Hopefully I can fix the last of the issues within the next few days. I'd like to do a full walkthrough myself, perhaps next week. Over Spring Break, my wife and kids will be out of the house for a few days. Perhaps I'll avoid the booze and loose women and focus instead on getting the module wrapped up.

In my continued repentance, I decided to put ...

March 18, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

Okay, I admit it

March 17, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

Another busy day

March 14, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

Another busy day. The good news is that the list of bugs from the testers for the fifth level was far shorter than previous ones. Even better, the bugs were mostly typos, missing icons, and other minor things. I should probably test some of my changes, but maybe I'll actually get a new build to the testers before the end of the week for a change.

That leaves the final level remaining. It's a pretty huge one, five different areas, with the grand finale taking place in the center. I'm most interested in the final battle testing, but should probably make sure the others are relatively polished as well. I'm slowly running out of things to do with the first module, which brings the release date ever closer.

My life is way, way too busy

March 13, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

My life is way, way too busy. I did manage some work on the project last night. I decided to work on a very simple area from the second module and see if I could start converting it over. I picked the Firestarter quest, which is a single area module.

I got the area textured, placeables added, new appearances for the NPCs, icons selected for the items, and so on. Some of the scripts seem to be working okay, while others were completely broken. What was great, though, was being able to load up the module in an extremely short period of time. From a developer's perspective, that's one of the biggest benefits of a multi-module campaign.

I did run into some weird bugs. This was the strangest, a single dialog branch where a NPC's face seemed stretched in odd directions. I wish I could replicate it on command, as it was a neat effect.

I mostly worked on cosmetics for the High Sea...

March 12, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

I mostly worked on cosmetics for the High Seas area yesterday. There were some nice NWN shipwreck placeables that I ported over, along with a scripted splash effect. It makes for a nice point of interest while sailing about the wide open ocean. Each island now has distinct sounds, with my favorite being Serpent Isle. I do enjoy making an area look and sound nice, even if it's not directly related to the gameplay.

I also managed to work on getting more dock areas. Most islands will have one, essentially a place where you can buy and sell cargo. Other islands that are purely adventure areas won't. The main purpose of the dock areas is to keep High Seas related content all in one module. You can trade, engage in piracy or pirate hunting, and have relatively small load times. When someone goes to a place like Catspaw Isle, though, they'll load up a new module.

I suspect that I have a new batch of QA issues to work through once I check e-mail. If I have time, I'd like to work on the High Seas area a bit more and finish those island areas. We'll see how it goes.

I finished up with the world map, doing the l...

March 10, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

I finished up with the world map, doing the last couple islands and polishing up a few other areas. I'm really liking the look of the world so far. I want to tweak a few of the effects, such as having the lighthouse only operate at night, and add in a few more sounds. Then it'll be perfect.

I also made sure the module transitions work. It's interesting having the world map and docks of each island as part of one module, while each island is a separate module as well. The big plus is that load times are much reduced, which is critical for testing. It does mean that I have to be careful with scripting, though.

As for today, I'm going to see if I can work on a cutscene module, or perhaps start in on the Port Brighton module itself. So much to do.

Busy day

March 09, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

Busy day.

I got a new build together, just as one of the testers let me know that there was a simple, but fatal flaw. The door that went from the fourth to the fifth level didn't go anywhere. I just fixed the problem and am trying to put together a new build. It's a little tedious, generating the installer and uploading the 125 MB file, finally sending out the e-mails. The QA folks can jump around it, of course, but it's such an embarrassing mistake that I feel morally obligated to provide a new build.

Yesterday I worked on another piece of custom content, the Black Spot. It's a key location in the second module, a tavern made from half a ship. Danmar put this one together as well and is another of my favorite pieces of new content in the game. I somehow managed to get alpha transparency working for one of the meshes, but not another. I also found a much faster way to combine meshes, which is a necessity when creating NWN2 models. I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

As for the weekend, I'm hoping to put in some more time with the High Seas system, finishing the world map and maybe working on some of the islands. Fun, fun, fun!

Well, my poor closet web server died today, s...

March 08, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

Well, my poor closet web server died today, so my update is late. I did some more debugging this morning, including fixing a show-stopping bug where the game wouldn't progress. I kept thinking my script had a problem, when really the dialog that was imported from the prototype was broken. Since I was testing with a female PC, that dialog branch never came up. Fortunately my testers kept doing their thing and pointing out it was still broken.

I also got more dialog for a couple NPCs, especially some key ones towards the end of the module. Many thanks to Rob and Eshinee for getting that to me.

With luck, I can do a bit more testing tonight and package up a new version for the testers tomorrow.

I've was a good little boy today and hunkered...

March 07, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

I've was a good little boy today and hunkered down to do some testing. I use a variety of techniques when fixing problems. In order to fix a sound problem, I had to re-edit the file and throw it into the campaign folder. I'm having weird issues with animations, so it's the guess and check method for that one. At other times, I cross my fingers and add in some "just in case" code that really should never run, but probably will from time to time.

Most of the bugs I fixed are on the fourth level, which is one of my personal favorites. It's quirky and has a huge variety of mini-games. Even if you don't like one, it'll be over in a few minutes and you can move on to the next.

I haven't had much more time to plug away at ...

March 05, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

I haven't had much more time to plug away at the module, but I wanted to show off the latest pretty picture from the world map. I continue to have fun making small versions of the islands and adding in visual effects to make them really stand out.

For those of you wanting an extra copy of Neverwinter Nights 2 for your friends, enemies, or second computer, GoGamer is having a pretty good deal where it's going for $25. Enjoy.

It looks like Rob has sent in a bunch of voice clips my way, so I'm going to see if I can find some time to sort through them and get them attached to dialog. I'm sure I also have new issues from the QA folks that I ought to go through. It's starting to feel like we're getting down to the wire. Only a few more weeks left.

Most of my development effort is focused on t...

March 05, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

Most of my development effort is focused on telling a good story, along with the technical necessities to make it happen, such as good scripting systems along with high quality dialog.

Sometimes, though, I sink in a bunch of time just to make things look pretty. Long ago, Danmar modeled a lighthouse for me. I put it in the NWN prototype without much difficulty. Today I spent two or three hours trying to get it into NWN2. It's not perfect, as things like alpha transparency isn't working for reasons I don't understand. Still, the quality of the model is great and the normal maps help bring out that gritty quality up close.

My favorite part was adding in the light, which uses the visual effects system quite nicely. There's a rotating billboard for the beam, along with a projected texture to make the ground and nearby ships light up. The whole thing rotates too, making for a rather hypnotic effect. I need to make night a little darker so that it stands out, but otherwise I'm very happy with how it has turned out.

I tracked down the problem with High Seas

March 04, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

I tracked down the problem with High Seas. It turns out the problem is with a bug in the code that goes through the inventory for stores. Since my cargo holds are effectively stores, it's currently broken. Odds are it'll get fixed in a future patch.

I decided to switch to a different task and finish up the world map for the second module. It's kinda fun, making little islands with tiny little houses and trees and such. I suppose it's like playing with dolls, but in a much manlier sort of way.

I pulled a muscle riding my bike yesterday, a...

March 02, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

I pulled a muscle riding my bike yesterday, and coupled with a bad headache, it means I had a hard time sleeping. Fortunately for all of you, I was up at midnight doing testing while the Advil was kicking in.

There were plenty of bugs to fix. I spent most of the time on the 4th level, over halfway to the end. There's a fun little mini-game where you get to play artist. Unfortunately many of the effects didn't translate well from NWN to NWN2, so I had to go back and redo some of the visual effects. Hopefully it's an entertaining break from the other parts of the module. In general, it's seemed more bug free than the other levels.

I'm going to see how many other bugs I can clean up before shipping a new version out to the testers. Hopefully there won't be any show-stopping bugs this time around. I'm getting paranoid and adding more "just in case" pieces of code. My latest trick is to add in some "Help! I'm stuck!" placeables that players can use to get out of a jam if scripts fail for some reason. Hopefully no one will ever use them, but it's nice knowing they're there.

I'm not feeling quite as discouraged as before

March 01, 2007 by Adam in NWN2

I'm not feeling quite as discouraged as before. It turns out that some of my previous fixes got lost along the way. It's frustrating, but sometimes happens when I move a 100+ MB file with thousands of custom content files around. Fortunately re-fixing problems is faster the second time around.

PJJ has also handed me a nice list of new issues. There's at least one critical bug that I need to address, and many more "nice to do" things. There's also a fare share of typos, including a mysteriously vanishing umlaut from the word "möbius".

Still, all this polish should lead to a nicer user experience. The little typos and odd discrepancies in a game tend to break the immersion.