Proving once again that I'm borderline obsess...

December 31, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Proving once again that I'm borderline obsessive-compulsive, I continued to work on getting that accursed dart player working properly. After an hour last night and a chunk of time this morning, I think I have it finally working. It seems that somewhere along the way, the order in which objects are destroyed when thrown changed, causing my "returning dart" script to fail. I think I have it working now, though it's not particularly elegant.

Testing for HotU goes well. At least one tester has gone through the entire campaign, which I thought was impressive speed. Most things look good so far.

I'm still trying to figure out the issue with the henchmen AI. Some people are reporting it as specific to one henchman, while others seem to suggest that other henchmen have the same issue. It may be a Bioware issue that is due to changes in henchmen AI. I'll try to do some more testing on my end.

I'm toying around with getting henchmen inventory accessable in the game. The catch is that there starts being a long list of other things that need to be fixed once you do that, such as preventing players from looting the henchmen, transferring items between levels, and so on.

The hardest thing is that all this time spent fixing and improving things is time away from working on Demon. I did manage to put in some more dialog into the game, though I admit that the pace of development has slowed a bit lately.

Happy new year's to all. Be safe.

My hak pack testers are busy going through th...

December 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

My hak pack testers are busy going through the Dreamcatcher campaign with the latest fixes. One odd thing found so far seems to have nothing to do with hak packs, but instead with a scripting change. The dart player in Dreamcatcher 1 doesn't work right. I spent an hour trying to fix it, but eventually gave up and went to bed. I may give it another try, but it's pretty frustrating to see lots of different things break.

I'm also getting weird reports about henchmen AI getting weird. It seems to be mostly with Anera, though it also seems to exist in the official campaign as well. Hopefully this is something Bioware can fix with a patch, as I'm not sure what I can do about it.

I made a tiny bit of progress in Demon, recreating a scene that I had accidentally deleted somehow. It was pretty easy to recreate, though, and adds a little flavor as the players move around this strange world they find themselves in.

I've been having dreams about the game for th...

December 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been having dreams about the game for the last couple nights. Probably a bad sign.

I've been a bit frustrated at somehow losing a bit of work, though it's not too hard to recreate. I've been bug testing and fixing things where I find them. HotU created some odd errors, such as issues with some of Lisa's holdable items. I've also started getting a critical piece of dialog into the game after typing endless pages last week. I figure I'm about halfway there at the moment.

I've also been coordinating HotU hak pack testers, making all the Dreamcatcher campaigns up and running. I finally did see the weird henchmen ignoring attacks issue when playtesting Demon. Very strange and difficult to reproduce. I'll have to check around the boards and see if others are having the same issue. I'm suspecting problems with faction, though it all looks good on paper.

Slowly making progress

December 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Slowly making progress. I did a run through from the beginning and made it from the start to the main town. Minor milestone, but it felt good. Of course, the game crashed when I did my first Gate Diving. I had switched around some tilesets and evidently the fix I had got lost in the module. I also lost a mini-scene that I had worked on. One of these days I need to get serious about code versioning as this is the third time I've lost things when accidentally overwriting files.

I have plenty of brave testers to make sure my hak pack fixes for HotU actually work. Updating the .2da files took a few hours and time running through the modules is hard to come by. I'm also getting weird reports about dumb AI in Shadowlords. I'll need to do some testing there as well.

More code fixes yesterday. I'm still flabbergasted at how cool the new Tainted models look. I can put on armor, robes, and have a range of tints for their scales. Quite fun.

It was an incredibly productive day yesterday

December 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

It was an incredibly productive day yesterday. I updated the haks of all my modules for HotU, though I still need to test them fully. If anyone has some free time and can take some big files, drop me an e-mail, though it may be a couple days before I can get back to you. I'd be greatly appreciative.

I also finally got Ryuujin's Tainted parts into the game last night, which look great. There were some changes to body parts with HotU, so I have to be a little careful with numbering. Still, I think it looks great, especially with the new wings, robes, and tails. It creates a huge variation in looks for the Tainted in the game and I'm trying to work more of them in.

In a lesser note, I switched over my shape changing scripts from polymorph to the new SetAppearance function. There was a moment of stunned hilarity when my player kept reverting to a dwarf, but I got it straightened out.

Yet more dialog yesterday, some of which I ma...

December 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yet more dialog yesterday, some of which I managed to type into the toolset this morning. Though the main plot is slowly wrapping up, I still have huge amounts of things to do. I need to start in on the HotU improved shapeshifting (using SetAppearance), put more work into the Struggle area, and I might even get my grubby mits on an alpha build of the Sigil exterior tileset soon. Plus there's all the non-Demon things to do, such as updating all my .2da files for HotU. Hopefully I can sneak in a little work today.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it

December 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it. At last night's party at my in-laws, I managed a fair bit of time with my old laptop, cranking away at dialog. I worry that the final encounter is a tad wordy, but I find that I have so much to explain. I'm trying to tie together some over-arching story threads and I'm finding it a bit of a challenge. More dialog today. Hopefully I can wrap up this multi-page tome that I seem to be writing.

Just a short update, as I'm at my in-law's ho...

December 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Just a short update, as I'm at my in-law's house and there's a wiggly baby on my lap. I managed more dialog yesterday and this morning. Dialog seems to be an endless task, a sometimes tortious exercise of trying to put my vague thoughts into concrete sentences. I also took a walk around the neighborhood yesterday, gathering up material for texture work. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to use, but it's always good to have a big collection of raw photos to work with.

Finally, congratulations go out to Danmar, whose twins were born a few days ago. Just having one little creature about the house keeps me busy enough.

Well, the HotU monkey is finally off my back

December 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, the HotU monkey is finally off my back. I finished up late last night/early this morning and was quite satisfied. There were some gratiuitious puzzles, but the vast majority of the game seemed epic, clever, and downright brilliant. My only regret is that I missed one of my henchmen at the beginning of a chapter and went solo for a big chunk of the game.

I'm loving the new features in the toolset, many of which are downright appropriate for the game. Now that the expansion is out, I want to get the new Tainted models in there and try out the new wings and tails with them.

I'll be away for my main computer for a few days, which means dialog, dialog, and more dialog. Hopefully I can finish up some empty patches that have been calling to me. In particular, the end of the game, which is obvious a critical piece of writing. Hopefully I can do an okay job.

My HotU obsession continues

December 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

My HotU obsession continues. I've made it to the third chapter, so hopefully I'll finish up soon and get back to real work. There's a number of strange parallels between the expansion and a number of my modules, including some in Demon. I was trying to get through a puzzle and I had a hard time with it because I kept wanting it to work the way my puzzle worked. Silly me.

My plans for the next module seem to come into my head unbidden. I've been scribbling down the ideas as they come. Strange how creativity works.

Okay, I admit it

December 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Okay, I admit it. I've been playing Hordes of the Underdark and not working on the module.

I've been having quite a bit of fun with it. The puzzles are interesting, the story is fairly involving, and some of the dialog is great. Deekin, for example, is probably one of those characters I would never take along normally (who wants a bard, after all), but he's so darn funny that I can't help it. I think I'm over halfway through, so it shouldn't distract me for too long.

I've also been planning the next module after Demon. I was actually taking some digital photos for textures, in case I ever get that far. Still gotta finish up the current one.

I finally took the plunge and upgraded to the 1

December 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I finally took the plunge and upgraded to the 1.61 patch. Fortunately I'm not having the same problems with the copy protection as I did with the last patch, so that's a relief. I'm loving the new robes, skies, wings, and other features. I've only started updating the .2da files, but I don't think it'll be as painful as with SoU. I've been a good boy and padded appropriately.

I played more Hordes last night, enjoying myself quite a bit. The new tilesets are nice, especially as I've stared at the old ones for far too long. The things that stand out the most are the puzzles, which are quite interesting, and the NPCs, which are funny and cleverly written. Having two henchmen in the party is great so far. I probably won't go to a bigger party in Demon, though I can definately see it for other things.

As for Demon, I added more dialog yesterday, though I admit I didn't get as much done as I'd like. I actually spent some time on a future project, doing some technical tests, trying some creative things. We'll see.

I was feelin' the love yesterday when a littl...

December 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I was feelin' the love yesterday when a little package from Bioware showed up on my doorstep. I think my excitement was showing, as my son kissed the package once we got it inside. Sure, the copy of Hordes of the Underdark was in there, but the coolest part was the Christmas card complete with paper cut-outs. I finally let Sam release them from their cardboard prison to play with them. Pretty cool.

Speaking of which, I've started playing the expansion. My first character was a dragon disciple. After a bit playing with it, I decided I wanted life to be a little easier, so I restarted with a cleric. I'm constantly reminded how powerful that class is. Don't leave home without one. I haven't really gotten into it enough for a solid review. I've run into some interesting puzzles and some tough fights. So far, so good.

Somewhere amidst all the excitement I managed to continue working on my own module. More dialog is in now, with the third plot area almost finished. Just a little scripting and such. The Struggle needs plenty more work, though, so I'll hopefully touch on that today.

I started in on the dialog for the neutral Ch...

December 18, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I started in on the dialog for the neutral Chen Village path. It's filled with dialog, as it's the "negotiation" approach to solving problems. Unfortunately it means that I've got a lot of typing and scripting to do. I've been afraid to get started, so it felt good to at least begin down that path. I managed to script one of the NPCs fully and have yet to add on to some of the other NPCs.

I'm about ready to take the plunge with the 1.61 patch in a day or two. It's always a bit of a production to do it. Mostly I wanted to make sure the Shadowlords/Dreamcatcher campaigns were relatively stable under 1.32 so that I don't have to make any changes with the new version of the toolset. That makes the client have to be the same version, which is problematic sometimes.

Update: Before I forget, Magnus has graciously posted another of the themes from the upcoming Demon module. You can take a look at his site on his music page.

I also wanted to mention that I was looking at the video footage from Jade Empire yesterday. It's my hope that KotOR and JE are predecessors to the next NWN-style game. I say "NWN-style" because Bioware isn't working on a D&D game currently. With luck, though, the next big RPG will be editable by the community. We'll see how it goes.

As suspected, I managed to scribble down some...

December 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

As suspected, I managed to scribble down some dialog during my boring all-day meeting. Hopefully I'll be able to repeat the effort today. I'm almost done with the next to the last plot area. One more dialog and I'm basically finished. I started mapping the final plot area as well, though it needs lots of scripting and dialog before it's complete.

Before I get excited, I have to remind myself that I've got a ton of work to go. The HotU scripting and .2da files need to be updated. I've got to get the Sigil exterior tileset integrated (once it's released). I need to finish off the first Struggle area and add another (assuming I have time). The struggle areas are "cool", but aren't really central to the plot.

One of the things I'm discovering is that the main plot is really simple and straightfoward, but there's a huge amount of things to do in the game. Demon is going to be less of a lengthy story and more a game of exploration and experimentation. Most of my previous modules have been linear and very story-driven, so it's a bit of a change for me. Hopefully it turns out well enough.

I've been poking around with the toolset with the 1.61 patch. The skyboxes are cool and it's nice to see them in the non-HotU version of the game. I'm sure everyone has seen the robes, wings, and tails. Time for some serious updating to take advantage of them. This patch looks to be a good one.

Yesterday was a bit exciting

December 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yesterday was a bit exciting. My patches weren't completely successful the first time around. I ended up getting some good help, though, and the latest ones hopefully fix the problems. It looks like I wasn't the only one, as I saw that Bioware put out the 1.60 patch then quickly removed when the copy protection ended up not working with one of the four versions of the game.

As for me, I finished up the three main dialogs in one of the main plot areas. It was time consuming, but should hopefully be a bit different. Not really a puzzle, exactly, though. More like a psychological evaluation.

I'm in all-day meetings the next couple days, so it may take awhile to get back to folks. They'll probably be quite boring, so I'm hoping I can scribble down some dialog while people drone on.

Yesterday was another nutty family day for me...

December 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yesterday was another nutty family day for me, with far too little time for working on the module. I did manage a few minutes of fiddling about with modeling tiles for my next project, though didn't come up with anything useful.

This morning I was more productive, testing out some of the dialog I've been working on lately. Hopefully I can get the last of the three finished today, do some more touch up work, then start in on the last plot area.

I'm getting some bug reports about the huge number of fixes I made Friday. It's possible I missed a few DelayCommand problems and need to do some more patching today. Yippie.

Update: Yep, more issues. Shadowlords 4 had a bug introduced when I tried to sneak in a fix without testing. I missed a DelayCommand issue with Dreamcatcher 2. Both should be fixed on the Vault now. Whew.

I missed posting yesterday, something I haven...

December 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I missed posting yesterday, something I haven't done for a long while. I had kid duty from sunup to sundown it seemed. I did have a tiny urge to do some 3D modeling, so I indulged myself with a single tile from a future project. These days I'm usually knee-deep in scripting or dialog.

I managed to update every one of my modules Friday (except Shadowlords 1 which didn't seem to have any issues). I'm a bit nervous, though, as I wasn't able to test myself. I'll try to check the boards and e-mail to see if there are any problems.

I did manage a bit of dialog Friday as well, doing two of the three "main" encounters in the area I'm working on. If the player is at all paying attention, bloodshed is easy to avoid, though there may be some interesting moral implications. Hopefully it's a bit different and interesting.

It was a crazy day yesterday morning

December 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

It was a crazy day yesterday morning. I spent a good chunk of time going through every one of my modules trying to get the DelayCommand issue fixed. Unfortunately, I don't have HotU yet (Jay said it's in the mail), so I'm relying on the kindness of strangers. So far, I haven't gotten anyone to test the changes, but I'm hoping someone did overnight as I haven't read my e-mail yet. If so, I'll try to upload all the modules to the Vault this morning.

I did manage a touch of dialog writing yesterday, though not as much as I'd like. Hopefully I can do a bit more, though we'll see how it goes.

Update: Ah, someone responded with testing comments! I'm going to upload the patch to the Vault this morning as it looks like things are working again.

Another update: Well, I uploaded the new versions of Shadowlords/Dreamcatcher to the Vault. Next week I'll get the HotU hak pack issues resolved. Whew.

It took me awhile to find my inspiration yest...

December 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

It took me awhile to find my inspiration yesterday, but it finally came around. While it's easy to simply add combat encounters throughout an area, I try hard to resist it and make each event somewhat unique and interesting. I think I've found the balance I'm looking for, though it did take awhile. Towards the end of the day, I was cranking out dialog and scripting like nobody's business.

Probably more of the same today, though after this I'm pretty close to finishing up one of the last plot areas. I'm also hoping to get HotU from Bioware soon. I've heard some reports with it and Dreamcatcher and I'd like to take a look.

Update: It's looking like HotU has broken a number of the scripts in Shadowlords and Dreamcatcher. A bunch of the teleporation scripts no longer work. You can read about the gory details here if you're interested. It looks like I'll need to rewrite some code in most of the modules. Sigh.

Lots of good progress yesterday

December 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Lots of good progress yesterday. More dialog and scripting, which I spent this morning testing out. So far, I'm liking the way the area I'm working on is coming together. It's a mix of combat, moral decisions, and puzzles. I'd say the area is around half done, though it's always hard to judge with these sorts of things.

After this, I have one more main plot area then I'd like to finish up the Struggle area. There's also a few systems I need to revamp once HotU comes out. Lots of work yet, though I think I'll eventually get there.

I actually made some progress yesterday, whic...

December 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I actually made some progress yesterday, which felt nice for a change. There was a rather complicated dialog which I finished up and scripted, as well as getting some of the encounters for the area ready to go. I'm trying very hard to steer away from a bunch of mindless combats and I'm instead trying to keep it interesting or at least amusing. We'll see how it pans out.

Today is more scripting as well as some planning. I've carefully made some empty areas for moments of creative insight, but they haven't happened quite yet.

I finally finished Knights of the Old Republic last night. Wonderful game. The end was a bit traditional, but ultimately satisfying.

Okay, okay

December 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Okay, okay. I've been playing Knights of the Old Republic virtually non-stop. Hopefully I'll finish up in a day or two. It's been one of the best roleplaying games I've played for quite some time. There's also some tidbits I'd love to lift into NWN, mostly the beaches which look great. I think I have an idea of how to do it, but just need to take a closer look.

With luck, I'll work on some of the dialog I've been wanting to do. We'll see how it goes today.

Well, more doors this morning

December 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, more doors this morning. I placed and scripted 26 of the little bad boys this morning, using the six custom doors I put together. I still need to add the "keys" for each, but that shouldn't be too hard. I also need to put together the people and things in the area, which isn't necessarily trivial. Still, it's good to get a bunch of work on this key plot area.

Bioware is supposedly showing me some love and passing the HotU expansion my way. Pretty cool of them. Let's see, $30 divided by the few hundred hours I've put into module building equals . . . aw, heck, I'm doing it for fun anyway.

Knights of the Old Republic has consumed my soul. My son and I continue to play through at a frantic rate. Today we achieved the maxium number of light side points so our character is all glowy. Great game, but I can't wait to finish so that I can focus on module building again. All play and no work makes for late modules.

Well, I did get the new door in there, as wel...

December 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I did get the new door in there, as well as start up on a new conversation. It was pretty busy at home, however, and trying to get my Christmas presents ready. Not a lot done.

Also, it's looking like I'm going to wait for the 1.60 patch for the card game, updating all the hak packs accordingly. Shouldn't be much longer now.

Well, I didn't quite manage to get much done ...

December 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I didn't quite manage to get much done yesterday, with the module at least. I worked on the card game some more, putting some spit and polish on it to get it ready to put out there. There's also the matter of the imminent 1.60 patch, which I'd like to get it compliant with, as well as some other last minute things. Should be soon, though.

I'm mentally planning the next plot area in my brain. I've got most of it layed out, then realized I needed another custom door. Hopefully I'll get to it today.

On another note, I've finally moved into my old office in the basement. I lugged down three computers, including the web server, and hooked it all up. It's not quite finished yet. I still need to hook up rear speakers, get my dad working on the wall panel, and cut some holes in the wall so I can move a couple computers into the closet. I'm sure the new arrangement will greatly inspire my creativity, or at least I'll stop stepping on Legos every time I go to the computer (as I was crammed in a small room with Sam's toys).

More strange doors yesterday

December 04, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

More strange doors yesterday. This particular one has sheets of flame moving about. I have a total of five, which should be enough for my efforts. I also made my interior combo tileset, which was a bit tricky due to the varying heights of the tiles. Still, I think it turned out okay and should make an interesting little adventure zone. Today I need to work on the scripting for the area, as well as adding the necessary dialog, encounters, and so on.

Good news on the card game front. It's looking like the last of the big bugs are gone, leaving only AI tweaks and the like. What I want to do at this point is get the .2da files from HotU in there, then release it on the Vault. Not much longer.

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday trying ...

December 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday trying to integrate the Dreamcatcher/Shadowlords content into the new module. The main problem is that for the custom weapons, I've had to check them individually and recreate them. This is because of the .2da changes that SoU brought which caused me to renumber the baseitems.2da file (which only means something to a handful of custom content folks). In any case, I managed to get a fair number of things in the game, including the Ioun Stone you see here. I also learned a bit using the various .gff and .erf editors that should let me do some neat things once HotU comes out.

I also started in on one of the new plot areas. It took me a long while to figure out which tileset I was going to use, though I think I've finally settled on a combination of official and custom tiles. In order to support what I'm trying to do, I've been creating some custom doors as well. Here's an example of the red mist door, which looks pretty nifty in the game.

Finally, Knights of the Old Republic continues to be a really fun game. Lots of moral quandries and interesting situations.

Well, I managed to save some of the good ol' ...

December 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I managed to save some of the good ol' items from Shadowlords and Dreamcatcher. Some are not going to be very salvageable due to story or technical issues, but some of people's nifty loot should remain. The other trick is handing it out at appropriate places so that the player isn't bombarded by treasure right off the bat. My hope is that it's relatively balanced, but we'll see how it goes.

In my long list of things to finish, I left off the Struggle areas. I'm going to at least do the one, but I'm waiting for Martin E's tileset. It sounds like he's busy these days, so I may have to pass on it. We'll see how it goes.

This is going to be one of those "here's what...

December 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

This is going to be one of those "here's what I hope to get done today" entries, as I admit to not touching the game after I posted yesterday, other than a few card games looking for bugs. With luck, I can get the latest issues to Jazael and he can fix them in a week or so. I'll also want to wait for HotU so that I have the latest .2da files (as updating them is a bit of a chore).

It also just turned December, which is suggestive of the amount of time I have left. I very much want to wrap up Demon. I have two main plot areas to do, the Sigil tileset to integrate (once it's released), henchmen dialog to write, assorted detail work (such as flavor text, sounds, etc.), integrating the old equipment and special abilities, making sure multiplayer works right, and finally a bunch of testing.

I'm not sure I can get all that done in a couple months, but I'm going to try. We'll see how it goes.

I made some good progress last night and this...

November 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I made some good progress last night and this morning. I finished up the last plot area and have started implementing some "item redistribution" code. A minor spoiler, but at the beginning of the game you lose all your items. One of the things you can do is recover most of them at various points in the module. I'm writing the code to clean up any special items the character may have, along with moving them to the proper places. It's a challenge to do, but I'm hoping that people appreciate the effort in being able to use their old equipment again.

I also missed a door in one of my Sigil interior tiles. I spent about fifteen minutes fixing that this morning as well.

I'm a bad, bad man

November 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I'm a bad, bad man. Instead of "wrapping up" the card game like I mentioned the other day, I added more features. I wanted the ability for players to manage multiple decks, then break out the one they wanted for any particular occasion. I have that now, using a "Deck Bag" where you can put your unused decks, along with the ability to purchase assorted deck containers with names like "Creatures Deck - Undead". It works fairly well and should be a welcome addition, especially in multiplayer.

I've also been fixing issues as I find them. I'm down to the more minor ones, I think, and a few things that are strange and intermittent. Certain games seem to result in no cards or gold lost, for example. I've got to research further.

As for the Demon module, I'm slowly working away on it, though not as quickly as I would like. The plot area I'm currently working on is almost done. I just need some dialog and a bit of scripting, then I'm calling it quits.

I'm also seriously toying with the idea that at least some of the items you can bring from Shadowlords/Dreamcatcher don't disappear. There are some where I'm practically forced to do it, such as the custom weapons that require hacks. I might end up recreating them, but it's a fair bit of hassle. All due to the way .2da files work. Sigh.

Yet another short entry today

November 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yet another short entry today. I spent a good eight hours yesterday and a couple more this morning painting our basement. Yippie.

I'm continuing to work on the same plot area. At the moment, I'm getting a puzzle together that you need your henchman to complete. It's not quite finished, but fairly close.

Another short entry today

November 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Another short entry today. It's Thanksgiving here in the states, so I'm quite busy getting things ready. Not to mention our remodel and the two hours I spent painting walls this morning.

Still, I managed a bit more scripted encounters last night. Hopefully it'll make this particular are a bit more alive and interesting.

I actually managed to get some work on the mo...

November 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I actually managed to get some work on the module yesterday, in between the daily insanity of life. I mostly worked on one of the plot areas, putting down appropriate placeables, creating some assorted treasure, and scripting some small encounters. Still not there yet, as I have some dialog and more interesting scripting to go. It's amazing how long these things take.

Every time I think I'm getting close to relea...

November 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Every time I think I'm getting close to releasing the card game, it turns out I was wrong. It's usually for very good reasons, however. The testers make a good point about how something shoudl work, I talk to Jazael who puts it in the game, then I've got a new round of testing and fixing.

The game now supports multiple areas to manage decks and play games. It's pretty amazing to me to play multiplayer and have all these games going on. Very cool.

We also have new cards, though some have some issues with them. Pictured here are Scorched Earth and Intellect Devourer. I think I'm over 60 unique cards now, enough to build a variety of decks with.

Well, I was supposed to post this Saturday, b...

November 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I was supposed to post this Saturday, but better late than never:
Magnus Ringblom's site

Magnus is the person who's been creating custom music for Demon and he's graciously offered to host some of the music for the upcoming game on his site (as this poor server couldn't take it). Today we have the main theme, with the thought that we release a new one every few weeks to keep things interesting. Click over to the "Music" section of his site to get a sample of his work - Demon should be up there at the top. Magnus has been great to work with and I'm excited to get all of his music in the game.

As for me, I've been so busy the last 24 hours that I didn't work on the module hardly at all. Between kid watching, laundry, and remodel projects, I think I managed to create a few new outfits for a couple new factions. Hopefully today I can get into it a bit more.

Finally, Knights of the Old Republic gets a "masterful" rating from me. It's kept Sam and I entertained for long stretches of time.

I worked more on a tricky multiplayer scripti...

November 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked more on a tricky multiplayer scripting sequence yesterday. The hard part is getting all the characters through a door at the same time, doing a certain event, then having another event fire when they're all done. Hopefully it works, though I haven't fully tested yet.

I also redid the Gem Thief area. Hopefully it'll be interesting, challenging, as well as offering some interesting puzzles for folks. It feels good to finally get to areas of the main plot.

Wacky days

November 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Wacky days. I noticed over at the NWVault that they changed the way scores are calculated for the modules and all the Dreamcatcher modules rose to the top. Nifty, I suppose, though I stopped keeping track of ratings a long time ago.

I worked some on the shapechanging scripts, getting things ready for HotU and the new SetAppearance function. It's core to the game, so I'm wanting to get things ready. It's important that it works for the Struggle areas too, as disguise is important for the neutral path. I still have a ton of dialog to write around that choice, but at least I'm getting closer.

As for the main plot, I have one of the sections ready in my brain. I just need to sit down and do it. Hopefully today. Jazael came up with a potential fix for the last big bug of the card game. He's also looking into adding a few more cards. I've also been doing lots of bug fixing based on QA feedback.

On an unrelated note, I finally got Knights of the Old Republic. I had a moment of extreme frustration when it crashed to the desktop when I started it up. Remembering my woes with the latest NWN patch, I found a "no cd" fix, applied it, and it works like a charm. Sad days when the publisher makes life hard on honest customers who happen to have CD drives that the copy protection can't deal with. So far, it's pretty good. It gives me hope that the core NWN engine is solid, as KotOR uses an improved version of it. Little things such as the light glistening off the alien's tentacles look fabulous.

Sometimes it feels like the card game has tak...

November 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Sometimes it feels like the card game has taken on a life of its own. The QA pace is increasing, with lots of bug reports and balance issues. We've got one show-stopper at this point that's going to take some time to fix, and lots of smaller balance issues. The Pit Fiend and Master Vampire were basically unstoppable, for example, and Fireball was dishing out too much damage. It's funny how what was just a little mini-game within Demon has become a stand-alone thing in its own right.

I didn't touch Demon at all yesterday as I was too busy working with the QA folks and fixing problems. The list of issues is decreasing, fortunately, and I've managed to sneak in a few enhancements as well. You can't really make it out in this screenshot, but there's a visual indicator of how many hit points your avatar has left. Makes your impending doom even clearer.

Yet more tweaking of the card game

November 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yet more tweaking of the card game. I fixed a couple other bugs yesterday and added some more enhancements. I'm starting to get comfortable with the scripts, which weren't created by me, and getting in to tweak things.

One of my experiments yesterday was to increase the amount of hit points each avatar had. This screenshot is from a test with 200 hit points. It went on for quite some time, being extended by various spells that destroyed many creatures, along with healing spells. We finally ended up littering the playing field with bodies and both running out of cards, something I'd never done before. I'm going to do my next set of tests with 150 hit points. The goal is to make it hard to die if you're unlucky in the first few seconds of the game, but not so high that small creatures are worthless.

I also worked a bunch more on the Chen village area, adding scripting and dialog for the various sides. Hopefully today I'll be able to get in the neutral quest options, which have been dragging on for a bit.

The development of the card game continues nicely

November 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

The development of the card game continues nicely. I squashed a few more bugs yesterday and I've handed over the latest version to the CODI QA team. Hopefully it won't be that much longer, though it depends on what bugs people return with. I'm looking forward to giving everyone a little "teaser" of things to come.

I've also been working on the module more, mostly with the Struggle areas. I think you can currently join the evil side and jump in for some mindless slaughter. Now I just need to get the other two sides in. The good side is almost done. Yesterday I got in details such as being able to sober up the drunk priest or befriend the village dog. You'll need all the allies you can get your hands on.

I was a busy little debugger last night

November 18, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I was a busy little debugger last night. Jazael sent me the latest version of the card game with untested bug fixes and a new sacrifice method. Now you can simply click on some gallows and select via dialog the creature you want to sacrifice. Works quite well.

At this point, I think I'd like to get it to the CODI QA group to work it over a few times and then get it nicely packaged up for people to play for awhile. As issues pop up, I'll try to clean them up before I integrate it into the Demon module.

Sorry about the web problems yesterday. It looks like one of Microsoft's security patches broke things. It seemed to hold on to user connections over time, which made it hit the 10 user limit for Windows XP Pro. One of these days I should upgrade to a real server. It's just this time consuming thing that I'd like to avoid.

As for progress on the module itself, I have the third faction in the game - the Seekers of Balance. I still need to add in the necessary parts to the first Struggle so that they can walk through it. I'm still waiting on some of the new scripting pieces from HotU. Should be out very soon, though, as it went gold yesterday. Probably December 2nd or so.

I've been mostly working on details since yes...

November 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been mostly working on details since yesterday. I added another "ambiance scene" - some dialog with a shopkeep. I also put in some flavor text, though I'd say I'm only a third of the way done there. I also added sounds to the various areas, making sure things like the portals all had te same magical effect. Finally, I started in on some main plot points which helped me feel like I was actually making progress.

I also finally picked up the December issue of Computer Gaming World. Sure enough, the Dreamcatcher series is mentioned prominently. Strangely, they grabbed a picture from this site, but it was one from Demon rather than Dreamcatcher. It's only a few short sentences, of which here's an excerpt:

From the cinematics to the storytelling detail, the Dreamcatcher series includes memorable, well-crafted NWN mods.

I can always tell when a core idea is a good ...

November 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I can always tell when a core idea is a good one, as it starts to branch off in all sorts of directions. I start thinking, "Well of course group X is behaving this way. They're trying to blackmail group Y into doing their bidding." After yesterday's revelation, things are moving along quite nicely. I'm even considering reversing some of my earlier assertations, such as taking away all the player's items and tossing them away. So, I'm happy with the change even though it's fairly major.

Other than just thinking about plot revisions, I've been working more on polishing existing sections. One of the things I think distinguishes between average and good modules is the sense of immersion. The world should be going on around the player, rather than waiting for them to arrive. I added a little bit of that yesterday, though I certainly have more of it to do. We'll see how my time goes. I still have a bunch of plot areas I need to start in on.

In a fit of insane brilliance this morning, I...

November 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

In a fit of insane brilliance this morning, I completely rewrote the plot.

It sounds fairly significant, and it is. Up until now I've been pussyfooting around it as I've never felt completely satisfied with the thing. It seemed overly convoluted and I was never sure if the player would really understand the reasons behind what was happening. It now seems so much clearer, without being overly simplistic. I think most people will be happy with it, especially longtime fans (and that's all I'm saying about it for the moment). The good news is that it won't actually mean any rewrites for me, as it's the portion of the plot that I've been saving for the last. Hopefully it all works out nicely.

I got the music into the game, which makes a huge difference in setting the proper mood. Magnus has been quite busy, coming up with a wide variety of themes. It's a goodly amount of bytes, so I'm thinking of offering it as a separate download. Still, for those of you with broadband, it's highly recommended.

I've been cleaning up broken issues in the game. The Gate Divers area is a key area and it wasn't working properly. A little script tweaking and it was up and running again. I also had some cases where I had "fixed" something in the game, but ended up breaking it elsewhere. Finally, I got ahold of Jazael on IRC and he's graciously decided to try his hand at resolving the last of the card game issues. It's all good.

I seem to be alternating between despair and ...

November 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I seem to be alternating between despair and enthusiasm these days. Progress continues, though never as quick as I'd like. I find myself going back to old areas and finding problems that need to be fixed, taking time away from newer things.

I tested the card game yesterday and found that some of the bugs were still there. I think the ball is in my court for testing and fixing issues, though time is at a premium for me these days. It's also tricky looking at someone else's work and trying to figure things out.

I've also started adding in shops to the game, one of the mainstays of any good adventure game. I have the weaponsmith and the tinker's at this point, though they're not quite fully stocked yet.

More work on the swamp, trying to get the loc...

November 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

More work on the swamp, trying to get the locals looking just right. I think I've got the quest and dialog mostly scripted, now I just need to get the NPC in there and put a few more finishing touches on the gate diving aspect of it.

I was fiddling around yesterday and found some problems with the Plane of Air area. One of those things where I overwrote a file in the hak and now something isn't showing up correctly. Should be a quick fix.

I still haven't gotten back to testing the card game. Bad, bad me.

While I'm not really close to done, I came to...

November 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

While I'm not really close to done, I came to the realization that I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have one more Plane to finish, some locations in Omelas, and then the rest of the major plot areas. Based on my current rate of progress, I'm guessing things will be done in January, though that could change in the future. I still have to see how HotU turns out and integrate in all the new scripting functions.

I finished up the Plane of Air yesterday, putting in all the spawns I wanted to get in there. I also made myself a "Control Center" area that let me teleport to different parts of the game, sets up the henchmen propertly, and has a chest full of goodies to play with. Makes testing easier.

Finally, I started in on the Abyssal Swamp, getting a hut into the tileset and starting work on the necessary dialog.

Work on the sewers continues

November 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Work on the sewers continues. I've been pretty happy with the way they've been turning out. Hopefully it's a nice mix of tricks, traps, and combat to liven up the evening. I put in my first puzzle that requires you to ask your henchman to do something. Though it involves a little typing, it makes them feel more like real people instead of these things you tow about to add more firepower. I'm also putting in large numbers of custom items, which I've always felt kept the game interesting.

Jazael sent me an update to the card game, though I haven't had a chance to test it. Hopefully soon.

Well, it appears my ISP is down at the moment...

November 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, it appears my ISP is down at the moment, DSL connects up just fine but no one is listening. I suppose I'm writing for myself this morning then.

Mostly I worked on sewers and the placeables I needed. Expect secret doors, loose bricks, and water that can flood an area. Great fun.

Update: Ah, DSL is up and running again. Which is pretty obvious, because you're reading this.

I spent some time this morning working on the...

November 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent some time this morning working on the sewers. It's the first "dungeon" area the players wander into, so I'm trying to put in as much interesting tidbits as I can. Velmar's big rooms really help break up the claustrophobic feeling of the tunnels.

It's probably going to be a mite too tough for first level characters going in, though after the PCs have a level or two under their belts, they should be able to hold their own.

Not a lot to report for today

November 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Not a lot to report for today. I worked more on the dialog for the various Orders, as well as some of their special items. There's something about items with unique powers that I really like. Keeps things spicy.

I also tested out the transport mechanism from the Order to the first Struggle area. Lots of funny problems, such as my portal model being set to "effect" instead of "character", so it was impossible to make usable.

I may have gotten the issue with the Tainted using the PLT files sorted out. I need to revisit them shortly - it turns out the problem is fixed by having a set of Tainted "armor" that looks like their exposed skin. It should work out, I think.

I'm still working on getting the card game mi...

November 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I'm still working on getting the card game mini-module together. I dug up some more bugs yesterday. The funniest was casting Dispel Magic and the enemy's avatar lost his paralyze effect and began running away from all my creatures. I worked a bit more on balance as well, polishing up the issues I could find.

As for the main module itself, I finally got a chance to work on it some more. I have the Radiant Way in the game, including the link to the first of the Struggles. I still need to test it out more fully, but hopefully it will go smoothtly.

I've also been doing tests with texture compression using the DDS format. It makes a huge difference, reducing sizes by over 50% in many cases. I may have to offer a TGA-only download for the very small percent whose cards don't support it, but I think it's a minority of folks. Hak pack size is one of those things I worry about off and on, but hopefully I can get it down to the bare minimum without making compromises.

Not a lot to report

November 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Not a lot to report. I added a few items to the module and created the area for the Radiant Way, one of Omelas' philosophies.

On the card game front, I managed to pull it out of the game and shrink it down to around 300 KB in size, including the hak pack. I think we're getting very close to QA time. There's a couple bugs and issues I want to resolve first, but it shouldn't take too long. It'll be nice to release a little something before the module.

I worked on a number of different things yest...

November 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked on a number of different things yesterday, though strangely none of it was on the module itself. Magnus had some more music for me to listen to, which is always a treat. Jazael sent me the latest and greatest version of the card game. It's getting even closer to being done, after some minor tweaking and testing. I also spent a bunch of time working on a new Tainted model with Ryuujin using the PC parts system. I got it all set up in the game, but ran into a really weird problem where the textures were using the half-orc PLTs rather than the Tainted ones. Hopefully I can figure that out today as I really like the approach.

Yet more work yesterday

November 04, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yet more work yesterday. I think I have the Manor area finished up, complete with a new fancy placeable. I also needed to put in the change to allow holdable mage items in the game (staves, wands, etc.). Now that they're there, I now want to start whipping up some new magic items. We'll see how it goes today.

Also, it seems that my modules are mentioned in the December issue of Computer Gaming Word (on page 108). I've yet to see a copy, so I'll try to snag one the next time I'm in a store. Pretty neat.

I tried very hard yesterday to not work on cu...

November 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I tried very hard yesterday to not work on custom content and instead focus on the game itself. I made one tiny thing, but otherwise put in scripts, dialog, and the like. The Plane of Air is mostly done and I did some testing and cleanup on the Plane of Fire. I do have a placeable I need to whip up for my haunted manor, but hopefully that'll be the end of it for awhile.

The card game work has slowed a bit as I need to do some things and get back to Jaz. I'm still hoping to release it before the module itself.

I was working this morning on getting Wysiwyg...

November 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I was working this morning on getting Wysiwyg's drunk script in the game. I thought about doing it myself, but his is about as comprehensive as it gets. It's actually required for the game, believe it or not, and not just a silly little add-on (though it's a fun one at that).

Mostly, though, I've been working on tiles. Yesterday I got the Slum terrain basically done and integrated into the Demon hak pack. Now I need to turn my attention to scripting and finishing up a bunch of different areas.

More tileset work yesterday and this morning

November 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

More tileset work yesterday and this morning. It's tedious work at times, moving vertexes around on the screen, testing for shadow problems, fiddling with the SET file, and so on. Still, there's a feeling of satisfaction seeing things come to life in the game. I'm really trying hard to minimize the number of tiles from the official game that are seen in this module so as to really give the player a strong sense of immersion. I have several different interior styles at this point - the Stem interior (which makes a good generic interior) and what I'm calling Slum, Stone, and Rich. I have a couple 1x1 interior tiles that I'll use as well, though they're quite minimal. There's also one group I did that I'm calling the "Metal Dome", ideal for tinkerers and slum bazaars.

To be honest, I'm starting to feel antsy and want to see these tiles in the game fairly soon. I'm almost done with the Slum terrain, just needing to get doors in the game at this point. Not much further and I'll finally be able to start work on a variety of interiors.

Gasp

October 31, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Gasp. I forgot to post an update before I headed out to work this morning. I'm usually so diligent.

I worked mostly on tiles yesterday, fixing boring things like getting the floor textures rotating properly and the walls casting shadows as appropriate. I still have three or four absolutely necessary tiles to add to the Slum tileset. Hopefully I can get those done soon as I'm getting to the point where I want to get them into the module.

I'm still working on getting the card game into shape where it could be sent out as a mini-module. I need to get all the new card descriptions in there and have another chat with Jaz on scripting.

Magnus sent me another update to the music, which was great. He's mostly done with the main theme which has an uplifting/frantic nature to it. Hard to describe. He's also using a vaguely middle eastern sound to reflect the "exotic" nature of the place (which probably isn't that exotic to those of you from the area). I can't wait to actually get the music and Sigil exterior tileset together for the first time. I think it'll really make a big impact.

I spent some time yesterday working with Jaz ...

October 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent some time yesterday working with Jaz to resolve some issues with his redone card game. I also created a dozen or so new placeables to support the cards he added. We're getting closer to getting things ready for official testing. I think the CODI QA team wants a crack at it as it's getting a "CODI-sponsored" logo attached to the mini-module.

I've also patiently been working on the Sigil slum interior. I probably need at least four more tiles before I can call it finished. Slowly getting there.

Well, I finally got my grubby little hands on...

October 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I finally got my grubby little hands on the card game changes that Jaz has been working on. It's a complete rewrite, including a number of changes such as two-player support. I looked at the code yesterday and it was very clean (as opposed to my dirty, dirty code - sniff). Playing it took some getting used to as there were new cards and changes to the way things worked. Still, it's still as fun as it used to be and there are some nifty new additions. Also, some of the things that were plain broken are now working (such as the card buying and selling scripts).

As it's a complete rewrite, there are some issues that turned up during testing. I'll need to ship Jaz the issue list and we can figure out what to do with it. I also have tested multiplayer yet, though I hopefully will soon.

My secret plan is still to create a mini-module with just the card game in it. The hak pack that goes with it would be very small and it hopefully wouldn't take very long to pull it out of the current module. Gotta get the kinks worked out first.

I managed to sneak in a little bit of work in...

October 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I managed to sneak in a little bit of work in yesterday, finally get in that dialog that I'd written out late last week. Other than that, I haven't been able to do a lot - continuing the basement demolition project and taking care of kids.

A very exhausted Jazael sent me an e-mail that he was done with the card game changes. Hopefully I'll get a chance to take a look relatively soon, though we're having some issues getting the file to me. It sounds like there are still some bugs that need to be worked out, but I'm hoping it can be used as a mini-module to tide people over before the real one is released.

I had a weird day yesterday, with headaches a...

October 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I had a weird day yesterday, with headaches all day then collapsing in bed very early. Somehow, I managed to sneak in a bit more game development, mostly when I woke up really early this morning.

I fixed a hak pack issue I had where I had accidentally overwritten one of my earlier models. I also worked more on the haunted mansion, getting more of the residents in the game. Other than decorating and some brief scripting and dialog, I think I'm done with this section. I still have some hand-written dialog I need to get in the game, as well as finishing up a few more planes.

Eventually I need to hunker down and start on the main plot, which has been flapping in the wind for awhile. Part of the problem is that I've designed a module where there's all these systems (such as potion brewing) that require a lot of areas to collect the required ingredients. I knew early on that it was going to end up pretty huge. Still, I worry sometimes that the game will sprawl outwards and the main quest will get lost a bit. Hopefully I can continue to make it clear what the player needs to do next at the same time encouraging exploration and experimentation.

I was jumping all around yesterday

October 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I was jumping all around yesterday. I built out the Sigil interior tileset more and added another tile. I finished mapping the haunted Manor area, though I've got to finish up some scripting and creature creation. I also fixed some bugs that have been floating around for awhile.

Finally, I spent some time with the spirit gem, something I haven't done for several weeks. There's something fun about decorating it, choosing the ambiance, and playing around in each of the special rooms. I decided to hang up my portrait of Teira in the bedroom and admire it for awhile.

I've been jumping around, working on the haun...

October 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been jumping around, working on the haunted house a bit more, along with other parts of the game. I revamped my custom monster spawn script so that there's a delay before it'll fire again. I also worked in some undead and appropriate treasures in their random treasure system.

I also worked a bit more on the Sigil interiors, fixing problems and getting the tiles ready to be put into the game. This is for the "slum" area, with broken walls and holes in the floor. This may be the last of my interior tiles for awhile, as I need to start shifting my focus away from custom content. Admittedly, it's fun to whip up new things from time to time. I have a new magic circle with pulses that eminate from the center. Fun with emitters.

Though it's hard to tell in this screenshot, ...

October 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Though it's hard to tell in this screenshot, this model is actually animated. Smoke puffs out nicely and little parts move up and down. It's one of the things I needed for the Plane of Fire and I whipped it up this morning as it felt strange to have my NPC refer to something that wasn't there.

Although I did test more of the Plane of Fire quests yesterday, most of my time was spent working on a particular "haunting". Though there were some visual effects associated with the infestation of spirits, most of it is sound related. Very creepy. I'm finding that huge parts of the game have nothing to do with the main plot, and this is another example of this. Still, it should make the town and it's connected planes a much more interesting place to visit.

No jury duty either. While dispensing harsh justice to the n'ere-do-wells of our community sounded like fun, I'm happy I didn't get called up. The way our town works, that's it for two more years. I hope to finish working in dialog I have on paper, though I managed to get about half of it in yesterday. Progress slowly chugs along.

Despite having another day of all day meeting...

October 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Despite having another day of all day meetings, I somehow managed to sneak some work in. I wrote a bunch of dialog that I've been needing, as well as a long journal that the players can find. I also found some time last night to continue to test the Plane of Ice, which I think is basically done at this point. I started in on the Plane of Fire and I'm realizing there's a fair amount of debugging to do yet. I'm getting antsy about finishing up the Planes soon, though. I'd like to get the three faction leaders in the game, finish up the Struggle areas, and start in on the main plot again.

In other news, Jaz continues to work on the card game. He's made some rule changes and added some cards. With luck, I'll get a chance to take a look at his additions and I'm hopeful it'll make the game even more fun. I'm sorely tempted to take a short pause and release a card game module just to keep everyone's interest afloat until the full module is released.

As expected, I wasn't able to do a lot yesterday

October 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

As expected, I wasn't able to do a lot yesterday. I did manage to put in some testing time for the Plane of Ice. It took me about 20 minutes to figure out that my footprints weren't showing up because I used a texture that wasn't 64x64, but rather 64x72. It looked great in max, but never showed up in the game. Sigh.

I haven't been able to fully test the main quest, but at least the creature spawning script is working, as well as the random treasure generation for them. I also decided to allow for a Fortitude save to avoid the constant cold damage when outside, which seems to work nicely. Hopefully I can get the main bugs fixed and I can turn my attention to the Plane of Fire.

Oh, and if you're curious about my bowling scores as part of my "team building" activities yesterday, I can say honestly that I wasn't last.

Well, I was pretty busy with non-NWN things y...

October 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I was pretty busy with non-NWN things yesterday. I did manage to get my metal dome interior group to the point where I was happy with it. It's interesting how some tileset making can go very quickly, while others seem to drag along. It's probably that I haven't had several hours of uninterrupted time for quite awhile.

Also, it doesn't look like I'm going to get much time over the next few days to work on this, except perhaps writing dialog on paper. The next couple days I'm doing "team building" things at work, including bowling this afternoon (don't ask me why). I also call Thursday night to see if I'm on jury duty. I might just have to send them away for life if it drags on too long.

The good news is that a number of the people offering help are doing great work. Magnus finished up his Place of Ice theme, which sounds great. Ryuujin is working on a new Tainted model using PC parts. It should bring a huge amount of variation to the creature type and make life generally easier for me. Finally, Jez, the new scripter, is taking a look at the card game. He's working on making it multiplayer and generally cleaning up code. I may end up releasing it as a stand-alone teaser before the module itself.

I got my metal dome in the toolset, though it...

October 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got my metal dome in the toolset, though it's not quite finished to my satisfaction. There's a couple wood beams that are propping up the roof and I'd like to put more dirt and debris on the floor around it. It's hard getting that "gritty" feel down right.

Hopefully today I can start in on some more dialog that should be quick. We'll see how it goes.

I didn't get a lot of NWN time yesterday, as ...

October 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I didn't get a lot of NWN time yesterday, as the move was pretty time consuming. We didn't actually end up moving the server yet, though I turned it off and on a few times to get the new wireless router working.

I did a little more work on my Sigil interiors, getting my metal dome sliced up and ready for import into the toolset. I found out the hard way that the old NWNViewer crashes my new computer. Locks it up hard. Oopsie.

For the first time in awhile, I actually play...

October 18, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

For the first time in awhile, I actually played the module. I've been spending most of the time in the toolset, tweaking things, writing dialog, and so on. As expected, I found lots of bugs and things to fix. One of them is that door entries over 300 really don't work. They work in the toolset but not the game, so it's either wait for a patch (which will probably be with HotU in November) or change them all back again. Silly me.

I think the Savannah is done at this point. I tested the two major quest branches and they worked after some fixing. I also tested the Plane of Ice area and found the main quest seriously broken. Hopefully I'll have some time for fixing this weekend, though it's our big "move before the remodel" day. I'll be hauling the server and other computers upstairs where they'll sit for a couple month as contractors redo our basement.

Yesterday was somewhat interesting

October 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yesterday was somewhat interesting. I got Velmar's sewers integrated in with the Demon hak pack. It was a bit of a challenge, as I decided to change all the magic numbers for the doors in the .2da file to get it compliant with Bioware's recommendations (previously, it was technically impossible due to numbers over 255 not working). So, I spent a bunch of time recreating doors in the game. Fortunately there weren't that many. The big sewer rooms look nice and hopefully I can start fleshing out that area of the game.

I also finished up the scripting for the Savannah area, as well as the Plane of Ice. I have some dialog and scripting for two more planes and then I'm done with that huge part of the game. I also have one more plane that I'm considering slipping in there, but haven't decided how I want to do it.

Oh, and I spent some time chatting with the CODI folks on IRC. They're a wacky bunch and I'm supposed to mention that I hate snomit, though I'm not sure why.

Progress continues steadily

October 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Progress continues steadily. I've been getting great help from a number of people, such as Velmar assisting with the sewers. I can't wait to get them into the game today as they looked great in my little test. I also had a scripter offer his services, so some of that may go a bit faster.

As for yesterday, I managed to get quite a bit wrapped up. Big chunks of the Plane of Fire dialog and scripting are done, as well as the Savannah dialog. With luck I'll finish (but not test) the Savannah area today. It's a pretty simple quest. The Plane of Fire is more complex and I decided to make it even more complex yesterday. Sigh.

I'm also hoping to get more of the Sigil interior tilesets finished as I'd like to put some more shops in and get started on more of the plot-related areas.

Progress moves along, slowly but surely

October 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Progress moves along, slowly but surely. I did a bunch of miscellaneous things yesterday, such as allowing you to train with your armsman to learn techniques for defeating the certain creatures in the game. I also continued with my dialog and scripting for the Plane of Ice. I think it's pretty close to being finished, though I'll still have to test it.

I'm also getting lots of great help with this module. I continue to work with the CODI folks on getting the Sigil interiors put together. I got some nifty new textures to play with from Bat yesterday, so I started some tests for a new batch of tiles. Magnus sent me a demo of the city music, which should be exotic and interesting. Ryuujin continues to work on some custom placeables. You'd think with all this help I could sit back and relax, but it mostly makes me aware of how much work there is to do yet. Slowly getting there.

I got a lot of miscellaneous things done yest...

October 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got a lot of miscellaneous things done yesterday. I cleaned up the Plane of Ice tileset, removing all those annoying shadows. I also started in on moving the dialog I wrote into the game, as well as writing the endless scripts to support it. The Plane of Ice is coming along quite nicely and should hopefully be the next plane on my list to finish up.

I've also been continuing my work on the Sigil interior tileset. I threw in a couple more "flat area" tiles for variation, one with dirt on the floor and the other with a puddle. I'm still debating whether or not to keep this as my "main" set of tiles, or instead wait for the textures and wall samples that BatInTheHat sends me and redo everything. I'll probably keep what I have regardless.

I wrote and wrote again yesterday, revising a...

October 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I wrote and wrote again yesterday, revising and extending. My task for today is to get all those words into the toolset.

I also worked more on my Sigil interiors yesterday, dirtying up some of the tiles. I'm waiting on some new textures from TheBatInTheHat, which will hopefully arrive soon. I think I may just copy my existing tiles and have two different textures for the same group of tiles. Variety is good.

It's amazing how much writing I can get in if...

October 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

It's amazing how much writing I can get in if I have few distractions and lots of time. I spent a ton of time in the car yesterday, then even more time just puttering around the in-laws' house while the kids were entertained.

I have the bulk of the dialog written for the Plane of Ice, the Plane of Fire, and the Savannah areas. If I remember right, that leaves a single Gate Diving plane to finish up. Now, I'm not really "done" with these areas, as they require lots of scripting and testing. Still, it feels good to knock off big chunks out of the way.

Fairly soon, I'd like to get started on the main plot. It's actually relatively small compared to the non-plot areas, though you'll have to do quite a few of the non-plot areas to progress in the main plot. Hopefully it will all make sense and play well. Tweaking is certainly a possibility down the road.

I'm heading to Portland for tonight, off to v...

October 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I'm heading to Portland for tonight, off to visit the grandparents. I'm hauling along my notebook to write dialog, which is sorely needed in a bunch of areas. I've figured out how I want to set up the quest for the Plane of Ice area. It should have a bunch of evil/good persuasion/force options.

Well, I didn't open the module once yesterday...

October 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I didn't open the module once yesterday, instead working on my Sigil Interior tileset that will show up in the module. I'm looking for some variety in the interiors and I'm hoping this helps. Right now, everything looks like the Stem bar. It's a great looking tileset but it does get a little monotonous.

I'll probably work more on it today, or perhaps do some fiddling with the other Planes. I've got a few that need to be worked on.

I went looking for some good portraits for th...

October 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I went looking for some good portraits for the Chen Village area. It was surprisingly hard to find some, but I found these recolored ones on the Vault. They took a fair amount of fiddling in Photoshop until I was happy with them, but I was eventually satisfied and got them into the game.

I finished the core villager dialog yesterday, though I've still to put in the code that allows the player to help improve weapons and aid with their training. There are some other key characters I want to put in the village as well, such as the drunk priest and some mangy dogs. We'll see how it goes.

Testing for the bandits went well. I think they're mostly done except except for what comes out of testing. I was able to help get their equipment in top shape, train them, and lead them into battle. Should be entertaining.

The struggle for Chen Village continues

October 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

The struggle for Chen Village continues. I finished up the dialog for the bandits yesterday, though there's a few scripting bugs that I need to work out. The coolest part is that I have their AI mostly working. I can give commands to their leader or directly through the chat line. They'll equip ranged or melee weapons, follow me, wait, or use stealth. Hopefully soon they'll be able to advance or retreat through a series of rally points. All very fun.

My plan is that I can use the same general approach for a second "Struggle" area, this time with more of a Celtic feel. I'm hoping that Martin E's tileset will be finished relatively soon, though we'll see how it goes.

I started on the villager dialog yesterday and I've got more to do today. Once I have the good and evil paths finished, I've got to nail down the details with the neutral one. That'll be a bit trickier in some ways, requiring quite a bit of dialog.

Yet another productive day

October 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yet another productive day. Yesterday I mostly worked on dialog for the Chen Village area. I even did some dialog branches if you meet them in Tainted or humanoid form, which was kind of fun if a bit tedious. I also started work on their AI, so hopefully they'll follow you about properly.

Last night, my nephew tested out the card game and arena code some more, finding several glaring bugs. I could always tell when he'd start laughing hysterically that I'd find something particularly odd. He managed to get down into the arena pit with his creatures and was wacking away at the opponents at one point. He also discovered that the enemy never leveled up, so his creatures were making short work of level five animals and reaping the rewards. I fixed most of these issues, though I've still got a few to go.

I worked a tiny bit on a slum Sigil interior tile. For speed's sake I'm using my "haunted" interior as a base and modifying things as appropriate.

Much good news all around

October 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Much good news all around. My new power supply arrives today, which will hopefully clean up a few of the graphical glitches I see when the power supply is warming up. It probably won't fix NWN, though, as I think I found the issue. It seems to have been a CD check related bug, as I found a new "no cd" patch and applied it to both of the computers that weren't working. Sure enough, they started up just fine this morning. I'll probably start moving development to my new box over the next week or two, as it is considerably snappier.

I've been doing a lot of modeling over the last couple days, working more with my Sigil Interior tileset. I think it's time for me to bite the bullet and make the really hard ones next. The plan is to create a "slum" set of tiles that allows you to create various slum buildings. We'll see how that ones goes.

As an "official" CODI modeler, I get access to the cool forum boards now which includes some sneak peeks at other modelers' works. There were a few shots that reminded me of the end of 2001 ("my God, it's full of stars"). The Sigil tileset is going to blow everyone away. I'm glad I've decided to hold out for it as it simply looks way too cool.

Today I'd like to get started on the Chen Village area. I'm probably yet again biting off more than I can chew. I've got to figure out ways to make it less complicated, though I'm not quite sure how yet. Perhaps I can use the same command AI for both villagers and bandits. That'll help a bit.

Oh, and I'll be checking e-mail for any comments about the newly released Dreamcatcher versions. Hopefully it's working for everyone. I expect a few people with mismatched hak and module versions as I had to renumber the .2da files in order to make it SoU compatible. I love messy technical stuff.

I'll keep it short today after my long one ye...

October 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I'll keep it short today after my long one yesterday. I've been working on a Sigil Interior tileset. So far I have about 10 tiles, half of them nicely packaged in the game now. They include two very small one tile houses, one nice and the other pretty filthy. I'm also working on a generic round set of tiles suitable for circular houses and towers. So far it includes: plain, doorway, stairs up, stairs down, bed, and table/countertop. No screenshots unfortunately, though they do look nice.

It's been another productive 24 hours

October 04, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

It's been another productive 24 hours. Yesterday I finally finished up the Mechanus levels and started integrating Coulisfu's Oriental Tileset, which is truly great. I spent a good hour last night just oohing and aahing over the scenery, having fun placing blossom trees and paper lanterns. Excellent stuff. I've also integrated the Oriental weapons hak pack for all you nunchuka fans. I cringe every time the hak pack size increases, but this stuff is simply way too good.

I also penciled out the different paths for the area that'll use the Oriental tileset. It's tentatively called "The Struggle - Chen Village" and is tied up with the three Omelas philosophies. It's a doozy of an area if it works right. We'll see how hard it is to pull off.

I'm working off and on on Sigil interiors, using some of the textures I found in the beta Stem hak that CODI graciously lent me. I'm hoping they fit within the Sigil architecture style and still break up the monotony of using the Stem tileset for all interiors. Unfortunately, I can't post screen shots as the CODI team would send over an illithid to suck out my brains.

Oh, and I finally updated the Dreamcatcher 2-3 modules and hak packs so that they'll work with the SoU expansion. Just a reminder - you'll need BOTH the new module and new hak if you want to play. There's not really any huge changes - mostly fixes to the visualeffects.2da file and some bug cleanup. I did leave a small surprise in Dreamcatcher 4 towards the end.

A big thanks to Stefan who helped debug Idona's sword equipping issue. It turns out she wouldn't equip it because it wasn't identified, something that used to work but was changed in a later patch. Oopsie.

It's nice to make a lot of progress yet again

October 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

It's nice to make a lot of progress yet again. Yesterday I worked on more NPCs, this time the necessary shopkeeps that populate any town. I added some dialog to the magic shoppe owner and started creating some unique items for his store. I also added a herbalist and had fun hanging plants from the ceiling. She also talks a bit about recipies and how to use them.

This morning I got the third level of the Mechanus puzzle done, making one fairly big change to the way the game works. Before, when you pulled the "reset" lever, all the controls you've placed on the floor would disappear and reappear in the chest. I found this was pretty annoying, so I'm now leaving them all in place. Now I just need to make a little end prize, fix up the portals a bit, and that's one more Plane checked off my list (and one of the most annoying ones to code too).

I'm starting to get used to the fact that onl...

October 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I'm starting to get used to the fact that only one of my computers plays Neverwinter Nights. Last night I had all three going, one was watching television, the other had the toolset open, and the server had the game running for testing.

I made more progress yesterday, making a fun NPC that should be recognizable (though he's never been seen before). The painter code actually works now, which is a relief. It's to the point where I need to create a number of the local NPCs and locations in order to give the sense of a truly living city.

Also, I read that coulisfu finished his Oriental tileset. Looks like it's time to start penciling out the first of the "struggles". I'd like to have at least two areas where the different philosophies of Omelas try to resolve a problem in different ways. We'll see if I can pull it off.

Update: I'm doing a lot of updates these days. I guess I'm trying to assure people that despite my woes, I'm still progressing. I've been getting some really great offers of help lately. Ryuujin's just started in on some placeables that look great. Expect some appropriate banners for each of the factions. I'm also getting some help troubleshooting an annoying bug with Dreamcatcher 3. If things go well, I'll finally get that patch out (promise). I haven't heard from Magnus today, who's composing music for the module, but it sounds like he's hard at work as well. Finally, I became a semi-official member of CODI. I'm hoping that lets me start tinkering with some of their stuff. I'd really like to get some new interiors to work with.

As for my computer woes, I decided to buy a n...

October 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

As for my computer woes, I decided to buy a new power supply yesterday. The latest symptom is that I'd get screen garbage until the computer warmed up a bit. I also monitored the voltage and one of the readings was close to -11.5 for awhile. So, I'll wait until Friday and see how it goes. Thanks to all who have passed on advice.

I've actually been working on the game as well. My nephew was over yesterday and after solving Jedi Academy was looking bored. I set him in front of the card game, and he proceeded to happily beta test some more. One of the funnier moments was when he used Dispel and his avatar came to life and started attacking the other creatures. Oopsie.

I also created a new NPC yesterday, a painter, and tested the scripting. It works great except for the fact that I never actually get the painting. I'll take a look at it today.

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.

Well, I recovered from yesterday's fun error ...

August 31, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I recovered from yesterday's fun error and pushed ahead. This morning I mostly debugged, getting the initial scenes functional, fixing some dialog, and putting in some camera movement. It's slowly coming together, though of course I'd like to do more.

I'm seriously thinking of some major changes to the main character's model and how I handle the shape changing aspect. I'm thinking about basing the player's Demonform model on the human model. The main advantage is that all the standard animations would work (such as sit, rest, and equipping any variety of weapons). It would look and move quite differently, so I'll need to think about it some more and do some demos.

The other change is that I'm pretty sure I want to wait for the HoU expansion and use SetAppearance to change shape. I also want other things such as OnHit and OnEquip, as well as the ability to change item properties on the fly. Since I'm already planning this module to take a long time, I think I'm okay time-wise. I still have huge amounts of things to work on. So, I think I'm going for the later but better approach.

The screenshot of the day is that little pipe I put together.

On a odd little note, I installed Google's toolbar this morning. This page shows up with a page raking of 4 (out of 10), which is the same as the Neverwinter Vault. Some other popular NWN sites and their ranking:

Velmar's Resources 3/10
Lands of Kray 3/10
City of Doors 4/10
Dragonlance Adventures 5/10
Bioware 7/10

Ah, the joys of popularity contests in the modern age.

I fired up NWN to test some of my changes yes...

August 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I fired up NWN to test some of my changes yesterday and got this lovely message. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to pin down the issue. I made some very minor changes to the hak pack yesterday, though I'm not sure that's the issue. I can attach them to a "clean" module and it works just fine. I do have backups, but they're from earlier this week. I'd prefer not to redo things even though it would go fairly quickly.

Update: I think I found it. I had added an OnEnter script to the sewers, which seems to have been the culprit. One of those things that compiles just fine but there's an error in the logic that crashes things.

I put in a bunch of work yesterday, adding more dialog and working on getting the henchmen in the game the way I like it. Progress continues.

I put in some more work into the introduction...

August 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I put in some more work into the introduction yesterday, along with whipping up a couple more placeables. Here's a golden rat statue, looking quite at home in the sewers.

I also made a new pipe placeable, as I needed something of the right size and orientation for someone to crawl through. I created dialog for it as well, making it possible for the player to get from point A to B.

I worked so hard yesterday that my brain is numb

August 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked so hard yesterday that my brain is numb. I went through all my custom tilesets and created minimaps. It's tedious work and it's not quite right yet. For some of the larger groups, I didn't match up the graphics quite right, so I've got some fixing to do today.

Most importantly, I integrated the Stem tileset in to the module. It looks great, which is no surprise. I must have opened and closed the main door a dozen times just because it looked neat. From there, I started mapping out a bunch of areas, from the Arena to the Gate Divers. The next major tileset is the Sigil exterior one, which I don't have a version of yet. In the meantime, I'm using the standard city exterior for testing purposes.

Hopefully today I can start scripting and writing dialog for these areas. There's lots to do still. This particular screenshot is for the warehouse area, which has some quests for the Radiant Way and the Order of the Flame.

I worked in the DLA Sewers yesterday

August 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked in the DLA Sewers yesterday. Though I was holding out for the 1.1 version, the plot is getting to the point where it's pretty important to have. This bumped the hak pack size up to 10 MB in size, though this is the "large" version with pretty load screens and the like. My goal is still to have a smallish version as well as a bigger one.

I also begged Papermonk from CODI for the latest version of the Stem tileset. It's a sight to see and I am continually impressed by Bat in the Hat's work. I integrated my portal and arena and hope to get the hak into the module today. For now it's going to be a separate hak (as the size is 20+ MB), but the plan is to integrate it all down the road.

Finally, I tested and debugged some of my guard/commoner scripts. You can attack and harrass the commoners and the guards come after you. What's supposed to happen is that the guards cause all combat to cease and begin a conversation. At times, though, everyone just seems to wail on you. Police brutality, I suppose. When you come back to life, you can pay your fines like a good citizen.

I hit a small milestone yesterday, moving fro...

August 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I hit a small milestone yesterday, moving from the main Gate to one of the planes, getting some loot then collecting my reward upon my return. A bit chunk of the exploration in the game revolves around Gate Diving, so it was nice to finally get that in place. Of course, only the Troll Cave is the complete plane, though quite a few have been started already.

Hopefully today I can work on some more dialog, of which there is endless amounts.

Strangely, I did very little over the weekend

August 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Strangely, I did very little over the weekend. It was a time for yardwork and family. I did have some odd ideas that may work themselves into the game. My notebook seems always at hand, full of scribbles that may never find turn themselves into reality.

Oh, and someone wrote a little blurb about their experience playing Shadowlords. It's about halfway down the page. Pretty neat.

I got my little troll game all scripted yesterday

August 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got my little troll game all scripted yesterday. After some bug testing this morning, it seems to be working quite nicely. The game is suitably challenging, mentally and psychologically, and I'll just leave things at that.

I worked more on dialog yesterday, doing a brief introduction to the Planes for the player. Since Gate Diving involves visiting a variety of places across the multiverse, I figured I should at least warn the player first.

I'm working hard on getting all the Gate Diving scripting and dialog in place. Pretty soon I should be able to test an entire visit to a plane, picking up an interesting tidbit, then returning to collect some gold and experience. Very slowly, an actual module is forming.

Yesterday I worked more on the player's spiri...

August 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yesterday I worked more on the player's spirit gem, putting in the dialog and scripting so that new rooms can be "added on". In reality, there's always there, but you can't access them until you've paid the price. In this case, you have to have enough items that generate spirit coin in your gem in order to add them on. I have a hard time describing the mechanism without sounding too Feng Shui, but that's the general idea.

I also whipped up a couple more placeables for use in my Mechanus puzzles. The hammer and the shield are really tokens for giving instructions to your monodrone, with the overall goal of getting the poor little creature safely to its destination.

If I get time today, I have another game-within-the-game that I'm working on. I'm hoping this one is really simple, a familiar puzzle with a twist at the end.

I managed to sneak in a little bit of scripti...

August 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I managed to sneak in a little bit of scripting yesterday, working more on the extremely complicated initial cutscene. The player now moves from their home, to another place, back home, and finally back to the second place again (along with dialog and action). Pretty soon I'll need to incorporate the DLA sewer tileset and start in on that piece.

I worked a bit on the Queen's face today, trying to get something that didn't look quite so ghostly. It looks okay unless you disable the camera and zoom way in. Then it looks a bit stretched out, which was only sort of my intention.

Slowly getting there.

I didn't get much time yesterday, though I sn...

August 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I didn't get much time yesterday, though I snuck in a few moments yesterday morning to tweak the spirit gem's heart a bit. I decided I didn't like the pedestal (plus I was having problems getting the use nodes to work).

Though I still have quite a few pieces of custom content to go, I'd like to make the switch to scripting and other "module building" activities. Plus debugging. I have lots to debug.

I got a fair amount of things done while I wa...

August 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got a fair amount of things done while I was away, including a couple small tilesets. I worked up what I'm calling an "abyssal swamp". I spent a lot of time working on the water effect so that it doesn't look crystal clear, then created a bunch of variations including a couple mini "islands". It's not really intended to compete with the other swamp tilesets out there, but rather serve a small niche purpose.

I also came up with a Savannah tileset. For a long while, I couldn't figure out why the grass wasn't appearing. I finally discovered that I had turned it off in the game settings and it wasn't a problem with the .SET file or some other crazy thing.

I also whipped up a White Queen creature using CODI's skinmesh illithid. Skinmesh looks so nice I had to fiddle with it a bit. I also did a bit of coding, such as getting the garden to finally grow.

I periodically worry myself about the scope of this one. I'm starting to come to the conclusion that I'm probably crazy for taking on something so huge, especially with my time as limited as it is these days. Hopefully I can finish up by Christmas, but I'm not holding my breath.

I put some work into the Gem Heart this morni...

August 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I put some work into the Gem Heart this morning, trying to make it more interesting than the current pillar. I think I want to fiddle with it some more, but this is the general idea.

I put in a ton of work yesterday. The alignment issues for the ice caves is taken care of at this point. I added portals to a couple existing tilesets. More dialog was written. I created a bunch of creatures for one of the planes you'll visit while Gate diving. It felt good to take care of so much.

I'm going to be unplugged for the next few days, off on a coast trip. With luck, they'll be additional babysitters and I'll have more time than usual to work on things. We'll see how it goes.

Here's a screenshot of the larger ice caves

August 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Here's a screenshot of the larger ice caves. The only problem I'm running into is that there's some texture issues - the seams between the tiles are a bit obvious.

I worked on the keep a bit more, getting the last of the servants into the game. I'm trying to make them a bit more lively, so when you enter the room, they'll putter around talking to themselves.

I also started in on the gate overseer's dialog. He's a somewhat important character, helping you along in your career as a gate diver. I think he'll also be giving some brief overview of the cosmology, describing the Inner and Outer Planes and so on.

The screenshot is for the Funny Bug of the Day

August 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

The screenshot is for the Funny Bug of the Day. I was testing out the code I use to populate the area with commoners. I mislabeled a variable and every six seconds, six more commoners would spawn in. Pretty soon, the screen was filled with these things, all shouting "Help, I'm being attacked!" The two guards would reply "Where is the scoundrel?" and try to find the invisible attacker.

I've fixed the spawning issue and I'm trying to track down the false attack bug as well. Of course, in the case of a real attack, it's not working either. They all just mob me endlessly. Sigh.

I worked more on the ice caves, putting in all the tunnels as well as some larger rooms. There's some texture alignment issues I may try to address, though it looks like it would require touching a lot of tiles.

No pretty pictures today, though I got a bunc...

August 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

No pretty pictures today, though I got a bunch of work done yesterday. I created the dialog for the last two servants in your keep, the gardener and the lab assistant. I'm trying to make them useful in their own right. The assistant can distill weaker potions to make stronger ones. It seems like a decent way to "upgrade" items you wouldn't necessarily use. I'm still working on the gardener. I'm thinking about being able to ask her to focus on a single type of plant and that will grow more rapidly.

I redid my heartbeat script and included the garden growing code. I'm sure I'll have to tweak it so that the production seems balanced.

As for what today holds, I have a long list. I'd like to work more on the ice caves, putting in more variation (I currently only have a couple tiles in it). There's endless dialog to work on. I also have more of the initial cutscene to do. I may also start working on a test city area, even though I won't have the final city tileset for quite some time. Slowly getting there.

Switching gears, I worked a bit on the ice ca...

August 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Switching gears, I worked a bit on the ice caves that will be part of the Elemental Plane of Ice. I'm using the same textures as the above ground, so it should be quite shiny.

I've been going through my mental list of things to do and I need to finish up a few more rooms in the keep. If I remember right, I haven't created an assistant for the laboratory or a gardener for the garden. Plus I need to actually script the garden, making sure it grows properly.

After hours of coding yesterday and this morn...

August 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

After hours of coding yesterday and this morning, I finally got my little Monodrone safe to the end point of the first puzzle level. There were all sorts of coding mistakes I had to fix, from rounding errors to accidental integer math (when it should be float). Finally I got it all sorted out and made it through. I think I'm going to take a break from scripting for a bit and switch to some more custom content this morning.

Here's a Plane of Fire image, complete with Fire Bat and spouting lava. If I remember, I'll add some fireballs coming down from the sky and the look should be complete.

One of the nice things about programming for ...

August 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

One of the nice things about programming for a game compared to my usual work programming is that if things go wrong, I can call down my holy wrath upon that which offends me.

I've been working on the Mechanus puzzle this morning, running into all sorts of problems getting the control of the Monodrone down. At this point, he'll move on command, but he doesn't always go to the proper place according to his direction and arrows. I have endless lines of debug code in there, spewing out angles and coordinates. Messy stuff.

I worked more on other things yesterday, such as Teira's dialog and some scripting. Slowly getting there.

Here's the Ice Paraelemental I was working on...

August 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Here's the Ice Paraelemental I was working on the other day. The textures match the huge ice crystals in the tileset, so I thought it was rather spiffy. I'm also working more on the Plane of Fire. I modified Gestalt's Lava Caves tileset to include a couple of the lava emitters from the evil dungeon tileset. I also whipped up a Fire Bat as a minor annoyance for travelers.

I spent a ton of time yesterday working on my Mechanus puzzle scripts. You can now drop items such as the directional arrow, and it'll spawn a placeable that can be rotated about. I'm having problems getting the Monodrone to move properly, however. I'm having a hard time simplifying his movement so that the puzzle works properly.

What I want him to do is to move forward to the next floating grate ahead of him. I'm finding I have to dig up all sorts of unused algebra in order to calculate the center of the current grate he's on and what grate he should move to next based on what direction he's facing. Tricky stuff.

I also did some experimental stuff yesterday where I did a ton of search and replace on tileset files. I ended up with a completely white castle interior tileset, which I may end up integrating into the module. At this point, I'm coming up with ideas left and right, but very few of them are actually completed in the module. At some point, I'll need to tightened the reins and force myself to focus.

I worked on more dialog yesterday

August 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked on more dialog yesterday. Part of the challenge is that I'm incorporating a fair amount of planar cant, so I'm giving the player a lot of opportunities to clarify words. "Berk? What's that?"

I whipped up a pit tile yesterday, complete with nasty spikes at the bottom. I think it will make it into a jumping contest of sorts. I think it would also be fun to make a version with a walkmesh over it, combine it with my new jumping/falling technique, and do terrible things to unwitting players.

I also whipped up an ice paraelemental this morning. Pictures to follow.

I switched gears a bit yesterday

August 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I switched gears a bit yesterday. After seemingly endless custom content, I stopped for awhile to work on dialog and scripting. The first series of cutscenes is proving to be extremely complex, though hopefully it's worth it.

Last night and this morning I mostly spent debugging the initial cutscene sequence. It's very rough, but you can get further through it. I created another custom placeable "prop" yesterday just so that I'd have things to talk to.

Writing dialog is painfully slow at times, while other times it seems to flow smoothly. Yesterday I had a solid half-hour of easy writing, though I'm not sure where the ideas come from.

I whipped up a portal for my Ice set, which i...

August 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I whipped up a portal for my Ice set, which is about all the time I had yesterday. Also, it appears my Internet connectivity is completely hosed at the moment. I'm forced to use the "http://localhost" trick just to get to this web site. Sigh.

I'm hoping to create a sheltered cave for the Ice tileset. I should have some time this morning to work on it, especially as I can't do my typical surfing the net and eating cereal routine.

Update: Ah, much better. The electrical storm outside must have caused problems over at my ISP. I finished up the cave. Time to get ready for work.

More news from the Dreamcatcher testing crew

August 04, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

More news from the Dreamcatcher testing crew. It appears that there's a bug with the function that equips melee weapons, which ends up breaking Dreamcatcher 3. Frustrating. Hopefully it'll get fixed with the next patch. Otherwise, it looks pretty good.

I created some walls for my Plane of Ice yesterday. It's fairly basic, but it breaks up the monotany a bit. Today I'd like to start making map icons for all the tilesets I've cranked out. At the moment, I think they're all broken except for the Mechanus one.

Probably most importantly, I did a major revision of the plot yesterday. The entire campaign story came together for me as well and I have a good feel for how the entire campaign arc will go. I decided on a three-module campaign for Demon, with each module being fairly large. After all, I wouldn't want to break Planescape's Rule of Three.

I've been working on a Plane of Ice mini tileset

August 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been working on a Plane of Ice mini tileset. It's basically just a snow-swept empty plane. I'll probably need to add some "wall" crossers, as well as some features (at least a portal to get there). I think I've got the desolate feel down to where I'm pretty happy with it.

I worked more on the Plane of Air, adjusting some rock heights to where I wanted them. I also created an animation for the jumping so that it looks better. I do have one annoying problem where the delayed JumpToObject command isn't always working right. Unless the player moves again, they'll stay in the same place some times.

I did a goofy workaround that makes it work better, by issuing an ActionMoveToLocation command afterwards, mimicking the player doing a move. Very weird.

I think my Plane of Air is basically finished...

August 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I think my Plane of Air is basically finished up at this point. I added a portal yesterday, as well as fixing some annoying shadow issues. It's looking relatively good and is at the "acceptable" level for my purposes.

The other thing I finally got working is the jump system. I had been dreading it a bit, as it involves modifying some .2da files I haven't touched before, as well as some things that looked good on paper but I'd never tested. It's rather complex, but basically works this way:

• Player clicks on a jump point.
• Player becomes cutscene invisible.
• Spell is cast from jump start to jump destination, using the tainted model (the only reason this thing works is that players can only leap when in Tainted form, which is a single model).
• The player is moved and reappears at the destination.

I've been taking the Plane of Air concept and...

August 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been taking the Plane of Air concept and running with it. I have a ton of tiles done, including a variety of floating debris tiles to fill the gaps. This morning I finished up one with a tile. I have another with a portal that I need to do and I think I'll call it done.

The next thing I've been wanting to work on for some time now is a new "jumping" concept, similar to what was done with kobolds in SoU. There's a fair amount of fiddling that I need to do, such as messing with 2da files and the like, but I'm itching to try it out now that I have this tileset nearly done.

Someone e-mailed me yesterday asking for assi...

July 31, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Someone e-mailed me yesterday asking for assistance in creating a "plane of air" style tileset, similar to the multi-leveled platforms from Dreamcatcher 4. I directed him to some custom content guides (as I have little time these days), but kept thinking about it afterwards. Well, I decided to play with it a bit more and ended up with a fairly small tileset with floating rocks.

I'm having problems with my 2x2 group, but the smaller one works. I also have a few variations of the "void" areas, mostly rocks flying around in space. So far, it's pretty neat, though I'll need some more variations to make it workable.

I also had someone approach me offering their help in creating an intro movie. If it pans out, it should be fairly nice looking.

It's hard to find the time these days, but I ...

July 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

It's hard to find the time these days, but I managed to get a portal into my Mechanus tile set. I also created a "lightning generator" placeable, but there's some minor issues to work out. I did some more scripting yesterday, though mostly minor things. I have my new and improved "pop-up descriptive text" working. You can set whether or not you want it to show up above your head (which unhides you but is more visible), or show up in the message box.

I'm also in the process of getting the Dreamcatcher series upgraded for SoU. It's a painful process and there's a lot of people helping me out. Fortunately, I think I have the last of the major bugs taken care of. You still won't be able to import grenade-like weapons and there won't be any henchmen inventory management, but at least the game crashing and visual bugs should be fixed.

The rest of my life has been really busy, but...

July 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

The rest of my life has been really busy, but I did manage to find some time to whip up a couple puzzle pieces. These two animated arrows will be used to direct the modrone around. Nothing is scripted, of course, but I'm slowly getting there.

I worked more on the card game yesterday, fixing some bugs and finding some more. It's going to need lots of polishing, I suspect, as it's extremely complicated. Balance is another issue that'll need to be figured out. Much testing will be required.

A big thanks to the brave souls who volunteered to test the new version of Dreamcatcher. Hopefully it will go smoothly and I'll be able to upload it in the next few days.

Nothing too major to report

July 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Nothing too major to report. Seerow released a monodrone a few days ago, which is exactly what I needed for the Mechanus puzzle levels. I just need to get started on scripting those areas now that I've got all the pieces together. Well, almost together. I still need a bunch of placeables.

I did a little research into Javascript games yesterday, with an eye to converting some to NWN. While my search was fruitless, I'm tempted to work on a Mahjong-like game for a small diversion. Could be entertaining. Of course, I still have to fix all the bugs I've found with Creatures.

Oh, one more thing. I finished up the changes to the Dreamcatcher modules and hak packs, bringing them up to compliance with 1.30 (mostly). If anyone wants to beta test them before releasing it on an unsuspecting public, feel free to e-mail me.

I completely reworked what I'd started yester...

July 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I completely reworked what I'd started yesterday, going for a different style. It's to the point where I'm pretty happy for what I tried to do. All the little details seem pretty good as well - pathfinding works and I put together some simple mini-map icons. It's basically just platforms with "industrial" extras - pipes, exhaust vents, and some gears. Don't think too hard on the fact that the gears aren't connected to anything. Animating gears is extremely complicated.

If I have time today, I'd like to test and fix some card game problems that I'm aware of. I redid the Fireball code, breaking it in the process. The "leader" cards (such as the Lich, Goblin Warlord, and Druid) don't seem to be giving bonuses to their matched cards (e.g. Goblin Warlords boost all goblins, and so on).

Every new module, I try something new, pushing the boundries of what the game and my abilities can do. I have a funny feeling that it'll keep me quite busy this time around. Lots and lots of custom content.

I'll keep this one short as Sam's wanting to play

July 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I'll keep this one short as Sam's wanting to play. I added a ton of cards yesterday, bringing the total of unique cards to 40. Some are broken and require further testing. I also found what I think is a bug with the fireball and lighning bolt script.

I started in on my next tiny project, a Mechanus-like tileset, though very very small. I think it'll be four tiles total to be used in a puzzle-like area. Still very broken at this point, but at I got enough done to take this screenshot.

While I didn't have a lot of time yesterday t...

July 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

While I didn't have a lot of time yesterday to keep coding, I managed to finally get two key pieces in place. Players now draw cards from their actual deck, rather than a random draw. Also, when one avatar is defeated, the game is over. At this point, you can challenge my default "card boy" to a game, arrange your deck if needed, and teleport to the game board. When it's over, you return back where you started.

There's lots to do yet. I want to put in some limits as to how few cards a player can have, otherwise the chances of drawing their "power cards" increases. I'm also going to have a limit for the number of individual cards. It would be quite an unfair game if their deck was stuffed with fireballs or some such. I think I'm going for a limit of 40 cards minimum and 4 of any type of card max (other than magic generators).

Mostly bug fixing yesterday and this morning

July 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Mostly bug fixing yesterday and this morning. I've been having weirdness with the Sabotage spell, which blows up one of your opponent's magic generators. I had a brief laugh out loud moment as one of my "fixes" ended up blowing up each and every one. Soon my opponent and I were holding a full hand of cards without the ability to play any.

I also fixed an annoying visualeffects.2da issue that crept into the module. Beam effects simply stopped working.

Well, I think I have my deck management code ...

July 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I think I have my deck management code basically working. I've been adding in all the "extras" for the card game, such as being able to initiate a card game with another player, as well as arrange the cards in your deck. At this point, the cards in your deck don't matter (it's still pulling them randomly), but my hope is that I'll be able to fix that soon.

Creating the area where the cards are all layed out and can be moved in and out of your deck was a big enough hassle. There was lots of convoluted logic there, but it seems to be finally working. Managing your own deck is key to the enjoyment of the game. Otherwise it's simply a modified form of solitare.

I'm also planning for different theme decks that the different opponents will use. I'll need to create more cards in order to support them all, but I think it's doable.

As for getting new cards, I'm thinking of having an ante, where one of each player's cards is set aside until the end, with the winner taking both of them. You'll probably be able to buy "booster packs" or individual cards, at extremely inflated prices of course.

I can tell already that balance is going to b...

July 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I can tell already that balance is going to be a tricky thing. I started implementing some relatively powerful cards, such as Lightning Bolt, which fires bolts of lightning at your enemy's creatures. It's variable, so that the more magic you have, the more creatures you can hit and the more damage it does. Well, it can quite easily clear the room if you've come close to maxing out your magic reserves. I've tweaked it a bit, but may have to do even more to keep it from being a "broken" card.

I have more cards to implement, of course. I got a bunch done yesterday, including ones such as Sabotage, which blows up an opponent's magic generator. I've also added some more creatures, which I'll do more of today.

I have the first parts of my deck management code sketched out on paper. The goal is to be able to add and remove cards from your deck in order to compete against different players with opposing decks. Hopefully I can get started on that soon.

One of these days, I'll need to put the card playing game behind me and start focusing on the module again. This wacky card game is simply too much fun. I play a little bit before I go to bed, just to see how it'll all turn out.

I added yet more cards to my little mini-game...

July 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I added yet more cards to my little mini-game, bringing the total up to around 20 or so. The latest ones involve those that use a variable amount of magic. If someone casts it with only a small amount of magic available, the effect is small. If you have the maximum number of generators, all unused, it is devastating.

Also, I've noticed that there are lots of great portraits in the toolset that I've rarely seen. I suppose it's because I don't typically see the portrait for creatures unless I'm examining them or having a conversation, which is rare.

At my birthday yesterday, I ate too much exce...

July 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

At my birthday yesterday, I ate too much excellent food, as well as a small cup of cold coffee. Unfortunately it kept me up until 11:30, way past my usual 9:30 bedtime.

I spent the time playing my card game over and over, incorporating three new spell cards: Assassin, Healing Light, and Life Drain. They all work, though I'd like to put in some logic for the AI so that it'll play it when "best". They make the game lots of fun as they add variety to what was previously just a creature-only concept. I'm up to a total of 14 cards now, which seems small, but actually lends itself to some complex battles. I'd like to double that number at least.

I spent a bunch of time playtesting yesterday, redoing some of the cards' attributes and redoing nearly every creature. I think I'm starting to suspect that the game is really, really fun. It was hard to stop playing, though perhaps it was the coffee.

I really like it when a crazy idea comes toge...

July 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I really like it when a crazy idea comes together and actually turns into something fun. I fixed a bunch of bugs with the card game. Cards are dealt appropriately and the AI now makes relatively smart decisions about what card to play. While it's not perfect, it's good enough to put the smack down on me at times when I play against it. I whipped up a small tileset to get the look I wanted. I also created some new creature cards, bringing the total to six or so. I want to have a couple dozen before I call it finished in order to get the variety I want.

I may need to slow down the speed at which magic becomes available. Little goblins don't do much damage, so it's almost worth it to just wait a bit. I have lots of balance issues like this one to figure out.

I also have some ideas for deck management - basically a big area where you can see your cards and add or remove them from your deck. Either that, or some dialog options where you can specify the number of each card you want in your deck (up to the max of how many you have). Deck management is half the fun, in my opinion.

Not being a slouch, I also worked on the main storyline, coming up with a good idea to move things along and keep it emotionally charged. This campaign focuses heavily on the relationship between you and your companion, which allows for greater depth of interactions. I wrote an incredibly long dialog for the beginning piece.

On a final note, today's my birthday. 34 seems like a fine age these days.

Amazingly, the game works

July 18, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Amazingly, the game works. Sure, there are tons of problems such as cards being dealt on top of each other, the AI is a bit slow, and the character can interact with the game pieces. But still, the game actually works. I've played through several times and had either my opponent or myself win.

I'd like to get more cards into the game, and perhaps have some real deck management code in there, rather than the random draws I now have. I'd also like to create a small tileset for the game board, if only to prevent the player from interacting with the game pieces. It's hard to say whether or not it's fun to play, as there are currently lots of bugs, but I think it has the potential for being pretty fun.

I also whipped up some new information on the next campaign, now on the navigation bar to the left. It's mostly polished up notes from my design document, but for those of you who hunger for information, it might be welcome. Spoilers galore, at least in providing lots of background as to who you are and where you'll be.

I worked more on the card game yesterday, cre...

July 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked more on the card game yesterday, creating a bunch of creature and other cards. More importantly, I think I have the gameplay concept down on paper. I'm trying hard to keep it simple, so that it doesn't take too much coding time, but fun as well. The general concept is that you play cards which summon creatures that battle it out with your opponent and his creatures.

It's simultaneous play, so there are no real turns. You're limited in that you must play "magic generators" that give you the ability to cast spells. These are put into play as the cards come up, and you can only play one card per cycle. After you cast a card, magic slowly comes back, so hopefully it's less of a twitch game and more of a strategy game.

It's still pretty early in my mini-game development. The game board is set up correctly at the beginning of the game and the first set of cards are dealt. I still need to allow for casting, create the enemy AI, put in the magic generator heartbeat code, and so on. Hopefully it's all worth it.

I had a wacky idea for a card game that could...

July 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I had a wacky idea for a card game that could be added to the module. Tentatively called "Creatures", it's vaguely like the other collectable card games out there. I'm still playing around with it, but I whipped up a single model to act as a starting point. We'll see how it turns out.

I spent time fixing bugs this morning. The heartbeat script and accumulation of spirit coins wasn't working quite right. The new dialog and code to reposition items in your keep worked just fine, however. For the Sim-lovers out there, they can decorate their keep to their heart's content if they'd like. Everyone else can just pile junk in the corner.

One of these days, I'll start working on thin...

July 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

One of these days, I'll start working on things I can take screenshots of. I think I'm basically done with the arena at this point. I spent most of yesterday getting the shadow issues ironed out. Now I need to decide if it's too early to get the tiles into the game, or wait for the official version of the tileset to be released.

Well, Jamie swept me away for a romantic geta...

July 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, Jamie swept me away for a romantic getaway for our anniversary, so I was off and about for most of the day yesterday. I did wake up pretty early this morning and wandered off to a Starbucks to drink coffe and write dialog, however. Writing sometimes seems one of the more challenging of endevors, as it seems to take forever to come up with the right phrase to convey the feeling I'm going for. It was nice to get the intro sequence mostly down, though there's some complex fades and movement that will need to be scripted. Slowly getting there.

Yesterday was mostly spent finishing up the a...

July 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yesterday was mostly spent finishing up the arena group. Yet again I was reminded how hard large modeling projects are. Most of my time was spent recreating the walkmeshes, but I also cleaned up some texture issues along the way. Now I've got to fix shadows, which I may ask for some tips on from the boards.

I made my first potion in the game. Though I've got a bit more scripting and debugging to go, I feel I'm making progress. I have a couple more rooms in the keep to script, though it shouldn't be too hard. The garden needs some growing scripts tied to the heartbeat event. I'm still toying with ideas for the bedroom (though not what you're probably thinking).

I've had a few e-mails about Dreamcatcher and SoU compatibility. I do have a patch of sorts coming out, though it doesn't fix all issues. Using a character with any grenade-like weapons will still crash the game. The new spell effects should be visible, however. At this point, I'm mostly waiting for CODI to release a new version of a creature I'm using. Hopefully it won't be more than a week or so from now.

A zen-like trance came over me yesterday and ...

July 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

A zen-like trance came over me yesterday and I did a bunch of work on the core game systems. I redid the "feng shui" part - different items can now boost the "energy" of your keep in variable amounts. I've got to come up with better terminology for this part, otherwise I'll be laughed off the Vault. For a description of what I'm trying to pull off, read Lord Demon by Zelazny.

I also changed every potion to make them have different strengths, from Minor to Ultimate. I also put in the majority of the alchemy scripts, though I have a little bit more to go.

I've been working hard on the walkmeshes for the arena group this morning. It's a huge project, as I'm individually touching the nine tiles involved. Still, I'm making progress, having got six of the nine tiles looking the way I want. There's some shadow issues I want to clean up too, but so far so good.

I typed up the remaining traps, getting them ...

July 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I typed up the remaining traps, getting them almost all into the game. I still have to create some more ingredients and components, as a few are missing. Hopefully I can get that done today and move on to the laboratory and potion creation. I'm thinking of creating different potion strengths as well, though there's a few potions that don't lend themselves well to that approach.

I'm also working hard on the arena. Yesterday I added some doors into the arena as well as some decorative touches. At this point, the basic geometry is complete and I need to put the walkmesh in place. Unfortunately, that's being pretty tricky and slow going. I've sliced up the tiles and now I've got to fix all the detail issues. Slowly getting there.

I worked on the workshop scripts yesterday an...

July 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked on the workshop scripts yesterday and created icons for the various ingredients in the game. Some are used to construct traps, while others are used in making potions. I still need to fix the alpha blending on a couple of them, but I'm generally happy with how they turned out.

I made my first trap in the game, which was a neat little experience. It took me awhile to get all the "decrement stack" scripts working right. It now takes away the appropriate amount of spirit coin as well as any ingredients. Now I've just got to implement the other seven traps (31 if you count the different levels). It's just typing, though, so it shouldn't be too bad.

I also hooked the very first bits of a skill system into the trap making piece. There's an "artifice" skill with is separate from the official "Construct Trap" skill. It basically lets you do things with the workshop and increases as you use it. I have other skills planned, though this is the first.

Yesterday was our eight-year anniversary, so ...

July 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yesterday was our eight-year anniversary, so I didn't work on the game much. This morning I wrestled more with 3ds max, trying to get my 9-tile group working. I managed to get it in the game, and it was pretty cool to walk around on something I spent a lot of time with. There's still lots to do yet, such as getting the walkmeshes working and the texture issues sorted it. Unfortunately, the textures don't look quite right to my eye.

I'm hoping it's all worth it. The arena is one of those optional things to do in the main city, though it's considered a "crude" activity by most.

With luck, I'll have some time to work on the laboratory and workshop scripts today. We'll see how it goes.

I got the spirit gem heartbeat scripts in pla...

July 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got the spirit gem heartbeat scripts in place yesterday. One of the resources in the game are "spirit coins", which can be used to create items or cast spells. Your keep generates spirit coins over time, but the amount of coins it generates is dependant on placing items of beauty within your keep (sort of a Feng Shui thing). There are complexities, such as room upkeep and the like, but hopefully you get the picture. Anyway, it's working at a very basic level now. Still lots of details to work out.

I'm making progress on the arena. This morning I got to play with the tile slicer do it's magic. It makes these big tiles much easier to work with. There's nothing in the game yet, though it's looking good so far.

I worked on cutscenes yesterday, really lovin...

July 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked on cutscenes yesterday, really loving the new scripts to support them. The first couple minutes of the module are quite complex, scripting-wise, so I'm trying to get that in order.

I also started on some new tiles, though I'm not able to show them to you. A couple are portals and I'm working on a huge arena as well (3x3 tiles). I suspect I'll go mad working on the latter, but perhaps it'll turn out okay.

As to why I can't show them, it's due to a request of an unnamed group whose textures I'm using. Oh, and if you mention it to anyone, I'll deny everything and eat this webserver.

I spend at least an hour yesterday making thi...

July 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spend at least an hour yesterday making this one "prop" for a particular scene. Getting the animation for the manacles took forever. I finally got it good enough to call it done.

I also cleaned up and packaged the mountain tileset with castle walls and posted it to the Vault. Hopefully that'll come in handy for a fair amount of people.

Still cranking out tiles

July 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Still cranking out tiles. This is a nice little experiment with transparency. It turns out emitters don't show up beyond a transparent object, so my idea of having bubbles floating around inside wasn't going to pan out. I could create actual models for the bubbles, but that gets the polycounts quite high. I settled for a nice glowing green tank that you could put people in should you wish to.

I put some more time into the cutscenes last night, though the beginning has a number of them. I really like the new cutscene controls, and noticed the other day that some more animation events are available through scripting. I really like these patches and can't wait for the Hordes of the Underdark one. I hear rumors that a SetAppearance will sneak in.

I'm still working on all those fun .2da and hak pack issues to upgrade Dreamcatcher for SoU. I found out a major issue yesterday, but it was pretty easy to clean up. All my custom visual effects were off by one, so the splash animation showed a swinging blade. Sigh.

I worked on all sorts of little details yesterday

July 04, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked on all sorts of little details yesterday. I got the armsman scripted reasonably well. He'll spar with you, or you can train with him should you run across an unknown beast. The armsman can show you certain techniques that will make the creatures easier to fight, hopefully tipping the balance in your favor.

I also got the Sprit Gem working in the game, allowing you to use it and move into and out of your keep. That makes it much easier for me to test out certain functions. I managed to put a little more work into the Garden area, creating some planters to decorate the place.

This morning I started in on the intro cutscenes. There's very little "game" in the module at the moment - mostly a collection of technical demos. It'll be nice to have even a little bit playable.

In what little time I have these days, I work...

July 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

In what little time I have these days, I worked on the altar a bit. It's one of the rooms you can add to your keep and allows you to perform a number of different functions. One of these is to give offerings to your deity and praying for a boon. I've got to tweak the scripts a bit, but so far it works out fairly nicely. You can get rid of unwanted junk and have a nice little bonus before the next battle.

I've also been working on cleaning up things for my hak packs. Part of this is for SoU, but there's also some new versions of things I want to include. I cleaned up with walkmeshes for a couple of the castle walls. I also put in a newer version of Luna_C's driders with a much improved load time. I'm hoping to get CODI's illithid in there as well, though I'm not sure when they'll be releasing it.

Oh, I finally posted Zenogais' interview of me. He's from the RPG Classics group that puts out a newsletter.

Still no cool pictures

July 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Still no cool pictures. I spent much of yesterday working on .2da issues with the Dreamcatcher series. For those of you who tried to reach this web server a few minutes ago - I learned out the hard way that it's bad to import grenade-type weapons into the Dreamcatcher game. Crashes hard. I still have some work to do before I can get the Dreamcatcher modules ready for the expansion. The new spells aren't coming in correctly yet. Hopefully soon.

I also got Demon all ready for future Bioware expansions, padding my .2da lines up into the thousands in some cases. Lots of work, but fortunately I haven't put many things in the game yet.

I did some more work on henchman AI. You can now request that your henchman go stealthy and they will. Works quite nicely. I also worked more on dialog, making sure it's a mix of statements and quoted text. So far, I like the effect, though it is a bit more work.

No fancy pictures today

July 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

No fancy pictures today. I was really sick last night, but managed to get myself to work through the divine might of painkillers and too much coffee.

I got the librarian in the game, one of your many servants of your keep. It has some fun dialog and can identify your items for you. I'm using a new dialog style, mixing descriptive text and quoted speach. I think I'm growing quite fond of it, as it allows for a more immersive, literary experience. I also like how the librarian makes comments about the things he identifies, checking out the properties and noting that something that does extra damage in combat will come in handy in a fight.

I'm researching feats and spells, trying to get some new ones in the game. Should be fun.

I made a ton of progress yesterday, fixing a ...

June 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I made a ton of progress yesterday, fixing a number of problems that had gone unfixed for a long while. The most important is that I managed to fix the weird head problem with some help from Luna_C. It turns out that the head was trying to look at me, as most models do, but that the neck was tilted instead of straight up and down. After some fiddling, it worked perfectly. The head following makes them look even cooler, so I've started making more variations on that single base model.

I think all of the traps have my desired visual effect. The spinning blade trap was the most difficult, with shuriken-like objects spiraling out from the center. I learned more than I wanted about trajectories in Max for that one.

I also worked on a new creature model, though I'm a bit insane for making the attempt. Right now it has one animation, with at least a few more to follow. Though this particular creature may not see much combat, I'd like to see at least some of the movement and interaction animations done.

Slowly getting there.

Dragonlance Adventures released their first w...

June 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Dragonlance Adventures released their first work, a very nicely done sewer tileset. I've been playing with it this morning and it's lots of fun to play with. Excellent atmosphere. I'm fairly sure it'll make it into the module.

I've been following the DLA group for the last few months and have started to get increasingly excited about their work. They had a chat yesterday which talks in great detail about their project. They even mentioned me specifically (thanks guys).

I do admit to a pang of jealousy towards both the CODI and DLA groups. They made the decision long ago that their projects would be huge, size-wise, and they wouldn't worry about keeping their content easily downloadable by modem users. I find myself sweating over every texture not in the game, forsaking nice goodies such as load screens and new music. The hak pack for my next project will probably be larger than the Dreamcatcher ones. I may also do a "big" and "little" version, so to appease both groups. Harder to work with, but I think it'll keep everyone happy.

I plugged away on the module yesterday, running into a series of small annoying problems. I was having problems creating placeables - they kept crashing the game, which I've never seen happen. I also worked more on the trap effects, as I realized they weren't complete (one doesn't even have a script attached yet). Finally, the annoying problem with the Tainted model is back. Time to go through the animations again and see what's up.

I took yesterday off from work, though life w...

June 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I took yesterday off from work, though life with two kids makes it less of a vacation than it might be otherwise. I did manage to work up some new models. I'm starting to realize that my one area is going to require a fair number of placeables.

I also had a long standing annoying problem finally fixed. My main Tainted model had an issue where it would suddenly stare at the floor. It turns out one of the many animations was screwed up. Many thanks to Luna_C for helping me out. Now I can start cranking out endless variations. Should be entertaining.

I felt a nostalgic longing for a cranium rat,...

June 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I felt a nostalgic longing for a cranium rat, so I whipped one up yesterday. The little guy still looks cute to me, even with the pulsing brain.

I worked more on henchman AI yesterday. Though it took awhile, they can now cast spells on demand during combat. I'm digging increasingly deeper into the base henchman scripts, which I've avoided until now. Now that I've found my bravery, I'll probably tinker some more.

I'd like to be able to do similar things, such as "use melee", "go stealthy", or "attack the wizard". We'll see how much time I get to play with such things.

While I continued on with my little project y...

June 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

While I continued on with my little project yesterday (pun intended), most of my work focused on things you can't really appreciate in a screenshot.

I worked on henchmen AI, trying to get the spellcasting down right. I'm using a generic "Bob the Henchman" to test things out. You can now ask him to cast a spell and he'll list them for you. Keep clicking "more" and you'll get the next set of ten. The list comes from the spells.2da file, which is somewhat handy.

Something that has an even cooler factor is being able to shout out things like "cast aid on me". The henchman listens for the word "cast", figures out the spell name, then figures out the target. Pretty cool.

It's not perfect yet. The targeting of things beyond "yourself" and "me" is currently broken. Also, the performance hit of looking up .2da files in a loop is prohibitively lengthy, so I'll write an "index" version of the spells.2da file. It's too bad, as it forces it to be English only (previously I was translating the spell name into the language-specific name). Still, it should be a handy addition.

I'm thinking about other AI things that could be done in this area. Being able to shout out directions to your associates feels is something I'd like to pursue more of. Ideally, those would be tied to custom text macros so that you can direct them in battle.

I started work on one of my ideas that I had ...

June 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I started work on one of my ideas that I had during our latest coast trip. Building sandcastles certainly triggers some odd ideas at times. There was a simple tileset that I needed, which I put together last night. Now it's a matter of creating a bunch of placeables. At this point, I only have one, but it works just how I'd like.

I also spent time yesterday cleaning up the .2da files for the first Demon module. I added hundreds of lines of padding to accomodate the SoU expansion, as well as any future expansions. I had to recreate a bunch of items in the game, but fortunately it was early enough in development so that it only took an hour or so.

On my list for today is hopefully cleaning up some of the visualeffects.2da files with Dreamcatcher. I'm pretty sure I won't be changing the baseitems.2da, as it would involve changing every item and invalidating people's saved characters. I also need to figure out the best way to package the change. I think I'll update the hak and module, then supply a tiny .2da file for those who don't want to redownload another big hak pack.

I finished up the Cellar tiles for the interi...

June 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I finished up the Cellar tiles for the interior tileset. I'll hopefully get a chance to ship it off to Danmar today. I've been out for three days, so the e-mails have piled up. I got an interesting note from Manbo, who's doing the translations for the Shadowlords campaign into Japanese. Quite impressive work.

I also managed to get my vanilla version of NWN all patched and working well. The manual update worked just fine. I'm trying hard to support non-SoU users, so I'd like to avoid accidentally converting the modules to require the expansion. I'll install SoU on my second computer for testing purposes. There's still a bunch of SoU-specific tests I need to do, including trying to get the Dreamcatcher modules to somewhat support it. It'll unfortunately be a bit exciting.

Well, we survived the long drive back from th...

June 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, we survived the long drive back from the coast. It's our first lengthy trip with both kids and I was trying to manage them both while all three of us were in the back. It was quite exciting. We did have some really great times, most notibly when my son and I decided to build a sand fortress against the incoming tide. He was barking out orders and calling me "fellow sergeant". Sadly, the wall finally broke and the countless jellyfish invaded our keep.

As for NWN, I finished SoU, enjoying it a fair amount. There were some interesting puzzles and thought provoking moments. None too hard that I could figure my way through after a bit.

I did have a terrible time trying to uninstall SoU and install NWN up to the latest patch. I was without a net connection and had downloaded the 1.30 critical rebuild. Unfortunately, it didn't work as there were some .dll conflicts that made it unplayable.

So, I worked on tilesets, creating a hallway door for the "Haunted" set of tiles in the Interior tileset. I also started in on a set of cellar tiles, using the haunted tiles as a base. So far, so good. I also started getting some good ideas for the module. Lots of notes in the notebook as well as some opening dialog.

I spent some time scheming yesterday around t...

June 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent some time scheming yesterday around the ability to add custom prestige classes. For that purpose, I began gathering material to see if I could pull off doing what I want and I think it's possible. I've yet to test it in-game, but that's the next step.

The hard part is that many of the .2da files reference the dialog.tlk file, which is difficult to modify and keep updated (it changes with every patch). For that reason, I spent a few hours going through the dialog.tlk file looking for "interesting" entries. It's basically just a table full of text, with a number referring to a few words. So #3234 might be "Necromancy". If I wanted to add a feat of Necromancy in the game, I could do it fairly easily since the description's already in the dialog.tlk file. Simple? Well, not really. But hopefully it'll work.

Finally, I'm off to the coast for a few days, so I'll be absent for awhile. I'm actually taking my computer with me, so I'll hopefully have a chance to finish SoU, uninstall it, reinstall NWN, and install the 1.30 patch in preparation for module updates and playing with new functions. Yippie.

Okay, I admit

June 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Okay, I admit. I got nothing done yesterday and ended up playing Shadows of Undrentide for most of the day yesterday. I stayed up pretty late, which is a sign that I enjoyed it. I've noticed a few problems with my picky eyes, such as pathfinding with the gypsy wagons, a single typo, and some texturing issues. Still, the game itself is pretty fun. I really like the new inventory management, which works quite well. The henchmen are okay, though the backstory of the one I picked up isn't incredibly gripping.

I'm also trying it through as a rogue, which I'm finding is extremely cool, especially at higher levels with the Use Magic Item skill. That one opens up virtually every magic item I find. I love being able to equip things that can only be used by certain classes. All that Bard loot I threw away I am now hording.

Hopefully today I can get started on the .2da issues. I'll sadly be experiencing them through every Dreamcatcher campaign, most notibly with visualeffects.2da and baseitems.2da. The e-mails should start pouring in any day now.

I now have all the traps scripted and in the ...

June 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I now have all the traps scripted and in the game, though not tested very well. There are quite a few things I need to tweak, but I'm happy with the progress I've made. I cleaned up the scripts as best I can, making a single include file for the majority of the scripts.

I also have all the rooms for the player's keep in the tileset. They've been placed and I've connected them all via some fancy-shmancy scripting. This screenshot is the library, which Danmar put together for the interior tileset project.

I got my second machine back in order, getting the CD key stuff all straightened out. My multiplayer test worked, unfortunately, so I'm trying to figure out what's happening in this one person's case.

Now that SoU is out, I can talk a bit on the beta. First off, I think the intent was to get it to me much sooner. The readme mentioned "weeks" until it was on the shelf, when in reality it was less than a week. The joy of approval steps, I suppose. The other very weird thing was that all the textures appeared to have been extra low quality, presumably to keep the download size small and perhaps to dissuade piracy. It had the effect of making it look like I was moving through an impressionist painting, with blurry creatures leaping from equally blurry rooms. Still, I'm a Bioware fanboy, and I'll hopefully pick up the expansion today. Not sure when I'll be able to play it, but I'll want it for my building efforts in any case.

I can tell already that there's going to be some fun and excitement around the .2da files in my modules. People with SoU who play will likely experience some weirdness with certain new spells. After the 1.30 patch is released, I'll need to do some major updates to the hak packs for at least three of them. Ah, the joys of supporting all the old stuff.

I worked more on traps yesterday, getting the...

June 18, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked more on traps yesterday, getting the 2D icons for the trap kits finished up. There's one more that I may tweak a bit, but in general I'm happy with the results. All the kits are in the game and I've put in the .2da entries. Now it's just a matter of scripting them all. We'll see if I have time today.

I put in another Tainted model, but it has a weird head movement that I may have to take another look at. I'm also thinking about whether or not I want to try to expand the number of animations on my supermodel. Though it would be time consuming, it might be worth it. I might also try to get away with stealing and tweaking some of the standard player animations. At this point, I think they have the same general parts, other than the jaw.

I was trying to do some multiplayer testing last night due to a bug report I received. It turns out the beta version of SoU I received wouldn't connect to my main NWN server, so I had to reinstall. Afterwards, enough SoU stuff was left over that I had to do a critical rebuild. Finally, I brought it up and it kindly let me know that games with the same CD key can't connect. It turns out the SoU install erased my previous CD key and I had used the wrong one for the install. Instead of digging through the wreck that is my office and kid's play room for the second manual, I called it a night. Hopefully today I'll be able to get back to it.

Oh - a small cool thing. I got a mention at the end of IGN's review of the SoU expansion. Nice to be noticed. Finally, the interior tileset that I was working on earlier has been uploaded to the vault.

I whipped up a new variation of the Tainted model

June 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I whipped up a new variation of the Tainted model. My eventual goal is to create a large number to choose from so that there will be a reasonable variety in the game. I'm keeping it basic, just some retextures and head transplants from the relevant dragon. Eventually I'd like to add accessories such as armor or jewelry.

I have all the 2D images for the traps finished and I'm currently redoing those that I didn't like. Hopefully I can get the scripting cranked out for those as well. I find I like the traps more than I thought I would. I'll try to put in an item that boosts the SetTrap skill so that everyone can give them a try.

Finally, I started moving over tiles from the Interior tileset into the Gem tileset. It'll be nice to get the player's "keep" finished. Then I'll need to start populating it with assistants, scripting the areas, and so on. It's a fairly integral part of the game, with each added-on room required to solve a piece of the plot, so players will spend a lot of time there.

I'm not sure where to start, as I got so much...

June 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I'm not sure where to start, as I got so much accomplished yesterday. The polymorph scripts were expanded. You can now carry a Demonic weapon and it will carry over to your Tainted form. I still need to do more property checking and apply the appropriate benefits according to the weapon and training. Still, it does a massive amount of damage with your increased strength.

I created my first Ritual, the Ritual of Guiding Light. It's basically a little ball of light follows you around unless it finds something interesting. Then it'll wait there until you come over to see. Pretty neat.

I also added more traps for a total of three now, as well as creating 2D icons for all but one. I may redo some of my earlier ones as the style of a few early ones isn't quite what I want. Still, it feels good to make progress.

I did a bunch of minor things, such as preparing for the upcoming patch and handling polymorph changes upon resurrection. I fixed a Tainted animation problem. The Spirit Gem item now looks like one when you drop it. Things are coming along nicely considering how early it is in the project's development.

I have an embarrassing admission to make

June 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I have an embarrassing admission to make. In over a year of having Neverwinter Nights, I have never played a rogue and set a trap. My new project has custom traps, so I had to learn how to do it and make sure I could pull it off. Sure enough, I managed to fiddle with the .2da files and create new traps that can be set and recovered. The only downside is that I had to overwrite the existing traps, so you won't find the traditional ones in my module. I have only two done at the moment, with six more to go. In this particular screenshot, a poor goblin set off a Dark Vortex trap. Poor sod.

I've been excitedly reading the list of bug fixes in the upcoming patch. The one that stood out the most is the crash when you reload and custom creatures are in the game. Nearly every game I'm making now has custom creatures, so it should help immensely.

There's so much to do that I'm not sure where to start this morning. Perhaps it's time to start adding custom rooms to the player's keep.

I worked on one of the early cutscenes, makin...

June 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked on one of the early cutscenes, making up a couple pieces of custom content so that it would look right. It's a bit dim, but looks far better animated. I may go back and polish it some more, but it's good for now.

I also played with SoU a bit. While I can't talk about it, I can talk about the items in the 1.30 patch that will soon be released (it hit beta today). There's some cool new cutscene features that I'll be using, most notably the fade controls.

GetAppearanceType is a function that I hadn't noticed earlier, but may be most helpful in my particular project. The player tends to polymorph a lot and knowing the specific polymorph state will save me some effort.

OpenInventory is one of those major functions that's so useful that I'll be going back through the Shadowlords and Dreamcatcher campaigns to retrofit it with this.

Finally, all the database commands, while simple, will let me do the things I want to do around module continuity. Players will have to be a bit careful with playing through modules, as my understanding is that it purges the database in between. There may be some ways to save multiple ones for a single campaign, as I haven't looked closely enough.

I worked on some more 2D graphics yesterday, ...

June 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked on some more 2D graphics yesterday, getting icons ready for the various trap plans you can find and make in the game. I'm still figuring out my trap system. I think I need to overwrite the existing traps, which is okay by me, and create custom scripts for each one. It could be a little time consuming, but I think the effort would be worthwhile.

I also put together a critical script during testing yesterday. I can now cast "Ritual of Form", which switches the player in and out of their demon form. The best part is that I can cast it while polymorphed, which is a tricky business indeed. I ended up tying the script to the drop event, so you'll be "dropping" your ritual when casting in demon form. It's destroyed and recreated in your Book of Rituals, so it works out okay.

On another note, I got a nice letter from Jay at Bioware yesterday, asking if I wanted to to get a sneak peek at SoU, minus the campaign. I quickly agreed and downloaded it yesterday. One of my projects for the day is to install it and test it out, between changing diapers and watching my four-year-old. Before anyone asks, I'll be under an NDA, so I can't actually say anything about it. Their lawyers can beat up my lawyers, especially since the only lawyer I know is my mom.

After a very frustrating beginning, I actuall...

June 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

After a very frustrating beginning, I actually started playing Twilight yesterday. Sure, there were some odd things (such as a certain child's game being a prerequisite to starting the adventure), but it's really started to pick up. There's some very excellent scripting in there and the story is quite good. In part, it's due to its focus, being able to narrow down the story on a single character (and class) as well as a single henchman.

Still, I realized what was also in common with the Bone Kenning module is that they both had very good systems. It's the series of unique systems to enhance gameplay that I think is what I want to bring out with the Demon campaign. Because of this, I sat down and furiously scribbled with pen and paper yesterday, coming up with ideas for unique traps, a skill system, and other things that will give the game a unique flavor.

As for the main model itself, I figured out my issue with the wings, but after some thought decided I wasn't going to have them at all. Wings unfortunately cause lots of gameplay problems, despite their "cool" factor. Instead, I'm going with a leap (which will require a skill). It also allows such activities as climbing and swimming, which I'd like to include as well. After all, why climb or swim when you can fly over the obstacle.

The current model is a variation and mixture of the Balor and a red dragon. The current plan is to keep "mixing it up" and include a dozen or so different Tainted looks, seeing as the main city will have them walking the streets. If you look closely at the screenshot, you'll notice one has a single horn on its snout, while the others have the more traditional ones on either side of the head. I hopefully cut down the polygon counts to an acceptable level too. People's video cards will appreciate me.

I debated whether or not to post this image, ...

June 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I debated whether or not to post this image, but I decided to anyway. This site is basically spoiler central anyway.

I'm working on the central "demon" model that will be key in the game. At this point, it's simply a resize and edit of the Balor model with a dragon head stuck on. I'm working hard on replacing the skeletal wings with a true "skinmesh" wing. Unfortunately, I'm finding it beyond my skills as a 3d artist, so I called for help this morning. Hopefully someone can assist.

I keep generating ideas faster than I can make them happen, which is a good thing so early in the game. There's a particular activity in the main town that I think I'll turn into a big section of the game, as it's simply too cool.

Not much to report

June 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Not much to report. I'm working more on the backstory a bit, as well as trying to figure out how to do skinmeshes. They'd be nice to have for a key creature model I'm working on. I did a little work yesterday and I think it'll turn out well enough. We'll see how it goes.

I didn't get a chance to do much yesterday, b...

June 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I didn't get a chance to do much yesterday, but I put a little work into my "keep decoration" system. There's actually an in-game reason for decking out your flat, plus it simply looks neat.

I started sketching out a different justice system, which I'm hoping I can turn into something that works. The faction-specific code might do me in, but I'm hoping it turns out well.

Sam and I played a little of Foreboding in Sylvani yesterday, though he got bored after an hour or so. Some of the scripting was very nice and I noticed some of my custom content in there (the placeable water and bubbles). A few of the encounters were very clever and required some thought, which I can appreciate. So far, so good.

With my work on the interior tileset done for...

June 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

With my work on the interior tileset done for now, I've turned my attention to work on Demon. Today's work is for the player's keep. I made some portals to the various rooms that can be added on, as well as to the outside world. I originally made placeables, but the water transparency didn't work properly. Because of that, I added them to my invisible tiles. They're always present, which is not ideal, but the transparent water look more than makes up for it. The portals have a Stargate feel to them, and I may end up making an OnUsed "splash" effect if I get some time.

More importantly, I think I have a solid story for the module. The relationship with the player's companion is key, as well as assorted "family" struggles. Hopefully it'll be more involving than the typical "evil badguy threatens the world" scenario. By now, most players care deeply for their companions, their character, and how they fit in to the larger D&D multiverse, so I think I can get away with it by now.

On another note, I'm heading back to work tomorrow after two weeks of paternity leave. I suspect work and home will become crazy for awhile, so development will slow a bit. I'm in it for the long haul, however, so I'll eventually get it done.

I have been a tile makin' maniac the last cou...

June 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I have been a tile makin' maniac the last couple days. I think it's to the point where I'm done, or at least awfully close. It's nice to know that I can do it if necessary, but it's admittedly pretty time consuming work.

My small "haunted house" interior turned into a fairly big set of tiles. In theory, you could create a large rambling building, though it doesn't have a lot of variation. I also took quite a few shortcuts, doing some things with a higher polygon count than necessary so that I could avoid making multiple tiles (e.g. the Room and Solid tiles have geometry all the way around). Of course, the total number of polygons is still quite small. I think I added an extra 8 or so for the huge time savings.

I'm actually quite happy with how it turned out. There are some odd shadow issues that I may punt to Danmar. Still, I think it makes a nice finale to what I've contributed to the tileset. Since I'm going back to work on Monday, I suspect this is the last for awhile.

As for the next campaign, ideas continue to be generated out of the dark recesses of my brain. I think I have a main plot that I like at this point. Up until now, I've been working on background material without worrying too hard about how the player fits into it all. The hardest part is working in the companions, though I think I now have an idea that should be interesting.

Yet more rooms yesterday and this morning

June 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yet more rooms yesterday and this morning. I made an oval shaped one with sloped walls, mostly to see what it would look like. It's certainly odd looking and I'm not sure if it'll get much general use, but perhaps someone will like it. I think the main problem is that there isn't an exterior building that really matches, but perhaps it would make a good underground area. Round shapes certainly are challenging.

I also have another concept room I'm working on. I'm going for a "haunted" feel, though I'm not sure I can get the shadowplay quite the way I'd like. So far, I have a big square room with a nice looking picture window. Ideally, I'd like to see trees swaying outside, curtains billowing, and the like. Could be tricky.

I also did some more bug fixing of Dreamcatcher 4 yesterday. I also found out that I completely unbalanced Anera's token and the Tattoo of the Master. I'm going back and adding workarounds to the script so that it's not quite so powerful. I'll need to update Dreamcatcher 1 through 3, but probably not today.

I didn't get a lot of things done yesterday

June 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I didn't get a lot of things done yesterday. Not enough sleep combined with allergies made me a bit cranky and lethargic. I whipped out a single, small tent. It should go well with the tent in the forest tileset.

I'm thinking of doing another today, a two-tile oval hut-style interior. As I get comfortable with the toolset, I find they go faster and I'm more comfortable with strange shapes.

I'm slowly uploading the patched modules I put together on Tuesday. It's pretty time consuming, so I'm glad to get it over with. I'd like to this this is close to my last round of patches, at least for the Shadowlords campaign. I think SoU will break some things with Dreamcatcher, so I'll probably need to revise those again.

Yet more tiles for the interior tileset project

June 04, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yet more tiles for the interior tileset project. I went for the hexagonal look a bit, trying for something that didn't have so many 90 degree angles. They turned out reasonably well and I ended up making a stone and wood version of each. The middle part is expandable, so you could have a really long hall or a small room. The wood version would make a decent ship with appropriate placeables, though if I was going to do it for real, I'd probably do things differently (and spend way more time).

Yesterday was my bugfix day. I spent a huge amount of time going through all the bugs I'd collected over the last few months and fixed the first 8 modules. It's amazing how time consuming these things are. Hopefully today I can get them posted on the Vault, though that also takes awhile. Most of the fixes were minor, such as making sure Anera had the Turn Undead feat in all modules. Some were cool, such as finally getting the psionic focus dominate effect to work. A few were workarounds for player frustration, including "I give up - just let me win" options for the dream areas in Dreamcatcher 2.

I've been working away at the design document for my next project. There are two opposing factions in the main city and I'm working on quests where you could take either side in the conflict. Should be interesting.

I spent more time yesterday cranking out new ...

June 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent more time yesterday cranking out new interior tiles. The first part of the day, I created some variations in my cramped small square room, adding another stone and then a wood variation. I figure they're good for crypt interiors and the like. It avoids the "Dr. Who's Tardis" effect when you've got a small building on the main map and when you go inside, it's huge.

I also spent some time putting together a workshop tile. It's a bit larger than the cramped square room, wood paneled, and has a variety of tools laying about. I'm think it's mostly used by thieves and tinkerers to create small contraptions. I have a use for it in the next campaign, but it should have a variety of applications.

I'm not sure how much time I'll have today. I'd really like to get started on bug fixes for the Shadowlords and Dreamcatcher campaigns. There's a good sized list and it'll take much of the day (and possibly into tomorrow).

For those interested in my life as a player, Sam and I finished Return of Mikaila Chapter 1, a cooperative only module. While the cooperative aspects were occasionally simplistic(there were a lot of variations of lever puzzles), there was a fun sense of satisfaction in working as a team. I tried to have something very similar in Shadowlords 2, but found the players screamed bloody murder when they couldn't figure out how to get through. I've since switched it to allow a single player solution, and I suspect I'll need to for any others I create.

As for Twilight, I yet again failed the first trial, even with the 2 hour extension cheat. I really don't like quests where bad luck can cause you to fail and it takes so much time before you learn if it's time to give up and try again. I turned it over to my nephew who has more patience, and he saved the game after the initial Trials. I may get back to it some day, though, as I hear very good things about it.

I'm surprised at how long it takes to make a ...

June 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I'm surprised at how long it takes to make a single tile, from the geometry to the walk mesh to all the SET and ITP file stuff. I'm also amazed that I'm getting the hang of it, cranking out a series of tiles yesterday that should round out the interior tile set quite nicely (pun vaguely intended).

The first is a very small, cramped room that I think will end up as a workshop or apothocary. I may crank out a few variations of this very simple room as it's so easy to work with.

The second project involved multiple tiles. I took Danmar's circular room corner, raised the height to 3.5 meters (the tileset standard) and started creating variations of it. There's currently a plain, doorway, and bed version of the tile. I think I like the one with the bed the most as I got the animation (candle flickering) and walkable bed just the way I wanted. I'd like to create a few more variations using this theme so that a variety of round rooms could be put together.

I also had a very interesting e-mail exchange with Papermonk from CODI. It looks like I'll be working in a friendly fashion with their folks as they're interested in sponsoring Planescape-related modules from the big name authors. There's a possiblity I can get some modeling resources or early access to their stuff. I'm hoping I get a cool logo or something. :)

I finished up my two round rooms yesterday an...

June 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I finished up my two round rooms yesterday and I ended up being very happy with how they turned out. All the details should be in place, from the walkmesh set properly to appropriate shadows, and everything else. I have more rooms that I need to work on, so it's not over yet, but I have hopes that it won't take too long.

The other massive project I'd like to do over the next week or so is to go through and fix all the bugs that have been reported for the other eight modules. It's a major undertaking, probably taking most of a day, but I've been wanting to do it for awhile. Of course, the 1.30 patch will probably cause issues with my modules as well, so I'm debating whether or not to delay a bit.

Emma's sleeping next to me, being very nice a...

May 31, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Emma's sleeping next to me, being very nice and letting me work. I just finished uploading the latest patch to Dreamcatcher 4, which should hopefully fix most of the problems people are experiencing. The delay in uploading on the Vault is hard at times, as most of the bugs were from the original version. The last patch I put up a couple days ago still hadn't made it there yet.

I did more work on the interiors yesterday. I gave up on the shadows for the arches. They looked neat, but I could never get them to work right. I think I'd have to add some geometry to cast the right shadows and I decided it was better to move on. My next project is a small circular room. It looks good, except for the missing door part. I'll get around to adding that shortly.

Amazingly, I got some work done today

May 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Amazingly, I got some work done today. I think it's because Emma was surprisingly easy to take care of. Mostly she slept in her front carrier, warming me up like a hot water bottle.

I expanded on my initial test yesterday, creating models and adding scripting. You can now apply a variety of "skins" to your keep, changing the main room to look like anything from a forest to a stone fortress. The music and background sounds make a big difference in the illusion that you're changing out tiles. There are some drawbacks, however. They all share a common walkmesh, so you can't walk everywhere you'd think you could. The corners are especially problematic as there's so much variation. Still, it looks good enough for my purposes.

The other aspect of the keep is a series of task-specific rooms, such as a workshop or library. Because of that, I've decided to add on to the Interior tileset that Danmar and Velmar are working on. I massaged some of the unused tiles in the existing game, hopefully creating some small house interiors that could be used in other projects as well as mine.

Finally, I posted my first Dreamcatcher 4 patch. Expect more as I get time. I've been trying to balance bug fixing and messing around so that I don't burn myself out. Fixing bugs isn't exactly my favorite task.

I feel like the Red Queen from Alice in Wonde...

May 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I feel like the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland - running as fast as she can just to stay in one place. I spent over an hour answering e-mails this morning. Many thanks for all your congratulations. I've been hiding from the main module forum, as I'm afraid how many responses may be there already. I have also been getting bug reports, though I've mostly just cataloged them for later.

I had about a half hour today when I wanted to do something soothing, so I ended up working instead on things for my next module. I have a wacky idea that should let you dynamically change the appearance of your "keep". So far, it looks pretty good, and I just need to create more options. You can now have it look like a crypt, though I want to add other options such as stars, stone walls, and possibly more wacky things like a forest.

Emma and my wife are back home and doing wonderfully. She seems a great baby so far, quite easily pleased. She's also quite an avid eater and will make pig noises on random occasions.

Emma was born just over an hour ago

May 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Emma was born just over an hour ago. Both mom and daughter are doing just great. It was an amazingly short labor and we're all feeling surprisingly energetic. Due to the modern miracle of painkillers, the tail end was almost pleasant for my wife.

Emma is quite squirmy and strong, weighing in at 8 pounds, 1 ounce. We're all immensely happy.

So, hope everyone is enjoying the module (which should be posted today or tomorrow). Don't expect any responses back from me for awhile.

We're going into the hospital in a few minute...

May 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

We're going into the hospital in a few minutes to get this daughter thing started. Also, the module should appear on the Vault today. All my babies being born at the same time.

I got a huge amount of feedback yesterday and...

May 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got a huge amount of feedback yesterday and this morning. It's been great having such a dedicated team of testers. All their detailed reports should make it a much better game for all.

I ran through the module one more time this morning, finding a couple minor bugs along the way. I tweaked a few combats as well, hopefully making them a bit more challenging. I'm feeling it's basically ready to go. I uploaded the movie and the hak pack to the vault this morning. With luck, they'll show up on the main Vault page shortly. I'm going to wait until this evening for any final bug reports, then post the main module as well.

My next project has been on hold a bit during this testing process, but I have been doing more thinking about it. I think I have a mechanism that allows the player's keep to be dynamic and change appearance to suit their demenor. It involves very large placeables and tiles with only a walkmesh. I'll hopefully get a chance to fiddle with it during the post-baby time a bit.

I got an amazing amount of feedback from the ...

May 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got an amazing amount of feedback from the testers yesterday, filling up a lengthy page of notes. They did a really good job and I'm very thankful for their help.

I think I've fixed all the typos and general weirdness at this point. I've also snuck in some special items for monks, as I'm afraid I neglected the class earlier on. The plan is to wait another day, check e-mail again tonight, then post it on the vault tomorrow. With luck, I really will have finished before my daughter is born, something I doubted I could pull off.

I didn't have much chance to work on my next project, so no fancy pictures for the day. Hopefully getting your hands on the module itself in a few days will make up for it.

I played a little bit of Twilight yesterday. Unfortunately, it opened with my least-favorite type of gameplay. I had to find keys to open doors while fighting monsters, all with a time limit. Based on the reviews, I suspect there's an excellent game if I just get through the initial boring part. It just seemed odd to lead in with that.

Sam and I have been playing a little Return of Mikaila, which has been quite entertaining so far. It's been fun yelling out "Stop! Stop!" when my cleric finds a trap. Only once did poor Sam get impailed upon the evil spikes. I suspect we'll finish the module over the next couple weeks, as I'm off work and my primary duty will be watching Sam. The trick these days is to combine as many tasks as possible.

Well, virtually all of my testers got back to...

May 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, virtually all of my testers got back to me yesterday (note to self: whining is an effective communication tool). I spent the day yesterday and this morning fixing bugs and adding a few extra touches. I also checked every module board yesterday, taking about three hours to read and respond to every comment. It was pretty exhausing, but I think I have a solid bug list when I have time for another round of patches. With luck, Dreamcatcher 4 should be out very soon.

I put a little more work into my next project, creating some custom effects for the potions. Nothing fancy, but they work fairly well. I've tried to cram all of them into a screenshot, though it didn't turn out very well.

I spent yesterday working on custom potions, ...

May 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent yesterday working on custom potions, getting them into the game. I set up a special effect for one of them this morning, which turned out nicely. I have five of the eight already done, and four of the recipies for the potions. Hopefully it'll be a fun thing to do in game.

I didn't hear a peep from the testers yesterday. I'm hoping that it's a sign that everything is going well and not that it's so incredibly bad that they've decided to shun me. I had one person do a very quick run through the game, but that's about it. I suspect it's just so long that it's taking everyone awhile to finish.

I spent most of yesterday getting initial bug...

May 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent most of yesterday getting initial bug reports, sending out e-mails to testers, and trying to fix things as best I can. I think I have the issues I know about taken care of and passed along the latest version of the module.

The weird bug of the day happened when I was trying to fix an area. I had increased the difficulty of a certain creature, updated the instances, and later went into the area. It turns out that as soon as I hit a certain trigger, the creatures in the area (myself included) started swapping bodies. Fortunately I managed to fix it by deleting all the creatures and recreating them.

I spent a bunch of time yesterday working on unique spells. It takes awhile to crank out each 2D image, but it's fairly fun and relaxing to do. I'll update the lengthy design document with a new spell/recipie/blueprint description, then whip up an accompanying icon for it. This morning I tested it all in game and after a few tweaks, it looks pretty good. I suppose every new module starts a little bit at a time.

I think that most or all of the testers got t...

May 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I think that most or all of the testers got their files yesterday. It's a big module, so I don't expect people to have a chance to get into it for a few days. Odds are, I won't get reports until Emma's born, which could be any day now.

I've been puttering around on my next project, having fun working with 2D art and making some new inventory items. It's nice not to have this pressure to finish things up. I'm working on a fat design document still, though I'm not sure I'll be able to do it all. Imagining cool things to do is far easier than actually doing them.

The other thing on my agenda is to read every since message board on the Vault for every module I've put out there. It'll be a long read, I'm sure, as I haven't taken a look in a long while. Then it's collating every bug report I've received over the last few months. Finally, I should actually fix the things, trying to get the new module verions up some time after Dreamcatcher 4.

Unless the baby arrives, I'm going to start s...

May 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Unless the baby arrives, I'm going to start sending out the module to testers. I contacted many of them yesterday and it looks like I'll have a pretty big crew to run through them. Hopefully reports will come in fairly soon and I can start in on the bug fixing that I'm sure will ensue.

I'm feeling a sense of relief these days with the campaign coming to a completion. It's been about 10 months since the first Shadowlords module was released, and almost three years since I started planning the entire campaign. It's been quite the long road, but far more interesting than I would have expected.

I have been scheming about my next project already. The story begun in Shadowlords and Dreamcatcher continues, though with a fairly different take on things. I made my first piece of custom content for the game as well - a coin used in the city where much of the story takes place. I also spent a bunch of time yesterday working on back story. I have about 5 pages of notes at this point, with more to follow.

More milestones yesterday

May 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

More milestones yesterday. Sam (my four-year-old) and I together played through from the beginning. There were no show-stoppers and we managed to play through in about 3 hours, not really reading any dialog. I did catch a huge number of bugs, filling up the margins of my earlier bug list page. I've since fixed all I could find, though I haven't retested again. I am hoping that it's to the point where testers could start hammering away at it, so I'll probably send out e-mails to folks today.

The odd thing about all of this is that the baby is coming really soon, with a decent chance that it could be today, slowly growing more sure until it's 100% likely at the beginning of next week (we have an induction appointment). That means that testing will almost certainly be interrupted, but at least I'll get it out into people's hands. There's the smallest chance that the testers will test it and all bugs will be fixed by the time the baby comes, but I'm not holding my breath.

All-in-all, I've been pleasantly surprised that I hit my target date for the module so well. The last few weeks have been a little grueling, but the relief of finishing the module and the campaign makes it worthwhile. Soon I shall have blissful time to play with my family, care for a new daughter, and plan for my next project.

Still more testing

May 18, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Still more testing. I finally played through the entire game in chunks, stopping each time I hit a problem moving to the next area, fixing it, and moving the start location to that point. I'll eventually need to test it going all the way through, but at least this is a start. I made a page-long list yesterday of all the problems I found, starting to write in really small letters towards the end. This morning I woke up and spent a couple hours fixing them. Now I'm down to two bugs and a desire to tweak the final combat a bit.

I'm having a hard time with balance, especially against some of the high-level mages. A few of them will either turn you into a burnt paste almost instantly, or easily go down after a few blows. It depends a lot on whether or not they get those spells off, which is a bit random, but also the way the game works. I've tried to put in items and such that make life easier, but we'll see what the testers have to say.

I've been going through the entire game, test...

May 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been going through the entire game, testing out all the areas in preparation for a bigger test by others. I'm finding that the game is simply huge. After two hours, I barely got halfway through the game, even though I knew what to do and ignored much of the dialog. I have about a half a page of things to fix, from balance issues to show-stoppers where the player isn't moved to the next area properly.

I've fixed some of them already, jumping back and forth to take care of problems as I find them. Some were easy and mostly cosmetic. A few may take some research on my part. The hardest thing is that it's getting to the point where I'm not sure it'll be fun for others to play. I'm so immersed in getting it working that the "cool" effect has long since faded. I did chuckle at a few lines of dialog I'd forgotten, so I suppose it's not all bad.

I'm basically done with development at this point. Yesterday I fleshed out a few areas that were otherwise boring, putting in some treasure, tricks, and traps. I also spent a bunch of time testing the Summer Palace assault map, fixing a game-crashing bug that was fairly annoying.

I'm guessing I'm in the last few days of seri...

May 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I'm guessing I'm in the last few days of serious development. Yesterday I wrote out an extensive readme file, complete with hints, technical issues, and so on. I learned my lesson early with those, as a good help file really cuts down on the e-mail I get. I've also been polishing areas, putting down treasure, flavor text, and fixing known bugs in certain areas.

I finally got my sahaugin scout script to work right, for example. It turns out I had a parenthesis in the wrong place (silly )me. I'm also trying to get some good camera movement for the cinematic scenes.

Hopefully this weekend I can play the whole module through, which I've never done. I'd like to play through with at least a couple of the henchmen, as well as a multiplayer test, assuming my four-year-old is up for it. With luck, I'll be able to get the modules to testers next week. Of course, that baby thing is hanging over my head, so there may be some delays here or there.

Oh - a quick note about post-Dreamcatcher plans, since people have been asking about them. I do hope to continue the story, and have already been taking notes on the next campaign. I probably won't start seriously for awhile, as I want to go back and fix a number of bugs that have popped up in the other modules. I'll also have a baby to take care of fairly soon, so that will take priority over everything. Still, in another three or four months, you may see another module out of me, hopefully quite different and interesting.

No fancy pictures today, though much work was...

May 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

No fancy pictures today, though much work was done. I got the epilogue area basically finished. I kept running through testing last night, making sure things looked just right. I even added a silly little outtakes area if you can find it.

The main module is also approaching completion. The dialog has been sent off to a helpful volunteer who offered to edit it, which I am very grateful for. Yesterday I started my "polishing" pass, putting in flavor text and making sure the transition images and area sounds were all appropriate. Today I'll continue with more of the same.

I finished the intro movie as well. It's short, but looks fairly nice. If I had more time, I could probably make it even better, but time is pretty precious. Still no baby yet, though it could happen any day.

I finally have all the dialog in place

May 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I finally have all the dialog in place. Every henchmen has their situation-specific dialog as well as their general dialog. I haven't proofread it yet, but at least it's there. Nice to scratch that one off my list.

I worked a bit more on the epilogue area. I'm try to flesh it out enough so that it's a fun little place for the players to hang out after the main adventure. I have some elven dancers doing their thing in this screenshot. There's still one more super-secret thing I need to do for the area, but it shouldn't be too hard.

I also put together the bulk of the movie, expanding it to a three-second clip. I'm going to try today to put some fade ins and outs, as well as some titles. Slowly getting there.

I worked endlessly on dialog yesterday, reali...

May 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked endlessly on dialog yesterday, realizing just how much there was going to be in this game. I'm still not done, though I'm slowly getting closer. I've got three more conversations to write, then the entire epilogue area. That'll be fun.

I started in on a movie this morning, just a quick 2-second clip that I'll combine with some titles for the module introduction.

I got an amazing amount of things done yester...

May 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got an amazing amount of things done yesterday, from new custom content to dialog and scripting. I started testing out different henchmen, going through the first part of the module. I'm starting to realize that I have quite a bit to do yet, but I can feel it starting to reach completion. I even worked on the epilogue area, making some custom tiles and placeables to try and get the idylic look down.

Hopefully today I can work even more on dialog, which I found to be a bit lacking yesterday. The henchmen dialog is especially lengthy, with lots of general and situation-specific dialog to go. Fortunately I have someone volunteering their time as an editor, as all the spelling and grammar checking would drive me mad.

Finally, still no baby. Could be any time.

I finally made it - the final battle

May 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I finally made it - the final battle. I realize that final battles are cliché, but there's a certain expectation for them. Somehow I don't think you and your foe will settle it all over a nice cup of tea. The trick is to make the final battle interesting and varied, which can be difficult. Plus I'm trying to come up with ways for a clever person to make a battle easier.

I have made a ton of progress yesterday, scripting out more areas and sequences. I have one henchman's dialog to write, as well as tweaking his stats. Soon it may be time to start the polishing passes (sounds, transitions, flavor text, and so on). It's nice to approach the end of this massive module.

I'm already starting to take notes for my next project. I think I'm going to take the next one a bit slower. It's going to be pretty different, and I'll have to create some new systems from scratch. Could be a bit of a challenge.

On a personal note, my stepfather's funeral service was yesterday. It was nice, with lots of friends and family gathered.

Lots of work yesterday and today

May 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Lots of work yesterday and today. I did a bunch of playtesting of the Summer Palace assault and I think it's working basically the way I want. I did have a little excitement when I caught one of the elves in the blast radius of a spell, turning them all against me. A little scripting later and it seems to be taken care of.

I have more work to do on the Temple area, though I like what I've done so far. Nothing super fancy, but some interesting surprises. I have a couple areas that I need to flesh out some more, as I'm not quite sure what to put there. I try to give myself room for creative ideas later, but when they don't come right away, I tend to scratch my head a bit.

I also tested some of the transitions out, making sure you could get from area A to area B. These weren't normal transitions, but rather dialog off of a placeable, through a cutscene, then off to a particular position. After some tweaking, it seems to work okay.

No baby yet, though the time is approaching. Sam's been swept away for the weekend by the grandparents, so I may actually get quite a bit of time to code today.

I've been working on the Summer Palace area, ...

May 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been working on the Summer Palace area, getting the attacking elves to start from their boats and work their way to the center. Reinforcements come when they die, so I ended up combining testing of that and the cannon by shooting them as they emerged from their leaf boat. It had me laughing out loud, though I did feel vaguely guilty.

The assault is going pretty well. When it works, it works beautifully, with the elves doing some complex pathfinding and behaviors. Unfortunately, I'm not convinced it always works. More testing required.

I'm also working on the defenders, hoping to get some of their AI done today. I'm thinking of giving the attackers and defenders a limited number of respawns, each time going to the right place to continue the fight. We'll see how it goes.

Big deal, you say

May 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Big deal, you say. It's just a gnome holding a sword. Ah, but it's a gnome wizard holding a sword. Big difference.

I spent about an hour yesterday trying to make a weapon that could be used by all. After much fiddling with .2da files, models, and graphics, I finally got it working. Basically, it looks and acts just like a longsword, but anyone can use it. Why that's important, I'll save as a secret for later.

More scripting and dialog yesterday, fleshing out the final area in more detail. I was also working on a custom spawn script, balancing some of the battles a bit to make sure it wasn't too easy or too hard. I have more of the same today. Hopefully I'll have the chance to work on some pseudo-AI for the Summer Palace area.

I've been moving along, working on the last o...

May 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been moving along, working on the last of the siege weapons yesterday. I got the cannon working and it's admittedly lots of fun. The scripting is reasonably effective, though I'm thinking about tweaking the model a bit (it doesn't rotate well). Still, I like what I have so far, so I think I may just keep it.

The final areas of the game are coming along nicely, slowly filling out details. I'm still not close to testing yet, as there's lots of blank spots, dialog to write, and so on. There's also a very final scene I need to make that I haven't started on at all.

Still, I'm hopeful it'll wrap up within a few weeks, depending on how baby things go. We could end up with a quiet, easy-going baby, in which case my time at home may feel more like a vacation. Or Emma could be more like Sam was as a baby, endlessly fussy and crying. I'll cross my fingers.

Though life is hectic, I did manage to find a...

May 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Though life is hectic, I did manage to find a little time yesterday, whipping up some new placeables such as these little lava walls. I also worked on mapping issues, some dialog, and a bit of scripting. Basically I just need to get the details of the final assault down. I'm trying hard to reduce the hack-n-slash for the final area, with a bit more mystery and suspense. The middle section of the module is very combat heavy, so I'm trying to balance it out if I can.

I had a thought when waking up this morning that I'll work into the game. Expect a little surprise visit from a familiar face.

I worked on the module a bit more yesterday m...

May 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked on the module a bit more yesterday morning, creating some "horns" for the towers - making them more evil looking as well as providing places to throw grappling hooks. I also tweaked the evil dungeon throne tile a bit, making it so that a human-sized model could actually sit on it. I managed a little more scripting, but that was about it for the day, as personal issues came up about then.

My stepfather passed away early Sunday morning. I spent most of the day with my mom, sitting by her side and talking. Endless friends and family arrived and left. Though events may be inevitable, it doesn't always prepare you for passing through them. My thanks to all of you who sent notes these last few weeks. On the opposite end of the spectrum, my wife is looking extremely pregnant. I'm guessing we have another week to go before Emma arrives. Life seems to be an endless string of hellos and goodbyes.

In one of those rare conjunctions of free tim...

May 04, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

In one of those rare conjunctions of free time, energy, and creativity, I got a tremendous amount done yesterday. I think I've been saving it up over the week when I didn't have the opportunity do work on things. It was a several hour stretch of new models, tweaks to tilesets, scripting, and even a little dialog.

The Keep area is basically finished, with only a few minor details remaining. I created the "across the Lake of Dreams" cutscene. Remember not to take the boat with the redshirt guy.

I mapped out the final area as well, painting it down with broad strokes as I plan out the details. After a long stretch of combat-oriented gameplay, I'm hoping for some puzzles and roleplaying. We'll see how it goes.

Today I'm hoping to work more on the Summer Palace area. It's mapped, but there are lots of scripting and AI tasks to put in place. Hopefully the player will have fun storming the castle.

I spent most of this morning trying to figure...

May 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent most of this morning trying to figure out why I couldn't shoot straight. There's a key part of the keep defense where it's strongly recommended that you use the ballista. Unfortunately, I kept having problems trying to hit anything. After awhile, I figured out that my model was rotated 90 degrees, which caused the SetFacing to screw up. I rotated it back (fixing animation along the way), then tried again. Still nothing. I began to randomly fire around until I figured out that I could hit what I was shooting at if I shot in the exact opposite direction. With a glimpse of insight, I turned my plus signs to minuses and all was good.

I wrote more dialog yesterday, some pillow talk after a long day fighting the forces of evil. Such is the life that heroes choose.

Okay, amusing bug of the day

May 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Okay, amusing bug of the day. I have this little guy set to Plot (making him invulnerable) until he does a certain task. Unfortunately, it never got unset in this case, which means that he could never be killed. He merrily stood there and got pelted with arrows by a keep full of elven archers, looking like a red pincushion after a few seconds. I put in a little "just in case" code if something goes wrong with the other script (which it seems to on rare occasions). I love the scripting engine.

More progress on the module itself. I've been rearranging secret keep doors, fixing ballista animations, reworking the ballista code, and getting the main keep plot working. I think you can technically go all the way through the area. It's going to be a lengthy one, as there are several tasks that can be done there.

Yet again, I'm coming to the realization that this module is going to be big. I'm guessing it's somewhere between one and a half to two times as big as the others. It might take around 4 hours to finish, though that's just a guess at this point. I still haven't touched the final area yet. Hopefully the gameplay there will be quite unique.

I also noticed that I've been working on Dreamcatcher 4 for exactly two months now. I'd say I'm well over halfway done. Probably another few weeks of content building and a couple more of testing.

As suspected, I've had little free time the l...

May 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

As suspected, I've had little free time the last couple days. I managed to sneak in an hour or two here and there. The siege weapons are slowly approaching operational, as well as the primary Keep quest. This morning I was working on the ballista. It's looking good so far, but needs work. The animation is too slow in places and I need to get my hit detection script working better. Still, it should be a fun little sequence of events. I'm also working on a big surprise for the area (emphasis on the big). If I can pull of the scripting right, it should turn out well.

Yet more scripting and dialog work for the ke...

April 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yet more scripting and dialog work for the keep area. You can now scout out positions and pelt them with the catapult, which is always a lot of fun. Now the enemy fights back with their catapult as well. Only a fool marches through the center of the battlefield in clear sight, as they're likely to be made suddenly quite flat by very large rocks.

I have one more "assault" wave that I want to do next. There's also some assorted bug issues with any effort this big - the elves don't seem to get reinforcements, for example. That can't be good. I'm also trying to get the various catapult explosion types working - flying masonry when it hits the castle versus flying dirt on the ground.

The extreme business of life continues. Probably not a lot of work today. I'm hoping that during our two-day educational seminars, I can daydream about the final act some more. It's starting to gel together. The hard part is trying to avoid all the standard "end game" clichés while still making it satisfying.

Well, I finally got around to putting up a pa...

April 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I finally got around to putting up a page for the next Dreamcatcher module. Basically it's just a placeholder and a map, as people kept e-mailing asking when it's going to be done (late May, early June is my guess).

Life has been busy lately, so I haven't been able to do much work as of late. I placed the enemy siege equipment and started putting together the scripts to support it. I just started on the new catapult scripts for the keep, which should provide entertainment for some.

I also finished up Bone Kenning last night. Lots of good things about it, from the "Thrull" concept to the interesting keep. I did have a few problems, as many of these heavily-scripted modules have (mine included). I ended up getting infinite experience when killing a certain shadow. After leveling up to 10 or so, I realized this couldn't possibly be part of the story. I also had several cases where my thrulls become unselectable and untargetable, so I basically lost all their components. Problems aside, it was a truly fun module.

I find myself thinking more and more about modules after Dreamcatcher. It's a bad habit to get in, as this one must be done first. Still, I'm writing down notes when they come to me. If some of the ideas pan out, it could end up being lots of fun.

I've been happily placing trees throughout th...

April 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been happily placing trees throughout the levels. Those and the flowers should make Evermeet look more like the isle of beauty I imagined. I also put some work into testing the scripting for the battlefield. So far, so good. I could leave the elves and attackers alone and they'd merrily battle it out for all eternity. Nothing fancy - just some respawn action to keep it interesting.

I played a bit more Bone Kenning last night. I think I'm approaching the end (though I could certainly be mistaken). There's a number of things I really enjoyed about it. The concept of a personal dwelling for the player turned out quite nicely and was integral to the story rather than just a cool place to hang out. There are some elements there that I've been tossing around for my next project. Seeing some of them in action has certainly helped solidify some ideas.

As for today, I'm hoping to get more battlefield scripting done. There are some quests that need solidifying for that entire battle sequence. Next is the actual assault piece. I got a working door in the barracks roof, which makes one of the centerpiece buildings much more effective.

Martin E released an update to his tree pack,...

April 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Martin E released an update to his tree pack, which I just finished incorporating into the Dreamcatcher hak pack. It looks amazing, really adding life to some of the core areas. It was somewhat unexpected, but I really enjoy the ivy placeables. Seems to make a huge difference. See if you can spot the secret castle door hidden in this latest screenshot.

Sam wanted to play Star Wars with me yet again, but I convinced him to play Neverwinter Nights with me. We picked up Bone Kenning and I was really impressed. The unique gameplay with the creation of "thrulls" is quite interesting. The dialog is also extremely well done and suits the creepy mood - I feel bad that I'm forced to skim because of a four-year-olds patience. He should wander down in a bit this morning, so hopefully we finish it up before breakfast.

I had a rare moment yesterday where I was alone in the house and could work on my module in peace. Unfortunately, I had absolutely no motivation to do so. After playing the first bit of Bone Kenning, I became reinvigorated, working on more dialog after I tucked Sam into bed. It's nice to remember why I'm doing this. I'm a sucker for a good story.

Hopefully I can work on the general battlefield area near Lakeside Keep. I need to script some patrolling enemies, as well as some "reinforcement" scripts for the elven defenders. I don't want to put too many on the walls at once (polygon issues), but I need to keep them defended. I'll probably keep a count of those lost and have it make a difference later in the module, just so the players have some motivation to hurry up with their business.

On a final note, I got an e-mail from Manbo, a Japanese NWN player. He's translated the first of the Shadowlords modules into Japanese, which I thought was quite cool. You can visit his site, but it's mostly unreadable for an English speaker like me.

I got a tremendous amount of work done yester...

April 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got a tremendous amount of work done yesterday, putting in all the dialog and scripting required for the Two Towers area. I'd still like to polish it up a bit, add some extra magical contraptions to each tower. We'll see how the time goes.

I started work on the Lakeside Keep area, and came to the conclusion that I was yet again crazy for making the attempt. I spent an hour this morning scripting and testing a tiny event that should take about five seconds in game time. It's fairly cool, but boy are some things time consuming.

On a related note, it's officially one month away from Emma's due date. Will I finish Dreamcatcher in time? If I had a magic 8 ball, the answer would be "probably not". I'm guessing I'll have all the areas finished and scripted by then, but I bet I'll need a couple weeks of testing for a module this size. Maybe I can hold Emma with one arm while testing with the other. Hmm . . .

Today we have the matching pair to yesterday'...

April 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Today we have the matching pair to yesterday's image. I'm slowly finishing up the final parts of my Two Towers area. It's the biggest of the "trek across Evermeet" areas, with four subareas off of it. I'm hoping it's an interesting little distraction along the way.

I still have lots to do with the module, which is already quite large. I've got just about everything planned out in detail except the final end. I'm doing some technical tests on the side, which may end up being quite complex. In theory, it looks good, but I have to decide whether to take a certain model in the placeable or creature direction. The big problem with placeables is that they only have three animations. We'll see how it goes.

I'm hoping to write more dialog today, getting the main Two Towers quest areas complete. We'll see how far I get.

Life was crazy busy yesterday, so I didn't ge...

April 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Life was crazy busy yesterday, so I didn't get much done. I ended up writing some dialog, however, so I felt I made a little progress. Dialog is one of those things that seems to take huge amounts of time, and I have to be somehow inspired to actually do it. My favorite dialog writing time is early in the morning after I've had a mocha. For some reason, the ideas seem to simply flow.

Martin E finished his update to his tree hak and should be releasing it in a day or two. Some of those trees will definately make it into Dreamcatcher 4, as they add great atmosphere to the game. The latest size of the hak pack was around 8 MB. I'm hoping to save some room at the end for some of the final act custom content, though that's still a bit fuzzy.

I'm feeling good about how progress is coming along, though finishing it all in a month seems a bit optimistic. It all depends on when the baby actually comes too, as I suspect it will cut into development time a bit.

Pity the guys in the red shirt

April 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Pity the guys in the red shirt.

When I used to watch Star Trek as a kid, I used to get excited when security would go down with them, wearing their red uniforms. I could tell that a particularly horrific death awaited my eager eyes. I'm sure it was because the writers needed a way to express the danger the crew was in, though they couldn't actually kill off a main character.

I've done the same for my module, making certain defenders of the lakeside keep "red shirt guys". Their fate in life is to suffer the various assaults in vivid detail. Unfortunately, it does get a bit comical. I was testing out the catapult boulder attack and this poor elf kept flipping off the castle wall over and over. I wanted to hold up a "10" sign rating his gymnastic skills. After several hours working on it yesterday, I think I'm done with the necessary modeling. Now I've just got to script the whole thing.

I got a note from Raflar, who put together a bunch of material I used for Dreamcatcher 1 (the Dancing Cyclops in particular). He was enthusiastic, though putting off playing the module until he finished Shadowlords.

I also had someone from Japan e-mail me about translating Shadowlords into Japanese. I wish him the best of luck, as the amount of dialog, item descriptions, script-related text, and journal entries are a bit daunting. It is amazing how many people around the world have played my modules. I got an e-mail from someone in Ukraine yesterday. Almost half the e-mail I get is from outside the country. Pretty neat.

I've been slogging through details this morni...

April 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been slogging through details this morning, things like getting the dialog and scripts for this snake altar together. I also worked on creature placement and general testing. Sometimes it's hard to summon the energy to manage all the little details. I'm hoping to finish up the trek across Evermeet sections fairly soon. I have one more area with some complex scripting that I've been putting off, though I probably can't wait too long.

I started in on a secret project last night, then came to the conclusion that I was probably insane for even trying. The polycounts were huge - in the 3000+ range. I may end up rethinking things, though we'll see how it goes.

I'd also like to create some elf models for the keep defense scene that react appropriately to the incoming ballista bolts, catapult boulders, and so on. That means I need to decide if I want to make placeables or full-fledged creatures for the custom animations. Unfortunately, placeables can only have a few animations, but it may be enough.

Hmm

April 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Hmm. Hard to get through to my own web site. Makes posting news tricky. One of these days I'll have to do something about it . . .

It was pretty busy yesterday, so not much time to work on the game. I did manage to get my catapult effect perfected. It now has a different look when hitting dirt versus the castle wall. The latter sends bricks flying along with a huge dust plume. Should be entertaining.

I also worked on yet more dialog as well as fixing some scripting issues. You can now purchase and use certain holy items, but only if your deity field matches what's appropriate for the item. If not, your hand is burned and you drop it.

I've also finally mapped out the entire "advancing" section of the game. It's the biggest, with many varied environments to explore and obstacles to overcome. I'm hoping it's a nice change of pace to the beginning and ending of the module, which tends to be more roleplaying heavy.

That's not to say that they all work right. This morning I spent a frustrating half hour trying to get my scout to run back and warn the other troops. No luck. I also need to get started on the keep defense area, which could be the most complex area of any I've made.

As suspected, I didn't get much done yesterda...

April 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

As suspected, I didn't get much done yesterday or this morning. I worked a little on the explosion, resizing and retexturing the bricks to make it more realistic. They no longer float in the air, as I fixed the simple model issue.

I was actually all ready to do a little work last night, but ended up answering e-mails. I don't particularly like turning people's requests for help down, but I'm finding it necessary these days if I'm going to ever finish this. I might have a little time this morning, depending on how the server upgrade goes and when the boy wakes up. Easter eggs await!

Though I have much to do, I still accomplishe...

April 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Though I have much to do, I still accomplished quite a bit yesterday. All the doors in the keep now interconnect. I added ladders to reach the trapdoor in the tower roof. I also wrote more of the endlessly growing dialog.

This morning I worked on some appropriate placeables for my evil ophidian temple. Much of the middle part of the game is geared around exploration and combat, in contrast to the dream sequence which is dialog heavy. I'm hoping it flows smoothly, though I do worry a bit about going to far in any one direction.

I'm not sure how much work I'll be able to put into the module this weekend. Today is filled with family things, and a server upgrade extending from tonight through tomorrow. Yippie.

Lots of stuff done yesterday

April 18, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Lots of stuff done yesterday. I worked up a new creature, modifying a salamander with an excellent tail animation with a green slaad to make a passable Yuan-ti. It should do well in my final area before the Lakeshore Keep.

I've also been working on a new "exploding masonry" visual effect for use in the keep defense. It doesn't quite look right, the brick and stone hang in the air after flying outward, so I'll have to spend some time working on it.

I came to the conclusion that I must have siege equipment for the players to use at the castle. Initially, I was going to have it mostly in the hands of the enemy, but then I came to my senses. It's simply too much fun to throw boulders, dump boiling oil, and impale those who would bring ruin to the world. The typical hack and slash gets old after awhile.

I also put in a tremendous amount of dialog and items yesterday. I have even more to do today, along with the necessary scripting to do the quests. Should keep me busy.

Well, I finally got my ambush code working th...

April 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I finally got my ambush code working this morning, though it took a huge amount of time. My solution wasn't completely elegant, but it'll work okay. It's also important to get the player out of the way of the advancing troops, as it's likely they don't have the same skill of concealment as the elves.

I made more items for the shops yesterday, though I need to make even more. To save time, I admit to throwing in some of the standard, boring weapons along with the highly cool ones. I also made a couple of the "uber" weapons, testing out their effects in the game. Placing very powerful weapons is a tricky thing. You don't want it to early in the game, otherwise players will simply stomp all over anything that opposes them. Too late and they don't get to play with it much.

I think I'm finally winding down the "trek across Evermeet" part of the module. It's probably the longest, time-wise, and has a fair amount of combat. Still, there's a couple areas with moral choices that should appease the roleplaying crowd. I'd personally like to start focusing on a couple of the castle scenes. They promise to be quite interesting.

Oh, and it looks like David Gaider, one of the Bioware folks, played Dreamcatcher 3. Always nice to see the attention.

I got a tremendous amount of things done yest...

April 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got a tremendous amount of things done yesterday, most of it the boring, necessary parts. I mapped out quite a few areas, including one of the more complex and involved ones. I think that alone had six maps with a half-dozen area transitions. I also made up some of the locals, though there is much scripting to put in place. Finally, I had a need of a merchant, as the players will have been on quite a long trek at this point without being able to resupply. I think I have a clever excuse why there might be some here.

I've begun making a long list of the custom content I'll need for my castle scene. I may pass on actually modifying the tiles themselves, but I certainly want some "destruction" effects, such as falling rubble and flying masonry. I think I'll modify the critical-hit "gib" animation and replace the body parts with chunks of rocks. Hopefully it'll work.

I finished up my flower fest yesterday, creat...

April 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I finished up my flower fest yesterday, creating some flower boxes and placing them around the module. I think I'm basically done with my little side project, as it's time to focus in on the module itself.

I added the castle walls and got some initial layout of the keep. I'm not sure I'll keep it that way. I'll need to start putting together some "scripts" for how the battle will play out.

There's also an area that I mapped out earlier, but it has no scripting or dialog written for it. It's one of the less important "journey" areas, but it still has a fairly high cool potential.

Okay, okay, I got distracted

April 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Okay, okay, I got distracted. I was reading the custom content forum and someone mentioned the lack of flowers and such. I spent parts of Sunday and this morning putting these together. They're low-polycounts and can be liberally sprinkled about. I sort of have a need for this later in the module, but I admit I did it as a bit of a break from the usual. You can see a bigger picture here

I do like the way they turned out. They'll make a nice "flavor" addition to the hills and forests of Evermeet, I think. It's supposed to be one of the more beautiful places on Toril, even though it's been overrun by the forces of evil.

I'm hoping to get more dialog in today. Endless dialog seems to be required for any significant module. I'd also like to start working on getting the castle walls into the module, perhaps laying out some maps. We'll see how it goes.

Well, my eyes have gotten all blurry, but I t...

April 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, my eyes have gotten all blurry, but I think I'm pretty close to done with my castle gate. It's nothing fancy, but it works. I may have some pathing issues, funny shadows, and such to carefully look at, but for now I'm taking a break. Ironically, I found out yesterday that someone else was working on a castle tileset. Still, the one I've got suits my need well enough and the more variety, the better.

I tested out my scripting yesterday. The catapult code worked well after some minor tweaks. If the rocks start falling, it's best to run away immediately. As for the ambush code, it still needs some work. The troops hide behind trees, but their default AI still takes over and they immediately attack the advancing enemy. It makes an ambush somewhat useless.

Sam and I started playing the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh last night before bed. I've decided that a half-orc barbarian backed up with a cleric is the basis for an unstoppable juggernaut. The biggest problem we faced was continually falling through the floor in one section. There were some scripting issues that my critical eye picked up, but we've been having fun so far. Even though there's no hak packs included, the author used placeables in a fairly creative way to give the illusion of a big mansion and such. We'll probably finish it up before breakfast this morning.

I also noticed that a huge number of the top rated modules are single player only. From a developers standpoint, I can understand why - supporting multiplayer is very time consuming and it makes creating a story around a single character impossible. I've tried to focus on the overall story and the relationship between the PC and henchmen/women. I'm starting to move in the direction of drawing the PC specifically into the storyline, though that'll have to wait for the campaign after Dreamcatcher. We'll see if my ideas really pan out.

I spent a huge amount of time on the simpler ...

April 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent a huge amount of time on the simpler of the two tiles that I needed for the castle project, but I finally got it done. I can now put a doorway in the wall, allowing PCs to get to the top of the walls via the towers. It's not the most elegant solution, but it's good enough for what I need. Ramps would be ideal, but that may not be possible.

I also put in some time yesterday fleshing out some of the areas I'd mapped over the last week, as well as writing some of Teira's dialog. Dialog is tricky at this stage of the game, as there are romance and non-romance options for each, as well as the good/evil/neutral for Nooble. In future campaigns, I'm going to have to simplify things a bit, otherwise I'll be writing endlessly.

Hopefully this weekend I can test out some of the things I've put in place. There's an ambush scene that is scripted, but some of the things I'm trying are very complex, so it probably won't work the first time. I also want to test out the enemy catapult AI. Endless things to do.

Well, I bit the bullet and started work on th...

April 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I bit the bullet and started work on the castle. I dusted off Danmar's unfinished castle tiles and integrated them with the mountain tileset. All the relevant tiles have been added to the .SET and .ITP files. I created two new tiles to allow the castle wall to merge with the mountainside. I also made the doors in the tower tiles workable.

Unfortunately, that's just the easy part. I have two major tiles I need to create before the set is actually workable: a doorway out from the castle wall and a main castle gate. The doorway in the castle wall is critical, as there's no external way to get from the courtyard to the wall. So, I'll put in a stairway in the towers to take care of that. The main castle door is tougher - I need to decide if it'll be like the Guardhouse tile in the official set (e.g. a gate people can pass through, but not over), or more like the GoodCastle entrance, which is a normal door. I really like the idea of a big gate, but the downside is that bridges aren't allowed - no walking over and under. I'll probably think about it today and do the modeling this weekend.

Oh - I messed around with walkmeshes and pathfinding for the castle tileset for about an hour yesterday. The same problems continued. I could pathfind down the ramp, but not up. I've given up on the ramp and I'm now resigned to doorways in the tower.

As for the module itself, I scripted, but haven't tested, the enemy catapult AI. Basically, if you wander in unprepared, bring a really big umbrella.

Well, I had so much fun with the catapult, I ...

April 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I had so much fun with the catapult, I ended up making a ballista too. It's fully animated, but not scripted, and I sadly don't even have a place to put it yet. Danmar thinks he has a solution to the castle wall pathing problem, but his time is even more limited than my own, so that may not be happening any time soon. Still, a "defend the castle scene" is still something I'd really like to see.

I did some bug testing last night, finding out that a particular battle was way too hard. Plus my evil zombies turned on their master when I realized that I had set their faction to "Defender". Still, every one of my elven troops died during the fight. I ended up toning down his defenses a bit.

Life is still quite busy. Work is frantic for some odd reason. A little over a month until the baby is born. My stepfather made his trip to Chicago to see his family one last time. He's back in town since yesterday, though I'm not sure how much company he wants after several weeks of nonstop visitors.

Yesterday was pretty busy, but I still manage...

April 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yesterday was pretty busy, but I still managed to do a few tweaks here and there. I cleaned up the mountain tileset more yesterday, fixing the minimap and putting in a new crypt entrance tile. I wish I had that for Shadowlords 2, as it would have been perfect.

I put some more work into the actual module as well, getting the catapult sounds perfected. I'm going to have to move on to other things soon, but it's just one of those fun highlights of the game. Anything that I can do over and over and still enjoy is probably going to be fun for lots of people.

I put in a bunch of time on my catapult the l...

April 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I put in a bunch of time on my catapult the last couple days. Though it's really just a minute's worth of coolness within the game, it was satisfying getting it in place. It's almost fully functional. I just need to script having the PC's pelted from afar if things go wrong. Still, there are few things as satisfying as dropping large rocks on your enemy.

I mapped out some more areas in the game, putting in placeable water so that I could turn the forest pits into a river. I've got to test out my ambush code as well, which is written but probably doesn't work (knowing how these things go).

The more I work on this module, the bigger it seems to get. I can envision the whole thing in my mind now and I suspect it'll be almost twice as big as the previous modules. Hopefully that'll make folks happy.

I got a lot done over the weekend

April 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got a lot done over the weekend. Most of it involved the creation of custom content, though I did a little scripting and bug fixing as well. Some of the events in the story are coming together for me as well. Hopefully it'll be suitably entertaining.

Here's a screenshot of my mystery project. Nothing too dramatic, though it is a "mini-tileset" of sorts (with all of two tiles). I also worked a bit on an animated catapult this morning, which has turned out to be fairly complex. None of the scripting is done, but it should be a fun little thing for the players to use (and be used against them).

Hopefully I can flesh out the Grove area a bit more. I have the two main characters, but they each need their "support staff" as it were.

I got a fair amount done yesterday, debugging...

April 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got a fair amount done yesterday, debugging some areas, integrating the mountain tileset, and working on my castle on the lake. I wanted a central building where I could put someone on the roof and ended up modifying the walkmesh for the barracks. It took a good two hours, but the results seemed pretty good. Of course, I've got to get people up there, but there's a little alcove where someone obviously was planning on putting a doorway. The secret door placeable should work nicely there.

I also spent some time working on another project I hope to keep as a surprise. I've been thinking about "moveable terrain". Now, the concept doesn't exist in the game, but I've been able to get around it using various tricks. Dreamcatcher 2 had this, with the moveable boats that you could walk on. I have another thing I'm trying here. We'll see.

Well, I cleaned up my castle wall a bit yesterday

April 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I cleaned up my castle wall a bit yesterday. It now looks much better for the assault that's going to happen later on. I actually got a lot of work done yesterday, though mostly dialog and the scripting that goes with it. I think the basics of the Grove area are in place. Any significant quest or dialog takes about a day to write, with all the various branches, vow options, rewards, and so on. Still, it's what makes the adventure fun, so I plan on having much more.

I'm also testing and finding bugs. The funniest so far was when we were attacked and Anera began casting area of effect damage spells, catching many of the elven troops. Well, I have a check that let's PCs get away with it (making them friendly again afterwards). Sadly, Anera doesn't have the same protection. They were upon her in seconds. I took out her area of effect spells and replaced them with metamagiced versions of direct damage spells. Should work out better.

On another note, I finally released the mountain tileset. You can get the direct link here, though hopefully it'll show up on the Vault with a nice discussion board in a day or two. I'll post it in the downloads section then.

There's a scene later in the module where the...

April 04, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

There's a scene later in the module where the players assault a lake fortress. I wanted to have some variety in the wall itself, so I took the elevated towers and started to merge them with the "elevated wall against water" tiles. I didn't get it quite done this morning, but a few more nips and tucks should give me a couple workable tiles.

I ran into some frustration yesterday, wanting to have my elven troops respond to the voice chat commands like a henchman. I could get them to respond to typed commands (e.g. "retreat"), but nothing from the voice chats. I'm guessing it's a hardcoded mechanism, which makes it hard to work with.

More dialog yesterday, though not much. I gave each troop a short background speech, just for flavor. How many players will really chat it up with Calyng the scout or Selia the healer, I don't know, but at least they'll have a ready answer as to why they're doing what they're doing.

Life again was far too busy yesterday

April 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Life again was far too busy yesterday. I did manage to work more on the mountain tileset after sending out a version for some of the other custom content developers to look at. Based on feedback, I've added walls that go up to the mountainside. As Danmar pointed out, this allows for guarded mountain passes.

I'm still tweaking my "Old Forest Road" area, trying to get the traps adjusted the way I want. It's now possible to trigger a trap, lure the enemy in, and sneak around the other way, avoiding combat completely. Now I just need a way to disarm the other set of traps without turning them into "true" Bioware traps.

Life has become extremely busy, so it's been ...

April 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Life has become extremely busy, so it's been hard to get NWN things done. I finished off the edge tiles for the mountain tileset yesterday. I think it's actually to the point where I'll release it as a stand-alone tileset on the NWVault. I want to send it out to some other people today to get their thoughts.

Dreamcatcher 4 slowly moves ahead. I did more testing of my forest area today, trying to get the traps right. This particular screenshot is of a bear trap, which is both painful and immobilizing. Ouch.

I also started in on my "Grove" area which should have some interesting moral decisions. These involve law and chaos, while hopefully not tilting much towards the good or evil path. It's actually quite hard to do, as most "lawful" options tend to be seen as "good" as well. Let's hope I can pull it off.

Real life has become quite busy the last few ...

April 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Real life has become quite busy the last few days, but I managed to put in some more work. I created a new creature yesterday, a special zombie variant that will be used in a particular area of the module. I'm hoping it proves to be interesting.

I also mapped out and scripted another area for Act III. This one was much more simple than the others so far, so it wasn't too hard to put together. I do have a couple custom traps that I carefully placed, so it shouldn't be boring. I have a far more complex area to work on today, with dialog, scripting, and custom creatures.

Act III in many ways is the "fun" part of the module. I've set it up so that unexpected places and encounters are the norm. If a new idea hits me, I can tie it in quite easily as well. Having that sort of freedom to expand is quite handy.

I've been working more on the mountain tilese...

March 31, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been working more on the mountain tileset, trying to get the edge tiles together. There's a particular part that's going to cause me grief and I'm not quite sure how to best handle it. Giving up seems an almost appropriate solution. Essentially it has to do with all the various combinations of heights and the creation of different edge tiles to match. I'm wondering if it's worth it. I'm also having problems with pathing issues. It's going to be really hard to get NPCs up some of the mountain areas.

I did a bugfixing pass through Dreamcatcher last night. It turns out I ended up fixing a few bugs a second time around. I must have lost some of my fixes in the version shuffle. Fortunately it was easier to take care of a second time around. Hopefully today I can start applying some ideas today, mapping out a few areas.

I didn't have a lot of time to work on the ga...

March 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I didn't have a lot of time to work on the game yesterday. The boy came down early and I spent much of the day doing housework, taxes, and family things. I did spend a little time with Sam on the couch watching Fellowship of the Ring and got a little inspiration. As they crossed the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, I thought that it would be cool if the mountain tileset had such a stairway. It was also reminiscent of Corwin's assault on Amber, fighting single file up the Stair of Kolvir.

In any case, I whipped up this new tile for the mountain tileset. It's "clipalicious", meaning that there are massive clipping issues for anything on four legs. There are reasons why Bioware doesn't put in any steep slopes. Still, the entire mountain tileset has that issue, so I don't mind too much. I populated it with Gnolls and fought my way up last night, leaving bloody trails as the ones behind the lead grew increasingly nervous as the wild-eyed cleric cut through their ranks.

Work continues along at a nice little pace

March 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Work continues along at a nice little pace. I put in the camp tile from the forest tileset into my mountain tileset, realizing that I'll need something like that down the road. I put in some additional weapons yesterday, so expect some fun ones that you'll run into along the adventure. One even has a custom effect - I kept playing with it yesterday, simply enjoying the havoc it causes.

I also put in the scripting for the transition between Act II and Act III, as well as testing it out. Hopefully it'll induce panic in some. It turned out better than I thought and should lay the groundwork for the majority of Act III.

On a techincal note, I may need to do something about this "max 10 users" thing that my web server keeps kicking back. I'm using IIS on XP Pro. I'm used to IIS, seeing as that's what I've got at work, but the error message you get when 10 concurrent users are connected is quite annoying. Most of my site is coded in ASP, so switching to another web server doesn't excite me. Well, something to think about some other time than six in the morning.

I've been fairly busy the last couple days, b...

March 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been fairly busy the last couple days, but still finding time to work on the module. Yesterday I added new custom content, Velmar's tiles to the rural tileset. It took a little while to integrated it with Wayland's gentle hills, but after I figured out the problem (I forgot to put the models in the hak), it worked like a charm.

So far, my zipped hak pack size is around 3.5 MB in size. Since I've given myself a 10 MB limit, I'm good so far. Of course, there's still quite a bit of the module to create, some of which will definitely require new content.

There's also a transition area or two that doesn't have much player involvement, but is a necessary part of the story. I've tried to script it to be interesting enough even though the player mostly walks through it. I'm trying hard to connect the introduction and dream sequence to the middle act. I may start doing work on act four, as the middle act is easily "expandable" by adding in extra areas as I get time and ideas.

Yesterday was busy, but I managed to take car...

March 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yesterday was busy, but I managed to take care of some little things. I wrote a little more dialog for Dreamcatcher, as well as working on the mountain tileset a bit more. I added two ship groups and a reskinned ruins from the forest tileset. The big project was creating a new tile by merging the mountain slope with the rural cave feature. It turned out fairly good, though there are a few minor things I'm tempted to change. A mountain without a cave seemed somehow naked to me.

On a personal note, my mom and stepfather made it back from Belize. He had a doctor visit yesterday and the news is somewhat hopeful. The cancer isn't quite as agressive as previously thought, so it looks like he'll have time to head to Chicago to see his family. On the other end of the life and death spectrum, my wife has officially less than two months to go before Emma appears. She's definately feeling the pregnancy these days, looking forward to getting it over with.

I got a lot accomplished yesterday and this m...

March 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got a lot accomplished yesterday and this morning. The entire dream sequences is complete, wrapping up the first section of the module. I did a short test this morning, fixing bugs along the way, though it does need some balancing later on. The next thing on my agenda is to get the start of Act 2 going as well as planning out more of the middle section.

A number of people e-mailed me their interest in the mountain tileset I've been working on. I polished it up a bit more yesterday, adding the Water terrain as well as the road and second wall crossers. At about 230 tiles, it's a fairly complete tileset. Den of Assassins had evidently done some work on this as well, going for a grassless mountain top. We may end up merging some things together or some such arrangement. Hopefully this little side project will make some more people happy.

As for today, I'm thinking of including some more tiles from the forest tileset, reskinning as needed. I'd like the feel of the tile to have minimial civilization, so I don't think I'll be including many of the buildings. I'd like to get the ships in, though.

I put in more work on the mountain tileset ye...

March 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I put in more work on the mountain tileset yesterday, moving over items from the rural and forest tileset. It's tedious work and I'll probably not add too many more features and groups unless I need them. Adding a new tile requires modifications to the .SET file in a few places, modifying the .itp file, and carefully checking my work. I'm doing it one at a time, as it's fairly easy to make a mistake along the way.

I've got Water terrain in, the Grass varieties, Stream and Wall crossers. I've also put in a handful of features and groups. This morning I copied over the tower from the forest placeable, modifying the floor texture so it fit.

I'm hoping to dig into the meat of the module again today, finishing up the dream sequence at the beginning. It's turned out far more involved than I had initially planned, but hopefully that'll make everyone happy.

Sometimes I'm far too stubborn

March 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Sometimes I'm far too stubborn. I had been working on the mountain tileset that someone else created (and I found out later was abandoned by the author). I added stream crossers, but ran into a problem trying to take the stream up the side of a mountain. It lay down a normal single-height waterfall, rather than the double-height waterfall. Well, I worked on that single tile, creating a new one and slowly merging the mountain with the waterfall. It took several hours off and on throughout the day, but I got it done. So, when you see the waterfall in Dreamcatcher 4, you better appreciate it.

I'm hoping to work more on dialog and scripting today. With luck, I'll finish up the dream area in the beginning, which is quite lengthy. After that, I've got some more planning to do for Act II of the module.

Sam and I played a bit more Gates of Myth Drannor as well. Though we ran across a fair number of bugs, they were easy to dismiss. One of the things I noticed about the module is that the scripting was very enthusiastic, being used for a variety of interesting things. Bug testing huge modules is difficult, and none were fatal to the gameplay. Another thing I'm really enjoying is the limited downtime. Though there's a 5 minute rest limit, it doesn't seem very problematic. There's also not much backtracking. In many places, the game teleports the party to the next place of interest, which is great in my opinion.

It's amazing how much time I can pour into th...

March 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

It's amazing how much time I can pour into the game, expending months of my life and come up with a product that someone will burn through in just a few hours. Fortunately if you multiply that number by 10,000 players, it's hopefully all worthwhile.

I spent yesterday creating a new custom trap. It's been in the back of my mind for quite some time, ever since Sam and I went hiking and the trees about me suggested it. I'll save it as a surprise for now, but it's somewhat interesting. This morning I whipped up a new custom tile and tweaked the existing forest tileset so that I could throw it in. It's simple, but should be useful for certain things. It's a pit tile, which I'm thinking of covering with underbrush and using as a trap of some kind. Should be entertaining.

I've also been working hard on one of the dream areas. It's getting very close and should be a fun little interlude before the main meat of the adventure. What's amazing me is that the entire dream sequence could be a small module by itself, and that's just Act I. In general, I think people can expect this module to be the biggest of them all. It's not just "filler" either - each combat should be unique and scripted, with no random spawns to make things longer.

I woke up early again and began slaving away

March 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I woke up early again and began slaving away. I put away the elven troops for awhile and instead focused on one of the dream areas I'd been neglecting. I think it'll turn out quite nicely - there are some funny spots in there for those who enjoy that sort of thing.

I also worked on a custom creature, taking one off the vault and modifying it. It should be a fun little surprise, though nothing particularly amazing. I also put together a custom weapon that's a bit over the top.

Sam and I continue our quest, this time with The Gates of Myth Drannor. So far, so good. Sam's not big on waiting for me to talk with folks, so the goodly amount of combat works nicely for us. Playing with a four-year-old is still a bit of a challenge, and his latest thing is demanding that he carry all loot that we find. I don't particularly mind, but he can be a bit demanding. I took a screenshot of our little party - I'm the skinny elf on the right.

Lots of progress on the AI yesterday

March 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Lots of progress on the AI yesterday. I made one fairly major change, and that was to no longer allow the elven troops to be turned into henchmen. If I gave them an order to attack the enemy's position, they'd stop being henchmen and attack. If I told them to follow, they'd turn into henchmen and tag along. As henchmen, however, they have a big advantage of not being vulnerable to area of effect spells that I'd cast. That seemed to punish people who chose one path, which I didn't like. So, now they're just normal NPCs. In general, though, I'm pretty happy with where things stand. I'll probably need to tweak things some more, but it's fun to command troops about. It's not for the entire game, but a goodly chunk in the middle.

The AI is getting pretty complex as it stands. There are a lot of commands, most of which are dependant on the situation. For example, you can't tell them to attack the enemy's position until you've had the area scouted or you've seen it yourself. You can tell your healers to heal the wounded, but only if you've got healers and only if there are wounded. So, it keeps the list of commands down to a reasonable amount. I'm also having a good time having the elves "talk smack". They'll say something when they kill an enemy or defeat all in the local area. I need to add more so that the short list of phrases doesn't get stale.

I've also been working on adding new custom content. I added a slew of placeables yesterday and this morning, along with a new creature. The good news is that I got up before 4 am and got a lot of work done. The bad news is that I have a bad cold and I couldn't sleep.

Lots of work on the AI yesterday, as well as ...

March 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Lots of work on the AI yesterday, as well as some dialog that went along with it. I spent about an hour testing it as well. The good news is that the majority of the functions seem to work, though I still have some things to fix. I think it'll be an interesting twist to the game. There's something basically satisfying about having your scout search the area, find points of interest on a map, then ordering your troops to assault the enemy. I'm trying to capture that elusive "epic" feel in this module. Hopefully that'll help some.

I ripped out a few items from the game and turned them into placeables. I have a fungal pod and two mushroom versions. They look quite nice in the standard cavern setting.

Sam and I finished the Forge of Fury last night. Playing with a 4-year-old is an interesting experience. I cringed inwardly as we bypassed large sections of the game. After we had done the final battle (which was pretty entertaining), Sam decided he wanted to return to town. After we took several one-way portals, I mentioned that we skipped a big area. He replied, "You shouldn't have said that. Now I feel sad." Oops.

No pretty pictures today

March 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

No pretty pictures today. I worked more on dialog yesterday, as well as frantically scribbling out how I wanted to do the AI for the elven troops. It's fairly complex, but should be manageable. The trick is trying to emulate "interesting" behavior while not bogging down the CPU or making things to hard on myself. I have plans for them to be able to scout out an area, attack enemy positions, rally around the PC, forage for supplies, and a few other things. I've got the basics for a "morale" concept. I also have a method to control troops all at once or individually.

Most of this is still on paper, though I did a mini-test yesterday. I had a couple NPCs following me around, essentially linking one to the other as henchmen. It's a little complicated, as you have to break and reform the chain of henchmen as you pull one out. Amazingly, it works. I think I prefer the "assault the enemy position" approach to moving troops, but this method should work in a pinch.

Sam and I played more "Forge of Fury" last night. We had a great time, exploring and seeing all the custom creatures added to the module. There were a few odd quirks and some minor gripes. We had some issues with the bleeding rules. At one point, Sam's orc fell in battle, I healed him, but he still got the Respawn screen. 10 minutes later, he had walked all the way back to where I was. Another time, both Sam and I lost consciousness and the creature that was attacking us lost interest and wandered off (after saying he was going to eat us). We lept to our feet, healed ourselves quickly, then dispatched the monster. My only other issue was that the areas were very large and didn't have much in them. I suspect this was in part due to translating PnP maps to the game, but it did lead to lots of walking around. I think what this all means is that between realism and fun, I prefer to err on the side of fun.

Minor gripes aside, we really have been having fun playing the module. I've really enjoyed some of the creative uses of scripting, new monsters I haven't seen elsewhere, and some interesting areas to explore. In fact, my biggest problem has nothing at all to do with the game, but rather the short attention span of a 4-year-old.

Yesterday was mostly dialog for me

March 18, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yesterday was mostly dialog for me. I'm basically setting up the main section of the adventure, so I want the PC to have a fairly firm understanding as to what's going on. I'm a little worried that some of the dialog may be a bit heavy on the foreshadowing. I can imagine the player thinking "Hmm. The only reason he's saying that is if this is going to happen." Oh well, better that things are clear and a bit heavy on the foreshadowing than vague and confusing.

I did work some more on custom content as well. There's a great mountain tileset that's been floating around for months in a semi-finished state. I've been adding some of the rural tiles that I want. I may have to redo a few as needed - there simply aren't any normal tiles for extremely steep slopes.

I also worked on my sahuagin some more. After looking at pictures, I realized they all have fins. Now in the official Monster Manual, the fins go all the way down their tails. I opted for a back-only at the moment. It gets way too hard to deal with animations and such otherwise. I tweaked the head and legs a bit more. I think I'll call it good enough at this point.

Oh - and thanks to all who sent in reminders that there really was a sequel to The Sunless Citadel out there. Sam and I loaded up The Forge of Fury and played a little last night. For those who have played, we took the "Really Dumb Main Entrance" when first going in. Fortunately we were both wearing good armor so we made it through. Later we discovered the simpler way in. Oops. I also noticed that the author was trying to fix some of the issues with the last one with large areas that the player is forced to walk through. It may not be completely true to the PnP version, but alleviating player frustration is always a good thing.

I whipped up what is hopefully a passable imi...

March 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I whipped up what is hopefully a passable imitation of a Sahuagin. I may tweak it a bit more so that it doesn't look so much like a lizardman. The tail turned out reasonably well, for a dangly protrusion with no animation, though the coloring is iffy and the assorted fins were hard to do. Notice the trident, though. More good fun.

I also worked on a custom trap yesterday, plus came up for a good idea for one while tromping through the woods with Sam. Speaking of Sam, we played through another module, The Vethboro Dragon. It was somewhat short, but I enjoyed the custom content and dialog. The only bug I ran into was that only the person talking to the NPC was moved to the Inn at the end, instead of the whole party. Troubleshooting multiplayer issues is often hard for developers. I was basically forced to buy a second copy of the game in order to test such things.

Sam, of course, had a great time playing. He wanted to play a "different character" from yesterday. This translated into a female half-orc who specialized in Greataxes instead of Greatswords. Totally different.

I spent a good hour yesterday morning and ano...

March 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent a good hour yesterday morning and another hour this morning trying to get one of the key custom items finished. It's a leaf boat, used by the elves as an impromptu form of water transportation. It works reasonably well, though I may have some trouble getting the PC in or out of it. Right now it's a placeable with a pseudo hole in the middle of the walkmesh. Seems to work.

I also spent yesterday actually playing someone else's module, which is extremely rare for me. Sam wandered down in the morning as he usually does and wanted to play Star Wars Jedi Outcast, which we usually do. I was sick of it, and suggested Neverwinter Nights. We had a great time, playing The Sunless Citadel. Sam was a half-orc fighter, doing the vast majority of the work as I, a healer, stood back and admired the carnage. For a four-year-old, he did quite well, occasionally getting frustrated trying to select chests to bash them with things blocking the view.

My design hat kept popping on despite myself. I kept noticing the annoying things, like big areas with nothing in them. I suspect it's because of the translation between PnP and a CRPG. With PnP you can say "we keep going down the corridor", but with the game you have to actually do it. At one point, we went back to town to resupply and it took a good ten minutes. But there was a lot of good things about the modules - the HCR, lootable corpses, henchmen AI, and other rule changes made things a bit more interesting. I liked how many of the placeables had scripting attached to them to allow translation of runes, searching objects, and so on. The story was a bit odd - only at the very end did I have a feel what was happening, and that was in only because the enemy decided to get "chatty". That's a hard cliche to avoid (the enemy revealing all plans, right before they try to kill you), and I've fallen for it myself at times. It's not terrible, it's just a common resolution to a story. I think my preference is to reveal it slowly throughout the adventure.

Well, I've written far too much. The adventure was great fun and I was hoping to play the sequel today, but it appears to not yet be out. Maybe we'll take another look at the Hall of Fame and grab another one. Or perhaps we'll leave the computers behind and hike around in the forest.

I stopped all work on Dreamcatcher 4 yesterda...

March 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I stopped all work on Dreamcatcher 4 yesterday, read through every Shadowlords board and bug report e-mail, spent the day fixing things, and posted all the updates this morning. I even ran all the way through Shadowlords 5 just to test out the key quests. Whew! It was a bit exhausing, but it's been something I've wanted to do for a few months now. Hopefully it'll cut down on e-mails reporting bugs as well as making people's experiences better.

I did a little more work for Martin's celtic tileset. This is a wheat thingie (sheaf? I forget the word for it). I'm not terribly happy with it, so I may redo it. It's using the official haybail texture, which is a bit skimpy. We'll see if I have the time.

I've got a bunch of dialog to flesh out for Dreamcatcher 4, as well as starting to get the AI together for my little experiment. We'll see if it actually pans out as desired. I did a little work with henchmen of henchmen for Shadowlords 2, strangely enough. I had one of the NPCs join your henchmen as a henchmen, so they followed each other about as if on a string. I'm trying to avoid that approach, though it is much simpler.

On a personal note, my mother posted on her section of the website from Belize yesterday. Evidently they all made it safe and sound.

I got quite a bit done yesterday on the custo...

March 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got quite a bit done yesterday on the custom content front. There were some tiles that were unused in the official game, so I pulled them out, tweaked them a bit, and put them back as a mini-tileset. It's done in an extremely quick and dirty way, but it turned out good enough for my purposes. It's nothing special, but a little variety in the tilesets can go a long away. I also whipped up this placeable for atmosphere. It swings back and forth on the chain too. Creepy.

I've also added Lisa's holy symbols and the hak to allow equipping rods and wands. It should come in quite useful when creating custom items. I wouldn't want to leave out the mages, after all.

As for the game itself, I added yet more dialog yesterday. The dialog seems endless, though I imagine it takes ten times longer to write than to read. It's hard to judge what the "right amount" of dialog is. I think the trick is to talk a bit, fight a bit, move on to a puzzle, and repeat as necessary.

More dialog, a little scripting, and a dash o...

March 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

More dialog, a little scripting, and a dash of testing yesterday. I actually went from the beginning area, did all the henchmen dialog, and made it halfway through the first dream area. I've also been thinking hard about new tilesets. These would be simple things created primarily for Dreamcatcher. I've got some more thinking to do, so we'll see. I also did a review of custom creatures created of the last few months. There's a couple that stand out, so I'll try to get them down to a reasonable size to include in the hak pack. So far, it's around 2MB in size, though I haven't included much at all yet.

The initial dream sequence is getting fairly long. I'm hoping it's not particularly boring. There's some lengthy philisophical discussions, though they're also amusing. If you're a big, strong PC you can try to push and shove your way through. That's funny in and of itself.

My mother and stepfather are off to Belize. I'm hoping he doesn't get too tired traveling so much and that hey enjoys the warm sands and beautiful weather.

Even more dialog yesterday

March 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Even more dialog yesterday. I'm getting the first area of the dream sequence fleshed out a bit more, as well as Queen Amlaruil's dialog. There's some complex AI things I'm planning on doing down the road that I'm a bit nervous about. If I pull it off, it should lead to some neat scenes. If not, well, it's not the first time I embarrassed myself.

I did a few custom placeables yesterday for one of the dream areas. I'm shooting for funny and creepy and strange as the general feel for the dream areas. So far, so good.

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for the...

March 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for their kind e-mails about my stepfather. He had his procedure yesterday (after waiting eight hours), and has another one today. Things seem to be going well enough that they hope to take their trip to Belize they've been planning. I'm hoping his last days go as well as can be.

There was another interview of me posted today, along with ones with Altaris and Stefan Gagne. I find it interesting to hear about what other big-name module builders are doing, and the common fact that none of us have time to play other modules.

As for Dreamcatcher 4, development progresses. I don't have any screenshots today, as I mostly worked on dialog yesterday. I need to work on yet more today, laying the foundation for the rest of the story. Writing can be a bit grueling at times, coming up with something witty or interesting on a regular basis. I have some custom content to work on too, so I may switch back and forth so I don't overwork the creative part of my brain.

I spent some time working on Dreamcatcher 4 t...

March 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent some time working on Dreamcatcher 4 this morning, getting a custom effect working in the game. It turned out okay, though I'll probably tie it to some scripting to get the full effect. I also did some more dialog yesterday, writing some key scenes in the beginning. I'm trying some strange things for the first dream sequence, sort of a reverse riddle game. It's different, but I'm hoping it's not too wacky.

I spent a huge amount of time answering e-mail and replying to everyone on just the Dreamcatcher 3 boards yesterday. It's easily taking an hour or two each time I check, especially if I have bug fixes to do along with it. I've gotten some really good help for Dreamcatcher testing, which has been great. I really think it will end up being the most polished of them so far.

My stepfather goes in for a procedure this morning to help with the jaundice. Since I work at the hospital, I'll probably spend that time with my mom. Hopefully it'll all go well.

I have some serious things happening in real ...

March 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I have some serious things happening in real life, which may affect development for the module. My step father was diagnosed with an inoperable form of cancer, with only a few weeks to live. I'll be spending as much time with he and my mom as possible, and helping the best I can. I still plan on continuing work on things. It may just be delayed a bit. It's my refuge of sorts, so it's a bit theraputic for me.

I worked more on the platform tileset yesterday and set down the basics for the dream sequence. It looks pretty good and I'm enjoying writing the first part of the dream sequence. Humor is something I want to see more of in this last module, and I think I've found a good way to sneak some in. I also put in a custom creature into the module and frankly, it looks great. It's not my work, so kudos to the CODI folks.

I spent a little time this morning working on...

March 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent a little time this morning working on a new tileset. It's fairly simple, yet a bit more complex than some of my previous tilesets (that were typically only a single model). I'm going to use it in one of my dream sequences, though it still needs more work.

I also did a bit more work on dialog and such yesterday, laying the first foundations of the henchmen dialog. It gets pretty complex, especially with the various good/bad/neutral Noobles and the romance/non-romance versions of dialog. Anera is the simplest one so far, so I'll probably finish her first then go back and do the rest later.

I'm also planning some fairly complex AI for NPCs later in the game. It may end up being too difficult, but I love the concept that I'm playing with. One of the things that happened around this level in good ol' 2nd edition D&D was the introduction of keeps and followers. While I probably won't have a keep, I do want to play around with the concept of leadership a bit. We'll see how it turns out.

I pulled out the stone bench from the fountai...

March 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I pulled out the stone bench from the fountain tileset and plunked it into the hak pack for Dreamcatcher 4. I'm using invisible objects to create separate "seat" areas for people to sit on. It looks pretty good so far - the elven defenders are listening intently to the Queen give her speech.

The very first area of Dreamcatcher 4 is looking fairly good. I've also been working on the henchmen a bit, bringing them up to level 11 and giving them appropriate equipment. They should be quite tough at this point, a powerful compliment to the player character.

I'm plugging away at the new module

March 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I'm plugging away at the new module. Since it's a finale of sorts, I may run over my original self-imposed 3 month timeframe. Since I'm still so early on the process, it's hard to say how much time it's all really going to take. I'm still working on the story, gathering feedback of what people did and didn't like from the last module. It's pretty clear that people really missed their companion in Dreamcatcher 3, so I'll be focusing quite a bit on that story. There were also some comments about how people missed the dream sequences, so expect more of those.

You'll still find custom content and more over-the-top battle sequences. I've gone a little light with combat in the past and I'd like this one to have more. I'm big on having alternate paths to combat, though, so expect some stealth, persuasion, or puzzle solutions to the problem at hand as well.

Busy day today

March 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Busy day today. Lots of bug fixes, though most are minor. There's a really big one happening, however, that's hard to track down. Evidently not all of the objects are being transferred over after they're stripped off of you. I'm pretty exhausted, but I'll try to track it down tonight or tomorrow morning.

I did a little work on Dreamcatcher 4 this morning, making a simple custom creature. Basically it's an imp with a very high z-axis boost, giving him the illusion of flying high. I wanted it for a particular scene where a tall wall was being attacked by flying creatures. Hopefully it'll look okay.

Well, I uploaded the module mere moments ago

March 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I uploaded the module mere moments ago. It should appear on the Vault fairly soon. Hopefully it'll be a smooth release, in part because I had some really good playtesters to help me out.

Now I've got to work on Dreamcatcher 4 and somehow find a way to top myself. Bigger explosions, I think. The sequel always has bigger explosions.

Not a lot of big changes

March 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Not a lot of big changes. I heard from another tester, who reported some typos and a minor bug. I think I've fixed the hak pak issues that I'm going to fix, so I'll try to upload that and the movie today. I also added another little code snippet that should minimize issues of abuse during the first part of the module. I think I'll wait until Monday, see if there are any pressing issues that my final testers report, then release it.

I think the inspiration for Dreamcatcher 4 hit me. I've been watching Band of Brothers and there are some elements in there that I'd love to take away. Dreamcatcher 3 doesn't have too much combat in it, and I'd like to introduce more for Dreamcatcher 4. I think the key for me is that each combat must be a carefully crafted encounter rather than simply spawning monsters in the right places. I'd like to see objectives for each area, coupled with strong roleplaying and character development. We'll see if I can pull it off, but holding that theme in my head is already starting to generate specific details that I really like.

Finally, for reasons I'm not going to disclose, I'm feeling much more free creating over-the-top custom items. I think I'd like to see oodles of special weapons, missle weapons and the like, mostly in the hands of the enemy, but slowly picked up over time. Should be fun.

I've been polishing up the last of the issues...

March 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been polishing up the last of the issues that have come up. There's a handful that will probably stay in the "unfixable" category, as they are game engine bugs or content someone else put together. I have a few more testers I'd like to hear from. Hopefully I can get things out on Monday.

I'm still working away on custom content for the celtic tileset as well as Dreamcatcher 4. The last few days I've been working on a "spring" placeable. Basically it's a couple of rocks with water gushing up through a broken one into a small pool in the other. It's okay, though nothing too special. I still have to make some use nodes at some point.

I'm also thinking hard about the story itself and what I'll need for it. I may end up doing a fair bit of tile work if I take a certain path. It's hard to decide what makes the most sense in terms of if the work is worth it.

Yet more testing yesterday

February 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Yet more testing yesterday. I had some really good suggestions by my testers yesterday, which were fairly easy to implement and made things a bit more clearer. I also changed some of my custom "trigger-style" traps to the more official traps. The only practical difference is that they're now detectable through normal means. I had an issue with one set of traps where the solution I provided wasn't ideal, so it's now possible to detect and avoid.

I'm still working on some placeables for Dreamcatcher 4. The story is still at the brainstorming phase, though I know basically what's going to happen. I'm still hoping for a particularly key piece of custom content. Hopefully that'll arrive soon.

I worked more on my custom tree

February 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked more on my custom tree. I've been wanting one for effect for a long while. Something that looks like a tree in bloom, white petals falling to the ground. It's 222 polygons in size, which is fairly small. I think it should do the trick quite nicely.

I did some more tweaking based on the bug reports I've been getting. There was also a broken quest I had to fix. It turns out that a script of mine hadn't compiled and I didn't notice. I'm going to send out another version to the testers and hopefully we'll get even closer to release.

I'm working with another community member in Ireland to help put together a tileset and group of placeables that I'll probably use in the next module. To be honest, he's doing the majority of the work, and I'll probably end up creating a few placeables for him. His work looks excellent so far and I'm hopeful that everyone will enjoy it for Dreamcatcher 4.

I'm hoping to start building a "bug fix" list...

February 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I'm hoping to start building a "bug fix" list today, though it may end up being more tweaks than actual fixes. So far I've heard of a few fights that were too hard. Hopefully we can get those things straightened out before the release. With luck, we'll have it out by this weekend.

I'm actually starting work on Dreamcatcher 4 a bit. It's a strange transition, going from very detailed work back to free-form brainstorming. I started work on a placeable the other day and it's taking me longer than I wanted. Hopefully it'll be somewhat flexible, however. I can see it being used in many modules to add some flavor. I need to get it working first, however. It looks great in the model viewer, but textures show up white in the toolset. I'm obviously doing something dumb.

The game is getting so close to done, I can t...

February 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

The game is getting so close to done, I can taste it. Sam helped me test multiplayer last night and we ended up having a really good time. There were a few minor issues, but the vast majority were simple to fix. In one case, there was an area transition I had completely forgotten to test (a pretty major one). There was also an odd camera rotation issue that took me awhile to nail down.

With luck, I'll be able to get the game out to testers today. I sent out e-mails yesterday trying to see who was still interested as well as figuring out the best way to get the game to them. I'll probably continue that today and sit back and wait for the bug reports to stream in.

I'm looking to Dreamcatcher 4 already. I think I have some custom content in mind that I can start working on. The game is still coming together in my head, so the next few weeks will be brainstorming and doing technical tests.

I did more bug testing and polishing yesterday

February 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I did more bug testing and polishing yesterday. I'd like to write some more dialog today to round out some character development. Still, it's feeling pretty close to done. Another item on my "to do" list is to start e-mailing beta testers and figure out how to best get a 10 MB hak pack and other files to them. Could be interesting.

I'm starting to think seriously about Dreamcatcher 4. Some of the custom content I was hoping for may not be finished. There may also be some unexpected new content coming my way, though I've yet to figure out how exactly I want to fit it in.

I hit a milestone today

February 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I hit a milestone today. With Sam taking the controls some of the time, I played all the way through the module. It actually worked fairly well, though I have a list of about 20 bugs I'd like to take care of. Most are minor, including some things that I just forgot to take out during testing. While I didn't do every quest, I did all the plot critical ones.

So at this point, I plan on adding some extra dialog just for flavor and character development. There's one more item I need to test. Then a multiplayer pass. After all of that, I'll work on getting the game out to my testers (of which there are many) and once that's done, I'll post it! It's a good feeling after these months of development to be so close.

I made a lot of really good progress yesterday

February 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I made a lot of really good progress yesterday. In theory, I'm feature complete now. While I haven't played through the entire game and I'm sure there are tons of bugs, I don't think there's any major things I want to add to the game. There's a lot of balance issues left. For example, there's a big battle that's pretty boring and easy at the moment. A little scripting should improve that. There's also some annoying custom content bugs that I haven't resolved yet.

Still, I'm feeling pretty good about where things are now. Hopefully I can take the next few days to make polishing and bug fixing passes at the game. With luck, I'll be able to play through in a few more days.

Lots of work yesterday

February 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Lots of work yesterday. I had a great time putting in even more OnHit weapons. It's amazingly cool to have your sword or arrow hit a target and then do something completely unexpected. My gas arrows took a long while to get right, but they're in there now.

I also started in on the readme file yesterday, documenting every trap, quest, and NPC. It's a huge amount of work, but I'm sure it will save me answering e-mails later on. I also put some work into the journal entries. I have two more scenes to finish up and then I'll basically be feature complete. I have lots of balance issues to resolve, but I'm feeling closer than ever.

I also spent a frustrating hour this morning trying to get pathfinding for Danmar's new tileset to work. I think he gave up in frustration and I'm starting to understand why. I have some more suggestions for him and hopefully it'll help.

I sometimes feel like a one-man band when wor...

February 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I sometimes feel like a one-man band when working on these modules - guitar in hand, kazoo pressed against my lips, and bagpipes under my armpit. That's one of the best parts for me, as I get to work on all the different aspects of game development. If I get tired of writing dialog, I can move on to scripting. If scripting becomes boring, it's on to 3D modeling. I get to have a taste of everything.

Lots of progress, in funny and different ways. There was an issue with the OnHit code I'm using, but the author fixed it so that it now works correctly for arrows. Expect some unusual ones in there. I also worked more on the end scenes, though they're not quite to my liking yet. I worked a bit on one of the final placeables this morning, getting the animation down. It's starting to feel like the game development phase is finally wrapping up.

Danmar e-mailed me his latest tileset creation, a castle exterior. He was having pathfinding issues with his ramp, so I'm trying to help him out in hopes that I can get a castle tileset out of him. Otherwise I'll be reduced to fiddling with the city tileset to make it more castle-like.

I put in some more work on the introduction m...

February 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I put in some more work on the introduction movie yesterday. It should be ready for final assembly and adding a soundtrack today. I also put in yet more dialog yesterday, trying to get a climactic scene ready to go. I spent some frustrating moments this morning testing it out, until I realize that destroyed objects don't run delayed commands against them. Oops.

I also spent some time playing around with a new pseudo-OnHit property for items. I don't think it will do everything I want, but it does lend itself to some cool effects. Why are there two balls floating around this half-orc's head? You'll have to play the game to find out.

Most of yesterday was focused on dialog, thou...

February 18, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Most of yesterday was focused on dialog, though I did get a chance to do a little bug fixing last night as well. I also started work on the introduction movie, as staring at the toolset was making my eyes glaze over.

Someone posted a nifty script on the Neverwinter Vault yesterday that let you do a custom "OnHit" event. I can tell already that I'm going to have some fun with this one. Expect some unusual weapons and unusual effects. Should be entertaining.

Things are finally starting to feel like they...

February 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Things are finally starting to feel like they're coming together. I worked on a fun little puzzle requiring seven new custom placeables. It looks cool, though I've yet to make rewards for solving the puzzles. The areas are all at least roughly finished (except for the "epiloge" area, which is simple). I still have lots of detail work to put in, though I think my days of creating huge volumes of new custom content are behind me for now. The next couple weeks should be focused on scripting, finishing up dialog, creating some custom items, journal entries, and the like. Slowly getting there.

Well, I ran out of room in the user defined s...

February 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I ran out of room in the user defined section of the placeables.2da file. It's not a problem, but more of an indication of how much new stuff you'll see in the game. I spent hours yesterday nailing down a particular scene using a newly released custom creature. I modified the size and texture, added a bunch of scripting, and it has turned out far better than I thought it would. The attack animations aren't perfect, but I decided they were good enough.

In addition to the new custom content, I've also tightened things up a bit, polishing some of the older areas. I think I'm to the point where all the areas of the game are mapped. I have a few I need to connect and many I need to finish the scripting for, but I'm feeling I'm actually making progress. I have a fair amount of dialog to write yet, along with the usual journal entries and such that get left until the last minute.

I got a touching note from a young couple in Israel yesterday, letting me know they appreciated my modules and that it helped distract them from the current woes of their region. They mentioned that their computer was in their "safe room" and that my modules may get the distinction of being played while wearing gas masks if things get bad. Fan mail is always nice to get, but this one especially reached me. Though the events of the world seem overwhelming and unstoppable, maybe I'm helping in a small way somehow.

I got a bunch of dialog into the game yesterd...

February 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got a bunch of dialog into the game yesterday and this morning I created some new content, including one extremely large piece that turned out well. I also hunkered down and figured out how to create "use" nodes for placeables. Without them, the PC tries to get the center of the object, which isn't possible for larger objects. So, I fixed one of Danmar's objects and cleaned up one of my own. I also replaced the 1000 polygon gear with a much lower poly version. It looks pretty good so I think the trade off was reasonable.

There's a custom piece I want to add, but it's pretty complicated. At some point, I'll need to decide if it's worth it - I've only done some quickie demos up until now. Slowly getting there.

I went a little crazy last night and this mor...

February 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I went a little crazy last night and this morning, cranking out four more new placeables. I spent about an hour this morning getting them into the game for a little mini-puzzle. It had a pretty good "neato" factor, though I did spend a fair amount of time on it. Two of the placeables are needed elsewhere, however, so I don't feel too bad.

I also spent a bunch of time writing dialog yesterday, though I have yet to get it in the game. I also wrote out an amazingly long "message in a bottle" that should give the players more background into the story. Hopefully I'll have a chance today to put things in place a bit more. I also listed out the other placeables I need to create - it's a long list but I think I'm approaching the end.

As expected, I didn't get much in-game work d...

February 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

As expected, I didn't get much in-game work done yesterday. I did, however, pencil out the third area and write some dialog. I'm afraid I've got some more custom content work that I need to put together, but hopefully it'll be worth it.

There's a new patch for the game out today. I'm going to give it a day or so before I upgrade, I think. There's one really great fix involving custom creatures, but some other problems popped up too.

Well, I've started doing more wild and crazy ...

February 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I've started doing more wild and crazy things. Now I'm overwriting the base animation file, trying to create new animations for the PCs. If you look closely at this screenshot, you'll notice that this person isn't on the ground. I'll just leave the hint at that and save the surprise.

I did a bunch of work on a complex dialog set. Basically it was a way to get around combat, though it's a tad on the evil side (though there's a semi-non-evil way to do it too). I was also having problems with the generic encounter triggers crashing the game, so I put in my own custom one. It gives me greater control over placement and creature composition, so I'm happy with it. I'll need to take another pass for balancing later. Right now it's a little too easy.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to work on the game much after this morning. To many RL things going on. My subconscious is starting to generate some creative ideas, though. I'll probably jot them down today and make them real later.

I have two more main areas to map out and put in the details, and then we're in the polishing phase. Things seem to have gone more quickly than I had hoped, but I still want to take lots of time to do it right. One of the problems with having two very successful modules is that everyone has high hopes for the third. I still think this will be the best so far. In fact, I worry more about the fourth, which will have near impossible expectations.

I had a good time testing last night

February 11, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I had a good time testing last night. I had a trigger that spawned monsters in a particular way. Unfortunately, I forgot to have it only fire once, so as I ran away, it spawned even more, and then those spawned more when crossing the trigger. My machine quickly slowed way down and dozens of enemies swarmed me.

I'm trying to think of a good non-combat way through the area I'm currently working on. I have a tentative plan, though it's a bit on the evil side. There may be a way around an alignment hit, but it's tricky. Anyway, should be exciting.

More dialog writing today. Dialog, with all the code snippets that typically hang off of it, is typically the most time consuming part of building modules.

The fan mail has been pouring in lately

February 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

The fan mail has been pouring in lately. While flattering, I am noticing the amount of time it's taking to write back. Someone suggested a "guestbook" on this site, so maybe I'll throw one together. On the up side, it appears I'll have many beta testers for Dreamcatcher 3.

It was more of the same yesterday, polishing and testing the existing areas. Lots of bugs, which is typical for a first-pass through an area. I think I have the biggest ones fixed, though I'll probably retest that area many more times until I'm finished. Hopefully today I can put in more of the main NPC's dialog, get the rest and death scripts in there, and start in on the second Act III area.

Nothing too exciting to report

February 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Nothing too exciting to report. I mapped out another key area yesterday while Sam watched Hercules. I tested out more of the Act II quests, enjoying the "Vow" options considerably. There was one quest that had never been tested and once I got the major bugs fixed it seemed to work okay. Today is probably more of the same, fleshing out what I already have and testing what's there. My estimate of a month remaining may have been a bit conservative. I have two main areas left that need to be fleshed out in considerable detail, but the rest are at least partially done. Of course, testing usually takes far longer than anyone wants, so it may be that a month is about right.

I created a nifty new trap placeable yesterda...

February 08, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I created a nifty new trap placeable yesterday and spent a fair amount of time testing out the trap. It looks quite cool, though perhaps your immanent death is a bit distracting from the beauty of it all.

I also decided to support the law/chaos quest options in Planescape fashion. The PC will have options to Vow to take certain actions. If they do, they will move a bit towards law. If they choose not to, they will move towards chaos. It's actually quite fun sprinkling them throughout the dialog. It's also separate from the good/evil options. An example of an evil/lawful option might be "I have sworn to avenge my beloved's death and I shall use whatever means necessary. The weapon shall be mine."

All the attention thrust at me of late has had an interesting effect. I'm now even more driven to make this module excellent, on par with anything professionally released. I'm also wanting to take advantage of the fact that I'm not a professional - my evil quests can be truly disturbing and if I want to add such risque things as PC lesbian relationships, that's a-okay. All the job offers has made me realize that I'm in a unique and valuable position. My current job and life situation gives me the freedom to make these modules in such a way that you won't see them coming from any professional gaming house.

I mapped out a key area yesterday and prepare...

February 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I mapped out a key area yesterday and prepared it for traps and/or scripted events. There's a nasty one I have planned - should be fun. I also came up with a fairly simple placeable that has multiple uses - a loose brick. Basically, you can use it and it will slide into the wall to trigger something. I have a couple places where I need it, which I ended up preferring over using an invisible object.

I tested out some of the Act II scenes. There were many bugs, but I think I got quite a few of them. There's a main town quest left untested too. Still, I'm happy with the way progress has been coming along. I'm trying to put as much attention to detail in the second and third acts as the first one received. So far, so good.

I got my third and best job offer today. This time from Bioware, the people that made the Neverwinter Nights game. Fortunately my will is strong and I turned them down. Though quitting my high-paying corporate job and moving to the cold reaches of Canada to do the work I love makes a good plot for a movie, I decided it wouldn't suit reality all that well.

I also got an e-mail from GameStar, a German gaming magazine, wanting to include two of my modules on their cover CD. I'm currently working on sending them my approval. Ah, the joys of fame.

Progress continues

February 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Progress continues. I worked a bit more on my new custom model, polishing up some details. I also added a new animation and some custom scripting that should surprise a bunch of people.

Just so that people aren't worried about the neglect of the actual story, I've been doing lots of work there. I finished up the key town quests yesterday (though I need to test them), and started work on the keep itself. The main quests in each area are coming together in my mind. Expect options for good and evil along the way. Being good might be a bit more tricky, as the payoffs for evil are pretty nice.

Lots of progress yesterday

February 05, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Lots of progress yesterday. I was stuck in a really long meeting, so I penciled out a bunch of dialog and a sketch of the key areas of Rethgaard Keep. It was the first time a bunch of elements came together, so I was quite happy with how things turned out. I'm using a hub design for the layout which should allow players to easily move around and resupply after they've cleared an area.

I created a key custom creature this morning. I took the troll model and tweaked it a bunch, making it look far more amphibian. It's not perfect, but not bad for an hour's worth of work.

I put a little work into a bard yesterday

February 04, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I put a little work into a bard yesterday. It's currently a nicely animated placeable, which may not work to my satisfaction. I may switch gears and change it back to a creature, though I'd have to be careful about how to handle the lute he's holding.

The rest of the game slowly moves along. I'm focusing on the town quests before I move on to the keep itself. I did a tiny bit more work on the engame as well, which is going to be a fun experience for players I suspect.

I played a bit with sound this morning, comin...

February 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I played a bit with sound this morning, coming up with a generic sound generator system. Similar to the flavor text, this plays a sound from a particular location when a trigger is hit. It's mostly for atmosphere, like coming down a hall and hearing insect sounds behind the door. I also added some sound to assorted dialogs - there's lots of great sounds buried in the toolset.

Shadowlords made it to the Hall of Fame on the vault. Kinda nice, though I sort of miss seeing six of my modules on the top 20 list.

Dreamcatcher 2 - Ocean Dreams was posted to the vault last night, so I've been getting the first of the bug reports. Nothing too major - mostly some tweaks and typos that I'll roll into a patch for tomorrow. Initial reviews seem positive, which has me breathing a sigh of relief. There's been lots of talk about the "Grandma's House" area. The gameplay in that area is very different and disorienting, so my tweaks are to make it a bit easier than it currently is.

More custom placeables

February 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

More custom placeables. I whipped up a ghost and a raven over the last couple days. I also woke up this morning with the details to a side quest I was mulling over. I ended up coding the whole thing before 6 am and testing the various good and evil options. Should be entertaining for those people who found and held on to the psionic focus from Dreamcatcher 1.

I'm doing another quest that revolves around the Deathtongue amulet from Dreamcatcher 1. I haven't figured out all the details yet, but it should also have a clear good and evil path. I'm finding the good/evil duality is easier than the law/chaotic quests. I'll try to sneak some of those in too. In any case, the little town of Rethgaard is starting to feel more fleshed out. There should be lots of interesting little side quests before heading below ground again.

I uploaded Dreamcatcher 2 yesterday, though it hasn't posed on the Vault yet. I'll link it to the downloads section once it's there.

Feeling better today

January 31, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Feeling better today.

I spent a couple hours working on a key climactic battle in the game. There should be some oohs and aahs at the cool slow-motion effects. The end and beginning continue to be polished up, though the middle part is still largely unfinished.

I created a bunch of custom content today - polishing up a custom creature, creating a "prop" placeable, and a magic spell effect that should be recognized by many. Amazingly, the hak pack size is still under 10 MB in size. I'm avoiding the use of any new textures, which can easily balloon the size of a hak pack.

I also mapped out a couple in-town areas, creating a couple NPCs and writing dialog for them. I've got a couple side-quests that I'm working on, though I haven't completely decided on how I want them resolved. Dreamcatcher 2 doesn't have much of an evil path, so I'd like to include more options for evil gameplay.

Dreamcatcher 2 was uploaded today, so it should appear on the vault by tomorrow. I'll probably need to put development of Dreamcatcher 3 on hold afterwards, as the bug reports usually keep me pretty busy.

Sick with a cold today

January 30, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Sick with a cold today. Blah.

I spent most of yesterday getting my main merchant properly outfitted. The vast majority of items he sells are custom, each with novel descriptions. At this point in the campaign, players should have fairly vast sums of gold at their disposal. Now they should have a place to spend it all.

My son wanted to run through the module as it was, so we ran through the Trial section again and I took notes to fix minor issues. I have the main NPC moving better from place to place, and I'm starting to put detail into the second act of the module.

I worked a bit more on a climactic scene towards the end of the module, creating a placeable "prop" that is starting to look really good. I won't spoil anyone, but I'll hopefully be able to pull off some "slow-motion" effects if all goes well. Today is more dialog and getting the second act better fleshed out.

I spent a lot of wasted time yesterday workin...

January 29, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent a lot of wasted time yesterday working on animating a shark model. It ended up crashing the game when I put it in, so obviously I did something wrong. I was thinking about sneaking it in to Dreamcatcher 2 at the last minute, but decided that it was better to get it out the door instead. I think I've fixed the last of the reported bugs, tweaked the difficulty level appropriately, and tested it out to the point where it's ready to go. Unless I hear anything else from my testers, I'll post it in the next day or two.

Dreamcatcher 3 continues. My scripts for controlling one of the main NPCs weren't working out (mostly pathfinding issues), so I decided to turn her into a henchwoman a bit earlier than I had intended. You can play through from the very beginning until a little bit into Act II and it all seems quite polished. I also did a little more work towards the end, getting my "sinking ship" animation working well. I added a little extra thing in that looks cool as well - sheathed weapons on the back. I have one for a key NPC and it looks good so far.

Danmar pointed me in the direct of a 3ds gear generator for one of my custom items. Sadly, it didn't work as well as I hoped. Far too many polygons and I eventually gave up. The current gear works well enough, though you'll probably see a minor pause as it loads in the game.

There was an area in Dreamcatcher 2 that test...

January 28, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

There was an area in Dreamcatcher 2 that testers were reporting as frustrating. I've since changed it and it plays much better, bringing out the "interesting concept" part of the area and minimizing the annoyances. I pushed up the difficulty of a few of the battles. I'm hopeful that I can release it by this weekend.

Dreamcatcher 3 continues to go quite well. The "Trial" area is essentially complete. There's custom content around virtually every corner - it's looking quite good. Next I've got to work on the main town and the assorted quests there.

My latest experiments are with "prop" NPCs. They aren't actually creatures, but rather placeables that look like people and have a handful of useful animations. I made a mermaid last night that bobs away in the water and it looks reasonably good. There's a "grand finale" scene that I want to work on as well.

If this module turns out the way I'd like, they're going to have to come up with a new ranking of "eleven", as it should be far cooler than anything else out there.

I've been trying different things out by over...

January 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been trying different things out by overriding the base animation file for the humanoids. There are a few animations in there that are less often used and might be able to be overwritten for use in a module. I spent a somewhat frustrating hour this morning trying to get a PC and NPC kiss. Oh boy was that difficult - now I understand why Bioware kept the various creatures in the game far apart from each other. Very tricky to get all the spacing issues resolved. In any case, here's what I could come up with. Of course, it only works with characters of this height - switch to the bigger or smaller races and it looks somewhat goofy. There's a scene in Dreamcatcher 4 that I might save this for.

I'm hoping to write dialog today and sneak in a minor NPC that I want to place in an early area. I also have an easy custom creature to whip up. Should be fun.

More spoilers for you to run screaming from

January 27, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

More spoilers for you to run screaming from. I did yet another trap today, bringing the total to four or so. This one is a sawblade that slides out of a wall slot, slicing anyone who wanders by. Very nasty. I've tried not only to make interesting traps, but come up with unique ways to disarm them. It should hopefully make the entire "Trial" section much more intriguing.

Speaking of which, you can now get from the beginning sequence to the end of the first Act. It's not finished, of course, but we're getting there. For example, I have one NPC say "blah, blah, blah" and teleport the PCs away. Gotta get something a little more literary.

I woke up at 2 am this morning, thinking abou...

January 26, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I woke up at 2 am this morning, thinking about adding new animations to the PC model. I actually ended up sort of doing it, though I need help with the details. I put together a little "jumping" demonstration. Initially it had a very funny flaw - the PC's limbs became detached from their body after jumping. It appears you can do permanent limb relocation if you'd like. :)


If you don't want to be spoiled for Dreamcatcher 3, tear your eyeballs away now. I've got a new trap - a crushing wall. Very cool looking. It goes nicely with the spikes and swinging blade.

I got more bug reports back for Dreamcatcher 2 and promptly fixed them. I think we're getting closer to a release - hopefully within a week. It's funny - I get ambivalent about a module right before I finish it. I start thinking it's not that good and that the newest module is much better. Hopefully it's just boredom with staring at it for such a long time, as I felt the same way about Dreamcatcher 1.

Oh - and I threw up a page for Dreamcatcher 3. It's basic at this point, but should give a little bit of background.

I made my first animated placeable yesterday

January 25, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I made my first animated placeable yesterday. It looks great, though it's really too many polygons (around 1000). I pulled the model off of one of those "free model" sites, but it's really aimed towards rendering rather than games. Still, that's about the same polys as a dragon, so it should be okay if it's the only thing around in the game.

I continue to work on the module. The first level of the "Trial" area is basically finished, and I'm putting in some of the previously mentioned traps on the second level. I'm going to try this weekend to connect the intro sequence to the "Trial" area, as it shouldn't be hard to do and it would be nice to have a small section of the game fairly finished.

Mmm

January 24, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Mmm. Traps. I've been having fun making brand new ones. After all, what's a dungeon without various ways to get poked, sliced, and squished? I did my first animated model yesterday, which gives me hope that I can do more. The only problem is that I have to stop at some point and actually build the module.

I did a little more work last night, getting the intro dream sequence finished. It's shorter, but that's okay with me, as the rest of the module threatens to be huge. I've got half of the first scene written, with lots of the dialog done. There's more scripting to do in order to get the PCs to the first quest area. Still, it's pretty solid in my mind.

I had a guy who was the lead programmer for Ultima VII e-mail me today with questions. That was an ego boost. I also have someone volunteering to clean up and add content to the Shadowlords series. I feel a little funny about it, but I can definately see the value - odds are, I won't have time to fix all those little things along the way.

I spent an hour or so this morning working on...

January 23, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I spent an hour or so this morning working on a new effect of rocks falling from the ceiling, based off of the meteor swarm effect. It looks fairly good and should do what I want. I'm thinking about getting into the scary world of animated placeables for another little project, but that may have to wait.

I had my son and nephew do some testing of Dreamcatcher 2 while I watched. There were some odd bugs that popped up, the funniest being that you could trigger Nooble's romance dialog even if you hadn't gone in the direction. Kind of reminded me of the Airplane movie - "So, Billy, do you like gladiator movies?" But maybe that's just me.

Still working on Dreamcatcher 3, mostly the first main area where the primary goal is survival. I'm enjoying taking the character down from a virtually unstoppable killing machine to this person who runs in fear from rats. Of course, by the end of the game the unstoppable feeling should return even stronger than before.

The interview is now up on the Vault

January 22, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

The interview is now up on the Vault.

I had a late server upgrade at work last night, so I've been at home this morning working on things. I have a creature that appears below the walkmesh and I finally got it working the way I wanted. It was surprisingly tricky. I've been working on the custom content for the last five minutes of the game mostly, which should be pretty cool.

I've started hunkering down to get the introduction and beginning section finished before getting into the meat of the game. There's going to be a fairly dramatic change in the player's "power" throughout the game. Just staying alive will be the focus near the start, but towards the end the PC should feel pretty amazingly powerful.

Maximus over at Neverwinter Vault sent me que...

January 21, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Maximus over at Neverwinter Vault sent me questions for an interview today. I've answered them all and sent it back. Should be up later today.

I didn't do much last night, as my headache was killing me. Just a quick update to Dreamcatcher 1 and making sure the testers were getting Dreamcatcher 2. I've started to get more serious with Dreamcatcher 3, doing some mapping and more technical tests. For all you Forgotten Realms fans, it'll be focused on the town and keep of Rethgaard and a place called the Pit of Stars. I layed out the story and I'm hoping it doesn't turn into a huge 4 hour module. I'm going to have to tighten up some areas in order to avoid it becoming too massive.

If I get a chance today, I'm going to start working on dialog and the opening sequence. The dialog for this module should be easier in some respects, primarily focused on a single NPC. In other ways, it'll be harder, as there will be lots of it and lots of character development that needs to happen in a short period of time.

Headache today

January 20, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Headache today. No fun. Dreamcatcher 2 is off to the testers today, though it may be a few days before I hear from anyone. I'll try to run through the game myself as well, as I typically know best what's supposed to be happening. Someone found another issue with Dreamcatcher 1 that I'll probably try to fix today. I think it's slowly approaching "final".

I took a little time this morning working on my secret project for Dreamcatcher 3. It's looking good enough to move on to other things. I'm having some problems with Danmar's placeables - the appearances seem to get all mixed up if I add something. I shot him off a question, so I'm hopeful it'll get answered soon.

I've been running into a popularity issue wit...

January 19, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been running into a popularity issue with this web site. It's running XP Pro, which has a limit of 10 connected user at any time. Unfortunately, lots of people seem to be visiting, so I may need to do something about it. The error messages are getting annoying.

I did more testing of Dreamcatcher 2 yesterday, including a complete run through of the entire game. I did a simple multiplayer testing, getting out the major bugs. Things are coming along faster than I'd hoped. I'm hoping I can turn it over to some more testers this week.

I've been doing technology tests for Dreamcatcher 3 and including more custom content. The hak pack is up to 9 MB, which is pushing my limit, and there's more to add yet. The good news is that my tests are looking extremely cool, so I'm hoping it'll be the best looking module yet.

Bug reports and positive feedback continue to...

January 17, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Bug reports and positive feedback continue to pour in for the Dreamcatcher module. They're mostly minor, except for a couple weird things that seem beyond my control.

Dreamcatcher 2 - Ocean Dreams hit a milestone last night. I'm now content complete, with just bug testing ahead of me. There's lots of that, however. I spent last night trying to go from the beginning of the module to the end, and kept running into weirdness and game-stopping issues. I've been playing through the Nooble romance, which is new as of yesterday, and liking the way it's going. Hopefully female PCs who appreciate tall, dark, and handsome can get their fix now (or tall, dark, and evil for the "bad" version of Nooble).

I'm still just barely started on Dreamcatcher 3, but loving what's coming together so far. Danmar's tileset looks great, and some of the custom content you'll see later in the game will hopefully have people passing out from the cool factor.

Looks like I accidentally dropped Dreamcatche...

January 16, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Looks like I accidentally dropped Dreamcatcher0 from the latest patch. Oops. Some more minor bug reports to look into. I've had over 10 votes now and it looks like Dreamcatcher 1 - Skyfall is at #1 on the top modules at the vault. It's nice to be appreciated.

I've been doing significant work on dialog this morning. Female PCs can start up a romance with Nooble now. I felt that since his initial storyline of his good/evil path is over, it's nice to start with something new. Writing the evil Nooble romance dialog is fun - he's a bit of a bad boy. Lots of work, though.

I also did some jaw-dropping work with custom content last night. On occasion, I'll mesmerize myself with things I come up with. Not to toot my own horn, but expect some very cool things down the road.

Still lots of work for Dreamcatcher2. I'm hoping to get the core content in place within a week or so. I still have journal entries to add, dialog to finish, map points to place, and go over every map looking at details. Getting closer.

I got another minor bug report from Dreamcatc...

January 15, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I got another minor bug report from Dreamcatcher 1, which should hopefully be pretty easy to squash.

I rolled up my sleeves and created a key piece of custom content for Dreamcatcher 3. It was a bit of a stretch for me, but I'm quite happy with the way it has turned out. I may do a second one now that I have the trick down. And yes, I know I'm being oblique. Saying too much would reveal a significant plot point.

Work on Dreamcatcher 2 continues. I'm writing henchman dialog, which is extensive, and putting in a twist for Nooble. Since much of the dialog is accessible by having the PC initiate dialog, I put in a "you're ignoring me" speech if the PC hasn't talked to their henchman yet.

Work continues

January 14, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Work continues. I got some more bug reports from Dreamcatcher 1, which I'm busy cleaning up today. I have more dialog for Dreamcatcher 2, as well as placing all the flavor text I wrote yesterday.

I spent some time doing technical tests for Dreamcatcher 3 yesterday. I'm trying to write a script that removes all spells from a player, but it's behaving in weird ways. It seems to work okay for non-clerics, but a few spells from my cleric will simply not go away. On the upside, my glowing placeable mushrooms are working and looking good. You can pick them too, and the light fades out where they were.

During my walk to work today, I thought about the main story arc a bit more, and it's coming together in my mind. Right now, I'm leaning towards a four-module campaign, though some of it depends on how far along some of the other's custom content gets. It's always good to have a plan, though.

Lots of things happening still - some more bu...

January 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Lots of things happening still - some more bug reports and fixes with Dreamcatcher 1. I've been writing flavor and romance dialog for Dreamcatcher 2. Finally, Danmar released his tileset. It looks quite good so far - lots of excellent content to work with. The size is a bit large, almost 8 MB. I'll have to be careful about additional custom content I want to add to Dreamcatcher 3.

Two posts in one day

January 13, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Two posts in one day. It was a busy one, though. I fixed a major bug in Dreamcatcher 1. It turns out your equipped items vanish while polymorphed (e.g. for a cutscene), so Anera's token didn't register if equipped. So the romance wasn't triggered. Big oops.

I also added a ton of stuff to Dreamcatcher 1. I added Gestalt's camera movement, which looks great. I also added more Anera and Teira romance dialog, as well as some additional flavor text. I think it was the little "oomph" that had been missing.

I'm excited about tomorrow. Danmar is planning on releasing his tileset. I want to start fiddling with it and working on Dreamcatcher 3. DC2 needs dialog and flavor text added, as well as tons of testing. Still, it's further along than I had expected. The last 5 minutes of the game are looking really great - I keep wanting to play it over and over.

Okay, Dreamcatcher 1 finally made it up to Ne...

January 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Okay, Dreamcatcher 1 finally made it up to Neverwinter Vault. It looks like there may be a bug with Anera's romance, so I'll take a look at that sometime today. I also updated the download section of the site, hopefully making it more compact and easier to add new modules as they come up.

I did some more cleanup of Dreamcatcher 2, polishing up the end section so that it was more "robust" and looked great. I still have a long ways to go, however. Lots of dialog to add, as well as "flavor" text. That should keep me busy for a time.

Danmar of www.landsofkray.com plans on releasing his tileset on Monday. That's excellent timing, as I'll need it for Dreamcatcher 3. I worked a bit on the introduction sequence but I'll need that tileset for the majority of the module. Great fun.

In theory, Dreamcatcher 1 should be posted to...

January 12, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

In theory, Dreamcatcher 1 should be posted to the vault by now. The movie and hak pack made it up fine, but the module itself had some problems. I sent an e-mail off to Maximus, who said it would be there by the next update. Well, hopefully it'll appear on Sunday. I'll fix the downloads section once it all gets there.

I had a great time today finishing up the last section of Dreamcatcher 2 - Ocean Dreams. I actually impressed myself - all the ideas I had worked and it ended up looking fabulous. I've gone a little crazy with Gestalt's camera system, and I was having a great time playing with angles and zooms. I'm hoping that the ending sequence captures the epic feel I try to express. I showed Sam this morning and he wanted me to play it over again. I also played from the beginning to about the middle part of the module. There were a fair amount of bugs, but it amazingly worked. This second one may end up being finished sooner than I think.

Well, I coaxed Sam into testing out multiplay...

January 10, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I coaxed Sam into testing out multiplayer with me last night. It went really well, actually. Sam (who's 4 years old) did a great job following me around and managed to save my bacon once or twice.

The game itself played fine, which I was thankful for. I did some minor tweaking, toning down one battle, adding a few items here or there, but it otherwise seemed fine. The problem came when trying to upload it to the Neverwinter Vault. The movie and hak pack went up fine, but the module wouldn't load. After trying three times at home and twice at work, I've sent off an e-mail. Hopefully it'll be figured out by the end of the day.

I'm almost done with the movie for Dreamcatcher 2, as well as working more on the module itself. I added some camera movement by Gestalt, which looks great. Gotta play with that some more. I've also been planning a bit more for the third module, which I'm getting increasingly excited about. I'm counting on Danmar releasing his new tileset, which will feature prominently in the module.

I was a bad, bad man

January 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I was a bad, bad man. I started up a Dreamcatcher 3 module in the toolset today, trying out a few of my stranger ideas. I think they will actually work, which is a good sign. Still, I should be focusing my energy on the second module.

I worked on the death scripts, making sure something happens when you die. I also put in more placeables and dialog. I also did some more work on the introduction movie, which is fun to work with. The critical path is shaping up nicely - I think you can go from the beginning of the game through 80% of it.

This weekend I've made a promise to myself to complete the multiplayer test of Dreamcatcher 1. I'm going to do my best to get it released Saturday or Sunday, as it's driving me nuts that it's simply sitting waiting to be released. My multiplayer testers don't want to do it this Friday due to the new Farscape episode. Sigh.

I worked more on dialog today, trying to get ...

January 09, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I worked more on dialog today, trying to get all the quest-specific content in there. I also worked on some vendors and custom items, which is always fun. I got a little burned out towards the end of the day, however, and ended up working on an intro movie a bit. Pov-Ray is an interesting piece of software to wrestle with. I was taking some scenes that others had put together and trying to animate it. Waves are tricky to do well.

I've been plugging away at Dreamcatcher 2

January 07, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been plugging away at Dreamcatcher 2. I spent about a half hour this morning trying to nail down a wacky multiplayer issue. There was a fairly complex scene, where one character was teleported, leaving a "dummy" character behind in their place. Getting all the various commands right was a big hassle, but I think I have the bugs worked out.

Almost all the big areas have their first pass complete. There's one main quest where you have to recover 4 pieces of an item, and I think you can get 3 of the pieces now. That last area's a little fun, so it hopefully will be entertaining to work on. And lots of details - dialog, items, and so on. That'll keep me busy for awhile.

My Internet connection is back up

January 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

My Internet connection is back up. Also, it looks like the Hall of Fame voting is up again on Neverwinter Vault, so give me a vote if you'd like. Since all five modules are up for voting, the vote is split across all of them. I think the fifth has the most votes so far, so you might want to go for that one.

I'm having some problems with my custom model. Everything looks good, in the toolset and the game. If you exit the game in the area with the creature, then go back in, the game locks up. No reason why. I may have to do some tweaking and see what's going on.

Well, my Internet connection is down, so no o...

January 06, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, my Internet connection is down, so no one can possibly read this at the moment. Ah, the joys of small time ISPs. I'm working on a new creature at the moment - nothing fancy, just some reskinning and adding emitters. I've got an idea for the final area shaping up.

I spent today working on turning placeables into creatures. One was specifically for the module, and should hopefully result in a "how did he do that?" reaction. The other was for "pushable crates". Essentially, there's a crate creature that you can have a "conversation" with. It checks the facing of the PC, then pushes the crate away from the PC by one meter. I had to brush off some triginometry for that one.

I'm having some occasional weirdness that I've noticed with this and other modules. Sometimes, custom models won't load right. It might be a dress for a character, a placeable, or a creature. No rhyme or reason - just happens occasionally. Very annoying.

I put Sam to work today, helping me test out ...

January 04, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I put Sam to work today, helping me test out the multiplayer aspect of the first Dreamcatcher module. He was quickly frustrated, as most 4-year-olds are, so I sent him upstairs. I think I've nailed the last of the annoying multiplayer bugs. Lots of cutscenes and jumping around make for some problems that are hard to troubleshoot.

I also added another conversation for the 3 main NPCs, as I felt they weren't "chatty" enough in this module. Since all three relationships have stabilized a bit, the dialog tends to be a bit more friendly and relaxed. It isn't until the end of the second module where things get shaken up a bit.

I also updated the "Sleepable beds" hack pak for the vault. You can now sleep on all three tiles that have beds in them. Hopefully that'll make some people happy.

Dreamcatcher 2 continues. I have a working title of "Ocean Dreams", which I think I'll stick with. I now have one of the NPCs changing clothes at the appropriate time. It's a bit complex - they unjoin the PC, run back to their bedroom, change clothes, walk back to the PC, and join again. It's at least working for Anera, and I'll do the rest fairly soon. I have two more areas to add, and lots of the existing ones to add areas to. I'd say I'm around 40-50% done. It's amazing how much work these things take.

Well, I got the sleeping bed issue figured out

January 03, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Well, I got the sleeping bed issue figured out. It turns out I was editing the wrong model - Bioware left a few "junk" models that looked similar to the real one. I've snuck the new model into the Dreamcatcher 1 module, along with scripts to support it. Should be fun.

The second module is coming along nicely. I did a little work on the opening movie yesterday. I've also put in additional dialog for one of the main NPCs. I tried to make his speech very PC-centric, changing based on their class and chosen henchman. Lots of work.

I did some cleanup on this site as well, adding some DM notes for Shadowlords, putting in a news archive (you should now only see 10 items on this page), and some other minor cleanup issues. My tester completed the module, finding another typo and pointing out a few minor bugs. I may press my 4-year-old into service as a second multiplayer tester, as my normal testers are having a hard time finding the time. Maybe early next week.

I've been playing with sleepable beds using t...

January 02, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

I've been playing with sleepable beds using the existing tileset. Essentially, I've been modifying the walkmesh so that people can lay down on the real bed, rather than relying on a placeable one. It looks more natural based on the very limited testing I've done, and shows some promise. I may want to tweak some things in Dreamcatcher a bit if it works out nicely.

I am running into some problems, though it's probably because I'm tired and doing something wrong. I wasn't able to override the existing tile in the City Interior tileset, so I made a new tileset with only that tile it in. It looked silly, but worked okay for a demo. I'll probably try to do some more work later, or perhaps ask Danmar. Must sleep now - gotta work in the morning.

Happy New Years to all

January 01, 2003 by Adam in NWN1

Happy New Years to all. I made some updates to one of the Shadowlords modules today, though nothing major. I'm plugging away at some dialog and scripting. It's now possible to move from the start point to 80% of the maps. That doesn't sound impressive, but there are several points where it is not a simple area transition. Rather, you have to take certain steps to get from place to place - much more tricky.

I'm home today, though I'm not sure how much work I'll really be able to get done. I usually get a little time in the morning and then right before I go to bed, with the rest dedicated to watching the boy. Oh - I also played through the first chapter of the Lone Wolf campaign. Enjoyable so far - lots of attention to details, which I appreciate. I was hoping to pick up some scripting tricks, but there wasn't really anything I noticed that I didn't already know how to do.