Well, still no luck with either of my faster ...

September 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, still no luck with either of my faster computers. I've tried most of the things on my list, but haven't given up yet. Just for fun, I overclocked it to 2.2 Ghz speeds and it ran quite nicely. Unfortunately it wasn't very stable, and I value stability over speed in most cases.

I did more work yesterday, getting some inventory icons together for some paintings I created a while back. I also barely started work on the painter dialog, though I hope I can do some more today. I also created a new quickie tile for another Gate Diving area. This one will probably be mostly combat oriented, as I'm finding that most so far are puzzle areas. Plus I want an excuse to use my cellar and haunted tilesets from the Interior tilesets I did with some other community members awhile back.

Finally, I have a modeller who expressed some interest in helping me out. These days, time is a rare thing, so any help I get is welcome. We'll see how it goes.

Not much to report

September 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Not much to report. I've been working on trying to get the bugs out of my new computer. I flashed the motherboard BIOS this morning, to no avail. I've been playing with different video drivers, which don't seem to do any good. I tested out memory last night, just to rule that out.

So far, it's looking like I won't be able to run NWN on my fancy new system. I'll troll the boards today and see if I can find any new things to try.

I am fairly certain that the problems with my "old" computer are related to the patch. I reinstalled and it worked fine. Once I updated to the latest, it failed. Same error every time.

Update: I have a nice long list of things to try, so I'm hopeful one of them will fix the problem. It's looking like video driver issues at this point. I had some issues with Jedi Academy screen flashing, which is a known ATI bug.

Also, I'm having some great e-mail conversations with the person working on music for Demon. Very professional and he's already come up with the basics of a first theme. It's amazing how much new music really helps freshen things up.

The last few days have been admittedly very f...

September 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

The last few days have been admittedly very frustrating. My new computer, which seems to run all the other games I throw at it just fine, doesn't seem to want to run Neverwinter Nights at all. I've tried reverting to 1.30, reinstalling, and a variety of video card patches and tweaks, all to no avail.

Plus, my "old" main system, which was running 1.30 just fine, is now consistently failing with 1.32. I reinstalled this morning and it worked fine with the base install, but got the same error with the latest patch.

All is not completely lost as it turns out that my server machine, which is a Duron 1 Ghz with a Radeon 9000, actually runs the game. I now have this elaborate system where I use the toolset on my new box (which is quite snappy), copy the module file over to the server, then run across the room to test out the latest changes. On a postive note, it keeps me active when otherwise I'd be sitting in once place for too long.

Amazingly, I even got some real work done on the module. I created a couple more city areas, though they're placeholders until the Sigil tileset comes out. I added a missing roof to my arena tile group. And just to prove that I'm a masochist, I worked on one of the most frustrating levels in the game, the monodrone puzzle.

I finally got the 2nd level in the puzzle working. The shield code wasn't in place, so it wasn't creating it properly. Then it would be created, but not do anything. Now the shield works and the level is solvable, though it's a bit too easy at the moment. A few more tweaks and hopefully I can call it done.

Well, my new system is up and running

September 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, my new system is up and running. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to run the 1.32 patch any better than my old system. I'll try to do some troubleshooting, but it's not a good sign that it still has the same issue on a clean install on completely different hardware. I tried a no cd patch too, but it didn't seem to help. Very frustrating.

If I can't get it resolved soon, I may end up reverting to 1.30, losing some days of work. Sigh.

I've been running into frustration with the n...

September 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been running into frustration with the new patch. It seems to crash about 90% of the time after I click the "Select Pregenerated Character" button. Very frustrating.

I'm running into some issues with Dreamcatcher 3 as well, so I'm delaying the update for the moment. It got too frustrating trying to test when the game crashed nearly every time I tried to get in.

On the other hand, I got a lot of stuff done yesterday. The arena area is looking pretty complete, except for the necessary playtesting. I balanced out the creatures a bit more so that their creature type and level doles out an appropriate amount of gold and experience. I also have the spirit pouch working so that you can summon your creature outside of the arena. This doesn't add to your maximum total of summoned creatures, animal companions, and familiars, so it's an extra bonus to all that can help quite a bit in a fight.

Finally, the last of my new computer parts arrived yesterday. The highlights are:
AMD 2500+ Barton (hopefully overclockable to 3200+)
Radeon 9800 Pro
SEAGATE 160GB SATA hard drive
ASUS A7N8X DLX motherboard
Alpha PAL heatsink
DVD writer (Panasonic LF D521)
2x Crucial 512 MB memory
AOpen case and power supply

I assembled it and powered it up without any major problems. Now I just need to install XP and a ton of software. I'll probably move my NWN development to this box as soon as possible, as it should be quite a bit speedier (and might even work).

Lots of things going on, it seems

September 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Lots of things going on, it seems. I spent some more time on the arena yesterday, getting things to the point where it was actually fun. The four creature types are in and working, including the pseudodragon which was a bit of a challenge. I still need to balance things quite a bit more, as the different animal types are dramatically mismatched. Setting the cougar's class to rogue looked good on paper, but in arena combat he never really gets a chance to use sneak attack. Also, I need to tweak my CR rating some more, as some of the xp and gold rewards are inappropriate.

Patch 1.32 is out finally! I'm updating away as I type. It means that I'll be able to release the SoU updates to Dreamcatcher 2-4, something I've been waiting a long while to do. There's one check I'd like to make - hopefully I can do it before I head to work this morning.

Update: The patch failed, so I'm downloading the critical rebuild (I hope). It may be another day or two before I update. I suppose I must learn patience about these things.

Anyway, the arena is coming along. My favorite part so far are the fans, who call out funny little things like "Two chickens enter, one chicken leaves" (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome reference). Great fun.

I've also been reading about the new SetAppearance function coming out with HotU. It's far superior to Polymorph in a number of ways, allowing you to equip armor and weapons and basically act as if you were really you. The down side is that it can't "remember" which body parts you had selected for your player, so it reverts to the first one. This is a bit of an annoyance, so I may reward the player for bearing with me by allowing them to select which humanoid shape they wish to wear - not just their base race. This also provides some opportunity for disguise and intrigue, which sounds entertaining. Still have to figure out the details.

Well, the combat pit is functional at this point

September 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, the combat pit is functional at this point. Sure, you can only buy chickens and have them duel it out, but it's working. You can buy a chicken and send them into the Pit. Each combat costs a certain amount to enter (depending on your creature's level). You can choose to fight against an array of opponents, some of which are stronger than you, but bring greater rewards. When you win, your creature gains experience and you gain gold.

I still have some balance issues I'd like to address. It seems a little slow getting your animal up to the higher levels. I'll have to fiddle with it a bit. It also seems basically impossible to take on higher level creatures with a puny 1st level chicken, though that's probably realistic.

The task for today is to create an item that lets you summon your animal outside of the Pit to aid you in battle for a time.

Update: Oh, I forgot to mention one other thing. A talented composer interested in working in the gaming industry contacted me last week. He's sent me some of his work and wants to compose some music for my next project. Pretty cool.

I don't have much to report today

September 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I don't have much to report today. I worked more on the Kennel Master dialog, making it possible to buy and sell animals. I also started in on the Pit Boss, getting the actual fight started. I was going to test it out this morning but I ended up instead with a wiggly three-month-old to entertain. Now it's off to work.

Not so much work yesterday

September 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Not so much work yesterday. I have some of the Kennel Master's dialog written to allow the buying and selling of animals. No scripting yet. I also retextured some stone benches in the Planescape style, as well as getting the seating scripting needed so that people can sit down upon them.

Hopefully today I can get the skeleton of a basic fight together. I'm also contemplating some alternative gameplay, such as Team Combat or Last Chicken Standing. I better get the basics working first, though.

Well, I'm putting the finishing touches on th...

September 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I'm putting the finishing touches on the Creatures game "quest". I created a trophy this morning so that the player could win something of value to them. I just need to do a bit more scripting and then it's mostly an issue of playtesting and balance.

I also thought out how I'm going to handle the arena after long thought yesterday. The general premise is that I wanted something vaguely like a cockfight where you could pit animals against each other for sport (it's in the bad part of town). I think I have a plan that should keep the players motivated and interested, however. The detailed plan is:

• Players can purchase one of several creatures, from the lowly chicken to the almost mythical pseudodragon. The more powerful the creature, the more they cost.
• Once purchased, your animal can be sent to do battle for you in the arena, competing against a range of opponents. The player can select the difficulty of the opponent, with harder ones bringing in greater reward.
• If the animal is victorious, it gains experience. If enough experience is gained, it can gain one or more levels.
• Your creature can be sold at any time and a new one can be purchased.
• To extend the benefit outside the arena, your animal can be summoned via a magic item to aid you for a short time. All the skills they've learned in the arena come into play, you might find them a formidable ally.

I continued on my quest to polish up the card...

September 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I continued on my quest to polish up the card game part of the module. I wrote the dialog and scripted the various opponents you can face off against in the Card Emporium. In theory, you can skip large parts of the module and instead win your fame and fortune as a card player. There's also a Creatures champion that you can face off against if you have a certain number of wins. If you beat him consistently, you can become the Creatures champion and win a trophy that brings more power to your spirit gem.

I showed my 13-year-old nephew the card game last night and it immediately got a "cool" reaction. He got excited when I said that I'd let him play test it. It's nice to know that it's not just me that thinks it's neat.

He stumbled across an interesting exploit. It was evidently possible to cast a card multiple times by clicking on it over and over. I've since fixed it, but it raises some interesting flaws in how I thought the scripting engine worked. It's not granular, meaning that everything stops until the script stops running, but rather that you can kick it off multiple times before the object destroys itself. Weird.

I kept forgetting to take a screen shot while I was playing this morning. This one is from a battle with the "animal deck" opponent as you might guess. The dreaded cow armada was waiting to finish me off after the bears and wolves cut through my measly goblin and dwarf defenders.

I switched gears yesterday and started develo...

September 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I switched gears yesterday and started developing around the card game some more. Surprisingly enough, it's still fun. I spent quite a long time trying to lay the smack down on this snotty-nosed kid who kept beating me. I'd start laying into his avatar with low-level creatures, then he'd bring out some elder fire elementals and it was all over. I did some adjusting to creature strengths during play testing, though I'm sure there will be lots of balance issues to address.

I put in some "wagering" code that lets players wager cards or gold. There are some cards that can only be won if you play against your opponent for ante. Once I get the card selling code in, you'll be able to sell off these powerful cards for cold, hard jink (that's gold for the non-Planescapers out there).

I have a funny feeling that while people will enjoy the rest of the module, the card game will stand out as the unique and novel part of the game. The thing about creating new forms of gameplay rather than making a plot is that you can keep doing the new game over and over, while people usually go through a plot only once.

The funny screenshot of the day involves a test of the code when the player loses the game. I lost a lowly goblin, but the script didn't work right. Instead, it turned every one of my cards into a goblin. Now that's suffering.

No pretty pictures today, as most of yesterda...

September 18, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

No pretty pictures today, as most of yesterday was scripting and dialog. The area that I started working on yesterday should be finished now. Two Planes down and, well, lots to go.

I was mentioned in an editorial yesterday, which was kind of funny. I'm still waiting for fame and fortune to find me, mostly so I can show up on MTV's Cribs.

I also heard that the default camera for HotU is unlocked. That's good news for some of my cinematics, as dealing with locked cameras is a hassle at times. Finally, it looks like the 1.32 patch is coming out Monday. I'll hopefully get the SoU patch released after that.

I put in yet more work yesterday, mostly focu...

September 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I put in yet more work yesterday, mostly focusing on the "gate diving" part of the game. It's now possible to go to a number of the planes and return. I'm currently working on one of the introductory planes, which I'm almost finished with. It has a custom tileset and I ended up fixing a couple minimap issues this morning. I also tested out the scripting to make sure it was working properly. Hopefully today I can finish up the rest and move on to some of the other planes.

My hope is that I can polish up the "unique" parts of the game, such as the planar travel and card game, before the things I'm waiting for are released. The HotU expansion should have a number of new scripting functions I'll need for the game. The CODI team is hopefully putting the final touches on the stem tileset. Once those are out, I'll have a frantic time replacing tilesets and integrating new systems. Should keep me busy.

Yesterday I spent a ton of time getting the s...

September 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yesterday I spent a ton of time getting the spells in the game. I think I have all but one at this point. A few required some new effects, as you can see. I spent a bunch of time on the flaming symbol, though it's still not quite perfect. We'll see if I have the time and energy to tweak it yet some more.

I also created spell icons for each of the new Rituals and Symbols. The way it works is that the player uses the scroll, which then starts them casting the spell like any other. The new icon appears in the corner as they cast it, which is a nice touch.

I did a little more tweaking with the dialog yesterday, adding in some Out of Character options to describe the new henchmen controls.

Hopefully soon I can get back to some of the main quests. It's a bit of a challenge without having all the tilesets needed to support it. The sewers are only there to the point where you can navigate out of it. The city is all temporary, but I'm starting to put some of the buildings down using the standard city tileset.

Update: I just read that the 1.32 patch will be released for all languages on the 18th. I'll be able to finally upload my SoU patches that I've been sitting on these last couple months. A big belated thanks to all you testers who helped me out.

I worked a bit this morning on a new spell effect

September 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked a bit this morning on a new spell effect. It's basically a big flaming symbol on the floor. I haven't gotten it in the game quite yet, but it should be there soon.

I also worked more on the henchmen AI. It's now possible to ask them to use a certain placeable and they'll try to go interact with that object. Things like the lever puzzle in Shadowlords 2 would have been a snap if I had implemented this there. I don't have a specific puzzle in mind that would use the code, but it opens up some interesing possibilities.

More spells for today

September 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

More spells for today. I finished up the Spiked Wall, switching from the transparent texture to a solid gray. I thought it looked better. I also got my Ritual of the Swirling Wind. It's actually pretty cool. There's a wind gust sound, a rotating light smoke, and a wind that eminates from a circle going about your body, whipping any danglymeshes about.

I'm starting to get the hang of the spell making business. I have about ten or so, some of which require custom effects. There's also a certain Planescape spell I'd like to recreate, but we'll see how much time I get.

All these spells aren't truly "spells" in the D&D sense, but rather rituals that all players can cast and play with. They use up "manna" in the form of spirit coins, which the player's spirit gem generates over time, depending on how many special items they have within and how many rooms they've created. It's complicated, but the theory is that they can fill their spirit gem up with special items, which allows them to add more rooms and generate spirit coin for spells, traps, and potions.

I was a coding maniac at work yesterday, tryi...

September 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I was a coding maniac at work yesterday, trying to play catch up for all the days I was gone. Somehow I found the energy later last night to pick up the toolset and work on the Mechanus puzzle levels. It's tedious work, but I think the hard parts are done. Now I've just got to introduce the new things for each level and test them out.

I woke up this morning and decided to work on spells. I'm switching over to "true" spells, using the spells.2da file. I switched over Ritual of the Guiding Light over and after some fiddling got it working okay. Next was Ritual of the Burning Circle. Finally, I'm in the middle of the Ritual of the Spiked Wall. It's a bit tricky as it requires some new spell effects.

The screenshot of the day shows me playing around with the Guiding Light spell, summoning a bunch of weak lights to frighten and confuse my enemies. Their main purpose is to illuminate the area and point out interesting things, so their combat skills are minor at best.

Although I mostly watched kids yesterday, I d...

September 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Although I mostly watched kids yesterday, I did managed to put in a little bit of work. I spent a bunch of time working on a skeletal dog, only to find out it wasn't going to work due to the way animation is handled with respect to rotation. I might have to ask questions on the boards and see what comes up.

I also made this flashy little placeable with geometric shapes flying about. They've got lights and emitters, so they look fairly neat. To be honest, I have no real need for them in the game. I just thought it would look good, which it does, and ended up dropping them in the magic shoppe.

I also did a more practical table extending out from the Stem wall, making things like my Card Emporium and various shops more workable. It's always nice to have something to put stuff on.

I didn't get as much done yesterday as I woul...

September 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I didn't get as much done yesterday as I would have liked. I fixed some playing card placeables, tiny versions to put on tables for atmosphere. I also created an "apothecary" placeable - basically shelves with potions and such. I also layed out the basic area for what I'm calling the Djinn Tower. Should be some fun puzzles within.

I noticed I was mentioned in Bioware's interview with Spurn. It's always good to feel the love.

I managed to get a fair amount done yesterday

September 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I managed to get a fair amount done yesterday. For starters, I whipped up a neat little ring that can be used between two players or one player and their companion. Basically, it fully heals the other person, while draining an equal amount of life from the first. I figure that it should work out nicely for those warrior/mage teams when the weak one gets in trouble.

I also had a neat moment during testing last night when a couple new systems interacted in an unexpected and interesting way. I was making sure the spell storing gems worked by placing them in the spell circle and casting spells at them. I remembered that I could have my henchmen cast any spell they knew at a named target, so I tried typing "cast cure light wounds on magic symbol". Sure enough, Anera cast it on the symbol and stored the spell. Nifty.

Finally, I managed to put together some of the city center. Even though it's a temporary area (I'm still waiting for the Sigil exterior tileset), it helps immensely. I was talking to commoners and getting their mini-quests, checking out the Card Emporium or visiting the Gate Divers for some quick planar trips. It's nice seeing things start coming together.

I kept plugging away yesterday, using what li...

September 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I kept plugging away yesterday, using what little time I had. I fixed a few known bugs, wrote some dialog, and began planning out the locations in the main city. Hopefully I'll have a bit more time today.

I don't think I got anything significant done...

September 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I don't think I got anything significant done yesterday. I started fiddling with a new water placeable, but never really finished it. I'll blame it on my lingering flu, which has mostly cleared up now.

I was sick as a dog yesterday, though fortuna...

September 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I was sick as a dog yesterday, though fortunately my wife was well enough to take care of the kids. Somewhere in my delirium I actually managed a couple hours working on the module, scripting and testing. I have the henchmen comment system working. More importantly, you can go from the beginning of the game all the way to the main city. It's a temporary area for the moment, as the Sigil tileset isn't finished. I'd like to start stringing out the main city areas in at least a temporary fashion. That way I can start testing quests and the like.

I checked in with Velmar, who did the sewers I use, and it looks like the next version is approaching completion. Some larger rooms would be really handy, so I'm holding off on development of the sewers for the moment.

I got almost nothing done yesterday as I spen...

September 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got almost nothing done yesterday as I spent most of the time taking care of two kids as well as my sick wife. Now she's feeling a bit better and I'm feeling a bit worse. Such timing.

I made a loose brick for the sewers yesterday. It's of the pushable variety that opens secret doors and the like. My four-year-old son was giving me ideas for the game, and this was one of the requirements. Some of his ideas were really good and a few were plain silly (such as having the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the sewers). I might just have to list him in the credits.

I did a little scripting and testing this morning. A major scene transition failed and I have to figure out why. I also put in some henchmen comment code so they'll make one-liners as you walk through an area. In theory, they'll whisper it if in stealth mode, but I've got to test that out some more.

It should be easy as you can simply say "stealth" and they'll jump into stealth mode. There's a lot of henchmen commands like that, such as "attack the cleric" or "cast cure light wounds on me". Hopefully it'll make the henchmen feel more alive and part of the team.

Here's another placeable I made yesterday

September 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Here's another placeable I made yesterday. The floating symbols are emitters, appearing and slowly falling to the floor. It's pretty cool looking, which was the whole point.

Yesterday I spent most of my time scripting some new items. The magic circle is part of a system where you can cast a spell into a gem of spell storing, then later cast it out again. It's great for multiplayer, as one spellcaster can "lend" a spell to another. It's a one shot thing before it has to be recharged, so hopefully they're not too powerful.

The other system I put together is one of "gemmed" weapons. When traveling the planes, you may come across a powerful gem. You have the choice of simply using it (they cast spells) or inserting it into a weapon to give it a powerful effect. Right now I only have longswords and the scripting doesn't work quite right. Hopefully I can fix the bugs today and add in other weapons (hammers, axes, etc.). Of course, I'm not sure how much time I'll have today as my whole family seems to have come down with the flu.

Update: Excellent news. Just found out that the 1.32 patch will be for all languages. I was about to give up hope, but it looks like the SoU compatible versions of Dreamcatcher will finally be released. I'm hoping the final patch is out in a week or so, then I'll be updating a bunch of the modules and hak packs. Yippie!

I put in huge amounts of work yesterday, crea...

September 04, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I put in huge amounts of work yesterday, creating a bunch of placeables and two new tiles, not to mention some scripting and creature tweaking. My favorite tileset addition is this counter with a floating brain in a jar. It slowly moves up and down over time, looking creepy. I think I like it so much that I might make it an NPC.

I've been trying to take the Stem tileset and make it a general purpose tileset. I have the arena and a couple shop counters (one with the floating brain). I may do one with tables so that I can put things on them.

I also tweaked the spirit gem code so that upon death you go into your spirit gem. If you're holding it when you die, you drop it on the floor. If your henchman is holding it and you die, you'll exit the gem wherever the henchman is. If your henchman is holding it and they die, they'll go inside the spirit gem and drop it. All very confusing, but hopefully it eliminates most issues with dying in combat (mostly getting stuck in your gem while holding your gem).

As for today, I'm hoping to get a chance to script some nifty items. We'll see how much time I get.

I took my new base Tainted model and ran with...

September 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I took my new base Tainted model and ran with it yesterday. I now have three new creatures, with the green and black Tainted having a plain and "accessorized" versions. I had fun making bracers and amulets to add on. Variety is good.

The plan for today is to make the white Tainted model's head a bit bigger, as well as create more versions.

I made a pretty major decision yesterday

September 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I made a pretty major decision yesterday. I thought it best to go with a new player model that was based on the standard humanoid set of animations. The previous demon model I was using was feral looking, which was quite cool, but couldn't do basic things such as sit down. Instead of taking a month to add all the animations, I thought this approach was best. I'm still doing a few custom animations, mostly for talking to move the jaw up and down.

The new model uses the devil skin that was released in one of the patches. It's higher resolution and looks much nicer. I also did some significant work on the legs to make them more humanoid. Basically I had to match the shape and names of the model parts so that the animations would work. So far, I'm pretty happy with it. I'll still keep the other models for a more "thuggish" version of the Tainted. Variety is good.

I had some more excitement

September 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I had some more excitement. When I arrived in my office, the web server was off. After much fiddling, I got it up and running. It turns out that the video card had mysteriously unseated itself and wasn't sending a signal to the monitor.

I quickly backed everything up and told myself to stop messing around and come up with some sort of daily backup system. I have something almost in place now, but it's burned through most of the morning.

So, not much new to report.