|
|
I worked long and hard on a hook hand system ...
March 29, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I worked long and hard on a hook hand system yesterday. I keep feeling like my goal is to maximize the Pirate Quotient of the game, making sure I have adequate parrots, eye patches, and the like. I may have to work on peg legs next, just to make sure things seem complete.
The hook hand system feels pretty solid to me, with enough hard choices to make it interesting.
As for today, I've made a long list of things to work on. I've got a side quest that needs to be fleshed out. I have interior areas to build. The list is long, but they're fun to work on.
|
permalink| comment
|
I got Jonny's hooks in-game and equippable by...
March 28, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I got Jonny's hooks in-game and equippable by the player. I'm currently scheming a hook system that should be entertaining to play with.
I was a very good boy yesterday and whipped up a possible solution to the "disappearing card" issue in the Pirate Card game that strikes some players. It uses a different approach to finding the cards that have been played and bringing them back into your hand. There's arrays, sorting, and other complicated things. The most bizarre part is that the first time I tested it out, it worked perfectly. I'm still slowly working away at a new patch that should fix some of these more obscure issues.
Today I'm heading to Portland, which gives me a two-hour car trip to theoretically write. I was digging around for a good notebook and found a bunch of dialog from the first pirate mod I was working on. This was the one for Bioware, which never quite worked out. Some of the dialog is great, though, so I think I'm going to steal parts.
The meek may inherit the earth, but the sea belongs to the strong.
|
permalink| comment
|
Yesterday was my big writing day, and I crank...
March 27, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
Yesterday was my big writing day, and I cranked out a hopefully funny side quest (which is still entirely unscripted), among other things. I hope to do more today, and again tomorrow during the car ride up to Portland. I'm trying really hard to keep Port Brighton as an interesting hub full of various things to do.
I'm still working away on a patch for the game. Holger recorded some great dwarven voices for Logan. I think I want to try to fix the weird "disappearing card" issue that some people are having. I thought I'd fixed it early, but evidently it's coming back for some folks.
|
permalink| comment
|
I added some more goodies to the campaign yes...
March 26, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I added some more goodies to the campaign yesterday. Here's a shot of Lord Brighton showing off his ethereal sextant and demonic chalkboard. These came from the forbidden archives of the City of Doors Initiative, a Planescape-themed venture from the days of the original NWN game. They made some great stuff, some of which didn't make the light of day. I did some touch-up and got things ready for NWN2, but it's otherwise their stuff, and I think they look great.
I also dutifully worked on the patch for DW2. The fixes are pretty minor. There were a couple dialogs that wouldn't fire if you only docked in Brighton Underground. There was also an issue when invading a thieves den. One of the NPCs would stand there while you attacked. It turns out his AI was rushing to grab a dagger, but it was in an unreachable place due to walkmesh issues. Easily solved.
As for today, I continue to hope to get to some writing. I got the new hooks in the game yesterday and had to give the owner of the Black Spot one to match his eye patch. Plus the parrot is now missing and there's only an empty perch. I sense a story brewing.
|
permalink| comment
|
I'm busy as usual
March 25, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I'm busy as usual. Yesterday I hunkered down and finished the Clocktower model I needed to make for a certain area. It's not fancy, but it doesn't really need to be. Mostly players will see it on the high seas map and then later wander in and down the stairs to the city below.
I've been a little scatterbrained as of late, jumping from area to area as the mood strikes me. With so much to do, I suppose I have that flexibility at the moment. Eventually I'll need to hunker down and start finishing areas.
I'm also getting lots of volunteers for voice actors at the moment, which is great. Of course, now I've got to actually write a bunch of dialog for them to speak. I'd be tuckered out if this whole thing wasn't so much fun.
|
permalink| comment
|
Once again, Jonny at Bouncy Rock has come up ...
March 24, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 Once again, Jonny at Bouncy Rock has come up with something amazing. He's whipped up three types of hook hands that work with all different races and genders. You can see a bigger version here. I can't wait to start getting these into the game and bump up the Piratey Quotent a few more notches.
I'm still slowly getting through e-mail this morning, as is typical for a Monday. It looks like there's a few bugs, and a few workarounds I'm coding in for the next patch. There's a weird issue for the import/export method I propose to get around the "can't buy a ship" bug. When you export a character, it strips out item variables, which causes the Blade of Victory to revert to a single gem slot. What I'll be doing is checking to see if the player has the sword, and setting the variables as appropriate.
I'm starting to think of those sort of issues with DW3. What I'll probably do is provide a way for players to jump right into it and select which choices they made (e.g. allied with Lord Brighton, romanced Heather, etc.). That should help for both testing and players who skip playing the first two modules.
As for today, I'll probably spend a little time working on bug fixing (most of which is fairly minor. Mostly I'd like to work on the core modules and getting the beginning put together properly. There's lots to do, but fortunately it's fun.
|
permalink| comment
|
I worked on the Belly of the Beast area more ...
March 24, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I worked on the Belly of the Beast area more today. It's taking forever, but looks pretty good. I've ended up making some extra placeables, visual effects, and other supporting custom content. I also worked on scripting for a couple parts of the area, and have a couple more to go. I'm generally pretty happy with the way things are turning out, though I have at least another week to go.
My kids kept wanting to play as I fiddled with it. Emma wanted to explore and kept asking how to make Lucy appear. Sam wanted me to make the hair as long as possible and kept pushing me to get the scripting done.
|
permalink| comment
|
Jonny whipped up another awesome hook hand fo...
March 23, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
Jonny whipped up another awesome hook hand for your piratey enjoyment. Yet again I'm endlessly thankful to all the folks who have helped with Dark Waters. I couldn't have done it without you all.
As for me, I've been working on the Isle of Flesh. PJJ poked around with the barely playable version and pointed out that the "Belly of the Beast" area didn't look very good. I had simply remapped the textures of a tileset, and it admittedly looked pretty lousy. I'm redoing it using an exterior and it looks orders of magnitude better. Even better, I have some interesting encounters planned that should make for some unusual combats.
|
permalink| comment
|
I redid the external area, getting rid of the...
March 21, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I redid the external area, getting rid of the sky map entirely. I think it's getting closer to the final, dreamy look that I'm shooting for. There's a bit more scripting required, but the area is pretty close to done (it's a very short intro area, basically).
Now I need to figure out what area to work on next. What I'd really like to get to is some more writing today, but I may end up working on converting the Clockwork Man or lighthouse modules. They're somewhat lengthy, so they'd take awhile.
Jonny at Bouncy Rock has already made a hook hand to add to the Dark Waters piratey goodness. It's always a treat to watch a professional modeler at work. I would have been happy with something vaguely pointing sticking out of an arm socket. Getting something with rough straps of leather and grooved steel is a treat. I think he's going to do a fancy version as well, which is extra cool.
As an aside, it looks like my podcast should arrive next Friday. Finally everyone will get to hear me as a real person, and not some monster, seductive Frenchman, or Death itself.
|
permalink| comment
|
The bug reports have been trickling in this w...
March 20, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 The bug reports have been trickling in this week, but at a much reduced rate than what I'd expected. Hopefully it's a sign that those many months of debug time have paid off. While most of the issues are rare, it looks like the 64-bit version of Vista has a fair number of crashes with the game. Sadly I'm not sure there's a lot I can do to fix those. In terms of the other bugs, I'll probably put together an update in a week or two, though the issues are fairly mild. With the 1.12 patch out yesterday, I'd like to update the 2da files and see if the patch causes any problems.
In the meantime, I've continued to work on the next act of the campaign. This morning I worked on the "Place Between" area, trying to make it suitably eerie. The scripting needs some work, though, as when I tested the starting point of the module, I became invisible and no one came to talk to me. Sniff.
Finally, the folks at NWN Podcast have graciously volunteered to make a hook-hand for the next module. I'm horribly excited to get some hook-hand pirates in the game, so I appreciate Jonny's help immensely.
|
permalink| comment
|
I woke up early this morning and started writ...
March 19, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I woke up early this morning and started writing code. The Alphabet Assault module is slowly approaching being done, with just a few script tweaks, fixes, and combat balances before it's ready for testing.
I'm trying to figure out which module to work on next. I might do Sanity Defense next. That one should be pretty easy to cross off my list. Then there's the main quests, and of course the grand finale. I'm holding off on that until towards the end.
Decisions, decisions.
|
permalink| comment
|
I've been working on the end of the Alphabet ...
March 17, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I've been working on the end of the Alphabet Assault game. It's still way too much fun to pause and see if I can spell some incredibly long word. There's something about summoning literary destruction upon one's foes that fills me with glee.
I see five or so e-mails in my In Box. Just glancing at the descriptions, half are congratulatory and the other half are bug related. It seems the "Pirate Card game discards cards" bug has returned, even after slaving away at it for so long a few weeks back. As far as I could tell, the issue had to do with bugs in the GetNearestCreature function, which is frustrating. In any case, I'll summon my courage later this morning and read the details.
I'd really like to finish up the scripting for Alphabet Assault module today. There's not much left to do and I'm having lots of fun building for a change.
|
permalink| comment
|
I've been hiding away from email ever since N...
March 16, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I've been hiding away from email ever since NWN2 went live. I'm sure Monday will bring the usual madness of huge volumes of email I need to sort through. In the meantime, I'm hanging out with my family and leisurely working on the next Act of Dark Waters.
I'm working on the traditional epic battle at the end of one of the modules. It's sort of tongue-in-cheek epic, which makes it fun to do. The dialog is written, and now it's just a matter of scripting everything. Of course, this is still just one of many modules in the final Act, so I've got a long haul ahead of me.
|
permalink| comment
|
Well, today's the day, I think
March 14, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
Well, today's the day, I think. I decided to be a fickle perfectionist and did one more build before going live. This one fixes an issue with Robert only being level one when you meet him in DW1. You also couldn't get the magic card holder in DW2 due to a typo on my part.
Dark Waters 1 (full)
Dark Waters 2 (full)
I have a few odd errors I'm still investigating. A couple people are reporting crashes when returning to Port Brighton. They'll do some things there, leave, but can't get back in. So far I haven't figured out why that might happen.
Otherwise, I'm trying hard to do fun things when I can. I worked on the final level of the Alphabet Assault game, making it suitably epic-looking (though I'm still not sure why there'd be pools of lava in a library).
Since I'm typically disconnected from e-mail over the weekend, hopefully the go-live later today on the Vault will go smoothly.
|
permalink| comment
|
I'm uploading the files to the Vault as I typ...
March 13, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I'm uploading the files to the Vault as I type this. It probably won't be until tomorrow before everything is posted on the Vault. Files have to be shuffled around and the interview has to be organized. It will have been over three years since I started working on Dark Waters. I'd like to extend my thanks to everyone who helped out through that long process.
I suspect the next week or so will be spent focused on release issues, but hopefully I can sneak in some time on the next act of the campaign. Hopefully the number of bugs will be relatively minimal after spending the last six months fixing bugs. I already know of one issue where Robert isn't at level 3 when he joins you in DW1. It's easy to fix, but probably won't make it until a post-release patch.
|
permalink| comment
|
Though I'm always nervous about doing so, I ...
March 13, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 Though I'm always nervous about doing so, I ended up making a new build tonight in preparation for Friday's release. Raphael finished his Lord Brighton voices. The readme file got updated. I fixed a couple minor issues with the High Seas system. There was one semi-serious bug with High Seas where if you captured a pirate ship and returned to port, it would still be there afterwards. It turns out I wasn't making the captured ship enough like a player ship, and I think that's finally working properly now.
You can grab the latest files here:
Dark Waters 1 (full)
Dark Waters 2 (full)
If someone with far too much time on their hands wants to give it a shot and capture a pirate ship, that would be lovely.
|
permalink| comment
|
There's something entertaining about hitting ...
March 12, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 There's something entertaining about hitting people with a severed, decomposing arm. I whipped one up this morning and had fun playing around with it a little. I need to finish up the quest that lets you get it, but I couldn't wait to make the thing.
Yesterday while my son was at his fencing class, I wrote some more dialog for an upcoming quest. I'd forgotten how much fun it was to actually make things for a change. Hopefully I can get the dialog in-game relatively soon and see if I can get the module itself ready.
I might start uploading DW1 and DW2 to the Vault today, depending on how things go. I'm always nervous that I missed some horrible problem before release. The occasional bug report trickles in and I have a few more sound clips I want to add, so it's a challenge to decide when the actual go-live date should be. It feels like I'm sticking to my course despite the occasional wave and gust of wind. Steady, lads (and lasses). Not much longer.
|
permalink| comment
|
One of the recurring themes of Dark Waters is...
March 11, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 One of the recurring themes of Dark Waters is the coming of magic. In the third Act, this takes on a more physical aspect with a giant Veil that stretches across the sea. The sea and islands on the other side of the barrier are different. This morning I hooked up High Seas to these new islands, so modules that were merely little test systems now feel like part of a larger game.
I need to finish up writing my responses to the Vault interview today. With luck, tomorrow is the release day. For those who are curious, here are the bug notes from yesterday's fixes. I'm really glad to take care of the crash bugs that have been plaguing me for so many months.
|
permalink| comment
|
I took it easy for a few days, the calm befor...
March 10, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I took it easy for a few days, the calm before the storm of release. Yesterday I started to get into the next module in earnest, having a good time working on new islands in the High Seas area. I would feel negligent if I didn't include the archetypal skull-shaped mountain. It's the home of Death, and the player can now pay him a visit.
Though the third act is only barely playable, you can now sail from the docks of Port Brighton to Death's lair. Hooking up the rest of the islands is straightforward, if tedious.
On Friday I put together a "Crash Team" of the people running into crashes. One person reported success by deleting all the placeables and placed effects from the areas causing problems. Why that would matter, I have no idea. I see I have more reports in my in box this morning, so I'll have to take a closer look.
I'm tentatively shooting at Wednesday for release, unless I get any show-stopping bugs. Typos and other minor things will likely wait for a post-release patch.
Update: It looks like deleting placeables and visual effects didn't fix anything, but AlanC9 reported success when resizing the areas that cause problems to 2x2. Evidently tiny areas cause crashes for some people for some odd reason.
Later Update: I have confirmation that we've finally found the cause of the crash bug. It turns out that some people have problems entering an area that's 1x2 in size. This should be fixed in the most recent version:
Dark Waters 1 (full)
Dark Waters 2 (full)
Someone also had an "area not available" bug when trying to board. That should be fixed now. There was another typo. Heather and Daniel's familiar and animal companion were missing names. Everyone extend a warm welcome to Mister Snuggles and Buddy.
|
permalink| comment
|
The preview is up at the Vault, now
March 07, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
The preview is up at the Vault, now. YouTube is starting to put up higher resolution versions of their movies, so I prefer this one when blowing it up to full screen. The below one works fine when smaller, though.
|
permalink| comment
|
First off, here's what I'm hoping is the abso...
March 06, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
First off, here's what I'm hoping is the absolute last version of the modules:
Dark Waters 1 (full)
Dark Waters 2 (full)
The only significant difference is that this version has a few more lines recorded from Chris Serani (aka Daniel), including this classic.
Theoretically the Vault will put together a spotlight for Dark Waters today. It should have a pretty movie and screenshots for all to see.
I continue to work with the handful of people who are having crash problems. What was really weird is that I passed along a very boring, vanilla module and they still had crashes. At this point I'm pinning my hopes on the 1.12 patch for people who are running into these problems.
In terms of the final release of the game, I'm thinking next week seems good to me. I'd love to get the 1.12 patch installed and do a final test to make sure it doesn't break anything (and maybe it'll even fix things). If it doesn't come out relatively soon, I'll plan on releasing and hoping for the best.
|
permalink| comment
|
I was a very good boy yesterday and this morning
March 05, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I was a very good boy yesterday and this morning. I probably fixed twenty typos, a puzzle logic problem, a crash bug for the pirate card game, and lots more. You can take a look at all the issues I fixed here.
I took another shot at fixing the infamous crash bug some people get when trying to enter the Armory, tattoo shop, and the Mad Hatter. When I was looking at the Gnome Engineers for the Pirate Card game, they never appeared as visible and would often crash the game. After lots of fiddling, I recreated the creature blueprint from scratch and everything started to work again. Using the same logic, I ended up recreating the NPC in each of the affected shops. Though it's a long-shot, this might prevent crashes for people.
 My testing took me all over the place, with little typo fixes in both DW1 and DW2. There were a few issues I couldn't replicate, which is always frustrating. In general, though, I feel very good about the state of the module. Even though the campaign is extremely complicated, things generally work as designed.
Here are the latest files:
Dark Waters 1 (full)
Dark Waters 2 (full)
The PR blitz should start up shortly. If these versions generally work, I'll plan on getting them to the Vault right around the same time. Neato.
|
permalink| comment
|
I got a few more bug reports that came in las...
March 04, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
I got a few more bug reports that came in last night. It's still amazing that there can be typos buried in there after so many months of testing. There also seem to be some bugs with the "magic card holder" quest that the dwarven boy gives you. I think that before the last build, it was too hard to actually complete it (you had to win certain cards from an opponent, which was really challenging).
I also fired off an e-mail to Maximus, so I think the ball is officially rolling. I didn't promise I'd be done tomorrow, so hopefully I have a little more time left. I can fill those familiar pre-release jitters, hoping I didn't miss anything horrible or break anything with my last build.
|
permalink| comment
|
I've been sniffly, but on the mend
March 03, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
I've been sniffly, but on the mend. This morning I packaged up some new installers which you can get to via the Downloads page. Here are the bug notes. Over the weekend I got one more of the infamous crash bugs, along with some minor ones. As long as my high seas fixes in this latest build didn't break anything, I'm hoping I'm pretty much ready to release. I'd love it if the 1.12 NWN2 patch would come out, but I haven't heard any hint that it's coming out real soon.
I think I'll get the ball rolling in a day or two.
|
permalink| comment
|
Well, I got a few more bug reports from the H...
March 02, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 Well, I got a few more bug reports from the High Seas system from someone who plundered his way to fame and fortune. It turns out you couldn't sell Ninjas in port, along with any other high-numbered crew. It also turns out I let pirate ships cheat, by having more weapons than their ship type allowed. In order to fix that, I created two types of pirate ships, big and small. The bigger ones are a bigger challenge to players, as they can carry more weapons and crew, though the smaller ones carry more cargo.
Other than that, I was sick yesterday, so I didn't do much of importance. We'll see what bug reports Monday brings.
|
permalink| comment
|
Older Posts
|
Links
Dragon Age
Dragon Age Central
Interviews, etc.
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.
|