|
|
It was an incredibly productive day yesterday
August 31, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 It was an incredibly productive day yesterday. For starters, there was a new patch, which added visible cloaks to the game. They were so cool looking that I immediately dropped everything and started adding some cloaks into the module. Following up with my deity-specific items, I added four more in, bringing the total up to seven. I think I have most of the alignments covered, and will likely add a few more in later. I'll probably add a generic one specific to whatever deity the player has, just so players who picked weird ones doesn't feel left out.
Each of those deity related items has a "conversion" dialog attached to them. While short, they each took a bit of writing. Hopefully those who convert to Bane feel their dark souls are truly lost.
In any case, I ended up updating every module and a couple of the hak packs to get the cloaks working right. It felt like time well spent, though there was a fair amount of file shuffling required.
Finally, I worked hard on the introduction to the third module, adding some coding this morning so that everything worked properly. I now feel I could start working on all sorts of things for the third module - the last main quest, side quests, or the grand finale. I'm giddy with excitement, trying to decide what to start next.
|
permalink| comment
|
I fiddled with every module yesterday, fixing...
August 30, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
I fiddled with every module yesterday, fixing bugs, attaching sound clips, and writing new dialog. I recorded a few missing lines of dialog, though it doesn't really sound much like me. I'm nearly done with the beginning of the third module. Hopefully I can do another final writing push and finish that up today.
The storyline for the fourth module is coming together in my head. I had several epiphanies, throwing in fun story elements left and right. One may require a custom creature or some creativity, but hopefully those issues will be sorted out by the time I need to make it.
Finally, I had a cool moment yesterday when a friendly Obsidian staffer helped sort out some issues with the beta toolset test. It was horribly flattering to get the personal attention and get things on track again. I'm not sure how long it'll be until I get to play with the toolset, and I likely can't talk about it much, but I'm excited nonetheless.
|
permalink| comment
|
Well, it turns out that some of my "bug fixes...
August 29, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Well, it turns out that some of my "bug fixes" made things worse. Fortunately it didn't take too long this morning to see where I'd made my horrible mistakes and hopefully patch things up again. Basically you could buy ships, but couldn't leave with them. Not fun.
The named merchants should be in place now too. I spent last night polishing up the board where you can read their names and look for interesting cargo. Like pirates, certain merchant ships now carry unique treasures as well.
Finally, I worked a bit more on the third module. I'd really like to be able to get the intro dialog wrapped up and the scripting in place to connect it all together. Currently the third module feels like a collection of quests and areas, and I'd like it to be somewhat more continuous.
|
permalink| comment
|
The merchants are all in now, though mostly I...
August 28, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 The merchants are all in now, though mostly I'm working on new treasures. I came up with one that's tied to some of the central themes in the campaign. You can get an item that's dedicated to a particular god or goddess. If you haven't already, you can dedicate yourself to them, which opens up new powers to the weapon. It's a one-time deal, though, so some of the choices may be difficult to make.
The NWN2 information keeps coming out. There's a new designer diary and the PAX convention just wrapped up. Supposedly we'll see some more details over at nwn2.warcry.com today.
|
permalink| comment
|
It's a little slow going, but I continue to w...
August 27, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
It's a little slow going, but I continue to work on the High Seas system a bit more. Just so that do-gooder privateers don't have all the fun, I'm adding named merchants to certain merchant ships. They don't yet have unique treasures like the pirates do, but that's the next step.
I've also added a couple new crew options, such as Wizards and Druids. I've also layed the groundwork for monstrous crews, so that's next on the plate. I'd also like to put in some dwarven ships and crew. It takes a bit of time to add them all in, but the diversity should make for a more interesting game.
|
permalink| comment
|
I amazed even myself yesterday
August 26, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
I amazed even myself yesterday. I went through the full list of bugs and hopefully fixed them all. A few are tricky and require some follow-up, but I'm hopeful things are working much better in the prototype.
The new named pirate system is lots of fun. Some pirates have unique treasures and the crimes their wanted for make for a fun read. I still need to test the surrender system and a bunch of other things, but I'm liking the latest changes quite a bit.
|
permalink| comment
|
I was dutifully bug fixing yesterday, like th...
August 25, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I was dutifully bug fixing yesterday, like the other days this week, and got a report from PJJ that the pirates were too easy. "Too easy!" I scoffed. "I'll show him!"
I ended up implementing a system that's been floating around in the back of my head - pirate captains. Each pirate ship now has a named captain, they may carry unique treasure, and are much tougher than your average scallywag. I had fun making a random pirate name generator, including monikers (e.g. "Dead Eye" or "Bloody"), and the usual first and last names.
In port, you can read a board which lists the current pirates and what they're wanted for. Some have custom treasures, though I'd like to flesh that out even more. It's often more useful to capture a pirate ship than to sink it, though you'll get paid either way.
I still have more work to do. I want to list the name of the ship on the wanted sign, make sure custom treasures aren't destroyed when pillaging a ship, and make as many custom treasures as I can manage. Hopefully it's not too much work. Then I need to work on a surrender calculation during boarding actions, and work through the remaining list of bugs. Slowly getting there.
|
permalink| comment
|
My kids got into the whole voice recording th...
August 23, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
My kids got into the whole voice recording thing last night. I tried to get my three-year-old daughter to simply say "Please, help me!" but she started improvising about her dog Fluffly bursting into flames and we couldn't stop laughing. Actors.
I finally got around to bug fixing. PJJ gave me a fairly lengthy list of things to go over and I'm dutifully going through the list. Yet again, I can't emphasize how important QA work is. My modules would be pretty clunky without it.
|
permalink| comment
|
First off, here's a relatively lousy screensh...
August 22, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 First off, here's a relatively lousy screenshot with the new ships. Trust me, they look better than my half-exploded version of the standard NWN cog.
I mostly did clean-up work yesterday, in what little free time I had. I still have one more dialog to finish in the third module, whip up a bit of scripting, and send the player on their merry way to the first main quest.
This morning I decided to try out my new microphone in earnest, recording myself reading the opening of the fourth module. It's not a spoiler in any way, though by listening to it, you'd get that impression. It's probably way too big to have a million people download from the server in my closet, but I'm going to post it anyway. There's some problems, most notably that I need to get a microphone stand, but I'm not entirely annoyed with my own voice. It's been slightly modified, as you can probably tell.
In any case, here it is, the Troupe of the Damned.
|
permalink| comment
|
Well, I'm back from the beach
August 21, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Well, I'm back from the beach. It turns out I forgot a bunch of things - the latest build of the third module, my bug notes, and some models that I wanted to fiddle with. I screwed up the journal entries for the second module and had to recreate them, some from backup and some from memory.
Still, I managed to be more productived than I thought I'd be. I replaced a couple of my extremely rough ships (the cog and fishing boat) with some more nicely textured versions from Darkness over Daggerford. High Seas is still obviously beta, but at least it's a better looking beta.
I wrote more dialog and scripts for the initial conversation in the third module. Today I'll combine it with the other new stuff I wrote and I'll be pretty close to done for that introductory dialog. I could even start in on the third dialog, or some of the side quests I have planned.
Continuing with the writing theme, I wrote some hysterically funny dialog for the fourth module. I may have to voice it myself, as it's most funny when spoken with a certain accent. I haven't screwed up my courage to face the microphone yet, but we'll see.
Today's images are a few more I found on Alec's site. I'm amazed at the range of dress that will be available. I also missed the gnoll the last time around. I'm starting to think we need more monster-crewed ships. Hmm.
|
permalink| comment
|
I made some really good progress yesterday, f...
August 18, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
I made some really good progress yesterday, finishing up my second dialog and starting in on the third. I have one more to go and the whole introductory area will be finished off. I try to balance types of gameplay, from dialog to action to exploration. This is certainly in the dialog and character development category, though fortunately there's a big action scene in the first main quest.
I've also been quietly revising the third main quest, mostly to take advantage of features that have been revealed for NWN2. I'm not sure how much of the coding I'll be able to do, as the current engine doesn't support the fancy features very well. Still, it looks like the ETA for the beta toolset is in a month or so.
I'm off to the coast for this weekend, thinking piratey thoughts and hopefully getting some writing done in the car.
|
permalink| comment
|
Nothing too exciting to report
August 17, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
Nothing too exciting to report. I sunk in some time this morning on the second of the big dialogs. It's going fairly well and I'm nearly finished. It's much easier since I don't feel obligated to go into the backstory in great detail like I did the previous dialog.
There was also an interview done over on the nwn2news.net site, with me going on about the state of NWN2. Nothing too earth shattering.
Though this is really NWN news, Darkness over Daggerford was released, with much of the content DLA has been working on over the years. There's some great buildings and ships in there, some of which might be "port worthy" to NWN2. Hmm.
|
permalink| comment
|
I think the deluge of movies and information ...
August 16, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I think the deluge of movies and information is slowly letting up, at least for a bit. I have a pretty good feel for how the official campaign will work. In particular it's interesting how much they've invested into keeps and large-scale combats. It reminds me of what I tried to do in Dreamcatcher 4, only with a much better looking engine.
The one dialog I've been working on for what seems like forever is essentially done. I have a bit of Vow scripting options to add, but that's about it. I've been trying hard to satisfy the Lawful Evil folks out there, such as bartering for souls or tightly adhering to a Machivellian philosophy.
I've started in on my second big dialog, which I'm trying to keep a bit more light. I probably won't be able to have quite as much branching, either, just to keep my sanity intact. I love having tons of roleplaying options, but it's a huge effort.
I also need to get back to the team, which I've been neglecting lately. I've been doing a lot of kid watching lately, which tends to put a crimp in module development.
|
permalink| comment
|
The movies and screenshots just keep coming
August 14, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 The movies and screenshots just keep coming. It's been a crazy weekend for PR stuff, especially now that there's only a couple months until NWN2 ships. That puts the pressure on me for getting as much as I can for the prototype while I can.
The huge dialog continues. The most time consuming part is all the branching, giving options to be lawful, chaotic, good, or evil, and combinations of the above. The decisions matter as well, culminating in a certain blessing/curse from an NPC at the end. It's tedious work, but I'm liking some of the amusing banter that's emerging from my caffiene-guided fingers. I'm really hoping I can drink some more tea and continue throughout the day.
|
permalink| comment
|
The images and videos from GenCon are pouring...
August 13, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 The images and videos from GenCon are pouring in at the forums. If you want to avoid spoilers, don't peek. Otherwise there's lots of great information and visuals about all sorts of things.
I, for one, was duly impressed by the inclusion of hats. In particular this one looks quite dashing and piratey. Raz made up a couple hats long ago that I have in the prototype. Now it looks like the game engine will support hats just fine.
I've had the kids by myself all weekend, so free time isn't really happening much for me. I did manage some writing time in the wee hours of the morning yesterday. My incredibly long dialog continues. For curious and insightful players, it explains a fair bit of the main plot. I figure by the middle of the module players should have a fairly good sense what they're fighting for. Of course, those who show no interest can certainly skip the whole thing too.
|
permalink| comment
|
I was all ready to sit down and start writing...
August 11, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I was all ready to sit down and start writing dialog this morning when a ton of new screenshots hit the web. I've been drooling over the refurbished GUI, the list of scripting functions, shots of the visual effects editor, and more.
I did manage some more dialog writing yesterday, and will hopefull get more today. The introduction is ending up fairly dialog-heavy and touches on a lot of the player's actions in the module before, which is new to me. Hopefully today I can find some time for more writing.
|
permalink| comment
|
The screenshots for NWN2 keep slipping out
August 10, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 The screenshots for NWN2 keep slipping out. I'm continually amazed at how huge a leap from NWN it is, from the detailed characters to the lighting, and more. I'm hopeful that within the month I'll get my hands on the toolset, but we'll see how it all turns out.
In terms of Dark Waters, it's been all about dialog. Endless, endless dialog. It's a nice contrast before I dump people into a fairly combat-heavy quest. I did take a bit of time to create a fun little custom item for the player, tailored to their class, degree of success, and generosity with the crew.
|
permalink| comment
|
I made a fair bit of progress yesterday, star...
August 09, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 I made a fair bit of progress yesterday, starting in on the beginning dialog in the module. I'm going for a surreal, dream-like opening. It makes for some tricky dialog writing, trying to get the tone just right. The other thing I'm planning is for some significant permanent effects to be placed on your character, depending on how you handle the dialog and what you've done in the modules before. I've been sweating bullets trying to pencil out all the henchman secrets, what the player has discovered, and various dialog branches.
Today's picture is from some concept art from the game itself. I love the veil, which has a good chance of showing up on a particular NPC if it looks about like this. It has an exotic and mysterious quality that I very much like.
|
permalink| comment
|
Just a short update
August 09, 2006 by Adam in NWN1
Just a short update. Demon won the 2004 Module of the Year award at the Vault. Here's my interview.
|
permalink| comment
|
It's funny how much there is to do beyond the...
August 08, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 It's funny how much there is to do beyond the main quests. In some ways, the main quests seem almost incidental to the rest of the game. The player has to be able to move from place to place, get clear direction on what to do next, and hopefully have some interesting side adventures along the way.
This morning I took a few more baby steps in that direction. You can now get to the location of the two main quests, with one new area spawning on the map. Hopefully I can find time today and continue working on all the "infrastructure" stuff.
Update: My interview with the Vault on my winning the 2004 Mod of the Year has been posted.
|
permalink| comment
|
It wasn't quite as productive yesterday as th...
August 07, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 It wasn't quite as productive yesterday as the day before. Perhaps my caffiene levels weren't quite as high or something.
In any case, I worked on integrating the first quest into the module this morning. Needless to say, I found some bug. The most amusing was forgetting to put the destination waypoint on the island. The result was the player and companions simply appearing on the open ocean, tiny boats sailing around them. Fortunately it was pretty easy to fix.
Hopefully today I can do more of the same. I also need to update nearly every NPC dialog, which is a bit daunting.
|
permalink| comment
|
I drank too much coffee and made some very go...
August 06, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
I drank too much coffee and made some very good progress. There was assorted polishing, from journal entries to new dialog. The second module is feeling increasingly done, minus voice and music.
The third module is starting in earnest. The two main quests are integrated into it now, though you can't actually get to them yet. It needs all sorts of work, from introduction dialog to world map dialog, the third main quest, a conclusion, and endless planned sidequests. My goal is to get as far as I can before the game comes out. I'm hoping for a roughly finished version, which might be possible.
Of course, if the beta toolset lands in my hands and I can start the conversion early, that's what I'll be doing first.
|
permalink| comment
|
More debugging, as usual
August 05, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 More debugging, as usual. It turns out I didn't have to transfer item variables from module to module. They already work just fine. Ah, live and learn.
I polished up one of the side quests, Catspaw Isle. It was pretty badly broken and needed an extra dialog and journal entry. Plus the treasure map you got at the end didn't point anywhere, which was annoying.
It looks like Atari is doing a beta test of their toolset, which is pretty exciting. With luck, I'll get it in my hot little hands within a month or so, though odds are I can't talk about it.
I'm nearly done with the latest batch of QA. Now I just need to respond and take a look at the latest list of problems.
|
permalink| comment
|
Yesterday was one of the more incredibly prod...
August 04, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Yesterday was one of the more incredibly productive days lately. I did an interview with Maximus at the Vault, so expect that up fairly soon. I also finished the final dialog, and spent a bunch of time testing it. It feels like a nice wrap-up before the next module in the campaign. Evil and unscrupulous characters certainly have opportunities to really make their crew upset, break off romances, and generally be jerks.
I ran into a funny bug during my testing. It turns out that if you save an NPC to a database while they're sitting, they'll perpetually sit from that point forward and can never stand up again. It was only funny for a few seconds, and then I had to purge the database and start again. Speaking of database bugs, I fixed another one where my henchmen would immediately start attacking bystanders. While amusing, it made it hard to test.
As an aside, I bought myself a relatively nice microphone in case I wanted to get some of my friends and families voices in the game. I was trying to get my daughter to sing "rain, rain, go away," but she couldn't remember her lines. Actors!
Today I need to work on the SAGE system that Sunjammer did for me. Well, I don't exactly have to work on it, but rather make sure the item variables are transferred from module to module. While local variables sure make life easy for creating systems, they don't get saved between modules unless you manually track each variable in the database. It's a fair amount of work.
|
permalink| comment
|
If you're interested in seeing some large ver...
August 03, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
If you're interested in seeing some large versions of Raz's automaton, head over to this forum and take a peek.
I'm still slaving away at that final dialog. It's strange how long it's taking. I think it's because I keep adding different options and branching. Dividing up the treasure is being more complex than I thought, with different levels of stinginess and different motivations for generousity. I'm planning on having the player's generousity rewarded, perhaps with a "Best Captain Ever" trophy.
|
permalink| comment
|
I was up before 5 am this morning and started...
August 02, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
I was up before 5 am this morning and started in on the final dialog. It's turning into a "pay the piper" conversation, where the player's actions are weighed, treasure is divided, and future plans are discussed. I'm still not finished, but it might happen today if I get the time.
Raz finished up the automaton model, though it still needs optimizing and texturing.
It's hard to believe that it's August already and NWN2 ships next month. I've been in "getting ready" mode for so long that I'm not sure what I'll do with myself if I actually get the game. In terms of how far I'll get, I'm still hoping to rough out the third module - I have two of the big quests finished and the rest is penciled out. It likely won't make it to QA before I start the conversion to NWN2, but we'll see how far I get.
|
permalink| comment
|
Raz continues to crank out polygons at a prod...
August 01, 2006 by Adam in NWN2
 Raz continues to crank out polygons at a prodigious rate. He's currently working on a steam golem of sorts, an automaton that we can hopefully use in the Clockwork Man. I'm reminded again of our need for a texture artist. If there's anyone out there familiar with texturing polygons, we're in desperate need of help in that area.
I'm beginning to rally the voice actors, with Flik taking the lead for the voice actors. He's very comfortable with sound processing, which makes me a happy camper, as well as being a fine voice actor in his own right.
As for me, I've been working on dialog. It's not as glamorous, but there's some things I want to wrap up in the final moments of the second module. Currently the ending is fairly abrupt, and PJJ thought a little dénouement might be handy. Keeping with the nautical theme, the party hoists some grog around a table before setting sail.
|
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.
|