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Yes, But What Kind of Idiot?
March 31, 2009 by Adam in Dragon Age
 I explained to PJJ yesterday that I was an idiot, but it turns out that I was an idiot for different reasons. Initially we thought I hadn't gotten the right file to him, as bugs I claimed were fixed weren't really fixed.
This morning I double-checked everything and decided to actually test some things myself. It turns out you really couldn't get to the Isle of Insanity. I had fixed one issue, which was good, but I had to fix another before it would actually work. Similarly, a couple trolls that seemed killable actually weren't. I fixed one issue, but the Immortality flag was set and keeping them from dying.
Now I'm down to the Isle of Flesh, which supposedly has some additional problems. I went to test it this morning and ended up with the blue screen of death and a reboot. I don't think this particular one was my fault, just one of those things that happens on occasion. Hopefully tonight I can test some more.
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I Didn't Know Evil Had A Smell
March 31, 2009 by Adam in NWN1
 My son and I continued our adventures through my older NWN1 modules. Yesterday we braved the town of Hill's Edge as our trail led us to the Fist of the Future temple and the inevitable horrors that lurked below it.
I had used encounter triggers to supply some of the fights, and on the final level we hit a horribly difficult challenge. Basically the fights were impossible, and our NPC companions died and were left behind. I finally had to change tactics completely by returning to town and fetching the invisibility spell. We could then retrieve our companions by sneaking past the monsters, grab what we needed, and jump out through the portal.
I'm glad that in future modules I went with my own encounter triggers to prevent these sort of issues. The other thing I'm noticing is that depending on how you play through the game, you can get quite a range of experience. Removing combat xp was a difficult choice, but I think it makes sense in the long run.
Tonight we head to Skull Gorge and likely face a new set of horrors.
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When We Last Left Our Heroes
March 30, 2009 by Adam in NWN1
 My retrospective NWN1 adventure with my son continues. We finished the first module, fighting our way through the mines and later scouring the battlefield on the other side. I got a "Thanks, DM!" from my son after I solved the puzzle ring for him. Otherwise many of the locations are just fuzzy memories for me.
There are a lot of lessons as to what worked when looking back at my earlier works. I really like the room descriptions and large volume of side quests. The first city in particular seems like a large place with endless nooks and crannies. It takes a lot of time to take that approach, but gives a richness to the game that's otherwise lacking. I'll see if I can manage something similar for Dragon Age.
Today we hope to investigate the ongoing mystery at Hill's Edge. We already had a bloody fight in the warehouse and the temple is next on our list.
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The Adventure Begins
March 29, 2009 by Adam in NWN1
 My ten year-old son has never played through any of my mods, despite being an avid gamer. I haven't worked with my NWN1 modules in years, so it was fun when he and I decided to play through cooperatively. I'll see if I can document our assorted adventures, and perhaps include a bit of commentary along the way.
We started off Shadowlords 1 in Scornubel, he playing a dwarven fighter and I an elven mage. We wandered around town for awhile, helping out the villagers. Eventually we ran across Thistle, and discovered we couldn't progress until we found a ring he was accused of stealing. While barging into houses and shops, we ran across the boy who had taken it. After telling him his mother was looking for him, we got the ring.
To celebrate, we broke into the store's back room, killed the shop keep, and killed the thieves who lived there.
Eventually the ring was returned and we were off to the ghost town of Eureka. Being the brave explorers, we headed into an abandoned house and poked around. Interestingly enough, the creature scaling system decided to throw a zombie at us that was immune to non-magical weapons. It quickly became a boss fight and we died multiple times before dozens of magic missiles felled the foul beast.
And with that victory under our belt, we called it a day.
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A Trip to the Dentist
March 29, 2009 by Adam in Dragon Age
 I just discovered that FileFront is going away. I've used it for a long time to send files to beta testers, and it's worked great. Now I'm scrambling to find a decent replacement, ideally free as well.
I went through all of PJJ's bug notes and I think I've fixed them. My biggest desire is that the show-stopping bugs are fixed and it's possible to complete the game. I also fixed a couple others that I stumbled across, including some custom creatures that weren't animating due to my recent 2da changes.
Slowly getting there.
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Ew, Gross
March 27, 2009 by Adam in NWN2
 This time I went back to the Isle of Flesh to fix another show-stopping bug. Along the way I cleaned up a variety of other issues, such as improving journal entries and providing more feedback to the player.
Today I'm jumping to another island, trying to get things working as planned. Now I'm fixing blank names in dialog, misbehaving monsters, and broken quests. Fun, fun.
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No, That's Not a Glowing Hat
March 26, 2009 by Adam in Dragon Age
 I've been spending a lot of time with robots lately, working through PJJ's long list of bugs. It looks like there were two show-stoppers, which I'm trying to get resolved before the larger beta test. I keep running into bugs that I swear I've fixed before, making me even more excited about Dragon Age's versioning system.
At the moment I'm on the Isle of Flesh, making sure my fixes are actually working. Hopefully that'll avoid the guilt I often feel when passing along untested fixes.
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Another Day, Another Bug Fix
March 25, 2009 by Adam in NWN2
 I've been going through PJJ's latest list of fixes. There's one show-stopper, making it impossible to finish the game. The rest is a mix of typos, strange behavior, impossible fights, and a few more broken quests.
Staring at my list of bugs, I have to fix a case of accidental nudity, creatures walking through rocks, and parasite removal. I already have a tentative fix for Heather's inadvertent invisibility, as well as the one show-stopping bug that prevented the player from going to an island.
Slowly getting there.
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Not a Week, Half a Fortnight
March 24, 2009 by Adam in Dragon Age
 I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted. My life has been a whirlwind of activity, which I'm hoping calms down relatively soon.
PJJ dutifully tested a bunch over the weekend, and I've yet to peek at the results. I'm going to beg, borrow, or steal some time tomorrow and get cracking on things. I really want to get to a more widespread beta and start moving things toward release.
My Dragon Age work continues, though mostly in ways I can't talk about. This latest card is a Blight Wolf, essentially causing disease in whatever creature it damages. There are a few different creatures that can cause Blight, including one card that gives the Blight to all creatures in the game. I'll obviously have to balance the ability so that it's not overwhelmingly powerful.
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Shark Attack
March 17, 2009 by Adam in NWN2
 I'm in the process of uploading the latest build for testing. I made a really silly mistake for the last build, where I'd changed a transition to a trigger, but players ended up appearing in the doorway behind the trigger. Any time they tried to move, they hit the trigger and went back inside.
That's fixed now, hopefully the last of of the show-stopping bugs. It's such a huge game that playing through takes a long time. I've personally played through most sections, but sometimes bugs pop up when you put it all together.
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100 Cards
March 16, 2009 by Adam in Dragon Age
 I managed to get to the 100 card mark yesterday. My goal is for players to be able to create a variety of deck types. Tower of Ishal was designed to help decks with lots of smaller creatures.
Often the secret to Demon Cards or Pirate Cards was to get the biggest creature possible out on the battlefield. Hopefully with Dreamer Cards, either approach will be possible, and there will be cards to counter both types of decks.
PJJ sent back another bug report for Dark Waters, but I've yet to hunker down and work on it. One appears to be a show-stopper, which is annoying. Sigh.
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One Life, One Arrow
March 15, 2009 by Adam in Dragon Age
 I have a tentative goal with the Dreamer Cards game to create 100 different cards. Yesterday I hunkered down and now have the total up to 90, so it looks like I'll be meeting my goal nicely. Lots of details of the cards may change, but I feel pretty happy with the variety and quality of the set.
This particular card uses the Dragon Age novel's book cover, one of the images bringing to mind a particular quote. Like all the cards, I'm hoping none of these are too powerful. This one's unusual in that it costs no manna to cast, but has a potentially significant downside.
Facing a single powerful creature, this is a great card. If you're low on health or facing lots of creatures, playing it could mean your death. If you have the life, this card could clear the battlefield of enemies and allow your creatures to freely attack your opponent.
I like tricky cards like that.
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Back to the Beginning
March 14, 2009 by Adam in NWN2
 I went back to DarkWaters 1 this morning, adding some "just in case" scripts. Occasionally a particular cutscene won't trigger properly, leaving the player stuck. Theoretically the new script will let people continue on if things go horribly wrong.
It's strange going back to see Heather and Daniel dressed in villager's rags and holding candles. Later in the game they're decked out with all sorts of fancy equipment. You've come a long ways, baby.
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More Robots
March 09, 2009 by Adam in NWN2
 I spent more time cleaning up the Clockwork Man quest over the weekend, and just sent PJJ a new build. I think we're getting close to having made a rough pass for every area. With luck, all the show-stopping bugs are fixed and we can do more widespread testing fairly soon.
My guess is that there are still some serious issues lurking in the latest build, as it's hard to test everything out. I'd also like to spend more time with the Mac version. I've had some people report success and others report utter failure. Without a Mac of my own, it's difficult to really test.
Though I'm sure once more widespread testing starts, I'll be inundated with bug reports. For now, though, I can feign ignorance and bask in the thought that maybe the game is nearly ready for release. Ah, blissful ignorance.
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I just killed a frost imp
March 07, 2009 by Adam in NWN2
 The bug killing continues. This time I went back to the painter's to make sure you couldn't admire a painting in the heat of battle.
I'm also revisiting the Clockwork Man quest, hanging out with automata. While I think you can technically play through, there are some non-obvious parts that I need to clean up, in addition to adjusting the balance of a particular fight. Hopefully I can get out a new build today sometime.
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Fighting Bugs
March 07, 2009 by Adam in NWN2
 I've been fighting bugs again, often quite literally. I've headed back to the automata area, trying to take care of all manner of minor and major bugs. I think the most serious has been fixed, but there are still some things I need to test. Hopefully tomorrow I can get a new build together.
I've been through a lot of bug fixing passes before the release of a module, yet it still surprises me just how long it takes. The price we pay for quality, I guess.
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Submariners
March 03, 2009 by Adam in Dragon Age
 I can't believe I've actually stayed away from NWN2 for nearly five days in a row. Unfortunately PJJ found a nasty crash bug this Saturday and I got up at 4:30 this morning to try and resolve it.
It looks like removing polymorph effects during an area transition is a bad thing, but not too hard to fix. He also pointed out that the lights on the sub were pointless, so I made it possible to search for treasure if you have them on. Unfortunately it also makes you more visible to enemies, so it's a trade-off for the player.
I think I also finally got the dialog issue from before fixed, though I should probably test it myself just to be sure.
With luck, the last of the big bugs will soon be behind us.
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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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